History Recap / TheSimpsonsS12E5HomerVsDignity

ResignationsNotAcceptable: After being convinced by Lisa, Homer tells Mr. Burns that he's not doing any more pranks for his amusement. When Homer is riding in the parade, however, Mr. Burns appears before him, insisting he's still his prank monkey and wants him to throw rotten fish at everyone.
* ResignationNotAccepted: After being convinced by Lisa, Homer tells Mr. Burns he quit's doing pranks. However, when Homer is riding in the parade, Burns boards his float, insisting he still is his "prank monkey' and wanting him to throw fish guts at everyone.

* ResignationsNotAccepted: After being convinced by Lisa, Homer tells Mr. Burns he quit's doing pranks. However, when Homer is riding in the parade, Burns boards his float, insisting he still is his "prank monkey' and wanting him to throw fish guts at everyone.

* HaveAGayOldTime: Mr. Burns deems his "prank monkey" more amusing than Smithers and says the latter doesn't know the meaning of "gay".

* KickTheDog: A whole episode-ful.
* KillThePoor: When Homer wonders what to do with his dirty money, Lisa comments there're poor kids. Thinking she wants them gone, Homer says he's buying a weapon.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Homer imagines himself siccing a black leopard onto a creditor to get out of paying ''one'' dollar.

* GenreSavvy: Smithers has worked for Mr. Burns long enough to know to disable the trapdoor in his office before asking for a personal request.

* NoodleIncident: When asked why he didn't help Homer in the infamous panda scene

* RecycledScript: We have the family in financial trouble, Lisa worrying over a Simpson male's soul ("Bart Sells His Soul") and Homer dressing up as Santa Claus ("Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire").

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Many people complain about how bad the episode is, but few know that [[UpToEleven it could have been worse]]: the original ending had Homer Simpson throwing ''pig's blood'' at the crowd while wailing, "Merry Christmas! God help me!" [[GainaxEnding Then, the scene flashes forward to the future, where an elderly Homer tells a group of future children that, because of him, Christmas is now celebrated with pig's blood being thrown at people.]]

* TheyJustDidntCare: After the panda rape scene the animation gets noticeably bad.

** FridgeBrilliance: Probably race, since Carl is black and, for all of Burns' contempt for anyone who's not as rich as he is, viewers have never seen Mr. Burns be racist or sexist[[note]](barring that time he fired Marge for being married and lustfully growled at her when he said, "You don't have to sue me to get my pants off." Even then, he apologized after Homer demands so)[[/note]]. This was probably the writer's way of saying, "Mr. Burns may be a twisted, loveless billionaire, but he prefers to make everyone regardless of race and/or gender feel bad instead of just single out one."

* DesignatedHero: Homer is presented heroically for not taking Mr Burn’s money to throw fish guts on orphan children. The problem with this is that he still willingly allowed Burns to take over the float anyway which isn’t much better.
** Bart doesn't realise his 'cheating' is actually genuinely studying.

* BlackComedyRape: The infamous "panda scene".

With the family in dire straits once again, Homer decides to ask Mr. Burns for a raise, but Burns has a better plan: hire Homer as his personal jester (or "prank monkey") while Smithers takes time off to go to New Mexico to star in a musical he wrote about Malibu Stacy. But when the pranks escalate to being gross and humiliating, Homer must choose between making money for his family and retaining his dignity.

* BaitAndSwitchComment: When Bart was telling how he got his "A", how many viewers thought he'd say he blackmailed Principal Skinner and Mrs. Krabappel?

** FridgeBrilliance: Probably race, since Carl is black and, for all of Burns' contempt for anyone who's not as rich as he is, viewers have never seen Mr. Burns be racist or sexist. This was probably the writer's way of saying, "Mr. Burns may be a twisted, loveless billionaire, but he prefers to make everyone regardless of race and/or gender feel bad instead of just single out one."

Our story begins with Homer taking his family out for an expensive dinner in honor of Bart's first "A" (which he got while forcing himself to drown out the noises of Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner having sex in the empty classroom). However, when Homer's credit card is rejected and they have to entertain the customers to pay off their debt. Plus, Homer sold off pieces of the car for gas money (which he spent on a novelty horn). A visit to Lindey Naegal who bluntly tells them that because Homer is too stupid to manage his money, they're having severe money troubles (so severe that they'll need to file for bankruptcy several times over and, even if they did, they would still lose money long after they're dead and gone, and their graves with go untended and vandalized by an elderly Nelson Muntz). She tells them simply that the only solution is more money.

Meanwhile, Smithers is away in New Mexico acting in a ''Malibu Stacy'' play he wrote and Mr. Burns decides to spend his week looking for things to amuse himself. After Homer throws pudding at Lenny at Burns' request, he decides to make Homer his "Executive in Charge of Recreation" (or in his words, "prank monkey").

For several days, Burns pays Homer to play pranks on the locals (like eating a rare ''SpiderMan'' comic in front of Comic Book Guy) and humiliating himself (dressing up as a baby in the Springfield Stadium bathroom). The family is left wondering where Homer's getting these large sums of money.

At the Springfield Zoo, Burns has Homer dress up as a panda named "Sim-Sim", where he, in an infamous scene, is painfully shocked and accidentally attracts the affections of the zoo's male panda. When Homer attempts to escape, he gets caught in a barbed-wire fence and is sprayed upon by skunks. Lisa discovers him there, seeing that her father has sunk to a new low in the name of the almighty dollar.

Lisa tries to convince Homer to stop being Burns' "prank monkey" and put his dignity before money. Homer is convinced to use his money to donate to the needy and buys a bunch of toys at Costington's. Impressed with Homer's generosity, the store recruits Homer to play Santa Claus for Springfield's Thanksgiving parade. As Homer is parading down the streets throwing toys to children, Burns shows up in his own float tempting Homer with a million dollars to throw fish guts onto the crowd.

When it appears that "Santa" is throwing fish guts onto everyone, Lisa thinks that Homer has "sold his soul". However, it turns out Homer declined the offer and it's Burns himself pelting everyone. Homer thanks Lisa for helping him get his dignity back.

Much like "Saddlesore Galactica,"[[note]]and a slew of other episodes, such as "The Boys of Bummer," "The Principal and the Pauper," "That '90s Show," "Homer Simpson in: Kidney Trouble," -- pretty much any episode made during Mike Scully's and/or Al Jean's reign as showrunner that pissed off a lot of long-time fans, and not just bored them to death or gave them fleeting hope that maybe the episode they're watching will be "season 3 to 8" good, rather than "season 9 to 10" tolerable crap[[/note]] this episode is considered the nadir of the series, due to blatant plot recycling (seriously, how many times have The Simpsons gone through financial trouble?) and the writers relying on disgusting shock humor (Homer dressed as a baby in need of a diaper change in the men's bathroom and Homer getting sexually assaulted by a panda) for laughs. A lot of unfavorable comparisons to ''FamilyGuy'' have been made to this episode, though, at the time of this episode, ''FamilyGuy'' was better known as a somewhat mediocre ''Simpsons'' clone with cutaway jokes rather than the BlackComedy-laden SadistShow it has become ever since it got revived in 2005. In the DVD commentary, the producers and writers attribute the critical failure of this episode to the fact that most of the viewing audience has never seen the movie ''Film/TheMagicChristian'', which, like this episode, is centered on people embarrassing themselves for money.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Many people complain about how bad the episode is, but few know that it could have been worse: the original ending had Homer throwing pig's blood at the crowd while wailing, "Merry Christmas! God help me!" [[GainaxEnding Then, the scene flashes forward to the future, where an elderly Homer tells a group of future children that, because of him, Christmas is now celebrated with pig's blood being thrown at people.]]

Our story begins with Homer taking his family out for an expensive dinner in honor of Bart's first "A" (which he got while forcing himself to drown out the noises of Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner having sex in the empty classroom). However, when Homer's credit card is rejected and they have to entertain the customers to pay off their debt. Plus, Homer sold off pieces of the car for gas money (which he spent on a novelty horn). A visit to Lindey Naegal makes the Simpsons learn that they're having severe money troubles (so severe that they'll need to file for bankruptcy several times over and, even if they did, they would still lose money long after they're dead and gone, and their graves with go untended and vandalized by an elderly Nelson Muntz).

* {{Retirony}}: The TropeNamer. Mentioned when Chief Wiggum tells his financial planner that he's not going to create a retirement fund since he's a police officer, and, according to many cop shows and police movies, an officer who's only X amount of days from retirement (and tells his partner about what he's gonna do when he retires -- usually, it'll be something like spending more time with his wife and kids) will always get murdered on the job.