History Recap / TheSimpsonsS1E3HomersOdyssey

* SpecialGuest: Sam [=McMurray=] as the Worker Drone.

-->'''Bart''': Oh, okay. I thought you were putting him down.

-->'''Bart''': Oh, okay. I thought you were putting me down.

* KarmaHoudini: Sherri and Terri, who provoke Bart to get himself punished for the fun of it.

* DarkestHour: After he smashes Bart's piggy bank for beer money, a tearful Homer writes the family a farewell note and commits suicide by tying one end of a rope around his waist and the other end around a large boulder and jumping off a bridge.

Episode -- 7G03\\
First Aired -- 1/21/1990

* ShoutOut: The title is one to ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', by Creator/{{Homer}}.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: This is the one and only time when we see Sherri and Terri's father.

* OffModel: Smithers is black. [[https://frinkiac.com/video/S01E03/0J2MG6SLJy3lEnOtTKWHQ4IJlHE=.gif Sherri and Terri are also (briefly) drawn without bodies.]]

-->'''Terry''': It means he spends more time yacking and scarfing down donuts than doing his job.

* KarmaHoudini: Sherri and Terry, who provoke Bart to get himself punished for the fun of it.

* DerangedAnimation: Due to the show still figuring out its look. Check out some of the weird background characters in the crowd when Homer is giving his speech at the power plant (which is currently on the front page of this episode's page). Particularly eye catching is the guy with a bulging head and the left side of his face and mouth jutting out to the side. And the guy who seems to be wearing a bright red bandit mask for some reason. Also, see the guy in the "El Barto" scene with the spiky hair and slack jawed look. Matt Groening eventually made it a rule that [[FlashyProtagonistsBlandExtras background characters shouldn't be strange looking]] or distract from the action in the scene.

* AdultsAreUseless: All Ms. Krabappel does in response to Bart's warning about Warren's impending motion sickness is threaten to punish him for making noise.

* DarkestHour: After he smashes Bart's piggy bank for beer money, Homer commits suicide by tying one end of a rope around his waist and the other end around a large boulder and jumping off a bridge.

* DarkestHour: After he smashes Bart's piggy bank for beer money, Homer commits suicide by attaching a boulder to himself and jumping off a bridge.

* DarkestHour: After smashing Bart's piggy bank for beer money, Homer decides to commit suicide by attaching a boulder to himself.

* DarkestHour: After Homer smashes Bart's piggy bank for beer money, he writes a note to his family and decides to commit suicide by attaching a boulder to himself.

* DarkestHour: When Homer smashes Bart's piggy bank for beer money. Leads to a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment from Homer.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Homer gets fired from his job for crashing a forklift, and goes into such a deep depression at losing the identity of household breadwinner that he ''actually attempts suicide'' so he wouldn't feel like a failure around his wife and children. At the end of the episode, he becomes the power plant's safety inspector because he's very concerned that the plant isn't being run safely and wants to make a difference. In later episodes, [[UltimateJobSecurity his on-the-job negligence is legendary, with him personally committing safety violations that would not only get him canned]], but probably sent to prison for a long time, [[RuleOfFunny if the show cared about realism]]. He would regularly be sacked for gross incompetence and show little-to-no concern, or casually ditch work for the sake of whatever zany adventure he's going on in the episode. Also, even though his title of safety inspector continues to be mentioned, [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything his job rarely seems to involve any safety inspecting]]. Homer does acknowledge here that he's not really qualified for the job as he caused more accidents than any other employee before he was fired, and accepted it mainly to provide for his family (with Burns having only offered him the job in the first place to shut him up), but even that kind of realization would be beyond the CaptainOblivious we see in later episodes.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Homer gets fired from his job for crashing a forklift, and goes into such a deep depression at losing the identity of household breadwinner that he ''actually attempts suicide'' so he wouldn't feel like a failure around his wife and children. At the end of the episode, he becomes the power plant's safety inspector because he's very concerned that the plant isn't being run safely and wants to make a difference. In later episodes, [[UltimateJobSecurity his on-the-job negligence is legendary, with him personally committing safety violations that would not only get him canned]], but probably sent to prison for a long time, [[RuleOfFunny if the show cared about realism]]. He would regularly be sacked for gross incompetence and show little-to-no concern, or casually ditch work for the sake of whatever zany adventure he's going on in the episode. Also, even though his title of safety inspector continues to be mentioned, [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything his job rarely seems to involve any safety inspecting]].