Original air date: 11/14/1999
Production code: BABF-02
Homer becomes a local celebrity for bowling a 300 game, but is Driven to Suicide (again) when his star fades, but when he gets rescued, he decides to give his neglected daughter, Maggie, some attention.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Biology:
- At the bowling alley, Milhouse is being tortured by Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney by having his head stuck repeatedly in the bowl shine. He cries out to them that they're polishing bone, only for them to ignore him and keep doing it. In reality, if they had reached his bone, Milhouse would already be dead.
- Dr Hibbert's explanation as to how Maggie was able to drag Homer back to the beach by herself is that, in danger, a child can summon superhuman strength to save their parent.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Homer almost says this word-for-word when Maggie saves his life from drowning.
- Bait-and-Switch: After bowling a perfect game, Homer starts talking about how he wasn’t alone as he bowled and acts like he’s going to thank God, before instead thanking Karl.
- Bested at Bowling: Maggie, the baby, beats/ties Homer at bowling. In response, he accuses her of walking over the line and docks her a point. The celebratory "300" balloon still falls from the ceiling, but Homer knocks it away quickly.
- Big Damn Heroes: Homer gets caught in a riptide and nearly drowns. Seeing this, Maggie swims out to sea and saves Homer. Dr. Hibbert explains in the next scene how Maggie was able to do it.
- Beneath the Earth: Parodied. When Homer and Otto fall through a manhole, they pass through layers of caverns beneath Springfield home to Morlocks, C.H.U.D.s and Mole People (led by Hans Moleman).Moleman: There is no escape from the Fortress of the Moles!
[Otto and Homer's bungie cord retracts, pulling them upward]
Moleman: Well, except that. - Bowling for Ratings: This episode begins with Lenny and Carl inviting Homer to go bowling with them. Homer bowls a 300 game, and briefly becomes a celebrity, letting the fame go to his head. At the end of this episode, Homer treats Maggie to a game of bowling, where Maggie would have won another 300 game if she hadn't (allegedly) stepped over the line for a 5 point penalty.
- Brick Joke: Lenny refunds a banana split. Later, during the montage of people surprised at Homer's 300 game, Lenny is seen in the middle of eating a bowl of ice cream.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Homer plays Where's Waldo?:Homer: This would be a lot easier without all these people.
- Continuity Nod:
- Homer knowing Ron Howard.
- The Springfield Squares makes a reappearance.
- Couch Gag: A cement truck pours out concrete statues of the Simpson family. The top half of Homer’s statue quickly breaks off and falls to the floor.
- A Day in the Limelight: Not only is it one of many, many episodes focusing on Homer, but it also focuses on Homer trying to bond with Maggie "The Forgotten" Simpson.
- Despair Event Horizon: Homer borders it once he feels he has no reason to live, but comes back strong once he meets Ron Howard and gets parenting advice.
- Didn't Think This Through: While caught in a riptide, Homer decides to sink to the bottom of the sea so he can run to the shore. He tires out after only a few steps and has to return to the surface.
- Disproportionate Retribution: As punishment for being late, Mr Burns makes Homer eat an entire room filled with hundreds of barrels of toxic waste.
- Epic Fail:
- When speaking to Bart's class about his celebrity and deciding to spell the word "Perfect" on the chalkboard, he gives up after writing out a few letters.
- Homer as a Teletubby; he not only decides to put an antenna on his head and accidentally electrocutes himself repeatedly (in a fairly graphic way), but he also scares poor Maggie in the process, further driving a wedge between them.
- 15 Minutes of Fame: Homer wins a 300 game and gets a short window of fame and keeps going until the news has to call him out on it.
- Foreshadowing: Maggie is shown a lot in the early part of the episode getting either ignored by Homer or Homer backing out on activates the two were suppose to do together long before the main thread of the episode becomes about the two trying to bond together.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: During a brief shot, Homer's scoreboard name is visible: "HJS", his initials. Apparently, he doesn't have any funny names other than "Poo" and "Ass".
- The Friends Who Never Hang: Averted with A Day in the Limelight for Homer's relationship with Maggie, and Parodied with the Running Gag that Homer's entire family has a strong bond with Lenny that has never once been depicted up to this point.
- Hurricane of Puns: Lenny uses multiple bowling terms in a row while attempting not to jinx Homer.Lenny: Miss! MISS!... Sorry, I'm calling the waitress. Ah, this split you sold me is making me choke!
Homer: Lenny...
Lenny: What? I paid $7.10 for this split.
Carl: Will you at least call it a banana split, you dumbwad?
Lenny: Hey, spare me your gutter mouth! [Homer throws a bowling ball at him] - Hypocritical Humor: After finding out that Homer has a family Ron Howard decides to give Homer some money. Homer tells him he doesn't want Ron's charity before pocketing the cash anyway (which Ron lampshades before taking the money back).
- Insane Troll Logic: Upon realizing Mr. Burns is behind him and saw him arriving late for work, Homer declares he can't get in trouble if he can't see Mr. Burns. Smithers believes the reasoning but Mr. Burns renders it moot by spinning Homer's chair around.
- Jerkass Realization: Homer realises that his relationship with Maggie has become strained while spending time with her and comments that he didn't realise things had become so bad between them. After Maggie saves his life he promises that the two will spend a lot more time together from then on with the final shot of the episode being of the two bowling together.
- Kent Brockman News: Homer bowling his perfect game gets live news coverage and Kent Brockman says that this achievement will go down as one of the greatest feats that a Springfield resident has even accomplished. Kent then notes how pitiful Springfield really is if that is considered to be outstanding news.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Homer spends most of the first half of the episode ignoring Maggie's existence and focusing on his own short lived fame. Meaning that when Homer finally does decide to bond with Maggie their relationship is shown to be a lot more strained because of it.
- Mid-Suicide Regret: Homer jumps off a building (well, gets pushed off by the next would-be jumper in line behind him as he's giving too long of a Final Speech) and realizes during the fall that he doesn't want to die. Otto is bungee-jumping off the same building and handily saves his life in such a Contrived Coincidence that Homer concludes God spared him for a reason.
- Made of Explodium: After Homer screws up his final throw by accidentally throwing the ball in a high arc and he still manages to knock down all his own pins, the impact causes a shockwave that not only knocks down all the other pins around the Bowl-A-Rama, but destroys one of the bowling monitors as well.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: In contrast to their usual violent behavior in The Itchy & Scratchy Show, Itchy and Scratchy share a space in Springfield Squares without any apparent animosity between them. In fact, seeing Homer and Ron Howard fighting makes Scratchy cry, while Itchy tells them to stop it.
- Noodle Incident:
- How did Hans Moleman get in the sewer and become King of the Moles (unless that's an identical twin)? And did it have anything to do with getting pushed around by the guy on the street?
- On Homer's list of things he wants to do before he dies is "See Stevie Nicks Naked", and there's three check-marks next to it.
- When Penn threatens to murder Homer for ruining his skit, Teller nervously confirms Penn will do it and that he isn't the first Teller.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Mr. Burns does not have to be reminded who Homer is.
- Parental Substitute: When Homer asks Bart if he's in need of "fatherly attention" he takes a pass, stating that he's used to seeking father figures elsewhere, the latest apparently being Nelson Muntz.Nelson: (sitting in an armchair wearing a robe and smoking a pipe) If you tie a string around your finger real tight, you can make it turn purple!
- Parents in Distress: At the end of the episode, Homer is swept out to sea by a riptide and is in danger of drowning, with only Maggie to save him.
- Pet the Dog: For once, not only is Itchy not trying to kill Scratchy, he is telling everyone not to make him cry.
- Police Code for Everything:Wiggum: You just bought yourself a 3-17: pointing out police stupidity. Or is that a 3-14? Nah, nah. 3-14 is a dog, uh- No. Or is that a 3-15?. You're in trouble, pal!
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title references the Allan Sherman song "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah".
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: When Homer is pulled over for speeding:Wiggum: All right, smart guy. Where's the fire?
Homer: Over there. (points to the Springfield Police Station building on fire) - Right Behind Me: When Homer arrives at his station, he's glad Mr. Burns didn't catch him. Burns and Smithers are revealed to be behind him.
- Shout-Out:
- To entertain his daughter, Homer dresses as a Teletubby named "Homie-Womey", which then morphs into a Take That! towards the Rev. Jerry Falwell with him then declaring that he's "all man" to clear up some things.note
- After being swept out to sea, Homer shouts for Maggie to call Aquaman.
- Silent Snarker: Maggie is in fine form in this episode, giving herself a facepalm when Homer misconstrues her pointing at a butterfly on the windscreen of the car as wanting to go to the beach, and rolling her eyes when Homer sinks right after she rescued him forcing Maggie to save him again. She also does it at the end when Homer gives her a penalty for allegedly stepping over a line while bowling, preventing her from achieving a perfect game as well.
- Suicide Dare: When Homer deliberates a little too long in a line to jump off a skyscraper, the guy behind him says "Less chat, more splat, pal" and pushes him off. Subverted both in that Homer wasn't hurt by the fall, and because the guy was planning to do the same thing himself immediately afterwards, so he wasn't being a hypocrite.
- Take That!: At The Hollywood Squares for its reliance on has-been celebrities and having them make obligatory jokes:Brockman: According to Redbook Magazine, what is the speed of light?
Homer: Well, that is... Wait... (holds up two sheets of paper) Do I read from the sheet labeled "Jokes" or "Answers"?
Brockman: Oh, for the love of... Stop tape. - Two-Keyed Lock: Apparently, the Bowl-A-Rama has a button locked behind such a setup that's only to be pressed when someone bowls a perfect game: upon being pressed, a hatch in the ceiling opens up and single balloon with "300" printed on it slowly floats down to the ground, implying that either they didn't expect such an event to take place and thus couldn't be bothered to properly prepare for it, or more likely, it's actually happened so often that they stopped giving a crap about setting up a proper celebration with things like multiple balloons and confetti.
- Uninhibited Muscle Power: How Maggie, a baby, is able to rescue her notoriously heavy father.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Springfield's state was about to be revealed via the Krusty the Klown Show's mailing address. Too bad breaking news had to interrupt.
