Original air date: 5/13/2001
Production code: CABF-16
Homer suffers a knee injury during a Springfield YMCA basketball game, and uses his free time to take care of the neighborhood kids after Flanders asks Homer to babysit Rod and Todd. Soon, he turns it into a daycare center and becomes a candidate for the Springfield Nice Guy Awards, while the resentful Bart and Lisa plot to expose Homer for the neglectful, abusive jerk he truly is.
Examples:
- Abusive Parents: Bart and Lisa prove to the town what a monster Homer is by showing old home movies of him doing things like betting (and losing) Maggie in a poker game and chasing after Bart with a mace."I'LL MACE YOU GOOD!"
- Blunt "Yes": When Homer asks if Bart and Lisa tattled on him to the police because he was ignoring his own kids in favour of other people kids, they tell him yes flatly.
- Body Horror: Homer's scar, which heals over Ralph's hand when he touches it.Homer: It knows you're afraid.
- Epic Flail: Homer apparently chased after Bart with one while threatening to "mace [him] good".
- Exact Words: The guy outside the classroom didn't lie when he told the class would make him go from "Slopper to Proper". It was just that Bart assumed from the man's hip hop/rapper appearance that it would be a class about that, rather than a manners class. Apparently something that a lot of the boys in the class thought from their expressions.
- Failed a Spot Check: Ned asks Homer to babysit Rod and Todd while he goes to a Christian rock concert. However, he failed to realize he got tickets to a Chris Rock concert, instead, saying afterwards "I never heard a preacher use the 'm-f' word so many times.".
- Karma Houdini: Though his babysitter career is ruined, Homer avoids actual conviction for his crimes because all attempts to have him convicted result in mistrials.
- Lack of Empathy: After Homer kidnaps the children at the awards show, Krusty casually moves on to the next award with a joke:Krusty: (Beat) The term "soccer mom" is thrown around all too often these days. But the nominees for our next category...
- Logo Joke: This was one of the episodes that repeated characters' lines for the Gracie Films logo—in this case, Bill Cosby's famous "pokey man" bit—which extends to the 20th Century Fox logo, while also being slightly shortened.
- Look, a Distraction!: Homer tries to run from Dr. Hibbert by shouting "Look, a bear!". Subverted; there actually was a bear.
- Mathematician's Answer: As Arnie Pie describes Homer's escape attempt, Kent Brockman asks Arnie how the children that Homer has in the police van are doing. Arnie, clearly irritated, reminds Kent that he cannot see through the van's metal doors.
- Mythology Gag: Homer insanely tells the kids he's kidnapping that they're going out for Frosty Chocolate Milkshakes, a reference to the The Tracey Ullman Show Homer (or "Captain Wacky," according to the season seven retrospective "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular"), who always said, "Hey, let's go out for frosty, chocolate milkshakes!"
- Noodle Incident: Several of Homer's abusive incidents are only briefly shown with no context:
- When did Homer chase after Bart with a mace (actually, a medieval flail) yelling, "I'll mace you good!" What did Bart do to deserve that kind of punishment?
- How did Homer get Maggie back from Moe after losing her in a poker game?
- What led to Homer getting passed out drunk and half-naked on Christmas morning?
- Not Helping Your Case: When Bart and Lisa show the clips of Homer being a jerk, he claims that the clips are completely out of context and proceeds to strangle Bart on the stage.
- Papa Wolf: After Homer is revealed to be an abusive jerkass, all of the parents immediately pull their children out of his daycare. When he proceeds to run off with all of them, the parents give chase.
- Rule of Three: The Time Skip between Homer's arrest and the epilogue comes with a subtitle reading "three mistrials later".
- Sophisticated as Hell: The society matron teaching a class on young male etiquette is married to a black gangsta rapper and tells Bart, "Good gracious, I should bust a cap in your ass!"
- Tree Buchet: Homer somehow uses Bart's tree as one while he has the kids in the treehouse. Only Ralph flew out.Ralph: (hanging on Ned's weathervane from his shirt) I almost died!
- Who Writes This Crap?!:Krusty: Now, every year we find one good Samaritan so deserving that not recognizing him would make Santa Claus himself vomit with rage. Ugh... who writes this crap?
(turns out Mr. Teeny, Krusty's monkey, is writing his material)
Mr. Teeny: (subtitled) I think it's remarkable I wrote anything. (takes a paper out of his typewriter and crumples it before taking his cigarette from an ash tray and smoking it) - You Never Did That for Me: Homer sings "If That's All There Is" for Rod and Todd, causing Lisa to say, "I can't remember the last time Dad sang us a torch song."
