Recap / The Simpsons S12 E9 "HOMЯ"

"My thumb must have covered up the crayon every time, heh heh heh heh heh."

Original air date: 1/7/2001 (produced in 2000)

Production code: BABF-22

After losing the family's life savings in the stock market, Homer gets a job as a test subject for scientific experiments, one of which reveals the true reason behind his stupidity: a crayon that got stuck in his brain when he was a child. When Homer gets the crayon surgically removed, he becomes a more intelligent man — and soon learns that being smart doesn't equal being happy.

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This episode contains examples of:

• 555: Moe's surgeon card has the phone number 800-555-1000.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: When Moe starts chiseling the crayon up Homer's nose, Homer is still smart as he calls Moe a "pusillanimous pilsner pusher" (basically a fancy way of saying "stupid bartender").
• Affectionate Parody: Of Flowers for Algernon.
• Animesque: The "Japanimation" that Bart watches at the animation expo at the beginning, complete with Intentional Engrish for Funny.
• Artistic License – Economics: How stocks work in this episode. For instance, if Homer is the only shareholder that means he legally owns the company.
• Back-Alley Doctor: Moe, though he operates in his bar rather than a back alley. He even has cards of his shady business.
• Behind the Black: The episode features a scene from the movie Love Is Nice. A priest is performing a wedding with a bride and a groom facing him. He says, "Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?" The camera moves to show a second groom on the other side of the bride, and the two grooms say in unison, "I do." The priest only just then notices the second groom and faints in his surprise.
• Belief Makes You Stupid: Homer uses his new found high I.Q., among other things, to, somehow, scientifically prove why God couldn't possibly exist. Ned is, of course, angry, but after reading Homer's text through he quickly concludes he's absolutely correct. Instead of just accepting the other viewpoint, Ned then decides that he must prevent the others from ever seeing the document and burns it, though Homer is already putting more copies underneath every car's windshield wiper.
• Beyond the Impossible: Smart Homer is somehow able to find mathematical evidence that God doesn't exist while filling his tax forms. Let's just ignore the times God appeared on the show.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: When Homer checks his stock numbers for Animotion, he shouts, "Yahoo!" which a voice-controlled program translates to "Yahoo!", and then says, "Huh? What is this crap?" which translates to FOX Broadcasting. Cue Homer smiling when he finds out their stocks are down by 8 points.
• Bittersweet Ending: Homer goes back to his old self and is happy again, but it comes at the cost of being unable to bond with Lisa like they used to.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: When the scientists disover the crayon lodged in Homer's brain:
  Scientist: Removing could increase your thinking power. Or kill you.
  Homer: Increase my killing power, eh?
• Call-Back:
  • Ozmodiar, the Great Gazoo Expy from The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase briefly appears twice during this episode, once after Bart says cartoons do not have to make sense, and once more after all the employees are laid off from the plant.
  • A more subtle example can be seen in the Classic Cartoon Commercials booth◊, which is adorned by the artwork of Flatulent Fox, Brown-Nose Bear, Dinner Dog, Rich Uncle Skeleton, and Disgruntled Goat as seen in the episode The Day The Violence Died.
  • After the surgery to remove the crayon from his brain, Marge asks Homer if he feels smarter, to which he replies "Is the capital of North Dakota "Bismarck"?". This could refer to Simpson and Delilah, where that question was given in a game show and, the clue being that it was "named after a German ruler", Homer's tentative answer was "Hitler".
• Continuity Snarl: Just only a few years ago, the episode The Simpsons S 9 E 17 Lisa The Simpson aired which offered a Cerebus Retcon as to why Homer and Bart were dumb, namely that "The Simpsons Gene" that exists on the Y chromosome turns all men in the family into twits, while the women were safe due to their X chromosome. By contrast, this episode now establishes that Homer is an oaf due to a crayon in his brain and that when said crayon is removed, Homer regains his intelligence.
• Crossover Punchline: Philip J. Fry appears briefly during the Couch Gag.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The Laramie Cigarettes commercial starring Itchy amd Scratchy.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Moe's "operation" to insert the crayon back in Homer's brain is played out like a Lobotomy.
• Dramatic Irony: Homer doing his job for once in his life is what got the plant shut down.
• Even Nerds Have Standards: The pre-Revised Ending of this episode showcased that Lisa would prefer a stupid dad she cannot connect with than watch (with her smart dad) a PBS documentary with an oral history of the Dust Bowl.
• Failed a Spot Check: When Homer asks why the crayon in his brain wasn't detected earlier, Dr. Hibbert appears to explain that it was always hidden by his finger whenever he held up the X-ray.
• "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Homer experiences this. For further parody points, Homer mentions that the intelligence boost made him a man of 105 IQ, placing him straight into the "average" side of the intelligence curve and everything he suffers even more overkill.
• Foregone Conclusion: During the Julia Roberts movie, Homer says it is obvious that she is going to marry Richard Gere.
  Dr. Hibbert: I thought she'd end up marrying that rich snob.
  Sea Captain: Ably played by Bill Paxton.
  Homer: That's Bill Pullman, you fool!
• Hidden Depths: Ned has a good enough knowledge of math to not only understand Homer's formula that proves there is no God, but to be able to see that it's airtight.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Homer is amazed by the burning effigy at Moe's until he realizes it represents him.
  • Professor Frink comments that Klutzy Kat sounds way too similar to Jerry Lewis, on whom Frink himself is based.
• Improbably High I.Q.: Inverted; Homer states his post-surgery IQ is only 105 (100 being average). One could just take his apparent intelligence as being compared to the rest of his town, but he still does things which would require objectively high intelligence, like somehow mathematically disproving the existence of God. Though since God is an established character in the show, he appears to have come to the wrong conclusion.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: According to Lisa, as intelligence goes up, happiness often goes down. She even made a graph of it.
  Lisa: I make a lot of graphs.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Marge tries to reassure Lisa by telling her that her missing crayon could be anywhere, and Homer hasn’t necessarily put it into his brain to regain his stupidity. Homer then crashes through the window and exclaims "Who wants lottery tickets!?!"
  Marge: Okay, it's in his brain.
• Intentional Engrish for Funny: Crops up in the "Japanimation" Bart watches at the animation expo.
  "Your laugh is incorrect!"
• Is This Thing Still On?: After Homer demonstrates new animation techniques while wearing a Motion Capture suit, he goes into the men's room to relieve himself, while the audience can still hear and see everything he does. They cheer him on when he announces that the urinal cake has eroded away.
• It Runs on Nonsensoleum: God's existence is disproved—in a way that even Ned immediately understands and believes—by a mathematical proof contained on one piece of paper (that Homer calculated while filing his taxes).
• Keeping the Handicap: Homer's intelligence comes at the cost of being ostracized by his friends and co-workers, and at the end of the episode he asks for the crayon to be put back in so he can go back to being his old, dumb, likable self.
• Medium-Shift Gag: "Gravey and Jobriath", an obvious parody of the Christian stop-motion animated series Davey and Goliath.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: The octoparrot, which Homer holds up as proof that the scientists are Playing God.
  Octoparrot: Awk! Polly shouldn't be!
• Negative Continuity: Homer produces an equation that proves that God does not exist; yet in others episodes, God is a canon character. The episode does not treat Homer as wrong, but this does not stop God from showing up in later episodes anyway.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Parodied. A voice actor at the convention is criticized for ripping off the Cowardly Lion, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Lewis for several of the characters he voiced, in a fashion similar to many of Hanna-Barbera's earlier Funny Animal characters. Of course, the audience member complaining about copying Lewis is Professor Frink.
  Frink: And Klutzy Kat sounds exactly like Jerry Lewis with the stealing, and the lawsuit! And, oh, nice judge, don't hurt the person with the thing!
• Nose Shove: How the crayon ended up in Homer's brain.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Ned's reaction to Homer's formula that apparently disproves the existence of God. While he is momentarily upset his immediate reaction to this revelation is to try and destroy the formula to prevent others learning it, complete with a cheerful "Can't let this little doozy get out" as he burns the paper. The show has occasionally portrayed Ned in a more negative light as a fundamentalist but this is certainly the only episode to suggest he's a cynic and a fraud.
• Parrot Expo What: Lisa is upset once she realizes Homer had the crayon put back in his brain.
  Lisa: Dad, how could you? We were connecting in such a meaningful way!
  Homer: We were what-what and what now?
• Persecuted Intellectuals: This episode showcases that even slightly above-average intelligence is not accepted in Springfield—all entertainment in town aims for the Lowest Common Denominator and is proud to advertise itself as such and people hate Homer because they think he's lording his intelligence over them.
• Revised Ending: The episode was originally going to end with the crayon coming out of Homer's nostril during his hug with Lisa, and Homer then exclaiming, "Hey, I just remembered! PBS is showing an oral history of the Dust Bowl!" A look of horror emerges on Lisa's face before she pushes the crayon back up Homer's nose, and he responds, "Thanks, that was close." The episode that made it to air ended instead with a focus on Lisa's content face as she hugs Homer, who eats his sandwich and says, "Mmm, hug."
• Roger Rabbit Effect: In-Universe, an old commercial is shown of Itchy and Scratchy parodying From Here to Eternity and then advertising cigarettes alongside Louis Armstrong.
• Rubik's Cube: International Genius Symbol: After his surgery, Homer is shown with a pile of mixed Rubiks Cubes on the right of the couch with him in the center. He continually picks one up, solves it in several seconds, and adds it to a pile of solved cubes on his left.
• Shout-Out:
  • Ozmodiar, the parody of The Flintstones' Great Gazoo from The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase returns in this episode.
  • The old Itchy & Scratchy cartoon parodies From Here to Eternity. It also features a commercial for Laramie cigarettes, a nod to the fact many TV shows made before 1971 were sponsored by tobacco products (even The Flintstones early on). Louie, the black butler, is a spoof of Rochester (played by Eddie Anderson), from The Jack Benny Program, sponsored for much of its run by Lucky Strike.
  • Homer's daydream is a juxtaposition between two influential films made in 1933: King Kong and Gold Diggers of 1933.
  • Gravey and Jobriath is an obvious parody of Davey and Goliath.
  • Some real life animated media can be seen in the convention:
    • My Neighbor Totoro
    • The Iron Giant
    • VeggieTales
    • Wallace & Gromit
• Skewed Priorities: Homer calls a family meeting to tell them he lost their life savings in the stock market, before immediately moving on to the "real issue" of Lisa hogging the maple syrup. Amusingly, the rest of the family go along with this until Marge realizes the life savings should be the more concerning topic.
  Lisa: Well, maybe if Mom didn't make such dry waffles... There, I said it.
  Marge: Well, maybe if you ate some meat, you'd have a natural lubricant.
• So Long, Suckers!: Homer uses a singular variant of the phrase after he gets a bank teller to give him candy. He doesn't get far before he's reminded that he's there to withdraw his life savings.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • When Homer brings his safety report to Mr. Burns, he gets angry with Homer as it would cost a fortune to address all the errors. When Homer sends off the report to the nuclear commission, Mr. Burns is proven to be right as the cost of bringing the plant up to code requires him to lay off his entire staff.
  • When Mr. Burns refuses to address the plants' safety concerns, Homer goes over his head and sends it to the nuclear safety commissions. Which as the safety inspector of a nuclear power plant he would be legally and morally obligated to do.
• Take Our Word for It: Homer's proof that there is no God. It even convinces Ned Flanders.
• Take That!:
  • When Smart Homer walks the streets looking for a place for smart people, he passes by places catering to idiots and morons, like Lunkheadz, The Dum-Dum Club and the Disney Store.
  • Marge's line about how animated shows seem to be everywhere (or were last year) is yet another burn on the animated Dueling Shows that tried to compete with The Simpsons, specifically Groening's own Futurama and Family Guy, both of which suffered through Executive Meddling and were initially canceled because of low ratings and shifting time slots on FOX.
  • When Moe chisels the crayon up Homer's nose, Homer's intelligence decreasing has him saying, "D-FENCE! HOO! HOO! D-FENCE! HOO! HOO!", but when he chisels it further, he says, "Extended warranty? How can I lose?", to which Moe replies, "Perfect."
  • When Bart asks Homer to demonstrate his increased intelligence, he tells the family "Dr. Joyce Brothers may be well-known, but her psychological credentials are highly suspect.", and Lisa affirms it with "It's true!".
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Moe's surgeon card features an image of him saying "That's right! I'm a surgeon" in response to Homer's shock about Moe being a surgeon.
• Test Subject for Hire: Barney is revealed to be one in this episode, and he convinces Homer to do the same. This kicks off the plot when during the testing, the crayon in Homer's brain is discovered.
• Totally Radical: The Julia Roberts movie is intentionally rife with this, including a nonsensical reference to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
• Two-Keyed Lock: When Homer goes to the bank to withdraw his family's life savings, he's informed that the money cannot be withdrawn unless both he and Marge agree to it. He goes to the other side of a nearby plant to pretend he's talking Marge into agreeing and then he forges her signature. He also pretends Lisa is there asking for a bonbon.
• Visual Pun: Homer saying "So long, sucker!" as he runs off with a handful of candy ("sucker" is another word for "lollipop").
• We Want Our Idiot Back!: When all the power plant employees lose their jobs, they immediately become sick of the new smart Homer. Even Homer soon realizes that he'd much rather be the same idiot he was before.
• Worst. Whatever. Ever!: At the animation festival, Comic Book Guy wears a T-shirt that says "Worst Convention Ever", an obvious reference to his Mad Libs Catchphrase.

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