YMMV / The Simpsons S8 E23 "Homer's Enemy"

• Accidental Aesop:
  • "Don't let resentment and envy consume you and prevent you from accepting apologies from people who genuinely want to befriend you."
  • Combined with the rant at Homer's house, and his own Butt-Monkey role in most other episodes (see below) one could also interpret it as not obsessing over things from face value. After all, the Grass is Greener on the other side.
  • Renegade Cut makes the case for an unintentional anti-capitalism message; instead of Grimes realizing that his problems are Inherent in the System and then working towards changing the system or simply deciding to bail out for his own sake, he directs all his ire at Homer for things he has absolutely no control over, because he's an easier target than Mr. Burns.
  • The entire episode can be interpreted as a repudiation of the Hard Work Fallacy. Grimes makes a big deal about how little reward he has reaped from his lifetime of hard work, but doesn't understand that there are more factors to success than just hard work. Homer was successful because he valued the people in his life, was sociable enough to make fast friends with anyone (from local drunks to politicians and celebrities), and was nice enough to sincerely try making amends with Grimes by inviting him to dinner and humble enough to at least try and take some of his criticism on board and improve as a worker. While Grimes is overwhelmed with envy and tries to humiliate the man out of raw spite.
  • "Dwelling on self-pity and envy will ruin your life, not make it better. Appreciate what you have and take the opportunity when it's offered to you, not wait for the next one." Grimes' envy blinded him to his own accomplishments; he broke through every wave of struggle and achieved a lot in life despite his awful childhood, but he couldn't appreciate any of them because he felt Homer was given far better opportunities than he deserved. Grimes was so honed in on Homer's accomplishments and validating his own hard work that he refused to learn how Homer got these opportunities in the first place or how they truly affected his life as well as learning how to maximize his own potential to create similar opportunities.
  • "Hyperfocusing is good in some situations and bad in others." Grimes was able to get his degree in spite of a world that hated him, and we're all proud and everything. Unfortunately that desire to accomplish a specific goal against all odds is far less of a virtue when that goal is to shame a coworker. Grimes started off with the reasonable conclusion that someone as grossly incompetent as Homer shouldn't be in charge of safety. But this fell apart when he was more mad at Homer for getting him in trouble for the acid accident than he was at whoever left an open beaker of sulfuric acid on the coffee table. He was so focused on hating Homer he forgot what the problem was in the first place.
  • Don't work somewhere that makes you miserable or disrespects your opinion. While Grimes has good reasons to dislike Homer, most of the problems at the plant stem from how it is run. Homer's own co-workers are apathetic to his antics, while Burns not only punishes Grimes but takes dumb decisions like keeping acid in a break room and revoking Grimes' promotion in favor of hiring a dog to be an executive. Frank would have been much happier just leaving Springfield in his rearview mirror and going somewhere his talents would be appreciated.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • The Hard Truth Aesop of Hard Work Hardly Works and that your success in life will not be rewarded because you put your nose to the grindstone but largely factors entirely out of your control.
  • Suffering is completely meaningless, and expecting to be rewarded for your ability to suffer is a fool's game, because ultimately it will just hurt you even more while giving you nothing.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Homer a Jerkass or not in this episode? Even if he's never intentionally mean towards Grimes (just overly idiotic and obnoxious), some see this episode as one of the early signs of "Jerkass Homer". Some other people consider Homer to be fine in this episode for the reason said above. It also helps Homer's case that he does attempt to offer an olive branch to Grimes when he realizes he hates him and is the only one to show concern for his wellbeing after he goes off the deep end.
  • Another alternate interpretation relating to Grimes' death: did he just have a total psychological breakdown and kill himself accidentally? Or was he fully aware of what he was doing and deliberately commit suicide because he could no longer bear to live in such a crazy world where hard work isn't rewarded while laziness is and where everyone was, as he put it, insane?
  • Is Grimes' anger to Homer warranted, or is he just a judgmental asshole who finds it easier to bully Homer than voice his concerns to Mr. Burns for putting Homer in a position he's clearly unqualified to fill?
  • Is Homer's incompetence at his job entirely due to stupidity, or does he have a Dilbert-esque awareness of his job situation? Homer giving Grimes advice about the security cameras and Lenny and Carl's similarly blasé atittudes suggest this, and in this episode alone, Mr. Burns shows himself to be a particularly callous Pointy-Haired Boss, acting on whims and unable to distinguish a hard worker from a slacker.
  • Regarding Homer's entry in the power plant contest: Was he being lazy by copying the current power plant or was he trying to appeal to Mr. Burns' love for his own power plant?
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Grimes. Depending on who you ask, he's a Jerkass or The Woobie (but not a Jerkass Woobie). This also determined whether you found his death and Homer's final line funny or cruel.
  • Homer. Depending on who you ask, he's either a Jerkass who caused Frank's death or a Kindhearted Simpleton who was just a victim of Frank's anger.
• Broken Aesop: Word of God said the creators wanted to show that a real person could not survive in the show's universe. However, Frank's breakdown and death, which were supposedly caused by Homer, was all Frank's own fault. Homer had offered to make amends with Frank more than once, but Frank rejected all such offers, and he immediately put everything into destroying Homer. While Frank may have been more "normal" compared to most of the cast of the show, his deliberate refusal to meet Homer halfway breaks the lesson.
• Broken Base: Brilliant deconstruction of the show's absurdity, or painfully and humorlessly dark? The only thing fans agree on is that the episode is only accessible to long-time viewers.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • If Frank Grimes' death itself doesn't do the job, Homer mumbling "Change the channel, Marge" while half asleep at Grimes' funeral does.
  • Reverend Lovejoy saying that Frank liked to be called "Grimey" (the nickname he hated, invented by the person he hated the most, who drove him crazy and caused his Accidental Suicide) at his funeral. Very dark, but it's one of the most quoted lines from this episode.
• Designated Hero:
  • Frank Grimes. While his determination to keep working hard regardless of how many setbacks he has is at first admirable, his abrasive personality, exaggerated jealousy of Homer, and his subsequent attempt to humiliate Homer out of pure spite ultimately turns the audience against him.
  • Homer, too. According to Planet Simpson, the audience is supposed to be "pleased" by Homer emerging "victorious" over Frank. The problem is that Homer actually never did anything to deserve victory, other than being a lot stupider than he had ever been up to that point, and the rest of Springfield, if not the whole universe being also stupid and unwittingly conspiring to land that victory on Homer's lap. Then there is the can of worms that is calling a "victory" what is essentially the driving of an innocent man to insanity, early death, and mockery at his own funeral.
• Designated Villain:
  • We are supposed to see Homer as an awful person that doesn't deserve his good life. To some degree, Homer is an awful employee that endangers the whole city with his wild antics and has a better life than the sane, hardworking Grimes. However, Homer actually cares for Grimes' opinion and tries to make amends when he realizes how upset Frank is with him, but Frank doesn't care for any of it. It doesn't help that most of the mayhem caused by Homer is more out of stupidity than malice. To drive it all home, Homer is the only employee who seems genuinely concerned about Grimes when he starts to go crazy.
  • The episode also tries to imply that Homer has had an absolutely perfect life up to this point, partly by displaying his past accomplishments and partly by making Grimes' life ludicrously terrible by comparison. Homer's childhood was almost as bad as Grimes', and his life was a sequence of constant failures. Even as Grimes has the determination to make his life better, he lacks the heart (and the screen time) that Homer had when it came to crucial decisions in his life, including putting his ass on the line just for even the smallest moment of one's personal happiness. The Call-Backs to previous episodes that Grimes fumes over also have many of their unpleasant aspects whitewashed; Homer did get to go up into space, but he was snubbed for recognition by an inanimate object, twice.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Homer, many, many Simpsons Fans and Youtubers have produced countless eassays arguing why Homer is largley innocent at the whole situation. Often claiming that Homer did try to make friends with Grimes and asked him if he was okay during his breakdown. According to TheRealJims Homer is a "giant Teddy Bear" in the second half of the Episode who is nothing but lovable and tries to improve... what all these fans completly ignore is that Homer continues to call Frank "Grimey" a nickname that is not only insulting but also Grimes specifically said he didn't want to be called that. Something Homer ignores time and time again, even during his final "are you okay, Grimey?". Showing that Homer to the end was still heavily antagonistic/insulting towards Grimes and directly contributed to his death. Something that is only underlined by his behavior during Grimes funeral (when on several other funerals on the show he actually behaved himself).
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Frank Grimes only appeared in this one episode, yet is one of the show's most memorable characters (for better or worse).
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: The premise of the episode is rather simple, what if a real person was in an episode of The Simpsons and how would they cope with the setting? The directors have even said they had amplified Homer's stupidity to make him much more frustrating to Grimes. However, fans have interpreted the episode as a commentary on hard work, connections, and how time and political climates affect work morale. Most are still debating on who was actually right in the one-sided feud between Grimes and Homer.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Another popular contender for the title of "Actual Series Finale". The reasoning being that the show was originally created as a response to 1980s shows like The Cosby Show and after ten years it finally had an episode that was spoofing the foundations of its own premise.
• Franchise Original Sin: This episode is often considered by fans as "the start of Jerkass Homer", with many people mentioning it as the ultimate example of Homer being a horrible jerk. This is hardly true (the earliest depictions of Homer with his more blatant Hair-Trigger Temper come to mind), and despite being unintentionally rude in the beginning, Homer is not that meanspirited in this episode (he's Innocently Insensitive in the first half, and a Kindhearted Simpleton in the second half). Justified, since this is a darker episode where Homer's reckless behavior drives another character to insanity and eventually death, and he gets away with it, and all these things are associated with the worst and most Flanderized characterization of Homer, so "Jerkass Homer".
• Harsher in Hindsight: The episode "The Great Louse Detective" showcases that Frank Grimes has a grown-up son, Frank Grimes Jr., who explains Homer's question of how Grimes could have a son if he was not married with an angry "he liked hookers, okay?!" Any potential theories that this Retcon tosses on the table only further place Grimes into Unintentionally Unsympathetic territory.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Hank Azaria playing a man with perpetually bad luck? Sounds a lot like a certain character he played on a short-lived NBC series.
  • Chief Wiggum's line "Ralphie, get off the stage, sweetheart!" was just a random improvised line by Hank until it became the chorus of a Bloodhound Gang song.
  • One of the things that Grimes mentions in his rant against Homer is that his family has lobsters for dinner, the irony being that they were only cooking lobsters to impress Grimes. In a later episode, Homer would buy a lobster so he could serve it for dinner, only to take it in as a pet and end up cooking and eating it anyway.
• It Was His Sled: Grimes goes insane and ends up killing himself in a failed attempt to emulate Homer.
• Jerkass Woobie: Frank Grimes was supposed to be The Woobie, but really comes off more like this. He's had a godawful life after suffering Parental Abandonment, was such a No-Respect Guy that everyone laughed at his funeral, and has had to work with Homer's stupid antics. These would all make him sympathetic, except in general he's a very bitter and jaded man, and he is deeply hateful and jealous of Homer for reasons that are ultimately beyond his control while Homer genuinely wants to be his friend. It just doesn't stop him from being otherwise correct about what would have normally happened.
• Signature Scene: Grimes' visit to the Simpson home and his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Homer is one of the most oft-discussed and analysed scenes in the series.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • Grimes is horrified to find out that Homer’s job is the safety inspector. Lenny and Carl tell him it’s best not to question it. This line is Played for Laughs, but if Grimes had listened instead of continuously questioning Homer’s incompetence, he most likely wouldn’t have ended up undergoing Sanity Slippage and dying.
  • One of the major reasons this episode is so divisive is that Frank, as the strawman, isn't wrong about why he hates Homer (at least in general — Homer is horrible at his job, and Chernobyl and Three-Mile Island are perfect examples of what happens when someone like Homer is at the wheel of a nuclear power plant). It's him taking in other things out of context as proof that his hatred is righteous and deciding to try to sabotage Homer that takes it too far.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Josh Weinstein regretted killing Frank off after only one episode, given his tragic life and disdain for Homer both have comic potential beyond this one episode.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Part of the core reason for the episode's Broken Base. This is easily the most cynical and bleak episode in the entire show, depicting Springfield as a Crapsack World that drives an ordinary man to insanity and ultimately death, and Homer as an unsympathetic Idiot Houdini undeserving of what he has. Those who found themselves attached to Homer's character in specific across the series are more than likely to be put off.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: What makes the episode incredibly contentious is that this can apply to both Frank Grimes and Homer. On one hand, we're supposed to see Frank as an average man who got driven insane by Homer's stupidity, but his downfall was ultimately paved by his self-obsessed need to ruin Homer out of what was ultimately entitlement and complete refusal to accept Homer's attempts to patch things up with him. On the other hand, Homer's stupidity is ratcheted up so much here compared to even prior depictions that the viewer can't fully back him either despite Frank being the one taking their one-sided rivalry too far, with the joke of him falling asleep at Frank's funeral being seen as too mean-spirited by many.
• Values Dissonance: Audiences watching from The New '10s on have become less likely to agree with Frank Grimes' "The Reason You Suck" Speech about what a Lazy Bum Homer is, in particular the line "If you lived in any other country in the world, you'd have starved to death long ago", as it's become apparent that American workers are among the world's most overworked people, lacking basic benefits that exist in other prosperous nations, like paid time off.
  • If one only looks at the Western World that is. Yes several countries in Europe have better benefits than the US, the vast majority of the world has even worse work conditions, making Grimes point still, mostly, correct.
• Wangst: Frank's entire rant to Homer about how unfair life has been to him because Homer has so much while he has so little. Homer is nowhere near as successful or happy as Grimes thinks, while Grimes has many character flaws (self-pity and self-entitlement being two standout ones) and lacks perspective on the bigger picture of society. The result is the rant coming off as Grimes just whining about how much his (admittedly terrible) life sucks.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: This is a story featuring Homer having an envious co-worker ... which is also an interesting critique of society and how it seems to reward the undeserving while ignoring the hardworking.

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