135. King-Size Homer

(originally aired November 5, 1995)
Homer is such an unhealthy glutton, it’s kind of surprising he only checks in at a mere 239 pounds. You’d think he’d be a lot heavier, but here we see he needs the right motivation. When Homer discovers he can go on disability if he’s over three hundred pounds, he vows to gain the extra weight so he can work at home. This leads to a great montage of Bart helping Homer put on the pounds, first consulting the incredibly ethical Dr. Nick, then raiding the supermarket of its fatty wears, buying such products as Much Ado About Stuffing and Uncle Jim’s Country Fillin’ (Just Squeeze ‘N Swallow!) His plan is a success, as he manages to gain over fifty pounds in one weekend, and a plant workstation is installed in his living room. Donning a festive muu-muu, Homer embraces his portlier self (“The slim lazy Homer you knew is dead. Now I’m a big fat dynamo!”)

Amidst the goofiness of the concept of the story is an actual dose of reality. Lisa is rightfully concerned for her father’s health, where Marge turns mostly a blind eye, asserting most of her husband’s hair-brained schemes deflate once he finds something good on TV (“But this season…”) I really like how we see both Simpson women’s viewpoints, where Lisa, as a peppy youngster, is very outspoken, while Marge is a bit more reserved, not wanting to be a bother, and has to be pushed to say what’s really on her mind. She eventually confronts her husband about her worries, but it’s to little avail. Meanwhile, it turns out Homer is equally as incompetent at home as he is at the plant, watching TV on the couch whilst batting at his keyboard with a broom, then later going out to the movies, leaving his drinking bird to tap away at the keys. This of course bites him in the ass when he returns to find that he accidentally caused an impending catastrophe at the plant, and must find a way to get there to save the day.

While I appreciate the attempts made to create a realistic layer to this story about rampant obesity, this episode is pretty much fueled on jokes. You’d think a whole episode filled with fat jokes would grow a bit tired, but that’s not the case here. Plus, there’s other avenues of humor, from Homer’s ignorance of computers (“‘To start, press any key.’ Where’s the ‘Any’ key? I see ‘Esc,’ ‘Ctrl,’ and ‘PgUp’…”) and his general workplace ineptitude carrying over to the home as he inadvertently gases an entire field of crops (“Oh, no! The corn. Paul Newman’s gonna have my legs broke.”) The only thing in the show that mildly bothered me was Burns leading the exercise program. He’s got his fair share of great lines (“I want to see more Teddy Roosevelts and less Franklin Roosevelts!”) but his generally cordial attitude to his workers felt a bit alien for him. But it does lead to the great finale where he attempts to coach Homer to get thin, but gives up and decides he’ll just pay for his liposuction. Which begs the question, why didn’t they suck out more fat and make Homer thin? Maybe Burns only wanted to spend the money to get Homer down to his normal weight. Or maybe we just love Homer just the way he is, 239 and feelin’ fine.

Tidbits and Quotes
– A truly pathetic, but hilarious shot of Homer reduced to his underwear and sweating up a storm after doing a few jumping jacks.
– Homer attempts to get himself injured to get on disability: he stands under a hard hat area at a construction site, but thinks better of it when he witnesses a man get crushed by a wheelbarrow full of cinder blocks. Then we get a wonderfully staged sequence when Homer spills oil on the floor at work and attempts to slip and fall, but just ends up sliding through many different rooms of the plant until he ends up in Burns’s office. After an awkward back-and-forth, Homer asks Burns to give him a push the other way, which he does.
– I love Homer reading off the list of qualifying disorders (lumber lung, juggler’s despair, achy breaky pelvis) and his ultimate grief over having none of them (“I’m never going to be disabled! I’m sick of being so healthy!”)
– Dr. Nick coaching Homer on gaining weight may be his best scene in the entire series, starting with revealing the four neglecting food groups: the whipped, congealed, empty calories, and the choco-tastic. In a serious manner, Homer asks what he can do to speed up the process. Dr. Nick tells him to be creative (“Instead of making sandwiches with bread, use poptarts. Instead of chewing gum, chew bacon!”) Bart throws out his own suggestion (“You can brush your teeth with milkshakes!”) which Dr. Nick is impressed by (“Did you go to Hollywood Upstairs Medical College too?”) As a farewell reminder, Dr. Nick gives this tip: whatever food you intend to eat, rub on a piece of paper (“If the paper turns clear, it’s your window to weight-gain!”) This comes back later in a great scene where Homer is concerned how fatty a fish sandwich is, until Bart rubs it on the wall until it turns clear.
– I love Homer’s insane dream of what working at home will be like, with his power station set up in the backyard with a snack machine and Marge doting on her go-getter husband. Meanwhile, Ned returns from work looking a wreck (“A crazy guy shot a bunch of people and the subway ran over my hat.“)
– There’s some great animation of Homer’s new chubbier self, first when he gets in bed, lowering the mattress and causing Marge to tumble on top of him, then later when he gets up for work, and the entire bed shifts as he whips his massive frame to the edge of the bed. Just fabulous.
– Homer’s one pound away from salvation, but Bart informs him they’re out of food (“We’re even out of the basic elements of food. You ate all the tarragon and you drank all the soy sauce.”) Maggie comes to the rescue with a Play-Doh donut. Bart informs his father it’s non-toxic, but Homer has eaten it anyway. He just makes the 300-mark… then notices that his gut is stuck on the towel rack, and jostling it loose, he sees he’s actually 315 pounds.
– Burns still doesn’t know Homer’s name, even after the dramatic events of “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” I love how Smithers refers to him as a “chair moistener.” Homer working at home also makes the paper… sort of (“Burns Survives Brush with Shut-In.”)
– Amazing dream sequence of Bart wanting to be like his dad, morbidly obese and bed-ridden. The reading of “Ah wash mah-self with a rag on a stick” is so disturbing, but hysterical, one of the best lines of the series.
– I love the throw-away line when Marge talks about how sensitive Homer is (“Remember when I giggled at his Sherlock Holmes hat? He sulked for a week and then closed his detective agency.”) I’d love to see the story behind that.
– The confrontation between Homer and Marge is an incredibly honest scene, with Marge concerned for her husband’s health, but also their marriage, clearly not so physically attracted to Homer’s new lifestyle. This leads to a great moment later when Homer discovers he only has to type ‘Y’ instead of ‘Yes,’ so he thoughtlessly takes the opportunity to gloat to his wife (“Hey, Miss Doesn’t-find-me-attractive-sexually-anymore: I just tripled my productivity!”) Marge could care less, of course. Another great moment is when Homer is briefly distracted by the dog, but when Marge comes to the room, he rushes back to his desk and taps the keyboard, like a kid caught doing something he shouldn’t of by his mother. As Marge leaves the home to do errands, Homer asks for a lemonade and a beer, referring back to his dream in the first act.
– There’s two jokes in this episode where Lisa attempts to defend her father, then her assertions are dashed. Neighborhood kids stare at Homer on the couch through the window, and Lisa attests he’s a good-hearted person, then Homer yells and berates the kids (“Don’t make me close that shade!”) Later on the bus, Lisa tries to claim her father isn’t a food-crazed maniac, then Homer drives by in an ice cream truck stuffing his face.
– Homer attempts to call the plant to warn them, but is unable to dial properly, getting a voice message (“The fingers you have used to dial are too fat. To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad with your palm now.”) Even better is the message is done by Joan Kenley, who was the voice of many answer machine and voicemail systems.
– Similar to the crazed derelict in “Bart Sells His Soul,” Homer acts like a raving crazy man attempting to hitch a ride with anyone foolish enough to pull over and engage with him. When he rants at an unsuspecting ice cream truck driver, he runs off terrified, like this is his worst nightmare that a big fat guy would take over his truck.
– Lisa and Bart have their own unique takes on Homer saving the day (“I think it’s ironic that Dad saved the day while a slimmer man would have fallen to his death.” “And I think it’s ironic that for once Dad’s butt prevented the release of toxic gas.”)