Homer’s Phobia sees Homer enamoured with a charismatic bachelor named John (voiced by and based on John Waters), a lover of all things kitsch and collectable who immediately ingratiates himself with the family with his effortless charm and extroverted amiability. It’s rare, however, that an episode would so clearly and so brazenly dig into a singular issue and seek to make a definitive point about it, but one senses that Homer’s Phobia is a clear and naked critique of the intolerances faced by the gay community at the time of its release. The Simpsons was never scared of shying away from the big subjects, tackling social and political themes with a light, thoughtful and occasionally provocative touch. “I don’t know! This is a nightmare! You’re all sick!” “Dad, why did you bring me to a gay steel mill?” It also features an excellent turn from the late, great Johnny Cash as the voice of the talking space coyote.Ĥ8. No work of film or television – at least, nothing G-rated – has ever done a hallucination quite this good, letting the animators really stretch out and take us along on Homer’s vision quest, through a strange dreamscape of ziggurats and vengeful tortoises. What elevates this above the many other episodes that boil down to ‘Homer and Marge have a row’ is Homer’s Guatemalan insanity pepper-induced trip. Despite her best efforts, though, she cannot stand between Homer and a whole festival’s worth of spicy grub. When it comes to the annual chilli cookoff, she ups the ante to a full-blown disinformation campaign, deploying a suite of bafflers for almost all five senses in a doomed effort to stop him getting roaring drunk and making a tit of himself in front of the entire town. Marge really only has so many ways to stop Homer from single-mindedly pursuing something he wants. “Are you kidding? If anything, you should get more possessions. “Should I get rid of all my possessions?” El Viaje Misterioso De Nuestro Jomer | Season 8, Episode 9
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It may not be intrinsically spectacular, but Roasting On An Open fire paved the way for some of the greatest TV of the modern era, and for that reason, it will always be an essential televisual artefact.Ĥ9. In fact, Open Fire has many of the hallmarks that would go on to define what made catching up with this peculiar yellow family from Springfield such a delight: it showcased Homer’s devotion as a struggling lower-middle-class father in trying to provide for his family, it introduced many of the town’s wider cast of oddball inhabitants, and it used the dysfunctional antics of the Simpson clan as its key emotional anchor. Telling the story of how the now-iconic yellow clan came to own their pet greyhound Santa’s Little Helper as father Homer struggles for money during the festive season, Roasting on an Open Fire is the start of a long and storied cultural legacy. Yes, there may well be objectively better episodes of The Simpsons than its first-ever fully-fledged outing, but considering this is literally the genesis of the longest-running animated show in US TV history, it seems appropriate to give Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire its due. “Oh, please, there’s only one fat guy that brings us presents and his name ain’t Santa.” Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire | Season 1, Episode 1 But this is not the place to reopen that wound – suffice it to say this is merely a list of the best episodes of The Simpsons, be they from the good seasons or the obviously bad ones.ĥ0. These, after a great deal of furious and occasionally tearful debate, are what we’ve narrowed down as the best The Simpsons episodes.īefore we begin, you may well know that there’s a perennial argument over whether The Simpsons is still as good as it once was. ‘Best’ is always a subjective thing to talk about, particularly in a show like The Simpsons with such a high baseline for quality anyway – but it can’t be denied that some episodes do have that little bit of je ne sais quoi, little moments or images or lines that stick in the mind a little more than they normally would, that still find themselves being talked about years later. Not just any old Simpsons – the Simpsons.