The Simpsons Project #10

The Simpsons Project #10 (Season 1, Episode 10)
Homer’s Night Out
Original airdate: 3/25/90

Hi, friends. Welcome back to another installment of the Simpsons Project, where I take on the herculean and insane task of trying to review every episode of the series for my (12) faithful readers. Today’s entry: “Homer’s Night Out”.

We begin the episode with Homer bemoaning his recent weight gain (he’s “ballooned” up to 239 pounds, his standard weight for the remainder of the series). He curses his sweet tooth as the cause for his portliness, asking God “why are all the good things so tasty?”, but he soon distracts himself by telling Marge that he’s been invited to a co-worker’s bachelor party. She’s rightfully nervous about his attendance, but he assures her the party will be “very classy, a tea and crumpets kinda thing.”

Meanwhile, Bart purchases a miniature spy camera from the back of a comic book and immediately uses it to photograph a semi-nude Homer performing a half-assed workout in the bathroom. Later, with Homer attending his bachelor party, the rest of the family decides to go out to dinner. Unbeknownst to both Homer and his family, the party and the dinner are being held at the same Springfield eatery, the Rusty Barnacle.

There’s a great moment when the bachelor party, in an adjacent room, is so loud that Marge complains to the waiter. He promptly pleads with the partiers to quiet down, to which Homer curtly and rudely responds, “Hey, shut up.” It’s a quick scene, but it’s indicative of the complete jerk Homer is to become later in the series, rather than the good-hearted half-wit he is towards the beginning.

The rest of the plot is set up when Bart sneaks into the party to find Homer frolicking with a belly dancer, a scene he promptly snaps a photo of. Bart immediately develops the photos and is easily persuaded to give copies out to his friends. They soon make the rounds in the neighborhood (along the way giving us a rare glimpse of Mr. Burns’ earlier, much smaller, less ornate office), and it isn’t long before Marge is made aware of Homer’s carousing.

Many of the first season episodes focus primarily on the storyline and it seems like jokes and one-liners were added in on the fly later, to varying degrees of success. Later seasons would much more seamlessly blend story and non-stop cutting edge hilarity. There are a lot of missed opportunities and predictable jokes in “Homer’s Night Out”, and their presence makes later episodes feel that much more vivid.

Anyway, Marge kicks Homer out of the house, and his first stop is ladies night at Moe’s, where “unescorted ladies drink free”. Homer eventually grovels to Marge for forgiveness, but she is more concerned with Homer’s negative example to Bart of objectifying women than his borderline infidelity. Marge makes Homer take Bart to meet the belly dancer, Princess Kashmir (AKA April Flowers), so that he may understand that she is a real person with emotions and feelings and not just an object.

In a nice ending, Homer is unwittingly thrust into the center of a showgirl conga line. Though he initially plays up his newfound swinging image for the audience, he notices Bart and stops the routine, pleading with the men in the crowd to recognize women as something more than curvaceous sexpots. Marge, having snuck into the audience without Homer’s knowledge, immediately forgives him, and their relationship is mended. Well-known and with a nice story, but not all that great. C.

John Lacey