2F09.1
Paul Nosov
Homer the Great Written by John
Swartzweld
Directed by Jim
Reard
=============================================================================
Production code: 2F09 Original airdate in N.A.:
8-Jan-
Capsule revision E,
22-Feb-
Title sequence
Blackboard :- Adding "just kidding" doesn't make it okay to insult the
principal.
Adding "just kidding" do/ at cutoff.
Lisa's Solo:- None due to shortened into.
Couch :- The family walk into the TV room from all directions,
rather like the people in Escher's "Relativity" picture.
Did you notice...
Tony Hill:
... a basement window is visible, at first?
... Burns' Olmec head gift?
... Lenny's license plate is 829 EAG?
... Grampa is a card-carrying communist?
... spirits emerge from Homer's underwear?
... Homer bowls on lane 13?
... the calendar in Lisa's classroom shows that it's March?
... most of the graffiti said "graffiti"?
Dave Hall:
... the plumber keeps tobacco in his shirt pocket?
... Homer is carrying his lunch?
... Homer carries his Revenge List around in his back pocket?
... Carl and Lenny's chairs are monogrammed?
... Lenny can't keep a secret?
... Homer is drinking milk at dinner?
... Homer uses his brain in this episode?
... Homer uses _yellow_ paint to tail Lenny?
... the lit torches at the Stonecutter's temple?
... Homer's hair strands are sticking up after he falls from the
ceiling?
... Moe can toss ~260 pounds of weight?
... Lenny's spittle?
... Grampa keeps his ID cards in a money purse?
... Krusty wears his clown stuff under his robe?
... the plumber doesn't wear a Stonecutter ring?
... Homer's chair doesn't vibrate like Lenny's and Carl's?
... the egg-council guy is at a Stonecutter meeting?
... Homer is barefoot when he puts on the rollerblades?
... Number One doesn't remove his headdress? (I wonder if he's
bald?)
... Chief Wiggum is actually a good shot in this episode?
... the artist's pinky is extended while he paints Homer?
... Homer's bowling ball has "Chosen One" written on it?
... Homer doesn't always wear his Stonecutter ring?
... Homer actually listens to Lisa's advice?
... Homer seesaws with seven kids?
... the family pets staring attentively at Homer?
Hubert Chen:
... the cat and the dog wag their tails out of phase?
Bailey Irwin:
... the graffiti heart containing the words "Graffiti + Graffiti"?
Don Del Grande:
... Homer sleeps on the right (as seen from above), as he did in the
first season (and on "The Tracey Ullman Show")?
... Grampa Simpson is a Stonecutter _and_ a Mason?
... the Stonecutters painted the building from the top down, and
painted over some of the windows?
... Lisa's whistle ring is on her left hand, Bart's is on his right
hand, and both are on their index fingers?
Rick DeBay:
... the only non-"graffiti" word was BART?
Aaron Varhola:
... Homer's "Trackstar" brand 8-track player?
... the fifth symbol on the Stonecutter parchment is the Masons'
symbol?
... the car parked to Homer's right in the parking lot after he
becomes a Stonecutter has the license plate "3MI ISL"! (Three
Mile Island!)
... Number One calls Moe "Moe" instead of his number?
... Maggie is quite interested in the monkeys Homer has staging the
Battle of Gettysburg?
Kathy Godfrey:
... Marge holds up four fingers plus one to represent "five"?
Arkadi Galon:
... Homer's shadow on the floor of the Stonecutters' temple when he
was sprawled on the glass dome shows shadows even for his two
hairs?
Voice credits
- Starring
- Dan Castellaneta (Homer, Abe, tavern owner, Krusty, Orville
Redenbacher)
- Julie Kavner (Marge)
- Nancy Cartwright (Bart)
- Yeardley Smith (Lisa)
- Hank Azaria (plumber, Carl, Moe, Homer G., Washington, Mr. T)
- Harry Shearer (Arnie Pie, Lenny, Skinner, Hibbert, Mr. Burns, man
who kicks tavern owner, Jack Nicholson, George Bush)
- Special Guest Voice
- Patrick Stewart (Number One)
- Also Starring
- Pamela Hayden (boy letting people into treehouse)
- Maggie Roswell (Miss Hoover)
Movie (and other) references
+ M. C. Escher's "Relativity" picture
- the couch scene
+ "Dukes of Hazzard" {av}
- the General Lee is stuck in the traffic jam
+ California Egg Council commercial {ert}
- some humorous TV ads put out by the Council depict eggs in prison
running off with glee when they're set free
+ "Star Trek: The Next Generation"
- Captain Picard refers to his second-in-command as Number One, and
Patrick Steward (who guest-voiced) plays Picard
+ Prince's song "1999"
- "Let us party like 'twas 1799!" sounds like "Tonight I'm gonna
party like it's 1999"
"Raiders of the Lost Ark"
- looks like Homer's underwear get dropped into an ark
- ghosts fly out
+ Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" {rl}
- Lisa says "Beware the Ides of March", the same line as the
Soothsayer
+ "The Last Emperor" {mk}
- Homer in Chosen One garb, walking out to greet his followers
(music as well)
Previous episode references
- [MG32] OFF gets hypnotized (Homer says "five years ago", around the
time of the Ullman shorts) {mk}
- [7F18] H2WHOA! is shown {av}
- [8F17] 912 is cited as the number to call for emergencies
- [8F23] Chairs at power plant look like Spinemelter 2000s {av}
- [1F01], [1F07] Someone tries to train monkeys {mk}
- [1F16] The Egg Council/Advisory Board is mentioned {av}
- [2F08] "Kids can be so cruel" is said
Freeze frame fun
- Sign: {mk}
STERN LECTURE
PLUMBING
"I Told You
Not To
Flush That"
- Label: {mk}
ECONO - SAVE
BUDGET STOOL
Factory Second
- Homer's Revenge List: {th}
- Bill of Rights
- Grandpa
- fat free lard
- gravity
- Emmys
- Darwin
- H2WHOA!
- Billy Crystal
- God
- Soloflex
- the boy
- Stern Lecture Plumbing
- Econo Save
- Banners in the Stonecutters' building, left to right: {av}
- Stick of dynamite
- Sledgehammer
- Wrench
- Chisel/spike
- The Stonecutter members: {mk}
- Homer
- Lenny
- Carl
- Abe
- Dewey Largo
- Seymour Skinner
- Julius Hibbert
- Charles Montgomery Burns
- Herman
- Chief Wiggum
- Moe the Bartender
- Hershel Krustofski (Krusty)
- Sideshow Mel
- Mr. Van Houten
- Waylon Smithers
- "Number One"
- Kent Brockman
- Joe Quimby
- Groundskeeper Willy
- Steve Guttenberg
- Jasper
- Barney
- Apu
- Adolf Hitler
- Homer Glumplich
- (some green alien)
- (the Egg Council guy)
- Scott Christian
- Asst. Superintendent Leopold
- The sacred parchment writing: {cw}
- BSTUPUI, STETERUNTOUR
- COMAE, ET VOX FAUCIEUS MAESIT
- The Stonecutter World Council members present: {th}
- Orville Redenbacher
- Jack Nicholson
- Lawrence Tero (Mr. T)
- George Bush
Animation, continuity, and other goofs
How could the cat's meows be heard when it is underwater? {dh}
Homer pulls the pan from thin air. {dh}
The sound of the helicopter's rotor blades during Arnie's radio
broadcast don't sound as though it had crashed. {dh}
The parking lot behind the back yard conflicts with many, many episodes,
most notably 1F22. {th}
Isn't Bart supposed to be on the school bus by the time Homer has to be
at work? {mk}
The space around Homer's parking spot closes in on him. {dh}
Homer's ID card is missing from his shirt. {dh}
In other episodes, Homer's chair has been nicer than that stool. {dh}
As Homer adds "Econo Save" to the list, his last E appears fully drawn
in one frame before he's actually finished writing it.
The buttons on the Buzz Cola machine are on the left. Most pop machines
have the buttons on the right, underneath the coin slot. {av}
The dining room layout is different. {th}
Things appear and disappear from the dining room table. {dh}
In the first shot of Grandpa having dinner with OFF, he has something to
eat, and a napkin. But after that shot, there is nothing on the table.
{ag}
The Stonecutter meetings are Wednesday nights. But Moe's already busy
Wednesday -- he reads to the homeless then. See 9F14. {dh}
I thought it took more than following two people just once to one place
to be considered "stalking". {mk}
Lenny's coffee cup turns into an egg sandwich. {dh}
Homer's already saved everyone's life in 8F04. {dh}
It appears to me that membership is signified by a ring. Where's
Grampa's ring? {mk}
Number One's book disappears. {dh}
Despite the water flowing in the basement for days between plumber
visits, the water level does not rise. {ddg}
The plumber's wrench disappears. {dh}
Homer's rulebook disappears. {dh}
When Homer drives through the tunnel under the freeway, the paintings on
the left are all different in the first shot. In the second, there are
no paintings on the left side, and all the paintings on the right side
are copies of the Mona Lisa (which was also one of the paintings on the
left in the first shot!) {mk}
The stripes on the shields on the Stonecutter Mugs go from diagonal to
horizontal and back to diagonal. {ddg}
The Declaration of Independence signing scene is incorrect. (see below)
During the Stonecutters' song, Number One can be seen raising his cup
and singing along with the others (at least twice). But when the song
finishes, Number One's cup disappears. {ag}
Homer has never had that birthmark before. (Why wouldn't Dr. Hibbert
have seen the birthmark during a physical? Or Lenny, Carl, Mr. Burns,
or Smithers during showers at the plant or the plant physical? And why
wouldn't Grampa have noticed it and mentioned it to the Stonecutters a
long time ago? {av})
Why would Homer wonder if there's a God? He met him in 9F01.
In the pool game, the cue ball changes color after striking the front
ball of the rack; also, all 16 balls go into a pocket, which is a foul
(OOPS - a foul EXCEPT when the Chosen One does it). {ddg}
Miss Hoover's door should be on the other side -- see 9F03, 7F19, 7F02.
{mk}
In Miss Hoover's classroom, the calendar (which says "March") goes from
five weeks (which is normal) to four, and Lisa begins in the second
column from the wall but is soon in the third. (Also, Lisa and Janey
are in the front row this time.) {ddg}
The lockers should be full-length rather than half-length -- see 1F07,
8F15. {mk}
Bart paddles Homer right-handed, and Lisa is ready to paddle him left-
handed. It should be reversed. {av}
Reviews
Tony Hill: This was a positively zany and unpredictable episode. Homer
shines at his moronic best. Some of the gags detracted from the
credibility but not the humor of this episode. Best of all, we
added a new song to our repertory. I give "Homer the Great" an A.
Matthew Kurth: On its own, this episode is pretty good. However, it
discards continuity almost completely and is just too over-the-top
for me. The outstanding drinking song stole (and saved) the show.
7/10
Mike Kraus: What a great episode tonight. One of my favorites in a long
time. Seems like a pretty great idea for men of a town to have a
club like that. Maybe the name we should call Simpsons fans is
Stonecutters!
Dave Hall: I liked it. Two thumbs up. Patrick Stewart was great.
There was a lot of DYN/FF stuff in this episode. I'm sure a lot of
you guys/gals are busy right now listing them.
Warren Hagey: I think it was great, IMHO the best this season. The
repetitive jokes were excellent and Moe's objection to the oath is
the funniest thing I've heard in my life. A+
Bailey Irwin: The best shows combine Homerish goofiness with blistering
social satire and a kind of Pythonesque surrealism. It's been done
before, but tonight may be the first time they've done all that in
ONE plot, with the elements overlapping totally. Brilliant. A+.
Marc Singer: It was decent, but I left it feeling it was decidedly
average. Perhaps most irritating was the fact that by the time they
really got to the interesting part of the episode, Homer as Chosen
One, it was already 2/3 over. Not a bad show, but not a great one
either.
John J. Wood: This is the first time I've ever been disappointed by a
episode with "Homer" in its title. First, the plot was simply too
UNbelievable. Second, many of its gags just didn't work: They were
either predictable, stale, cheesy, or just plain embarrassing.
Grade: C.
Don Del Grande: In line with the subject material, this episode pulls a
"gentleman's B"; good overall, but nothing really stood out. For
once, it had a decent ending.
Yours truly: Hmm. Swartzwelder usually writes excellent episodes, but I
didn't enjoy this one much. I hate to say it, but the continuity
errors were glaring and wrecked my enjoyment a little. Thank God
for the Stonecutter's song! Grade: C-.
Comments and other observations
Parchment translation
Bob Yantosca makes his best effort at translating the parchment:
OBSTUPUI STETERUNTOUR
COMAE, ET VOX PAUCIBUS MAESIT.
- OBSTUPUI: (noun) loosely derived from 'obstupesco', to be
dumbfounded. I take it to mean "the dumbfounded" or "the
astonished".
- STETERUNTOUR: No such form in Latin. The verb must come from
'sto, stare, steti, status' (to stand). The closest forms I could
find are:
- STARENTUR: Imperfect Subjunctive Passive (they might be stood)
- STANTUR: Present Active Passive (they were stood)
- STENTUR: Present Subjunctive Passive (let them stand)
- COMAE: (noun) plural of 'coma', hair. In English 'hair' is a
collective noun, but in Latin, the plural is used.
- PAUCIBUS (adj). Dative plural of 'paucus' (to the few, to a few)
- MAESIT: (verb) obviously derived from 'maereo' (to mourn).
Confusing because there shouldn't be a 'maesit' form unless maereo
is declined 'maereo, maerere, maesi, maesum', which is irregular.
- So, putting it all together, and substituting for STANTUR for
STETERUNTOUR (this makes the most sense), we get (drumroll,
please):
The hair of the dumbstruck [people] is stood on end;
And a voice mourned to the few.
Errors in signing the Declaration of Independence
Matthew Kurth notices, "Actually, when the Declaration of Independence
was signed, the signers' intent was to sever ties to and post
grievances against King George, rather than create a democracy - at
the time they had no idea what form the government would take.
Furthermore, the Second Continental Congress created 13 independent
states, rather than a single nation."
Orville Redenbacher
Tony Hill asserts, "Orville Redenbacher is an entrepreneur who founded a
popcorn company. He sold out twenty or more years ago, but
continues to serve as the commercial spokesperson for his product."
Mr. T
Tony Hill explains, "Mr. T was a character in the short-lived series
'The A Team' in the 1980s. It's unfortunate that he'd want to kill
Homer, after Homer wrote a song about him. 'I pity the fool who
doesn't like he,' as the song was quoted in 'Homer's Barbershop
Quartet.'"
Who _isn't_ a Stonecutter?
Elson Trinidad noticed some notable absences from the ranks of the
Stonecutters. Here are his explanations:
1. Ned Flanders: Refuses to be involved in "evil, godless"
activities.
2. Rev. Lovejoy: Ditto.
3. Apu Nahasapeemapetilon: Either the Stonecutters discriminate
against Indians, or Apu could not afford to let go of the Quick-E-
Mart every Wednesday night.
4. Snake: He is a stonecutter, but in a different sense.
5. Otto: Quit after finding out that Stonecutters don't get stoned.
6. Lionel Hutz: No lawyers allowed.
Quotes and Scene Summary
[Syndication cuts are marked in curly braces "{}" and are courtesy of
Frederic Briere.]
The scene opens on the Stern Lecture Plumbing van ("I told you not to
flush that"), then focuses on the Simpsons' basement window. A plumber
stands in a foot of water in front of a leaky pipe.
Plumber: Looks like you got a leak.
Marge: Could you start fixing it pretty soon? The basement is getting
awfully flooded. And I think the cat's down there.
[Snowball II meows balefully from underwater]
Plumber: Yeah, I probably won't be able to get the parts I need for two,
three weeks and that's if I order them today -- which I won't.
Marge: Oh, dear.
[his pager beeps; he looks, it shows "Low Battery"]
Plumber: Hmm, emergency call. Gotta go. [starts to leave]
Homer: What should we do until you get back?
Plumber: Ehh, put a pan down there.
[Homer puts one down; it floats away]
Homer: Aw, it didn't work!
-- A good use of $75/hour, "Homer the Great"
On Homer's way to work, he gets stuck behind a huge lineup of cars on
the freeway.
Homer: Lousy traffic jams...[laughs] the traffic report will get me out
of this one.
[turns on KBBL]
Arnie: [from a helicopter] This is Arnie Pie! Looks like we got a
little accident that's backing traffic up as far as this reporter
can see.
[camera pulls back; the helicopter is causing the jam]
-- At least he's not lying, "Homer the Great"