Hungry, Hungry Homer

"Hungry, Hungry Homer"
The Simpsons episode
File:Cabf09.jpg
Episode no.	Season 12
Directed by	Nancy Kruse
Written by	John Swartzwelder
Original air dates	March 4, 2001
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"Temptation Island was not a sleazy piece of crap"
Couch gag	The Simpsons are black belts in karate. They use their hands to chop up the couch while Homer does an elaborate flip and switches on the TV with his remote.

"Hungry, Hungry Homer" is the fifteenth episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons. It aired on March 4, 2001.

Plot

The Simpson family visits Blockoland, a theme park which is completely made of blocks. Lisa is ripped off when her Eiffel Tower kit has a missing Blocko piece. In response, Homer "sticks up for the little guy", and he gets Lisa the piece she needs. He also stands up for the little guy by helping Bart get a girlfriend for an upcoming school dance and helps Marge get two free hair streaks. When he tries to help Lenny by getting him a refund on his tickets for the Springfield Isotopes, Homer encounters the Isotopes' owner Howard K. Duff VIII. The owner refuses to give Homer a refund but in his haste to leave, Homer discovers evidence that the Isotopes are moving to Albuquerque. Duff insists that they are not moving and he has Duffman drug Homer to cover up the truth.

Homer is shocked and attempts to alert the media to the plan, but Duff removes all traces of the evidence Homer found. The journalists dismiss Homer's story and call him a liar. In response, Homer stages a hunger strike in which he chains himself to a pole near Duff Stadium in order to force the owners of the team to admit they are moving to Albuquerque. He attracts a great deal of attention so the team decides to move him into the ballpark and exploit his popularity using the name "Hungry, Hungry Homer." Eventually Homer becomes so thin and sickly that the team decides to get rid of him, replacing him with a man who drinks a bucket of paint but falls down twitching doing so. In a public ceremony, the team's owner unchains him and offers him a free hot dog. Homer realizes the hot dog is topped with Southwestern ingredients and this proves the team really is moving to Albuquerque. The crowd then takes notice that the hot dogs are even wrapped with "Albuquerque Isotopes" paper and are enraged. Howard K. Duff VIII tries to continue his denials but even Duffman turns against him. Homer's hunger strike is over as he celebrates under a shower of food thrown by the cheering fans who now praised him as a hero. He catches all the food in his mouth as well.

Different Versions

• In all reruns of this episode on American television, the ending where the mayor of Albuquerque abandons his plans to steal the Isotopes following Homer's hunger strike is cut, making the episode end with Homer celebrating at the stadium. Many overseas TV channels (including ones in France, Australia, and Canada) have aired this episode with the original ending intact.

Cultural references

• Blockoland is a parody of Legoland.
• The hair salon Marge goes to is called Hairy Shearers, a play on the name Harry Shearer, who is one of the regular voice actors on The Simpsons.
• The ghost of César Chávez visits Homer during his hunger strike, but takes the appearance of Cesar Romero, because Homer doesn't know what Chavez looks like.
• The scene where Bart sees Homer lying on top of the red dog house is a direct reference to Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Bart even utters Charlie Brown's signature line "Good Grief".
• Immediately after Homer chains himself outside of the stadium, Lisa gives him a book for inspiration by Mike Farrell, which Homer skims and notes that he really hates Wayne Rogers. The former replaced the latter's character on M*A*S*H.
• The title is a play on the game, Hungry Hungry Hippos. Coincidentally, one of the hippos in the game is named Homer.
• When Kent Brockman says that Mr. Duff is insisting that Homer is a liar, they show footage of Homer with his pants on fire. This is a nod to the classic chant, Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire.
• When Marge gets streaks in her hair, this resembles the look of the Bride of Frankenstein's hair; tall white with two black streaks.

Legacy

This episode inspired the name of the real-life Albuquerque Isotopes minor-league baseball team.

This episode has also introduced a new word to the English Language according to the Collins English Dictionary: meh.

External links

• "Hungry, Hungry Homer episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Hungry, Hungry Homer" at IMDb
• 'Meh': new word for indifference enters English dictionary ([1])