Three Gays of the Condo

"Three Gays of the Condo"
The Simpsons episode
File:EABF12.jpg season = 14
Directed by	Mark Kirkland
Written by	Matt Warburton
Original air dates	April 13, 2003
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	None
Couch gag	The family is dropped into hot oil, deep fried, dropped onto the couch, and salted

"Three Gays of the Condo" is an Emmy Award-winning episode from the fourteenth season of The Simpsons that aired April 13 2003.

Plot

Marge brings an "Oprah's Puzzle Club" jigsaw puzzle to the Simpsons Family Wednesdays. When Grampa sees that the box says "Suitable for ages from 8 to 80", he leaves in a huff with Maggie. Milhouse shows up with a rock polisher, but Bart - along with the rest of the Simpsons - is becoming increasingly engrossed in their slow but steady progress with the jigsaw. Bart even takes some pieces with him to school in his lunch box. Lenny and Carl visit the Simpsons' home to inquire about Homer's absence from work for the last few days, wondering whether he has taken up another job... again! Homer, obsessed with the puzzle, imagines Lenny as being made of jigsaw and tries to add him to the puzzle, causing pain to his long suffering eye.

Finally, the Simpsons finish the jigsaw puzzle. As they admire it, Ned Flanders points out that there is one piece missing. The family starts searching for the piece. Bart finds their old gerbil (whom they thought had run away) under the sofa cushions and crosses himself solemnly. When Homer searchs for the piece in his closet uttering the line "puzzle piece, come out to play-ay in reference to the 1979 film The Warriors , he finds a box in labeled "Marge's Memory Chest," which contains a visiting card he made for Marge, an old T-shirt she wore to the Rolling Stones' "last concert ever" and an invitation to the opening of Moe's Tavern (when they had just started going out). Homer, on reading the writing on the back of the invitation, discovers that Marge wasn't too happy about sitting alone at Moe's while Homer played videogames and drank himself silly. When Homer got alcohol poisoning that day, she felt even more angry. In the present, Homer wonders why Marge stayed with him all this time and finds out that two days after his alcohol poisoning, she was pregnant. Marge enters the room after finding the missing jigsaw piece and asks Homer why he looks unhappy. He confronts her with the note. She says that she was mad, and she loves him even if he does aggravate her. Angrily, he refuses to sleep in the same bed with her and shacks up with Bart. While Homer cries himself to sleep, Bart tries hard to ignore it.

The next morning, Homer gets even madder with Marge, packs up, and moves into Bachelor Arms' Apartments with Milhouse's dad, Kirk. However, after listening to lonely men weep, Homer is ready to move back home - until he picks up a newspaper advertising an affordable room on the river. Homer unwittingly travels into Springfield's gay district, where he encounters Waylon Smithers, roller-skating in a red tank top and bright blue shorts. When Smithers sees Homer, he feigns ignorance of the surrounding gaiety, though a tramful of gay men greet him, much to his embarrassment. Homer meets his new gay roommates, Grady and Julio. The three becomes good friends while shopping, where Grady and Julio buy Homer a tight black T-shirt (and a girdle to prevent his huge belly from popping out). Later, when Homer visits Marge, their meeting is rather icy and the family notices Homer's newly-acquired mannerisms and the fact that his hands (which he uses to strangle Bart) are quite smooth, thanks to a new lotion. That night, at the local gay bar, Homer tells Grady and Julio that the chance for reconciliation is low. They invite him to dance and he does, taking off his shirt and playfully bouncing around, to the delight of the men, not so much the women.

The next day, Homer hears a sound outside his new apartment. From the balcony, he sees Marge and the kids, who have brought a band headed by "Weird Al" Yankovic, who sings a song "Homer and Marge" (spoofing John Mellencamp's song "Jack and Diane"), to tell Homer that Marge loves him very much. Marge then asks Homer out on a date, to which he agrees. That night Homer is nervous while preparing for his date, so his roommates bring out a pitcher of margarita (which sounds like "Marge", so he takes it as a sign to drink, although in the original airing and not the edited syndication version, it took PEER pressure from the homosexuals cause Homer was wondering if he should of drank it before he actually did.) Meanwhile, at the medieval-styled restaurant, Marge anxiously awaits Homer. Julio reminds Homer of his date and Homer runs to meet Marge. He shows up drunk, and Marge, angry at his drunkenness, leaves. At the apartment, Grady tries to console Homer and slowly starts to come on to him. When he kisses Homer, Homer bolts out the window and runs to Moe's. There he wonders aloud whether he should give up drinking, considering that alcohol is to blame for all his relationship problems. Moe hears this epiphany and, unwilling to lose a regular customer, shoves a bottle of beer into Homer's mouth and forces him to drink "his medicine". Homer suffers alcohol poisoning and Moe wheels him to the hospital in a shopping cart and leaves him there and nearly gets caught by the cops, but blames another bar for the poisoning.

After Homer is cured, he tells Dr. Hibbert that Marge must hate him. However, Hibbert shows him a videotape (which he made because he thought that his nurse was stealing his sponges) that documents Homer's first alcohol poisoning. It shows Marge's compassion for the unconscious Homer, as she tells him she loves him. Back in the present, Marge comes inside the hospital room and says that she still loves Homer and they kiss.

Years later, a much older Hibbert is sitting in his den alone and feeling sorry for himself. All he has are videotapes of his patients. He is watching Homer and Marge kiss, when suddenly he sees that his nurse was, in fact, stealing his sponges.

Trivia

• The character Grady is voiced by the openly gay comedian/actor Scott Thompson, who is most famous for being a member of the Canadian sketch comedy troupe The Kids In The Hall.
• This episode refers to former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani who moved in with an interracial gay couple during his marital problems and eventual divorce.
• This episode was rated TV-14LSV, the fourth time for an episode of The Simpsons. In some markets (such as the syndicated airings), this episode is rated TV-PGDLSV.
• "Weird Al" Yankovic also sings over the end credits. The song was said to be a track on his album Poodle Hat, but this turned out not to be true, as Poodle Hat was recorded between March 2002 and March 2003 and was released on May 20, 2003.
• The song being used while the gay men take Homer shopping is "West End Girls" by Pet Shop Boys.
• At the Bachelor Arms, there is a sign that says "3 Days Without a Suicide". A gunshot is heard and the sign goes from 3 to 0.
• The original script called for Harvey Fierstein to reprise his role as Karl, Homer's secretary from "Simpson and Delilah", but Fierstein publicly denounced the script as being homophobic and the script was revised. Despite protests from Fierstein, few gay rights activists found the aired episode to be homophobic.
• Homer still has jackets saying "Mr. Plow" and "Pin Pals" in his closet. This is in fact a goof, as Homer's "Pin Pals" shirt had been sold to a thrift store and bought by John in Homer's Phobia.
• Patty and Selma have put up a proposition to have Homer kicked out of Springfield to which Homer replies that the voters will decide on that in November.
• Homer says that he sent two songs called "Another One Bites the Crust" and "Livin' la Pizza Loca" to "Weird Al", presumably as a parody of "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen and "Livin' la Vida Loca". "Weird Al" seems unimpressed by Homer's idea, claiming "they were pretty much the same". It is also noted that in real life, "Weird Al" does not take parody ideas from fans and refers them to the Dr. Demento show. In fact, "Weird Al" has already parodied the former as Another One Rides the Bus.
• "I despise the Springfield Shopper... all the headlines are jokes" is a reference to the running gag of showing clips of comical headlines from the local newspaper.
• Also starring Terry W. Greene.

Cultural references

• The "Homer and Marge" song that "Weird Al" sings is a parody of the song "Jack and Diane" by John Mellencamp.
• Dr. Hibbert's hair style on the videotape Homer watches is a reference to 80s pop musician, Ranking Roger.
• The restaurant Homer and Marge go to is an obvious parody of Medieval Times
• The episode's name is derived from the 1975 film Three Days of the Condor.
• While searching for a puzzle piece in a coat closet, Homer says, "Puzzle piece, come out to play..." in reference to the 1979 film The Warriors.
• Homer refers to Maggie as Silent Bob.

Awards

• Won the Emmy Award in 2003 for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour).