HOMR

HOMR
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The Simpsons episode
"HOMR"
Episode no. 257
Prod. code BABF22
Orig. airdate January 7, 2001
Show runner(s) Mike Scully
Written by Al Jean
Directed by Mike B. Anderson
Chalkboard "Network TV is not dead"
Couch gag The Simpsons are placed on the couch by the pneumatic transport tubes used on Futurama. Philip J. Fry (the protagonist from Futurama) is on the couch for a split second before he’s sucked up and replaced by Bart.

When the family visits the Sick, Twisted Animation Festival, [1] Homer discovers Animotion, a motion capture technology that enables a cartoon character to mimic a human's movements. After volunteering to demonstrate this technology, Homer decides that he likes it so much that he invests his life savings in the Animotion stock, despite being warned several times about the risks of stock ownership. The next day at the Nuclear Plant Homer checks the progress of his stock, satisfied that the Animotion stock went up. The next day, while watching the news he finds that Animotion has plunged to an all time low, and how this is very bad news for the company's only investor, Homer Simpson. Homer announces the situation to his family, but attempts to overshadow the issue with Lisa's "overusage of syrup." However this does not work as Marge eventually realizes what has been said. She is surprisingly more shocked than angry, but Homer makes a pathetic attempt to redeem himself by explaining that they still had enough money to buy a cowbell, which Homer had already bought. The cowbell however shatters. Later, Homer tries to sell Marge's uterus to "A rich jobless couple," but she refuses, insisting that Homer find some other way to pay off the debt. At the bar, he tells Barney and Moe about his troubles, and Barney suggests that Homer be a human guinea pig, stating how Barney himself earns money. It is revealed that due to side-effects of such drugs he now has a dozen ears growing out of his chest. Homer decides to take up on Barney's advice, and gets a job at a medical testing center. Homer goes through a multitude of tests and experiments, one of which made him temporarily blind. During one experiment, while commenting on Homer's stupidity, the doctors find a crayon lodged in Homer's brain from his childhood when he stuck sixteen crayons up his nose and was unable to sneeze out one of them. The crayon has been the cause of his life-long stupidity, although there have been many other causes pointed out in the series, e.g., the Simpson Gene, repetitive brain trauma as well as excessive drinking. Dr. Hibbert points out that his thumb must have covered the crayon every time, so it was never noticed. The scientists then say that if they remove the crayon, it could either increase his brainpower or just kill him. Homer, thinking it would increase his killing power, decides to have the operation.

After the crayon is removed, Homer's IQ goes up from 55 to 105 points, which allows him to form a bond with Lisa. With Homer's impressive intellect, he uses a mathematical hypothesis, in which he proves to Ned Flanders that there is no God. Worried about the evidence, Ned burns the piece of paper. However, Homer is already spreading his discovery by slipping his fliers onto automobiles. Homer then writes a report on the nuclear plant's safety, which results in the plant's shutting down, and the laying off of all employees. Homer's friends, initially thrilled to have a smarter Homer around, quickly reject him, and Homer is even burned in effigy at Moe's Tavern and knocked unconscious for his intellectual talk. At home, Lisa tries to explain with the aid of a graph that as intelligence increases, happiness decreases. Homer then drives to the Aztec theater to watch a romantic comedy, but gets knocked unconscious again and thrown out for criticizing the film's mediocrity. Wandering around, he miserably realizes that he is unwelcome in many places and decides to put a crayon back in his brain. He is referred by the medical testing center that removed the crayon to an unlicensed surgeon, who surprisingly turns out to be Moe. Meanwhile Lisa is seen drawing a heroic picture of her dad, and while reaching for a crayon, notices that it's missing from the box. She immediately suspects that Homer reinserted the crayon back up his nose. Working in his bar, Moe describes the procedure as "the old Crayola oblongata" (a reference to the medulla oblongata) and reinserts the crayon by pushing it up Homer's nose until he returns to his old stupidity (saying "Extended warranties! How can I lose?!"). He arrives home his old, dumb, self, which initially disappoints Lisa. However, she finds a letter Homer wrote to her before the surgery, explaining that he now understands what it is like to be smart like her, and how much more he appreciates her because of this. Instead of being upset over her father's decision, the episode ends with Lisa happily embracing him.