Thursday Evening Cartoons

There's No Disgrace Like Home6

“When will I learn?  The answer to life’s problems aren’t at the bottom of a bottle.  They’re on teevee!” – Homer Simpson

In “There’s No Disgrace Like Home”, Homer attempts to prove to his family that they are, in fact, terrible.  In the process, they peep in on some other households to see whether or not everyone lives in the same misery they do.  After he fails, Homer wallows in the sorry state of the family he heads.  Being Homer, he does so with a beer at Moe’s. 

Eddie and Lou walk in with a police German Shepherd.  After drinking on the job, they say to Moe that they’re looking for a family of peeping toms.  Homer immediately realizes it’s him.  The dog begins growling, but the clueless Springfield PD ignores it and believes Homer’s lame excuse that he has hot dogs in his pants.  There’s no attempt to mine such absurdity for tension, there’s no string music of suspense; the whole thing is played completely for laughs. 

No matter how outlandish, Zombie Simpsons would never let Homer find himself under police suspicion without milking a minute or two of fake drama.  For them it’s too good a concept to waste on a few seconds of screen time; for The Simpsons it was a throwaway scene that reinforced the rest of the episode. 

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