King-Size Homer

From Simpsons Wiki

"King-Size Homer" is the seventh episode of The Simpsons' seventh season, and originally aired on November 5, 1995. Homer can't take the Nuclear Plant's new exercise program and decides to gain 61 pounds so that he can go on disability. It was written by Dan Greaney and directed by Jim Reardon. Joan Kenley makes her first of three guest appearances as the voice of the telephone lady.^[1] It was recently named #1 in the Top 19 Simpsons episodes in Fox 26 Houston's poll leading up to The Simpsons Movie premiere.

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Cultural references
4 Reception
5 References
6 External links

Plot

Image:KingSizeHomer synopsis.jpg

Mr. Burns's exercise program

Mr. Burns organizes an exercise program at the Power Plant, which has a lot of workers supporting the idea, but Homer is not among them. While Homer is reading the employee's manual, he sees a section in the manual that says that any employee that weighs 300 pounds (136 kg) or more is considered legally disabled and can work from home. So that he can work from home, Homer decides to try to gain the 61 pounds (27.6 kg) needed to reach 300 and become legally disabled. With Bart's help, Homer starts eating everything he can, and despite Marge and Lisa telling him that this could severely endanger his health, Homer ends up gaining 76lbs (34.4 kg), putting him up to 315 pounds (143 kg)overall.

Mr. Burns gives Homer a stay at home work terminal. One day, he leaves his terminal and goes out to watch a movie. After being told he's too fat to fit in the seats, Homer storms off in anger. He returns home to find out that the system he had rigged to take over for him broke down and a nuclear meltdown will take place at the plant. As he is unable to stop it via the computer, Homer gets to the plant by stealing an ice-cream truck. Homer arrives at the power plant and climbs up to reach the shutdown button but ends up accidentally falling onto the gas store, blocking the release tube with his behind. As a reward for stopping the "potential Chernobyl", Mr. Burns gives Homer a medal and guarantees that he will make Homer thin once more by paying for Homer's liposuction.^[1]

Production

The writers of the episode wanted the title of the episode to make Homer sound proud about his weight, so they decided to name the episode "King Size Homer". The production staff also thought that Cary Grant would have been ideal for the 'Classy Pig' but as he passed away nine years before the episode was aired, they used Hank Azaria for that voice. The original ending for King-Size Homer was going to have Homer feeling bad about his obesity, and therefore become thin for Marge, but that idea was scrapped in early production.^[3]

Cultural references

While Homer is in the clothes store, as the camera pans with Homer, we see two mannequins wearing identical outfits and riding on bikes. These are based on Billy and Benny McCrary, the world's heaviest twins who weighed 700+ pounds each.^[3] Later on in the episode, we see Homer unsuccessfully ordering the soft drink TaB by pressing the TAB key on the keyboard. When he goes to the theater, a movie theater patron insults Homer by suggesting he see the movie "A Fridge Too Far," an obvious reference to A Bridge Too Far. Near the end of the episode, Mr. Burns remarks that Homer turned a "potential Chernobyl into a mere Three Mile Island," referencing two of the nuclear power industry's worst disasters.

Reception

Despite the numerous laughs at Homer's appearance in the audio commentaries, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, wrote: "this isn't one of the best episodes. Homer's at his most irritating and childish here - you really want Marge to beat him up."^[2] In contrast, the episode received a rating of "Superb", with a score of 9.0/10 out of 105 votes at TV.com,^[4] and a score of 8.0/10 at the Internet Movie Database.^[5] During the DVD Commentary, the production staff say that this is a "Classic Homer caper"; one of the best of the season.^[3]