The story begins on April Fools' Day. Homer is playing pranks on Bart throughout the day. Bart, angered by the numerous tricks he has fallen for, attempts to get revenge by shaking up a beer in a paint shaker. When Homer opens the beer, it results in a massive explosion that severely injures him. Homer ends up in a wheelchair, possibly paralyzed. Everyone gives up, but one day he notices the candy machine and dreams of a chocolate city. He gets up and walks over to get a candy bar, but the machine gets jammed and he attacks it in a rage. It breaks and chokes him with chocolate bars, and he falls into a coma. The family reminisces about the events they have experienced in the past (clips from previous shows). Eventually, Bart, feeling remorseful for Homer, confesses that he made the beer explode. At that point, Homer emerges from his coma for good and strangles his son while the rest of his family stand next to the bed, relieved he is finally awake. Once Homer feels better, he wanted to pull a prank on his family by pretending to go on a vacation to Hawaii, but Bart and Lisa tell Homer that the current date is May 16, and that Homer was in a coma for 7 weeks, in which Marge agrees. The family laughs, and Marge told him he lost 5 percent of his brain. Homer replies, "Me lose brain? Uh oh!" They laugh again, and he replies "Why I laugh?"
Trivia
This was The Simpsons' first clip show, created to relieve the long hours put in by all of the overworked show's staff. Despite the nature of the clip show, the episode still contained an act and a half of new animation.
The idea for the 32 "D'oh!"s in a row footage was from David Silverman's montage that he had created for his traveling college show.
One of the clips is from the first Treehouse of Horror, showing the family being kidnapped by aliens Kang and Kodos (and Homer being so heavy that he nearly causes the ship to crash). This was the first time a Treehouse segment has been treated as anything like canon (though whether the clip-show itself counts as canon is debatable). However, it could be that when Marge brings that up, it is under the pretense of praising Homer's coping skills, and that he coped with hearing the alien story, rather than actually being involved in it (as Treehouse of Horror episodes are not part of the series circulation, but just halloween-themed joke stories starring the Simpsons).
Cultural references
The scene where Barney attempts to smother Homer with a pillow and breaks a hospital window with a water fountain is a reference to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Dr. Frink makes a reference to Fantastic Voyage when he suggests that a team of men and one beautiful woman are sent into Homer by a ship that will be shrunk to microscopic size. A similar plot later became the plot for the last segment in Treehouse of Horror XV.
Grandpa Simpson refers to a line from the song "Vincent" by Don McLean, in which Grandpa states "Poor Homer, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you."
The episode was referenced in the cartoon South Park when Butters is trying to commit evil and keeps referencing Simpsons plotlines, he mentions shaking up all the beer in town.
Episodes used
The clips in this flashback episode came from the following episodes (in order):
