Top 10 Worst Things That Happened to Homer
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the most impactful yet pitiable physical and emotional hardships endured by the patriarch of the Simpsons. What darker moments on “The Simpsons” have stuck with you? Tell us in the comments.
#10: Trapdoor
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While the cat's away, the mice will . . . plummet. Homer accidentally triggers the trapdoor in Burns’ office only to tumble through subterranean construction, bouncing around scaffolding before landing headfirst in a cement mixer. The incident puts him in traction for the rest of the episode, burdening Marge to the point of forcing her to need consoling. Things don’t exactly turn around when the Simpsons take Burns to court, as they both end up falling outside of the courthouse and getting hit by a truck. It looks like a villainous trapdoor can cause even more trouble when it isn’t working properly.
#9: New York City
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“The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson”
Homer is reluctant to pick up his car after Barney loses it in New York City. As bad as his first trip was, this one is even worse. He waits by his car all day to dispute countless parking tickets, only to miss the parking officer while going to the bathroom. Homer finally snaps, driving his booted car through impossible traffic, ornery New Yorkers, and dangerous construction sites. He can’t even make it over the bridge without a garbage truck littering on him through his busted windshield. This juxtaposition with his family’s perfect holiday makes for brilliant satire of the mixed myths of the Big Apple. There’s certainly no convincing Homer that it’s the greatest city on Earth.
#8: Lost Thumb
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"Trilogy of Error"
A wild day for the whole Simpson family starts particularly wildly for Homer. He's so eager to sample some freshly-baked brownies that he reaches for one while Marge is still cutting the batch. This costs him his right thumb. Because the police are convinced that this was deliberate, the couple have to drive to the hospital themselves. With all the hurdles along the way, it looks like Homer will be permanently down a digit. Luckily, everything works out when a mob doctor quickly, if painfully, reattaches the thumb. It still may be one of "The Simpsons"'s most harrowing farces. As if Homer weren't already a cautionary tale about greedy eating.
#7: Unnecessary Treatments
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"Don't Fear the Roofer"
Feeling unappreciated by friends and family, Homer is eager to show off his suspiciously perfect new friend Ray Magini. He becomes so belligerent when the roofer fails to turn up that Homer’s loved ones conclude that Ray is just a desperate hallucination. There is strong evidence supporting that theory. But after six weeks of painful therapy, Homer receives an alarming visitor in the hospital. It turns out that Ray is real, but was improbably obscured to everyone else whenever he ran into Homer. All that treatment was for nothing. Homer finally gets some appreciation in the most awful way possible. At least Dr. Hibbert makes it up to him by having to complete Ray's contract work.
#6: Coma
"So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show"
An April Fool’s Day prank goes horribly wrong when Bart sticks one of his father’s beers in a paint shaker. When Homer opens the can, the fizz is so explosive that he ends up in the hospital. There, a falling vending machine knocks him into a coma. He regains consciousness weeks later, having lost a good five percent of his brain. The family just laughs off this disturbing tragedy. But it struck audiences so hard as to inspire a popular fan theory about “The Simpsons”’s floating timeline. Season 34 even humored the idea that the Simpson's increasingly far-fetched adventures were dreamed up in Homer's coma. However long it lasted, or has been lasting, it’s not much of a laughing matter.
#5: Marked for Death
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Homer’s thoughtless antics have earned him many enemies through the years. Certainly, the late Frank Grimes can be ruled out as the culprit behind multiple murder attempts. But with Sideshow Bob’s help and a Mardi Gras parade as a trap, the police are able to apprehend Frank Grimes Jr. The would-be assassin’s identity divided viewers with its jarring twist. With the entire episode exploring the worst things Homer did to others, maybe it’s fitting to end on a reminder that he drove a man to a fatal breakdown. This tragic accident still can’t justify Frank Jr.’s suspenseful campaign for revenge. Homer is enough of a gruesome danger to himself.
#4: Heart Attack(s)
"Homer's Triple Bypass"Before Homer's poor health became a gluttonous running gag, it led one of the most dramatic early episodes. A day of particularly bad eating and stress leads to a massive heart attack, which necessitates coronary artery bypass surgery. The situation becomes more urgent when the estimated cost causes Homer to have another heart attack on the spot. With yet another cardiac episode nullifying their insurance policy, the Simpsons have to resort to the cheap and incompetent Dr. Nick Riviera. By the miracle of sitcom predictability, Homer's surgery is a success. This period of facing his own mortality was still deeply traumatic for the whole family. You'd think it would be enough to get Homer to worry more about his health.
#3: Fell Down Springfield Gorge
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"Bart the Daredevil"
Bart’s obsession with daring stunts might have ended in the usual family sitcom manner. Sure enough, Homer prevents his son’s dangerous jump over Springfield Gorge by threatening to do it himself. But then, he loses control of Bart’s skateboard and makes the jump anyway. Since a moment of triumph would betray the cautionary tale, Homer then graphically plummets into the gorge. He takes another plunge when the ambulance crashes immediately after loading him. This was a watershed gag for “The Simpsons”. It showed just how far the animators will take physical comedy to make a point. Homer may have since endured harsher injuries, usually just for the joke. But his first big injury is still referenced as one of the show’s most shocking moments ever.
#2: Being Accused of Misdeeds
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"Homer Badman"
This episode was a triple threat: of its era, ahead of its time, and evergreen all at once. Homer drives the babysitter home after attending a candy trade show. As he removes a gummy stuck to her pants, she misconstrues the gesture as groping. Homer wakes up the next day to protestors accusing him of harassment. The steamy scandal quickly gains national attention, only getting worse when Homer does an interview that is selectively edited to make him look guilty. This whole Homeric debacle was pointedly a satire of the tabloid mass market journalism that was on the rise in the ‘90s. But it definitely resonates, though in a very different way, in our current cultural landscape.
#1: Abandoned by Mom
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"Mother Simpson"
Homer’s taken a lot of physical damage. But nothing compares to the emotional damage of losing his mother Mona. He thought she’d died when he was a kid, until it was revealed on the show that she’d actually been on the run as a radical environmentalist. This meant she could never stay in Springfield for long. Homer’s complicated feelings about the absentee Mona finally reached a head in this episode when she died. These traumas then manifested in several ways for Homer. It’s speculated by many fans that much of his reckless behavior is rooted in maternal abandonment issues. And that’s the rare sort of tragedy that not even “The Simpsons” can turn into a joke.
