Homerazzi

"Homerazzi"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	Season 18
Directed by	Matthew Nastuk
Written by	J. Stewart Burns
Original air dates	March 25, 2007
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	Global Warming did not eat my homework.
Couch gag	Homer goes from prehistory to modern history as he evolves from a unicellular being to many animals until he finally evolves into a man. When Homer finally gets to the couch, Marge asks him, "What took you so long?" and Homer just sighs in exhaustion.

"Homerazzi" is the sixteenth episode of the eighteenth season of The Simpsons, which originally aired March 25, 2007. It was written by J. Stewart Burns, directed by Matthew Nastuk, and guest starred J.K. Simmons as the tabloid editor, Betty White as Herself, and Jon Lovitz as Enrico Irritazio. The full-length opening sequence and couch gag ran for over 2 minutes and 20 seconds, making it one of the longest in the history of the show.

Plot

After failing to blow out all the candles on his birthday cake, an exhausted Homer falls asleep, igniting his party hat on the flames. The burning house is saved by the Springfield fire department who inspire Marge to purchase a fire-proof safe to protect the family's valuables. Each family member puts one special item inside the safe, Marge choosing the family photo album; Homer, an old bottle of cologne; Lisa, an electric Malibu Stacy car; Bart, a Catch A Rising Krusty doll, which can walk as if he was doing a Stand-Up routine. When they lock the safe, Bart's doll was switched on, which walks into the car, turning on its headlights which heat the cologne and cause the safe to explode, destroying everything inside (which apparently, was what Homer naturally assumed had happened). Refusing to accept the loss of all their memories, Marge decides to re-stage all of the family's photographs, and when the family spot a celebrity dating scandal captured in the background of one of their photos, the Simpsons strike tabloid gold. Tasting success and seeing money to be made, Homer takes to the streets as one of the paparazzi.

Overnight, Homer becomes Springfield's most valued tabloid photographer, staging incriminating photographs of, amongst others, Drederick Tatum and Rich Texan's daughter, Paris Texan (a parody of Paris Hilton). After Homer gatecrashes Rainier Wolfcastle's wedding, the town's celebrities decide to seek revenge against Homer by having top paparazzo Enrico Irritazi follow him around taking humiliating pictures. After seeing his own behaviour published in a tabloid magazine, Homer gives up the paparazzi business until re-inspired by Moe to continue.

Bursting into a decadent celebrity nightspot, Homer takes a slew of compromising photos. Rainier Wolfcastle asks him how the celebrities can stop the photos from making the papers and Homer agrees not to publish them in exchange for them treating the public with more respect and not taking their fans for granted. Rainier invites the Simpsons to a BBQ party on his ship. Marge asks Rainier to look at a screenplay she wrote called "Mrs. Mom". Rainier says that he doesn't read unsolicited scripts, but then makes the film himself, crediting himself as the writer. Marge sighs that "Well, at least it got made." and walks off with Homer.

Casting

In the original Fox press release, Peter Wolf and Harry Hamlin were announced as guest stars for this episode. However, neither of them made an appearance in the broadcast version. This episode marks the return of several guest stars; it is the ninth appearance of Jon Lovitz and the second of J.K. Simmons and Betty White. J.K. Simmons had previously guest-starred in "Moe'N'a Lisa", playing another editor. In both episodes his character was a parody of his J. Jonah Jameson character from the Spider-Man films, though the one in this episode bears less of a physical resemblance to Jameson.

Cultural references

• The title is a portmanteau of Homer and paparazzi.
• The couch gag shows Homer in a parody of human evolution. The scenes beginning from the organisms until the extinction of the dinosaurs parody The Rite of Spring segment in the Disney movie Fantasia. Also, it may reference a Simpsons T-shirt design showing several evolutions of Homer, from a small monkey to a Neanderthal to an underwear-clad Homer. Both the monkey and Homer are eating a banana.
• The "Happy 1987" restaged picture shows Homer, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie as they were from the Tracey Ullman Show.
• The song playing in the nightclub is Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head".
• When the family re-enact the Star Trek: Voyager series finale party, Lenny is dressed as Seven of Nine and Dr. Hibbert is dressed as Tuvok.

Reception

Robert Canning praised this episode, calling it clever, ingenious, and one of the most memorable of the season. The episode scored a 9.0 on TV.com, an equivalent to a "superb" rating.

External links

• "Homerazzi" at TV.com