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This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2008) |
"Hungry, Hungry Homer" is the fifteenth episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons. It aired on March 4, 2001.
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Plot
The Simpson family visits Blockoland (a parody of Legoland), a theme park which is completely made of blocks. Lisa is ripped off when her Eiffel Tower kit has a missing Blocko piece. In response, Homer "sticks up for the little guy", and he gets Lisa the piece she needs. He also stands up for the little guy by helping Bart get a girlfriend for an upcoming school dance and helps Marge get two free hair streaks. Bart is also ripped off and doesn't like the Blocko shirt he bought. When he tries to help Lenny by getting him a refund on his tickets for the Springfield Isotopes, Homer encounters the Isotopes' owner Howard K. Duff VIII. The owner refuses to give Homer a refund but in his haste to leave, Homer enters a room and discovers evidence that the Isotopes are moving to Albuquerque. Duff insists that they are not moving and he has Duffman drug Homer to cover up the truth.
Homer is shocked and attempts to alert the media to the plan, but when Homer comes back with the press Duff had removed all traces of the evidence Homer found in the room. The journalists dismiss Homer's story and call him a liar. In response, Homer stages a hunger strike in which he chains himself to a pole near Duff Stadium in order to force the owners of the team to admit they are moving to Albuquerque. He attracts a great deal of attention so during the night the team decides to move him into the ballpark and exploit his popularity using the name "Hungry, Hungry Homer."
Eventually Homer becomes so thin and sickly that the team decides to get rid of him, replacing him with a man who drinks a bucket of paint but falls down twitching doing so. In a public ceremony, the team's owner unchains him and offers him a free hot dog. Homer realizes the hot dog is topped with Southwestern ingredients, proving the team is really moving to Albuquerque. The crowd then takes notice that the hot dogs are even wrapped with "Albuquerque Isotopes" paper and are enraged. Howard tries to continue his denials but even Duffman turns against him. Homer's hunger strike is over as he celebrates under a shower of food thrown by the cheering fans, praising him as a hero (catching all the food in his mouth as well).
As a result of Homer exposing the scheme, the mayor of Albuquerque decides to abandon his plan to steal the Isotopes and instead plans to purchase the Dallas Cowboys and make them play baseball because, as he menacingly says in the final shot of the episode, "for I am the MAYOR OF ALBUQUERQUE!". (This final scene is generally cut in U.S. syndication.)
Cultural references
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This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009) |
The title is a parody of the board game Hungry Hungry Hippos. Coincidentally, the pink hippopotamus in the game is named "Homer." Blocko is a parody of Lego, with Bart even implying as much. The hair salon they visit is called "Hairy Shearers," a reference to Harry Shearer a regular Simpsons cast member who plays many recurring characters on the show. Also, Bart saying "good grief" while Homer is on the dog house is a reference to Peanuts.
Legacy
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This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009) |
This episode inspired the name of the real-life Albuquerque Isotopes minor-league baseball team.
This episode has also introduced a new word to the English Language according to the Collins English Dictionary: meh (used here as an interjection expressing boredom or indifference, but can also be an adjective describing something boring or mediocre).
External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: "Hungry, Hungry Homer" |
- "Hungry, Hungry Homer" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "Hungry, Hungry Homer" at the Internet Movie Database
- 'Meh': new word for indifference enters English dictionary ([1])
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