Episode 5 - Dancin Homer
4 June 2010
Synopsis: On a company trip to the baseball game Homer gets tired of his towns lack of spirit. He begins dancing to inspire greater support for the beleaguered Isotopes and when they win he becomes the team's official mascot. Soon the big leagues come calling and he moves his family out to Capitol City to become their new mascot.
The Good: Another pretty straight story about Homer getting his fifteen minutes of fame but ultimately returning to his small town life.
Along the way the parodies and satire begin to creep through. Bleeding Gums Murphy gives an epic performance of the Star Spangled Banner mocking the endless elongations which some singers put in to the national anthem to make their rendition unique. Once in the big stadium the announcer comments "we got great weather here tonight under the dome" while Marge is seated not with the players' wives but their ex-wives (who have their own section).
The Simpson family have quite a range of reactions to the upheaval. We discover Lisa's unpopularity when she tells some of her classmates "I can't help but feel that if we had gotten to know each other better my leaving would actually have meant something." The night before his first game Homer comments "We would talk about it always, the first time in our lives Marge fell asleep before I did." Then just before the game he notices that Bart had gone quiet "later he explained that he was confused by feelings of respect for me, it wouldn't last." The format of having Homer telling the story to his friends back in the bar produced several good lines like that one (see Best Joke).
The Simpsons nameless state now gets a Capital City, named appropriately enough Capital City. The parallels with New York are made apparent as the city gets its own familiar sounding song sung by Tony Bennett.
It's interesting to note that Lisa argues strongly against leaving Springfield and then later against leaving Capital City. She doesn't have a clear identity yet and the writers seem to be playing with her ability to change emotional direction quickly.
The Bad: We have seen so many interactions between Mr Burns and Homer in such a short space of time that it's becoming harder to accept his continual lack of knowledge of Homer. If these instances were spaced out better it would work just fine.
The story is a bit of a downer and doesn't seem to have any satirical point. The story just is that Homer's entertaining dancing didn't work in the big city. I don't suppose it's necessarily bad to tell such a downbeat but realistic story, it's just slightly odd.
Best Joke: Marge, Bart and Lisa are terrifically supportive and loving toward Homer after his failure. As Homer recounts the story he says "My wife and kids stood by me. On the way home I realised how little that helped."
The Bottom Line: A downbeat but entertaining tale of Homer's pipe dream failing to be realised.
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