Homerpalooza

"Homerpalooza"
The Simpsons episode
File:Homerpalooza.png
Episode no.	Season 7
Directed by	Wesley Archer
Written by	Brent Forrester
Original air dates	May 12, 1996
Episode features
Couch gag	The family enters in a black-light haze, lighting returns to normal when Homer turns on the lights.

"Homerpalooza" is the twenty-fourth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. The episode aired on May 19, 1996. The title is a play on the Lollapalooza Festival.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler After the school bus has an unscheduled field trip to the auto wrecking yard, Homer is forced to drive his (and other) kids to school. He decides to listen to some music and is shocked to discover that all of the kids hate it. After examining his fall from being cool, Homer decides to get tickets to the Hullabalooza festival to prove he's cool again. All he does, however, is humiliate himself and is confronted by an angry crowd of Generation Xers. As he's walking away dejectedly, he kicks a cannon out of anger and takes an inflatable pig (taken from Peter Frampton) to the stomach. He survives, and the festival hires him to be in their freakshow, being shot by cannonballs. Homer gets to go on tour with Billy Corgan and the rest of the Smashing Pumpkins as well as Cypress Hill, Sonic Youth and Peter Frampton. Homer is suddenly living the high life: partying with big name rockstars and becoming respected among the youth of America. The gig begins to ruin his health, though, and a vet advises him that if he does his act just one more time, his stomach will burst and he will die. Homer shrugs this off, not wanting to lose his popularity, but as the cannon is being loaded at his next performance, he has second thoughts and dives out of the way at the last second. He resumes his normal activities, and loses the respect of his children.

Trivia

• According to the DVD commentary, show runners Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein thought Peter Frampton was the best rocker/actor they had seen. They offered to do a tv show with Frampton, but, as of April 2006, it has not come to fruition.
• To do research for this episode, writer Brent Forrester went to one of the Lollapalooza concerts, which he describes as a horrible experience. Several of the jokes in this episode are based on his experiences: cameras (including his own) were literally being seized and thrown in the garbage, there were a tonne of advertisements and a random guy walked up to him and said "how's it going, narc?"
• The Simpsons writers were aiming to have a group from several different genres: a hip hop group (Cypress Hill), alternative & grunge groups (Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins) and a Classic Rock singer. Originally, Bob Dylan was sought to be in the episode, but he declined and instead the writers got Peter Frampton.
• Originally, Courtney Love was wanted for this episode but she declined. According to the DVD commentary, one of the groups had said that if Courtney Love was in the episode, they wouldn't be (Keeping in mind Corgan/Love's personal history, it was most likely the Smashing Pumpkins). Love was wanted specifically for one joke which would be in an exchange between her and Homer:
  • Courtney Love: Hi Homer! I'm a huge fan. Courtney Love.
  • Homer: Homer Grateful!

However, she did not appear and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was put in her place, changing the joke to:

• • Billy Corgan: Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins.
  • Homer: Homer Simpson, smiling politely.
• Sonic Youth play the grunge version of the End Credits, considered to be one of the best versions of the end credits. This is a good example of how The Simpsons tend to use the little known guest stars more than the famous ones. For example, U2, one of the most famous groups at the time, only played a small role in Trash of the Titans, but Sonic Youth in this episode are fairly prominent.
• The record store at the beginning is called "Suicide Notes (Formerly Good Vibrations)", a reference to interpretations that grunge music is depressing compared to music of the past. The Beach Boys's song Good Vibrations and Kurt Cobain's apparent suicide are perhaps direct inspirations.
• This episode aired on the same day as Summer of 4 Ft. 2, another episode that poked fun at Gen-Xers.
• At the Homer's confrontation with the Hullabalooza crowd, we see a brief show of Homer with the members of not-yet-very-famous No Doubt behind him. A relative of Gwen Stefani was working at The Simpsons at the time and he was the one who added them in.
• The Rover Hendrix act break joke has been called one of the worst jokes in Simpsons history by the writers and producers in the DVD commentary for this episode.

Cultural References

• This episode was based on the grunge/alternative/punk era of music of the 90's and it features the notable bands Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth. The Hullabalooza festival was based on the popular Lollapalooza music festival.
• Deep Purple made a record in 1969 called "Concerto for Group And Orchestra", featuring the London Symphony Orchestra, which occurs on this episode.
• The flashback scene where Homer tries to fit in with a group of guys in a van is similar to scenes from Dazed and Confused
• There are several Woodstock references in the episode, including Lisa noting that Hullabalooza was just like Woodstock, except "with security guards and ads everywhere."
• Among the many groups referenced/shown in this episode: Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Cypress Hill, Peter Frampton, Jimi Hendrix, Grand Funk Railroad, Led Zeppelin, ABBA, Nine Inch Nails, Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Airplane, The Alan Parsons Project, Styx, Pink Floyd, Bread, the London Symphony Orchestra, Guns N' Roses and Blue Öyster Cult
• Homers line "but all I really wanted was a club sandwich." is from the Guns N Roses album Appetite for Destruction.
• When Otto's shoes start talking what they say is a reference to the opening lines of 1999 by Prince

Quotes:

• Roadie: There goes Peter Frampton's big ending. He's gonna be pissed off.
  Frampton: You're damn right I'm pissed off! I bought that pig at Pink Floyd's yard sale!
• Roadie: Someone here ordered the London Symphony Orchestra, possibly while high. Cypress Hill, I'm looking in your direction.
• Frampton: Homer Simpson ruins my pig, Cypress Hill steals my orchestra, and now Sonic Youth is in my cooler. Get out of there, you kids!
• Cypress Hill: You guys know "Insane In The Brain?"
  Conductor: We mostly know classical music, but, eh, we could give it a shot.
• Bart: What religion are you?
  Homer: Oh, you know, the one with all those well-meaning rules that don't work in real life...Christianity.
• Marge: Cannons are designed to hurt! THEY'RE DESIGNED TO HURT!
  Lisa: Shhh! Mom, Dad needs our support!
• Teenager: (sarcastically) Oh look, the cannonball guy, he's cool.
  Another Teenager: Are you being sarcastic, dude?
  Teenager: I don't even know anymore.
• Burns: And to think, Smithers, you laughed when I bought Ticketmaster. (imitating Smithers) NOBODY'S going to pay a hundred-percent "service charge."
  Smithers: It's a policy that ensures a healthy mix of the rich and the ignorant, sir.
• Concert Manager: Homer, there's nothing worse than a yellow-bellied freak, unless... that's his act. I expect your resignation on my desk.
  Homer: You have a desk?
  Concert Manager: I mean the hood of my car.
• Concert Manager: "Homer, nothing's more important to me than the health and well-being of my freaks. I'm sending you to a vet."
• Homer: Die? Well, you don't scare me. I'm a rocker, and dying would be a stone groove. (cocky) Got a message for Jimi Hendrix?
  Doctor: Yes, pick up your puppy. (indicates an ancient hound-dog named "Rover Hendrix")
• Homer: So, I realized that being with my family is more important than being cool.
  Bart: (unimpressed) Dad, what you just said was powerfully uncool.
  Homer: You know what the song says: "It's hip to be square".
  Lisa: That song is so lame.
  Homer: So lame that it's... cool?
  Bart and Lisa: (dismissive) No.
  Marge: Am I cool, kids?
  Bart and Lisa: (dismissive) No.
  Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool, not caring, right?
  Bart and Lisa: (dismissive) No.
  Marge: (frustrated) Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried everything here.
  Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to be told you're cool.
  Bart: (puzzled, uncertain) Well, sure you do.
  Lisa: (bewildered) How else would you know?
  
• [Homer, in a record store, notices a poster for Hullabalooza.]
  Homer: Now, here are some of your no-name bands. Sonic Youth? Nine Inch Nails? Hullabalooza?
  Record Store Clerk: Hullabalooza is a music festival; the greatest music festival of all time.
  Homer: There can only be one truly great festival a lifetime and it's the Us festival.
  Record Store Clerk: The what festival?
  Homer: The Us festival. It was put on by that guy from Apple Computers.
  Record Store Clerk: What computers?
• Homer: I used to rock and roll all night and party ev-er-y day. Then it was every other day. Now I'm lucky if I can find half an hour a week in which to get funky.
• Grampa Simpson: I used to be with it, but then they changed what "it" was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me. It'll happen to you!
• Otto: (watching Frampton use a talkbox) Wow, his guitar is talking... hey my shoes are talking!

External links

• "Homerpalooza episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.