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"Deep Space Homer" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons' fifth season. It is also the source of the Overlord meme.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler At work, Homer and all employees are ordered to participate in the Worker of the Week award festivities. Everyone who participates, except Homer, already has a medal, but Mr. Burns gives the next Worker of the Week award to an Inanimate Carbon Rod. Homer is infuriated that the rod wins the award, and feels dejected that no one likes him. He turns to the TV for solace and ends up on a channel that is broadcasting a live space shuttle launch. The batteries fall out of his remote control so that he cannot turn off the TV. Bart helps him out by unplugging the TV.

NASA learns that its Nielsen ratings have declined. Concerned about declining popularity, they decide to send an "average Joe" into space. Their rationale is that the public is tired of seeing "clean-cut, athletic go-getters". They turn on the TV and come across a pair of blue collar comedy programs. Homer telephones NASA to complain about the "boring space shuttle launches". By the end of the conversation, the NASA researchers determine they have found their man. But when they arrive at Moe's, Homer thinks he is in trouble and blames Barney for making the prank call. When Homer realizes what NASA's proposal entails, he steps in and takes credit for the call.

NASA takes both Homer and Barney to Cape Canaveral to train to become an astronaut. They pit the two in competition against one another as they can only take one to space. With a NASA alcohol ban, the training goes well for Barney (he even does a backflip and sings the opening lines of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Major General's Song"), but the future is grim for Homer when he learns that Barney has been chosen to go on board with Buzz Aldrin and the fictional astronaut Race Banyon. However, when Barney has a toast with the people at NASA, he drinks what he thinks is champagne, then goes berserk and fastens himself to a jet pack. After taking off, Barney's jet pack fails, and he bounces off a roof and onto the road, where he is run over by a truck. The champagne Barney drinks turns out to be non-alcoholic. A scientist declares Homer the default winner of the competition, and he goes up into space with the two other astronauts.

In spite of Homer being chosen to go into space, he is very nervous about going. He runs from the space shuttle and talks with Marge on the phone, and she says that Homer ought to take advantage of going into space. He agrees, and gets into the Corvair space shuttle, with its name a reference to the car that was widely considered to be unsafe. The launch is also a Nielsen ratings smash. When on the shuttle, Homer smuggles potato chips ("Careful! They're ruffled.") on board. He opens the bag, but is unaware that they will clog the instruments. His appetite seems to save the day as he flies after the chips, maw first, but he flies into an ant farm, destroying it, sowing panic across the world as the ants are set free.

Although James Taylor comes in to make a performance, the disaster continues on board, with Kent Brockman reporting that the space shuttle has been taken over by the ants. The ants destroy the navigation system. Luckily, James Taylor offers to help, by suggesting that they blow the debris out the front door. The astronauts do, but Homer breaks the shuttle's door handle. However, he uses a rod broken from the shuttle to seal the door shut. They return to Earth, landing at a journalist convention.

Although Buzz Aldrin declares Homer the hero, the press see the rod as being a hero. The rod is then featured on magazine covers and is given its own ticker-tape parade. Back at home, Homer is disappointed that he did not get as much respect as the rod, but the family honors him for his achievement, saying that Homer is only one of a handful of people who get to go into space.

Template:Endspoiler

Trivia

• The two blue collar TV shows the people at NASA watch are Home Improvement and Married... with Children.
• Homer opening a packet of potato chips in space has a possibly coincidental similarity to an incident on the Gemini 3 spaceflight when John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich onboard. He and his crewmate Virgil Grissom each took a few bites, but were reprimanded for it after returning to Earth, as the crumbs could have damaged the electronics. However, onboard modern space shuttles it is safe to bring such things onboard as they mostly drift up to the filter eventually and do not damage the equipment.
• This episode was featured in the film Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, directed by David Mirkin, who also wrote this episode.
• According to the DVD commentary, NASA loved the episode, and astronaut Edward Lu asked for a copy of it to be sent on a supply ship to the International Space Station. The DVD remains there for astronauts to view.
• The NASA "Worm Logo" is used in different scenes of the episode instead of using the traditional "MeatBall" logo.
• There is a Popeye parody when Homer is in the centrifuge. His chin looks bigger, and he says "I can't stands no more".
• There is another joke in the shuttle at blast-off. When they are heading up Homer's face morphs into Richard Nixon's. On the DVD commentary, Matt Groening states that he does not like this joke.

Cultural references

• The episode's title is a reference to Deep Space Nine.
• Homer and Barney's duel (cut in syndication) is a reference to the classic Star Trek episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion", complete with Star Trek's fight music and the NASA administrator betting "quatloos on the newcomer."
• The space shuttle is called "Space Shuttle Corvair", after the ill-fated Chevrolet Corvair.
• There are several references in this episode to Stanley Kubrick´s film 2001: A Space Odyssey:
  • The scene when Homer eats the potato chips echoes the opening space scene, with both the music and spinning chip.
  • The Itchy & Scratchy cartoon, Itchy comes out to pick Scratchy´s "corpse" (recreating the scene from the movie) in a capsule much like the ones in the film.
  • At the end of the episode, Homer appears as an embryonic form floating in outer space, echoing the end of 2001.
• The fictional astronaut "Race Banyon" (and his appearance) is a clear homage to Race Bannon of Jonny Quest.

Quotes

• Reporter #1: (reporting on a space launch) Unbelievable, and just imagine the logistics of weightlessness. And of course, this could have literally millions of applications here on Earth -- everything from watchmaking to watch repair.
  Homer: Boring. (tries to switch channels, but the batteries drop out of the remote) No! The batteries!
  Reporter #1: Now let's look at the crew a little.
  Reporter #2: They are a colorful bunch. They've been dubbed “The Three Musketeers". (calm chuckle)
  Reporter #1: And we laugh legitimately. There's a mathematician, a different kind of mathematician, and a statistician.
  Homer: Make it stop!

• NASA worker #1: People, we're in danger of losing our funding. America isn't interested in space exploration any more.
  NASA worker #2: Maybe we should finally tell them the big secret... that all the chimps we sent into space came back super-intelligent.
  Super-intelligent Chimp: No, I don't think we'll be telling them that. (he leaves the room on roller skates)

• Ant #1: (when the ants' on-shuttle environment is endangered) Protect the queen!
  Ant #2: Which one's the queen?
  Ant #3: I'm the queen!
  Ant #1: No you're not!
  Homer: Noooo!!
  Ant #1: (after the environment is destroyed and the ants fly through the shuttle) Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!

• Kent Brockman: Ladies and gentlemen, uh, we've just lost the picture, but what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has apparently been taken over, 'conquered' if you will, by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive Earthmen or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.

• Reporter: Don't you think there is an inherent danger in sending underqualified civilians into space?
  Homer: I'll field this one. The only danger is if they send us to that terrible Planet of the Apes. (thinking) Wait a minute...Statue of Liberty...that was our planet! (à la Charlton Heston) You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!

• Announcer: (after an extremely violent Itchy and Scratchy episode) The preceding program contained scenes of extreme violence and should not have been viewed by young children.

• James Taylor: Sweet dreams and flying machines... flying safely through the air.

• James Taylor: Listen Aldrin; I'm not as laid back as people think. Now here's the deal: I'm going to play, and you're going to float there and like it.

• James Taylor: Ants, huh? We had quite a severe ant problem at the vineyard this year. I had Art Garfunkel come by with his compressor, and we created a total vacuum outside the house, and we blew the ants out the front door. But I'm sure you high-tech NASA people could care less about our resort-town ways.

• Bart: Wow, my father an astronaut. I feel so full of...what's the opposite of shame?
  Marge: Pride?
  Bart: No, not that far from shame.
  Homer: Less shame?
  Bart: Yeaaaaah...

• Homer: I must have the right....what's that stuff?

• Tim Taylor (Tim Allen): I did it! I supercharged my riding mower. Ruff, ruff, ruff! (Accidentally hits the reverse pedal, breaks through a fence and runs over his neighbour Wilson). Oh no! I've killed Wilson! (sighs) Looks like it's back to jail for me. Ruff, ruff, ruff...

• Homer: Hey, guys, look what I smuggled aboard!
  Buzz Aldrin: Homer, no! (Homer opens the bag of potato chips)
  Race: They'll clog the instruments!
  Buzz Aldrin: Careful, they're ruffled.
  

• Buzz Aldrin: Second comes right after first

External links

• "Deep Space Homer episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.

• The Simpsons episodes, season 5