"Homerpalooza" is the twenty-fourth and penultimate episode of the
seventh season of the American animated television series ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
''. It originally aired on the
Fox network
The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...
in the United States on May 19, 1996. In the episode,
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
is shocked to find classic rock is no longer considered cool. Hoping to earn "
street cred", he joins the Hullabalooza music festival as a carnival freak. The episode's title is a play on the
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...
music festival. It was the last ''Simpsons'' episode written by
Brent Forrester
Brent Forrester is an American writer and producer, who has written for 6 Emmy Award-winning television comedies. He wrote several episodes of the animated television sitcom ''The Simpsons'' between 1993 and 1997. He has worked as a writer on ''T ...
and the last one directed by
Wes Archer
Wes Archer is an American television animation director and storyboard artist.
Career
Archer was one of the original three animators (along with David Silverman and Bill Kopp) on ''The Simpsons'', Tracey Ullman shorts, and subsequently direct ...
(both Forrester and Archer left to work on ''
King of the Hill
''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired its original non-syndicated run from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, and centers on the Hills, an Am ...
'').
Peter Frampton
Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English musician and songwriter who was a member of the rock bands Humble Pie and the Herd. As a solo artist, he has released several albums, including his major breakthrough album, the live ...
and musical groups
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...
,
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. They have sold over 20 million albums worldwide and have multi-platinum and platinum albums. They are considered to be among the main progenitors of West Coast and 1990 ...
and
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamb ...
guest star as themselves.
Plot
After
Otto
Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity".
The name is recorded fro ...
destroys the school bus, Homer is forced to
carpool
Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves.
By having more people usi ...
several students to school. He is shocked to find all the kids hate the
classic rock
Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
he listens to. Homer realizes that music from his high school days is no longer considered cool after a
hipster at a record store derides it.
Hoping to impress them, Homer takes Bart and Lisa to the Hullabalooza music festival. Homer tries to act cool by wearing a
Rastafarian
Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control ...
hat, but an angry crowd of
Generation X
Generation X (or Gen X for short) is the Western world, Western demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1960s as starting birth years a ...
ers confronts him after mistaking him for a
narc. After being tossed out by the crowd, Homer angrily kicks a cannon, which shoots one of
Peter Frampton
Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English musician and songwriter who was a member of the rock bands Humble Pie and the Herd. As a solo artist, he has released several albums, including his major breakthrough album, the live ...
's
inflatable pigs at his stomach. The festival head is impressed by Homer's ability to absorb cannon fire and hires him for the festival's
freak show
A freak show, also known as a creep show, is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with ...
(played by the
Jim Rose Circus
The Jim Rose Circus is a modern-day version of a circus sideshow. It was founded in Seattle in 1991 by Jim Rose and his wife BeBe Aschard Rose. The sideshow came to prominence to an American audience as a second stage show at the 1992 Lollapaloo ...
), called the pageant of the transmundane.
Homer tours with the festival and parties with rap and rock stars —
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...
,
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. They have sold over 20 million albums worldwide and have multi-platinum and platinum albums. They are considered to be among the main progenitors of West Coast and 1990 ...
and
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamb ...
— while earning respect among young people, including Bart. As the tour approaches a stop in Springfield, Homer's stomach aches and he is sent to a veterinarian. The doctor informs Homer he will die if he takes another cannonball to his gut. Homer decides to perform his act one last time, but he dodges the cannonball at the last second. After a warm sendoff from the touring bands, Homer leaves the festival and loses his kids' respect for no longer being cool, which he embraces.
Production
The entire story of this episode was developed by
David Cohen, although it was written by
Brent Forrester
Brent Forrester is an American writer and producer, who has written for 6 Emmy Award-winning television comedies. He wrote several episodes of the animated television sitcom ''The Simpsons'' between 1993 and 1997. He has worked as a writer on ''T ...
,
[Homerpalooza](_blank)
''BBC.co.uk''. Retrieved on February 8, 2007 who felt that Cohen at least deserved a "story by" credit.
To do research for this episode, Forrester went to one of the Lollapalooza concerts, which he thought would be a fun little perk, but ended up being a horrible experience. Several of the jokes in this episode are based on his experiences: cameras were being seized and thrown in the garbage, there were numerous advertisements, several "sour faced teens", a real freak show (
Jim Rose Circus
The Jim Rose Circus is a modern-day version of a circus sideshow. It was founded in Seattle in 1991 by Jim Rose and his wife BeBe Aschard Rose. The sideshow came to prominence to an American audience as a second stage show at the 1992 Lollapaloo ...
), and at one point a stranger approached Forrester and asked, "how's it going,
narc?".
During Homer's confrontation with the Hullabalooza crowd, there is a brief shot of Homer with the members of the musical group
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California, formed in 1986. For most of their career, the band has consisted of vocalist Gwen Stefani, guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal, and drummer Adrian Young. Since the mid-1990s, they ...
behind him.
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Renée Stefani (; born October 3, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, fashion designer and actress. She is a co-founder, lead vocalist, and the primary songwriter of the band No Doubt, whose singles include "Just a Girl", "Spiderwebs ...
's brother
Eric Stefani
Eric Matthew Stefani (born June 17, 1967) is an American musician, composer, writer and animator best known as the founder and former member of the ska punk band No Doubt. He is the older brother of former bandmate Gwen Stefani and is also a forme ...
, who himself had been a member of the band, was working as an animator at ''The Simpsons'' at the time and added them in.
Casting
![SonicYouth](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/SonicYouth.JPG)
The writers were aiming to have artists that represented several genres:
hip hop (Cypress Hill),
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
(Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins), and a classic rock singer. Originally,
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
was sought for this role, but he was replaced by Peter Frampton.
Billy Corgan
William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the ...
impressed the production staff by doing strong impersonations of Homer and Marge, though it was decided to not have him use them in the episode.
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The band's lineup consists of founding members Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guita ...
was asked to appear in the episode but declined.
Originally,
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as t ...
and
Hole
A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...
were wanted for this episode, but they declined.
According to the DVD commentary, an unnamed group had said that if Courtney Love were in the episode, they would not be. An ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' article revealed that the group was Sonic Youth. It was thought that Love would appear in the episode because she had recently done a film with
James L. Brooks
James Lawrence Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is an American director, producer, screenwriter and co-founder of Gracie Films. His television and film work includes ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', ''Taxi'', ''The Simpsons'', '' Broadcast News'', ''As G ...
, but she never responded to the request. Love was wanted specifically for one joke which would be in an exchange between her and Homer:
Courtney Love: Hi Homer! I'm a big fan, Courtney Love.
Homer: Homer Grateful!
However, she did not appear and the joke was reworded for
Billy Corgan
William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the ...
of the Smashing Pumpkins:
Billy Corgan: Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins.
Homer: Homer Simpson, smiling politely.
Cultural references
The
flashback where Homer meets the guys in the van is based on the film ''
Dazed and Confused''.
Several of the scenes where Homer is hit with a cannonball are based on famous
stock footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...
of
Frank "Cannonball" Richards
Frank Anson Richards also known as Frank "Cannonball" Richards and Cannonball Richards (February 20, 1887February 7, 1969) was an American sideshow, carnival and vaudeville performer whose act involved taking heavy blows to his stomach.
Richard ...
being hit with a cannonball, as is the entire concept of a "cannonball catcher".
Otto's drug-induced hallucination of his "talking shoes" is based on the opening of the album version of the song "
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
" by
Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
.
Homer's walk in one scene parodies the walk in the ''
Keep on Truckin''' comic that was drawn by
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...
.
Reception
In its original broadcast, "Homerpalooza" finished 57th in ratings for the week of May 13–19, 1996, with a
Nielsen rating
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...
of 7.8, equivalent to approximately 7.5 million viewing households. It was the third highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following ''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...
'' and ''
Married... with Children''.
In 1998, ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
'' listed it in its list of top twelve ''Simpsons'' episodes.
The BBC website called the episode "One of the most memorable episodes, if not one of the greatest – the satire on youth counterculture is well handled, and Homer's flashback to his youth is fabulous."
and
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
said the episode was one of the best of season seven.
In 2019, ''
Consequence of Sound
''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...
'' ranked it the third greatest episode on its list of top 30 ''Simpsons'' episodes.
In a list of the 25 greatest guest voices on the show, released September 5, 2006, IGN ranked the Hullabalooza performers 23rd.
The
noise rock
Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...
version of the end credits performed by Sonic Youth has been ranked among the best versions of the theme by Matt Groening
and also by
Chris Turner in his book ''
Planet Simpson
''Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation'', also abbreviated to ''Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation'', is a non-fiction book about ''The Simpsons'', written by Chris Turner ...
''.
Bill Oakley has said that Peter Frampton is one of his favorite guest stars and he wished he could have done a TV show with him.
Alternatively, the Rover Hendrix act break joke has been called one of the worst jokes in ''The Simpsons'' history by the writers and producers.
In 2007, Simon Crerar of ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' listed the Smashing Pumpkins' and Cypress Hill's performances among the 33 funniest cameos in the history of the show.
Andrew Martin of Prefix Mag named Cypress Hill his sixth-favorite musical guests on ''The Simpsons'' out of a list of ten.
References
;Bibliography
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External links
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{{Good article
The Simpsons (season 7) episodes
Alternative rock
1996 American television episodes