The Homer They Fall
"The Homer They Fall"
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Episode Information
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"The Homer They Fall" is the third episode in the eighth season of The Simpsons. The title is named after the phrase "The bigger they are, the harder they fall".
Synopsis
In a store, the Simpsons family look around for things they want to buy. While there, Comic Book Guy could not return his small-sized gimmicky belt because he does not have his proof of purchase. Bart obtains it from him for $4. He shows off its features at his classmates until he is chased and beaten by Springfield Elementary School bullies and the belt is stolen. In response, Homer meets with the bullies' parents at Moe's Tavern but is also beaten. Despite the force used against Homer, he does not fall, and the bartender Moe is sufficiently impressed to arrange a boxing career for Homer. Homer can only do weak punches. So Moe decides what he should do is push his opponent on the ring over when the opponent gets exhausted of trying to knock him down. The obese Homer does well, mostly facing underfed hobo opponents who cannot force Homer to fall. Homer, at every match, follows Moe's advice. Somewhere in the episode we see that Moe used to be a boxer. His former boxing manager, puts the strategy in jeopardy by arranging a match between Homer and the physically powerful Drederick Tatum (a Mike Tyson parody). Despite a promise to Marge to stop the fight if Homer's life is endangered, Moe is prepared to have Homer endure three rounds. However, just seconds into the fight, it is clear that Homer is going to get killed. Homer can handle Tatum's punches for only a few seconds. Homer decides to punch his opponent but misses his aim, then just about Tatum is about to knock Homer down off, Moe airlifts the badly-beaten boxer from the ring using Fan Man's paramotor. Moe, still with the paramotor, flies off to save people from natural disasters mainly from India. We see these actions as the credits roll.
Trivia
- Paul Winfield played the real Don King in HBO's 1995 biopic Tyson.
- The announcer is played by legendary boxing ring announcer Michael Buffer.
- The ring announcer announces Fat Tony as "Anthony 'Fat Tony' D'Amico", however, in "Bart the Murderer", his name was given as "William 'Fat Tony' Williams."
- Above the boxing ring there is an advertisement for the Assassin shoes that Homer buys in the earlier episode "Bart's Dog Gets an F".
- Moe says that no women have been to his bar since 1979, yet in Flaming Moe's he hires a female waitress.
- The match referee is obviously based on veteran boxing referee Mills Lane.
- In Moe's "office", there is a poster featuring Moe Szyslak vs Bill Oakley (One of the executive producers for the epidose), and Mark Kirkland vs David Silverman (both are animators on The Simpsons)
Cultural references
- The Homer v. Tatum bout is a reference to the film Rocky, where a local champion faces the heavyweight champion.
- The title of this episode alludes to the 1956 movie The Harder They Fall, the last film starring Humphrey Bogart. Its plot is the main inspiration for "The Homer They Fall". Bogart plays a washed up, cynical sports writer who agrees to lend his services to a criminal boxing promoter (played by Rod Steiger) by writing stories that make a star out of an untalented, naive Latino boxer whose fights - unbeknownst to him - are all fixed. When that system doesn't work any more and the boxer is about to be thrashed for good in what would surely be his last fight, Bogart's conscience reawakes. He helps the boxer escape to his home country of Argentina before the gangsters can take back all the money he won in his short-lived career. Moe's role in this Simpson's episode is in fact a combination of the roles played by Steiger and Bogart in the movie.
- The character of Drederick Tatum is based on real life boxer Mike Tyson and his many run-ins with the law. Just before the fight with Homer, Drederick is seen walking to the ring with a group of shady looking characters walking behind him. This is also based on a real-life photo of Tyson.
- The character of Lucius Sweet is an obvious parody of Don King, a vicious boxing promoter. Homer even points this out with the line "He's one of the biggest names in boxing! He's exactly as rich and as famous as Don King, and he looks just like him, too!" King was also the manager for Mike Tyson.
- It is possible that Homer's "take punches until they're tired, then finish them off" is based on Muhammad Ali's Rope-a-dope tactic.
- The montage of Homer's victories mid-episode spoofs Raging Bull. Some controversy has arisen about what song is exactly played during Homer's montage. DVD commentary of the episode has attributed the song to an original Alf Clausen composition. Some people alternatively have stated that it is "The Flower Duet" from Delibes' opera Lakme. However, there is no passage in "The Flower Duet" song that convincingly matches up with the boxing montage scene but it can be said that the song is done in the style and semblance of "The Flower Duet." The song can also be a reference to Yanni's song Aria, based off the music of Lakme, and which was popular around this time due to its heavy usage in British Airways advertisements.
- A lot of the training sequences are based on the movie Rocky, including Homer running alongside Moe, Marge asking Moe not to let Homer fight and the line "You will always be a loser".
- At one point in the episode, the screen freezes and turns to a black and white view of one of Homer's boxing opponents falling out of the ring. This scene is a parody of the 1924 painting Dempsey and Firpo by George Bellows.
- Drederick Tatum's theme song is "Time 4 Sum Aksion" by Redman. It is the same song chosen by Mike Tyson for his first fight upon his prison release.
- Homer's theme song is Why Can't We Be Friends?" by War. He also comes in wearing a robe labeled "Opponent".
- The closing song is "People" sung by Sally Stevens.
