Dr. Homer's Miracle Spine-O-Cylinder is one of
Homer's shotty inventions. It is seen in the episode "
Pokey Mom" It is essentially a trash can that
Homer fell backwards onto after he and Bart share a high-five in the backyard.
Homer was raking at the time, and he was complaining about his back, which had been injured at a prison rodeo earlier on. After Homer fell on the trash can the can had dents along the side, which, according to
Homer in his sales pitch he makes to the family about his new invention, "Perfectly match the contours of the human verti-brains." (
Homer meant to say vertebrae, but this was an obvious joke.)
Homer makes it clear to everyone in the family, and also a convict who happened to be staying in the house, the his invention was "Patent Pending." Homer goes on to use this contraption in his garage, posing as a chiropractor. He succeeds in fixing Lenny's sciatica, pushing
Dr. Frink over the trash can even though he was only there because his car had broken down, and fixing
Moe's back.
Moe says that now his back is fixed, he can "focus on all his crippling emotional pain."
Springfield's chiropractors soon come, after warning Homer to stop using his Spine-O-Cylinder, and they proceed to throw the trash can out of the garage door, limbo under the garage door as it is closing (which makes
Moe and
Homer aware of the fact that they are chiropractors), and smashing the trash can with a couple of (presumably fake) human spines in the back of a truck. While Homer is grieving over his Spine-O-Cylinder in the middle of the street,
Moe says to Homer, "Forget it
Homer, it's Chiro-Town." This is a reference to the Roman Polanski movie, "Chinatown."
