Three Gays of the Condo
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| The Simpsons episode | |
| "Three Gays of the Condo" | |
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| Episode no. | 308 |
| Prod. code | EABF12 |
| Orig. Airdate | April 13, 2003 |
| Written by | Matt Warburton |
| Directed by | Mark Kirkland |
| Chalkboard | None |
| Couch gag | The family is dropped into hot oil, deep fried, dropped onto the couch, and salted |
| Guest star | Ben Schatz as Himself, Scott Thompson as Grady, "Weird Al" Yankovic as Himself |
| SNPP capsule | |
| Season 14 November 3, 2002 – May 18, 2003 |
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| List of all Simpsons episodes... | |
"Three Gays of the Condo" is an Emmy Award-winning episode from the fourteenth season of The Simpsons that aired April 13, 2003.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Marge gets the Simpsons an "Oprah's Puzzle Club" jigsaw puzzle as part of Simpsons Family Wednesdays. Unfortunately, the box says "Suitable for ages from 8 to 80", which Grampa takes exception to and leaves in a huff, holding Maggie. When they turn out the box's contents, they find thousands of pieces (with a few still stuck inside the box). Bart tries to bail out, but when Milhouse shows up with a rock polisher, he blows him off and stays at home to help with the jigsaw puzzle. The Simpsons make slow but steady progress with the puzzle. They soon get extremely interested in it. Bart even takes some pieces with him to school, in his lunch box. Lenny and Carl come over to the Simpsons' home to inquire about Homer's absence from work for the last few days, wondering whether he has taken up another job... again! Homer, so obsessed with the jigsaw puzzle, imagines Lenny as being made of jigsaw and tries to add him to the puzzle, causing a bit of pain to his much-suffering eye.
But the day finally arrives when they finish the jigsaw puzzle. As they admire it in their garden, Ned Flanders points out that there is one piece missing. The family, frustrated at not having completed the puzzle as yet, start searching for the piece. Bart finds their old gerbil (which they thought had run away) under the sofa cushions and crosses himself solemnly. Homer, searching through their closet, finds a box, named "Marge's Memory Chest". On opening it, he finds a visiting card he made for Marge, an old T-shirt she wore to the Rolling Stones' "last concert ever" and an invitation card to the opening of Moe's Tavern, (when they had just started going out) which has some writing on the back. Homer, on reading the note, discovers that Marge wasn't too happy about going to Moe's and sitting alone, while Homer played videogames and drank himself silly. When Homer got alcohol poisoning that day, she felt even more angry. In the present, Homer wonders why Marge stayed with him all this time and finds out that two days after his alcohol poisoning, she was pregnant. Marge enters the room after finding the missing jigsaw piece and sees Homer looking rather unhappy. She asks what the matter is and he confronts her with the note. She tells him that she was mad then and now she loves him, although sometimes he does aggravate her. Angrily, he refuses to sleep in the same bed with her and shacks up with Bart. While Homer cries himself to sleep, Bart tries hard to ignore it.
The next morning, Homer gets even madder with Marge and packs up and leaves home. He stays with Milhouse's dad, Kirk in Bachelor Arms' Apartments. But listening to separated and lonely men cry and howl depresses him and he wonders whether he should move back home. Then he sees a newspaper dispenser and takes one, and finds a room on the river for a reasonable rent. It's perfect for him so he decides to take it. The next day, he unwittingly travels into Springfield's gay district. He even sees Waylon Smithers, wearing a bright red tank top and bright blue shorts, roller-skating towards him. When Smithers sees Homer, he feigns ignorance of the gaiety in the place they are in, though a tramful of gay men greet him, much to his embarrassment. Homer meets his new roommates, Grady and Julio, who are themselves gay, and becomes good friends with them and starts to hang out with them. They take him out to different places which they frequent. They even buy a tight black T-shirt for him, though they need to use a girdle to prevent his huge belly from popping out. Later, when Homer visits Marge, their meeting is rather icy and the family notices Homer's newly-acquired mannerisms and the fact that his hands (which he uses to strangle Bart) are quite smooth, thanks to a new lotion. That night, at the local gay bar, Homer tells Grady and Julio that his chances for reconciliation are quite low. They invite him to dance and he does, quite playfully, taking off his shirt and bouncing around, much to the delight of the men, not so much the women,
The next day, at his new apartment, he hears a sound outside and when he goes to the balcony, he sees Marge and the kids. Around them is a band headed by "Weird Al" Yankovic, who sings a song "Homer and Marge" (spoofing John Mellencamp's song "Jack and Diane"), to tell Homer that Marge loves him very much. Marge then asks Homer out on a date, to which he agrees. That night, at his apartment, Homer gets ready for the date and seems nervous, so his roommates bring out a pitcher of margarita (which sounds like "Marge", so he takes it as a sign to drink). Meanwhile, at the medieval-styled restaurant, Marge anxiously awaits Homer. Julio reminds Homer of his date and Homer runs to meet Marge. He shows up drunk as a skunk, and Marge, angry at his drunkenness, gets mad and leaves. At the apartment, Grady tries to console Homer and slowly starts to come on to him. When he kisses Homer, he bolts out the window and runs to Moe's. There he wonders aloud whether he should give up drinking, considering that alcohol is to blame for all his relationship problems. Moe hears this epiphany and, unwilling to lose a regular customer, shoves a bottle of beer into Homer's mouth and forces him to drink "his medicine". Homer suffers alcohol poisoning and Moe wheels him to the hospital in a shopping cart and leaves him there and nearly gets caught by the cops, but blames another bar for the poisoning.
After Homer is cured, he tells Dr. Hibbert that Marge must hate him. But Hibbert shows him a videotape (which he made because he thought that his nurse was stealing his sponges). The tape is of Homer's first alcohol poisoning. In it, Marge is feeling really sorry for Homer (who is unconscious) and says that she loves him. Back in the present, Marge comes inside the hospital room and says that she still loves Homer and they kiss.
Years later, a much older Hibbert is sitting in his den alone and feeling sorry for himself. All he has are videotapes of his patients. He is watching Homer and Marge kiss, when suddenly he sees that his nurse was, in fact, stealing his sponges.
[edit] Trivia
- The character Grady is voiced by the openly gay comedian/actor Scott Thompson, who is most famous for being a member of the Canadian sketch comedy troupe The Kids In The Hall.
- This episode refers to former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani who moved in with an interracial gay couple during his marital problems and eventual divorce.
- This episode was rated TV-14-D, the fourth time for an episode of The Simpsons.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic also sings over the end credits. The song was said to be a track on his album Poodle Hat, but this turned out not to be true. Poodle Hat was recorded between March 2002 and March 2003 and was released on May 20, 2003.
- The song being used while the gay men take Homer shopping is "West End Girls" by Pet Shop Boys.
- At the Bachelor Arms, there is a sign that says "3 Days Without a Suicide". A gunshot is heard and the sign goes from 3 to 0.
- The original script called for Harvey Fierstein to reprise his role as Karl, Homer's secretary from "Simpson and Delilah", but Fierstein publicly denounced the script as being homophobic and the script was revised. Despite protests from Fierstein, few gay rights activists found the aired episode to be homophobic.
- Homer still has jackets saying "Mr. Plow" and "Pin Pals" in his closet. This is in fact a goof, as Homer's "Pin Pals" shirt had been sold to a thrift store the last time his homophobia came up.
- Homer says that he sent a song called "Another One Bites the Crust" to "Weird Al", presumably as a parody of "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen. "Weird Al" seems unimpressed by Homer's idea, perhaps because he has already has done a parody of "Another One Bites the Dust", entitled "Another One Rides the Bus". It is also noted that in real life, "Weird Al" does not take parody ideas from fans and refers them to the Dr. Demento show.
- "I despise the Springfield Shopper... all the headlines are jokes" is a reference to the running gag of showing clips of comical headlines from the local newspaper.
[edit] Cultural references
- The "Homer and Marge" song that "Weird Al" sings is a parody of the song "Jack and Diane" by John Mellencamp.
- Dr. Hibbert's hair style on the videotape Homer watches is a reference to 80s pop musician, Ranking Roger.
- The restaurant Homer and Marge go to is an obvious parody of Medieval Times
- The episode's name is derived from the 1975 film Three Days of the Condor.
- While searching for a puzzle piece in a coat closet, Homer says, "Puzzle piece, come out to play..." in reference to the 1979 film The Warriors.
- Homer refers to Maggie as Silent Bob.
[edit] Awards
- Won the Emmy Award in 2003 for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour).
