R&R: Homer Vs. Dignity

[Generic]

I've never found the panda rape scene funny but honestly I wasn't that grossed out by it either. It was a bit much but it was at least left to the imagination and presumably Homer wasn't actually raped; considering he was in the panda suit, it might as well have been a dog humping his leg. Well, not quite, but it would have been about the same level of involvement on his part.

In the end, they went a long way to drive home the point that Homer was sacrificing his dignity in order to make more money only to reclaim it at the end but it had its moments. The "Lenny gets something he shouldn't in his eye" gag has been done to death but back then it was still kind of fresh, I like the randomness of Burns being appalled at Homer throwing something at Carl but not Lenny or anyone else, silly as it may be. A bit much in places but otherwise alright. It tends to get lost in the shuffle for me, neither one I love or hate.

[Whip-Smart]

Has some funny moments but why would homer leave burns on the float at the end I hate that. C-

[sYnTheTic1-]

gave it a 2/5 the begining was strong but the panda rape thing completely ruined it.

[Jesse Pinkman]

3/5, it was good but fell apart during... well, u know

[The Robot Devil]

2/5. No I'm not just giving it a low rating because of the rape and baby need to boom boom parts. Also because it is a sequel to "Homer the Smithers". Smithers takes a vacation and Homer takes over as his assistant. This time he is his "Prank Monkey" and he preforms funny acts (funny as in funny for Burns) to gain easy money.

Wow. This episode is so terrible I almost hate it more than "Saddlesore".

[Nauru-1]

I'm fine with this episode. It takes much more than one controversial scene to bother me (though I'm not saying you can't dislike the episode for other reasons). I'm just not bothered by it, and other aspects are okay enough for me to give this a 3/5.

[Jims]

I'm going to admit it now. I watched the episode recently and I laughed at the panda rape joke.

It's weird watching such a famous scene (among us nerds) and just knowing that it's coming beforehand. The moment they cut to the new scene and you saw those panda ice cream cones, I thought, "Oh no, it's coming." And then when Homer is dragged away screaming, I'm still a little surprised it happened. And I was laughing my butt off. I just couldn't believe that the show just had a bull panda rape Homer in a panda suit. I'm just dumbstruck that The Simpsons did that joke.

Which is weird, because I'm not into shock humor at all. I cringed sitting through some of the scenes in Borat.

There were some funny jokes too. I enjoyed the pudding scene, with the goofy Lenny eye joke and the double-standard with Carl. And a lot of the pranks were kinda funny overall, except for the "baby boom-boom" one, which was really cringeworthy. The scene with Smithers in the Malibu Stacy musical was pretty funny too. If someone did make a stupid musical about Barbie, that is the kind of song they'd write.

The worst part of the episode is definitely the parade ending, which is one of the dumbest ending I'd ever seen. First of all, I don't completely buy the Burns transformation into a sole prankster. It seemed like Burns is the kind of person who would rather make other people do stuff, not him do it himself. But that's nitpicky.

So he tries to bribe Homer again with a million dollars. And it appears he took it, as everyone gets splattered by fish guts. But, wait! Homer didn't do it after all! He has his morals! He didn't even try to stop Burns from doing it, he just got out of his way and let evil happen! That's the moral of the episode!

Stand aside in silent assent, kids! Everyone will love and respect you.

A surprising 3/5. Some funny jokes with a couple really cringe-worthy scenes and one of the dumbest Simpsons endings ever.

[The Governor]

The laughs I had were more of the "WTF? This if funny...HOW!?".

2/5

[bartyboy]

I hardly ever give an episode 1/5, but here we are. 1/5

[Nauru-1]

Watched it again and what I said before remains. In fact, I don't think the panda is all that bad and extremely overblown. In fact it's probably less gruesome than some other jokes in the series because it leaves most of it to the imagination. We also get Homer having a soul of some sort in this one and that's certainly a little refreshing.

[Sycophantic German]

In fact, I don't think the panda is all that bad and extremely overblown. In fact it's probably less gruesome than some other jokes in the series because it leaves most of it to the imagination.

Yeah, I personally thought that muscle-Marge raping Homer in "Strong Arms Of The Ma" was worse.

My main gripe with "Homer Vs. Dignity" is that Mr. Burns is very OOC. Over than that, I enjoy it. 3/5

[ehsteve14]

It's always a bad sign when I remember my younger, middle-school aged self not liking an episode, and I seem to remember not really liking it. Not a fan of panda-rape or "baby made a boom-boom". If there's anything really redeemable, I've long since forgotten it. 1/5

[mmm...forum]

it started out okay and then got worse with each degrading thing that Homer did.
the controversial panda rape thing actually makes me laugh for some reason because of the setup but I still don't care for this episode.

D-

[Tom_Foxer]

I agree with some others that there is something slightly funny about the way the panda scene is staged to me. Still, its among the most awful jokes in the show's history... though, I don't think Homer is actually raped. Without getting too technical, the costume seems to be in tact afterward (though I haven't seen the ep in while and could be mistaken).

Overall, though, this episode is just pretty bad and degrading. Burns and Homer are both out of character to varying degrees (I've never understood why the fish guts are crossing the line for Homer... the same guy who nearly beat the Estonian Dwarf to death for no reason. Homer's morality may fluctuate, but ... he turns down a million dollars?)... the opening scenes effectively display the family's poverty, but its not particularly entertaining... "Baby made a boom-boom!" is my personal least favorite moment in the series... and the fish guts thing is just so stupid it kind of makes me wish they'd left the plot unfinished like they so frequently do a decade later.

I actually like some of the more bizarre episodes from the late Scully era. Not all the ideas are great but I appreciate that the writers were willing to experiment. Unfortunately, this one is just nasty and mean-spirited.

[cloneasaurus]

Super hit and miss.

I found the beginning in the restaurant pretty funny, if random. I also (shamefully?) found Homer throwing all his cards and then running to be amusing, not to mention the "Financial Panther" scene, which was great. Another great gag was Carl's "conquer" line.

Then it bombs for the second act, which is loitered with extreme pranks devised by an uncharacteristically sadistic Mr Burns, including the infamous "panda rape" scene, which was bad, but I didn't find it that terrible. It then gets better when Lisa comes in to the story, as this added some conflict, but then there's that ending with the fish guts which had no laughs and just took away from the whole 'sweetness' of the episode, even if Homer did 'keep' his dignity. It's a shame because the whole premise actually sounded quite good, but it's executed in a particularly dumbed down Scullyish manner.

As a result it's a very mixed result with some poor characterisations, laughs (at the beginning) and some conflict that gets ruined by the execution.

5/10

C

(2/5 in poll)

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Hilarious and good fun, if not just for the panda scene.

5/5.

[Blobulle]

Urgh, I hate the scene at the zoo, with the panda.
And a lot of gags are unfunny, or disturbing.
Except the part with the Comic Book Guy, always makes me laugh. 2.5/5 Average.

[Bartesque]

Except for the "Financial Panther" joke, and the back seats of the car being missing, it wasn't funny at all. Homer apparently keeps his "dignity" by turning down $1 million, when he long ago sold it by dressing up as a baby and being raped by a panda. It sucked. 2.5/10

[Bleedin' Gums Murphy]

Disgracefully bad. So long classic Simpsons! 1/5

[HMS pinafore]

It has it's good parts, It has it's panda rape
2.5/5

[Lolrus]

I haven't seen it for a very long time, but I don't think I even watched all the way through the first time. Baby made a boom-boom was kinda funny but the panda rape scene was a hefty dose of WTF that totally killed it for me. .5/5

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

3.5/5 rounded out to a 4/5 sounds better now.

[Septimus Singus]

Mr Burns turned out to be a Pirate Santa. Anyway i'd say 4/5. I might of accidently pressed 5/5 though.

[Bella Drape 'er]

The panda rape controversy is so overrated around here.

Episode's easily a 3/5, and a 4/5 on a good day.

[Teddy]

I don't think this episode is so bad, I find it a so-so episode. I really like the beginning especially when The Simpsons try to escape the restaurant. The panda scene was pretty disturbing but I thought the part where Homer was being shocked sorta funny. I wish this episode showed more of Smithers' musical cause I found that interesting. The main problem for this episode to me is that it felt like something Family Guy would do (classic era and revival) and I do like Family Guy, but things from that show don't work for The Simpsons. Rating: 3/5

[Kid Moe]

I can understand why some people don't like it, but I personally think that it's one of the better post-Season 10 episodes. 4/5

[Nebuchanezzar]

but nothing much even happens and it's boring, even when you disregard the panda rape scene (the offensiveness of which, i admit, probably is over rated). show me the interesting character development. show me the simpsons insight that characterises the better episodes from the series. show me the heart. show me the parody. show me the satire. it's an episode made up of homer pulling a few pranks, lisa being obviously upset at him for it (and there's nothing interesting about that), and with a schmaltzy ending tacked on the end.

i give homer's barbershop quartet a B (or a 4/5). it's an episode length tribute to the beatles, it has intertextuality, it pokes fun at the series itself, it has the dynamic between homer and marge, it has dynamic between characters that hadn't ever interacted with each other in a substantial way before. there are so many episodes of the simpsons that are better than homer vs dignity, and to give it a 4/5 is a joke.

A JOKE, SIR

[Diversity Pumpkin]

4/5

[Nebuchanezzar]

derivative, uninsightful post. 4/5

[Kid Moe]

to give it a 4/5 is a joke.

A JOKE, SIR

Yeah, well, it's my opinion. Aren't I entitled to that?