Homer's Odyssey vs Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder

Two episodes featuring Homer suicide attempts, which many say are the main low points. But I have to say that the suicide in HGHF leaves a far nastier taste in my mouth.

First off all, in Homer's Odyssey there was a justifiable reason for Homer wanting to commit suicide (if out of character for Homer as we know him later on) - he'd just lost his job, was without his beloved Duff beer and with little money, and was understandably experiencing deep depression over the thought that he'd failed in life both in his job and as a father. Whereas in HGHF, there is no rational explanation other than his 15 minutes of fame being over (so that basically meant nothing had changed since the beginning of the episode), and unlike in Homer's Odyssey he doesn't even have the decency to write his family a goodbye note. He just heads straight to the top of the Springfield State Building, in a totally thoughtless and reckless act of selfishness, not seeming to care about the total devastation his family would feel afterwards. The scene on the bridge after the rest of his family have caught up with him is often seen as cheap and sappy, but IMO it's easily more heartwarming than anything in HGHF.

Secondly, in Homer's Odyssey he doesn't even start the suicide, whereas in HGHF we have to suffer the whole tasteless scene of Homer looking several hundred feet down from the building and seemingly plummeting to his death, until in typical Scully fashion we have Otto bungee-jumping out of nowhere to rescue him.

In my view the main problems I have with Homer's Odyssey are little or nothing to do with the suicide attempt. It's just overall a somewhat dull, relatively humourless episode which, while quite engaging in the first act with Bart and his classmates' trip to the Power Plant, descends to somewhat depressing territory in the second and is pretty inconsequential in the third with the strange premise of Homer suddenly starting a crusade for road safety, with which little of note is done. For reasons given above, the suicide element in Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder is for me a far more glaring flaw, especially when combined in the same episode with another Homer near-death experience with a cop-out rescue (Maggie suddenly gaining super-human strength to save him from drowning). The first act aside, HGHF sadly strikes me as a bastardized blend of Homer Bad Man and And Maggie Makes Three, switching awkwardly in the third act to a recycled Homer Alone with Homer's IQ drastically reduced (if that is possible), combined with the usual Scullyish bad gags (chiefly Homer eating toxic waste and the pumpkin face/chicken pox etc kids). Its attempts at emotion come across as insincere, contrived, awkward, unrealistic or just plain tasteless, the same problems that afflict another attempted emotional episode Alone Again, Natura-Diddly, though admittedly to not nearly as bad a degree.

Anyway, enough of my rambling,
Homer's Odyssey: C
Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder: D+

PS Don't just say which episode you think is better, please give your reasons.

They're both pretty awful episodes, but I like HGHF much much less. Homer's suicide attempt in Homer's Odyssey is bad, but the rest of the episode isn't a complete waste of time. HGHF on the other hand is a complete and total piece of sh*t even without the suicide

To be honest I don't really think Homer's Odyssey is all that terrible, though obviously it is very flawed and rather dull. I still get some entertainment out of it, even if it's probably the weakest "classic era" episode (not counting Another Simpsons Clip Show).

Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder is just bad though. Too rambly and all over the place, and too silly to take the story seriously. Though with that said it actually has some good moments (mostly in the first act with the bowling game, though even the suicide scene actually induced a laugh with Hans Moleman), just not nearly enough to save it overall.

Homer's Odyssey. They're both bad episodes, but in 'Odyssey', he actually has a reason for wanting to kill himself, unlike in 'Hello Gutter', where he just runs up, and jumps off a skyscraper, for no reason other than that his fifteen minutes of fame are up.

Homer's Odyssey

I voted Gutter as the better ep. While Odyssey had a suicide scene that was done more tastefully, the rest of the episode was so remarkably dull and ugly that even the mediocre Gutter seems exciting and funny by comparison.

Originally Posted by IAMHOMER

Don't just say which episode you think is better, please give your reasons.

Originally Posted by barts friend

Homer's Odyssey

Thank you for your contribution. ;-/

Now in future will you kindly take your one word answers away with you....

Homer's Odyssey is the worst episode of Season1. There's next to nothing funny about and the story is one of the most boring they've ever come up with. I've always hated this one. D-

Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder is a typical Season 11 episode with a disjointed, shifting plot and a bunch of stupid jokes, but it did manage to fave a few things to laugh at. The Maggie story was good even though it took half the episode to finally get to it. C-

Neither is great, but I really can't stand Homer's Odyssey.

Homer's Odyssey. Homer had a better reason to commit suicide than HGHF. and HGHF, like Mira said had a disjointed, shifting plot. Yet, Homer's Odyssey is outstandingly boring, but the plot wasn't as shifting as HGHF. HGHF has a less boring story but is still shifty. Both don't have many good jokes. So, for me, Homer's Odyssey edges it out.

Homer's Odyssey (C-)*
Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder (D+)

Both around a C or C-

I think HO wins though.

Odyssey A
HGHF C

Originally Posted by IAMHOMER

Now in future will you kindly take your one word answers away with you....

Homer's Oddysey is two words

I'm not a fan of much of season one, but Homer's Oddysey is one of that seasons low points. Having said that, HGHF is also one of the worst in it's season and season 11 is worse than 1. HGHF has a stupid, all over the place plot, with crazy weak jokes (one crazy strong joke - 'there is no escape from the mole people' ). Homer's Oddysey is just a bit over the top with suicide and after that quite dull.

I enjoy Homer's Odyssey, actually. I found the jokes fairly decent, if slightly bland. I enjoyed the "enough already Homer Simpson!" headline, for instance. and it's one of the few times homer put his mind to something, acheived it adn didn't back down in the face of adversity (like burns' offer to make him just go away) plus, it sets homer up as the safety inspector that he has been ever since.

HGHF was utterly without humor (other than the retarded inhaling of the balloon which, for some reason, made me chuckle). the story is disjointed and at times annoying (maggie's super strength), and it's just a failure of an episode. and attributing Hans Moleman to a literal race of mole people, i thought cheapened that joke forever.

Homers Odyssey A-
HGHF D-


EDIT for horrible spelling and grammar.

I kind of have grown to respect Homer's Odyssey. The pacing might be slow and the animation bad, but it really helped to make Homer a 3 dimensional character. HGHF, however, was severely disjointed and out of place. I mean, all of a sudden, Maggie rescues Homer from drowning. What does that have to do with anything?


Homer's Odyssey: C+
HGHF: D+

"Homer's Odyssey", though the episode is pretty dull, actually had a better story. Sure, it's nothing mind-blowing, but it's better than the disjointed "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder". At least Homer's suicide attempt makes a bit of sense. Yes, it was slightly out of character, but this was the first season, so I'll cut the writers some slack. I can understand someone being depressed because they just lost their job for something that wasn't really their fault (Bart called out to Homer, causing him to become distracted and crash into the pipes). He's got three kids to raise and he's not really qualified enough to find another job that pays so well that quickly. It's true that his decision for not killing himself sort of comes out of nowhere (his rock stops a van from running over his family, and he now feels like he has a purpose in life), but at least it's somewhat plausible.

"Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder", on the other hand, is just a complete mess of an episode. It jumps from scene to scene with barely any cohesiveness. First, Homer is punished for coming in late to work. While he's eating toxic waste (something that's a bit too unrealistic for my tastes), Lenny and Carl offer to take him bowling. Homer then lies to Marge to get out of spending time with Maggie. While bowling, Homer bowls a perfect game and becomes a local celebrity. When his fifteen minutes of fame are over, he becomes depressed. Personally, I would think Homer would just be happy for his brief moment in the sun and move on. But no, then we go to a stupid scene where Homer jumps off a building but is miraculously pulled up by grabbing on to Otto, who is bungee jumping. Homer then decides to make his life worthwhile by spending time with Maggie. And of course, the whole episode ends with Maggie summoning up inhuman strength to save her father from drowning, followed by a tacked-on scene with Homer and Maggie bowling which tries to be emotional but fails because the whole episode was pretty damn bad. All in all, it's just a very stupid and pointless episode filled with dumb, unfunny jokes. "Homer's Odyssey" may have lacked jokes, but sometimes I prefer a lack of jokes over a bunch of horrible ones.

"Homer's Odyssey" wins for me.

I haven't seen either of them in a really long time, but I think "Homer's Odyssey" is horrible. I don't remember "HGHF" being as bad.

Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder.

Homer's Odyssey is an OK episode from the OK first season. It did show a much more human side of Homer which was severly lacking in Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder

"Homer's Odyssey".

Both episodes are rather weak, but this one has the edge, as the sucide attempt links in with a proper and real story such as Homer being unemployed, rather than him being selfish and having his 15 minutes of fame.

"Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" is just a bunch of crazy ideas sellotaped together and shows Homer as a jerk. The ending of it is the most ridiculous Simpsons ending ever, with Maggie gaining super-human strength to save Homer.

Homer's Odyssey
At least that episode was good for its time.

Homer's Odyssey easily is the best one for me. It's not a brilliant episode, but it is underrated and at least in this one Homer's attempts at suicide are very well justified. The plot is also pretty well done and it was a good setup to how Homer got his new job. Humour isn't brilliant and it starts getting a little silly when Homer wants everything to be safe, but it's a watchable episode (And Mr Burns' first appearance!). B-

Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder is typical Scully fare. The episode is so mixed up that it only finds its direction halfway through the third act, and this is when the episode does start to pick up. It's the stuff before that I disliked: Homer wants to commit suicide just because he's no longer the popular man in springfield? Okay...add to this a strong dose of season 11 wackiness: Homer eating toxic waste, irritating guest stars, Homer not caring about anyone else but himself, repeated pain gags, Maggie easily saving Homer...one of the only redeeming moments was the sweet ending. C-