Caution: Spoilers Ahead for The Simpsons season 33, episode 15.
It was bad enough for Homer to embarrass Bart in public during the events of The Simpsons Movie, but The Simpsons season 33 just recreated the moment and failed to recapture its original hilarity. Homer and Bart’s relationship has never been a stable one. Although some classic Simpsons outings pair Bart and Homer up, the series as a whole tends to see Homer embarrass his son while Bart frequently pranks, annoys, and occasionally disappoints his short-tempered father.
Their troubles have rarely reached the zenith seen early in 2007’s The Simpsons Movie. In that long-awaited theatrical spinoff, Homer dares Bart to skateboard across town nude, only to leave him stranded naked outside Krusty Burger and then deny the dare in front of the cops, understandably earning the ire of his young son. In fairness to Homer, he’s not responsible for Bart’s original decision to skateboard naked through Springfield—something that made The Simpsons season 33’s spin on this scene way worse.
In “Bart the Cool Kid” (season 33, episode 15), Bart is embarrassed by Homer in public once again, and once again he’s left a laughing stock while naked in the middle of Springfield. It’s nothing new for The Simpsons season 33 to copy its own classic stories, but this particular borrow manages to recreate the events of The Simpsons Movie and make them worse on every front. When Bart was left nude outside a Krusty Burger for hours, it was after a naked skateboarding stunt that he decided to risk. This time around, however, Homer pantsed his son in public and did so because Bart trusted his father and attempted to return a pair of shoes that Homer never warned him were counterfeit.
Although Bart’s ordeal in The Simpsons Movie is undoubtedly mortifying, Homer plays a smaller role in the scene. It does embitter Bart toward his father for the rest of the movie but, unlike Homer’s public shaming in an earlier Simpsons season 33 episode, Bart’s nude joyride was his own decision—even though Homer dared him to do it and denied this to Chief Wiggum when questioned. In “Bart the Cool Kid,” however, all that Bart does is trust Homer and assume his father wouldn’t lie to him. As a result, he ends up embarrassed in front of Springfield and eventually pantsed (albeit accidentally) in public by Homer himself.
The difference between the two plots is illustrative of the “Jerkass Homer” evolution that fans of The Simpsons have complained about online for some years now. Homer’s behavior in The Simpsons Movie is undoubtedly childish and self-centered but, in contrast, Homer’s actions in The Simpsons season 33 see him lie to Bart about buying him shoes and then worsen his son’s humiliation after getting caught. Both The Simpsons Movie and the season 33 episode see Homer at his most self-absorbed, but the earlier example at least gave Bart some agency in the mishap, whereas in the newer episode, all Homer’s son did wrong was trust his father’s word. It’s an unfortunate reminder that two similar stories can take on divergent tones depending on the delivery, resulting in The Simpsons Movie featuring an almost too-effective scene of cringe comedy where The Simpsons season 33 episode merely underlines Homer’s shameless self-interest.
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