It really showcases Homer's heart,

and as the show progresses and it becomes

a lot more wackier and there's a lot more buffoonery,

sometimes Homer's heart gets lost in the noise.

Hello, I'm Jack Picone, host of Worst Episode Ever,

a Simpsons podcast,

and we are gonna talk about every job

Homer has ever had in The Simpsons.

[melodic music]

We're gonna define these jobs as anything Homer's done,

paid or unpaid, ranging from his main job

at the nuclear power plant to any of the many

one off gags, off screen references and whatnot

over the course of 31 seasons and counting.

[cheering]

This is the very first episode of the show,

way back in 1989.

Homer is a nuclear technician here

who works on the floor handling inanimate radioactive rods.

And while he only has this for the first

two or three episodes out of nearly 700,

we actually still see him each week

doing this in the opening theme song,

when he bounces the green rod.

And The Simpsons started out as

a very grounded portrayal of a working class,

blue collar family.

So it made sense for Homer to start out

literally on the floor of a factory.

It could've been a nuclear power plant,

it could've been a Ford car assembly line,

it could've really been any industrial American job.

The way it looked, you knew right off the bat,

oh this is the type of guy he is,

this is the type of family he has.

And in this episode, Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire,

Mr. Burns actually removes the Christmas bonuses.

He takes away everybody's bonuses.

And because this is a very grounded,

realistic, working class family,

Homer actually doesn't have any money

to buy Christmas presents for his kids.

So he's forced to take on a second job,

and because this is a Christmas special,

Homer get a gig as a mall Santa Claus.

Hey Santa, what's shaking, man?

What's your name, Bart-ner?

Now what's very interesting about Homer as a mall Santa

is this is already the first second job we see Homer get.

As you'll see, a lot of these jobs Homer has

in addition to his original job.

And we're seeing this kind of American iconic job,

the mall Santa, and they pull the curtain back

in their very funny subversive way,

where we can kind of see the inner workings

of how this works, the training class.

And this is starting a pattern

that we'll see for the rest of the series,

where we don't just get the job,

we get the behind the scenes look at the job.

And remember, this is the very first episode,

and the show, its initial roots was a subversive

but realistic look at American life.

They're still existing in our reality.

Now, by episode 700, season 31,

Homer might actually become Santa Claus.

It hasn't happened yet but it might happen.

But here, it's just a very realistic look

at a working class guy in a suit with a fake beard.

[gentle music]

So this is only the third episode in the series

and already Homer gets fired from his job

as a nuclear technician.

And this is when he decides, at this crossroads in his life,

to devote himself to helping other people,

starting with a stop sign at an intersection,

and that snowballs into him going around town,

just trying to help people and keep them safe.

A lot of the jobs he does highlights

exactly what kind of man Homer Simpson is.

And this safety crusade might really get to the core

of who Homer is just three episodes in.

And then he targets the biggest threat

to Springfield's safety,

and that's the nuclear power plant.

He goes after Mr. Burns and he does

such a good job that Mr. Burns has no choice

but to actually hire Homer as a safety inspector.

Time's up.

What the hell, I'll take the job.

Excellent.

And this is where Homer gets the job

that he still has to this day,

his day job as a safety inspector for sector 7G,

with the very famous console.

[upbeat music]

When Homer gets a full head of hair,

he actually gets promoted by Mr. Burns

from safety inspector to a high level executive.

He gets access to the executive bathroom,

he gets his own assistant.

And this kind of showcases now,

we're only in season two and he's already had

three different positions at the power plant

and that number will grow.

He'll basically have every position at the plant.

Now season one, 13 episodes,

they already did a very well rounded job

of poking fun at working class life.

What they're already starting to do here in season two

is poke fun at the higher levels of capitalism.

So he gets the job because he has a full head of hair,

which shows the superficiality of kind of

the corporate executive environment.

So many of Homer's jobs that we're gonna cover

he has a rise and fall arc,

and this might actually be the first.

So he tells this entire story through a flashback at Moe's,

and you see him become a mascot

for this minor league baseball team, dancing Homer,

where he just has a cape and a t-shirt.

And he rises, becomes a huge celebrity,

he's transferred to Capital City

to play for the majors.

I just got the word,

you've been called up to Capital City.

And he quickly falls.

He's no longer a big fish in a small pond.

And he ends up back at Moe's telling the story

to the local bar flies.

[upbeat music]

After finding out he has a long lost half brother in Detroit

who runs this multi million dollar car company,

Homer's offered the chance to design his own car.

I want you to help me design a car,

a car for all the Homer Simpsons out there.

He designs the Homer, this $80,000 monstrosity,

that has a bunch of ridiculous ideas

that ends up costing his brother his entire company.

And by this point in the series,

even though it's early on,

they've already established Homer

as pretty much a buffoon, an idiot.

So this is one of many cases where Homer

bites off more than he can chew.

[upbeat music]

Now season three, this is the beginning

of the classic era of Simpsons, and this is where Homer,

picking up a second job on top of his existing job,

really starts to ramp up.

In this case he's getting a second job

to pay for Lisa's happiness.

He buys her a pony in a stable

and he has to work two jobs with very little

room for sleep in between.

Pink hat, when I ordered that blueberry squishy

I meant today.

Coming right up, sir.

And this job is a classic example of Homer

just having a huge heart.

The sacrifices he makes for his family,

in this case for Lisa, he's not just getting a second job,

he's basically working 24 hours a day,

and nearly getting himself killed

falling asleep at the wheel.

And this just shows Homer, for all his faults,

he loves his family more than anything.

Hey Moe, you got any cough syrup?

Let me check the lost and found.

So Homer shows a knack for inventing

throughout the series,

and it probably begins here when he designs

his own cocktail, the flaming Moe,

just using things in his kitchen.

The secret ingredient is children's cough syrup.

Homer, you're turning the blades too fast.

So a lot of Homer's jobs aren't actually concurrent

with his time at the power plant,

we see them in flashback form.

I Married Marge takes place in 1980

and Homer is working on a mini golf course

when they conceive Bart in a windmill on one of the holes.

Maybe it's the champale talking,

but I think you're pretty sexy.

Really?

It must be the champale talking.

And after they conceive Bart and they need to get married,

Homer takes on a bunch of other jobs

to help pay the bills.

This includes being a trainer

at the Pitless Pup Attack Dog School,

a candle maker at the Ye Olde Candle Maker shop,

knife salesman for Slash Co,

and an employee at the Gulp 'N' Blow.

He works the drive through and this is actually

where he re-proposes to Marge using an onion ring

as an engagement ring.

[upbeat music]

Now, this is one of the more famous episodes

of The Simpsons early years,

and while it's a work league

and it's not exactly a paid job,

because Homer is playing along baseball greats

like Darryl Strawberry and Ken Griffey Jr.,

we're gonna go ahead and consider this a job.

Now Homer At The Bat is a very important episode

in the series because it might be the first

that has a slew of celebrity guest stars as themselves,

and this is something that's gonna happen

a lot more as we go on.

These guys aren't so tough.

I've got Wonderbat.

[screams]

And this kind of changes the nature not only of the show

but of Homer's relationship to the real world.

Most of us don't get to play baseball

with Darryl Strawberry,

but Homer's gonna end up playing a lot of different sports

with a lot of different famous athletes.

After discovering a beautiful and talented

country singer named Lurleen Lumpkin,

Homer actually signs on to be her manager/agent,

making her famous overnight.

I want you to be my manager.

Really?

Homer gives up this sweet gig after realizing

that it might cost him his marriage with Marge.

And this is one of many cases where Homer

has to choose between his job and his family.

Sometimes he gets a job that he truly loves doing,

but it's gonna cost him his family,

and at the end of the day Homer always goes with his family.

Up until now, nearly every job Homer has had

is within the realm of possibilities

for the character of Homer Simpson.

Even when he's dancing Homer,

he's basically just getting drunk

and dancing in front of a bunch of people.

This showcases a skillset that is kind of turning Homer

into this renaissance man savant.

We didn't know up until this point

that he could be a country music manager.

And we'll start to see this more and more

where Homer's doing a job you would've

never expected him to do in season one.

[upbeat music]

Homer finds local success as a plow truck driver

when he crashes both of his cars

and needs to buy a new vehicle,

he ends up buying a plow truck

and tries to make his money back

by plowing the streets of Springfield

until he loses his job to his best friend Barney

and to God.

Mr. Plow is interesting because this is the first time

Homer really starts his own small business,

as opposed to getting a job somewhere else

or being a manager,

and this is the American dream,

to open up your own small business.

[upbeat music]

Homer tries out and is arbitrarily selected

to be the conductor for Springfield's new monorail.

Well, I've been monitoring your progress closely,

but this gentleman here clearly stands out above the rest.

Who, me?

Yeah sure.

Woo-hoo!

And this is interesting 'cause this is

one of the first big epic plots

where Springfield is in danger

and Homer actually saves the day

by anchoring the monorail before it runs off track.

Donuts.

Is there anything they can't do?

Hey, what does this job pay?

Union leader.

This is interesting 'cause it actually ties

way back into Homer's Odyssey,

where Homer wants to protect his fellow workers

and fell townspeople as safety inspector,

and in this case he's trying to protect their dental plan.

I don't know what gets more American

than trying to protect your dental plan.

And this is considered one of the

all time best episodes of the show,

and that's only because there's maybe a joke

every four seconds.

Why must you turn my office into a house of lies?

But it's a David versus Goliath story,

it's Homer taking on Mr. Burns,

just like he did in Homer's Odyssey

but now the show is really firing on all cylinders.

This is season four, the characters are really defined,

and Homer steps up not just for himself

but selflessly for the other towns people.

♪ Goodbye my Coney Isle ♪

♪ Goodbye my Coney Island girl ♪

This is another 15 minutes of fame episode

and this was the season five premier.

And this is really taking it to the nth degree.

Homer literally becomes bigger than Jesus,

bigger than The Beatles.

What'd you do, screw up like The Beatles

and say you were bigger than Jesus?

All the time.

It was the title of our second album.

We've seen Homer care about other people

and we've seen him start to invent things

and be creative, but he also has this knack

for artistry and entertaining when it comes to acting,

and especially when it comes to music.

This is not the first band Homer will be a part of

that becomes internationally famous.

And season five is where the show

really starts taking off with these larger than life plots.

We start to break out of Springfield

and Homer's internationally famous.

He's not just a mall Santa,

he's famous around the world,

he even wins a Grammy.

21?

Do that card counting thing again.

Homer becomes a well liked blackjack dealer

at Mr. Burns' casino,

mainly because he's not very good at it

and everybody wins.

[upbeat music]

Homer leads a vigilante group when a cat burglar

starts striking around town.

And this is interesting 'cause it kind of ties into

this larger American machismo archetype.

Homer needs to go around and bust heads.

But it also, it ties into his character

because he's very protective of his family.

When Lisa gets her saxophones stolen,

it really shakes him and this is why he ends up

forming a vigilante group.

Hello everybody, I'm Archie Bell and I'm also The Drells.

Bart Gets Famous, we see in a flashback

that one of his very first jobs was a street musician,

and this ties into what we were saying about the B Sharps.

Homer does have this innate musical talent,

and he's been in multiple bands

and in this case he's the entire band.

A lot of earlier fans thought Deep Space Homer

was when the show really just broke away

from what it used to be.

Are we there yet?

I'm thirsty.

Mission control, request permission to sedate cargo

ahead of schedule.

Homer is sent to space as a working class astronaut

to boost NASA ratings and ends up averting disaster

as he almost crashes a space shuttle

that has Buzz Aldrin in it.

It's a very funny classic episode,

but the idea of Homer Simpson going to space

is something that would've seemed ridiculous in season one.

And Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons

talks about a rubber band reality,

how far the show can actually stretch

the reality of The Simpsons,

and this point in season five they really wanted

to see if they could get away with sending Homer to space,

and as we'll see, by season 31,

the rubber band could actually

be stretched a lot further than that.

But what makes this episode work is that

while the setting is kind of ridiculous

and they are stretching that rubber band

literally to outer orbit,

Homer is still the same character we know

from season one, season two, season three.

We're just seeing him in this other set

of ridiculous circumstances.

[upbeat music]

Homer serves on a jury for Freddie Quimby's murder trial,

and he's actually the only one of the 12

that wants to vote to acquit him,

mainly because of all the deluxe accommodations

you get when you're sequestered.

How are the rest of you voting?

[All] Guilty.

Okay, fine.

How many S's in innocent?

[groaning]

Homer gets a job at the adult education annex

giving tips on a successful marriage,

which is ironic because the job

basically devolves into him gossiping about Marge

and almost ends in divorce.

Now this is a story line where Homer's selfishness

not a selflessness drives the plot

and Homer can sometimes be a real jerk.

It's kinda why we love him,

but this one really, really tests

just how far can Homer go without breaking his marriage,

which is one of the core spines of the show.

[upbeat music]

After finding a truckload of raw sugar, as one does,

Homer tries to profit by selling it as much as he can,

even door to door.

This is one of many get rich quick schemes

that we're gonna start to see as the show moves on.

If taking on a second job or a night job

is a facet of America that the show likes to cover,

so is the get rich quick scheme.

First you get the sugar, then you'll get the power,

then you'll get the win.

What's the matter with you, Homer?

We don't have any fruits or vegetables in the car.

The whole truck's full of 'em, Marge.

On their long drive to Itchy and Scratchy Land,

Homer gets pulled over and caught smuggling,

illegally presumably, some fruits and vegetables.

This is interesting because not only is it

the first time Homer's gonna smuggle something,

but it's also the first time he's really

doing anything illicit.

And we'll see a handful of the jobs we're gonna cover

are either gray market or black market gigs.

[upbeat music]

Homer and Grandpa become old school traveling salesmen

for a tonic that Grandpa devises

that is basically a forerunner for Viagra.

♪ I'm gonna make it after all ♪

This is a dream job of Homer's,

but he only holds it briefly.

He leaves the nuclear power plant

once the family is financially sound,

but when Maggie is conceived

and they're gonna have a third child,

Homer again sacrifices for his family

by giving up his dream job to go work

back at the power plant.

Homer will always choose his family over his own happiness,

and because Homer actually quits the power plant

and is forced to beg for his job back,

Mr. Burns cruelly makes him put up this sign.

Don't forget, you're here forever.

And in one of the most heartwarming moments

in the series history,

Homer covers that sign up with pictures of Maggie,

so that the only letters left spell do it for her.

And if that's not America for you,

working to put food on your family's table,

I don't know what is.

That is The Simpsons.

Convinced by a new billboard to go to clown college,

Homer becomes a Krusty impersonator

until the mob almost kills him

because they think he's the real deal.

I'm seeing double here.

Four Krustys.

To make up for a debt to his hated sister-in-laws,

Homer needs another second job,

and in this case he becomes a chauffeur for Classy Joe's.

And one of his clients is Mel Brooks.

It's very funny.

Hey, let's do that 2,000 pound man thing.

I'll be that Carl Reiner guy and you be whatshisface.

The ball!

Destroyed!

Homer is put on the jury for Springfield's

first film festival and becomes the deciding vote

between Barney's art house masterpiece

and Mr. Burns' bombastic ego trip,

as well as Hans Moleman's football in the groin.

A Star Experience is, it's one of my favorite episodes.

It's actually a crossover with another

brilliant animated show, The Critic,

starring Jon Lovitz as Jay Sherman.

Now while I love this episode,

Matt Groening was actually against it

from the very start and still isn't crazy about it

because he thought doing a crossover with another show

was beneath The Simpsons.

And this was the first time The Simpsons

really had ever done that.

And if you ever want to visit my show-

Nah, we're not gonna be doing that.

But like other farfetched plots that the show has done,

if they can do it funny,

and they can do it true to the characters,

why not?

[upbeat music]

This is one of those quick gags, blink and you miss it,

but basically Homer invites his old sergeant to dinner

and when the dinner party is ruined

by all the new puppies that the Simpsons have,

Homer is basically recalled back into the army.

Simpson!

See you at reveille, 05:00 tomorrow.

And this is really the first time it's implied

Homer ever had any background in the armed forces,

but as we'll see, it's not the last.

[upbeat music]

Head of a detective agency.

This one's not really shown, but it's mentioned by Marge.

It's a quick one-off gag.

Your father can be surprisingly sensitive.

Remember when I giggled at his Sherlock Holmes hat?

He sulked for a week and then closed his detective agency.

Hear ye, hear ye.

The Homer broadcasting system is on the air.

This one kinda starts off as a joke

because Homer's perfect for a town crier.

He's loud, he's boisterous, but it ends up tying

very neatly into the plot when he uses his gig

to help Lisa expose the town's history.

Did you get that report on the accounting department?

When Smithers finally goes on vacation,

he picks Homer to take his job,

basically because Homer's the last person

he would ever expect Mr. Burns to like more than him.

I told you, I don't like ethnic food.

So Homer actually gets this job

because he's the most incompetent employee

at the power plant.

Smithers basically doesn't want anybody

to outshine him at his own job.

And Homer does do such a bad job

that Mr. Burns actually becomes self sufficient.

[upbeat music]

Homer's knack for taking canon balls to the gut

gets him a job as a freak at Hullabalooza,

which is a big 90's festival that has

Smashing Pumpkins and Cyprus Hill,

and it's one of these second job plots

where Homer briefly becomes famous,

and it's tied into his love for the entertainment industry,

and it basically comes down to it's literally killing him

and he has to quit before it does.

This episode's interesting because it starts off grounded.

Homer gets this job that's not too dissimilar from his own.

Basically he's head hunted because he's

the most senior member at the power plant.

But it gradually turns into this

ridiculous James Bond spectacle.

His boss is literally a super villain named Hank Scorpio,

who takes over the east coast by the end of the episode.

And we're seeing it from Homer's perspective,

where he's clueless, he doesn't even realize

what's going on.

He's just there to collect a paycheck.

And this is yet another example of Homer

giving up a dream job for his family.

He loves working for Scorpio because it's just a great gig.

He doesn't know about the Bond stuff.

He's just very happy in Cyprus Creek,

but the rest of the family isn't.

He gives up the job.

Again, it comes down to his happiness

versus his family's happiness,

and they go back to Springfield.

And because Homer actually succeeds

in helping Scorpio build a doomsday machine

and take over the east coast,

he's rewarded with his dream job,

which was to be a owner of a football team.

It's not the Dallas Cowboys, but it's a start.

Drop me a line if you're on the east coast.

Hank Scorpio.

Unfortunately the football team

turns out to be the Denver Broncos,

which at the time was not a very good get.

[upbeat music]

Homer's genetically abnormal skull

allows him to take a lot of severe head trauma,

so Moe puts him in the boxing ring

and he becomes this great boxer,

at least until he has to go against the champ,

Drederick Tatum, who pretty much nearly kills him

in one blow.

And this is one of those jobs where it's not Homer

giving it up because his family's unhappy.

He's giving it up because it's literally gonna kill him.

It automatically calls them one by one

and plays my message.

This is one of those get rich quick schemes for Homer.

He finds this auto-dialer and uses it to his advantage

by calling every number in Springfield

and asking for a $1 to Happy Dude.

I don't get to be a cartoon dog.

Homer becomes a voiceover actor

for the Itchy and Scratchy Show

playing Poochie, the new hip 90s dog,

which everybody immediately hates.

Hey kids, always recycle,

to the extreme!

This is the first acting gig that Homer gets

and we're gonna see him get a bunch more,

even in the voiceover field.

But Homer, in addition to having a knack for inventing

and a knack for music,

apparently Homer's also really good at acting.

Well, not that good because they immediately

wanna kill Poochie off.

[upbeat music]

Homer takes advantage of Springfield's prohibition

by becoming its chief bootlegger.

He becomes known as the beer baron,

and he supplies the town with illegal booze.

We've seen Homer smuggle some things before

but this is the most illegal thing he's done by far.

He's basically the chief bootlegger in a town.

He even becomes the target of Rex Banner,

who is Springfield's Eliot Ness.

You're out there somewhere, beer baron,

and I'll find you.

[Homer] No you won't!

♪ Come along and join the family ♪

This is where the show really starts

to experiment and get meta.

In this case we get three vignettes,

possible spinoffs that the show can do,

and one of them is a variety style show

where the Simpsons play themselves

but entertainer versions of themselves.

Basically the Simpsons in quotes.

And it's not the last time they're gonna do this.

This is one of the first times the show

has actually acknowledged that it is a show,

and it really is quite meta.

They get away with it again, because now,

after eight seasons they've done such a good job

drawing and writing their characters

and writing the town of Springfield,

that we are so familiar with these characters

that they can now play with them.

And they were already doing this a bit

with The Treehouse of Horror Halloween episodes.

But this is a very, very meta take where the show is a show,

but the characters are playing themselves,

and it's a very fine line because an audience

could get lost but the writers were counting on

the fact that The Simpsons by now

is just a part of Americana,

and they can kind of take place almost in our world.

[upbeat music]

Homer replaces Flanders as the coach for Bart's team

after heckling him from the stands.

Flanders!

What?

Flanders!

Somewhat surprising it took nine seasons,

but Homer finally becomes a carney working in a carnival.

I got a few complaints that your game is crooked.

[laughs]

And how.

[upbeat music]

Homer's working unpaid here as a member of a cult,

but it's a lot of actual labor.

He's working the fields and other menial jobs for the cult.

So this certainly counts as a job.

While most of the jobs that we've covered

is the show taking its aim at slices of Americana

and American culture,

this is them going after something

a little bit more specific.

They're basically using the power of satire

to take down Scientology.

[upbeat music]

Homer sets up his own small business

in which he gives himself the title

of junior vice president.

And this episode is really a great look

at what America's view of this internet thing was

in the late 90s.

Welcome to the internet, my friend.

How can I help you?

I'm interested in upgrading my

28.8 kilobaud internet connection

to a 1.5 megabit fiber optic T1 online.

Will you be able to provide an IP router

that's compatible with my token ring

ethernet LAN configuration?

While this might seem like ancient history,

this is actually taking place in the height

of the dot com boom in the late 90s.

This is where people like me were just finding out

what internet even was.

We knew it had something to do with computers

but we didn't know what it was,

and we've come a long way since then.

You're watching this on a computer or a smart TV,

I'm recording it on a phones, which is insane.

Also, this story is very much of its time

because it takes place during the dot com boom,

and like The Simpsons often does,

it kinda predicted both the bust

and the corporate takeovers of smaller companies

when Bill Gates takes over the competition.

[upbeat music]

Homer becomes a navy reservist and serves on a submarine

and eventually becomes its captain.

People's lives are depending on me.

Mr. Sulu, make a left.

Aye, aye, Captain.

Setting course for Rigel Seven.

I mean home.

[chuckles]

This is the first time we actually

see Homer in the line of duty,

and of course it's just a simple war games exercise

that he nearly starts world war three.

They want you to spy on your friends?

After cheating on his taxes,

Homer is actually recruited by the FBI

to be an informant to rat out Mr. Burns,

and this is not the last time this is gonna happen.

[upbeat music]

Homer runs for and wins the job

of Springfield sanitation commissioner.

Woo-hoo!

Aren't you gonna buy it, Dad?

50 cents?

Not likely.

In this capacity Homer actually blows

the budget of the department so badly

that the entire town needs to relocate

several miles away from its own trash.

Homer is sponsored by Powersauce

to climb Springfield's tallest mountain,

the Murderhorn.

[melodic music]

Grease collector.

This is another get rich quick scheme by Homer,

where basically he goes around town with Bart

collecting grease to sell it.

That comes to

63 cents.

Woo-hoo!

[upbeat music]

We've seen glimpses of this before

but this is where Homer really shines as an inventor.

He has a passion for just building and creating things.

And in this episode Thomas Edison becomes his role model

and Homer strives to be the next great American inventor.

Close your eyes, Marge.

And now you're ready for a night on the town.

[Marge gasps]

Tell me over breakfast.

Who's for pancakes?

Homer becomes a personal assistant in this episode.

It is The Simpsons at its best,

lampooning Hollywood culture.

Wow, you got everything, Homer.

Even the Oscar polish.

This job ends, as so many of ours do,

by nearly killing Ron Howard.

Season 10's a very pivotal time for The Simpsons.

It's where the show is no longer

this upstart counter cultural thing,

but it is the culture.

The Simpsons is Hollywood culture.

And its relationship to celebrities change,

they're now not just doing voiceovers,

they're playing themselves and kind of

The Simpsons the show and the Simpsons the family

have literally become friends with the celebrities.

[upbeat music]

Very often when we do these Homer gets another job episodes,

there's a lot of jokes based on Homer

using his new found set of skills

outside of the job in everyday life.

So there's some great moments here where

Homer learns a neck pinch that will make you pass out,

and he uses it so that he can pass out

so he doesn't have to wait for dinner.

Homer starts and ends his job the same way;

protecting Mark Hamill.

♪ And I ♪

So long, suckers.

Homer starts a war with the trucking industry

when he becomes a trucker himself

and discovers their secret plot,

self driving trucks.

You stumbled on the secret that

only truck drivers are supposed to know.

This is one of those cases where the show

seems to predict the future with an eerie sense of accuracy.

When this came out, a lot of people thought

it was a jump the shark moment

because the idea of trucks driving themselves

across the country was completely ridiculous.

And now it may very well be the future.

Homer becomes a railroad engineer,

presumably at the end of the episode,

when he and Bart are stranded and need a way

back to Springfield, and it's implied that

they end up taking a train full of napalm back to town.

[upbeat music]

Homer's rage actually leads to him

becoming an outsider artist.

His masterpiece, flood Springfield and turn it

into the next Venice.

Are you sure this is art and not vandalism?

That's for the courts to decide, son.

Hello, little girl.

This is another get rich quick scheme for Homer.

Basically he comes into a bunch of springs

and needs to get rid of them.

And when he designs this Olympic mascot

made out of the springs,

it shows both Homer's latent inventing

and artistic skills that we see across the board

with a bunch of jobs.

Yippee, time for the company loyalty song.

When the family gets stranded in Japan,

Homer and the rest of the Simpsons

have to work at a fish gutting factory.

Homer's hired by Mel Gibson to rework his film,

and this is the first of several times

Homer is going to be working on Hollywood films.

The other critics told me to be mean

and you should always give in to peer pressure.

This job utilizes Homer's love of food,

something that has been well established by this season.

[upbeat music]

Homer becomes a farmer and when he does a poor job

he improvises and uses plutonium

and ends up creating a tomacco,

a tomato-tobacco hybrid that because of

its addictive qualities sells very well.

[upbeat music]

On the run from the mob,

Homer becomes a missionary in the South Pacific.

You two haven't said a word.

I like that.

You're hired.

Homer's on the run from a Florida sheriff

and gets a job as a short order cook

in this off road diner.

You might notice now the jobs are less

second jobs for extra income and more

jobs out of necessity,

either because he's on the run or being run out of town.

A lot of these jobs Homer really doesn't need

or is set up by ridiculous circumstances.

My funny family, take one.

This is the meta of all meta episodes.

This is where the Simpsons really do play The Simpsons.

They're themselves, they're a family

that lives in 742 Evergreen Terrace,

but they're also a very famous American TV show.

In this episode Homer writes, directs and stars

in The Simpsons, that is watched by millions

across America.

Homer and I had real chemistry on screen.

Every day I thought about firing Marge,

you know, just to shake things up.

This is the season finale for season 11,

and in 11 seasons we've now seen the show start

as this grounded, blue collar show about a family,

and literally becoming this meta show

within a show within a show.

They're breaking the fourth wall,

they're breaking the fifth wall.

At this point it's more like a tesseract of walls

and they're smashing every single one of 'em.

Loyal citizens of New Springfield.

When Springfield is split into two towns by area code,

Homer actually becomes mayor of New Springfield.

Well let's see old snupfield does without electricity.

Woo-hoo!

Mr. Burns pays Homer to become his prank money,

basically going around town humiliating himself

or pulling pranks on other people,

specifically just for Mr. Burns' amusement.

And this is one of the first jobs we've seen

that is a completely made up job.

We're in season 12 now,

Homer needs to do something so why not have him

throw pudding in Lenny's eye.

Ow, my eye!

I'm not supposed to get pudding in it.

I'll just call myself Mr. X.

All right, this might seem crazy,

but back when this episode aired there wasn't

that many online conspiracy theorists.

Homer was one of the first, as Mr. X.

This precursor to online flat Earthers

and other conspiracy theorists,

Homer basically becomes famous online

by making these ridiculous, outlandish conspiracy theories,

until he's detained by a mysterious organization

because one of them turns out to be true.

Homer and Bart become grifters,

conning people around town out of money

until the town teaches them a lesson.

This is around the time where Homer takes on

these personalities a lot of people call Jerk-Ass Homer.

He's literally taking hard earned money

out of other peoples' pockets.

We start to see this more and more often

as the show reaches these seasons in the teens and 20s.

Who's gonna buy a pill that makes you blind?

Barney Gumble suggests that Homer

gets a job at a medical testing center

to earn a quick buck.

It's there that they discover Homer actually

lodged a crayon into his brain when he was young.

When they remove the crayon, Homer becomes brilliant.

I was working on a flat tax proposal

and I accidentally proved there's no god.

We'll just see about that...

Uh-oh.

Homer then gives a guest lecture at Springfield Elementary

on not putting things up your nose.

Homer starts operating a chiropractors office

out of his own garage after a trash can he damaged

seems to miraculously fix peoples backs.

This one's one of those B stories

that kind of just exists to fill some pages,

and it ends as quickly as it begins,

where the real chiropractors take Homer out.

Homer creates his own baby proofing industry

when he realizes he'll save a lot of money

by doing it himself.

And he becomes so good at his job,

coming up with ways to protect young children,

that he actually affects the pediatrics industry.

The dream is over.

[upbeat music]

Just a few episodes later, stuck at home with a torn ACL,

Homer creates Uncle Homer's daycare center,

where he babysits his friends

and other people around town's children.

[upbeat music]

I'd like to speak to a Mr. Tobooger,

first name Olly.

Ooh, Bart, my first crank call, what do I do?

[Jack] Homer first fills in for Moe at Moe's Tavern.

I don't get it.

And then when Moe rebrands as a swanky nightclub,

Homer opens up his own bar in the garage.

At this point in the show's evolution

you can even start to see the writing

and the style of the show change,

and the episodes become less character based

and less morality plays,

and more plot devices and basically just

factories for jokes and gags.

And that includes Homer's jobs.

A lot of Homer's jobs fill the role

of just quick B plots or one off gags

or just time fillers for a laugh.

So you'll actually start to notice

that the jobs are less important for the story

and you can almost just rattle them off

like you would a joke.

You will take a short sea voyage.

I'll enjoy that.

After complaining their fortunes

in the fortune cookies are unimaginative,

Homer's actually hired by a restaurant

to write their fortunes.

This episode kind of combines when Homer was selling sugar

and the one where he's smuggling and bootlegging alcohol.

When Springfield puts a ban on sugar,

Homer actually starts to smuggle sugar into town.

Believing Marge has left him for his old rival, Artie Ziff,

Homer runs away and gets a new job

as an oil rigger in West Springfield.

Homer is promoted by Mr. Burns to vice president

basically because he just laughs at all of his jokes.

Working hard or hardly working.

[laughing]

What Burns doesn't know is Homer

is completely stoned on medical marijuana.

[upbeat music]

Homer is sentenced to community service

and is forced to become a meals on wheels driver.

Meals on wheels.

Eat it up or I go to jail.

One of his meals on wheels clients

actually guilts him and Marge into becoming her servants.

During a crime wave, Homer creates Springshield,

a private security firm.

I hereby turn over all this town's police duties

to Homer Simpson and Springshield.

Woo-hoo!

[Jack] The mayor then promotes him to chief of police,

where he replaces Wiggum up until the mob almost kills him.

♪ Two test three test four ♪

♪ You test me like the water in El Salvador ♪

In another celebrity guest star heavy episode,

Homer becomes a roadie for several iconic rock stars

when they do a benefit concert.

[upbeat music]

Homer agrees to this gig to help pay off Bart,

and it's kind of perfect for him because if you remember,

he and his dad were actually selling

their homemade Viagra years before

the real product was on the market.

It gives you lots of hair and what you need down there.

After finding out that technically

a canary is the CEO of the power plant,

Homer blackmails Mr. Burns into giving him the job.

Now I need to find a patsy.

Hello.

You're quite the friendly fellow,

but right now I'm looking for a patsy.

Hello.

When he becomes his own boss and becomes a CEO,

he spends less time with his family,

and when he finds himself missing them

he actually gives the job up.

And this goes back to old school Homer

where Homer will choose his family over his job.

And while a lot of the episodes at this point in the show

get very wacky and off-base,

every once in a while the show will remind us

who the original Homer Simpson is,

and they'll show us the old grounded Homer

who will always put his family first.

♪ I'd like to see his house go up in flames ♪

Homer writes a song with David Byrne

called Everybody Hates Ned Flanders,

that becomes wildly popular.

This episode once again shows Homer has

this innate ability to write pop songs,

he writes hits.

♪ If you despise polite left-handers ♪

♪ Then I'll doubt you'll like Ned Flanders ♪

[Jack] Homer quite literally becomes death

and starts reaping souls around Springfield.

Pardon me, coming through, rest in peace,

you're dead, take a dirt nap.

And when God asks him to kill Marge,

this is when he puts his foot down and quits.

After Homer does such a good job

replacing Krusty on the sabbath,

he's given his own talk show and becomes very popular.

Lisa then convinces him to use his power for good

and talk about social issues,

which quickly, of course, makes him lose all his ratings.

This show stinks.

Now you might notice this isn't the first time

Homer has literally replaced Krusty,

And that actually has its origins

way back in the beginning of the show.

If you notice, Krusty looks exactly like Homer,

with just a few changes of color and hair and nose.

And that is because Matt Groening's original intent

was for Krusty the Clown to secretly be Homer's alter ego,

the joke being that Bart's idol was actually his father.

[upbeat music]

Much like the Mr. Plow storyline,

Homer crashes his car and needs to buy a new one,

and in this case he buys a 1950s style ambulance.

And since he has it, he just becomes a paramedic,

it's that easy.

Homer actually becomes a car salesman first.

He needs the job after he gets fired.

Let's get outta here.

I'm not shaking that guy's hand.

They'll be back.

[upbeat music]

And it's there that he buys the ambulance,

basically from himself.

I think this guy's coming onto me.

Four jacks.

Homer actually wins Artie Ziff's company

while they're playing poker,

but this was all part of Artie's plan

because the SEC was actually after him.

So when Homer becomes CEO,

Homer gets arrested for securities fraud.

When Bart goes to juvenile hall,

Homer actually gets a job as a guard

so that he can keep a better eye on him and protect him.

Of course this just makes Bart a bigger target.

[upbeat music]

Superhero.

This episode aired right at the dawn

of the superhero trend in Hollywood,

the big blockbuster superhero movies,

and this one takes its cues from Spider-Man.

Homer becomes Pie Man, where he throws pies

in peoples faces and they even recreate

the iconic upside down kiss with Marge.

[upbeat music]

Prescription drug smuggler.

Homer smuggles prescription drugs from Canada

after Mr. Burns and other town employers

take away everybody's health insurance.

This is the first time in a while

we've seen Homer take on a job

that hearkens way back to the beginning

when he was looking out for the greater good

and the good of his fellow men.

What describes you, sir?

Homer becomes a professional victory dance

choreographer here for celebrities

including Tom Brady and Michelle Kwan.

And he's actually asked to do the Super Bowl half time show.

At last, my pathetic little life has a meaning.

[laughs]

You suckers, I would've done it for free.

Fine, do it for free.

Dammit.

He doesn't really know what to do

so he teams up with Ned and makes a Christian theme show

which immediately gets booed by everybody.

[upbeat music]

Ordained minister.

When Reverend Lovejoy refuses to marry a same sex couple,

Homer seizes the opportunity and gets ordained

from the online ePiscopal Church,

charging gay couples $200 to marry them.

This episode, once again, shows how The Simpsons

is always a reflection of current attitudes in America.

So in season eight there's an episode

called Homer's Phobia, where Homer is homophobic.

Homer, what have you got against gays?

You know, it's not usual.

Here it shows not just how far Homer has come

but how far America has come

in terms of accepting LGBTQ+ couples.

Welcome to Sprawl-Mart.

Sprawl-Mart greeter.

So Homer defending the rights of his

fellow underpaid greeters just shows again

Homer is kind of a working class hero.

Homer, would you be interested

in the position of executive greeter?

Woo-hoo!

That's been my dream ever since

I heard it existed right now.

What do I get?

You get to work overtime without us paying you extra.

I won't do it.

If you don't, we'll ship you right back to Mexico.

The Simpsons Index coined the term parallel import

for when the show decides to use their own knockoff brand

rather than mention a real company or product.

So this use of parallel imports,

the reason I wanna mention it

is because it's very common throughout the show,

especially in the later seasons.

Why they do it, is it because it's just

they have a lot of fun writing stupid puns,

they wanna avoid lawsuits?

One good reason is they probably can use

a fictional company, a fictional name,

to represent not just a specific company

but larger societal ills.

[upbeat music]

Homer pretends to be his sister-in-law Selma's husband

to help her adopt a child in China,

and as part of the rouse Homer says he's an acrobat.

When they put him to the test he actually has to

go on stage and perform acrobatics.

[yelling]

[upbeat music]

Homer becomes a composer and manager for Lisa

as she competes on Lil Star Maker,

which is the show's parallel import of American Idol.

He then becomes the manager for her rival, Cameron,

who he rebrands as...

Johnny Rainbow.

Homer becomes a competitive arm wrestler

when he faces opponents such as Lefty the Righty Left Right.

Look folks, it's season 17, Homer's gonna arm wrestle.

It's where we are now.

Tip 99.

Safety salamander.

Homer becomes a costume mascot that teaches children

to avoid down power lines,

which is a very important lesson to learn.

After rescuing people from a car accident

in his salamander costume,

Homer is pushed to run against Mayor Quimby

in a recall election.

Remember he was once mayor of New Springfield,

he was also made Quimby's bodyguard,

so he's danced around this position before

but he's never quite run for mayor.

He actually loses the election when

people see him out of costume, though.

At this point in the show we're in season 17.

The country itself has become much more polarized,

it resembles where we are now

with the right versus the left.

Even though the show has always touched on politics

and Homer's always kind of been an outsider

and never really a specific republican or democrat,

you'll start to see the show itself

become a little bit more political,

just because it's representing a country

that has become more political.

So it's interesting to see this is

where Homer runs for mayor.

This is really where we start going

from general to specifics,

at least when it comes to politics.

Human advertisement.

Homer starts wearing advertisements

on his physical body to help sell blue pants

for the company that makes his pants.

Basically so that they can stay in business

and keep making the pants he likes.

This is probably a specific reference

to around this time there was a kid walking around college

with advertisements tattooed on his face.

And the show was always quick to point out

kind of weird, crazy things like that.

Homer becomes manager of the power plant

when it's outsourced to India.

When Homer treats his employees well,

Burns is infuriated and moves the plant back to Springfield.

This is another one of those issue episodes

where The Simpsons writers take on outsourcing.

Yello.

Dad?

I gotta write a report on the Great Lakes.

Just outsource it to Lisa.

Outsourcing is the answer to everything.

Homer, please.

Marriage counselor.

A famous baseball player and his pop star wife

ask Homer and Marge to be their marriage counselors.

Wow, I think we really hit on something here.

Unfortunately we're out of time.

This probably isn't the best idea

because Homer's done this before

at the adult education annex

and it nearly cost him his marriage.

And that was part one of each and every job

Homer has had on The Simpsons.

We've got a lot more so please stick around

and stay tuned for part two.