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King-Size Homer

Mr. Burns organizes a morning calisthenics program at the nuclear power plant, much to everyone's delight but to the dismay of Homer (the only worker who hates doing five minutes of light aerobic exercise). After learning that someone who is disabled can work from home, and thus be excluded from the exercise program, Homer tries to find a way to achieve this goal. Homer soon discovers that any employee that weighs 300 pounds (136 kg) or more qualifies as disabled, and so he decides to gain the 61 pounds he needs to reach 300. He begins eating excessively, despite Marge and Lisa's repeated warnings that he could seriously endanger his health. With Bart's help, Homer soon reaches his goal, and Mr. Burns installs a stay-at-home work terminal in the Simpson house.

Homer is given simple responsibilities but he still neglects his responsibilities as a safety inspector by simply typing "yes" every time the system prompts him. He also discovers he can no longer fit in his clothes, and he takes up wearing a muumuu as a result. Looking for shortcuts, he leaves his terminal, with a drinking bird to press the Y key to indicate "yes" on the keyboard and goes out to see a film. Refused admission because of his size, Homer is angered after the cinema manager and other members of the public tease him about his appearances. He immediately leaves, claiming that he is not food crazy and that overweight people are as hardworking as anyone else. Returning home, he discovers in his absence that the nodding drinking bird fell over and that a nuclear meltdown is about to take place at the plant unless the system is manually shut down. As he is unable to prevent it via the computer and unable to phone the plant and warn them because his fingers have become too fat to dial properly, Homer tries to run, skateboard, and drive to the plant, all of which fail as a result of his obesity. He eventually gets to the plant by stealing an ice cream truck. Homer arrives at the power plant and climbs up to reach the manual shutdown button, but ends up accidentally falling onto the gas store, blocking the release tube with the oversized lower half of his body and thus preventing the explosion. As a reward for turning the "potential Chernobyl" into a "mere Three Mile Island", Mr. Burns gives Homer a medal and guarantees that he will make Homer thin once more after he gets decontaminated from the tank. But when Homer could not even do one sit-up in their first work-out session, Mr. Burns reluctantly decides to simply pay for liposuction instead, much to Homer's delight.


One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Bluefish

Homer takes his family to the new sushi bar, The Happy Sumo. After sampling most of the items on the menu, he tries sushi made from the fish fugu. The chef in charge is making out with Edna Krabappel, so his apprentice has to slice the fugu, of which certain parts are toxic. He tries to do it carefully, but Homer becomes impatient, only to have it served and become unsure if the poisonous portions have been removed. Homer considers it a treat, but the chef soon returns and believes that the fish has not been prepared correctly and tells Homer that he may have been poisoned. Homer and Marge go to the hospital, where Dr. Hibbert informs Homer that based on a chat he had with the sushi chef, Homer is found out that he has increased likeliness of death and has 22 hours left to live. At night with Marge by his side, he decides not to tell his children about the bad news and makes a list of all the things he wants to do before death.

On his last day, after oversleeping, Homer attempts to do all the things on his list. He has a man-to-man talk with Bart, listens to Lisa play her saxophone, and borrows Ned Flanders's camcorder to make a video for Maggie that she can look at when she is older. Homer finally reconciles with his father, which takes up far more time than he expects and forces him to give up doing some of the things on his list. After trying to catch up on time he lost doing these things, Homer is arrested for speeding. He calls Barney, who is asked to pay $50 to bail him out. After being acquitted, he tells off his boss Mr. Burns and has one last drink at Moe's Tavern with his friends, causing him to miss dinner with his waiting family. He then hurries home in time to say goodbye to his children and make love to Marge.

At midnight, Homer quietly gets out of bed, visits each family member, who are all asleep, and says goodbye. Feeling glum, he goes to the living room and listens to Larry King read the Bible on tape. The tape plays out to which suddenly his head drops and it appears he has succumbed to the poison. Marge awakens the next morning and is panicked that her husband is not by her side. She runs downstairs and finds Homer, collapsed in the armchair. As she mourns, she realizes that his drool is still warm. She wakes him up and drums in the fact that he is alive and had not been poisoned after all. Homer then prances around in an overjoyed state and vows to live life to its fullest. Back to living his normal life, Homer returns to the couch watching a bowling tournament and eating pork rinds.

This is one of the toughest ones yet. King-Size Homer has some really funny moments, but One Fish... is one of the most effectively heartfelt episodes in the series; watching Homer try to wrap up loose ends, only to get caught up spending the entire day with his dad, is really touching.

Pound-for-pound, I'd say One Fish...is the stronger episode. Less laughs, but genuine emotion throughout. King-Size Homer has some great laughs, but there are some dead spots in the ep too.

King Size Homer is absurd, but it's ridiculously funny, and non stop terrific sequences and lines will trump sentiment every time.

"I don't want to look like a weirdo. I'll just go with the muumuu."