Homerpalooza

After the school bus is destroyed at the auto wrecking yard, Homer is forced to drive his (and other) kids to school. Along the way, he listens to a classic rock radio station that plays "Shinin' On" by Grand Funk Railroad and is shocked to discover that all of the kids hate it, and have never heard of them. After several more days of the kids hating his music (which Bart calls "dinosaur bands"), Homer visits a music store and realizes that what he likes is no longer considered cool. As a result, Homer decides to take Bart and Lisa to the Hullabalooza music festival. At the festival, Homer tries to act cool by wearing a Rastafarian hat, but all he does is humiliate himself and is confronted by an angry crowd of Generation Xers who mistake him for a narc. After being tossed out by the crowd, Homer angrily kicks a cannon, which shoots one of Peter Frampton's inflatable pigs (purchased at "Pink Floyd's yard sale") at his stomach. The festival head is impressed and Homer is hired as a part of the festival's freak show.

As a result, Homer gets to go on tour with the festival and hangs out with The Smashing Pumpkins, Cypress Hill and Sonic Youth. Homer suddenly finds himself living the high life: partying with big name rock stars and becoming respected among American youth, including Bart. As the tour approaches a stop in Springfield, Homer's stomach begins to hurt and he is sent to a veterinarian. The veterinarian advises Homer that if he performs his act one more time, his stomach will burst and he will die. Homer shrugs this news off, not wanting to lose his popularity. At first he decides to do his job, but at the last second he loses his nerve and dodges the cannonball. Consequently, he is released from the festival and, despite a warm sendoff from the rock stars, goes back to not being respected by his children

Bart Gets Famous

Bart goes on a class field trip to a box factory. He gets bored with the tour and escapes from the class to go to the Channel 6 TV studio nearby, where he encounters Krusty the Clown. Krusty is angry that his assistant has failed to get him a Danish, as Bart had eaten it, and fires his assistant on the spot. Bart steals a Danish from Kent Brockman and gives it to Krusty, who becomes grateful and asks him to become his new assistant. Bart soon gets disillusioned with being Krusty's assistant because the cast members do not treat him well and he does not receive any credit for his work. However, before Bart decides to quit, Krusty offers to let him say one line in a sketch when Sideshow Mel is unavailable thanks to Bart giving him a sandwich with cheese which triggers his lactose intolerance. Bart messes up his lines and stumbles, accidentally destroying all of the props on the stage. With the crowd and cameras focused on him, he exclaims "I didn't do it", which causes the audience to erupt with laughter. Seeing Bart's popularity, Krusty uses him and his "I didn't do it" catchphrase in later sketches, and eventually creates a franchise out of it.

Bart and his catchphrase continue to be popular, while Krusty creates a wide array of merchandise featuring Bart's likeness. Bart becomes sick of his fame and begins to fear that the fad will wear off, so he tries to expand his act and personality during an interview on Conan O'Brien's late-night talk show, to no avail. Bart decides to stop performing, but Marge convinces him that he should continue because he makes people happy. Bart arrives at Krusty's show and enthusiastically delivers his line, but the audience is bored with the line and does not react. With fans no longer interested in Bart, Krusty ditches him.

Marge gives Bart a box of items she kept during his stint as a celebrity to help him remember this time of his life. Lisa says that she is glad that "Bart can go back to just being himself, instead of a one-dimensional character with a silly catchphrase." The Simpson family — along with Barney Gumble, Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, and Nelson Muntz — then recite their respective catchphrases, prompting an unamused Lisa to go to her room.

Real Talk: I don't think Homerpalooza is a very good episode.

Me neither. It has one of my favorite all-time visual gags (the bus refusing to go to either Cincinatti or Cleveland, which I've posted in many other threads), but most of the rest is pretty thin. Bart Gets Famous is almost a little too meta, but it has some good stuff.

Bart Gets Famous is one of the show's best episodes.

I love Homerpalooza. You guys are nuts.