S01EP010 Homer's Night Out

Homer's Night Out
Air Date: March 25, 1990
Production Episode: 7G10
Written by: Jon Vitti
Directed by: Rich Moore

Jon Vitti's second episode, we cover familiar sitcom territory with the stag party gone wrong trope. Bart purchases a spy camera in the mail, and while out to dinner, happens to catch a photo of Homer dancing with a stripper at a bachelor party taking place at the same restaurant. The photo circulates throughout Springfield, and when Marge finds out she kicks Homer out of the house. Eventually she has him apologize to the woman to teach Bart that women are not objects. After tracking her down and apologizing, Homer falls onto the stage and makes an impassioned speech about treating women as people.

We start off seeing a callback to "Homer's Odyssey", where Bart's piggybank was smashed by Homer. Here it's taped back together when Bart breaks it. Six months after placing the order for the spy camera, we see the first appearance of the rarely seen (only four appearances over twenty seasons) mail carrier.

Rewinding a bit, the episode starts off with Homer laughing about his assistant, who six months later is his supervisor, and marrying a fellow co-worker. Homer heads off to the bachelor party, and Marge takes the kids out to dinner at the Rusty Barnacle. The Rusty Barnacle only appears this one time, although it is similar to The Frying Dutchman, the sea captain's restaurant.

We see Lenny and Carl at the bachelor party for the first time, speaking roles and all. Unfortunately, we don't see much else, other than the fact that they're Homer's work friends. It might seem like the bachelor and his father are familiar, but they're one off characters. The stripper arrives, and we get our first appearance of Shawna Tifton, also known as Princess Kashmir. This is actually the most we ever see of her, as she is later reduced to a background character in strip clubs, celebrity scenes, or when someone needs to be dating a random woman other than Edna Krabappel. 

Bart ends up wandering into the party room and snaps a photo of Homer dancing with Princess Kashmir. We then move to the Springfield Elementary Photographer's Club, and the second speaking appearance of Martin Prince, who was introduced in "Bart the Genius", also written by Jon Vitti. The kids convince Bart to share the photo, which quickly gets around town.

We see Lovejoy for the second time, with a mention of his wife. Apu shows up at the Kwik E Mart again, claiming that Homer looks familiar. At this point he's a random store clerk. Later episodes retcon his relationship with Homer to go back before the start of the series. We also see Mr. Burns asking Homer for help finding a lady, a plot setup that we see many times during the series.

Marge kicks Homer out for the first of many, many times when she finds the picture. It's almost silly this time, given how absurd his antics get later on. Eventually she lets him back in and makes him go apologize to Princess Kashmir and show Bart that she's not just a sex object. Homer finds her at the good old Off Ramp Inn, performing in a show. She's doing a cage dance, and Homer accidentally stays in while it's being raised up, and falls onto the stage, interrupting a performance by Gulliver Dark, whom you might recognize as Tito Puente's singer in "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)".

We're treated to a rather racist sounding song about all the types of women he'd be willing to have sex with despite being Chinese, Eskimo, or Finn. Homer joins in before having a crisis of conscience. He stops the song and delivers an impassioned speech about respecting women as people and not just things to look at. Marge shows up and hugs him, we all feel good, and nobody questions that Bart was just given a tour of Springfield's strip clubs. Or that Gulliver's song was really, really racist. Seriously.