Original air date: 3/25/2007
Production code: JABF-06
After selling a photo of Duffman dating Booberella (when Duffman is supposed to be in a committed homosexual relationship), Homer becomes a paparazzo and starts a war with the town celebrities.
This episode is notable for being one of the first episodes with a very long Couch Gag (clocking in at nearly two minutes), in which Homer goes through human evolution just to reach the couch.
Tropes:
- Ageless Birthday Episode: The episode begins on Homer's birthday. He's unable to blow out the candles, leading to a fire that nearly destroys the house. It's never stated how old Homer is turning this year. However, Homer's age has been given on the show before; he's 38 in "We're on the Road to D'ohwhere", "MyPods and Boomsticks", "The Winter of His Content", and 40 in "Springfield Up" from earlier this season.
- All There in the Script: The fireman who advises the family to buy a fireproof safe is given the name "Flint Drywall" in the script and FXX captions. His name's never given in the episode.
- Big "NO!": Bart when his mother puts a baby bonnet on him to restage his lost babyhood photos.
- Brick Joke: When Homer takes photos of Paris Texan and Bart, the last one features her kissing Bart. Later, when Homer uses Moe's camera at a celebrity party, one of the photos features Paris kissing Milhouse.
- Continuity Cavalcade: At one point, Homer takes photos of several celebrities who appeared in previous episodes, such as Paul McCartney and Elton John.Homer: Look at them all. I’ve met them and yet they don’t acknowledge my existence. (Betty White comes up to talk to him).
- Continuity Nod: The events of "Deep Space Homer" are recalled when Marge comments on the fact NASA sent him back to space to restage the experience.
- Contrived Coincidence: Moe keeps a camera "to take secret photos in the ladies' toilet" but no dames ever show up at his bar so he decides to let Homer borrow it. As soon as Homer takes the camera away, two beautiful women show up and ask for the ladies' room because they need to trade bras and panties.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: When the family sees smoke coming out of their safe, Homer gives a surprisingly accurate guess on what's happening (Bart's Krusty Doll triggering the headlights of Lisa's car which overheats Homer's cologne causing it to soon explode), but the others dismiss it...until the safe does explode.
- Fantasy Twist: When told that he could be moderately wealthy, Homer imagines himself rolling on top of a couple of handfuls of money, saying "I'm almost rich! I can rent anything I want!"
- Heel Realization: Homer realizes what his paparazzi activities have been doing to the celebrities after listening to Lenny and Carl badmouth their favorite stars for trying to have a life instead of catering to their fans every whim.
- Insult to Rocks: Homer's failure to blow out the candles on his birthday cake prompts Lisa to point out that, even for an American, he's really out of shape. And to elaborate further, the candles on Homer's birthday cake weren't those trick candles that you can't blow out—they were candles that are supposedly easier to blow out than regular candles.
- Irony:
- Rainier Wolfcastle invites some of his fellow celebrities and comments that Krusty the Clown's email reply was the least funny. Justified because the reply included an attached photograph that didn't appear.
- Earlier in the episode, the items that the family put into the fireproof safe end up setting themselves on fire.
- Jury Duty: One of the photos showing Homer in a bad light featured him burning his "jury duty" notice.
- Lead In: The plot about the paparazzi doesn't start until someways into the episode. The events leading up to the plot entail Homer accidentally setting the house on fire while trying to blow out his birthday candles, Marge getting a fireproof safe (only for the items inside to somehow get set on fire, including the photo album), the rest of the family cheering up Marge by restaging all their old photos, and the family looking through their new photo album together, at which point they spot a celebrity on a date in the background (one who is apparently cheating on their partner). When Homer sells the scandalous photo to the press, the paparazzi plot finally gets underway.
- Literal Metaphor:
- When the editor of The Springfield Inquisitor said one of Homer's photographs had "Page one" written all over it, he meant it literally. Homer said he did that to remember what page he left off on for a book he was reading.
- Also, Marge's speech about tasting one's own medicine led Homer to throwing away real medicine.
- Living Toy: Bart's talking Krusty doll appears to have some sapience as it begs Marge not to shut the safe.
- Noodle Incident: The fire department has apparently come to the Simpsons' home numerous times. One of the fires Homer caused was deliberate because he wanted to cover he had made a false alarm.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Bart's talking Krusty doll has a "mother-in-law" mode.
- Oh, Crap!: Homer, Lisa, and Bart freak when the restaged photos are shredded by the lawnmower, believing they'll have to do them all over again. Fortunately, this time, Marge had duplicates made.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: Marge wrote a script and Rainier Wolfcastle stole it, but Marge doesn't care, as the film got made either way. Also, the talking Krusty doll Bart had earlier in the episode had a "stolen jokes" mode.
- Playing a Tree: Bart once played a mighty oak for a school play.
- Tempting Fate: When the Simpsons' "Precious Memories" album is destroyed by fire, Lisa tries to comfort Marge by commenting that they can't "restage all our family photos". Upon seeing Marge's reaction, Bart accuses Lisa of dooming them all.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Homer does this to the celebrities after telling him he won't reveal the embarrassing photos he took of them, having finally realized that they have just as much of a right to privacy as regular people do.
- Would Hurt a Child: Paris Texas has no qualms about beating ten-year-old Bart with a plastic bottle, and then inexplicably grabbing the little boy and kissing him.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Moe says this word-for-word when two beautiful women come into the bar asking to use the ladies' room to exchange bras and panties, just after he had given his peeping camera to Homer. He's so upset that he actually snaps the beer bottle he's holding in two.
