The Simpsons (animation)/Recap/S03/E01 Stark Raving Dad

It's morning again in Springfield, and Lisa wakes Bart up by pinching his nose shut until his struggle to breathe becomes too much for him. Her ulterior motive is to remind him that her birthday's coming up, in hopes that she'll finally get a decent present from him.

Homer is aghast to find all his white work shirts turned pink, thanks to Bart's lucky red hat slipping into the washday bundle of whites, and with no other choice wears one to work. He naturally stands out amongst his coworkers, and when Mr. Burns sees this on a security camera feed, he suspects that Homer may not be a sane man. Dr. Marvin Monroe assigns Homer a personality test that will determine his sanity or lack thereof, but Homer (never one for tests) desides to pawn off responsibility for completing it on Bart when both Marge and Lisa refuse. Bart answers every question "yes", and Homer is declared insane and shipped off to the local asylum.

Homer's roommate is an obese, bald man who's as yellow as he -- but he claims to be, and sounds exactly like, Michael Jackson. Homer does not know who Jackson is, so he isn't put off by this stranger's claims, and they become friends. As the days pass, with "Michael" as his guide and support, Homer is put into therapy but doctors are put off by his wild rages whenever he is reminded of Bart (whom he holds responsible for his institutionalization). Eventually, when Marge convinces them that Bart is real, Homer's behavior is explained and he is declared "Not Insane" (complete with certificate).

"Michael" is only in the asylum voluntarily (owing to depression over the lack of Grammy nominations for Off the Wall) and Homer and Marge invite him to dinner at their house. Unfortunately, Bart does know who Michael Jackson is and when Homer calls ahead to let him know about their plans, he quickly spreads word of their celebrity visitor to all of Springfield. The gathered crowds at their house are understandably underwhelmed when Homer, still unaware of what's going on, introduces "Michael" to them. Bart bears the brunt of the departing crowd's anger for his apparent hoax, but soon finds himself saddled with more-deserved guilt as well. Today was Lisa's birthday, and despite all her hopes and reminders, she didn't receive any gift from Bart at all.

"Michael", concerned, offers to help Bart write a song for Lisa; although the boy is bitter over his starstruck hopes being crushed, he realizes that "Michael" means well and overnight they compose "Lisa, It's Your Birthday", which they perform for her come sunrise. She's delighted, the rift is mended...and "Michael" drops his voice to reveal he's actually Leon Kompowsky, a New Jersey bricklayer who found meaning in his life when he discovered his talent for mimicking Jackson's voice and moves, which made others happy. The Simpson family wishes him a fond farewell as he heads out into the morning.

This episode contains examples of:

 * But Now I Must Go: "Michael", at the end.
 * Comically Missing the Point: During a therapy session, a man suffering from agoraphobia speaks about his experiences. As he talks about the first time being unable to leave the house, however, Homer keeps interrupting him to ask if it was because it was raining or if the car was out of gas.
 * Forgotten Birthday: Bart forgets Lisa's, which only compounds her loneliness because Marge is preoccupied with Homer's release from the asylum that day.
 * The Parody: Homer enjoys an America's Funniest Home Videos-type show where the finalists are the clips "Man Breaks Hip", "Dog on Fire", and "Baby with a Nail Gun".
 * Pun-Based Title: The episode title is a play on the phrase "stark raving mad".
 * Real Men Wear Pink: Bart put his red hat in with the whites, making all of Homer's shirts pink. Homer didn't want to wear a pink shirt - not because he considers it unmanly, but because everyone else wears white shirts and he's "not popular enough to be different." His co-workers make fun of him, while Mr. Burns thinks he's up to no good. One psych form later, and he gets institutionalized.
 * Unintentional Period Piece: The unbridled excitement surrounding the prospect of the real life Michael Jackson coming to an North American town dates the episode to pre-August 1993. After Jackson was accused of child molestation in '93 and chose to settle the matter out of court, his reputation in the U.S. was permanently soiled, with his increasingly erratic and eccentric behavior overshadowing his fame as a musician. Tellingly, four seasons later Negative Continuity results in Bart (an unabashed fan of Jackson here) telling Milhouse in "Bart Sells His Soul" that Jackson is, like the boogeyman, a fiction that adults use to scare children.