The Homer They Fall vs. King Size Homer

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The Homer They Fall

The Simpsons visit a high-tech gadget store and Bart buys a gimmicky utility belt from Comic Book Guy for $4. He shows off its features to his classmates until he is beaten up by Dolph, Jimbo and Kearney, who steal the belt. In response, Homer decides to talk with the bullies' fathers at Moe's Tavern, but he is also beaten; however, they are unnerved when they cannot even knock Homer down, and are then chased away by a shotgun-wielding Moe.

Moe is impressed by Homer's ability to absorb severe punishment and suggests he take up boxing, with Moe – a former boxer himself – as his trainer and manager. Marge is annoyed by the idea, but a medical test diagnoses Homer with a rare genetic abnormality effectively rendering him near-invulnerable to knockout punches. However, while training, it is discovered that Homer is a weak puncher, and is extremely out of shape. Moe strategizes that Homer should stand still in the ring and let his opponents exhaust themselves trying to knock him out, and then knock them down with a tap. Marge insists that Homer get a physical by a competent doctor, hoping he won't pass the requirements for a boxing license. However, Homer easily passes the state requirement to box, wrestle or "be shot out of a cannon", as the state Springfield is in had apparently been founded by circus freaks.

Homer does well in his first fights, mainly because he's competing in Springfields "hobo fight" circuit, against opponents almost as out of shape as he is. At every match, he follows Moe's advice and starts to gain widespread attention, eventually becoming the top ranked fighter in the Springfield Hobo Boxing Association. Moe's former boxing manager, Lucius Sweet visits Moe and announces that the current Heavyweight Champion, Drederick Tatum is being released from prison and is ready for a comeback fight, and Sweet wants Tatum to fight Homer. Tatum has become infamous for scoring one-punch knockouts in his opening move, resulting in matches to which last only a few seconds. Lucius hopes that due to Homer's fame as a human punching bag, he will at least be able to endure a few rounds before being bludgeoned unconscious. Moe, despite knowing full well that Tatum is far too strong for a fighter of Homer's ability, still wants to take his last shot at the big time and promises Sweet that Homer will last three rounds with Tatum.

Tatum is paroled and the media begins hyping the fight. The odds against Homer are 1000–1 and everybody believes that Homer will lose. Even Homer himself visualizes that the only way he could win is if a heart defect fells Tatum before entering the ring. Marge makes Moe promise her that the moment Homer is in any danger, he will throw in the towel. But after Marge leaves, Moe throws away the towel in a garbage can.

The fight starts and it is soon obvious that Homer cannot withstand Tatum's fearsome barrage and is in danger of being knocked out within six seconds. Homer decides to fight back, but misses completely. Moe, seeing Homer get destroyed, flees. As Tatum readies himself to deliver the final blow, Moe flies in using the Fan Man's paramotor and carries Homer away, saving him. Outside the arena, Marge thanks Moe for saving Homer and Tatum shows respect for the love Moe showed for Homer. Sweet declares that Moe will always be a loser, but still gives him a check for $100,000. Moe starts up the Fanman's paramotor and flies off into the night, during the credits he is seen helping people around the world with the paramotor.

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.

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King Size Homer is really the only possible choice to make here

[Norah]

King Size Homer is really the only possible choice to make here

I don't know about that.

[stip]

yeah but there's lots of things you don't know that are still true.

[Norah]

If only this was one of them.

[stip]

Fortunately it is!

[tragabigzanda]

King Size Homer is really the only possible choice to make here

Agreed.

[Simple Torture]

These are both good with nice narrative arcs. I'll be voting for King Size Homer because I have warmer feelings for it, but if I watched them both now I'm not sure which I'd laugh at more.

[Norah]

All us angels wear Farah slacks.