Homer's Phobia

"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! I danced with a gay! Marge, Lisa, promise me you won't tell anyone. Promise me!"

- Homer, after realizing John's sexuality

"Homer's Phobia" is the fifteenth episode of Season 8 and aired on February 16, 1997. The episode was written by Ron Hauge and directed by Mike B. Anderson. John Waters guest stars as John. A shop owner befriends the Simpson family, but after discovering he is a homosexual Homer fears Bart will emulate him.

Plot
After one of Bart's pranks causes the gas pipe to explode, the Simpsons have to find a way to pay the expensive gas bill. They try to use their retirement fund, but when Homer carries it outside, it falls through the ground due to its weight. This causes Marge to want to pawn in her grandmother's priceless Civil War doll. When they try pawning it in at one of the pawn shops at the mall, "Cockamamie's", one of the clerks at the store, named John, informs them that the "priceless" doll, is a Liquor Lad whiskey bottle from the 70's. But despite that, the Simpsons find John witty and invite him over to their house.

At their house, he seems to enjoy kid things like Itchy & Scratchy. Then, he and Homer dance to a record, where he calls Homer "the living end". The next morning Homer tells Marge about how much he likes John. Marge tells him that not only does he probably not have a wife and most likely doesn't go out with women, but that John is homosexual, causing Homer to go into a homophobic state. Marge tells Homer that although he has these tendencies, she still likes him, and he has invited the family for a drive, but Homer refuses to go. When they get back from their enjoyed car ride, Bart shows Homer a zapper gun John gave which Homer remembers being shown before.

Later that day, Homer notices that Bart is showing off strange tendacies such as wearing a Hawaiian shirt that "came out of the closet", choosing pink icing cupcakes over chocolate icing, and repeating some of John's phrases such as "Homer, you are the living end". In bed, Marge notices that there is something worrying Homer. He tells her that Bart is becoming gay, which Marge does not believe. The next day, Homer finds Bart dancing to tropical music while wearing a wig. Homer finds John in the kitchen with Marge and some cactus candy, and tells him that he is making Bart gay, and that he's going to try to fix him.

Homer then drops Bart off near a billboard with two women pillow fighting advertising Laramie cigarettes. He comes back two hours later and Bart tells him that he wants a slim cigarette, informing Homer that his plan failed. He then takes Bart to the Ajax Steel Mill to show Bart real men hard at work and make Bart more manlike, but to Homer's dismay, the mill's manager and all his workers are gay, and at breaks they turn the mill into a gay nightclub. Homer goes to Moe's Tavern and talks to Barney and Moe about this. They suggest that Bart goes out hunting with Homer. He grabs Bart out of John's pawn shop, and he takes him hunting with Barney and Moe. They wait in the woods for hours with not one sight of a deer, so they call it a night. Homer is depressed that wasn't able to change Bart, but Moe drives them to the one place with animals even remotely close to deer: Santa's Village.

Back at the Simpsons' house, John wonders where Homer and Bart went, and Lisa tells him that they went hunting, but John knows that the only deer around in the Winter are reindeer. The group smashes through the gate and find some reindeer. Homer insits that Bart must kill a reindeer, but he refuses. To Homer's disgust, he turns around and expect to see dead reindeer when he looks back again. He hears a shot, but Bart, reluctant of shooting, fired plainly. This causes the deer to go nuts, and they try to attack the group. Barney and Moe hide under the food and water troughs, while Homer and Bart are surrounded by the angry reindeer. Homer sacrifices himself by holding Bart above his head while he is tenderized by the reindeer until a small little robot Santa Claus scares them away. This was apparently good timing of John who was controlling the robot all along and knew that they would be scared off by their "cruel master" Santa Claus. Homer now realizes that gays are not sissies after one of them (John) has saved his life. And Bart now realizes that Homer thought he was gay.

Before the credits roll, the episode is dedicated to all the steel workers of America, still reaching for that rainbow.