Homer's Evolution couch gag

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Homer's Evolution couch gag

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Homer's Evolution couch gag
Couch Gag Information
Duration	1 minute, 10 seconds
First Appearance	Homerazzi

Homer's Evolution is the twelfth couch gag of Season 18.

Plot

A single-celled organism, resembling Homer, separates into a lot of cells (all of them yelling "D'oh!") and eventually turns into a jellyfish and then into a fish-like creature and swims onto land, avoiding an octopus Mr. Burns who tries to catch him. It grows legs and turns into an amphibian that eats a dragonfly-like Lenny. He walks along and keeps evolving from a dimetrodon to a primitive mammal as he sees dinosaurs and a pteranodon resembling Agnes Skinner; a tyrannosaurus Rex resembling Bart tries to eat him, and a stegosaurus resembling Lisa prevents Bart from eating Homer by swiping at him with her tail. After surviving the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, Homer continues jumping from tree to tree to become an ape. He becomes a caveman walking in a snow storm, while another caveman Moe, devolves into a small, shrew-like animal as he walks the other way. Caveman Homer then evolves into different eras of mankind, from a medieval nomad to a Spanish conquistador to a Pilgrim to a Victorian gentleman, and finally, to the bald, dim-witted modern man. He gets to his house and sits on the couch, when Marge asks him what took him so long (or, in the case of the second airing, if he brought home any milk). Homer sighs in exhaustion.

Behind the Laughter

• The "Homer Evolution" couch gag is the longest couch gag in the standard definition (SD) episodes. It used to be the longest couch gag overall (covering both the standard-definition episodes and the high-definition episodes), beating out both the "Chorus Line/Circus Extravaganza" couch gag from the early episodes and the "Powers of Ten" couch gag from "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner," until the infamous "Rick and Morty Couch Gag" from the season 26 finale "Mathele's Feat" surpassed it.
• Two versions of this couch gag exists with different endings: the versions shown on "Homerazzi" and "Mona Leaves-a" had Marge asks Homer, "What took you so long?" after Homer evolves into his modern self, comes home, and sits down on the couch. The second version, which was only shown on "The Homer of Seville" had Marge asks, "Did you bring the milk?", though the closed captions/subtitles have the original "What took you so long?" line.

Previous Episode References

• And Maggie Makes Three and Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade: A couch gag where Homer is featured heavily (the James Bond opening where Homer shoots at the barrel of the gun/the spoof of Get Smart/Homer's evolving to his modern self).
• The Monkey Suit: Homer is compared to a prehistoric ape man.
• Treehouse of Horror VIII ("Easy Bake Coven") and "The Wettest Stories Ever Told": Homer is a Pilgrim.
• Bart's Comet: A comet comes and destroys (or attempts to destroy) all life.
• Lisa's First Word and The Ziff Who Came to Dinner: The last two episodes that had long couch gags.
• Pygmoelian: Moe's appearance is compared to a rat's and a caveman's (has rat eyes and a caveman brow/is seen as a caveman before devolving into a rat-like creature).
• In Marge We Trust and Treehouse of Horror XI ("Scary Tales Can Come True"): Homer has a fish head (on the Mr. Sparkle logo/when the witch turns him into different animals/during his evolution).
  • "Treehouse of Horror XI" ("Scary Tales Can Come True") only: Homer is a medieval villager/Arthurian man.

Character Appearances

• Homer Simpson
• Marge Simpson
• Santa's Little Helper (sleeping)
• Bart Simpson (also as a Tyrannosaurus Rex)
• Lisa Simpson (also as a Stegosaurus)
• Maggie Simpson
• Moe Szyslak (devolving from a caveman to a rat)
• Agnes Skinner (as a pteranodon)
• Mr. Burns (as an octopus)
• Lenny (as a dragonfly)

Prehistoric Creatures

• Single-Celled Organism (Homer)
• Jellyfish (Homer)
• Trilobite
• Primitive Cephalopod (Mr. Burns)
• Haikouichthys (Homer)
• Amphibian-like Fish (Homer)
• Proterogyrinus (Homer)
• Dimetrodon (Homer)
• Meganeura (Lenny)
• Parasaurolophus
• Brachiosaurus
• Pteranodon (Agnes Skinner)
• Tyrannosaurus Rex (Bart)
• Stegosaurus (Lisa)
• Purgatorius (Homer and Moe)
• Adalatherium (Homer)
• Apidium (Homer and Moe)
• Australopithecus (Homer and Moe)
• Cro-Magnon (Homer and Moe)

Gallery

Trivia

• The scene where “B.Rex” & “Stegolisa” were briefly fighting is similar to the Dinosaur sequence in The Rite of Spring in Disney’s Fantasia.
• The Godzilla roar could be heard from “Stegolisa” when she fights “B. Rex”.

Appearances

• Episode – "Homerazzi" (ends with Marge asking Homer, "What took you so long?")
• Episode – "The Homer of Seville" (ends with Marge asking Homer, "Did you bring any milk?")
• Episode – "Mona Leaves-a" (ends with Marge asking Homer, "What took you so long?")
• Episode – "At Long Last Leave" (Snapshot montage with other episode's gags)