1. Eating Radioactive Waste, Surviving A Suicide Attempt & Being Swept Out To Sea
Homer has a great many character flaws - greed, laziness, selfishness and stupidity - and all of these combine mercilessly in "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" in order to finally bump Homer off. Of course, he manages to survive the entire episode thanks to sheer luck - and a little help from Maggie. After being forced to eat barrels of toxic waste as punishment for being 26 hours late for work (which he didn't even mind eating), Homer joins Lenny and Carl for a game of bowling - lying to Marge so he doesn't have to have a tea party with Maggie. He bowls a perfect 300 game, which turns him into a minor celebrity but leads to a suicide attempt when his fame wears off. He jumps off a building but grabs onto Otto who is bungee jumping at the same time, and survives the fall. Homer then realises what's important to him and focuses his attention on his children, but his efforts at parenthood are too little, too late for Bart and Lisa. He tries to bond with Maggie by taking her swimming but she doesn't trust him enough to enter the swimming pool. On the drive home, they stop off at the beach for a swim where Homer is swept out to sea. He tries holding his breath and running along the sea bed to shore, but his lack of fitness tells. Maggie summons the courage to swim out to Homer and save him: we later learn that babies can develop superhuman strength when a parent is in danger. If Homer should have died in any episode, this was it. There is just no way a man could eat radioactive waste, or survive a bungee jump with too much weight for the cord, or even have his infant daughter save him from drowning. But it's clear that no matter what Homer does, he's destined never to die just because the writers, and the fans, and - yes - the whole world, love him so much. Hooray! Like this article? Have we missed a notable near-death experience? Let us know in the comments section below.
