The Simpsons: 10 Times Homer Really Should Have Died

4. Locked In A Sensory Deprivation Tank

Now and then, Homer really does try to make up for his lack of parenting skills - it's just a shame they usually result in him being severely injured in some way. His relationship with Lisa often sees him subject himself to major punishment, especially when he agrees to seal himself inside a sensory deprivation tank. "Make Room For Lisa" sees Homer take his prodigious daughter to a new age healer to make up for letting a cellphone mast be built in her bedroom. The pair enter sensory deprivation tanks where Lisa is enjoying her out-of-body experiences, but Homer's journey is a little less spiritual. His tanks is repossessed, but falls off the truck and mistaken for a coffin by the Flanders', who bury it deep in the ground - too close to a pipe, which collapses and Homer is washed out to sea before returning to shore on the tide (where Ralph Wiggum thinks it's a whale egg). Unable to protect himself, this really ought to have been the end of Homer. Falling off the truck may have seen him run over by a passing car, whilst being buried should surely have ended with him suffocating inside the tank. He was incredibly fortunate not to drown, as the tide could easily have swept him out to sea rather than back to land.