The Simpsons: Every Season 1 Episode Ranked

There’s one moment from this episode which fans remember best – the shock therapy sequence. It’s one of the earliest examples of a proper laugh-out-loud slapstick scene in which The Simpsons continuously abuse the electric buttons to hurt each other. This iconic scene was ahead of its time, crisply animated and really belongs later in the show, around the Season 4-6 era. In fact, this scene even managed to feature in Die Hard 2, that’s how incredible it was.

But the most amusing part of There’s No Disgrace Like Home is the odd characterization of The Simpsons Family, particularly Homer. Obviously, this is not intentional but when you know how different The Simpsons turned out to be, it becomes accidentally funny. It begins with the family attending Mr Burns’ company picnic.

In a full 180, it’s Homer who wants to show a sense of decorum and poise. As it is his boss’ event, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt (for now). Meanwhile, Marge makes a fool of herself as she is intoxicated – something she’d be so against Homer doing in any other episode - whilst Lisa is a duplicate of her brother and causes the same levels of mayhem as he does. The only one not acting out of the ordinary is Bart.

Fast forward a few scenes and Homer’s charade of wanting to keep up a good family image continues. He never drops the issue – he forces the family go explore the neighbourhood just to prove how much better each household is in comparison to his family as well as badmouthing his wife and children during his prayers to the Lord. But strangest of all is that Homer was most keen to pawn off the TV in order to pay for therapy sessions – his beloved TV which he treats like a fourth child.

It’s all very odd to view from a modern perspective when we’ve gotten to know the family so well over the decades and Homer choosing to sell the TV is just something that would NEVER happen. In hindsight though, the characterization really doesn’t matter because when fans think of There’s No Disgrace Like Home, they’ll probably only remember the brilliant Clockwork Orange-esque shock therapy scene.