This episode has to be one of the funniest simpsons episodes of all time. Even at the funeral Homer takes the attention lmao.
shareI've heard some people don't like it because they make Homer too unlikeable in it
I like to think Franks reaction is just how any "normal" person would seeing him.
Although the quick scene of Homer chewing on the pencils (with some stuffed down his socks!) always makes me laugh
The idea, I think, was to introduce a 'realistic real-world character' into the 'cartoony world' of The Simpsons.
Frank Grimes is supposed to basically be 'the viewer', just as 'Scott' is in the Austin Powers-movies - no one in the audience really 'gets it', why the stupid villains have to always use ridiculous ways of trying to kill James Bond instead of just shootin him in the face (I mean, in-Universe, there is no legitimate reason, it's all done for 'filmmaking' reasons, for example, 'so the movie can happen')
However, the problem is, they made Frank Grimes a bit too unlikable, a bit too much of a jerk. I heard the voice actor tried to mimic the guy that plays the most hateable character in 'Fargo' (the movie), but I think he created his own 'Frank' voice that's perfect for the character.
Frank pretty much never smiles or has happy moments, so the episode is very dark. There are many dark moments in this show, but this is one of the most depressing ones - it basically shows there are people that no matter how much they try, how hard they work, they will never gain any kind of valuable success or high position in life, they will just keep failing and struggling on multiple levels, and it can only end in death.
What makes it funny is how clueless homer is to Frank's pain (that we, the audience, feel a bit too strongly), and keeps sort of 'uninentionally' making fun of Frank. It's also funny how his 'casual, easy-mode' life that yet ends up being an unrealistic success EXACTLY because it's a cartoon is juxtaposed to Frank's more realistic life struggles that the audience can relate to much more.
It's almost as if Homer is making fun of us, but at the same time, we want to root for Homer, because he's an innocent, family-loving guy just wanting to live his life in a fun and satisfying way. It's sort of self-irony that the show underlines just how RIDICULOUS it would be for a Homerlike man to actually achieve all that Homer has - poking fun at 'cartoon'...
This episode is a bit of mixed bag in my opinion. It kind of tugs your hearstrings while being unbelievably dark and depressing at the same time, and yet it makes you laugh due to how surreal Homer's success is really shown to be, and how that kind of Homer could never exist in real life without him being super SUPER lucky or basically a God of some kind.
Frank's confusion and frustration are very understandable, but because the audience knows more than Frank ever could, we also feel a bit helpless, wanting to help Frank understand and wanting to explain the true reason for all that to him, but knowing deep down, we never could, and he could never understand. How do you explain the concept of 'video game' to some RGP NPC?
Frank would probably be even more shocked, if he knew he's just a tool character in a long-running cartoon that has gone to very weird places and ridiculous achievements are just a byproducts of all that. Frank, just like the whole show, exists to entertain a TV audience, and that's the truth Frank could never understand or swallow.
So it's 'just as well' that he dies the way he does, without ever quite understanding the cause of his frustration, without ever quite reaching any kind of success he always wanted, without ever being able to even coming close to being able to compete with Homer, even though Frank is more intelligent, harder-working, more determined, has faced more hardships and struggles, and has basically all kinds of good qualities Homer doesn't.
It's like some people can never rise very high in some MMORPG PvP ranks no matter how hard they try, and it can stay a mystery to them why, because no one will tell them the core truth, and the super highly-ranked people seem to be just idiotic goofballs, just like anyone else, and yet they somehow succeed in things and on a level someone more intelligent can never even dream to.
Frank is the frustration in all of us when we see someone succeed in things we can't even become good at.
This episode is on one hand very good and interesting, as it devicates STRONGLY from the usual The Simpsons-stuff. It brings the audience awfully, uncomfortably close to the depressing reality we all live in, while contrasting this dark, grimy reality with the cartoony, wacky and fun life of a cartoon character. We can't understand why we can't live as good a life as Homer, even though Homer seems to be just another dim-witted goofy guy.
The good points of this episode are, it's very 'different' from pretty much anything else, it's more 'realistic' than any episode usually dares to be, it shows us something about ourselves and the corporate world, but also pokes fun at the cartoony side of these cartoons - the fact that cartoons HAVE to be somewhat unrealistic to be entertaining is heavily underlined here. Obviously the acting job is phenomenal as well for everyone involved, the idea is unique and brave, the execution is brilliant and so on.
This is an amazing episode.
However, the bad points.. it ends a bit too dark, a bit too abruptly - they simply kill the 'realistic character' so the cartoony stuff can keep going. They basically mock and insult the audience for wanting even slightly more realistic 'nuclear powerplant' and the worst thing - this episode leaves you feeling bad.
The bad feeling you have at the end of this episode - no matter how fun and funny you think it was, no matter how much you enjoyed it - there's a deep truth about this episode that hurts on such a fundamental level, you can't help but feel at least a bit 'uneasy' after watching it. You may even come to some realizations about reality, but the awful feeling lingers, it stays.. the more you think of Frank, the worse you feel, because in some 'too real' ways, Frank is YOU.
This makes this episode basically a horror movie, an unexpected punch to your gut, something to shake you off your complacency, but also something to plunge you deep into despair about 'what's the point'.