Homer Defined - Reception and Analysis

Reception and Analysis

In its original airing on the Fox network, the episode acquired a 12.7 Nielsen rating and was viewed in approximately 11.69 million homes. It finished the week of October 14–20, 1991, ranked 36th, down from the season's average rank of 32nd. It ranked second in its timeslot behind The Cosby Show, which finished 24th with a 15.5 rating. The episode was tied with In Living Color as the highest rated show on Fox that week.

"Homer Defined" has received generally positive reviews from critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, described it as an excellent episode that added new depth to the show in the scene with Marge trying to convince Luann to let Milhouse play with Bart again. They added that Lisa's "faith in her heroic father makes a nice change", and said that the episode's ending, in which Homer enters the dictionary, "is most satisfying." Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide commented that after the episode "Bart the Murderer", this episode marks a regression, saying it was almost inevitable that it would not match up to the previous episode. He went on to say that the subplot with Bart and Milhouse was more entertaining. Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed gave the episode a 4/5 rating, writing that he enjoyed the Homer story but found the Bart and Milhouse subplot more interesting. He added that "Milhouse's mom won't allow him to play with Bart because she thinks Bart is a bad influence. It's rare for the show to allow Bart to feel genuine emotion, but there is plenty of it in this episode that makes for a nice character oriented story."

Johnson's performance has also been praised. In 2004, ESPN released a list of the top 100 Simpsons sport moments, ranking his appearance at number 27. Sports Illustrated listed Johnson's cameo as the fifth best athlete guest appearance on The Simpsons. Meyers wrote that the episode "makes a lot of good points about the public making heroes in a rash, hysterical manner," and this point is made "with an amusing cameo by Earvin 'Magic' Johnson". The San Diego Union's Fritz Quindt said the animators "did likeness good," and noted that in the game the "colors on the Lakers jerseys and the Forum court were correct. Chick Hearn and Stu Lantz were almost lifelike, announcing at courtside in Sunday-color-comics sweaters. And Chick's play-by-play was so real Stu couldn't get a word in." Johnson's appearance was broadcast on CNN's Sports Tonight the day before the episode originally aired, and host Fred Hickman stated that he did not find it humorous.

In his book Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality, Jonathan Gray discusses a scene from "Homer Defined" that shows Homer reading a USA Today with the cover story: "America's Favorite Pencil – #2 is #1". Lisa sees this title and criticizes the newspaper as a "flimsy hodge-podge of high-brass factoids and Larry King", to which Homer responds that it is "the only paper in America that's not afraid to tell the truth: that everything is just fine." In the book, Gray says this scene is used by the show's producers to criticize "how often the news is wholly toothless, sacrificing journalism for sales, and leaving us not with important public information, but with America's Favorite Pencil."