Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Homer the Great" finished 38th in the ratings for the week of January 1 to January 8, 1995. The episode was the highest rated show on the Fox network that week. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television 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, called it "a brilliant crack at freemasonry, with all the secret signs, one-upmanship, rituals and unusual membership rules. Add to this Patrick Stewart's amazing voice and you have one of the better episodes of the series." Patrick Enwright of MSNBC listed "Homer the Great" as his third favorite episode, calling it "as a whole is (almost) unsurpassable." Dave Petruska of the Tucson Citizen listed "Homer the Great" as his favorite episode "because it is such a wonderful satire on fraternal organizations and because of Patrick Stewart's hilarious guest-starring role as Number One." Total Film's Nathan Ditum ranked Stewart's performance as the ninth best guest appearance in the show's history. TV Squad's Adam Finley said the episode "does a great job of satirizing Freemasons." Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review of the sixth season DVD: "I think it peters out a bit as it progresses; the best moments show the influence of the Stonecutters, and the show drags a little toward the end. Nonetheless, it still offers a solid piece of work." In 2010, Michael Moran of The Times ranked the episode as the fifth best in the show's history.
John Swartzwelder and Alf Clausen were nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Music And Lyrics" for the song "We Do". It was later included in the album Songs in the Key of Springfield.
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Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
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“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)