Reception
On November 2, 2004, the episode was released in the United States on a DVD collection titled The Simpsons Christmas 2, along with the season twelve episode "Skinner's Sense of Snow", the season fourteen episode "Dude, Where's My Ranch?", and the season fifteen episode "'Tis the Fifteenth Season".
The episode has received negative reviews from critics. Cindy White of IGN said that while the episode is universally panned (mostly due to the scene where Homer is (implicitly) raped by a panda at the zoo and the intentional recycling of other Simpsons episode premises, such as The Simpsons having financial trouble, Mr. Burns hiring Homer to be his assistant while Smithers is on vacation, Homer dressing up as Santa Claus, and Lisa worrying over someone selling their soul), but has funny throwaway jokes and sight gags to make up for it. Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide gave the episode a negative review saying "Bad sign number one: when a series plagiarizes itself. That occurs here when Mr. Burns states “There’s a new Mexico?”, a line that was a lot funnier...back in season five. Bad sign number two: a scene in which Homer gets raped by a panda. A couple of the pranks provide minor amusement, but overall, this is a weak episode. Judge Mac McEntire of the DVD Verdict said the episode's best moment was with Homer and the panda. Mike Scully claims that the episode was critically panned because not many people had seen The Magic Christian. In 2012, Johnny Dee of The Guardian wrote that many fans regard the panda rape scene as "a low in the show's history" and suggested the phrase "raped by a panda" should replace "jumped the shark" to imply that a popular series has declined in quality and is beyond recovery.
Read more about this topic: Homer Vs. Dignity
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