Homer Vs. Patty and Selma - Themes

Themes

Chris Turner writes in his book Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation that the episode illustrates how Homer Simpson is "an organism of considerable complexity". Turner comments: "Homer is carrying the full symbolic weight of twentieth-century America on his shoulders, and no garden-variety doofus could manage that task." Turner discusses a moment from the episode where Marge tells her sisters: "Homer doesn't mean to be rude, He's just a very complicated man" - and Homer breaks a plate over his head and shouts "Wrong!". Turner writes that this "revelatory moment" is illustrative of "several of the best-known aspects of Homer's character: his impulsiveness, his inherent silliness, his evident, even physical stupidity."

In the compilation work The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer edited by William Irwin, Mark T. Conrad and Aeon J. Skoble, the episode is cited as an example where contributor Raja Halwani writes: "Homer is a habitual liar, he lacks honesty." In addition to "lying about his financial losses in investments" in the episode, Halwani notes Homer lied to Marge in "The Front" about "the fact that he never graduated from high school", and in the episode "The Cartridge Family", Homer lied to Marge about getting rid of the gun he had purchased. However, Halwani later highlights positive aspects of Homer's character, noting that in the episode Homer "pretended he was the one smoking so that Patty and Selma would not get fired for smoking at their workplace".