Simpson and Delilah - Production

Production

Homer's hair product Dimoxinil is a spoof on a similar product, Minoxidil, which fascinated the writers. After growing hair, the production staff tried to give Homer a new hair design in every scene. The character Karl was played by openly gay actor Harvey Fierstein. Groening had originally intended to design Karl to look like Fierstein, who objected to the idea because he felt that he did not "look like gay people, how they're supposed to look." Fierstein suggested that the character be made "blond, and tall, and gorgeous, and skinny, and a beautiful place to live."

The episode features a kiss between Homer and Karl, which occurred a decade prior to US television's first real man-on-man kiss on Dawson's Creek. In the episode, Karl is implied to be homosexual; creator Matt Groening says that when people began asking "Was he gay?" the day after the episode aired, his response was "He's whatever you want him to be." However, Groening points out, "He does kiss Homer: He does give him a nice pat on the butt" which is "beyond any other cartoon" had done at the time.

Karl was originally supposed to return for a cameo appearance in the season 14 episode "Three Gays of the Condo". In the script, Homer was thrown out of the house by Marge, and encountered Karl. The purpose of the appearance was to introduce a gay couple that Homer would live with. Fierstein however felt that "the script was a lot of very clever gay jokes, and there just wasn't that Simpsons twist" and turned the role down.