Homer goes from prehistory to modern history as he starts out as a unicellular being and evolves into many creatures (a jellyfish, a common fish, a lizard, a rat, several monkey-type creatures, a Neanderthal, a Cro-Magnon, and an upright walking caveman) while Moe devolves into a rat-like mammal. After the Ice Age, Homer travels through many periods of history (Middle Ages, Spanish exploration, Puritan settlement, and Victorian Era) until he finally reaches the modern day and evolves into the present Homer. When he comes in the house, Marge asks Homer, "what took you so long?” and Homer sighs in exhaustion.

Guest star(s)

J.K. Simmons as Tabloid editor
Betty White as Herself
Jon Lovitz as Enrico Irritazio

Season 18
September 10, 2006 – May 20, 2007

"The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer"
"Jazzy and the Pussycats"
"Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em"
"Treehouse of Horror XVII"
"G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)"
"Moe'N'a Lisa"
"Ice Cream of Margie (with the Light Blue Hair)"
"The Haw-Hawed Couple"
"Kill Gil: Vols. 1 & 2"
"The Wife Aquatic"
"Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Three Times"
"Little Big Girl"
"Springfield Up"
"Yokel Chords"
"Rome-old and Juli-eh"
"Homerazzi"
"Marge Gamer"
"The Boys of Bummer"
"Crook and Ladder"
"Stop or My Dog Will Shoot"
"24 Minutes"
"You Kent Always Say What You Want"

List of all The Simpsons episodes

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"Homerazzi" is the sixteenth episode of the eighteenth season of The Simpsons, which was originally broadcast on March 25, 2007. It was written by J. Stewart Burns, directed by Matthew Nastuk, and guest starred J.K. Simmons as the tabloid editor, Betty White as Herself, and Jon Lovitz as Enrico Irritazio. The full-length opening sequence and couch gag ran for over 2 minutes and 20 seconds, making it one of the longest in the history of the show.^[1]

1 Plot
2 Casting
3 Cultural references
- 3.1 References to other episodes
4 Reception
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot

After failing to blow out all the candles on his birthday cake, an exhausted Homer falls asleep, igniting his party hat on the flames. The burning house is saved by the Springfield fire department who inspire Marge to purchase a fire-proof safe to protect the family's valuables. Each family member puts one special item inside the safe, Marge choosing the family photo album; Homer, an old bottle of cologne; Lisa, an electric Malibu Stacy car (possibly the gift from Ralph in I Love Lisa); Bart, a Catch A Rising Krusty doll, which can walk as if doing a Stand-Up routine. When they lock the safe, Bart's doll was switched on, which walks into the car, turning on its headlights which heat the cologne and cause the safe to explode, destroying everything inside (which apparently, was what Homer naturally assumed had happened). Refusing to accept the loss of all their memories, Marge decides to re-stage all of the family's photographs, and when the family spot a celebrity dating scandal (Duffman dating Boobarella, despite Duffman being in a committed relationship with a homosexual man) captured in the background of one of their photos, the Simpsons strike tabloid gold. Tasting success and seeing money to be made, Homer takes to the streets as one of the paparazzi.

Overnight, Homer becomes Springfield's most valued tabloid photographer, staging incriminating photographs of, amongst others, Drederick Tatum and Rich Texan's daughter, Paris Texan (a parody of Paris Hilton). After Homer gatecrashes Rainier Wolfcastle's wedding, the town's celebrities decide to seek revenge against Homer by having top paparazzo Enrico Irritazio follow him around taking humiliating pictures. After seeing his own behaviour published in a tabloid magazine, Homer gives up the paparazzi business until re-inspired by Moe to continue.

Bursting into a decadent celebrity nightspot, Homer takes a slew of compromising photos. Rainier Wolfcastle asks him what he is going to do with the photos. Homer replies "Nothing," providing that the celebrities start treating the public with more respect and not taking their fans for granted. Rainier invites the Simpsons to a barbecue party on his "offshore party platform." Marge asks Rainier to look at a screenplay she wrote called "Mrs. Mom". Rainier says that he does not read unsolicited scripts. In the next shot, Marge and Homer see a theatre marquee advertising the film, crediting Rainier Wolfcastle as the writer. Marge sighs that "Well, at least it got made." and walks off with Homer.

[edit] Casting

In the original Fox press release, Peter Wolf and Harry Hamlin were announced as guest stars for this episode.^[2] However, neither of them made an appearance in the broadcast version. This episode marks the return of several guest stars; it is the ninth appearance of Jon Lovitz and the second of J.K. Simmons and Betty White. J.K. Simmons had previously guest-starred in "Moe'N'a Lisa", playing another editor. In both episodes his character was a parody of his J. Jonah Jameson character from the Spider-Man films, though the one in this episode bears less of a physical resemblance to Jameson.

[edit] Cultural references

The title is a portmanteau of Homer and paparazzi.
The couch gag shows Homer as the subject of human evolution. The scenes beginning from the organisms until the extinction of the dinosaurs parody The Rite of Spring segment in the Disney movie Fantasia.
- This is so far, the longest running couch gag. The whole opening sequence totals to over 2 min 20 sec.
- The Lisa Stegosaurus roars like Godzilla.
- This couch gag was repeated on the season 19 episode The Homer of Seville, but instead of Marge saying "What took you so long?" after Homer comes home, she says "Did you bring the milk?" (the season 19 episode Mona Leaves-a has the original line, "What took you so long?").
The "Happy 1987" restaged picture shows Homer, Lisa and Bart as they were from the Tracey Ullman Show.
The song playing in the nightclub is Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head". The song during the photo restaging montage is, appropriately, Freeze Frame by J. Geils Band.
When the family re-enact the Star Trek: Voyager series finale party, Lenny is dressed as Seven of Nine and Dr. Hibbert is dressed as Tuvok. If listened closely, music from Deep Space Nine can be heard.
The title of Marge's script "Mrs. Mom" is a reference to the film Mr. Mom. When the script is turned into a movie, there is a poster where Rainier Wolfcastle is dressed as a nanny (a reference to Mrs. Doubtfire).
At the wedding scene, Pachelbel's Canon in D can be heard on the background.
Homer's arrival by helicopter to the island where Rainier Wolfcastle's wedding is being held references Jurassic Park, even having similar music.

[edit] References to other episodes

In the "Homer Evolution" couch gag, the house Homer passes by when he evolves into a Victorian-era intellectual looks like the house the Simpsons stayed at in season 14's Helter Shelter when they were on the 1800s reality show (only it's purple instead of brown).
Elton John (who cameoed in season ten's I'm With Cupid), Paul McCartney (who cameoed in season seven's Lisa the Vegetarian), Gary Coleman (who cameoed in season eleven's Grift of the Magi and season twelve's Day of the Jackanapes), Yao Ming (who cameoed on season sixteen's Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass), and past original character Lurleen Lumpkin (who appeared on season three's Colonel Homer, season four's Marge vs. the Monorail, season seven's Team Homer, and later appeared in season 19's Papa Don't Leech) come out of the dry cleaners and are captured on film by Homer.

[edit] Reception

Robert Canning praised this episode, calling it clever, ingenious, and one of the most memorable of the season.^[3] The episode scored a 9.0 on TV.com, an equivalent to a "superb" rating.