Dancin' Homer (S02, E05-018)

The guy in the suit looked so... tired, I guess you could say.  Tired of life.

Plot Summary
The episode begins with Homer telling his bar mates the story of how he became a minor league sensation: at a plant-sponsored trip to a Springfield Isotopes game, Homer - despondent that the Isotopes were one out away from losing and the crowd just doesn't care - starts dancing to rile them up.  The Isotopes come back to win the game, and Homer is given a job as the team's mascot.  The Isotopes go on a run with Dancin' Homer around, and he gains a lot of popularity in doing so, but they do lose eventually.  Afterward, Homer is informed that he's been "called up" to the major league team in Capital City, which can happen apparently.  With Marge's urging, Homer decides to take his act to the big city.

Giving a rather familiar-looking farewell speech at his last Isotopes game, Homer leaves for Capital City.  There, he meets up with that team's mascot, the aforementioned Goofball, and is slightly overwhelmed by the whole experience.  Eventually, Homer gets his chance to dance, but the Capital City crowd is completely unimpressed by the performance, only cheering when Homer is ushered away.  While Homer is despondent, even embarrassed over everything, he finds that everyone at the bar is enthralled by the tale, asking that he tell it again.  Happy that people are paying attention to him again, Homer gladly retells the story.

Quick Review
Dancin' Homer, the episode, portrays just how different small town folk and big city snobs can be.  How big city snobs could be into baseball in the first place whilst not also enjoying the between-inning entertaining is beyond me, but whatever.  The episode establishes a lot of things in Simpsons continuity: Capital City, the minor league Springfield Isotopes, the Philly Phanatic parody known as the Capital City Goofball, and one important thing that will establish a lot a later episodes both good and bad: Homer likes being the center of attention.

This episode had its moments, like Bleeding Gums Murphy's 26-minute version of the Star Spangled Banner at the start of the Isotopes game, or the callback to Lou Gehrig's famous speech.  Problem was that just not enough of it was really that funny.  Despite that, it is another solid episode.

Final Score: 7.5