Homer's Phobia (S08, E15-168)

Homer will never look at steel-crafted goods the same again.

Plot Summary
Needing $900 to pay for the gas bill following an 'incident', Marge decides she has no choice but to sell a 'priceless' Civil War figurine to cover the cost.  At an off-the-wall collectible shop, a man by the name of John informs the family that, no, the figurine is just a liquor bottle from the 70s.  Homer notices the oddities of the store, and John informs Homer about the value of camp.  Homer invites him over to the house later, and the two have a good time.  The next morning, Homer hopes he can invite John and his wife for further get-togethers, but Marge relays to Homer a rather obvious observation: John is a homosexual, a fact which horrifies Homer.

At this point, Homer refuses to talk to John, but as John invited the family for a little drive-around, everyone but Homer goes.  When the family gets back, Homer notices that Bart has picked up some of John's mannerisms, as well as some other stereotypically gay habits, and starts to fear that Bart might be turning gay on him.  He attempts to 'fix' Bart by having him stare at ladies on a cigarette billboard, but that only gets him to want to smoke slims.  Homer then takes Bart to a steel mill, but learns in terror that the entire place is run by gays, whose break time is basically partying rather hard.

At the bar, Homer laments his situation to Moe and Barney.  Moe recalls that shooting a guy in war would be a quick 'fix', but as its peacetime its not an option.  Barney instead suggests shooting a deer, as it would be like shooting a 'beautiful man'.  Homer agrees, and drags Bart along so that he can have Bart shoot a deer.

Unknown to them, the deer have moved away from those woods as the grass there had been replaced with astroturf.  After a whole day of finding no deer, Moe sees a sign for Santa's Village on the way back, and takes them there.  Homer tries to have Bart shoot a reindeer in a cage, but Bart refuses to do it.  Before long, though, the reindeer are riled up and are looking for a head-bumpin'.  Barney and Moe are able to hide, while Homer props Bart up high, taking shot after shot from the reindeer.  Just then, a Santa robot comes along and is able to shoo the reindeer away.  It turns out that John was able to find them and save the day via good timing.  Though Moe and Barney are ashamed to of been saved by a 'sissy', Homer sticks up for John, finally having warmed up to have after John saved his life.  At the end of the episode, Bart finally learns that Homer thinks Bart is gay, much to his shock.

Quick Review
As you may recall, I'm rating this episodes on a single criteria: how funny it is.  I've got the scale and everything.  I realize that this is a notable episode based on the themes it deals with, and all of that, however it has little bearing on how funny I found the episode.  How funny did I find the episode?  I found it quite funny, actually, as Homer's phobia proved to be a constant source of entertainment throughout the episode, with Barney and Moe provided additional fun near the end.

Final Score: 9.3