History YMMV / TheSimpsonsS8E23HomersEnemy

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Some find it very hard to root for Grimes due to how unrealistic Grimes' suffering is combined with his {{jerkass}} behaviour to Homer, who doesn't fare much better due to being [[{{Flanderization}} deliberately exaggerated]] in [[IdiotBall stupidity]] and [[TookALevelInJerkass selfishness]] just for the episode to work.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Frank Grimes. One of the main premises of this episode was the concept of a real person having to put up with Homer Simpson. But Frank is far from a "real" person in that his life is just [[DeusAngstMachina exaggerated misery after misery]], such as his parents abandoning him and waving goodbye all the way to losing a sweet position in the power plant to a ''dog''. And Homer's annoying tendencies and stupidity [[{Flanderization}} were amped up a lot more]] than he usually was as if the writers were specifically trying to make Homer so obnoxious the viewers would have no choice but to sympathize with Frank (and even then Homer, and almost every other character except Mr. Burns [[PetTheDog is sympathetic towards Frank]], [[ComicallyMissingThePoint just his frustration towards Homer goes over their heads]]). But it's hard to feel sympathy when Frank is overly wound up already. The episode falls more into DarknessInducedAudienceApathy. Take one scene where Homer has invited Grimes for dinner, so he and the family have dressed formally and cooked a great meal. Grimes is completely unaware of this "formal occasion" and mistakes their fancy clothing for being their usual lifestyle, leading to his infamous TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. It's a little hard to take the episode seriously after seeing that most of the conflict afterwards is caused by a simple case of miscommunication.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Some find it very hard to root for [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Grimes]] due to how unrealistic Grimes' suffering is combined with his JerkAss behaviour to Homer, who doesn't fare much better due to being deliberately exaggerated in [[TookALevelInJerkass stupidity and selfishness]] just for the episode to work.
* DesignatedHero: Frank Grimes. While his [[TheDeterminator determination]] to keep working hard regardless of how many setbacks he has is at first admirable; his abrasive personality, exaggerated jealousy of Homer, and his subsequent attempt to humiliate Homer out of pure spite ultimately turns the audience against him.

* LoveItOrHateIt: It's probably the most polarizing Simpsons episode ever -- at least until "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E2ThePrincipalAndThePauper The Principal and the Pauper]]" (and a lot of episodes under Mike Scully's rule as show runner) came along.
** Grimes. Depending on who you ask, he's a JerkAss or TheWoobie. This also determined whether you found his death and Homer's final line funny or cruel.
** IntendedAudienceReaction: "The whole Frank Grimes episode is a study in frustration", according to the DVD commentary.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Frank Grimes. One of the main premises of this episode was the concept of a real person having to put up with Homer Simpson. But Frank is far from a "real" person in that his life is just [[DeusAngstMachina exaggerated misery after misery]], such as his parents abandoning him and waving goodbye all the way to losing a sweet position in the power plant to a ''dog''. And Homer's annoying tendencies and stupidity [[Flanderization were amped up a lot more]] than he usually was as if the writers were specifically trying to make Homer so obnoxious the viewers would have no choice but to sympathize with Frank (and even then Homer, and almost every other character except Mr Burns [[PetTheDog is sympathetic towards Frank]], [[ComicallyMissingThePoint just his frustration towards Homer goes over their heads]]). But it's hard to feel sympathy when Frank is overly wound up already. The episode falls more into DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.
** Take one scene where Homer has invited Grimes for dinner, so he and the family have dressed formally and cooked a great meal. Grimes is completely unaware of this "formal occasion" and mistakes their fancy clothing for being their usual lifestyle, leading to his infamous TheReasonWhyYouSuckSpeech. It's a little hard to take the episode seriously after seeing that most of the conflict afterwards is caused by a simple case of miscommunication.

* Take one scene where Homer has invited Grimes for dinner, so he and the family have dressed formally and cooked a great meal. Grimes is completely unaware of this "formal occasion" and mistakes their fancy clothing for being their usual lifestyle, leading to his infamous TheReasonWhyYouSuckSpeech. It's a little hard to take the episode seriously after seeing that most of the conflict afterwards is caused by a simple case of miscommunication.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Frank Grimes. One of the main premises of this episode was the concept of a real person having to put up with Homer Simpson. But Frank is far from a "real" person in that his life is just [[DeusAngstMachina exaggerated misery after misery]], such as his parents abandoning him and waving goodbye all the way to losing a sweet position in the power plant to a ''dog''. And Homer's annoying tendencies and stupidity were amped up a lot more than he usually was as if the writers were specifically trying to make Homer so obnoxious the viewers would have no choice but to sympathize with Frank (and even then Homer, and almost every other character except Mr Burns [[PetTheDog is sympathetic towards Frank]], [[ComicallyMissingThePoint just his frustration towards Homer goes over their heads]]). But it's hard to feel sympathy when Frank is overly wound up already. The episode falls more into DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.

* Wangst: Frank's entire rant to Homer about how unfair life has been to him because Homer has so much while he has so little.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Frank Grimes. One of the main premises of this episode was the concept of a real person having to put up with Homer Simpson. But Frank is far from a "real" person in that his life is just [[DeusAngstMachina exaggerated misery after misery]], such as his parents abandoning him and waving goodbye all the way to losing a sweet position in the power plant to a ''dog''. And Homer's annoying tendencies and stupidity were amped up a lot more than he usually was as if the writers were specifically trying to make Homer so obnoxious the viewers would have no choice but to sympathize with Frank (and even then Homer, and almost every other character except Mr Burns [[PetTheDog is sympathetic towards Frank]], [[ComicallyMissingThePoint just his frustration towards Homer goes over their heads]]). But it's hard to feel sympathy when Frank is overly wound up already. The episode falls more into DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Frank Grimes. One of the main premises of this episode was the concept of a real person having to put up with Homer Simpson. But Frank is far from a "real" person in that his life is just exaggerated misery after misery, such as his parents abandoning him and waving goodbye all the way to losing a sweet position in the power plant to a ''dog''. And Homer's annoying tendencies and stupidity were amped up a lot more than he usually was as if the writers were specifically trying to make Homer so obnoxious the viewers would have no choice but to sympathize with Frank (and even then Homer, and almost every other character except Mr Burns [[PetTheDog is sympathetic towards Frank]], [[ComicallyMissingThePoint just his frustration towards Homer goes over their heads]]). But it's hard to feel sympathy when Frank is overly wound up already. The episode falls more into DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.

* LoveItOrHateIt: It's probably the most polarizing Simpsons episode ever -- at least until "The Principal and the Pauper" (and a lot of episodes under Mike Scully's rule as show runner) came along.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Frank Grimes. One of the main premises of this episode was the concept of a real person having to put up with Homer Simpson. But Frank is far from a "real" person in that his life is just exaggerated misery after misery, such as his parents abandoning him and waving goodbye all the way to losing a sweet position in the power plant to a ''dog''. And Homer's annoying tendencies and stupidity were amped up a lot more than he usually was as if the writers were specifically trying to make Homer so obnoxious the viewers would have no choice but to sympathize with Frank (and even then Homer, and almost every other character except Mr Burns [[PetTheDog is sympathetic towards Frank]], [[ComicallyMissingThePoint just his frustration goes over their heads]]). But it's hard to feel sympathy when Frank is overly wound up already. The episode falls more into DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.

* BrokenAesop: WordOfGod said they wanted to show that a real person could not survive in the show's universe, except they did it by making Homer look worse [[CharacterExaggeration than he really was]] in order to make [[OnlySaneMan Frank Grimes]] look better. What's worse is that Frank's mental breakdown [[spoiler:and death]], which were supposedly caused by Homer, was really ''his own fault''. Homer had offered to make amends with Frank, but Frank didn't want anything to do with it, and he immediately put everything into destroying Homer. It doesn't help that they made Frank's life [[DeusAngstMachina excessively miserable]] before he even met Homer.

* JerkassWoobie: Frank Grimes.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Frank Grimes. One of the main premises of this episode was the concept of a real person having to put up with Homer Simpson. But Frank is far from a "real" person in that his life is just exaggerated misery after misery, such as his parents abandoning him and waving goodbye all the way to losing a sweet position in the power plant to a ''dog''. And Homer's annoying tendencies and stupidity were amped up a lot more than he usually was as if the writers were specifically trying to make Homer so obnoxious the viewers would have no choice but to sympathize with Frank. But it's hard to feel sympathy when Frank is overly wound up already. The episode falls more into DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.

* DesignatedVillain: Homer. While Homer's always had {{Jerkass}} tendencies, many thought [[{{Flanderization}} they were being grossly exaggerated]] to make Frank Grimes look better.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Frank Grimes.
** To explain, one of the main premises of this episode was the concept of a real person having to put up with Homer Simpson. But Frank is far from a "real" person in that his life is just exaggerated misery after misery, such as his parents abandoning him and waving goodbye all the way to losing a sweet position in the power plant to a ''dog''. And Homer's annoying tendencies and stupidity were amped up a lot more than he usually was as if the writers were specifically trying to make Homer so obnoxious the viewers would have no choice but to sympathize with Frank. But it's hard to feel sympathy when Frank is overly wound up already. The episode falls more into DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Frank Grimes.

* LoveItOrHateIt: It's probably the most polarizing Simpsons episode ever -- at least until "The Principal and the Pauper" (and a lot of episodes under Mike Scully's rule as show runner) came along.

* LoveItOrHateIt: It's probably the most polarizing Simpsons episode ever -- at least until "The Principal and the Pauper" came along.

* JumpingTheShark: This episode became one of many points that viewers stopped watching the show, citing that it went from heartwarming and funny to mired in ComedicSociopathy (though the alleged comedic sociopathy of ''The Simpsons'' is nothing compared to what ''Family Guy'' would dish out in its post-2005 cancellation era) and that Homer became too much of an idiot to be considered funny, especially if his idiocy drove a sane man to suicide.
** LoveItOrHateIt: It's probably the most polarizing Simpsons episode ever -- at least until "The Principal and the Pauper" came along.

** LoveItOrHateIt: It's probably the most polarizing Simpsons episode ever.

* JumpingTheShark: This episode marked a point to many fans who felt the show had lost its way and stopped being watchable.
* LoveItOrHateIt: It's probably the most polarizing Simpsons episode ever.

* JumpingTheShark: As the main page said, this episode marked a point to many fans where the show had lost its way and stopped being watchable.

* LoveItOrHateIt