'''Original air date:''' 11/30/2003

'''Production code:''' EABF-19

Homer is publicly humiliated after footage of him running from a bear is put on the news.

This is one of only two episodes to be animated by Creator/ToonzoneEntertainment (the other being season 16's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E4SheUsedToBeMyGirl She Used to Be My Girl]]").

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!! Tropes:

* AndroclesLion: Homer removes a radio tracking device from the bear's ear which is constantly shocking him, making the bear friendlier with him.
* AngryItemTapping: Homer has a NightmareSequence where he is surrounded by various pop culture bears, including an ''Intensive'' Care Bear who taps a tire iron (that Homer incorrectly identifies as a crowbar) in his hand right before the attack.
* AnimalNemesis: The bear becomes Homer's for most of the episode. ''Literature/MobyDick'' is also brought up by Lisa (in the sense that the book's message is that declaring enmity to an animal is stupid), but Homer then makes clear that he never understood the book.
* ArtShift: The ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' parody is animated far more fluidly to the rest of the episode and looks more accurate to the source material than later depictions.
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Moments after suggesting that Homer should take a few minutes out of his stifling armor to go for a swim because their bear tracker hasn't beeped in half an hour, Bart discovers that Lenny and Carl took the batteries to power their radio. When the bear catches up to Homer, he calls for help to no avail as [[BrickJoke Bart, Lenny and Carl are all dancing and singing along to "Afternoon Delight."]]
* AwesomeMcCoolName: When Bart asks to join Homer on his mission to fight the bear, Homer turns him down on the grounds that if he doesn't make it back, Bart needs to be alive to carry on the family name.
-->'''Bart:''' Screw that! When I grow up I'm legally changing my name to Joe Kickass!
-->'''Homer:''' That is so cool! All right, you can come.
* BearHug: When Homer demands a hug from the bear, it results in giving him huge, bleeding claw marks on his back.
-->'''Homer''': I don't know why bear hugs enjoy such a great reputation.
* BearsAreBadNews:
** The bear that attacks Homer at the dump, but it eventually gets subverted. They become quite a duo of friends.
** Played straight, though, with all the other bears in Homer's hallucinations... including one of the Care Bears.
-->'''Homer''': Are you a Care Bear?
-->'''Care Bear''': ''(Tapping a crowbar in his hand)'' I'm an ''intensive'' Care Bear.
-->'''Homer''': Why does a bear need a crowbar?
-->'''Care Bear''': Eh, I don't like to get my hands dirty.
* BeYourself: According to Homer, this is the CentralTheme behind ''Literature/MobyDick''.
* BringMyBrownPants: Averted. Homer leaves a big open space by his butt on the armor and says that he won't wear pants so he won't soil the armor.
* TheCameo: Stampy from [[{{Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E17BartGetsAnElephant}} "Bart Gets an Elephant"]], makes a cameo fighting with the bear at the end of the episode.
* ChekhovsGun: Homer's home-made armor comes in handy when the bear's only route to the park where he'll be safe is surrounded with trigger-happy hunters. [[spoiler:They put the armor on the bear so the hunters would mistake it for Homer.]]
* ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere: When Homer develops a fear of bears, he freaks out when he sees Maggie's teddy bear. Then he accidentally knocks down Maggie's bookshelf, seeing such books as ''The Bear Went Over the Mountain'', ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears'', and ''Literature/{{Goldilocks}} and the Three Bears''. When he runs into the kitchen, he knocks some grocery bags off the table, which have such items as Super Sugar Crisp cereal, Gummi Bears, Teddy Grahams, Snuggle fabric softener, and a bear-shaped bottle of honey.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Homer believes that the message of ''Literature/MobyDick'' is to BeYourself (and says so to Lisa). Lisa told him one second earlier that the actual message is that being obsessed with revenge is a sure-fire path to self-destruction.
* CrappyHomemadeGift: Homer decides to take the kids Mother's Day shopping upon realizing that he, Bart ''and'' Maggie have all made Marge the same gift, a clay mug that says "Mommy." Maggie's is by far the nicest of the three.
* DramaticGunCock: Parodied. The search party looking for Homer and the bear cock their guns repeatedly to punctuate every line they say. They even lampshade the moment when it stops being badass and starts to sound ridiculous... and keep on going.
* EgomaniacHunter: Grant Connor, big time. His trophy room is a hard-core showcase of inhumanity to animals, he's made a sippy cup out of a penguin and keeps a bag of frozen butterflies in his fridge as a snack, he randomly eats a condor he shoots down for a quick snack before helping hunt down the bear, he absolutely hates the existence of sanctuary parks, and he gets a similar look on his face to what Homer does when he wants food when he imagines eating some condor eggs.
%%* EvilLaugh: Played straight as Homer is creating the cotton candy caramel monstrosity.
* ExoticEntree: Grant Conner takes a short break before helping find the bear for a quick snack. Which involves shooting down a passing condor, catching the dead body between two slices of bread, and eating the whole thing with a blissful look on his face.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: While briefly believing the bear would kill him, Homer decided there was no need to worry about the harms of smoking so he decided to try it until the bear took away his pipe. Subverted afterward where he cries to the point the bear can't even bother attacking him.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: While Marge and Grant Connor are talking, Bart, Lisa, Lenny and Carl are having a chicken fight in the background.
* GroinAttack: Implied. Homer, while trying to get the bear to safety, pulls out a knife and thinks that "they're looking for a MALE bear."
* HalfwayPlotSwitch: The episode opens with Homer getting Marge a carnival food maker as a present, then using it to create a massive ball of sugar that she demands he get rid of. While trying to dump it in the forest, Homer incurs the wrath of a grizzly bear and develops a fear of them, kicking off the main plot.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The bear only attacked Homer while he wore the tracking device which repeatedly and painfully electrocuted him. When it was removed the bear became passive to Homer. The humans, on the other hand, recorded Homer's fearful encounter, publically ridiculed him and repeatedly demonized the bear despite the humans doing more harm and refusing to save Homer from the bear.
* {{Hypocrite}}: During the episode, Homer is being labeled a coward and everyone makes fun of him because he was afraid... after being attacked by a grizzly bear. What kind of person wouldn't be scared after being attacked by a 500 lb animal with huge claws and teeth? The hypocritical part comes from the fact that the whole town overreacted to the one harmless bear that strolled into town in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E23MuchApuAboutNothing "Much Apu About Nothing"]].
* InelegantBlubbering: Homer's cries disgusted the bear. Part of why the video wasn't Homer's proudest moment.
* InformedFlaw: Homer is deemed a coward for being afraid of a mere little old ferocious grizzly bear trying to maul him.
* InstantHumiliationJustAddYouTube: [[OlderThanRadio An example that pre-dates YouTube]]. The first bear attack (and Homer's embarrassing reaction) was recorded by Grant Connor and aired both on the news and on the Internet. The whole town starts mocking him as a result.
* InsultBackfire: Homer's attempt to insult Patty and Selma at Sprall-Mart only results in them turning it back onto him. His attempt to hit them with a car battery also fails in similar fashion as the twins simply move slightly out of the way.
* JabbaTableManners: When Homer and the bear are stealing food from various people together, Homer starts scooping icecream from a tub with both hands, with the bear interrupting him and telling him to use a spoon.
* JewishMother: Referenced.
-->'''Grant Connor''': Now listen! The bull grizzly is 7 feet tall, weighs more than a Mazda Miata, and can tear through a tree-like a Jewish mother through self-esteem.
* KarmaHoudini: Grant Connor doesn't get any comeuppance for [[InstantHumiliationJustAddYouTube humiliating]] Homer or trying to kill the bear. Nobody, including Homer himself, even calls him out on his actions.
* LaymansTerms: {{Exaggerated}}. When Homer asks what the kids got Marge for Mother's Day, Lisa replies that she picked a boquet of ''Erigeron elatior'', [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erigeron_elatior a North American wildflower]]. Homer and Bart stare blankly. She tries again by saying she picked daisies. More staring. "Flowers?" Still staring. She eventually resorts to just gesturing with the flowers and making a worldess noise, which gets the picture across.
-->'''Lisa:''' I picked Mom a bouquet of ''Erigeron elatiors.''
-->''(Homer and Bart stare blankly.)''
-->'''Lisa:''' Daisies.
-->''(Homer and Bart stare blankly.)''
-->'''Lisa:''' ''Flowers!''
-->''([[OverlyLongGag Homer and Bart stare blankly]].)''
-->'''Lisa:''' ''(shows them the bouquet)'' Hmm?
-->'''Homer:''' ''Oh!'' Uh, yeah.
* MacGyvering: Homer builds his own bear-proof armor suit from random crap that was lying on his garage.
* NoodleIncident: The hunter that recorded Homer being attacked by a bear mentioned he tends to confuse guns and camera, his most unfortunate moment of that is apparently at a wedding.
* NotSoAboveItAll: While looking for Homer's missing bear suit, Lisa tries on the country western-octopus outfit, much to Marge's irritation.
* NutritionalNightmare: The subplot that results in Homer being humiliated thanks to the bear involves Homer and the kids getting a carnival food maker for Marge as a mother's day present and Homer using it to create a 40 pound ball of cotton candy covered in caramel that Marge ultimately forces him to get rid of when it starts attracting ants, resulting in birds, cats and [[RuleOfFunny Flanderses]] getting stuck to it.
* PartingWordsRegret: Played with. While looking for Homer, Marge was hoping her last words to him wouldn't be "Clip your toenails, they look like Fritos".
* SafetyGearIsCowardly: After Homer finishes putting together his bear suit, he brags that he didn't even need "one of those welding masks" to do so. Cue him turning around and showing that his eyes are bright red and smoking.
* ShoutOut:
** The scene where several hunters shoot a pinecone is similar to ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' scenes where ''WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck'' is suddenly surrounded and shot by several hunters.
** Homer imagines tons of fictional bears and bear icons coming after him in one scene.
** At one point, Homer watches a ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' video retelling the story of Moses.
* SkewedPriorities: Lenny and Carl remove a locating device's batteries so they can listen to music.
* TemptingFate: After removing the tracking device, Homer says he'll make sure it'll never harm any living creatures again. He throws it at a lake, electrocuting the fish and a diver.
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