Homer incurs the wrath of a pop sensation's highly organized and vindictive fandom.
During the drive to the nuclear plant the next day, Homer's car radio is suddenly playing Ashlee Starling's newest song on every channel. A dummy of Ashlee is dropped onto the car, making Homer crash and activating a glitter bomb attached to his airbag. In the woods by the crash site, Homer spots a cloaked figure and hears ominous laughter. Homer walks the rest of the way to the plant, and finds a seedcake on his seat. Figuring it's still cake anyway, he takes a bite, and a flock of birds (specifically, starlings) swarm his workstation, one of which is carrying a note. "Keep Ashlee Starling's name out of your beak! "Love" The Murmur Nation". Lenny and Carl appear, wearing Ashlee Starling shirts, to spell it out that Homer has become the target of a highly organized and ruthless fan army. And it's revealed to the audience that Lisa is among their ranks.
Days pass, and one morning, as Homer gets the paper, he sees a hamburger on the lawn. It's yanked away from him and into a food truck, and a pair of disguised women yank him into the food truck and takes him away to a place known as "Echo Studio Studio Studio". After being tossed out, Homer meets his captor, thinking it's Ashlee whatsherface, only for it to be Ashlee's biggest rival, Echo, who wants to team up with Homer. Homer agrees, figuring an eye for an eye was a win-win situation. Meanwhile, Bart figures out Lisa is part of the Murmur Nation, and he wants in due to their numbers allowing Bart to pull off pranks too big in scale for him alone. However, their next large-scale prank doesn't work at all, and Echo announces to the Murmur Nation that Homer is under the protection of her fan army, the Echolaliacs.
The pranks escalate, and Bart is kicked out of the group. Shortly after, an invitation for dinner from Ashlee arrives at the Simpsons household. Lisa thinks it's for her, but it's actually for Marge. Ashlee takes Marge on a helicopter ride and shares with her some of her brand of sparkling whiskey. After saying "Look at your sweet family, I bet your husband is perfect", Marge claims that Homer is far from perfect. Ashlee then tells Marge to tell her everything, while encouraging her to drink more whiskey.
The next morning, Bart reveals to Homer that Lisa was behind the Murmur Nation's attacks, and Lisa reveals Bart's role in those attacks. Marge calls out Bart and Lisa for their actions, only for Lisa to claim Marge is the worst betrayer of them all. Ashlee's newest music video plays, a diss track aimed at Homer, made from everything Marge told Ashlee, with Ashlee playing Marge in the video. Feeling betrayed by the whole family (including Maggie for her inaction), Homer leaves for Echo's studio. At first, Homer wants to make a diss track aimed at his family as revenge, but Echo talked him down from that, convincing him to make an "I've-been-dissed track" to let Homer's family know how much he's been hurting.
Three days pass, and Homer returns home with a smile on his face. Saying nothing, he puts a music video on the TV. "The Meltdown", starring him and with backing vocals by Echo. The music video makes it clear that Homer's been hurt and betrayed by his family, but he forgives them. The family is touched, and Lisa and Bart apologize for Lisa's actions. They hug, then a couple glitter bombs Lisa planted earlier accidentally went off. And the Murmur Nation decides to quit their attacks, because they found that music video to be cringe. Lisa remarks on how she got so caught up in Ashlee and her fandom that she swallowed up in groupthink. Marge knows that it's scary how that happened. And then they realize they're late for church, and the family hurriedly disperses to put on their Sunday clothes and get some crisp money for the donation basket.
Tropes:
- Acquaintance Denial: During the interview with Kent Brockman at Isotopes Stadium, Bart denies ever meeting Homer while praising Ashlee Starling, due to Bart knowing how intimidating Ashlee's fans are.
- The Beastmaster: The Murmur Nation uses a murmuration of starlings in order to make Homer's life a living hell, swarming his workstation, robbing the vending machines, and smothering him in a ton of starling poo.
- Berserk Button: Homer's one complaint sets off all of the Murmur Nation to go after him.
- Betrayal by Inaction: Despite Lisa's organization of the harassment campaign, Bart's role in that campaign, and Marge's drunken confessions, Homer is most disappointed in Maggie for doing nothing.Homer: Evil triumphs when good babies do nothing.
- Bird-Poop Gag: After the flames of the Echolaliac/Murmur Nation feud have been stoked, one of the Murmur Nation's stunts against Homer has a large flock of starlings poop on Homer until he's completely covered by it. Ralph Wiggum mistakes the poop-covered Homer for a snowman and gives him a carrot nose.Homer: Eeew, carrot!
- Black Cloak: To protect their anonymity when harassing Homer in public, the Murmur Nation dons dark purple cloaks.
- Body Horror: According to "The Way You Was", Homer's fontanelle* never fused, and he has athlete's foot on both of his knees.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Bart uses Nelson's "haw-haw" at Lisa after Ashlee's dinner invitation was revealed to be for Marge and not her.Bart: As a great man once said; "haw-haw!"
- Celebrity Impersonator: Mentioned but not seen. An Ashlee Starling impersonator was hired for one of Lisa's previous birthdays. The impersonator was shorter and bustier than the real deal.
- Clip Show: The ending of "The Meltdown" comprises of footage from previous episodes.
- Marge and Maggie's reunion in "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily"
- The conga line from "Blame It On Lisa"
- Bart's picture being added to the uneven frame from "Marge Be Not Proud"
- Maggie and Bart in a girl's wig dancing from "Homer's Phobia"
- A young Bart being convinced not to run away by Baby Lisa saying her first word.
- Homer tickling Maggie on the chin from "And Maggie Makes Three"
- A frightened Lisa clinging to Homer for protection from "Halloween of Horror"
- Homer playing peek-a-boo with Maggie stuck inside of a newspaper dispensary from "22 Short Films About Springfield"
- Homer and Marge exiting the woods and seeing a waterfall from 'Pixelated And Afraid'
- Couch Gag: Played with. While the opening sequence is largely skipped, Homer's music video ends with a completely normal gathering on the couch.Homer: To stop this war, we don't need a grand gesture. We don't need to make a stand. We just need to sit down, together.
- Compressed Vice: Lisa has loved Ashlee Starling, an in-universe pop star we've never heard of or seen up to this point, to near-Psycho Supporter levels since she was four years old.
- Declaration of Protection: Echo declares Homer to be under her protection. Had Lisa not encouraged the other Ashlee fans afterwards, that'd have been enough for them to leave Homer alone.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The whole response to Homer dissing Ashlee, which was understandably caused by her fans making him miss the first play. That it's led by Lisa is even more egregious.
- The Diss Track:
- Ashlee's specialty. She's produced a lot of songs calling out her ex-boyfriends, and released a new one aimed at Homer.
- Homer considers using Echo's resources to make a diss track of his own as revenge on his family, but Echo convinces him to do otherwise due to a diss track of her own devastating her dermatologist. Instead, Echo encourages Homer to make an "I've-been-dissed track", telling his family how much they've hurt him.
- Dramatic Drop: In Ashlee's music video for "The Way You Was", Ashlee-as-Marge drops a glass containing a toothbrush upon seeing offscreen Homer "stand for number two".
- Everyone Has Standards: As much as his family hurt him, Homer decides against making a diss track against them after Echo tells him that the last diss track she made completely destroyed the life of the person it was directed at. He instead (with Echo's help) makes a track about how his family hurt him, which causes them to apologise.
- Fan Community Nicknames: In-universe. Ashlee Starling's fans are "The Murmur Nation", a play on "murmuration", the collective noun for a flock of starlings. Echo's fans are the "Echolaliacs", after "echolalia", the repetition of words said by someone else.
- Fandom Rivalry: In-universe example with the Murmur Nation and the Echolaliacs.
- Flipping the Table: In his and Echo's music video for "The Meltdown," Homer flips the family breakfast table, expressing his feelings of anger and hurt because the family was eating breakfast when he found out about the roles Marge, Bart and Lisa played in his recent problems.
- Fun with Homophones: Homer uses a couple in a less-than-fun circumstance during the spoken word section of "The Meltdown"You set an army, against those who are me.
You three took. Three-took. The opposite of four-give. Yet I forgive. - Hard Work Hardly Works: Lisa is green with envy when all her (assumed) hard work into being an Ashlee fanatic didn't reward her with a special date with her over Marge's single little praise she gave Ashlee on the news.
- In Vino Veritas: Ashlee uses her own brand of sparkling whiskey to get Marge to drunkenly reveal her and Homer's backstory, and everything she found wrong with Homer.
- Karma Houdini: Ashlee gets away with her diss track.
- Missing the Good Stuff: Due to the Murmur Nation opening and closing their cards in the stands of Isotope Stadium, Homer and Bart miss out on the opening play.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: "The Meltdown" devotes a verse each to Marge, Bart and Lisa before repeatedly addressing the entire family as "You three and Maggie."
- Mythology Gag: "The Meltdown" dedicates a verse to Bart with the line "When I smell mothballs, now I think 'beef stew'," referring to a prank he's punished for in "Do the Bartman."
- Never My Fault: After the family gets teary upon seeing Homer's video:Lisa: I'm sorry I betrayed you!Bart: We're all sorry Lisa betrayed you!
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: With her reputation for songs calling out her exes, her powerful fan army, and her last name being a kind of bird, Ashlee Starling is a parody of Taylor Swift.
- Nonconformist Dyed Hair: The main female Ashlee fan has dyed her hair two different shades of pink.
- Only One Name: "Echo" appears to be a mononym, in keeping with the character's evocation of Beyoncé.
- Power Echoes: Starpower, anyway. Echo had her name legally changed so it includes an echo.
- Remember the New Guy?: Lisa has been a shockingly Loony Fan of heretofore-unseen pop singer Ashlee Starling since she was four years old, and Marge even hired an impersonator for one of her birthday parties. Homer hasn't heard of her any more than we have, though that's pretty much to be expected.
- Series Continuity Error: We learn that Homer's fontanelle never fused, which doesn't square well with "The Homer They Fall," which revolves around Homer's incredible ability to take blows to the head being the result of a rare mutation that protects him from cranial trauma.
- Shout-Out: When at the bowling alley, Bart calls Homer "The Fat Lebowski".
- Special Guest: Jade Novah, as both Ashlee Starling and Echo.
- Squick: In-Universe. Ashlee reacts as such in her music video when she "finds out" that Homer sits for number one and stands for number two. Homer, however, says that the last one is not true, he hovers because he is afraid of being flushed.
- Squee: Lisa lets out a fangirl scream when the girls night invitation arrives at the Simpsons household, thinking it's for her.
- Take That!: This episode is one towards overzealous fan armies of musicians, with fans of BTS singled out in particular due to the stilted delivery of Lenny and Kent Brockman praising the BTS fan army indicating they fear the BTS fans most of all.
- Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: Subverted (this is Homer, after all):Breakfast and betrayal,Pancakes bitter in my mouth, yet I ate seven.
