YMMV / The Simpsons S8 E15: "Homer's Phobia"

• Fair for Its Day: The episode's message that gays should be accepted as human beings was considered perfectly acceptable when it first aired and even today, it compounds that with some still-funny and topical jokes about toxic masculinity when Homer's only solution to make Bart manly again is to make him kill a defenseless animal. Though some fans think the episode overdoes it on the Camp Gay stereotypes (similar to complaints some have about Will & Grace).
• Harsher in Hindsight: In one scene, Moe says "Used to be if you wanted to make a boy into a man you'd send him off to war. But there aren't even any wars anymore. Thank you very much, Warren Christopher!". Then, The War on Terror happened...
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Bart does become a party animal (complete with Hawaiian shirt) in the episode "Bart To The Future".
  • Homer and Bart getting saved by a robot Santa Claus is funnier thanks to Futurama having their own Robot Santa as a major character.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: While it's not considered perfect, the episode is still at least as popular with gay men as any other episode of the show. Many even consider the steel mill scene, a major source of debate, to be too over the top to be offended by (or they just like the fanservice) and episode features John Waters, who is gay himself to top if off.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Before the rise of LGBT acceptance in the media, the episode gained some controversy when Fox censors initially refused to air the episode due to its Gay Aesop, with some networks following suit, and minor ones about Homer's treatment of homosexuality.
• Unintentional Period Piece: One of Homer's measures to straighten Bart out is to make him look at a cigarette billboard. Two years after this episode aired, tobacco advertising was banned from billboards in the U.S..
• Woolseyism:
  • The sequence at the steel mill is iconic in Spain, with the workers switching to over the top accents once they are revealed to be gay, and some lines freely translated ("Oh, be nice!" to "You are crazier, bald girl!"; "Hot stuff coming through!" to "Give me pass, I'm burning!"; "We work hard, we play hard" to "WORK... and a little play!") are still quoted even in non-LGBT contexts.
  • The Mexican dub of the steel mill sequence has had a similar impact in the Latin American Spanish-speaking sphere, particularly among the local LGBT community, who has embraced the dubbed quotes with enthusiasm, with some notorious highlights including the stereotypical "fresa" accent of the workers and the now iconic translations of the more memetic lines such as "¡Aquí viene lo bueno, jóvenes!" ^note "Here comes the good stuff, youg men!" and Homer yelling "¡Ustedes están enfermos!" ^note "You're all sick!" to which the "Oh, be nice!" guy repplies "¡Sí, y no es gripe gordito!" ^note "Yeah, and it's not the flu, fatty!".

---