History Recap / TheSimpsonsS2E15OhBrotherWhereArtThou

As the company expresses little support for Homer's crazy ideas, Herb gives him complete creative control over the product, which ends up becoming "The Homer", an extremely ugly and expensive car, with an '''''$82,000'''''*nearly $176,000 in 2020 dollars price tag (consider that, in 1991, few if any luxury cars sold for over $70-75,000). The ensuing PR chaos ends up with Powell Motors in bankruptcy (its assets being taken over by Komatsu Motors) and with Herbert losing everything he had, angrily telling Homer that his life was good until he knew he was a Simpson, an opinion shared by Lisa. Immediately after, Abe arrives in a taxi to see Herb, only to make a hasty retreat. On the way home, Bart compliments Homer for his car.

As the company expresses little support for Homer's crazy ideas, Herb gives him complete creative control over the product, which ends up becoming "The Homer", an extremely ugly and expensive car, with an '''''$82,000''''' price tag (consider that, in 1991, few if any luxury cars sold for over $70-75,000). The ensuing PR chaos ends up with Powell Motors in bankruptcy (its assets being taken over by Komatsu Motors) and with Herbert losing everything he had, angrily telling Homer that his life was good until he knew he was a Simpson, an opinion shared by Lisa. Immediately after, Abe arrives in a taxi to see Herb, only to make a hasty retreat. On the way home, Bart compliments Homer for his car.

* NeverMyFault: Herb blames Homer for ruining his company despite putting him in charge, shelving all other projects and outright ignoring his employees' warnings, who despite being 'privileged idiots' as he put it still know enough about business to be on the board of a car company.

* KidHasAPoint: Granted, he was being his usual fool-mouthed, bratty self when he called Herb a bastard, but Bart does accurately point out that Herb was born out of wedlock.

* LoopholeAbuse: Bart delights in being able to use the word "bastard" since that's technically the correct way to describe Herb.

Episode - 7F16\\
First Aired - 2/21/1991

"Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" is the 15th episode of the second season (production code 7F16) of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', first aired on February 21, 1991. In this episode, Homer is told by Grampa about the existence of a half-brother (the product of a one-night stand Grampa had with a dunk-tank carny-cum-prostitute) called Herbert Powell (voiced by Creator/DannyDeVito), a Detroit car tycoon who recruits Homer to create a car "for the common man".

* EpicFail: Herb asks Homer to help his company design a car for the "average American man". Homer instead designs an '''$82,000''' [[note]]equal to about ''$152,000'' in 2018![[/note]] HummerDinger that gets Herb laughed straight into bankruptcy. Herb didn't really make things easy on himself by 1) believing '''Homer''', with his immense stupidity, could actually represent an "average American" and 2) Herb decided not to listen when the rest of the research team tried to warn him.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A cop who pulled the family car over was suddenly nice to Homer. Later, a guy in the gas station bathroom is confused by his appearance. It turns out to be because Herb looks like Homer, and they though Homer was Herb.

* KidHasAPoint: Granted, he was being his usual, fool-mouthed bratty self when he called Herb a bastard, but Bart does accurately point out that Herb was born out of wedlock.

* AntiAdvise: Due to his contempt for his employees, Herb ignores the engineers' warnings that Homer is making bad ideas, openly telling them that he believes anything they disapprove of ''must'' be a progression.

* IncompetenceInc: Powell Motors is shown to be this. The company's products don't appeal to consumers and are implied to be cheap and low quality, their marketing is so idiotic that they name new cars after GeniusBonus Myth/ClassicalMythology references, the board of directors are a bunch of clueless {{Upper Class Twit}}s and Herb has an extremely bad relationship with them and with his lead engineers. Things are so bad that Powell Motors is losing more and more ground to its Japanese competitors every day. Homer's car is just the final nail in the company's coffin-Herb put all his hopes on Homer's new miracle product, and he ignored his engineers' and executives' warnings about the lemon Homer was designing.

** After Homer told Herb that they're brothers, he's in shock. Homer thought he lost the connection.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A cop who pulled the family car over was suddenly nice to Homer. Later, a guy in the bathroom is confused by his appearance. It turns out to be because Herb looks like Homer.

* JerkassHasAPoint: The design team makes some valid points about fuel efficiency and automobile designs, but how they express them ultimately demeans everything. They apparently know not to give what people want.

* TakeThat: The quality of the Powell Motors range (each car only having "forty bucks' worth of steel in them"), the out of touch nature of the executives and marketing team, and the threat of Japanese automakers are likely this, aimed at the Big Three US auto industry, which spent much of the 70s, 80s, and early 90s thoroughly BlessedWithSuck. Case in point: the episode was aired less than a year after the remains of the American Motors Corporation had been fully absorbed into Chrysler.

* ShoutOut: The ''[=McBain=]'' film that Grampa and Jasper watch has a couple to the ''Film/JamesBond'' films: his female partner says "Oh, [=McBain=]!" like the classic "Oh, James!" and the closing credits has a WillReturnCaption.

* {{Flashback}}: A quick one explaining how Abe had Herb. Quickly followed by Abe marrying Mona and the birth of Homer. Also, Mona makes Abe swore to never mention anything about Herb so Homer would grow up respecting his father, which Abe has forgotten about. (Incidentally, this is the first time Mona ever appeared.)

* LowestCommonDenominator: Herb's idea regarding Homer is to make cars aiming for this population bracket and use Homer to determine what they want. The plan goes horribly wrong: Homer is too stupid and his tastes are too eccentric.

* AreWeThereYet: Bart and Lisa annoy Homer with that question during the car ride to Detroit. Marge tells them they'll turn around if they don't stop, Homer complains that he wants to see his brother, an annoyed Marge tells him it was an idle threat.

* IncompetenceInc: Powell Motors is shown to be this. The company's products don't appeal to consumers, their marketing is so idiotic that they name new cars after GeniusBonus Myth/ClassicalMythology references, the board of directors are a bunch of clueless {{Upper Class Twit}}s and Herb has an extremely bad relationship with them and with his and lead engineers. Things are so bad that Powell Motors is losing more and more ground to its Japanese competitors every day. Homer's car is just the final nail in the company's coffin-Herb put all his hopes on Homer's new miracle product, and he ignored his engineers' and executives' warnings about the lemon Homer was designing.

Herbert Powell is the founder and owner of Powell Motors, but in spite of his riches, he's been unhappy about not konwing about his origins. He is then overjoyed by getting a call from his half-brother, and invites him to Detroit. Powell Motors are at the same time facing difficulties trying to keep up with Japanese imports, a competition the company's haughty management is oblivious about. Seeing Homer as an "average American", Herb gives him the task to design a new car for his company. Meanwhile, the Simpson kids have a good time with their rich and genial uncle, even though Marge thinks he might spoil them.

As the company expresses little support for Homer's crazy ideas, Herb gives him complete creative control over the product, which ends up becoming "The Homer", an extremely ugly and expensive car, with an '''''$82,000''''' price tag (consider that, in 1991, few if any luxury cars sold for over $70-75,000). The ensuing PR chaos ends up with Powell Motors in bankruptcy (its assets being taken over by Komatsu Motors) and with Herbert losing everything he had, angrily telling Homer that his life was good until he knew he was a Simpson, an opinion shared by Lisa. Immedately after, Abe arrives in a taxi to see Herb, only to make a hasty retreat. On the way home, Bart compliments Homer for his car.