YMMV / The Simpsons S1 E10 "Homer's Night Out"

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • Marge is angry with Homer after finding a picture of him dancing with a stripper at a work party. The intended lesson is "Don't objectify women," but the truth is, Homer and the other men at the party demonstrated perfect etiquette towards exotic dancers which would make a fine lesson on its own: don't touch them, don't insult them, and pay them fairly.
  • Another lesson is "Don't take pictures of people without their consent," since it was Bart's photo that started the whole mess in the first place.
  • Marge may also have been angry because she saw Homer's actions with the stripper as cheating on her. One lesson taken could be "don't cheat on your spouse or do something that can be interpreted as cheating" (such as going to a strip club, fooling around with a stripper, etc).
• Broken Aesop: The episode has the aesop of "Don't objectify women." Not a bad message, but the way it's conveyed is a sheer mess. Bart receives a toy spy camera and secretly takes a photo of Homer dancing with a stripper at a work party. The picture gets copied and passed around his friends at school and eventually makes its way into the adults' world (essentially it went viral before social media was a thing). Mr. Burns finds it and scolds Homer, claiming that he's making the power plant a hostile workplace for the female employees, even though we don't see anything happen to prove his claim; Marge also finds it and is utterly pissed and throws him out of the house. When he begs for her forgiveness, she claims that she's upset at him not for dancing with a stripper, but for letting Bart think it's okay to treat women like objects, forcing Homer to track the girl down to have her tell Bart that she's a person with a real name and real goals and interests. Three problems here: 1. She was mad at him before she knew Bart took the picture; claiming that he set a bad example came across an an excuse to guilt-trip him when in reality she was jealous. 2. At no point was the dancer disrespected at the party. She was hired to perform, and none of the men ever touched her or verbally demeaned her in any way. 3. Homer had no idea Bart was there. If anyone had explaining to do, it was Bart for sneaking into an adult party where he might not understand the context of what was going on, and taking a photo of people in a compromising position without their consent.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Being the debut of her character, Princess Kashmir does have a small fan following for obvious reasons.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In the episode, Mr. Burns admits to Homer that in spite of his success, he's actually a lonely man who longs for the companionship of a woman. This becomes a little cringeworthy after season 14's C.E.D'oh reveals that he actually had a fiancée at one point. His workaholic tendencies resulted in him missing his own wedding, and she later died of a broken heart. Ouch.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The episode depicts Princess Kashmir as a somewhat downtrodden performer who has to dance at stag parties and strip clubs on the side. Several later episodes depict her in celebrity gatherings, implying that life did pick up for her afterwards.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The entire episode becomes this after "Bart After Dark", which reveals that not only was there a burlesque house hiding in Springfield the entire time - making their reactions to Homer's photo seem even more quaint - but portrays Marge as being in the wrong by depicting her as a prudish killjoy who only thinks that she knows better. Both episodes almost wind up feeling like the Spiritual Antithesis of each other.
  • At one point in the episode, Mr. Burns asks Homer for dating advice and outright begs him to tell him the secret to attracting women. Much later, in season 13's "A Hunka Hunka Burns In Love," Homer acts as Mr. Burns's wing-man and helps him actually succeed in finding a (mostly) long-time girlfriend.
• Informed Wrongness: Homer is the one that the story tries to put in the wrong for "objectifying women" yet he did absolutely nothing wrong at the party and was a perfect gentleman toward the stripper. Realistically, Bart is the one that should have been taught the real lesson of not taking pictures of people without their consent since he sneaked into the bachelor party but instead he's given a pass for that because Marge's jealousy and guilt tripping morphed the story into forcing Homer to set a good example for Bart by teaching him not to objectify women.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Marge claims to be angry with Homer not for the photo, but for teaching Bart it's okay to treat women like objects. However, her reaction makes it clear that she's jealous. First, she was mad at Homer for the photo before knowing Bart was the photographer; claiming Homer set a bad example was little more than an excuse to guilt-trip him. Second, Homer had no idea Bart was there, and Marge wasn't mad at Bart for sneaking into an adult party and taking a photo of people in a compromised position without their consent. Last but not least, at no point was the girl disrespected in any way. Nobody—including Homer—ever touched her or verbally demeaned her in any way. If anything, Homer's conduct at the party was exactly how one should treat exotic dancers (don't touch them, don't insult them, pay them fairly, and yet still try to have fun with it).
• Values Dissonance:
  • Today, a man seen dancing with an exotic dancer would not be seen as scandalous or homewrecking, and even in 1990, it is unlikely it would have been. It is possible the entire thing was just a send-up of older sitcoms, where such a thing WAS a big deal, but given how it is played completely straight, it is difficult to say.
  • Some real life belly dancers have been critical of this episode as it makes out belly dancing to be a sexual dance no different than striptease. Also, belly dancers pointed out that many won't perform at bachelor parties as a matter of personal pride as well as for personal safety reasons.