How John Waters' Guest Spot Helped The Simpsons Dismantle The Groomer Narrative 27 Years Ago

One of the coolest aspects of classic-era episodes of "The Simpsons" is how dated they don't feel. Yes, the first two seasons have animation of a questionable quality, but by the time you get to seasons 5 through 9, it's easy to forget you're watching something from 20-plus years ago. That extended sequence where Stampy the Elephant stomps his way through the Republican and Democratic party conventions could play almost exactly the same in a 2022 episode, and no one would blink. 

The show in this period only really feels dated in sudden bursts. You'll be watching "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson" and be thrown off by the sudden extended sequence with Homer at the World Trade Center, or you'll watch "Lisa's Wedding" and realize that even when the show's jumping 15 years into its future, that future is now already 12 years behind us. (What even is time, anyway?) It turns out that most of the societal problems classic Simpsons poked fun at have only gotten worse over time, which is bad news for the world but great news for the show's relevance.

Every once in a while, however, there'll be an episode that repeatedly, consistently reminds viewers what year this all takes place in. That's the case with "Homer's Phobia," the 1997 episode that likely would've been written differently if it had come out even just a few years before, or a few years after. Although "The Simpsons" was never shy about trading in gay jokes, this was the first time they did an entire episode centered entirely around gay issues. Despite what all those jokes at Smithers' expense might have you expect, this resulted in one of the most thoughtful episodes of the entire series.

Although Homer and John initially get along, things fall apart the next morning. It takes awhile, but eventually Marge makes it clear to Homer that John is a gay man. Homer feels betrayed, almost violated, and his anger gets worse when Bart starts picking up some of John's mannerisms. 

In the episode's second act, the story shifts away from Homer's relationship with John and focuses more on his fear that Bart has been "turned" into a homosexual himself. First Bart starts using some of John's catchphrases, and then Homer finds Bart walking around in a Hawaiian shirt. "There's only two kinds of guys who wear Hawaiian shirts: gay guys and big fat party animals," Homer cries to Marge later. "And Bart doesn't look like a big fat party animal to me!" 

Things escalate, and Homer tries some questionable methods to "turn" Bart straight again. First he has Bart sit for hours in front of a billboard of scantily-clad women. Then he takes Bart to a steel mill, even though everybody knows the whole steel industry's gone gay for years by this point. The final act centers around Homer, Moe, and Barney deciding to take Bart out to kill a deer. 

Moe assures Homer, "After the boy bags a deer, all the diet soda in the world won't turn him back," but the night ends with the group getting attacked by a horde of angry reindeer. John comes in to save the day, and Homer finally realizes the guy isn't so bad. "Well, Homer, I won your respect, and all I had to do was save your life," John says. "Now if every gay man could just do the same, you'd be set."

While some of the stereotypes feel very '90s, what's aged well is the episode's repeated mockery of the idea that queerness is some sort of contagious thing. Bart picks up on some of John's mannerisms because he thinks John's a cool, funny guy, but Homer instantly interprets it as signs of Bart becoming gay. He sees Bart's sexuality as something that's currently in flux, something that needs to be rectified now before he gets older and it becomes set in stone. 

It's an idea that's unfortunately timely due to the latest wave of cultural backlash against the LGBTQ+ community, the "groomer" discourse that the far right seems to be going all-in on. Trying to paint queer people as inherently dangerous to children is hardly a new tactic, but it's especially worrying today because of how the internet's given reactionaries the unprecedented ability to run large-scale harassment campaigns against regular citizens. 

Harmed perhaps the most by this trend are queer schoolteachers. In April of this year, a fifth grade teacher posted a video on TikTok where he talked about how he responded when his students asked if he was gay. He answered his students' questions in what seemed to be a thoughtful, measured manner, which apparently qualifies him as a groomer. "Any teacher who comes out to their students should be fired on the spot," Chaya Raichik of the anti-LGBTQ+ Libs of TikTok account wrote, and the video spread around like wildfire in far-right spaces. This is hardly the only teacher this sort of thing has happened to; many of them end up having their personal information exposed to the whole internet. Many have lost their jobs and have been on the receiving end of countless death threats.

As "Homer's Phobia" makes clear, however, the only person harming Bart in this episode is Homer himself. When Homer puts pre-pubescent Bart in front of the sexually-provocative billboard ad in an attempt to turn Bart straight, this is far more inappropriate that anything John's done throughout the episode. Its reminiscent of the attitudes of guys who freak out over the idea of kids being exposed to the existence of drag queens, who then bring their young sons to Hooters without thinking twice about it. 

It's a double-standard so ingrained that it doesn't even get registered by most as a double-standard, but "The Simpsons," back in 1997, was able to pick up on it and point it out. For all Homer panics about John turning Bart gay, John doesn't mention his sexuality around the kids at all, nor does he even say anything remotely sexual around them. It's the mere fact that he's gay that makes Homer see John's actions through a sexual lens, whereas Homer can go around fretting about a child's future sex life without ever realizing how creepy or invasive this is. 

Probably the most blatant moment making fun of this attitude comes halfway through the episode when Homer tells Bart he loves him. It's almost a sweet moment, but then Homer panics and blurts out "As a father! A father, a regular father!" Gay panic has broken this man's mind so much that he can't even tell his son he loves him without clarifying that he doesn't mean it in a romantic way. 

As the number of young people openly identifying as LGBTQ+ has risen over the years, this has often been used as proof that the so-called queer agenda is successfully brainwashing children. "The powers that be in our culture really really really want your child to be gay or trans," said far-right pundit Matt Walsh. (He says something along these lines about once a week or so.) 

The more likely explanation is that the rise in people identifying as queer is simply due to the lower stigma around it. The graph tracking left-handedness over the years is often used as a simple response to homophobic hysteria: the percentage of left-handed kids rose and then leveled out throughout the 20th century because kids stopped being punished for it, not because the left-handed agenda successfully brainwashed them. Likewise, the number of queer people likely isn't actually growing; it's just that now that there's less stigma around it, we're getting a more accurate look of what percentage of the population has been LGBTQ+ this whole time. 

"Homer's Phobia" understands, more so than many people in 2022, that kids can't be "turned" queer. The episode understands that being in the presence of a regular queer adult is not going to have any major effect on them besides maybe turning them into a more open-minded, respectful person. As unhappy as Homer is throughout the episode, at no point does it seem like there's anything really wrong with Bart. He's just a kid doing kid things; the only thing Bart cares about with John is that he's fun and friendly, which is the only thing that really matters to a kid.

One of the reasons classic Simpsons has aged better than other animated shows like "South Park" or "Family Guy" is because the show usually takes a more indirect approach to hot-button issues. For the most part, the show gently pokes fun at things rather than angrily tear them down. When it comes to changing people's minds and not just satisfying the people who already agree, the approach of "The Simpsons" tends to work a lot better. 

Of course, a big reason early seasons of "The Simpsons" took this approach was because they were making their show in a much more restrictive environment than the others had to deal with. "South Park" never seemed to have any trouble getting their aggressively edgy material on air at Comedy Central, whereas its a minor miracle that "Homer's Phobia" got on the air at all. When the writing staff originally submitted the script for approval, they were told, "The entire subject and content of this episode is unacceptable for air," and it was only because of a change in staff at Fox that the script ended up getting approved at all.

Even beyond network meddling, the episode had to air at a time where the general American public was far, far less accepting towards the queer community than it is today. The writers of "Homer's Phobia" knew exactly how controversial its subject matter was going in, and put in the extra effort to win a skeptical audience over to people like John Waters. It was a major risk for the show, but one that definitely seems to have paid off. 

"I've always said the only way to change anyone's opinion is to make him laugh first," Waters has said about the episode. "It still is."