"The Fat and the Furriest"
The Simpsons episode
Homer develops a fear of bears.
Episode no.	318
Prod. code	EABF19
Orig. airdate	November 30, 2003
Written by	Joel H. Cohen
Directed by	Matthew Nastuk
Couch gag	In a parody of the opening of the 1960s sitcom, Get Smart!, Homer follows a red line down stairs, out of an elevator, through double-doors that open automatically, in an elevator and into an ascending door to the telephone box. He falls onto the couch with the family already there.
Guest star(s)	Charles Napier as Grant Conor
Season 15 November 2, 2003 – May 23, 2004 "Treehouse of Horror XIV" "My Mother the Carjacker" "The President Wore Pearls" "The Regina Monologues" "The Fat and the Furriest" "Today I Am a Clown" "'Tis the Fifteenth Season" "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays" "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot" "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife" "Margical History Tour" "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore" "Smart and Smarter" "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner" "Co-Dependent's Day" "The Wandering Juvie" "My Big Fat Geek Wedding" "Catch 'Em if You Can" "Simple Simpson" "The Way We Weren't" "Bart-Mangled Banner" "Fraudcast News" List of all The Simpsons episodes
Seasons 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21

"The Fat and the Furriest" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons' fifteenth season, which originally aired November 30, 2003. The episode is about Homer fighting a bear.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Oldcoot.com 3 Inspiration 4 Cultural references 5 References

[edit] Plot

Having bought Marge the same thing as Bart for Mother's Day Homer goes to Sprawl-Mart, and he buys her a "Kitchen Carnival" on the advice of Patty and Selma, a machine that produces cotton candy, caramel and deep fried things. Eventually Homer uses it to make a giant ball of deep-fried, caramel-covered, cotton candy. The ball is much too big for the family to eat, and it gets dirty. Finally Marge insists Homer should get rid of it. He takes it to the dump, and is confronted by a large, angry grizzly bear, from which he cowers. The bear eventually wanders off without attacking, apparently bored by Homer passing out.

Homer becomes a nervous wreck, hallucinating and seeing bears everywhere, like: Banjo, Pooh, Tooty, Little Bear, etc. To make things worse, a tape was made of him cowering from the bear, and his coworkers and Bart's friends make fun of him incessantly. Grampa tells him to confront the bear, and Homer eventually does so, contacting a hunter named Grant. He then makes a suit of armor out of household junk. Ignoring Marge's requests that he not fight the bear, he sneaks out of the house, is joined by Bart, Lenny and Carl, and goes to fight the bear.

The four of them make camp in the woods. As his homemade armor is hot, Homer eventually takes it off and bathes in a stream, where he is again attacked by the bear. With Bart, Lenny and Carl dancing to the radio and paying no attention, the bear drags Homer to his cave. Homer discovers that the bear is only angry because of a painful electrical prod attached to his ear. In the meantime, Marge and Lisa have discovered Homer, Bart, and the suit of armor missing, and Lisa hires Grant to help track Homer down.

Freed of the electrical prod, the bear and Homer become friends. Homer decides to take the bear to a nearby wildlife refuge, but on the way, they are attacked by Grant and some other hunters. Homer dresses the bear up in the homemade armor, which resists the gunfire and allows the bear to reach the wildlife refuge - where he is promptly attacked by an elephant but then fights back against him.

[edit] Oldcoot.com

In one scene, Grandpa shows Homer his own website; Oldcoot.com. The domain name is a real-life website owned by Samuel L. Bowman. Some fans of oldcoot.com suggested that Bowman sue The Simpsons, though Bowman ultimately decided not to pursue legal action, as it wasn't the "character of the company".^[1]

[edit] Inspiration

The creation of bear-proof armor after surviving a bear attack (but not Homer's public cowardice) was inspired by Troy Hurtubise whose story was told in the documentary Project Grizzly^[2].

[edit] Cultural references

The name title is a parody of the movie The Fast and the Furious as well as the 2001 film of the same name.

In the articles with bears can see a Snuggle bottle, Gummy bears bag, Teddy Grahams box, Winnie the Pooh, Super sugar crisp box and in Maggie's books she has The Bear Went Over the Mountain, The Berenstain Bears and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

The song in radio is Jarabe tapatio.

Also whilst sitting in the corner frightened, Homer is confronted by many Bears - such as gummy bears, Paddington Bear, carebears and two Bears wearing the Chicago Bears jersey and helmet.

In the scene where Homer makes his bear-fighting suit, the Survivor song Eye of the Tiger is heard.

[edit] References

1. ^ "Old Coot.Com". Oldcoot.com. http://www.oldcoot.com/simpsons.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-06. 
2. ^ "North Bay News and Weather on BayToday.ca". Baytoday.ca. http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/details.asp?c=662. Retrieved 2008-10-06. 

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