The Simpsons is considered one of the best shows and ground breaking for many reasons. Among them include an honest portrayal of a family that realistically resembles most families here on Earth. Another is its general take on major topics not blatantly, but with subtlety. In "Simpsons And Delilah", we get a glimpse of how classic Simpsons handle some of such issues while remaining subtle and present a mostly objective look at such issues.
When Homer is presented a cheap commercial regarding a "miracle cure" to male baldness, Homer, in typical light headed impulsive Homer fashion, rushes to purchase said product. Upon finding out the product costs $1000, he finds a way to exploit the company insurance to pay for it. After he uses it, for once and truly miraculously Homer gets his hair and is immediately spotted by Mr.Burns. In typical "judge a book by its cover" fashion, Mr. Burns randomly promotes Homer to junior executive and to a "better life".
With his new position, Homer needs an assistant for himself. While looking for a good applicant, Homer finds a perfect worker for him in the form of Karl. Karl is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Homer. From teaching Homer company cultures that he must learn to survive as a junior executive, to finding a perfect suit for him to hide his less than perfect body shape, to even planning a surprise for Marge, Karl is much less of an employee for Homer than a life partner. However, in typical classic Simpsons style, Karl's sexuality is done with subtlety. Rather than outlandishly giving Karl gay stereotypes, this episode handles controversial issues such as this expertly by portraying Karl as a normal nice guy, and just like all non gay characters.
With Karl's help, Homer becomes extremely successful. From being able to increase worker's production rate to decreasing accident rates, Homer is becoming more and more favored by Burns. After a bathroom incident of Smithers being shut down by Homer to dry his boss' hands, Smithers takes revenge by finding out about Homer's exploitation of company insurance to buy the hair product. With Burn's stingyness and Burn's permission to fire Homer. Smithers sets up to get Homer. However, again Karl steps in and saves Homer in the form of taking the responsibility and getting himself fired. Homer doesn't get away cleanly though, Karl is gone from him.
To make matters worse, Bart spills Homer's hair solution at home. Now without his hair, Karl does him one last favor by writing him a major speech for Homer to present where failure could mean being fired from the company. In a typical Simpsons style, Karl instills in Homer typical sitcom morals by telling him that hair is not the reason that Homer is successful. However, also in typical Simpsons fashion, the moral is flipped when Homer is undermined at the speech simply because of his hair. Back at the nuclear plant, Burns considers firing Homer, but instead demotes Homer back to his original job in a rare act of kindness.
The Simpsons in its classic era is boundlessly creative. Back in the 1990's, shows in general, much less cartoons, tend to avoid discussing gay issues. The Simpsons, however, not only portrays a real gay character in the form of Karl, but also is able to do it with such expertise while presenting a mostly non biased and realistic look at gay people. Whereas other shows may have ended with Homer making a brilliant speech at the end and reinforcing the age old moral, the Simpsons not only is able to challenge the status quo by providing a more realistic and mature look at the situation, but also gives a fair view of the gay issues in general.
Characterization: 5/5
Plot: 3/3
Subjective: 1/2
Overall: 9/10
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