You know, cartoons are meant to be entertainment without the soppiness of a Soap Opera or the over-acting of a crime drama, a happy medium if you will. But sometimes, just like those programmes, there are scenes that make you sit up and debate the purpose of life. Take, in the case of today’s post, Frank Grimes, the enemy of Homer Simpson who experienced amongst the WORST life can do to you while Homer has experienced the most EXTRAORDINARY things life can gift to you. When Frank stepped into the world of one of the most complicated cartoon characters ever, he was ANGRY at what he saw! But the question I’m posing today is… Did he REALLY have a point or was his bitterness just the wrong way to view the fact that Homer has been lucky and he’s been both unlucky and cast aside like most of us are in life?
First, some context about who I’m talking about in case you didn’t see the episode featuring the tragic life and debatably symbolic death of Frank Grimes. He appeared on a Channel 6 news segment called ‘Kent’s People’ where news anchor Kent Brockman highlights people with interesting life stories. We learn that Grimes was abandoned by his parents at a young age and forced to work as a delivery boy of toys to affluent children. He then got caught up in the explosion of a silo aged 18 and spent a considerable amount of time relearning the basic movements and emotions of a human. The years after were then spent studying Nuclear Physics which he eventually graduated from at the age of 35 with, as Brockman puts it, “a minor in determination.” Mr. Burns, owner of Springfield’s Nuclear Power Plant, is in awe of Grimes’ life and achievements, and who wouldn’t be considering he was brought up with nothing but himself and battled hard to even get the diploma in the first place?
He asks Smithers to recruit him for the purpose of making him executive vice-president, which he does and the next day, we see Grimes brought into meet Mr. Burns. But rather than acknowledge the fact the “self-made man”, as Smithers refers to him, is here and ready to become probably the most useful asset the Power Plant has ever had, Burns asks Smithers to instead seek out a dog that appeared on the next edition of ‘Kent’s People’ in order to make it his executive vice-president and “put [Grimes] somewhere out of the way,”. How a dog can become an executive vice-president in reality is beyond me but we can already see here that this is an example of someone with a tragic life story just cast aside and looked at as if he is just like everyone else, when he’s clearly not.
So, Grimes is then thrown into an office near the Power Plant’s three stooges Homer, Lenny and Carl. They introduce themselves in the only way they know how and Homer immediately makes himself look like a fool by saying “I didn’t even know what a nuclear panner plant was.” The way Homer dealt with a standard emergency in his office (by just pouring water over the Control Panel) and recent statistics for workplace accidents and near-fatal meltdowns (two key measures of Homer’s performance as Safety Inspector presumably), didn’t help his image in Grimes’ head. And it only got worse at lunchtime as, even though Grimes stopped him from consuming a beaker of Sulphuric Acid, Homer blamed him for the destruction of a wall which resulted in Grimes being, in my opinion, unfairly reprimanded by Burns. That, combined with Homer’s consumption of his specialist lunch and damage to his custom pencils led to this: “I’m not your buddy, Simpson! I don’t like you! In fact, I hate you! Stay the hell away from me, because from now on, we’re enemies!”
Under the advice of his peers, Homer invites Grimes into his home. But this is where the conflict is at its peak because, after being stunned that someone he, quite rightly, referred to as “That irresponsible oaf?!” has quite the idyllic life and he has quite a basic life in contrast, he lashes out and utters the quotes that are the subject of my critical analysis today:
“I have had to work hard every day of my life and what do I have to show for it? This briefcase and this haircut! And what do you have to show for your lifetime of sloth and ignorance? … Everything! A dream house, two cars, a beautiful wife, a son who owns a factory, fancy clothes, and (sniffs) lobsters for dinner! And do you deserve any of it? No! … I’m saying, you’re what’s wrong with America, Simpson! You coast through life, you do as little as possible and you leech off decent, hard-working people, like me! If you lived in any other country in the world, you would have starved to death long ago! … You’re a fraud! A total fraud! (to the rest of the family) It was nice meeting you. (slams front door)”
Frank Grimes
The bitterness continues to seep out of Grimes as he pledges “I would die a happy man if I could prove to you that Homer Simpson has the intelligence of a 6-year-old.” He seizes an opportunity to do exactly that when he spots a poster for a children’s contest that involves designing a model of a future nuclear power plant. He uses a compass to remove key details and leaves it on Homer’s workstation. Homer takes up the opportunity to enter the contest and presents what is essentially a crude mock of the current Power Plant with some cosmetic adjustments. But, to Grimes’ chagrin, it’s enough to WIN the whole thing! And that leads to Grimes going completely ballistic! He runs around the plant mocking Homer’s incompetent way of working, hoping to prove to the other workers that the Homer they just cheered is actually the worst person ANYONE could have in a Nuclear Power Plant (which he is if you look at his work history). He then arrives at an active electricity box where he declares, in a mocking way, “What’s this? [reads sign] “Extremely High Voltage.” Well, I don’t need safety gloves, because I’m Homer Simp—” before proving, as if any more was needed, that you should NEVER go near live electricity wires unless you work for the ESB. And thus, he dies as a man who was dealt some of the harshest cards you could get, completely aghast as to how someone like Homer Simpson has managed to live the life he has.
Turn over to the next page for my analysis of the big scene where Frank, after seeing Homer’s house, explodes and deems him what’s wrong with America. Did he have a point or was he too bitter to realise an ugly truth?
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