How come Smithers wasn't outed on Sunday's Simpson's epsiode?

[Dark]

I mean, come on. Smithers not proposing to Mr. Burns? WTF?!

[fujiyama]

1. I am surprised

they made absolutely no mention of Smithers' homosexuality.

Then again, they figured they've outed him on several occassions before. The most obvious was where he's in that gay community in Springfield rollerblading.

Then there was that other episode where he's in that conga line...

Maybe they just figured there was nothing to be said about him.

[ashmanonar]

2. yea...it's much funnier when they tiptoe around

his blatant homosexuality...rather than just come out and say it. if you resolve a tension in a comedy, it ceases being comedy.

[FreedomAngel82]

4. My favorite one is when

Smithers and Lisa had the same fascination with that doll and one time Smithers invited her over to his secret room with all his doll stuff and he turned on his computer and the screen savor of Mr. Burns popped up. LOL. They've been having this for years. I'm surprised nobody on the Christian right have tried to ban the "Simpsons."

[ashmanonar]

8. oh, yea.

that's a great episode. malibu stacy. gods, it's been a while. i need to find some simpsons and watch.

and i'm sure they did...faux would have been DELUGED with angry letters tho. people would boycott bc of the simpsons, more than anything else back then.

[Richard Steele]

12. Computer: "Hello, Smithers...You're..quite good..at...turning...me..ON..."

SMITHERS:"uh...you should probably ignore that"

Yeah, Smithers was already "out" to most people in his life.

But they REALLY wimped out with their choice; we had SOOO many blatant hints already.
the line "news flash: Homer likes beer" really summed it up.

I DID really enjoy Marges comment re: Lenny and Carl;
"Don't you meddle! That's for them to work out!"....
That gave me a flashback to the 'PrankMonkey episode:

"AGGH! MY eye! The doctor said I'm not supposed to get pudding in it!"

[tcfrogs]

3. Too obvious

Lenny & Carl would have been funny...

[FreedomAngel82]

5. I've always wondered about them

and I like how Homer is with Carl. LOL.

[tcfrogs]

6. Marge threw out a joke about them

Don't remember the wording, but she DID mention Lenny/Carl coming out.

[Bronco69]

7. LOL!

Yeah, She did say something about them needing to work things out in their own time or something like that. :-)

[Dark]

9. But they should have done something with Smither.

[tcfrogs]

10. I think we assume he's gay

So why bother. Plenty of time to develop that, considering the Simpsons will continue on until the end of time....

[chicagojoe]

11. Does Smithers NEED to be outed?

There's an episode where he's on vacation at a gay resort. He's already out.

[Atlas Mugged]

15. Besides that....

...there's the 'Sideshow Bob For Mayor' episode where he gives Lisa the key to getting the Republican pisshole (Bob) kicked out of office - "The dead are voting Republican!!!". When Lisa asks Smithers why he would rat on Bob, Smithers replies that his lifestyle is threatened. If that ain't "out", I don't know what is.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. That's A Very Good Catch!

Nice going, Atlas!
The Professor

[obreaslan]

13. Did you notice that Flanders was conspicuously absent from the episode....

I had originally thought that they would out him. Just a jab at the ultra religious right that actually point to Flanders as an example of the "perfect Christian."

[Atlas Mugged]

16. Rod & Tod were outted....

...in an episode set in the future. They were refinishing antiques on the frontlawn, wearing shorts, tank tops and mustaches. Very "Castro Clone" looking. Oh, yeah, Flanders was paying Bart not beat them up. Interestingly, Flanders was blind in the future.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Because Everyone Already Knows

I think one of the "in-jokes" is that Smithers think's he's still in the closet and that he's fooled everyone. In the meantime, pretty much everyone, the viewers, the people in Springfield (well, maybe not Homer) know he's gay and continues to let him think he's hiding it.

So, outing him would be superfluous and would ruin the real joke.
The Professor

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

17. Thank you for that explication...

On an unrelated note, does anybody remember the National Lampoon feature they ran years back called "Professor Kenilworth Explains the Joke" wherein a professor would take some lame-ass joke (usual racial or sexist) and embark on a long, pseudo-scientific, and screamingly-funny explanation of why this joke is funny. Wildly politically incorrect today -- probably was just plain offensive back then -- but really funny.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. That Sounds Awfully Familiar

Don't know why, since i didn't read Lampoon all that much. I did have lots of friends who did though, so maybe i saw it through them.

Hey, i could do a long pedantic explanation of a bad joke too! Of course, my explanation might not be very funny. It'd probably just be boring.
The Professor

[xmas74]

20. I read an article

where Matt Groenig stated that Smithers was not gay, rather he was just obsessed with Burns. He stated that if he were gay, he would have had a healthier relationship than devoting his life to a dried up old man.