No Homers Club

Homer the Great is S6E12 of the Simpsons. It has an iconic scene in which Homer recalls a childhood memory where he is turned down entry into a treehouse. A gatekeeper eagerly accepts everyone except for Homer. When asked why, he points to a “No Homers Club” sign. In perfect comedic timing, Homer rebuts that they allowed another Homer into the treehouse. Without missing a beat, the gatekeeper says, “It says ‘No Homerssssssss. We’re allowed to have one.'”

This scene is incredibly funny because Homer sets up this story as everyone hates him and the world is against him. I think we’ve all felt that same anxiety and fear before. The extreme specificity of the example is so humorous, especially with the inclusion of an exception. I think we’ve all felt unfairly treated at one point or another in our lives and have looked at others in similar positions to only find different outcomes. It’s not easy explaining to people that life is not fair, especially if they perceive it to be unjustly or overtly unfair to themselves.

There are certainly times when life truly is unfair. But what can really be done about it? People like to believe the grass is greener on the other side, but most often the case is that everything has its pros and cons. We can seek different environments or different friends, but problems tend to follow us if we don’t resolve them. We can make changes to the things around us and we can make changes to ourselves.

It’s funny because we say the only thing we can count on is change, but there’s some things that never change. The episode Homer the Great is not only iconic with its infamous meme, but also because it ends the same way Homer recounts his childhood, with another No Homers Club created in his dishonor. The storytelling and humor are so fantastic because they relate to the human experience and because we find ourselves in the same problems we had as a child, with almost cartoonish exaggeration.

While it’s certainly possible the world is out to get you and an existential crisis can be so overwhelming, what we can do is control ourselves and our decisions, which plays out into controlling and creating our future. Don’t let patterns of the past define your future and don’t let the perceived antagonists stop you from changing yourself and your future.