Episode 5F08
Written by John Swartzwelder
Directed by Mark Kirkland
Also starring: Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille
Special guest voice: Jim Vamey (as Cooder)

Premise: After trying their hand at the carny lifestyle, Homer and Bart lose their new friend Cooder's business. To make amends, they allow Cooder and his son, Spud, to stay for a while, but then find them very hard to get rid of.

Features: Moe, Chief Wiggum, Lou, Eddie, Agnes Skinner, Skinner, Nelson, Snake, Ned Flanders, the Princes, Android's Dungeon Guy, Krusty.

Couch: As the family sit, Nelson Muntz pulls the couch away from beneath them. Ha-Ha!

Look out for: Some of Colonel Tex's attractions at the fairground, particularly Humphrey the Talking Camel and the Tooth Chipper, a creaky rollercoaster. Spud is double-jointed throughout his body, which is really rather gross!

Notes: One of the most dismally unfunny episodes ever, lifted only by the brief appearance of a talking camel and Homer's clever way of getting Cooder and Spud out of his home. Whereas most of the series's politically incorrect moments are funny and well-observed, this episode seems to be saying that fairground folk and travellers really are deeply unpleasant criminals who are both irredeemable and unworthy of help. Nasty-taste-in-the-mouth time.