Smoking Out the Snake" for The World: A Comic Opera. The episode aired on May 6, 2011. Themes "Season 8" is set around the birth of the internet. An episode with a similar theme, "Homer's Phobia," aired on February 15, 2010. It focused on the fictionalization of the idea that the internet is a reality and is becoming a larger part of everyday life. In the season premiere "Days of Future Future," however, Bart and Milhouse are banned from using the internet. Other episodes of the same show also feature similar themes. "The Boys of Bummer" explores the idea that nostalgia can be dangerous and is about someone looking for a forgotten past by re-writing history. The episode that focused on "Battle of the Network Stars" is another episode of similar theme; "Homer Badman," which deals with Homer accidentally getting caught in the past when he goes back to witness a past crime. "Black Widower" and "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" focus on the idea of re-writing the past in order to deal with the problem of grief. Both are episodes that dealt with killing Homer. The episode "Simpson Tide" deals with the ideas of time travel, future events and being stuck in an endless cycle. Reception Ratings The episode first aired in the US on April 22, 2011 and was viewed in 8.96 million homes. The episode received a 4.5 Nielsen rating and a 7% share of the audience. This episode aired on Fox in Canada and was seen by 1.73 million viewers. The US television ratings are collected by Nielsen Media Research. Critical reception Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a score of 8.0/10 (Good), writing: "This show is constantly trying new and different ways to be different and interesting and it's becoming more and more clear that it just might be succeeding." He also praised the subplot with the internet and thought it "was pretty funny." Robert David Sullivan of The A.V. Club gave the episode a A−, writing: "In one fell swoop, a very enjoyable, highly entertaining and very funny episode was undone by a last-minute plot twist that may have been gratuitous and may have been the result of sloppy plotting. But that one final twist made “Homer Badman” as much about being too clever for its own good as it was about being clever. As such, “Homer Badman” is the latest example of how “The Simpsons” is still a long, long way from being a good example of a TV series." References External links "Homer Badman" at TheSimpsons.com Category:The Simpsons (season 21) episodes Category:2011 American television episodes Category:Homeschooling in the United States Category:Internet safety Category:Television episodes about time travel Category:Television episodes about viral outbreaks Category:Fictional depictions of Abraham Lincoln in television Category:Television episodes about telekinesis