The Homer ⇥ wired.com

Alexander George, Wired:

Feeling his engineers have lost touch with the common folk, Herb employs Homer because he is, Powell says, “an average schmo.” Homer is given free rein to design his dream car, a futuristic creation filled with conveniences that make driving easy and pleasant. The episode comes with nods to automotive styling history: “Some things are so snazzy that they never go out of style, like tail fins and bubble domes. And shag carpeting!” Homer says.

The result of his efforts is The Homer, “powerful like a gorilla, yet soft and yielding like a Nerf ball.” It’s uglier than anything on the real-world market and, at $82,000 ($128,000 in 2014 dollars), it instantly puts Herb’s company out of business. (There are echoes here of real world mega-flops like Ford’s Edsel and the Tucker Torpedo.)

Not sure why I thought about this episode over the last few days, give or take, but I will remember soon enough.