Homer doesn't have a nuclear physics degree, and shouldn't have been given that job. He came in convinced Mr Burns, to give him one by saying, he do anything Mr Burns asked of him. Homer did at some point got a nuclear physics degree, (but that was after this episode), but it doesn't matter anyway, because he sleeps on the job the whole time, unless he's having lunch or taking a break.
IsrarTaj83 Homer never received a degree for anything as it isn't required for the job he holds. In the episode you are talking about he merely took one college course 'Nuclear Physics 101'.
That's because he is making the same elementary mistake everyone does when first attempting a cube: thinking that there is any point in completing a side at all, it may actually be a good thing if you are really good at it, but as a basic strategy, it is about as useless as a random mess, corners and crosses are the first priority.
@@5688gamble not true at all, by understanding how the cube moves well enough to complete a side you can learn the way different pieces move, and then move the pieces so that the sides line up, from there you reason that the cube is composed of "layers" and start moving other pieces into place without permanently displacing what you've already organized, and so on
Look at the colors around them, the side isn't even properly solved also notice that the animators completely screwed up as you can also see at 1:49 that there are 2 pieces with white on two sides.
You know my boss said something to me that made me laugh, if you guess and you guess it all correctly, you know it by instinct and you were meant for it. 😂😂
You know, he actually did the right thing as an engineer, cause the first thing drilled into our heads is always check the manual. Even when you know what you're doing cause it might have been updated with new info since you last checked it
Wait seriously? As a basic auto technician that seems dangerous as all hell they should give you guys training when they update shit not just throw a manual at you and tell you to read it
@@michaelmoran9020 yep, certainly on the railway due to how big the book of standards is we're not asked to memorize it but rather demonstrate where within the standards we can find what we're looking for. For example, we don't have to know what distance the guage is, we just have to know where to find it within the standards.
No wonder Homer was distracted, his rubik's cube is impossible to solve with the white corners at 1:49 Actually all the corners in that frame are like that
@@theangrypotato2.031 Think about it, you can't move a corner out of the corner on a rubix cube. The rubix cube Homer is holding has a corner with a white surface pointing both up down and to the sides, that means that he no matter what he does the corner will always be white on more than 1 of the rubix cubes surfaces. And the whole point of solving the cube is that only one side can be 1 color
@@suoun6938 No it most certainly is still possible, i doubt that the creators thought enough to make every part of his cube solvable, but 2 whites seemingly in the same corner is 1000% possible.
When the power went out at Fukushima, the engineers went into the parking lot and took the batteries from their cars, hooked them together and powered the equipment with the battery juice. .........For real
+Cynthia Burkey Apparently there came a point where they went to try to buy fresh batteries from a store but the thing was closed due to the quake. Looking back on it now I'm pretty sure they would have been pardoned if they broke in...
the reactor had many flaws in general which lead to the catastroph One new generation of reactors which seems very promising is the one of Thorium Reactors or Molten Salt reactor... look it up! I hate it (I know you guys didn't) when people always blame nuclear energy, even tho its one of the greatest invetions of the human history and try to find alternatives instead of trying to improve what we already have sure alternatives are great and should be used if they improve our energy problem, but why just throw all the developement that we already have just away
They had 6 (or more) generators, mainland hook up, and created power themselves, they also had days of battery back up. The tsunami flooded out the generators (they were below the new massive flood plain), the earthquake and tsunami destroyed the mainland power, and the nuclear reactor was shut down.
Considering that he had no idea what to do and his panic, he handled that pretty well. Even used a good chunk of the 5 minutes skimming the manual. The random button press didn't happen till there was no time for anything else.
considering the town of Springfeild in the cartoon is full of bumbling morons there isnt actually anyone more qualified for the job homers got. they would just replace him with a different moron.
@@VeryPeeved Yeah you would think that those kind of buttons would be labelled. Even your most typical machinery has a little picture next to it to indicate what it does
@@Fiufsciak Types of reactions RBMK was the kind of reactor used in Chernobyl with a critical design flaw. To make a long story short, the emergency shutdown CAUSED the meltdown.
Chernobyl disaster wouldn’t have happened if, say, they actually housed their nuclear reactor in something more substantial than a mere warehouse for crying out loud
For a show that’s supposed to be mostly a light-hearted parody of the American “nuclear family,” I remember seeing this episode as a kid for the first time and the tension that it built throughout the reactor meltdown scenes in the first half of the episode was palpable.
This was back in the 1990s when Chernobyl had just happened (1986) and nuclear holocaust scenarios were still fresh on everyone’s minds. (Both from power plants, and from the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, when everyone was still on edge of the mutually assured destruction tension between the USA and the union)
Lara Stroud Yeah. Funny thing about Chernobyl is that it’s almost like they were TRYING to make it meltdown, since they did failure testing while the MAIN TECHNICIANS WERE ASLEEP. And the engineer who built it only built bridges and Dams prior
The animation in this segment is phenomenal - what with the lighting, and the flashing buttons. You can tell a lot of hard work went into it. Must be some of the best animation in the show's run - and considering that this was before they started using computers, that's saying something. And the music too is very good at building tension - why the Simpsons producers decided to fire Alf Clausen I'll never know.
thomasthecricketlege really? I awlays wonder why are there so many well known cartoon like Amazing Gumball, some bear cartoon thing, simpson and so on.
The thing I'm most amazed about is that Homer even had a Rubik's cube to begin with, let alone being interested in it enough to ignore knowing what shiny button to press.
Remember, an easy way to solve a Rubik's cube, is to pipma corner square off with a butter knife, then disassemble & reassemble. Of course, there's smart people who can solve it honestly faster than my cheating technique !!!
And the cube is unsolvable. Has 2 white sides on the same part, which means this cube has 2 white sides. But it has 7 colors, on a 6 sided cube. A color to much. This is an idiot cube for distraction!
“Okay okay don’t panic whose ever problem this I’m sure they can handle it. It’s my Problem! WE’RE DOOMED!!!!” .....Homer is definitely me in a crisis.
I was very surprised that homer even remembered when his trainer told him about a certain button for core meltdown, normally a vast majority of those being trained don't remember the most critical things for work.
@@mooganifyAtleast he knew that this button existed in first place, if he didnt he would've probably just layed down beneath a table waiting for his demise,lol
@@skell6134 And even then it was still guesswork. Because he wasn't exactly paying attention to WHICH button was the override. The rhyme actually saved him here in a panic.
Mr Burns just gave him the job not caring how trained he was. He doesn't even remember Homer's name or that he exists until Smithers answers for him when he sees him and asks what's his name
why would you care he stopped the reactor from melting down not everyone can pull that one off who cares if he has to do some stupid game to pick the correct button atleast he pushed the correct button and stopped the meltdown🤣
@@raven4k998 He's mad at homers incompetence. He literally didn't know what he even did to save the day. Doesn't matter that be saved the day, it was through luck. Are you saying send him back to it and test luck again?
@@raven4k998 The Russians couldn't have done a single thing to step that meltdown. Once it was gone there was no going back. It's not like the Simpsons where you press a single button to stop everything. The engineering of the rbmk followed by mistakes and poor decision making by the humans working that day is what led to the meltdown. Modern reactors would never cause such an issue even if the same people in 1986 were working on a modern reactor.
The simpsons has always portrayed nuclear power as a sympathetic use. Its just that the two people least qualified to keep it safe(burns for funding prevention measures, homer for monitoring) are the ones front in center to do so.
@@Captain.MysticPart of is is also people failing to realize that the simpsons is filled with stereotypes and shouldn't be relied on for even semi-good depictions of power sources.
Reginald Mustard Bacon I love that, at the same time Mr. Burns was on the phone to Kent Brockman, telling people not to panic; he was being quickly helped into a radiation suit by Smithers haha. I also love the photo of Mr. Burns, on the news, with him wearing that exquisite hairpiece haha. It’s just a superb episode. 😀👍
"Five minutes before critical mass." Critical mass is the minimum amount of fissile material to sustain a reaction...I'd kinda hope a nuclear power plant would have critical mass happening at any given time.
@@Olliethelabradane so what does critical mass have to do with a meltdown cause I doubt the amount of fissionable material in the core is not going to be reduced from the core till after the melt down when it melts down and out of the reactor core
I believe the reason because Homer was able to keep his job so far is that Smithers, not Burns because he never remembers him, knows that any competent Security Inspector would report to the authorities the many failures that the Power Plant has, and that would lead to it's closure
well with all his failures he at least has never had a meltdown which is impressive when you think about it seriously how many meltdowns happen with more competent people in charge of the reactor
Homer was actually hired by Mr.Burns. He was rejected by Mr. Smithers during his interview for the Nuclear Power Plant position. He got the job because he basically told Mr.Burns that he could be his punching bag. Simpsons season 3, episode 12.
@@raven4k998Not many, actually. The proportions of nuclear power plant related deaths/injuries to fossil fuel power plant related deaths/injuries is staggering. Like in the grand scheme of things, nuclear reactors are beyond safe. Especially with thorium.
The ironic part being a Nuclear plant isn't that complicated... Moderators, Fuel Rods, and Shielding are really the only parts, the complex part is the math and changing the three parts to keep things smooth... Wait Math... Homer? WE'RE DOOMED!!!!
@@jackgaulsfitnessvlog4802 alright first of all, I have every right to be here, this video isn't on the chernobyl show, it's on the simpsons, second of all I never said I didn't like it, the show was great, but I'm getting tired of seeing the same comments being posted again and again, they were a bit funmy the first time but quickly got old
This scene gives a Eerie feeling, Where it shows the intensity of such situation of dealing in a brink of Nuclear Meltdown. The Lighting being red and the Music along with the doors being shut, Only further intensives the feeling of Intensity of the situation, in which not only creates the mood of uncertainty but also establishes the concept ether Do or Die in which means he can't escape and only has the option to ether fix the problem or let the Nuclear Meltdown occur. It showing Moe's Bar and the Retirement home symbolizes those who could also very well die if said Nuclear reactor meltdown occurs, It show that if the Meltdown occurs, It wouldn't just kill homer, But also everyone in the town within the blast radius and those who do not evacuate within a given time before exposure to Radioactivity. While showing Marge symbolizes part of what Homer has to lose being with for the rest of his life, If He didn't Succeed.
Dale Gribble nuclear reactors don't blow up idiot. They can't carry out a chain reaction that fast, because they run on low enrrichment Uranium, and work with slow neutrons, unlike all nuclear bombs.
@@dubsy1026 Although nuclear reactors technically do not experience nuclear explosions, they can have eruptions (including but not limited to actual secondary explosions) having enough power to eject radioactive stuff into the rest of the world, as proven by Chernobyl and Fukushima. And Three Mile Island was a close call.
To give credit to Homer, he did what he could at the heat of the moment. Sure, he could of payed attention to his training, but they could've labeled the button.
Oluf The Explorer coolant loops, backups, oh so many failsafes, dozens of control rods, SCRAM controls, refueling machinery, hot boxes, and that's just for starters. A manual has to include EVERYTHING. And there is an awful lot of auxillary stuff in a nuclear power plant, so that would all be in their. They really are very complicated. The basic principle is not, but the second you get into details, it gets more and more complex.
Jesse Green not me, because I learned how to deal with pretty much everything nuclear when I was 12... it’s not so hard if you know the math and chemistry behind it
If Frank Grimes were in this episode and watching Homer, he'd stare him the same way he did when Homer just dumped a bucket of water on the control panel! XD
well it goes to show How Homers mind works play a game to pick the right one and it give his weak mind the time it needs to access and recall the information on how to override the meltdown with the emergency override button which he clearly remembered because how else does he keep hitting the correct button each and every time the core starts melting down
I always find it interesting how there is an episode in season 1 that pretty explicitly shows how Homer became the safety inspector for the plant yet practically every flashback in all other episodes show or reference him to having always worked in that specific position.
Montpelier Montgomery Yes they did. How else did they make the weapon grade plutonium for the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan? The first reactor was made in 1944.
If you go back further, Otto Hahn was the first person to split the atom in 1938. He knew about the power that laid in it, but talked it down in front of Hitler, to prevent the Nazis from getting the nuke first. He felt terrible and guilty when he heard about the drops on Japan, only made possible by his work.
1:55 take a button take a button, take a button, no one potato two potato, three potato, four no wait! bubble gum bubble gum *fifteen seconds to core meltdown. XD
