Homer? A Cracker Bro?

"Homer? A Cracker Bro?" is the thirty-seventh season finale of the American animated television series The Simpsons. The 805th episode overall, it originally aired on the Fox Network in the United States on February 15, 2026, following "Irrational Treasure". The episode was written by Ryan Koh and directed by Chris Clements.

In this episode, Kirk and Homer start a company selling crackers that do not crumble, but Kirk starts behaving erratically. Musician Michael Stipe appeared as himself. The episode received positive reviews.

The town celebrates the opening of a freeway wildlife crossing proposed by Lisa. As the animals cross, they notice a pharmaceutical factory on the other side of the freeway and consume the drugs inside.

Later, Homer tries to drop off Bart at Milhouse's house without interacting with Kirk, but is unsuccessful. When the medicated animals stampede down the street, Homer and Bart are forced to stay the night at the Van Houten home. Homer asks why Kirk is not sleeping in the bedroom. Kirk says he is not allowed to because of various medical conditions. They share Kirk's saltine crackers and Homer says he cannot eat them in bed at home because of the crumbs.

A week later, Kirk visits the Simpsons. He has been awake all week thinking about cracker crumbs and he was inspired to invent a cracker that does not crumble when bitten.

Kirk invites Homer to join him in selling the crackers, and he accepts. As the company becomes successful, Kirk becomes increasingly confident, but his behavior concerns Marge. Dr. Hibbert informs her that Kirk has bipolar disorder and is in a manic phase. He ran out of medication when the animals consumed it all from the factory and he refused to take it when the supply returned. Marge discusses it with Luann, but she is not concerned since she is now rich.

During a news interview, Kirk becomes paranoid and says he needs to build an aquatic rocket to transport people to the ocean floor which causes the company's stock to plummet.

Kirk enters a depressed state and the FBI begins investigating him because he took money from the company to build his rocket. If Kirk is arrested, the company will be ruined, so Homer plans to take the blame to keep his family rich. There is a musical montage of Kirk's depression sung by Michael Stipe.

Marge goes to reason with Kirk, but he does not want to take his medication because people liked him without it. Marge says she does not like him this way and tells him to take the medication if he cares about Homer's friendship. He takes the medication and uses the rocket to catch up with Homer at the FBI's waterfront headquarters before he confesses. Kirk reconciles with Homer and turns himself in.

During the credits, Homer and Kirk are before a street as clips involving both of them are shown on the walls of the different buildings.

Musician Michael Stipe reprised his role as himself.^[1][2] He first appeared as part of the band R.E.M. in the thirteenth season episode "Homer the Moe".^[3][4] Stipe performed a parody of the R.E.M. song "Everybody Hurts" called "Everybody Kirks".^[5]

The scenes featuring Homer and Kirk standing in front of a series of building facades projecting moving images from various moments in their lives is a parody of the poster of Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical drama The Fabelmans .

The episode aired in the United States immediately following the previous episode of the series as part of a one-hour season finale.^[1][6][7]

Marcus Gibson of Bubbleblabber gave the episode an 8 out of 10. He liked Michael Stipe's scene and the depiction of the animals taking medication. He also liked the depiction of Kirk's bipolar disorder.^[8] Marisa Roffman of Give Me My Remote felt Kirk's bipolar disorder made sense given his past behavior and should not be ignored in future episodes.^[9] Billy Fellows of Collider noted that the episode used the theme of Kirk's mental health. He concluded that "This episode also shows Homer's responsible side, something uncommon for him. He tries to calm Kirk down on television and even offers to take the blame for the embezzlement charges. At first, he ignores Kirk's behavior, but in the end, he embraces him with the aforementioned gesture, a tremendous show of compassion toward someone who almost ruined his life."^[10]

Nick Valdez of Comicbook.com ranked the episode number one on his list, "Every Episode of The Simpsons Season 37, Ranked Worst to Best." He said, "The core of the episode revolves around the growing friendship between Homer and Kirk, and it uses their history to great effect. There's a scene where they both look back on their long history together and hope their future will be much better than their past failures. There are a lot of intense emotions to process, and it does so very carefully when Homer and Kirk say goodbye at the end. It's Homer's best performance in years, and it happens to be the funniest of the season. In a season where we saw a lot of unexpected pairings, this one proved to be the strongest."^[11]

• "Homer? A Cracker Bro?" at IMDb