"Co-Dependents' Day" is the fifteenth episode of the fifteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 21, 2004. The episode was written by Matt Warburton and directed by Bob Anderson.
In this episode, Marge joins Homer in drinking alcohol, which leads to an incident in which a drunk driving Homer causes a car accident but makes it look like a drunk Marge was driving. The band Brave Combo appeared as themselves. The episode received negative reviews, with critics citing the scene where Homer purposely frames Marge for a DUI as an instance of the series jumping the shark. Finch was unsure how the band would look in the episode but thought that the band would only appear momentarily.
Cultural references
Cosmic Wars and Randall Curtis are parodies of the Star Wars prequel trilogy and its director George Lucas; the parodies focus on negative reaction the films received, particularly the criticism of the character Jar Jar Binks, which is represented as "Jim-Jam", and the over-focus on politics. Curtis is also shown as living in rural Californian ranch which houses a high-tech visual effects workshop, a reference to Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. The giant robot in The Gathering Shadow, resembling an Imperial AT-AT, destroys the Galactic Senate.
Critical response
On Four Finger Discount, Guy Davis and Brendan Dando thought the episode was the "shittiest episode" they had ever reviewed. They said that Homer putting Marge in the driver's seat to avoid a DUI was "un-fucking-forgivable".
James Greene of Nerve put the episode sixth on his list "Ten Times The Simpsons Jumped the Shark", singling out the storyline of Homer deliberately framing Marge for a crime he committed just to save his own skin. Greene remarked "This Homer wasn't a sometimes-insensitive-but-largely-sympathetic lug. He was just a douche." He did however like the "excellent" B-story, but found that it was "completely overshadowed by a very uncomfortable moment in the Simpson-Bouvier union."
The episode has been cited as a reason that Marge should leave Homer. Josh Kurp of Uproxx called it "the worst thing Homer's ever done to Marge". Anna Leszkiewicz of the New Statesman said, "I'm genuinely scared for her, what is happening to these once happy adults??"