"Deep Space Homer" is the fifteenth episode[5] of the fifth season of American animated television series The Simpsons, which was first broadcast on Fox in the United States on February 24, 1994.

In the episode, NASA selects Homer Simpson to participate in a spaceflight to spark public interest in space exploration and boost low ratings of the launches.

Suddenly, the remote breaks and the TV is stuck on a telecast of a Space Shuttle launch, which Homer finds boring.

While under NASA's alcohol ban, a sober Barney develops superior skills and is chosen to fly with Buzz Aldrin and Race Banyon.

While defending himself from a furious Race Banyon, Homer grabs a carbon rod and inadvertently uses it to seal the hatch.

[6][7][8] The staff worried that sending Homer into space was too large an idea, and Simpsons' creator Matt Groening said it gave them "nowhere to go".

[6][8] When Bart Simpson throws a marker pen, it rotates in slow motion and a match cut replaces it with a cylindrical satellite as a parody of a similar transition used in 2001; both film and cartoon use Richard Strauss' tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra as backing music.

[15] The episode features a tribute to Planet of the Apes when Homer imitates Charlton Heston in the last scene of the film.

"Deep Space Homer" deals with Barney's alcoholism as he sobers up to become fit and clear-thinking, then regresses to his usual drunken persona after he has a non-alcoholic drink, an example of "exaggerated incompetence.

At the start of the episode, Bart writes "Insert Brain Here" on the back of Homer's head to imply he is not intelligent enough to earn his family's respect.

His trip to space and his heroic act gains him increased respect from his family, something Homer had struggled with for several years.

This is evident when Homer and Bart, who are seen as average Joes, are attempting to quickly change the channel when a space launch is shown.

In the episode, NASA attempts to use social class as a means of increasing ratings by sending an "average schmo" such as Homer or Barney to space.

[3][7] It is frequently used to show mock submission[2][31] or suggest a powerful entity, such as robots, could become capable enough to conquer humanity.

[32] In 2007, New Scientist used the phrase when reporting the British government's research into aliens,[33] and in 2011, Ken Jennings, a long-standing contestant of the game show Jeopardy!, used it in reference to the computer Watson.