Yokel Hero

"Yokel Hero" is the 14th episode of the thirty-second season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 698th episode overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on March 7, 2021. The episode was directed by Rob Oliver, and written by Jeff Martin & Samantha Martin.

Albert Brooks guest-stars as Slick manager. The episode featured "Yokel Hero" Cletus, received generally positive reviews, and was watched live in the United States by 1.38 million viewers.

Plot
At Carl's birthday at Moe's, Homer misses family dinner, greatly disturbing his wife Marge. Homer gets drunk and ends up in jail. Marge then bans him from the house for the night to stop his foolish and drunk misconduct. Homer, in a cell, feels saddened and believes he screwed up, but Cletus cheers him up with a nice song on acoustic guitar. Realizing the error of his ways, Homer returns home to Bart, Lisa, Maggie, and Marge to tell them that he is sorry and vows to be a better father and husband.

Realizing that Cletus could become a famous singer, Homer becomes Cletus' manager. Starting from singing in dive bars, he progressively moves on to better venues and becomes more popular. Cletus becomes so successful that he gets an appearance on Elin Degenerous' show. There, he tells his fans to attack Chief Wiggum because he stopped him from making moonshine. He fires Homer as he is now a great singer and wants to hired a professional manager.

Cletus hires a new manager who offers him a moonshine brand with Duffman as a mascot. He signs a blank contract with him. Without Cletus, Homer reverts to his old ways. Marge forces Homer to bring Cletus back to his family. Homer and Marge are not successful, but when he sees Brandine and their children, he decides to quit and go home.

Development
The episode was written by Jeff Martin and his daughter Samantha Martin. Jeff wrote the fifth season episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet," and the song featured in that episode, "Baby on Board," was inspired by Samantha. Jeff and Samantha wrote this episode with Samantha's daughter sleeping next to them, and Samantha also recorded three song demos for the episode.

Casting
Albert Brooks makes his ninth guest-star appearance in this episode as a Slick manager. Brooks previously portrayed Russ Cargill in The Simpsons Movie and guest-starred in seven previous episodes: "The Call of the Simpsons," "Life on the Fast Lane," "Bart's Inner Child," "The Heartbroke Kid," "500 Keys," "Bull-E," and voiced Hank Scorpio in "You Only Move Twice." As always, he is credited as A. Brooks. Executive producer Al Jean complimented his performance regarding how it enhanced what was written.

Marketing
In 2021, Fox released eight promotional pictures from the episode.

Release
The episode was originally set to air on February 28, 2021. However, due to weather delays at the 2021 Daytona 500, the broadcast date was pushed back to March 7, 2021.

Viewing figures
In the United States, the episode earned a 0.45 rating and was watched live by 1.38 million viewers, which was the most watched show on Fox that night.

Critical response
Tony Sokol with Den of Geek, said "The Simpsons delivers an extremely nuanced take on several well-worn themes. We know “Yokel Hero' will come to a predetermined end, because Cletus is a series regular and forever stuck in his local role." He also gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars.

Jesse Bereta of Bubbleblabber gave the episode a 6.5 out of 10. He thought the episode was a repeat of previous episodes featuring Homer as a manager for a musician. He also thought the plot was predictable.