prank himself while Homer thanks Lisa for giving him dignity, whilst the townspeople are attacked by seagulls. Production The episode was written by Rob LaZebnik and directed by Neil Affleck, the last episode that he directed. It is LaZebnik's first full written script with the first script being "G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad" from "Treehouse of Horror XI" and draws its plot from the British film The Magic Christian, itself an adaptation of Terry Southern's novel of the same name. There was originally a sub-plot with Smithers' musical. LaZebnik brought some friends and his wife to the table read and during the third act was repeatedly ended and went badly making Larry Doyle laugh hysterically. There was another prank where Mr. Burns put a lottery ticket into a grave and everybody went digging for the lottery ticket. The episode includes a character named Rusty the Clown, a reference to Rusty Nails, the inspiration for Krusty the Clown. There was originally going to be a running gag where Lenny keeps getting hit with random objects. There were many endings to the original script. One ending was Homer throwing pig's blood into the crowd and 50 years later showing Homer telling a group of children that this was the reason why Thanksgiving was renamed Bloodsfest. They were also going to be hit by blood and laugh. There was also another ending with gravy, but then changed to fish guts. The full version of the song "Sold Separately" was later released on The Simpsons soundtrack album, The Simpsons: Testify. "Homer vs. Dignity" was included on The Simpsons Christmas 2 DVD along with "Dude, Where's My Ranch?", "Skinner's Sense of Snow", and 'Tis the 15th Season". Reception The episode has received negative reviews from critics. Cindy White of IGN said that while the episode is universally panned, mostly due to the scene where Homer is implicitly raped by a panda at the zoo, and the intentional recycling of other Simpsons episode premises (such as the Simpsons having financial trouble, Mr. Burns hiring Homer to be his assistant while Smithers is on vacation, someone dressing up as a baby, Homer dressing up as Santa Claus, and Lisa worrying over someone selling their soul), it has funny throwaway jokes and sight gags to make up for it. In September 2009, Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide gave the episode a negative review, saying "Bad sign number one: when a