Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife

"Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife" is the fifteenth episode of the seventeenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 26, 2006, and was watched by around ten million people during that broadcast. In the episode, Homer signs the Simpson family up for a reality show in which the mothers of two families switch places. Marge gets to live with a friendly man named Charles and his perfect son, while Homer, Bart, and Lisa must spend time with Charles' strict wife Verity.

English comedian Ricky Gervais contributed to the writing of the episode and guest starred in it as Charles. As a big fan of The Simpsons, he felt it was "a dream come true."^[1] He was given the offer to write and guest star by The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, who was a fan of Gervais' British comedy series The Office. After meeting Groening and executive producer Al Jean in early 2004, Gervais set out to come up with the storyline for the episode. He was inspired by the British reality show Wife Swap. Though Gervais contributed a large part to the episode, the script was a joint effort with the regular writing staff of the show.

Gervais' performance has been praised by critics, being listed as one of the best guest appearances on The Simpsons by writers for Entertainment Weekly and The Times. Groening also liked the performance and invited Gervais to appear on the show again. The episode as a whole, however, received mixed reviews from critics. A live-action remake of the regular animated opening sequence of The Simpsons aired at the beginning of the episode, which was taken from a promo for the show's broadcast on the British television network Sky One.