"Homer the Whopper" is the season premiere of The Simpsons' twenty-first season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 27, 2009. In the episode, Comic Book Guy creates a new superhero called Everyman who takes powers from other superheroes and Homer is cast as the lead in the film adaptation. It was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who are "obsessed" fans of the show, and directed by Lance Kramer. Rogen and Goldberg were invited to The Simpsons writers room, where they pitched several episode ideas. One was accepted, and they wrote an outline with the help of some feedback from the regular writers. "Homer the Whopper" was intended to be a commentary on how Hollywood treats superhero films. It received a Nielsen rating of 4.3 in its original broadcast.