After several years of suppressing his homosexual feelings for his boss Mr. Montgomery Burns, Waylon Smithers Jr. (voiced by Harry Shearer) from the animated series "The Simpsons" has finally come out as gay in the show's season 27 episode entitled "The Burns Cage."
Charisma News reported that Smithers came out of the closet and tried to make a move on his long-time boss. However, a straight Mr. Burns isn't interested in him, so Homer Simpson (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) does what he can to cheer Smithers up.
Homer comes up with the idea of setting Smithers up with a boyfriend through the app "Grindr." He and his wife Marge (voiced by Julie Kavner) then host a party filled with gay men in hopes that Smithers will finally meet his perfect match. In the end, Smithers leaves the party with a Cuban bartender.
Smithers' homosexuality has only been hinted at for the past several seasons of the show, but it has never been completely acknowledged. He is in love with his hard-hearted boss Mr. Burns, since he often daydreams about the two of them being together. He even has a tattoo on his chest of both his face and Burns' with the words "Boss of My Heart" printed across. In one episode, he even gave his boss a kiss on the lips.
Executive producer Al Jean said Mr. Burns has remained ignorant of his employee's crush on him. But this season, he will finally be made aware of it.
"In Springfield now, most people know he's gay, but obviously Burns doesn't. We deal with that in two episodes... We actually do a lot with Smithers this year; he gets fed up with Burns not appreciating him and considers his options," Jean told TVLine.
