To Homer, It’s the Nosh Pit : Lollapalooza will come to ‘The Simpsons’ next year, with Sonic Youth as the headliners.

It’s a little early to start speculating about next year’s Lollapalooza lineup, but not too soon for “Homerpalooza.”

That’s the working title for an episode of “The Simpsons” in which Lollapalooza comes to Springfield, the show’s fictional setting. It’s tentatively set to air in May.

The producers aren’t talking yet about the episode’s content, but the premise is said to involve patriarch Homer Simpson’s taking Bart and Lisa to the alternative-rock fest in a bid to boost his coolness quotient. Somehow you’ve got to expect that a stage dive by the not-exactly-svelte character will be involved.

And set to perform is the same band that headlined Lollapalooza ‘95: Sonic Youth. The New York group has been asked to apply its distinctive art-noise approach to the show’s Danny Elfman-composed theme and to lend its voices to an animated version of the band.

Sonic Youth will thus join a roster of pop star guests on the animated Fox series that has included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Michael Jackson, Spinal Tap and all three surviving Beatles. (Remember: Series creator Matt Groening is a former rock critic.)

Sonic Youth, currently on a tour that brings it to the Hollywood Palladium on Friday and the Wiltern Theatre on Saturday, has been sent the draft script in order to give input from its firsthand expertise.

“They have some ideas and want to be involved,” says Olivia Cotrell, a publicist at the band’s label, Geffen Records. “They’re batting around some possibilities on their tour bus.”

Plans call for other hip and hot rockers to be involved as well, with Hole--another Lollapalooza ’95 veteran--reportedly among those who have been approached. Given some of leader Courtney Love’s much-publicized conflicts on the tour, that raises some intriguing prospects for the irreverent show. Love pushing Homer off the stage? Bart pushing Love off the stage? We can only dream.

Lollapalooza organizers say that they have not been contacted about the rights to the name, though Eric Greenspan, the attorney representing the tour who also represented the Chili Peppers for their appearance on “The Simpsons,” doesn’t anticipate any problems. However, Lollapalooza did force the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace to stop promoting a recent “Rockin’ the White House” exhibit as “Nixonpalooza.”