Homer the Heretic
| "Homer the Heretic" | |
|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |
| File:HHeretic.jpg | |
| Episode no. | Season 4 |
| Directed by | Jim Reardon |
| Written by | George Meyer |
| Original air dates | October 8, 1992 |
| Episode features | |
| Chalkboard gag | "I will not defame New Orleans" |
| Couch gag | The wall revolves and the family is transported into another room. |
| Commentary | Matt Groening Al Jean George Meyer Jim Reardon |
"Homer the Heretic" is the third episode of The Simpsons' fourth season. Homer discovers the joys of staying home on Sunday morning and decides to start his own religion.
Plot
On a very cold Sunday morning in a blizzard, Marge is gathering the family to go to church, but Homer refuses and goes back to his warm bed. After sleeping extra-late, he finally gets up and has fun with the house all to himself: He cranks up the heat, dances in his underwear (ala Tom Cruise in the film Risky Business), makes his patented space-age out of this world Moon Waffles, wins a radio trivia contest, watches a boring debate on TV get preempted for what turns out to be an action-packed American football game, and finds a penny under the couch. Meanwhile Marge, the kids, and the rest of the congregation shiver their way through the service and a rambling sermon, only to find themselves trapped at the end because the door is frozen shut. To make matters worse, Marge is unable to start the car, the battery having gone dead.
They finally get home, and Homer tells Marge he had the best day of his life, all thanks to skipping church.
Marge is very upset with Homer for giving up on his faith. Homer gives her his reasons (e.g. "What if we picked the wrong religion? Every week we're just making God madder and madder.") and starts his own personal religion tailored just for himself. Marge prays in bed for her husband. Homer, meanwhile, falls asleep and has a dream where God appears to him. God is initially angry with Homer and shows it by bellowing thunderously, "THOU HAST FORSAKEN MY CHURCH!" Once He has calmed, Homer asks Him what's the big deal of going to church when he can worship in his own way ("I'm a good husband, I work hard, and I love my kids...why should I spend half my Sunday hearing that I'm just going to hell anyway?"). God sees Homer's point and agrees ("I guess it's okay. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to appear in a tortilla in Mexico."), and the dream ends.
Marge, Rev. Lovejoy, and the Flanders family all try to win Homer back to Christianity and fail. The next Sunday morning, Homer is once again at home while everyone else is at church. He smokes a cigar while reading Playdude magazines. Homer eventually falls asleep, and the lighted cigar he was smoking at the time falls on one of the magazines; the hot ash ignites the paper, and it is not long before the house is on fire.
Homer wakes up to find the house burning, panics and succumbs to the thick smoke. Apu spots the blaze and takes up his duties as part of Springfield's volunteer fire department (of which Krusty the Clown is also a member). Meanwhile, the Ned tries to rescue Homer. After the fire department has extinguished the blaze, Homer fears that God was showing vengeance. However, Rev. Lovejoy points out that God was actually working in the hearts of Homer's friends, despite their different faiths. Lovejoy convinces Homer to give church another try. Homer is at church next Sunday, but sleeps through the service. God appears in his dreams again and consoles Homer on the failure of his religion God starts to tell Homer the meaning of life, but the viewers never hear it because he is cut off by the credits, and Homer has never mentioned it.
Production
This is the first episode of The Simpsons where the animation was produced by Film Roman. Film Roman went on to do the animation for the rest of the series. Previously, the animation was produced by Klasky-Csupo (the same people who do animation for the Nickelodeon cartoon Rugrats). It is also the first episode to be animated overseas by Rough Draft Studios, which had been established only a year earlier for The Ren and Stimpy Show.
The blackboard gag was made as an "apology" to the citizens of New Orleans after it was musically bashed in the previous episode.
Cultural references
- The brand label on Homer's shower radio reads "No Soap, Radio!," so-named for the non-sequitir "punchline" of a well-known pseudo-joke.
- The scene where Homer dances in his underwear to "We Wear Short Shorts" is identical to the scene in the 1983 Tom Cruise movie Risky Business (except Cruise dances to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll.")
- God's comment about appearing in a tortilla in Mexico is probably a parody of the Enchilada tortilla burn resembling Jesus found in New Mexico a year before this episode aired. The tortilla is now preserved in a shrine in New Mexico and is now New Mexico's largest Christ Belief gathering points.
- God also asks Homer if St. Louis still has a team. Four years to the day after this episode aired, the St. Louis Rams, relocated from Los Angeles, played the first NFL game in St. Louis in nine years.
- Unlike all of the other characters in The Simpsons, God has five fingers, until the end of the episode where he has four.
- The Itchy & Scratchy Show episode, "Flay Me To the Moon", is a play on Frank Sinatra's famous song, Fly Me To The Moon.
- The car chase scene with the proselytizing Flanders is taken almost verbatim from the 1976 Burt Reynolds film, White Lightning (film).
External links
