Homer Loves Flanders

Infobox Simpsons episode
episode_name = Homer Loves Flanders


image_caption = The Simpsons and the Flanders enjoy a day out... until Homer plays his rappin' Ronnie Reagan tape, which he claims "always makes the trip go faster"
episode_no = 97
prod_code = 1F14
airdate = March 17, 1994
show runner = David Mirkin
writer = David Richardson
director = Wesley Archer
blackboard = "I am not delightfully saucy"
couch_gag = The family walks in, seeing two couches, and the family split in half, with half of each member choosing a couch.
commentary = Matt Groening
David Mirkin
David Rchardson
Wes Archer
David Silverman
season = 5

"Homer Loves Flanders" is the sixteenth episode from the fifth season of "The Simpsons".

Plot

Homer attempts to win a radio contest for a football game, only to have Ned Flanders win the tickets. Ned offers him a ticket and asks Homer to join him, which he does reluctantly. After the game, Ned succeeds in getting a signed football for Homer.

Homer responds by being overly grateful, annoying Flanders and his family to no end. Bart and Lisa take the situation in stride, citing it as yet another one of their "wacky adventures" and that, by next week, all will be normal. The Flanders family and the Simpsons go on a roadtrip to the Lake Springfield, where antics by Homer cause problems, such as causing a food fight, playing his rappin' Ronnie Reagan tape at full blast, and destroying Ned's boat and car. After being as polite and reasonable to Homer as he can, Ned admits that he "hates" Homer Simpson after dreaming of shooting people around a clock tower (while Homer wakes up from a dream where he hates Ted Koppel, but goes back to sleep when he realizes that Koppel is "informative and witty").

In order to get away from Homer, Ned and his family try to escape in their car, while Homer chases them "" style. Afterwards Ned is humiliated in front of the church bus when he is pulled over by Chief Wiggum, and is suspectedly high on drugs or "goofballs". The Flanders reluctantly go to church on Sunday, where they are shunned. Whilst the entire church is bowing their heads in prayer, Homer inhales/exhales very loudly through his nose, and Ned gets so annoyed he breaks character. After a huge outburst, Homer steps to the aid of Ned, and all is resolved, making Lisa conclude that Homer and Flanders staying friends until the end could mean the end of their "wacky adventures."

The next week, all is seemingly back to normal. Homer hates Ned again (relieving Bart and Lisa), and the Simpsons are spending the night in a haunted house.

Cultural references

* Homer sings (and air guitars) along to "Two Tickets to Paradise" by Eddie Money (this scene is often cut out in American syndication).
* Homer's "Nacho Man" song is a parody of the Village People song "Macho Man". A similar song would be used in an Old El Paso commercial in 1996.
* The homeless shelter that Homer and Ned Flanders visit is called Helter Shelter, a reference to the song "Helter Skelter" by The Beatles. "Helter Shelter" would later be used as a title for an episode in season 14.
* Moe is shown tearfully reading "My Friend Flicka" and "Little Women" to children at the hospital and the homeless shelter (though in both cases the last line has been altered to feature the book's title).
* When playing pool Homer refers to himself as Springfield Fats, a reference to Minnesota Fats from "The Hustler".
* Homer flying the boat over the parking lot is a spoof of a scene in the James Bond picture "Live and Let Die".
* Flanders' nightmare about shooting people from a bell tower is a reference to the Texas-Tower massacre in 1966 at the University of Texas.
* Ned is shown driving a Geo, a brand of small cars marketed by General Motors from 1989 to 1997. The cars were known mainly for their lack of engine power, hence Ned screaming that he could not make the Geo go any faster when Maude was pleading him to hurry.
* Chief Wiggum's line, "Where's your Messiah now, Flanders?" was originally from a Billy Crystal parody of Edward G. Robinson's character in "The Ten Commandments".
* The song Don't Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin is parodied while Homer listens to the radio in his car, with the radio announcer claiming Bobby McFerrin released a sequel titled "I'm Worried, Need Money."
* The scene where Homer chases Ned's car is a parallel of the sequence when Robert Patrick's Terminator character chases the heroes in the police car in after escaping from the hospital.
* When Rod and Todd are shown watching TV, a picture of the The Last Supper can be seen behind them.

Notes

*According to the audio commentary, the waffle on the ceiling Homer believes is God was inspired by some (deeply resented) melted caramel stuck to the ceiling of the Simpsons writers' room.
* Homer's car, usually pink, is green in this episode.

Reception

"MSNBC" called the episode their eighth favorite in the show in 2007. They praised the references to "Terminator 2" and "Vertigo" as well as Lisa's self-referential quote about how "by next week, we’ll be back to where we started from, ready for another wacky adventure." [cite news | author = Patrick Enwright | title = D’Oh! The top 10 ‘Simpsons’ episodes ever | publisher = MSNBC | date = 2007-07-31 | url = http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19916798/ | accessdate=2007-10-08]

References

External links

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