Homer Loves Flanders
However, in a reversal of their usual roles, Ned soon grows weary of Homer's overbearing friendship and stupid antics, and actually begins to hate him.
It references films such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Deadly Tower, Vertigo and The Ten Commandments, and songs such as "Two Tickets to Paradise", "Macho Man", and "Helter Skelter".
Homer unsuccessfully tries to get tickets for a football game, the "Pigskin Classic" between the Springfield Atoms and the Shelbyville Sharks.
Pulled over by Chief Wiggum for speeding, Ned takes a sobriety test as disapproving townspeople watch.
As the entire congregation bow their heads in prayer, Homer inhales very loudly through his nose, causing Ned to yell at him.
Mirkin said this was a joke the staff "particularly loved to do" because it pointed out how negative and mean-spirited news broadcasts can be, and how they are seemingly "always trying to scare everybody" by creating panic and depression.
The Fox network's censors wanted the scene to be cut from the episode because they did not like the idea of Marge "getting high" on LSD.
[4] The censors also hated Ned's response to his wife telling him to drive his car faster ("I can't!
This scene, inspired by some melted caramel stuck to the ceiling of the Simpsons writers' room, is one of Mirkin's and Richardson's "all time favorite" jokes.
When Rod and Todd are watching television in the Flanders's living room, a print of Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Last Supper can be seen behind them.
He praised the references to Terminator 2 in the episode, 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.
"[7] The authors I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, thought the episode had "some great existential musings" from Lisa.
"[2] DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson said: "I always remembered ["Homer Loves Flanders"] to be a great episode – and I recalled correctly.
Sure, the show goes with a less than creative presence[sic]; it’s an easy story to make characters behave in atypical ways.
I’ve long found meta-textual gags on The Simpsons to be a bit of a crutch, as a way of winking at the hoariness of the sitcom form and its conventions while recycling them, and 'Homer Loves Flanders' is strong enough that it doesn’t need that kind of an out."
That’s an altogether more subversive, challenging and rewarding take on Christian fundamentalism than lazily ridiculing bible-thumpers as phonies whose public protestations of holiness clash with their private indiscretions.
[14][15] The scene was later referenced in the season 30 episode, "The Girl on the Bus" where Homer texts Lisa a GIF of himself going into the hedge.
[14][13][16][17] The scene was later referenced again in the season 32 episode, "Wad Goals", where Bart tells his friends "I've seen my dad do this" immediately before showing them how to back into a hedge.
