Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass

"Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass"
The Simpsons episode
The promotional image for the episode featuring a couch gag with the episode's guest cast.
Episode no.	343
Prod. code	GABF02
Orig. airdate	February 6, 2005
Showrunner(s)	Al Jean
Written by	Tim Long
Directed by	Steven Dean Moore
Chalkboard gag	None
Couch gag	The family builds a totem pole by standing on each other's shoulders (with Maggie on top).
Guest star(s)	Tom Brady, LeBron James, Michelle Kwan, Yao Ming, and Warren Sapp as themselves.
Season 16 November 7, 2004 – May 15, 2005 "Treehouse of Horror XV" "All's Fair in Oven War" "Sleeping with the Enemy" "She Used to Be My Girl" "Fat Man and Little Boy" "Midnight Rx" "Mommie Beerest" "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass" "Pranksta Rap" "There's Something About Marrying" "On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister" "Goo Goo Gai Pan" "Mobile Homer" "The Seven-Beer Snitch" "Future-Drama" "Don't Fear the Roofer" "The Heartbroke Kid" "A Star Is Torn" "Thank God, It's Doomsday" "Home Away from Homer" "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star" List of all The Simpsons episodes
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"Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass" is the eighth episode of Season 16 of The Simpsons. It is a Super Bowl themed episode that was broadcast after Super Bowl XXXIX.

Plot

The Simpsons go to Springfield Park and find it run down. They also find a charity carnival which is raising money to help the park. Bart wins the grand prize in a carnival game, and then Homer beats him, going into his victory dance. Ned Flanders captures the dance on video and Comic Book Guy (whose name is revealed for the first time as "Jeff Albertson") places it on his website. Soon, the entire world has seen Homer's embarrassing dance, much to Homer's anger. Mario makes a cameo appearance, when Homer was acting like a monkey. However, major sports stars ask Homer to teach them his dance for use in victory. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man also appear in the episode (actors in costumes) at their wedding on TV when Homer is watching the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, Ned uses his camera to make a rather violent movie about Cain (Rod) and Abel (Todd). Everyone loves the film, except Marge, who finds it bloody and disgusting. Mr. Burns decides to finance Ned's next film, "Tales of the Old Testament" (which has a running time of 800 minutes - more than 13 hours). The bloodiness of the film angers Marge and she announces at the screening that she will protest anything that Burns owns. Burns retorts, noting that he owns the town's nuclear power plant and there is no alternate power source to it. When the crowd blurt out alternate forms of power they can use Burns admits defeat and says the film will never be seen again, much to Ned's dismay.

Homer's victory dances find criticism with fans but the football national committee loves them as Homer's dancing has raised ratings. They ask him to choreograph the Super Bowl Halftime show. Unable to develop any idea for the show Homer finds Ned at church. Together they decide to stage one of Ned's violent Bible stories at the show. At the Super Bowl Ned and Homer stage the story of Noah's Ark, where at the end Ned appears and reads a scripture from the Bible relating to performance. To this, the audience jeers and boos, much to both Homer and Ned's disappointment. The media and the general public later accuses the Super Bowl of forcing Christianity onto the country, but the family does not care, and they enjoy an omelette dinner made from the eggs thrown at their house.

Production

The episode was notable for revealing the Judeo-Christian name of the character Comic Book Guy as Jeff Albertson. It was a long-running gag on the show was never to reveal the character's name, with other characters referring to him as "Comic Book Guy". The writers had intended to name the character as early as his first episode, but they could not think of a name for him, and they called him "Comic Book Guy", with the intention of naming the character the next time they used him. However, they kept putting it off. Showrunner Al Jean remarked: "That was specifically done to make people really mad. We just tried to pick a generic name. It was also the Super Bowl show. We did it so the most people possible would see it." Groening stated that he had originally intended him to be called Louis Lane and be "obsessed and tormented by" Lois Lane, but was out of the room when the writers named him.

Cultural references

• Mario is seen on the "Italians Touring America" bus and he fights Homer in a manner similar to Donkey Kong.
• Ned's violent films are a parody of modern Biblical films such as The Passion of the Christ, which were criticized for their violent content.
• There are also similarities in the films made by Flanders, and those made in the 1950s by Cecil B. DeMille. Films such as Ben Hur (1959) and The Ten Commandments (1956), both made all the more famous by the star of both films; Charlton Heston.
• After the scene of Pac Man's wedding, the song playing is "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John.
• The screenplay for Citizen Kane is visible on Ned's bookshelf.

Reception

23.1 million people watched the original broadcast of the episode, making it the most-watched episode since Season 14's "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", as well as finishing sixth in the weekly ratings for the week of January 31 - February 6, 2005.

James Greene of Nerve.com put the reveal of Comic Book Guy's name second on his list Ten Times The Simpsons Jumped the Shark, stating that is was "far from the hilarious names this show has given us in the past (i.e. Max Power, Rembrandt Q. Einstein, Leslie Hapablap)" and calling it "Worst. Reveal. Ever."