Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass

"Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass"
The Simpsons episode
File:Homer and Neds Hail Mary Pass.jpg
Episode no.	Season 16
Directed by	Steven Dean Moore
Written by	Tim Long
Original air date	February 6, 2005
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	None
Couch gag	The family builds a totem pole by standing on each other's shoulders (with Maggie on top).

"Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass" is a Super Bowl themed episode of The Simpsons 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. The media 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.

Cultural references

• Mario is seen on the Italian Touring America and he fights Homer similar to Donkey Kong.
• Ned's violent films are a parody of modern Biblical films such as The Passion of The Christ, which were criticised for their violent content.
• There are also similarities in the films made by Flanders, and those made in the 1950's by Cecil B. DeMille. Films such as Ben Hur (1952) and The Ten Commandments (1956), both made all the more famous by the star of both films; Charleton Heston. In fact, the scene where Mr. Burns gives a plastic bottle of water to Ben Hur is directly parodied from the eponymous film, however, the film has Jesus in the place of Mr. Burns and is , of course, sans the plastic water bottle.

Reception

23.1 million people watched the original broadcast of the episode, and it finished sixth in the weekly ratings for the week of January 31 - February 6, 2005.