Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass
From Simpsons Wiki
"Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass" is a Super Bowl themed episode of The Simpsons that aired after Super Bowl XXXIX. 23.1 million people watched the original broadcast of the episode, making it one of the highest-rated in the show's entire run.Template:Fact
Although the episode is filled with NFL references, the word "NFL" was never mentioned or said by any of the characters. The two "goons" who went to the Simpsons house said that they work for the "commissioner of football", rather than the commissioner of the NFL.
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 captures the dance and Comic Book Guy (revealing that his real name is Jeff Albertson) places it on his website. Soon, the entire world has seen Homer's embarrassing dance, much to Homer's anger.
However, major sports players ask Homer to teach them his dance. Meanwhile, Ned uses his camera to make a movie about Cain (Rod) and Abel (Todd). Everyone loves the film, except Marge, who finds it bloody and digusting. Mr. Burns decides to finance Ned's next film, "Tales of the Old Testament" (which has a running time of 800 minutes). The bloodiness of the film angers Marge and she decides to 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 everyone else mentions 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 advice has found criticism, but the football national committee loves them, as Homer's advice has raised ratings. They ask him to choreograph the Super Bowl Halftime show. He cannot get any ideas and runs into Ned at church. Homer than gets an idea for the halftime show, which ends up being about Noah. This is hated and the crowd thinks they are trying to de-secularize the country.
Cultural references
- Video game character Mario makes a cameo in this episode, where a disgruntled Homer fights with him due to his annoyance. The fight is a direct parody of Donkey Kong with Homer tossing garbage cans like Donkey Kong tossing barrels at Mario.
- Flanders' violent films are a parody of The Passion of the Christ.
- The outrage over Homer and Ned's halftime show parodies the controversy over the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII.
- When Marge confronts Flanders about his movie, he mentions another movie in which he describes it as "a film about a liberal European wizard school". This is a reference to the Harry Potter movies.
- Before the halftime show an annoncer says that next half he will double the points which could be a reference to Family Feud.
- When Ned Flanders pulls the Video Camera from the shelf in his home, a script from Citizen Kane can be seen on the shelf.es:Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass