Homer the Heretic (S04, E03-062)

Homer's new animal friends are enjoying themselves.

Plot Summary
On one frigid Sunday, Homer refuses to go to church (mostly because he rips his church pants).  So as the family plods their way through ice and snow to attend the service, Homer sleeps in.  As the family freeze in a heat-less church, whose only doors freeze themselves stuck in the process, Homer begins what he ends up considering the best day of his life.  He takes a whiz with the door open, says "ass" with no restraint, jams to music in his undies, enjoys a "moon" waffle which is a sloppy mix of caramels, waffle mix and liquid smoke wrapped around a stick of butter, and enjoys a football game that at one point is 63-63 which also includes the return of Jim Brown.  The day reaches perfection when Homer finds a penny on the floor.  When the family returns from church, cold and restless, Homer proclaims that he's had the best day of his life, which can be owed to skipping church, and to Marge's shock Homer proclaims he won't be going to church again.

That night, Homer has a visit from God in his dream.  While initially angered that Homer had forsaken thy church, Homer explains that as a working man who loves his kids, why should he waste half his Sundays being told how he's going to hell for this or that?  God then agrees and sympathises with Homer, and allows Homer to worship Him in his own way.  Despite still worshipping and believing and God and all, Marge is still appalled that Homer is willing to skip church.  She attempts to have Reverend Lovejoy reason with him, but to no avail.  The Flanders family try to sing Homer back to church, but Homer escapes their attempts, literally.

Soon enough, its Sunday again.  Despite Marge's pleas, Homer stays home again.  As Lovejoy gives a heated sermon on 'the true nature of the devil', Homer is relaxing once more, though he turns down an offer from Krusty to aid the tornado-affected Jewish Clowns, and later mocks Apu's religion at the Kwik-E-Mart.  Shortly thereafter, Homer falls asleep while smoking a cigar (just after saying "Everybody is stupid except me."), and the cigar falls on the floor, quickly catching fire.  As the house goes up in flames, a volunteer firefighting crew seemingly led by Apu and featuring the likes of Barney, Chief Wiggum, Milhoue's mom and Krusty gather up to put that fire out.  Meanwhile, Flanders (who is not at church for some crazy reason), sees the house on fire and runs in to save Homer, which he eventually does despite some troubles.  The fire is put out, and Homer sees that even though he was mean to the Christian Ned, the Jewish Krusty or, as the Reverend says, the "miscellaneous" Apu, they all acted perhaps in God's will to save Homer's life.  With that in mind, Homer agrees to go to church again, and sure enough the next Sunday he's in church sleeping away, having a conversation with God about how his religion failed and what the meaning of life is, and so on.

Quick Review
Most people can identify with the bliss the weekends can provide as more often than not those are the days people do not have to go to work or school.  Sleeping in on either or both of those days is something that feels so right, too.  For a lot of people, though, they can't sleep in on Sundays because of church or another religious service, and church is hardly ever the fun activity with its traditions and hymn signing and guilt-tripping and such.  So, what's the harm in skipping it every now or then or every time?

Homer the Heretic, despite whatever religious leanings you may have or what the episode may portray, is one of the show's classics.  Seeing the contrast between Homer's day and the family's in the early portion of the episode was really funny, full of laughs, while the rest of the episode keeps it going strong throughout.  Its one of the best episodes of the series, and especially Season 4.

Final Score: 10