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| Do kids really follow Christianity more if its practiced by vegetables? |
Ned Flanders is trying to host a bible study, but can't get started as Homer keeps being noisy and loud outside. Ned's patience with the nonreligious Homer is at an end, but Reverend Lovejoy steadies him, and Ned tries one last option to help save his neighbor. He invites the entire family to Jerusalem in hopes of being able to reach Homer, who only agrees to go because Marge insists.
In Jerusalem, Ned, the Simpsons and the rest of Ned's bible study are given a tour by a rather obnoxious tour guide (voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen). Homer still acts like a moron, which only furthers Ned's anger. It reaches a head when Homer takes a nap on the tomb of the savior, Ned starts having a mental breakdown, smashing the camera Homer previously stole from Ned. The tomb's guards take Ned away and ban him from the tomb for life. Ned gives up on Homer, calling him not-savable, and starts walking away. Stunned by this, Homer tries to give chase, and believes Ned walked out of town and into the desert (Ned had actually walked into a tea store just on the edge of town), and rides a camel to give chase.
The camel eventually breaks free of Homer, and he's stranded in the desert. After wandering aimlessly for awhile, Homer spots a body of water to drink from, unaware its actually the Dead Sea. Homer falls unconscious after drinking some of its water, and has an odd vision. When Marge is able to find him via a rescue truck, Homer awaken to proclaim himself a messiah.
Back at the hotel, its learned Homer is simply suffering from Jerusalem syndrome, which causes people to believe they're some sort of messiah. Homer escapes, and the family figures he's going to the dome of the rock, the one place Christians, Jews and Muslims all pay visit to. Ned comes along for this, where they find Homer telling the crowd his message: that the three religions are actually quite similar and instead of trying to be divisive with each other's differences, they should come together with their shared interests, like how all three are okay with eating chicken. Ned takes Homer's message to heart, but other tourists start showing their Jerusalem syndrome as well as multiple people claim to be the messiah. Homer and Ned reconcile on the plane ride back, and the two are good associates once more.
Quick Review
There's a lot going on here in this episode that just doesn't work. First of all, its not funny. Ignoring everything else bad, the "comedy" the episode provides would've probably yielded a score of 6.0 at the very best.
Then, the tour guide was painfully unfunny. I've got nothing against Sacha Baron Cohen and I suppose he delivered his lines alright, but the lines and dialogue itself was just awful, and scenes featuring the guide or his niece Dorit were the worst parts of the episode.
I didn't particularly mind the heavy religious theme of the episode but I am aware that with the episode tosses aside some comedy in order to tell the story (which in this case might've helped it, the comedy was that bad), but overall it makes for a terrible half hour of humor, and is among the worst episodes of the series.
Final Score: 3.5
