"The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star"

...tonight's double feature was billed as a single hour-long episode on many (if not all) TV programming guides (just thought I'd mention it a second time)? ...Krabappel "Ha-Has!" Nelson? ...Skinner does not have a costume at the "Faiyieyre"? ...the nun smashes Bart's Game Boy with one hand? ...Bart draws Nazis bombing St. Joan? ...Luigi, Bumblebee Guy, and Mayor Quimby (the Italians, the Mexicans, and the New Englanders, all prominent Catholics) at the pancake dinner? ...a man who looks like the late Frank Ormand behind the Bumblebee Guy at the pancake dinner? ...Lisa doesn't go to church with Marge (I know she's a Buddhist, but her tenets still permit her to attend), and Marge doesn't take Maggie along? ...Marge's halo is around her beehive hair? ...we finally learn the denomination of the church that the Simpsons attend (Protestant)? ...the Irish men wearing the blue Notre Dame and grey Boston sweatshirts in Catholic Heaven? ...Lisa's expression as Father Sean and Homer react to the "worst priest ever" awkward silence indicates that she did not know about the American Catholic priests child molestation scandals? ...Marge says Homer is "physically an adult," implying she thinks that he may be a little "younger" mentally? ...As Bart shoots paintballs at Todd and shouts "Die Die Die!" he looks like he's shooting into/screaming at baby Jesus' cradle? ...Bart never gets cleared of the prank he didn't commit or readmitted to SES?

- Ned's cup is empty from a distance at "Stuckey's" - In "Homer the Heretic," Marge seemed a little more controlling about what Homer does in the privacy of his own soul - In Marge's last scene, she has extra paintball marks in her hair

9F18, CABF02: Bart is expelled/suspended from SES 9F18, 3F23, 4F21: Bart goes to a new school 9F01: Smoke from a fire _doesn't_ wake Homer up 5F09, BABF11: The word "wanker" is used AABF03: Bart wants to "go Catholic" for "wafers and booze" DABF08: St. Joan burns at the stake 1F20: An influx of new knowledge causes Homer to forget old information 4F08: Homer is enthralled with pancakes 2F04, BABF10, BABF11, CABF15: Whaling on Unitarians DABF11, EABF06, GABF14: Homer has a sporadic interest in religion AABF03: Marge rejects Catholicism because she doesn't want more children FABF23: Marge in heaven 9F01, 9F09, BABF21, FABF23, GABF14: Homer in heaven FABF23: Bart in heaven 5F03, 5F04, DABF07: Riverdance references AABF14, GABF07, GABF14: Jesus appears 1F07, BABF20: Homer writes on his hand GABF10: Bart gets "Snippety-snip" (circumcised) 9F01, 5F23: Marge, Lovejoy, and Flanders try to convert OFF members BABF22: PresbyLutherans mentioned AABF04: Reverend Lovejoy equates Catholic rituals to a voodoo dance DABF16: Reverend Lovejoy at odds with a Catholic Priest DABF02: Lisa chooses Buddhism as a faith BABF10: Christian Rock band appears 7F08, BABF14: Homer thinks his god is better than Flanders' god, even though they both have the same god 1F01: A bleak vision of the future 5F05: Characters fight over which benevolent qualities a deity exudes

+ "Lord of the Rings" (novel, movie) - Nelson hopes the Medieval Festival will be like this

+ Vlad the Impaler (a.k.a. Vlad Dracula, Prince of Walachia, a.k.a. Count Dracula) - Bart the Impaler

+ Spiderman (comic superhero) - Milhouse's Coat of Arms features our favorite web-slinger

+ Super Mario Bros (videogame characters) - Skinner calls them "Super Mario Men"

+ Eminem (rapper) - Father Sean quotes him in his sermon

+ Pluto (cartoon character) - Homer confuses him with Plutarch

+ Log Cabin Syrup - Homer says a prayer honoring it

+ "Riverdance"/"Lord of the Dance" (competing styles of Irish dance) - Members of Catholic Heaven perform this musical show that's popular in Ireland, the UK, and the US

+ Pepé Le Pew (cartoon character) - Reverend Lovejoy calls Father Sean "Pope-y Le Pew"

+ "Scooby Doo, Where Are You!"(cartoon series) - "The Ministry Machine" has a similar name and the same design as Mystery, Inc.'s "The Mystery Machine"

+ "Surfin' USA" (song) - Marge's ringtone is this song by the Beach Boys

+ "Once you go Black, you never go back" (saying) - Homer says, "Once you go Vatican, you can't go back again"

Good overall episode. I liked the jokes about Catholicism ("chicks don't have any authority here"), which were funny but still tasteful. Homer's near-conversion was unexpected but fun. The highlight for me was Marge's imagining of Catholic Heaven, complete with the stereotypical Catholic races and Riverdance (or is that Lord of the Dance...?). I thought Homer's masturbation references were a little too crude, however. I enjoyed Bart's little speech at the end, which I have always thought is something that should be said. This episode dealt with the senseless divisions an animosity in Christianity, which has something The Simpsons has touched on before but never at this length. Liam Neeson did good voice work as Father Sean as well. Grade: A-

I had been waiting for The Simpsons to make a direct comment about the Bush administration and their foreign policy. They finally did tonight, but I found it a little disappointing. I guess since they hadn't said anything for 5 years, I thought that they were building up to something. But I thought Homer's comment about America's quagmires and "Commander Coo-Coo Bananas" (a.k.a. President George W. Bush) were too obvious and blunt; so much for subtle political satire. I suppose I prefer jabs, not swipes, at political officials. Thinking back, though, I did like the joke about our 51st state, "Saudi-Israelia," in "Future-Drama."

In Marge's dream, she imagines herself in Protestant Heaven. Is this the first time we have learned the denomination of the First Church of Springfield? Or is the church, as Reverend Lovejoy mentioned, a division of the Western branch of American Reform PresbyLutheranism (under the larger branch of Protestantism), and Marge just imagined herself as a Protestant for simplicity?

On 17 May 2005 17:24:46 -0700, "Matt Awbrey" wrote:

Also, Otto playing the lute, smashing and burning it ala Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival.

PS...Matt...do you have a sister named "Dee?"

Yeah, I knew that Otto/lute thing was from something, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

No, I can't say I have a sister named Dee, or a sister for that matter. Why do you ask?

Matt Awbrey wrote:

Boston Irish (check the Kennedyesque accent). New Englanders typically are not Catholic (remember the Pilgrims & the whole "escape religious persecution" thing?).

I guess being from the west coast, I probably failed to and thus should have been more sensitive to New England's religious idosyncracies. But yes, Boston Irish would be more precise.

But, those Pilgrims you were talking about...are those the ones who came to North America so they could sleep with their cousins?

And specifically, the Pilgrims left England to escape the persecution they felt from the Anglican Church, not the Catholic Church per se. The Anglican Church was the church England created after it split from the Catholics (watch "Margical History Tour" if you want the concise version). The Pilgrims, many of whom were Puritans, felt that the Anglicans hadn't moved away from the dogma of the Catholic Church *enough*...they wanted even less church hierarchy and bureaucracy. Hence, they and their smallpox came to the New World.

Matt Awbrey wrote:

I think you're confusing the NE Pilgrims with the southern Pilgrims. The NE ones took great pride in burning witches & pinning scarlet letters to women's clothing (why not the man as well, wasn't he married?).

of

Protestant is not a denomination (although I think some denominations have the word "Protestant" in their name, but the largest Protestant denominations don't). Protestant refers to a large group of denominations that separated from the Catholic chuch during the Protestant Reformation. For instance, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians and Methodists are all Protestant. And even those are actually families of denominations, there are actually thousands of individual denominations. They tend to splinter endlessly, hence the joke in this episode about "the Western branch of American Reform PresbyLutheranism."

Sorry to be pendantic, but there were a couple of messsages in this thread that implied Protestant refers to a specific denomination, and I had this out with my family a few months ago (they were convinced that Protestant referred to a specific denomination, but then they are all Catholics so they can be excused some ignorance about the other side).

Anyway, it was no revealation that the church in the Simpsons is Protestant; the vast majority of Christians in the United States that are not Catholic belong to some Protestant denomination.

• Dennis D.

Dennis D. wrote:

Right, the ones who "protested" Rome's handling of the religion racket in Europe, hence "Protestants".

Catholics tend to see all Protestants as "Protestants", which is an evil monolith in their view.

Has so much misery ever been visited upon the world by a smaller group than white Europeans? Endless carnage when looks at the past 1,000 or so years.

Thanks for the info on Protestants. Learn something new every day, I suppose. Now if we could only get some explanation about those darn Unitarians.

"Matt Awbrey" wrote in message news:[email]...

Unitarians, see, are like an ice cream cone with nothing inside it...

-Russ