Faith Off
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| The Simpsons episode | |
| "Faith Off" | |
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| Episode no. | 237 |
| Prod. code | BABF06 |
| Orig. Airdate | January 16, 2000 |
| Written by | Frank Mula |
| Directed by | Nancy Kruse |
| Chalkboard | "I will stop 'phoning it in'." |
| Couch gag | Sigmund Freud sits on a chair next to the couch, and Homer, sitting on the couch, burst into tears and says, "Oh! Doctor, I'm crazy!" |
| Guest star | Don Cheadle as Brother Faith |
| Season 11 September 26, 1999 – May 21, 2000 |
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| List of all Simpsons episodes... | |
"Faith Off" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons' eleventh season. The episode aired on January 16, 2000.
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[edit] Synopsis
Homer visits Springfield University (from "Homer Goes to College") to pull a prank on Dean Bobby Peterson with his old nerd friends, Benjamin, Doug, and Gary. Homer tries to put a bucket filled with glue on the Dean's head, but the bucket gets stuck on Homer's head, and he cannot get it off. The family attends a religious revival, hosted by a faith healer named Brother Faith, and Bart pulls the bucket off Homer's head. Brother Faith considers this act a sign that Bart has the "gift" of healing. Lisa is skeptical and attempts to use reason to explain that the hot stage lights heated the metal bucket, allowing Bart to pull it off. Undaunted, Bart becomes a faith healer, pulls miracles of his own, and even forms his own church where he heals Springfield's residents.
The church is cut short, however, when Milhouse is run down after he mistakes an oncoming truck for a dog. Bart had "healed" him of his myopia during his revival meeting by knocking his glasses off his face. Subsequently, Bart decides to end his career as a faith healer. Meanwhile, Homer prepares for Springfield University's homecoming football game by building a float that he has fashioned out of flowers he has stolen from Ned Flanders. At the game, everyone (including the family) cheers for S.U.'s football team's star player, a kicker named Anton Lubchenko. Homer gets drunk and forgets he has made a float to celebrate SU. He crowd surfs down to the playing field, and runs to his float. Unfortunately, the other floats have left the field and the players have come back on. Homer drives his float over the leg of Lubchenko, horribly wounding him. Fat Tony threatens to kill Homer with an ice pick if Lubchenko doesn't return to the game. Homer convinces Bart to try and heal the kicker. Bart prays to God to help him heal the kicker. With his team down by 2 points, Lubchenko returns to the game and kicks the winning field goal, losing his leg in the process. Bart announces at the end of the game that he doesn't have special powers and is not a healer.
[edit] Trivia
- The episode's Dean Peterson doesn't seem to be the same Dean Peterson Homer ran over during a prank in "Homer Goes to College", although the security guards' dialogue implies that he is.
- In two episodes in a row, Homer Sings "Aloha Oe": in "Little Big Mom" when receives a treatment in the electric needle hut, and in this episode, while he shows Lisa his animated drawings of Moe doing the hula in a grass skirt, however, it's actually "Aloha Moe, Aloha Moe!".
- The church marquee reads "Life in Hell" a reference to another Matt Groening creation.
[edit] Cultural references
- The Springfield U players are called the Nittany Tide, an amalgam of Penn State's Nittany Lions and University of Alabama's Crimson Tide.
- The Springfield U logo is based on the 'SC logo for University of Southern California.
- The college football announcer is fashioned after Keith Jackson, who laces his commentary with colorful homespun sayings like "Whoa, Nellie!"
- The title is a pun on the phrase "face off".
[edit] External links
- "Faith Off" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "Faith Off" at the Internet Movie Database
