“Home Away from Homer” is the twentieth episode of The Simpsons’ sixteenth season. The episode aired on May 15, 2005 in the United States.
Lisa calls in to an unpopular public radio station and wins tickets for four to a movie called Kosovo Autumn. Since Lisa only has four tickets, Homer leaves Maggie with Ned Flanders, who agrees to babysit free of charge. When the Simpson family returns, Marge picks up Maggie and hastily offers to pay Ned for his troubles, feeling it would be wrong not to pay him. He politely refuses, but admits that a little extra cash in his life would not hurt, seeing as the giant retail store Left-Mart is threatening his business. Kindly, Marge suggests that he rent out one of the rooms to someone. He agrees, giving the room to Katja and Vicky, a pair of female students from the community college.
Taking advantage of his trusting nature, the two use their room as a staging area for a softcore pornographic website, sexyslumberparty.com, which shows them spanking each other with a picture of Ned's son Todd. Bart and Milhouse come across a banner ad for the site while searching Ask Jeeves and share their discovery with a very amused Homer, who proceeds to spread the news around town. Marge, however, soon discovers both father and son viewing the pornographic material and forces Homer to tell Ned everything. Upon learning this, Ned angrily forces the girls to leave, but realizes that everyone has arrived to cheer for them as they leave. Horrified at both the town’s mockery and Homer’s betrayal, Ned promptly leaves town, moving to Humbleton, Pennsylvania, home of the porcelain Humble figurines, which he collects. Angered by Homer's actions, Marge and Lisa tell him to be on his best behavior for their new neighbor, Clay “Coach Clay” Roberts. Clay proves to be a horrible neighbor, taking every opportunity to bully, mock, and physically attack Homer, as well as littering the Simpsons’ yard with Ned's fallen trees, cutting their cable, and siphoning gas from Homer’s car.
Meanwhile, Ned finds the pseudo-Germanic town of Humbleton to be everything he ever dreamed. The townspeople are friendly to a fault; It seems to be the ultimate idyllic utopia. However, when applying for a job at the Humbleton Figurine Workshop, the manager’s only request is for him to shave his moustache, declaring it “hippie-ish” and distracting. Ned briefly considers it but soon decides his “nose neighbor” is more important than the townspeople's opinions, who immediately shun him.
Homer drives to Pennsylvania and pleads with Ned to return, who, upon seeing the judgmental faces of the Humbleton residents all glaring at him, agrees. Unfortunately, Coach Clay does not want to leave the house, despite Ned pointing out that the $200,000 check bounced and, legally, he still owns the property. He is eventually persuaded once Ned overpowers him by sheer force, causing Clay to beg for mercy before being knocked unconscious by Homer.
A few hours later, Homer obtains a pipe organ and places it in Ned’s backyard for a welcome-home party, which several Springfield residents attend. At first Ned has doubts about it, believing that Homer stole it from the church, which Homer says he will return it after the party. Ned is happy at the party, but it does not take long before Homer once more starts getting irritated at his old-new neighbor.