"Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass" is the eighth episode of Season 16 of The Simpsons. It is a Super Bowl themed episode that was broadcast after Super Bowl XXXIX.
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The Simpsons go to Springfield Park and find it run down. They also find a charity carnival which is raising money to help the park. Bart wins the grand prize in a carnival game, and then Homer beats him, going into his victory dance. Ned Flanders captures the dance on video and Comic Book Guy (whose name is revealed for the first time as "Jeff Albertson") places it on his website. Soon, the entire world has seen Homer's embarrassing dance, much to Homer's anger. Mario makes a cameo appearance, when Homer was acting like a monkey. However, major sports stars ask Homer to teach them his dance for use in victory. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man also appear in the episode (actors in costumes) at their wedding on TV when Homer is watching the Super Bowl.
Meanwhile, Ned uses his camera to make a rather violent movie about Cain (Rod) and Abel (Todd). Everyone loves the film, except Marge, who finds it bloody and disgusting. Mr. Burns decides to finance Ned's next film, "Tales of the Old Testament" (which has a running time of 800 minutes - more than 13 hours). The bloodiness of the film angers Marge and she announces at the screening that she will protest anything that Burns owns. Burns retorts, noting that he owns the town's nuclear power plant and there is no alternate power source to it. When the crowd blurt out alternate forms of power they can use Burns admits defeat and says the film will never be seen again, much to Ned's dismay.
Homer's victory dances find criticism with fans but the football national committee loves them as Homer's dancing has raised ratings. They ask him to choreograph the Super Bowl Halftime show. Unable to develop any idea for the show Homer finds Ned at church. Together they decide to stage one of Ned's violent Bible stories at the show. At the Super Bowl Ned and Homer stage the story of Noah's Ark, where at the end Ned appears and reads a scripture from the Bible relating to performance. To this, the audience jeers and boos, much to both Homer and Ned's disappointment. The media and the general public later accuses the Super Bowl of forcing Christianity onto the country, but the family does not care, and they enjoy an omelette dinner made from the eggs thrown at their house.
23.1 million people watched the original broadcast of the episode, making it the most-watched episode since Season 14's "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", as well as finishing sixth in the weekly ratings for the week of January 31 - February 6, 2005.[1]
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