The Simpsons Season 21 Episode 16: The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed

Reverend Lovejoy tells Ned to invite the Simpson family to join the group on their tour of Jerusalem. Homer is skeptical, but Marge accepts and go to Israel. When they arrive in Jerusalem, they are joined by Krusty the Clown, who is making a Jewish pilgrimage. They pass the Western Wall and meet a talkative tour guide named Jakob.




Homer and the other tourists show more interest in the hotel's buffet than they do in seeing the city, much to Ned's dismay. As they arrive at King David's tomb, Ned says to Homer to show some respect. However, Homer continues to goof off and Ned becomes increasingly impatient with him. 

Their next stop is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Ned prays that Homer finds some meaning in the tour. But when he discovers Homer taking a nap on Jesus' tomb, he loses his temper and yells at Homer. Ned gets removed from the church by security and is banned for life from visiting the site. Ned subsequently scolds Homer, telling him that his soul is "not worth saving", and storms off.

Homer rushes after Ned to make amends, but loses sight of him and believes that Ned is lost in the desert, while Ned went to get a cup of tea to calm his anger, then watches a movie. Homer takes a camel and rides off to find Ned, but finds himself lost in a sandstorm and starts to feel the effects of dehydration. Homer arrives at the Dead Sea and drinks some of the salty water, furthering his dehydrating. He hallucinates a visit from a pickle, carrot, and tomato from VeggieTales, who tell him that he is the new Messiah. 

After Homer is rescued by Marge, Dr. Hibbert diagnoses him with Jerusalem syndrome, whose sufferers possess religiously-themed obsessive ideas. Homer escapes from the hotel and ends up at the Dome of the Rock. Ned, Marge, the children, and Dr. Hibbert chase after him, only to hear him preach that the similarities of different religions outweigh their differences, and that all should search for a common ground for a new religion, the so-called "Chrismujews". Ned witnesses Homer's speech and is moved by it. On the flight back to Springfield, Ned and Homer reconcile.

In a mini B-plot, Bart runs away from Homer after a prank, and Jakob's daughter, Dorit chases after him. They fight with karate and Krav Maga, and Dorit wins the fight by kicking Bart in the groin, and hurts him. On the plane trip back to Springfield, Lisa and Bart fight for the window seat, and Lisa kicks Bart in the groin, which hurts Bart again.

My thoughts:

How many times have I watched it: 4 times, might have watched it when it first came out (March 28, 2010).

Couch Gag: The Simpsons are dogs at a dog show, and Homer and Bart get into a fight. This was really weak and stupid!! (D+)

Storyline: Ugh. It was a weak premise to get them to go there and no conflict. Just Ned being irritated of Homer's childishness. This was just mindless and incredibly unfunny. Sacha Baron Cohen's character of Jakob was annoying and impossible to understand, which doesn't really work when he's delivering the majority of the jokes (I loved Cohen playing King Julien in Madagascar 1-3). This was an uninteresting conflict between Homer and Flanders, and also suddenly Homer thinks he's the messiah for absolutely no reason, and once he does, everybody now thinks they're the messiah. One small praise was the background. The temples were designed very nicely. I did love the B-Plot with the Krav Maga scene that I've talked about before with Bart and Dorit.

I liked most jokes in this episode minus Jacob's yelling. Flanders yelling Porky Pig!, Veggie Tales (flashbacks to elementary school), the Omlet bar joke, and the drinks on Homer's (Flanders') camera. But The Reformers, Krusty in Jerusalem, and the first act in Springfield were average to below average.




Overall, a mediocre episode. This episode was not received well with most fans, and I've seen people grade this episode was much worse than me.

My grade: C-