he watches football on T.V. and, upon finding a penny on the ground, asks aloud, “Could this be the best day of my life?” After visualizing, among other things, his wedding day, he proclaims, “We have a winner!” This sequence would seem to present the idea that going church is a bad thing, but by the end of the episode, the message is reversed. Homer falls asleep amid a pile of “Playdudes” with a lit cigar in his mouth, which falls onto the magazines and sets the house on fire. After a miraculous rescue, Marge asks Homer whether the catastrophe has changed his mind about going to church. Homer then notices that the Flanders’ (the Simpsons’ intensely religious neighbors) house has caught fire, and asks why God isn’t saving “Charlie Church’s” house. At that moment, a small rain cloud appears above the Flanders’ house and puts out the fire. Homer reevaluates the situation and announces that he will be at church seated “front and center” (albeit fast asleep) next Sunday. This episode is an example of the show’s ability to be “hilarious and subversive but also, somehow, uplifting.” “The Simpsons’” unabated social and political commentary has been illustrated numerous times during the series’ history. This fearless discussion about controversial topics is extremely rare on television, and is part of what has made the show so successful. Gleeson observes that, “The show does not try to score political points. It targets hypocrisy, corruption and institutionalized laziness wherever it finds them, being cheerfully vicious to whoever the writers think deserves it.” One memorable episode, in which an election is taking place in Springfield, provides an example of this “cheerful viciousness.” An unleashed elephant charges first through a Democratic party convention, which features ...
