Original air date: 2/9/2003 (produced in 2002)
Production code: EABF-06
Homer starts praying for every little thing, but his good fortune spins out of control, especially after he sues Reverend Lovejoy and gets the church in a settlement.
Tropes:
- A God Am I: Not outright stated. However, as more of Homer's prayers are answered, he stops asking for help from God and expects it. Even finishing one prayer with "I command you".
- Agent Scully: At the end of the episode, Lisa rationalizes the rain and the flood were the result of the bonfire and the trees being cut down, respectively. When Bart asks her what made the rain stop, Lisa sarcastically responds, "I don't know. Buddha?" The camera pans up to Heaven, where Buddha looks down upon them alongside God and Colonel Sanders.Buddha: Hey, they've suffered enough.
- Amazon Chaser: Bart is pretty taken with one of the WNBA players. Subverted with Homer, whose thought about "what it would be like to be with a woman like that" is typically innocent (he just wants someone to lift him up so he can eat the moon).Marge: Bart, you're a little young to be growling at 7-foot Chinese ladies.Bart: Fine, I'll go back to being bored.
- Amoral Attorney: The lawyer who helped Homer to sue the church. To him, the fact Homer was really injured was just a "big plus".
- Big Damn Heroes: Reverend Lovejoy saves Homer and the town by praying to God to forgive the town.
- Brick Joke: In the middle of the episode, Homer suggests that God is eating chicken next to Colonel Sanders. In the end of the episode, the cuckoolander is proven right.
- Cargo Cult: Part of the debauched defiance of the ten commandments is Carl suddenly bowing down to a hunting trophy of a mounted deer head. Carl lampshades it by stating he must be really drunk.
- Egocentrically Religious: After his first few prayers are answered, Homer treats God like his personal assistant.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Parodied. The driver of the bacon truck screams "OH, FUUUUUUUUDGE!" as he's about to crash into a fudge truck.
- Frivolous Lawsuit: While looking up and praying instead of looking where he is going, Homer trips over a hole in the ground next to the church and so sues the church, being awarded one million dollars. There is no way that Rev. Lovejoy could afford that kind of money, so Homer instead receives the deed to the church. And when the attorney who takes his case steps out to offer his services, he shows off Dr. Nick, who thanks to him had won a lawsuit for injuries sustained while driving drunk in a graveyard.
- Hanging Judge: Justified, Judge Snyder's wife was run over by a clergyman.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Homer's lawyer's name is Harry H. Lawyer Junior.
- Inflationary Dialogue: When Homer was holding a party at the church, Moe offered a meal and kept downgrading its quality until it reached rat-level.
- Inside a Wall: The kitchen's drywall collapses, and it's revealed that Maggie was hidden behind it for some reason.Homer: You was hiding behind the dwywall! Yes, you were! I'm glad Social Services didn't see this! Yes, I am! (Maggie starts coughing) Aww, you coughed up some dwywall.
- Jerkass:
- Moe. First he tricks the recovering alcoholics to go to his bar. Then after the flooding, he tries to murder Homer and skin him alive for the hell of it.
- Homer sues the church after he falls into a pothole and he takes the church for his family once he wins.
- Literal Metaphor: According to Homer, the grass is greener on Flanders' side of the fence. Mainly, that's because the Simpsons' yard is covered in Homer-shaped dirt patches from Homer passing out drunk.
- Lost the TV Remote: When Homer is watching TV, a boring documentary on Ken Burns comes on. Homer can't stand it and wants to change the channel, but is too lazy to get up and walk to the TV. He freaks out until he decides to pray for the remote, and then immediately finds it halfway-hidden under the couch.
- Mundane Solution: Homer vows to find out the secret to Flanders' success, whatever it takes. He just goes over to his house and asks over tea.
- Mysterious Middle Initial: Harry H. Lawyer Junior.
- Noah's Story Arc: Homer sued the Church and started living in it, but then in his blasphemy a flood started and Flanders decided to do the Noah's Ark thing on a car-driven speedboat, but said he only brought two of every ''male'' animal to prevent them from actually mating.
- Noodle Incident: According to Flanders, Homer's church party had violated nine of the Ten Commandments; it becomes the full ten when he sees Lenny coveting Carl's chili fries.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: When Homer kicks the Alcoholics Anonymous members out of the church that is now his, Moe shows up in a fake mustache and claims to have another church they can use (obviously aiming to lure them to his bar).
- Pet the Dog: Lovejoy comes back without needing to be asked to save his congregation from a flood.
- Prayer Is a Last Resort: Inverted. After a few things go his way, prayer becomes Homer's first and 'only' resort from getting a new kind of food to helping Bart with his homework instead of him. When Marge tells him he can't just expect God to fix every problem he has, Homer bluntly tells her he can and will.
- Selective Obliviousness: When he asks Ned what the secret to his success is. Ned replies it's down to working hard and living clean, plus a little prayer never hurt. Homer being Homer chooses not to hear the parts that require effort and hears only the part about praying for what you want.
- Shout-Out:
- Harry H. Lawyer Junior is a parody of Larry H. Parker, an attorney whose commercials are often seen in the L.A. area. He even uses the same catchphrase: "We'll fight for you! Se habla espanol."
- From A Christmas Story "OH, FUUUUUUUUDGE!"
- Silly Prayer: Exaggerated. Homer starts praying for every little thing like getting a new kind of food to helping Bart with his homework instead of him. Miraculously, it works.
- Take That!: Homer can't stand Ken Burns' incredibly boring documentary.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Homer's prayers become progressively irreverent.
