The Joy of Sect vs. Homer at the Bat

[stip]

The Joy of Sect

At the airport, Bart and Homer meet Glen and Jane, recruiters for the new religious movement, Movementarianism. They invite Homer and many Springfield residents to watch an orientation film. The film explains over many hours that a mysterious man known only as "The Leader" will guide Movementarians aboard a spaceship to the planet Blisstonia, where they will live in everlasting happiness. The lengthy film brainwashes most of the attendees into worshipping The Leader, but Homer does not pay enough attention to be affected. After trying other methods, Glen and Jane finally convert him by singing the theme from Batman, replacing the word "Batman" with the word "Leader".

After Homer joins the cult and signs over his savings and house, he moves his family to the Movementarian compound, where everyone is forced to harvest lima beans. The Leader lives in a "Forbidden Barn" where the spaceship is supposedly being constructed. He only appears briefly, waving to his followers from a Rolls-Royce. Movementarianism's power and popularity grow; the local Presbylutheran church empties, and the cult takes over the city's media. Montgomery Burns decides to start his own religion, jealous of The Leader's tax-exempt status, and declares himself a god at an elaborate ceremony at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Watching Springfieldians are unimpressed, however, after Burns' muscle-bound wax outfit catches fire in a pyrotechnics display.

Though defiant at first, all the Simpson children are converted to Movementarianism. Marge is the only family member to resist, and escapes from the heavily guarded compound, especially The Monster Bubble. Outside, she finds Reverend Lovejoy, Ned Flanders, and Groundskeeper Willie, who have all resisted the Movementarians, and with their help, she tricks her family into leaving the compound with her. At Flanders' home Marge deprograms her children by pretending to offer hover bikes. Homer seems to yield after Ned offers him a beer, but just as the first drop lands on Homer's tongue, he is captured by the Movementarians' lawyers.

Back at the compound, Homer reveals to a crowd of Movementarians that he is no longer brainwashed. Homer opens the doors of the Forbidden Barn to expose the cult as a fraud, but he and the crowd are surprised to find "one hell of a spaceship" inside. The Leader proclaims that, due to Homer's "lack of faith", humanity will never reach Blisstonia. The Springfieldians fear that The Leader is correct but the crude spaceship disintegrates in flight, revealing The Leader on a pedal-powered aircraft fleeing with everyone's money. The crowd's faith is broken but The Leader does not fly very far, crashing on Cletus Spuckler's front porch. Cletus takes the town's money from the Leader at gunpoint.

As the Simpsons return home, Lisa remarks, "It's wonderful to think for ourselves again." Then, the family becomes hypnotized by a Fox television commercial, however, which declares, "You are watching Fox." In unison, the family responds, "We are watching Fox...", causing them to be brainwashed.

Homer at the Bat

It is softball season in Springfield and many of the workers at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant are reluctant to sign up for the Power Plant team due to their previous unsuccessful year. Homer reveals that he has a secret weapon, a homemade bat named "Wonder Bat" and his co-workers eagerly join the team. Thanks in large part to Homer, the team goes through its season undefeated and earns the right to play in the championship game against the Shelbyville Nuclear Power Plant.

Mr. Burns makes a million dollar bet with Aristotle Amadopoulos, owner of the Shelbyville plant, that his team will win. To secure victory in the game, Mr. Burns decides to hire major league stars and assembles a team that includes Shoeless Joe Jackson, Pie Traynor, Harry Hooper, Honus Wagner, Cap Anson, Nap Lajoie, Gabby Street, Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown, and Jim Creighton (the last of whom had been dead for 130 years). Waylon Smithers informs Mr. Burns that the players he picked have all retired and died, and so Mr. Burns changes tactics and orders Smithers to find some current superstar players. He hires nine Major League Baseball players — Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Ken Griffey, Jr., Steve Sax, Ozzie Smith, Jose Canseco, Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry and Mike Scioscia — and gives them token jobs at the plant so that they can play on the team, much to the dismay of the plant workers who got the team to the championship game in the first place.

Mr Burns hires a hypnotist to train the team, and they all mouth back his words (such as 'You will beat Shelbyville') in unison ('We will beat Shelbyville') until the hypnotist says 'You will give 110%', at which point the team mouth back, still in perfect unison, 'That's impossible. No one can give more than 100%. By definition, that is the most anyone can give'.

However, before the game, eight of the nine all-star players suffer unrelated misfortunes that prevent them from playing: Clemens suddenly behaves like a chicken due to the hypnotist's incompetence, Boggs is knocked unconscious by Barney after a bizarre argument at Moe's Tavern (over who was England's greatest Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston or Pitt the Elder), Griffey, Jr. takes an overdose of nerve tonic, resulting in an extreme case of gigantism, Sax is arrested and put in jail for every unsolved murder in New York City, Smith disappears in the "Springfield mystery spot", Canseco is too busy rescuing a woman and her possessions from a fire, Mattingly is kicked off the team by Mr. Burns due to sideburns only he can see, and Scioscia is hospitalized due to radiation poisoning from the plant, having taken his token job all too seriously. Mr. Burns is forced to use his original employees, along with Strawberry, the only star who can play. He made a speech that he knows that his team hated him for what he did to them and he tells them to win. Homer remains on the bench as Strawberry plays his position.

With the score tied and bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Mr. Burns elects to field a right-handed hitter against a left-handed pitcher and pinch hits Homer for Strawberry. The very first pitch hits Homer in the head, rendering him unconscious, but forcing in the winning run. The team wins the title and Homer, still unconscious, is paraded as a hero. Smithers holds the trophy. Mr. Burns thinks about it. Homer lying on the ground.

[Norah]

Homer at the Bat and it's not even close.

[stip]

The leader jingle is great, but Homer at the Bat is the best episode of the first three seasons, and if you told me it was their best ever I might not argue.

[LoathedVermin72]

To the surprise of no one, I voted Joy of Sect. Homer being too stupid to be brainwashed is genius.

[Norah]

To the surprise of no one, I voted Joy of Sect. Homer being too stupid to be brainwashed is genius.

Sure, but it's still not as good as Mr. Burns managing a softball team.

[LoathedVermin72]

To the surprise of no one, I voted Joy of Sect. Homer being too stupid to be brainwashed is genius.

Sure, but it's still not as good as Mr. Burns managing a softball team.

Leader beans

[Norah]

To the surprise of no one, I voted Joy of Sect. Homer being too stupid to be brainwashed is genius.

Sure, but it's still not as good as Mr. Burns managing a softball team.

Leader beans

Lord Palmerston.

[Simple Torture]

Not even a competition.

[tragabigzanda]

Both these episodes are examples of the concept being far from the finished product. The Joy of Sect sounds like a plot just ripe for hilarity, but I don't find too many great laughs. The baseball ep, with all the player cameos, sounds like a snoozer on paper, but it's really one of the funniest eps ever.