Comedy Writing Workshop
D.B. Gilles
"The Simpsons" Outline
Ned Flanders denounces the church after all of these years. The church becomes a laid back Sunday gathering without him. Homer takes an interest in scripture and tries to put the church back together.
The Simpson family is in the car on their way to church. Homer is complaining about going because nothing exciting ever happens. Bart recalls that the only thing interesting he ever learned was that of Hell (from a previous episode). Marge scolds him for his comments again.
Reverend Love Joy is preaching at the church again as Ned Flanders sits listening with an unusual uneasy look on his face. Everyone else in the church is dozing off to sleep. Homer is sound asleep. Ned stands up in the middle of the sermon and walks up to the podium. Reverend Love Joy begins to say something but Ned pushes him out of the way to take the microphone. Bart hits Homer to wake him up. Ned mocks the people for foolishly coming to church week in and week out. His wife is ecstatic with his decision. Todd and Rod begin to cry. Maude’s damns them to Hell for crying. The Flander family walks out of the church. Everyone is silent. Reverend Love Joy walks slowly back to the podium and after a second of silence blesses the Lord.
The Simpsons return home and Marge is very upset with the Flanders decision. She is convinced they are going right to hell for this. Homer tries to calm her down by telling her that they probably are as well, so they’ll always be friends. The children go and watch TV. Ned comes over and rings the bell. He has two giant boxes with him that are completely filled up with books. Homer is surprisingly nice to Ned for once. Ned tells him that he is giving him his collection of Bibles that he has collected over the years. Homer doesn’t argue and takes them from him. Ned doesn’t say anything but walks away slowly.
It is a few days later at this point. Homer is sitting at Moes with the guys talking about what happened to Flanders. He tells them how he has been reading the books that Flanders gave him and they are very interesting. Barney is telling everyone about his opinions on religion and comparing everything to beer. Homer doesn’t appear to be his regular self. The door flings open and we see a silhouette of a figure in the darkness. A cold wind sweeps through the bar. Flanders walks in. Everyone’s mouth in the bar drops. Ned takes a seat and orders a beer. Moe grabs a chilled glass and fills it to the brim. Everyone watches Ned in silence as he drinks it down to the bottom. After getting drunk and injuring himself in the bar, Ned is taken home by Homer. Homer is preaching to Ned on the walk home.
(Last scene)
Ned finally realizes that he belongs in the church after all and feels terrible for the way that he has acted. Maude looks depressed about this but Todd and Rod are jumping with joy. Ned reminds himself of all of the beer that he drank and wishes he had never gone against God in the way that he did. Moe comes clean and tells him that he didn’t drink anything alcoholic at all but that all of his beer came from the unused tap of non-alcoholic beer. Ned thanks Homer for all of his help and Homer goes right back to making fun of Flanders for being such a church boy. He gives Ned back his Bibles and goes back to being his normal self.
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