For the many years, I’ve stayed away from The Simpsons except for the Halloween episodes which lately also lack the savagery of the series’ heyday. The latest special title “Oh C’mon All Ye Faithful” dropped exclusively on Disney-Plus on Dec. 17, the 35th anniversary of “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.”
Having given up in the series following it’s more cartoonish vibes as well as retconning a lot. Marge (voiced by Julie Kavner) is actually in high school now during the High School Musical era now. But the special intended as a two-parter has a very basic set-up where Derren Brown hypnotizes Homer (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) into believing he’s Santa Claus with Ralph Wiggum (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) as his assistant elf.
Then the second part switches gears as Ned Flanders (voiced Harry Shearer) has an epiphany where he begins to question his faith. This was handled in a very short time during the 11th season episode “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily” where his wife, Maude (Maggie Roswell) dies. This was the result of Roswell wanting more money to cover expenses to fly from her home in Colorado to Los Angeles to record.
When initial negotiations fell through, the show killed Maude off by her being knocked off the top of stadium seats by a rolled-up shirt from a clothes launcher. It’s crazy because such a thing doesn’t have the force to knock someone off. Also, it’s a shirt. It was foolish but it led to Ned wondering about his faith again. He had previously questioned it in the eighth season “Hurricane Neddy.” But Roswell was able to return to the show which created problems because they didn’t bring Maude back.
A bigger problem is that Ned’s faith has been used as punchline for the bulk of the show. In “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” it’s portrayed just as a regular Joe Schmo and this was mostly for the first season and two. The Flanders seemed almost to be a parody of the nuclear family archetype. Yet. over time, the writers ran out of stuff for them to do so they basically plateaued.
This has led to the term “Flanderization” which is the process through which a single element of a character’s personality, often an originally mild element, is inflated in importance over the course of a work until it becomes the character’s primary defining trait. Take Brian Griffin on Family Guy or Brita Perry on Community as two recent examples in the last 15 years.
But there were attempts to make Ned more three-dimensional. In the 2007 Simpsons Movie, he actually bonds more with Bart (also voiced by Cartwright) which adds character development. And in the 22nd season, Ned and Edna Krabappel (voiced by the late Marcia Wallace), began dating. And the showrunners let the audience decide what happens next. They eventually got married and it seemed Ned was beginning a new life.
However, Wallace who also was on The Bob Newhart Show, passed away on Oct. 25, 2013 and her death was acknowledged by having Edna pass away with a grief-stricken Ned wearing an black armband next to a picture of Maude and a picture of Edna. For the most part, it seemed there was nothing more to do with Ned but to keep him the same old thing.
However in the recent episode, he really questions his faith, telling Marge that he still talks to Maude and Edna on a daily basis. He puts Post-It notes on the bathroom mirror every day for Maude and still texts Edna’s phone number. Then, one day, he gets a response on his phone. But it’s from Nelson Muntz (also voiced by Cartwright). From then on, he began to stop the Post-It notes and text messaging.
Still communicating is nothing new as people often talk to pictures of their late loved ones. And even take the pictures with them to restaurants. Look at The Sixth Sense where Olivia Williams’ character still celebrates the wedding anniversary even though her husband has passed. After Kerry died, I went to go out for her birthday and we were always bigger tippers. When I looked at the total, I realized the tip was $15.51. She had a thing for numbers like that.
By speaking with Lisa (voiced by Yeardley Smith), she tells Ned of the Buddhist tale of the blind sea turtle. The story goes that a blind turtle lives at the bottom of the sea and surfaces every 100 years to breathe. There is a wooden cattle yoke waiting for the turtle in the waves, and the likelihood of the turtle’s head passing through the hole in the yoke is said to be less than the chance of being reincarnated as a human. This means that being born human is luckier than a blind turtle passing through the yoke.
Ned finds that it’s a sweet tale. And Lisa tells him that she as a Buddhist doesn’t focus on the past or worry about the future because she considers we’re all just living in the moment. This causes Mage to feel upset because she doesn’t believe in any religion with no chance of an afterlife. Yet, this special actually addresses the different faiths and our beliefs as there’s no right and no wrong way.
The Simpsons has been consider far more religious than other “religious” shows like 7th Heaven which is hard to watch nowadays. It’s tackled religion more in a more tolerant way than other shows that seem to patronize people’s faiths.
Ned decides to stop going to church as well as letting his sons, Rod and Todd (voiced by Cartwright and Pamela Hayden, respectively), indulge their curiosity more like other children. They’re used to giving presents at Christmas rather than receiving them. And their excitement of looking at a catalogue as a goofy charm to it. Ned has kept the boys from materialistic obsessions but in the end realizes they may need a few things.
At the same time, Bart as he gets older begins to wonder why he cares less about Christmas which is a thing that happens as we age. Terrified that Ned committed idolatry by making a snowman, Bart tries to scare the religion back in them to please Marge who becomes very concerned about Ned. It’s silly but it shows the foolishness of “Heck Houses” that try to scare kids and the gullible into the Christian faith.
While it’s obvious the series’ good days is long gone, the special takes one of the most honest and thought-provoking shows about how people struggle with issues like grief and depression at the holidays. It also shows there is no turn-off switch for how you mourn when you lose someone. Ned grieved Maude and then found happiness with Edna but lost her too. Sometimes, it happens. Some people get married young and grow old together. Others think they found the perfect person and something bad happens and they lose that person. They find someone else or they don’t. And sometimes that other special someone dies too.
Not everyone takes the same journey as others and we shouldn’t try. It finally gives some justice to Ned who has been used more and more as a punchline.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 