Viva Ned Flanders

The Simpsons sit on the couch as normal. A human hand (belonging to Simpsons creator Matt Groening) takes the picture and spins it, turning the paint work into a messy radial blur.

Guest star(s)

The Moody Blues as themselves

DVD
commentary

Matt Groening
Mike Scully
George Meyer
Ron Hauge
Julie Thacker
Neil Affleck

Season 10
August 23, 1998 – May 16, 1999

"Lard of the Dance"
"The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace"
"Bart the Mother"
"Treehouse of Horror IX"
"When You Dish upon a Star"
"D'oh-in in the Wind"
"Lisa Gets an "A""
"Homer Simpson in: "Kidney Trouble""
"Mayored to the Mob"
"Viva Ned Flanders"
"Wild Barts Can't Be Broken"
"Sunday, Cruddy Sunday"
"Homer to the Max"
"I'm with Cupid"
"Marge Simpson in: "Screaming Yellow Honkers""
"Make Room for Lisa"
"Maximum Homerdrive"
"Simpsons Bible Stories"
"Mom and Pop Art"
"The Old Man and the "C" Student"
"Monty Can't Buy Me Love"
"They Saved Lisa's Brain"
"Thirty Minutes over Tokyo"

List of all The Simpsons episodes

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"Viva Ned Flanders" is the tenth episode of The Simpsons' tenth season, which originally on January 10, 1999.^[1] The episode was nominated for an Emmy award in the category of animated programming less than one hour,^[2] but lost to King of the Hill episode "And They Call It Bobby Love."^[3] Homer takes Ned to Las Vegas to show him "the right way to live," but the pair become intoxicated and marry two cocktail waitresses, eventually being kicked out of the state after trying to run away from their new relationships.^[1]

1 Plot
2 Censorship
3 Cultural references
4 Reception
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot

Springfield is without a casino when Mr. Burns' Casino is demolished. However, a confusion over whether demolitions are supposed to involve implosions or explosions results in the Casino being blasted into a huge dust cloud, with Don Rickles flying through the air with the dust. The family goes to the car wash to get rid of the dust, and when Homer is there, he sees that Ned Flanders gets a senior discount. At church, Flanders admits to Homer that he is sixty years old. He says that he follows the three "c"s of success: clean living, chewing thoroughly, and "a daily dose of vitamin Church!" However, he also has never lived impulsively, and never really had any fun in life. The rest of the town stops admiring Ned for living so well, and begins to pity him for having never truly lived at all.

Ned reluctantly agrees with this and asks Homer to teach him the secret to his lust for life, leading Homer to take him on a gambling trip to Las Vegas. Homer is confident about going there, but Flanders is nervous. They see Captain Lance Murdoch (from "Bart the Daredevil") doing one of his stunts, and Homer chooses to volunteer, and survives. They wander into a casino "Nero's Palace" and begin to play roulette. Ned protests based on Deuteronomy 7 but Homer ignores the protest and takes the reference as a lucky number and they win. They then immediately lose it all. They then go to the casino's bar and get drunk, waking up the next morning in their hotel room.

Later on, Homer and Ned realize that they have married two cocktail waitresses: Homer's new wife is named Amber, and Ned's new wife is Ginger. The waitresses say that they are married to them, and prove it through a video tape. Homer and Ned try to escape from the waitresses, and go on a wild rampage through the casino to the song Viva Las Vegas, until they are confronted by casino security, Gunter and Ernst (also from "$pringfield"), Drederick Tatum, and the Moody Blues. They manage to escape the casino, but are literally forced out of the state, and say that they are not welcome to Las Vegas again. Homer and Ned head back to their real wives in Springfield by hitchhiking. Meanwhile, two vultures fly by to attack Homer and Ned, and while they are screaming, Homer tells Ned to cover his own eyes.

[edit] Censorship

On the part where Homer and Flanders are at the roulette wheel, Homer is trying to figure out what number to bet on, and muses that Barney's birthday is on April 20, the same day as Hitler's (which is correct in the real world), though the closed captioning uses an alternate line where Homer says that Barney Gumble's birthday is the same day as Lassie's (July 15). Because the Columbine High School Shootings were intentionally executed on that date, the line "Barney's birthday is April 20, same day as Hitler's..." was changed to the line in closed captioning ("Barney's birthday is July 15, same day as Lassie's") on the third rebroadcast of this episode (which aired on September 19, 1999). The American syndicated version has the original line about Barney's birthday being on the same day as Hitler's (with the alternate line about Lassie's birthday in closed captioning). The British channel, Sky One, only has the Barney/Hitler's birthday line shown in subtitles. On the season ten DVD set, the "Barney's birthday is April 20, same day as Hitler's..." line is redubbed with the line heard in the rebroadcast version.

[edit] Cultural references

The episode begins with Mr. Burns' Casino (from the episode "$pringfield") being demolished. This is a reference to the many Las Vegas casino implosions that had occurred before the production of the episode.
Ned Flanders says to Home on the rooftop "this may seem a little insane in the ol' membrane", a reference to Cypress Hill's Insane In The Membrane
The song played in the background while Abe and Jasper are being car-jacked is "Any Way You Want It" by Journey.
The two guys in the car driving away from Vegas are parodies of Hunter S. Thompson's alter ego, sports reporter Raoul Duke, and his American Samoan lawyer Dr Gonzo from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, as is a fair amount of the show.
When Ned panics in the casino he screeches "And then there's Maude! And then there's Maude!" This is a reference to the theme song from the 1972-1978 CBS sitcom Maude.
The song over the end credits is "Viva Las Vegas" sung by Elvis Presley in the 1964 film of the same name.
A montage of casino signs is shown when Homer and Ned first enter Las Vegas. Several signs parody classic casinos in Las Vegas (e.g., 'Dupes' [Dunes], 'Quicksands' [Sands Hotel and Casino], 'Nero's Palace' [Caesars Palace]). A sign identical to the sign of the Stardust Resort & Casino is also seen that reads: "Golddiggers Casino", the names have no connection.
The song that Homer sings while riding in the car with Flanders to Vegas ("Nobody's gonna take my Ned, gonna teach him to have fun - ooh, he's a Flanders machine...") is a parody of the song "Highway Star" by Deep Purple.
Amber and Ginger would be featured in Brawl in the Family.

[edit] Reception

The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood commented that the episode is "one of the fastest paced episodes ever, this moves at breathless speed and is enormous fun with more bizarre moments than you can shake a stick at (a hysterical Joan Rivers is our favourite)."^[4]