The long-running animated television show is now a full-length movie, where the opening scene is Homer complaining about religion as they walk into a worship service late, and in the awkward silence everybody hears him saying things he didn’t intend to make public.
Thus begins a series of satirical skits, continuing to feature the awkward and embarrassing, loosely related to a plot about environmental contamination, and the incompetent overreaction of self-important government officials.
Predictably, there is a lot of laughing-at-the-stupidity-of-others kind of joking, and even featuring a semi-serious ecstatic religious experience. Underneath the crusty exterior of the constant put-down humor, there is some genuine caring, but schmaltz is universally outlawed, except in caricature.
Ronald P. Salfen is pastor of First Church, Terrell, Texas.
