Thank God, It's Doomsday

Plot

Marge attempts to cut the children's hair at home, but Homer takes them to a new mall barbershop. Bart and Lisa mess up each other's haircuts, so the three hide in a theater showing Left Below, a parody of Left Behind: The Movie. Marge later makes wigs from the hair trimmings. Homer becomes fearful of the Rapture and, despite reassurance from Marge and Lisa, interprets various signs as evidence.

Using numerology, he calculates the Rapture will occur in one week. He predicts stars will fall, and a blimp accident at the Krusty Celebrity Salute to Specials causes celebrities to fall to their deaths. Moe had sold his tavern for a sushi bar. Homer realizes his calculation error and returns to the mesa alone, where he ascends naked into Heaven.

A tour guide shows him around, and he sees his family tormented by the devil on a screen. He argues with God, who refuses to help due to Jesus' suffering. Homer vandalizes Heaven until God agrees to undo the Rapture. Homer wakes on the mesa reunited with his family, and Moe's Tavern is restored.

Reception

The episode earned a 3.6 rating and 10.05 million viewers, ranking 36th for the week. Walter J. Keegan, Jr. of TV Squad said storylines were getting thin for a Left Behind parody.

Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide felt the series does not handle religious subjects well and lacked direction and jokes. On Four Finger Discount, Brendan Dando found it uninteresting due to his lack of religious background, while Guy Davis thought it did not explore the Left Behind franchise deeply enough. Writer Don Payne received a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Outstanding Writing in Animation for this episode.

Did You Know?

• Baha Men previously appeared in the fourteenth season episode 'Large Marge'.
• Executive producer Al Jean said the final time he saw writer Don Payne before his death was for the DVD commentary recording of this episode.