Edward Norton guest stars as a new, younger, more charismatic preacher who helps Springfield during a bedbug crisis, leaving Reverend Lovejoy to give up sermoning for hot tub selling. Meanwhile, Homer becomes a deacon, and Marge loses her wedding dress.
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: When Bart and Milhouse lured frogs towards the church, some where passing through what seemed to be a palace's garden and a princess was kissing as many as she could in order to turn one into a prince. Turns out the "princess" was a mental hospital patient and the "palace" was where she was staying.
- Citizenship Marriage: Lisa says she might consider getting married someday if it ever becomes necessary to protect a Chinese dissident from deportation.
- Hypocritical Humor: Homer: “I’m not one to change jobs, but as we say in the snowplough business, I’ll be your astronaut.”
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Played for Laughs in the Credits Gag where Homer sings his own version of "Day By Day" in which he remarks, of Lisa, "The smart one is mine, maybe."
- Opening Shout-Out: The couch breaks during the Couch Gag (where the Simpsons go skydiving), which then leads to it being broken in the show proper, the first time the opening segues directly into the main action. Homer then comments on all the times they've sat on the couch. The episode proper starts with the Simpsons' roof and it's shown there's a patch covering the hole made there during the crash.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: When Ned Flanders told Bart that Reverend Lovejoy was in a place full of sulfur and exposed flesh, Bart immediately realized Flanders meant Lovejoy was selling hot tubs.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Homer makes an actual effort to act in a way becoming of his role as deacon when he's not at church. Despite the fact that this even makes him resist strangling Bart, Bart schemes to have him go back to normal since he's more fun when he's willing to join in on his troublemaking.
