"The Joy of Sect" is the thirteenth episode of The Simpsons' ninth season.

Episode details

Production Number: 5F23
Original Air Date: February 8, 1998
Writers: Steve O'Donnell
Director: Steven Dean Moore
Couch Gag: Tiny versions of the Simpsons climb on the couch, and the family dog runs off with Homer.

Synopsis

Homer and the rest of Springfield get influenced and sucked into the fictional religion Movementarianism, and everyone is forced to work in the Movementarian plantations. The episode contains many thinly veiled parodies of various new religions, most notably the Church of Scientology and the Unification Church. The Movementarian Church gets ultimately destroyed when Marge, with the help of Reverend Lovejoy and Ned Flanders, exposes the true secret behind The Leader by opening The Forbidden Barn.

Movementarianism

The Movementarian Church believes that their so-called leader, "The Leader", will bring them to Blisstonia, a planet "well known for its high levels of bliss," through the use of a spaceship which is being constructed in the Forbidden Barn by The Leader. Movementarians must surrender all money and property to The Leader.

The Leader

The Leader brainwashes Springfield into his cult and makes them work on his plantations. He is revealed as a fraud when the Forbidden Barn opens, a spaceship comes out, and the parts suddenly fall out a wooden flying machine comes out in its base holding dollar sign bags. The flying machine crashes into Cletus's house and Cletus points a shotgun at him and demands the money.

Quotes

Jane: Would you rather have beer, or complete and utter contentment?
Homer: What kind of beer?

Homer: Just think. I turned to a cult for mindless happiness when I had beer all along.