10 Worst Simpsons Episodes From The Best Seasons

Before Homer went into complete jerk territory in the modern seasons, he was once a decent person…sort of. Yes, in the earlier years, Homer was not without his anger issues, selfishness and mind-numbing stupidity but it was all levelled out by a man who tried his best to provide for his wife and children. Not a perfect character but a character that we could relate to.

However, When Flanders Failed portrays Homer as the antagonist of the story but the placement of the episode within the Simpsons timeline comes across as really bad characterisation on his behalf. In this case, Flanders announces at a barbecue that he’s opening a shop specifically for left-handed people. He and his neighbour share a wishbone to pull in which Homer literally wishes for Flanders’ business to fail. Homer not only gets his wish but seems to help it further along by not telling left-handed citizens about the store and enjoying the misery of his enemy’s debt and failure. We know that Homer is less than fond of Flanders, but this is beyond nasty.

It’s not just the detestable characterisation which is problematic. It’s really unfeasible how according to the ending, there’s so many left-handed people in the town of Springfield and yet they all managed to somehow avoid such a convenient store that was right on their doorstep. It is true Homer was turning people away from Flanders’ business but did he really have SUCH an impact, that the whole town didn’t known about the Leftorium?

When Flanders Failed had potential but needed to go through a few more script drafts before making its way into the series.