In Marge We Trust

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	Season 8 Episode
← 174 "The Old Man and the Lisa"	175 "In Marge We Trust"	"Homer's Enemy" 176 →

"In Marge We Trust"

Episode Information Episode number: 175 Season number: S8 E22 Production code: 4F18 Original airdate: April 27, 1997 Couch gag: The couch is absent. In its place is a vending machine, which drops a couch from the ceiling onto Homer. Guest star(s): Sab Shimono as Mr. Sparkle, the Japanese businessman, and the announcer Gedde Watanabe as the factory foreman, factory worker, Japanese tourist, and reporter Frank Welker as the baboons Showrunners: Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein Written by: Donick Cary Directed by: Steven Dean Moore DVD features

"In Marge We Trust" is the twenty-second episode of broadcast season 8 of The Simpsons and the one hundred seventy-fifth episode overall. It originally aired on April 27, 1997. The episode was written by Donick Cary and directed by Steven Dean Moore. It guest stars Sab Shimono as Mr. Sparkle, the Japanese businessman, and the announcer, Gedde Watanabe as the factory foreman, factory worker, Japanese tourist, and reporter, and Frank Welker as the baboons.

Synopsis

Marge volunteers as an over-the-phone counselor for the church, and the congregation starts turning to Marge more than Reverend Lovejoy. Meanwhile, Homer goes on a quest to find out why his likeness is the logo for a Japanese detergent company.

Plot

Bart and Lisa are watching The Itchy & Scratchy Show episode "Deaf Comedy Blam!" on Sunday morning when their laughter wakes up Homer and Marge. Marge realizes they are late for church, and the family quickly gets ready to leave. At the First Church of Springfield, Reverend Lovejoy is giving a sermon on constancy, which is boring everyone. Homer falls asleep and bangs his head on the pew in front of him, causing him to shout out in pain. Lovejoy then decides to start his sermon from the beginning as he has lost his place due to Homer's outburst. When the Simpsons get home, they quickly begin removing their church clothes. Marge is annoyed at the family because they're treating church as a chore when it should be helping them through life. Homer then tells Marge that he, Bart, and Lisa are going to the Springfield City Dump to get rid of their old Christmas tree and go rummaging for anything interesting.

Marge goes back to the church to talk to Reverend Lovejoy about his sermons. She tells him that the church could be doing more to reach out to people. Lovejoy tells her that he doesn't see her volunteering to help make things better, so Marge decides to do just that. At the Springfield Dump, Homer and Bart get the Christmas tree out of the car and dump it before they go scrounging for anything interesting. Bart calls Homer and Lisa over to him after he finds a box of Mr. Sparkle with a mascot who looks just like Homer on the front.

Mr. Sparkle in the commercial.

At the church, Marge finishes doing several chores as Lovejoy gets a call from Principal Skinner. Lovejoy tells Skinner to just read the Bible, and doesn't even give him a specific passage to read. Marge is disappointed in Lovejoy for giving him lackluster advice, and Lovejoy tells her that he used to be like her fresh out of seminary, but then Ned Flanders started asking for advice all the time. This eventually became too much for the reverend, and he stopped caring. Marge says that he can't let a few bad experiences sour him on helping people, but he says that he can. The phone rings, and he tells Marge to answer it. The caller turns out to be Moe, who wants advice because he has lost the will to live. Marge tells him that he has lots to live for, which makes him happier.

At the dinner table, Homer asks Marge why she chose to volunteer at the church. Homer then pulls the Mr. Sparkle out at the table, saying he's obsessed with it. Homer takes the box to The Happy Sumo to ask Akira to read it for him. Akira explains that it's Mr. Sparkle, created in Hokkaido, Japan, and that it's a popular dish detergent. Meanwhile, Marge is becoming popular at the church and many people are coming to her for advice. Later, Homer goes to the Old Springfield Library and asks for a phone book for Hokkaido. The librarian pulls out a phone book from behind the desk, and Homer asks to use the phone. He calls the Mr. Sparkle Factory and talks to an employee there who tells him that the company will send him a package to answer his questions.

At church, Reverend Lovejoy is giving a sermon and becomes annoyed when the congregation starts praising Marge. After church has ended, Lovejoy wonders what he did to lose his flock. The stained glass window pictures of Saint Bartholomew, Saint Donickus, Saint Eleutherius, and Saint Lucian then start talking to him, making him realize that he did nothing to keep his flock interested. Helen Lovejoy calls Marge to ask if she has any advice for her husband, but Marge tells her to just give him a couple of days to get over what he's going through. Back at the Simpson house, Homer receives a videotape. He, Bart, and Lisa watch it to find that it's a commercial for Mr. Sparkle, which features the mascot. At the end of the commercial, it is revealed that the Mr. Sparkle company is a merger of Matsumura Fishworks and Tamaribuchi Heavy Manufacturing Concern. The two logos together make Mr. Sparkle, meaning the resemblance to Homer is a coincidence.

At the church, Marge gets a call from Ned for advice as Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney are hanging around outside The Leftorium. Marge tells Ned to go over to the teens and tell them to leave, which he does. However, all this does is annoy them, and they start harassing Ned on minibikes. One of the bullies cuts the phone line, and Marge thinks the problem is solved. However, the next morning, Maude reveals that Ned never came home. Marge goes to Lovejoy for help because she gave Ned bad advice. They then get a call from Ned, who was chased through town by the bullies until they stopped for gas. He can't see the name of the station but tells them the price of gas. Marge realizes that he's at Donny's Discount Gas and Lovejoy and the Simpsons go there to find him. After finding out from Donny that they went to the Springfield City Zoo across the street, they go to look for him. They find him in Baboon County, USA, but the zookeeper won't help rescue him. As Ned is trapped in a tire swing, a train comes around the enclosure, driven by Reverend Lovejoy. He rescues Ned and fights back against the baboons.

During the next church service, Reverend Lovejoy replaces his usual sermons with a retelling of how he saved Ned. The church congregation is hooked on the story and listens to his every word.

Production

"In Marge We Trust" was the first episode written by Donick Cary. Cary was a bit disappointed that his first episode would be about Marge's crisis of faith. Showrunner Josh Weinstein said that in season 8, they wanted to explore more secondary characters in episodes. Up to this point, they considered Lovejoy to be a one- or two-note character, so they wanted to develop him more.

The trip to the dump was inspired by Donick Cary's youth, where he would go "dump picking". The producers then came up with the idea of having Homer's face on a box. The writers watched a tape of Japanese commercials to get inspiration for the Mr. Sparkle commercial. The reason Mr. Sparkle looked like Homer came from George Meyer after hours had been spent trying to come up with a realistic ending. Matsumura Fishworks was named after a friend of David X. Cohen, Ichiro Matsumura.

An earlier draft of the episode had Reverend Lovejoy take over the church from Jasper Beardley.

Reception

In its original broadcast, "In Marge We Trust" was watched by 9.8 million households, finishing 25th in ratings for the week of April 21–27, 1997, with a Nielsen rating of 10.1. It was the third-highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files and King of the Hill.

Authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said that the episode was "A rare case of both storylines being worthy of full episodes in their own right, this is a cracking episode which highlights the unduly neglected Rev. Lovejoy and makes you realise Homer isn't the only one ready to kill Ned Flanders! Great stuff."

In a 2015 review by The A.V. Club, Alasdair Wilkins says that what makes the episode special is "that it does something so different from almost any other episode" because it "breaks that mold" of keeping the show so focused on the Simpson family.

In a 2000 article for Entertainment Weekly, Matt Groening ranked "In Marge We Trust" as his fifth favorite episode of the show, despite being a "peculiar episode." Showrunner Josh Weinstein called "In Marge We Trust" one of the best of the season and one of the most underrated Simpsons episodes of all time. The Mr. Sparkle commercial is also one of his favorite sequences of the show.

As of April 2026, "In Marge We Trust" has an 8.1 rating on IMDb.

References

Wikisimpsons 24 images related to "In Marge We Trust".

← Season 7 Season 8 Episodes Season 9 →

Treehouse of Horror VII • You Only Move Twice • The Homer They Fall • Burns, Baby Burns • Bart After Dark • A Milhouse Divided • Lisa's Date with Density • Hurricane Neddy • El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer • The Springfield Files • The Twisted World of Marge Simpson • Mountain of Madness • Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious • The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show • Homer's Phobia • Brother from Another Series • My Sister, My Sitter • Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment • Grade School Confidential • The Canine Mutiny • The Old Man and the Lisa • In Marge We Trust • Homer's Enemy • The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase • The Secret War of Lisa Simpson

← Season 3G Production season 4F Episodes Season 5F →

Lisa's Date with Density • Treehouse of Horror VII • The Homer They Fall • A Milhouse Divided • Burns, Baby Burns • Bart After Dark • Hurricane Neddy • The Twisted World of Marge Simpson • Grade School Confidential • Mountain of Madness • Homer's Phobia • The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show • My Sister, My Sitter • Brother from Another Series • Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment • The Canine Mutiny • The Old Man and the Lisa • In Marge We Trust • Homer's Enemy • The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase • The Secret War of Lisa Simpson • The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson • The Principal and the Pauper • Lisa the Simpson