Homer gets a brochure from a religious group at the airport and being highly gullible, he goes to their retreat. Because of Homer’s intelligence quotient they have more trouble brainwashing him than the rest of Springfield most of who are all sucked into joining this cult. When they finally succeed with Homer, he signs over the family house to the Leader. The Leader begins taking over various media outlets, making Mr. Burns envy him. Seeing an opportunity to pay even less in taxes, Mr. Burns tries to form his own cult, although he is unsuccessful. Homer and the family move to an agricultural compound and begin picking beans. When the children become just as brainwashed as Homer, Marge escapes and enlists the help of Lovejoy, Flanders, and Willie to kidnap her family. They are able to deprogram them and then Homer tries to show the cult that the Leader is a fraud. When he does, and life returns to normal.

Bart and Lisa are in a United Nations club, with each kid representing a country. The kids go on a field trip, but there is an accident and Otto drives the bus off a bridge into the water. The bus drifts out to sea, and Otto abandons ship. Chinese fishermen soon pick him up and make him their slave. Meanwhile the children and the bus wash up onto a deserted island. Bart is full of ideas on how they should live, but none of them work very well. They find the food that was onboard the bus and it is their only sustenance. Soon afterward it is gone and everyone is hungry, and Milhouse is accused. They have a trial in which Bart is the judge, but Milhouse is found not guilty by lack of evidence. The rest of them riot at the verdict and chase Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse into a cave, where they find the true culprit, a hog. The kids (besides Lisa) slaughter it and have themselves a nice meal. Who will save them? Let’s say Moe. While all of this is going on, Homer finds out that Flanders has an Internet company. Homer sets up a business on the Internet, after all, if Flanders can, why can’t he? His new business piques the interest of Bill Gates who comes to the house to put him out of business.

Homer sneaks off to a bar to hide from Marge, but while he is at the bar, Homer sings Marge praises. He notices how bitter Moe is and realizes that Moe has not had a girlfriend in a long time. He takes Moe out to another bar to meet chicks. He has no luck, but somehow meets the perfect woman later. He is not exactly smooth with her, but she really seems to like him. He begins to treat her like royalty; unfortunately, he maxes out his Player’s Club card and has to find a way to make money. He and Homer decide on a plan where Homer will steal Moe’s car and destroy it on the train tracks. The insurance fraud plan hits a snag when Homer steals the car and stops to see a drive-in movie, instead of going straight to the tracks. Homer switches to another plan and sinks the car to the bottom of the lake. The cops are watching him the entire time, so he goes to jail. Moe refuses to stick up for him, because he doesn’t want to lose his girlfriend. Homer makes a jail break and Moe eventually tells his girlfriend about his debt, and pitches a plan to her where he will fake his death. That’s enough for her, so she leaves him. He goes on with the plan anyway and he sets the bar a blaze. Homer saves him, and their friendship is restored. Without the bar, Moe turns Homer’s place into the new hangout.

The Simpsons go to a mall to buy shoes and a guy tries to get them to come to a stand-up comedy charity event. Bart notices Krusty will not be there, so he pleads with Jay Leno to make him part of it. Krusty agrees and does his typical routine, which bombs, so he goes on a bender. Kent Brockman fills in for him on his show; meanwhile Bart invites Krusty to stay with his family. While at the Simpsons’ home, Krusty asks for advice on his act. He tries to do observational comedy for them, but it does not work. He calls a press conference to announce his retirement and he begins talking in a brutally honest way, which makes the reporters laugh. Feeling confident again, he decides to return to comedy and does his new stand-up routines at all the night clubs, including Moe’s. He refuses to sell out like he did before and Springfield loves him. A couple guys approach him about shilling a new sport-utility vehicle and he agrees to do commercials for the Canyonero. When he tells everyone at Moe’s, he loses their support.