No character on The Simpsons serves as a better foil to Homer than Ned Flanders. The Simpson family’s long-time next-door neighbor may be a Bible-thumping oddball, but he’s arguably the most good-natured person in all of Springfield. Ned’s the type of guy who’s so nice and well-meaning at all times that it makes other characters upset (as we see often with Homer, to hilarious effect). But even the best people have their faults.
Ned may be a role model for many, but his record isn’t as spotless as you might think. Join us as we look back at 10 of the worst things Ned Flanders has ever diddily-done!
10 Not Marketing His Store Effectively
We see Ned at his most sympathetic early on in The Simpsons’ run. In the season three episode “When Flanders Failed," Ned opens a general store catered to the left-handed. Unfortunately, the store fails to generate any business and lands Flanders in financial trouble. Yes, the store’s failure is attributed to Homer making a wish that it will go out of business, but Ned isn’t blameless.
While his heart's in the right place, Ned's non-pushy sales style and failure to market his business to the many people in town who could use his business directly lead to him nearly having to close up shop. Luckily, Homer has a change of heart and helps Ned save the business, but he wouldn’t have had to if Ned had just done his market research first.
9 Draining Reverend Lovejoy of His Passion
If Ned Flanders epitomizes many of the best Christian values, Timothy Lovejoy preaches some of the worst. Although Lovejoy is the face of the Church in Springfield, his detached preaching style and seeming lack of empathy make him a less than ideal religious leader. However, as we learn in the season eight episode “In Marge We Trust," Lovejoy was once passionate about his faith and had a desire to help his fellow man.
Unfortunately, over the years Lovejoy stopped caring altogether, in large part due to Ned Flanders pestering him incessantly with trivial problems. While Flanders shouldn’t receive all the blame for Lovejoy’s downward spiral, his actions drove another man to suffer and are an example of how Ned’s timid nature grates on those around him.
8 Being a Terrible School Principal
In the season five episode “Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadasssss Song," Ned temporarily becomes principal of Springfield Elementary after Seymour Skinner is fired. This is a bad idea from the start, as Flanders is much too soft-hearted to lead a school of rowdy children. The episode takes this idea and runs with it, as the school devolves into anarchy. Under Flanders’ watch, 10-year-old Martin Prince gets locked in a cage by his fellow students!
As if that wasn’t enough, Flanders leads a prayer … a prayer in a public school! Superintendent Chalmers’ indignant rage is over the line, but the man has a point: God has no place within public school walls and neither does Ned Flanders.
7 Trying to Baptize The Simpson Kids
In general, Ned doesn’t try to interfere with the way his neighbors, The Simpsons, live their lives. Sure, he offers Homer advice whenever he can, but he tends to let his actions serve as an example. However, Ned crosses the line in the season seven episode “Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily," when he and Maude temporarily gain custody over Bart, Lisa, and Maggie.
Horrified to learn the children were never baptized, Ned sets out to do so himself and nearly succeeds before he’s stopped by Homer and Marge. Although Ned’s intentions are good, baptizing someone else’s kids is not a decision he gets to make, and Homer and Marge were right to put a stop to it.
6 Shelter His Children
Ned Flanders loves his children, Rod and Todd, and has always been shown to be a loving, nurturing father. In many ways, his parenting style is the inverse of his own parents’ hands-off, undisciplined approach. Yet, while Rod and Todd are sweet and well-behaved, they're also incredibly sheltered by their parents.
We see this whenever Rod and Todd run up against someone like Bart, who is able to easily manipulate the pair due to their innocence and ignorance. By not allowing his kids to be exposed to different ideas and beliefs—they’re not even allowed to read Harry Potter!—Ned is leaving them woefully unprepared to face the outside world.
5 Married a Woman in Vegas
The sanctity of marriage is a foundational part of Ned Flanders’ values, but that didn’t stop him from marrying another woman while in Las Vegas. In the season ten episode “Viva Ned Flanders," Ned turns to Homer to help him be more impulsive and the pair eventually end up in Vegas. After a night of drinking and playing craps, they awake to find they both got married to the waitresses who were serving them.
Bear in mind that Maude is still alive at this point in the show’s run, meaning that Ned isn’t yet a widow. Yes, Ned was incredibly drunk (probably for the first time ever) but research shows that you’re still the same person after you drink. In other words, alcohol didn’t “make” Ned marry Ginger—it just removed his inhibitions for doing so.
4 Intolerant of Homosexuals and Other Religions
Although Ned embodies many of the best aspects of Christian teachings—kindness, charity, compassion—his dogmatic views have led him to moments of intolerance over the years. In "Treehouse of Horror XIV," he states “I’m running to find a cure for homosexuality," as he believes homosexuality is a mental disorder rather than a choice.
He’s also been shown to hold other religions in contempt. In the season sixteen episode “Midnight Rx." Ned has an argument with Apu, a devout Hindu, telling him “how brave he is to worship a false god.” While there are a lot of things to admire about Ned, his level of intolerance is not one of them.
3 Hating His Beatnik Parents
The final three entries on this list all come from the same episode—season eight’s “Hurricane Neddy," which serves as a foundational text of sorts for Ned Flanders. Over the course of the episode, it’s revealed that Ned went through behavioral therapy as a child, on account of his parent's “trying nothing” when it came to disciplining their child. Eventually, Ned makes a breakthrough and realizes the real source of his pent-up anger is his parents, calling them “lousy beatniks."
While Ned’s anger is justified (his parents do suck), it also seems out of character for ol’ Neddy. Flanders is the type to forgive and turn the other cheek, not hold onto his anger. Fortunately, later seasons of The Simpsons have shown Ned reconciling with his parents, as they attend their son’s wedding to Edna Krabappel.
2 Being a Terrible Kid
As mentioned above, Ned’s parents are much to blame for Ned’s misbehavior as a child, as their lack of discipline enables their son to act out without repercussions. However, Ned isn’t simply a bad kid; he’s a total tyrant. We see him attack numerous children and make a mess of Dr. Foster’s office.
Of course, none of this is his fault; young Ned didn’t know any better. However, Ned Flanders is such a good person that are very few instances of him displaying outright bad behavior, so we can only conclude that being a terrible kid is one of the worst things Ned has ever done.
1 Hurricane Neddy
It’s still kind of wild to think that the most memorable public meltdown in Simpsons history belongs to Ned Flanders. Pushed to his breaking point after a hurricane destroys his home, Ned goes on an epic tirade, berating multiple members of the community, including the Simpson family, Chief Wiggum, and Krusty the Clown.
On the one hand, Ned’s actions are somewhat justified. He’s had to put up with the ineptitude of Springfield’s citizens for years and calling them out on this is a way for Ned to let them know how much they’ve failed him. However, Ned’s words also cut deep and the fact he berates several children as well is an inexcusable action for an adult to take. Ned’s tirade is easily one of his best moments as a character, but it’s also one of the worst things he’s ever darn-diddily-done.
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