At Christmas time, the Simpsons go caroling around Springfield before the
Blue-Haired Lawyer orders them to stop, citing
copyright infringement. In response,
Homer tries to write his own carol, but is so frustrated by
Ned Flanders's attempts to help that he instead writes a novelty pop song titled "Everybody Hates Ned Flanders", produced by and featuring vocals from
David Byrne. The song is an instant hit and quickly becomes ubiquitous on the radio, which annoys the Simpsons so much that they decide to get out of town and spend some time at a
dude ranch. At the ranch, Homer and
Bart meet a tribe of
Native Americans who want a
beaver dam removed so they can reclaim their land. The beavers manage to defend the dam from Homer and Bart at first, but they eventually prevail by luring the beavers away from the dam so they can dismantle it. Meanwhile,
Lisa begins to bond with a cowhand named Luke Stetson and even develops a crush on him. This causes Lisa to be overcome with jealousy when one day she overhears Luke on the phone, expressing his love to a girl named Clara. When she rides the trails that evening and suddenly encounters Clara heading to the ranch, Lisa tricks her into going the wrong way so she can have Luke to herself. During a
barn dance, however, Lisa finds out that Clara is actually Luke's sister, and so hurriedly enlists Bart to help fix her mistake. They find Clara standing on a rock, trapped by the rushing torrent of water that Homer and Bart left behind when they destroyed the beaver dam. Bart resolves the situation by taunting some beavers into chomping down a nearby tree, which Clara then climbs to safety. Just before the Simpsons begin making their way back to Springfield, Lisa comes clean to Luke about what happened to Clara, which makes him so disgusted that he no longer wants anything to do with Lisa. As the family approaches Springfield, they turn on the radio and find out that
Moe Szyslak has a new novelty song of his own, also produced by David Byrne after Moe hatched a
Misery-inspired plot to kidnap him earlier in the episode. Not wanting to go through the same annoyance all over again, they turn the car around and spend another week at the ranch. ==Production==