"El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Our Homer)", () also known simply as "The Mysterious Voyage of Our Homer", is the ninth episode of the eighth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on January 5, 1997. In the episode, Homer eats several hot chili peppers and hallucinates, causing him to go on a mysterious voyage. Following this, he questions his relationship with Marge and goes on a journey to find his soulmate.
This episode was written by Ken Keeler and directed by Jim Reardon. The episode explores themes of marriage, community, and alcohol use. Homer's voyage features surreal animation to depict the elaborate hallucination. The episode guest stars Johnny Cash as the "Space Coyote". Meyer had wanted to have an episode featuring a mystical voyage that was not induced by drugs and so he decided to use "really hot" chili peppers instead. Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein eventually recovered the story and decided to use it for the eighth season. The coyote was intentionally drawn in a boxier way so that it looked "other-worldly" and unlike the other characters. During Homer's voyage, the clouds in one shot are live-action footage and 3D computer graphics was used for the giant butterfly. Cash was offered the role, which he accepted. Groening described Cash's appearance as "one of the greatest coups the show has ever had".
The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Gary Russell and Gareth Roberts, said: "Homer's chili-induced trip is brilliant, complete with the surreal tortoise and Indian spirit guide." and in his book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner named the episode as being one of his five favorites, although he found the ending too sentimental. In 2019, Time ranked the episode seventh in its list of 10 best Simpsons episodes picked by Simpsons experts.
In 2011, Keith Plocek of LA Weeklys Squid Ink blog listed "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)" as the best episode of the show with a food theme.
IGN ranked Johnny Cash's performance as the 14th-best guest appearance in the show's history. Cash also appeared on AOL's list of their 25 favorite The Simpsons guest stars, and on The Times Simon Crerar's list of the 33 funniest cameos in the history of the show. Andrew Martin of Prefix Mag named Cash his third-favorite musical guest on The Simpsons out of a list of ten.
Fred Topel of Crave Online named it the best episode of the entire series.
In The A.V. Club, Oliver Sava writes that "The spirit quest sequence is one of animator David Silverman's finest moments on the show." He also praises Cash's performance: "He's the perfect casting choice for Homer's spirit guide, with a deep, commanding voice that fully captures the immense gravity of the character's words. When you have Johnny Cash saying something, it sounds important, and that natural authority makes his humorous lines even funnier." Of the story, Sava writes: "Because this kind of thing has happened so many times in the past, the viewer can sympathize with Marge's feelings, but we've also seen the love between the spouses in their best moments, so we want them to find their way back to each other. And they do, because this is a love that is truly written in the stars."
In other media
The episode was later adapted for the Simpsons Level Pack in Traveller's Tales' 2015 video game Lego Dimensions as the exclusive level for Homer Simpson, reusing audio from the episode for Cash as the Space Coyote and series lead Dan Castellaneta as Homer.
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