After spending the past week fending off charges he thinks 47 per cent of Americans are lazy, government-dependent oafs, Mitt Romney has won over a famous, albeit fictitious, member of the demographic who describes himself as a "40-year-old white guy who didn't go to college and gets all his news from monitors at gas stations."

Homer Simpson is voting for Mitt.

In the latest episode of The Simpsons  airing the Sunday after next, Homer decides to cast his ballot for the Republican candidate - but only after a deep struggle with the candidates' positions on the issues.

"Barack Obama? I don't know," Homer tells himself at the voting booth. "I've already got one wife telling me to eat healthy. And, plus, he promised me death panels and grandpa is still alive.

"Mitt Romney? I hear he wears magic underpants. I expect the leader of the free world to go commando. Plus, his horse totally choked at the Olympics. On the other hand, he did invent Obamacare."

After Homer votes, the ballot machine allows him to see Romney's tax returns (which include a "deduction for a personality implant" and reveal "the government paid HIM taxes for five years") before outsourcing Homer via suction tube to an American flag factory in China - where, Homer quips, "At least I've got a steady job."

That's until Homer's earnest-evangelical neighbourino Ned Flanders shows up.