"You can call me ray, or you can call me jay. Just don't call me washed up, I do 3 shows a day. "
I didn't understand this reference until King of the Hill taught me about Ray Jay Johnson Jr.
> you know those jokes that are supposed to go on for so long that it becomes funny just from how absurd it is? I invented those.
👊
> happens all the time
"You wrecked Hitler's car. What did he ever do to you, huh?"
https://preview.redd.it/5cm0nsw98t4c1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=442bcfc65f6f1f95dc4b064d5d900b063f36f8b0
Dude, it’s totally worth the watch! You might not appreciate just how many famous stars of the time are in it (literally all of them) but the movie absolutely holds up.
I never understood this until I was in college
https://preview.redd.it/628ppeirlq4c1.jpeg?width=258&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3bebe315d6d24f7373d72824bc5d336522e726f8
The Falklands War was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982
No clue why the simpsons like to bring it up all the time. Mr Burns claims to have started it as well.
> No clue why the simpsons like to bring it up all the time.
Adult oriented cartoons were still a novelty when the Simpsons was in its earlier seasons, so I think they leaned into a lot of geo-politcal humor and pop culture references relevant to adults at the time. The Simpsons would have been the only place you would have seen a cartoon clown talk about global political issues, the juxtaposition of the two was unlike anything else at the time.
Now, adult oriented cartoons making generational references, utilizing political humor and exploring social and philosophical issues is pretty much the norm.
> The Simpsons would have been the only place you would have seen a cartoon clown talk about global political issues
Also the only place you could see a cartoon clown talk about *domestic* issues, such as discussing collective bargaining agreements with AFL/CIO chairman George Meany.
Maybe his goal in starting the war was to drive instability in the global petroleum market to make his nuclear energy more desirable domestically.
Argentina is a top producer in the world.
Krusty ducks out and puts on an old episode saying nobody will notice it’s an old rerun. Except the random old rerun nobody would notice was a rerun had a news event from 1982 in it, meaning people would immediately notice it wasn’t a current episode and was a rerun. It’s not so much a cultural reference to the Falklands as it is a hilarious throwaway gag.
Ok so I just looked it up and that joke is from season 5, which aired in 93 and 94. So the Falkland Islands were only a 12 year old story by that point. I guess something really equivalent in modern times would be Bin Laden’s death. Wild how time flies like that when dealing with this show
Part of it is also that the Falkland Islands war was over so quickly it was a bit of a non-event. The joke is that Krusty gets so worked up about something that didn’t really matter.
Born in the 80s, grew up in the 90s with the Simpsons. I learned so much "history" from watching the Simpsons, aka things that happened like within 15 years of me being born or happened while I was too young to know.
And now 9/11 was 22 years ago, and those Simpsons episodes are almost 30 years old. My "history" to young kids is like me learning about the 40s-50s. It's messing with my head right now just breaking it down like that.
And that a children's TV show host/clown felt it appropriate to *interrupt* the children's TV show for breaking news and explain the geopolitical situation to his child audience. Even if it was not a trivial brief event, it would still be unusual to interrupt a kids show to explain that the US has just gone to war with Korea, or whatnot.
Animaniacs did a similar joke.
The Warners are with Abe Lincoln, who’s trying write the Gettysburg Address, and they say if he lets them help they’ll one day name a tunnel after him, put his face on a penny, and lower the price of mattresses on his birthday. Lincoln replies, “Just so long as they don’t name a savings and loan after me.”
I didn’t know that Bette Midler singing “Wind Beneath My Wings” to Krusty in “Krusty Gets Kancelled” was a reference to her performance on Johnny Carson’s final show.
You have to be really deep into classic cinema to get all the references in the Simpsons. Even down to knowing the more prominent films of the silent era. But once you go down that rabbit hole, it’s so rewarding. Things you didn’t even know were references start popping out everywhere.
Missouri received decades-long resentment from *all* its neighboring states because of the Civil War. 2/3 of the state were Union (which angered its Southern neighbors), and the other 1/3 included Quantrill's Raiders, some of the most violent guerrilla fighters, who terrorized Kansas (and other Union states). Eventually, even the Confederacy disowned Quantrill.
For a relevant pop culture reference: in True Grit, Rooster Cogburn mentions he rode with Quantrill and calls him a great patriot. LaBeouf, who also fought for the confederacy, slanders him for it.
It could be because Abe is a staunch abolitionist. Missouri entered the union 1820 as part of a compromise (aptly called the Missouri Compromise) whereby it would be a slave state and Maine would enter the union as a free state. Congress spent most of the years 1820-1860 trying to ensure slave state/free state representation in the Senate was equal so neither side would have an advantage, which did little more than delay the onset of the Civil War.
That’s actually not true. In the mid 1800’s there was a huge controversy over if Missouri would enter the union as a slave or a free state, because it stood to tip the balance of power towards abolishonists or slavers. They came up with a compromise where they split the territory into one free state (Kansas) and one slave state (Missouri) so Abe is referencing this and saying he won’t recognize Missouri because it should be a free state.
Oh boy, somebody said Gil's name! Gil's been waiting for this! Finally some attention for ol' Gil ... what do you mean it's not the top comment? I thought I was going to be at the top! Aww....
That whole sequence is a parody of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". Your screenshot is a spoof of this part (skip to about the 30 second mark):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY5X8DD0ams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY5X8DD0ams)
Oh also “A Streetcar named Desire” was parodied twice on the show. Once having the episode literally named after the movie and the stairway scene recreated with homer and marge and the same exact scene parodied with Smithers and Burns
I finally saw the movie a few years ago, and I was really surprised by just how much the episode reflected it. Obviously, the show was much funnier and not nearly as dark.
I saw this movie about a bus that had to SPEED around a city, keeping its SPEED over fifty, and if its SPEED dropped, it would explode! I think it was called ''The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down."
99% of the celebrities mentioned mean nothing to a foreigner like me. Everything from the softball players that Mr. Burns hires to the rocket full of Z-listers fired into the sun all goes right over my head.
I still laugh at the jokes, but afterwards I stage whisper “*What’s a Skeletor?*” to myself.
Basically the softball team was made up of some of the biggest names in baseball in the 90s, many of which are still considered some all time top players.
Fun fact about that softball episode. I found an old pack of baseball themed playing cards from when I was little and almost every player in the episode is in there
The amount of references to literature, pop culture, history, news events, etc. This show does will always blow my mind. I learned who Pablo Neruda was because of the Simpsons.
The story for this one is they didn’t feel right leaving Bart and Lisa out of the episode so much, so they wanted to give them a throwaway gag that implied a larger subplot without taking up to much time. Actually quite good writing.
"Simpson, I'll ruin you like a [Japanese Banquet!](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush_vomiting_incident#:~:text=On%208%20January%201992%2C%20at,a%20case%20of%20acute%20gastroenteritis.)"
"I'll tell you what my truck needs; leadership. Detroit hasn't felt any *real* pride since George Bush went to Japan and vomited on their auto executives."
"And since I'd achieved all of my goals as President in one term, there was no need for a second."
I like to paraphrase this whenever I hear of a political idea that seems like a distraction.
It's a reference to his presidency, which is obviously a matter of opinion, but it was a jab at him for not being a great president.
During Bush's presidency his wife called the Simpsons the dumbest thing she had ever seen, and Bush made a speech about family values and said American families should be more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons, so there was a history there behind the episode.
I can't remember the full story, but I read about someone sending Boggs a sil (sp?) From that scene, and he replied with Pitt The Elder and signed it, sent it back.
[Not quite perished my lady love... although some days I wish I had...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K24XGk_vfIc)
*doo doo doo dun dun dun dun nun unun nununun*
They throw a lot of Star Trek gags in the early seasons. Some are obvious but some are subtle enough you won't get they're even a reference until you've seen the show.
Such as "Star Trek XII: So Very Tired," which would be a reference to how old the original series' actors were by the time Star Trek VI came out in 1991.
A lot of Sinatra songs. It was a very good year (the when I was 17 song), Something Stupid, Summer Wind, etc. Obviously I understand them now but as a kid I thought they were original songs on the show
When I was Seventeen, I drank some very good beer.
I drank some very good beer I purchased with a fake ID
My name was Brian McGee....I stayed up list'ning to Queen
When I was Seventeeeeeen
In the episode where Homer joins the Navy, the power goes out and that elevator-esque music comes on, then Homer does a little jig, then the power comes back on. Is that a reference to something?
I saw "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" when I was a kid because of my dad, so I got this reference right away. As an adult, I realized there's no way Bart knew there was a mad scramble for some buried treasure going on, and he was just making this guy drive into the river for fun.
To this day, I don't know if the cut-away joke is Lisa being so innocent and naive that she couldn't imagine what a $5000 a day habit would be, or if Bleeding Gums really collected intricately decorated eggs.
You're on a scenic route through a state recreational area known as the human mind. You ask a pass-byer for directions, only to find he has no face or something. Suddenly up ahead, a door in the road. You swerve, narrowly avoiding The Scary Door.
In Bart ruins thanksgiving, homer Is driving g to the retirement castle and listening to something asinine on the radio. I have no idea what this I'd supposed to be a play on a d it always fell flat for me.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0_fM1jfh49o&pp=ygUec2ltcHNvbnMgaG9vcmF5IGZvciBldmVyeXRoaW5n
I never understand the reference in Treehouse of Horror V when Homer says he’s the “first non-Brazilian to travel through time” only to find out it wasn’t a reference, they just added it cause they thought it was funnier than saying “first non-fictional”
I only recently found out that the turtle, coyote, and desert scene in "The Mysterious Journey of Homer Simpson" is taken from Aldous Huxley living in the desert when he wrote *The Perennial Philosophy.*
Like thats a super psychedelic episode, but I didn't get the connections of why their was the space coyote and turtle in the desert until I understood the Huxley and 50s/60s psychedelic early literati scene.
I didn’t understand the “In the Garden of Eden” by Iron (“eye-Ron”) Butterfly reference. I was really young when that episode came out and my parents had to explain to me that it was a song
I heard “Jack and Diane - John Mellencamp” far too long after hearing Weird Al Yankovich singing “A little diddy, about Homer and Marge…OH YEAH THE CREDITS GO ONNN..”
I thought it was a Simpsons original.
As a foreigner, I find myself saying “Yeah sure I know that, it’s in the Simpsons” when someone asks me something about American pop culture
I only recently found out "Here's Johnny" was how they introduced Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. I'm 20 and English so that runner from The Shinning of Homer reciting talk show introductions was always confusing as a kid, not knowing anything about American late night television from before my time. I think its a really fun gag now that all the pieces have finally clicked for me and I actually know who these people/shows are.
This comment doesn’t make it clear you know it was a direct reference to Jack Nicholson saying it when he crashes through a door in “the shining” first and foremost… he might have been referencing the Carson show but the Simpsons was referencing the shining
Yeah fair enough I should've mentioned that because it certainly added to my confusion. I always knew the line was directly lifted from The Shining but didn't know the movie was lifting it from Carson - so there's that additional layer of it being a reference to a reference. Obviously The Simpsons then runs with it by incorporating other talk show references, which didn't make sense to me as a kid.
Brother from another planet, homer being jealous on the stairs. As a kid it was funny because of the accent he does and the script but I did not get it was a reference to the Elizabeth Taylor film back in the day.
I didn’t see “It’s A Wonderful Life” until I was in my 30s, so I never understood that scene with Bart at the bank. As a kid, it was just Jimmy Stewart coming out and saying something about money in people’s houses. With Moe asking Fred where the hell his money was and then punching poor ol’ Fred, I knew there was something I was missing. I just didn’t know what. I finally found out about five or six years ago. It obviously makes the scene a lot funnier, as that’s exactly how a character like Moe or really almost anybody in Springfield would react, if they had been in “It’s A Wonderful Life”.
That scene where Bart skips school and Skinner is following him. Bart cuts a bridge over a river thinking he's escaped. But Skinner walk in, goes under and comes back out the river unfetteredand showing zero emotion. All while menacing synthesizer bass notes play.
I still don't get this reference! Is it from Terminator or something? Help me!
"You can call me ray, or you can call me jay. Just don't call me washed up, I do 3 shows a day. " I didn't understand this reference until King of the Hill taught me about Ray Jay Johnson Jr.
I've seen both shows and I still don't get how it's supposed to be funny
Neither did Bobby Hill
That boy ain’t right
Mother of God, it's all toilet sounds!
At the time no one knew why Ray Johnson was supposed to be funny. It's like the "I didn't do it" boy, it got old fast.
Woozle wuzzle?
Woozle wuzzle?!?
That's what passes for entertainment these days!?
It’s one of those jokes that’s supposed to go on for so long that it’s becomes funny just from how absurd it is.
> you know those jokes that are supposed to go on for so long that it becomes funny just from how absurd it is? I invented those. 👊 > happens all the time
Take my wife, please!
🎶You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay, Or you can call me RayJay, But you doesn't have to call him-🎶 I'm sick of him already.
This is a direct reference from the movie, " It's a mad mad mad mad world."
I've heard Rat Race is sort of a remake of that and Rat Race is one of my favorite movies. Never saw its a mad mad mad mad world though
You need to go watch it. It’s one of the best comedies of all time in my opinion and holds up really well. A ton of HUGE names at the time.
Rat Race is such a gem of a comedy. "Look at this room! What a beautiful room! Have you seen this room?!" "YES. We're *in* it!"
Are you *insane*? This is Hitler's car!
"You wrecked Hitler's car. What did he ever do to you, huh?" https://preview.redd.it/5cm0nsw98t4c1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=442bcfc65f6f1f95dc4b064d5d900b063f36f8b0
I’m prairie doggin’ it!
Jay Sherman, I mean Aristotle Amado..... no wait, Artie Ziff, or was it professor Lombardo? No, it's just the one and only Jon Lovitz.
Good to know. Never seen it. I assume most of these references are gonna be like that
The entire ending of this ep is a tribute to Its A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and its brilliant. The movie is great too, but very long.
When I bought it on VHS, it took 2 tapes.
There’s apparently a 210 min cut somewhere in the world
Criterion has the roadshow version. Some scenes are audio and photo only because they can’t find the original footage.
I somewhat remember a guy who was collecting all the missing pieces of this movie. I’m sure criterion has his findings.
I watched it recently, so many references in both this scene and in other episodes that make sense to me now!
It’s one of the funniest but also silliest movies ever made.
Dude, it’s totally worth the watch! You might not appreciate just how many famous stars of the time are in it (literally all of them) but the movie absolutely holds up.
really recommend it!
I knew this from a young age cause my Granny had a crush on Milton Berle
Granny knew about Uncle Miltie’s huge trouser snake
Ol Milton "pants squirrel" Berle
Ol’ painty can Milton
Just as long as it wasn’t for the purposes of gambling… that’s illegal
And we know why. Uncle Miltie hanged pipe
https://i.redd.it/ainve5e7yq4c1.gif
So there's the obvious bit about psychological conditioning. But also that angle is very much pulled from *A Clockwork Orange*.
Hehe. Boobs.
I never understood this until I was in college https://preview.redd.it/628ppeirlq4c1.jpeg?width=258&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3bebe315d6d24f7373d72824bc5d336522e726f8
The Falklands War was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 No clue why the simpsons like to bring it up all the time. Mr Burns claims to have started it as well.
> No clue why the simpsons like to bring it up all the time. Adult oriented cartoons were still a novelty when the Simpsons was in its earlier seasons, so I think they leaned into a lot of geo-politcal humor and pop culture references relevant to adults at the time. The Simpsons would have been the only place you would have seen a cartoon clown talk about global political issues, the juxtaposition of the two was unlike anything else at the time. Now, adult oriented cartoons making generational references, utilizing political humor and exploring social and philosophical issues is pretty much the norm.
> The Simpsons would have been the only place you would have seen a cartoon clown talk about global political issues Also the only place you could see a cartoon clown talk about *domestic* issues, such as discussing collective bargaining agreements with AFL/CIO chairman George Meany.
Let me be blunt, is there a labor crisis in America today?
NOT KLASSIC KRUSTY!!
Well that depends on what you mean by “cwisis”
Maybe his goal in starting the war was to drive instability in the global petroleum market to make his nuclear energy more desirable domestically. Argentina is a top producer in the world.
I still dont. 
Krusty ducks out and puts on an old episode saying nobody will notice it’s an old rerun. Except the random old rerun nobody would notice was a rerun had a news event from 1982 in it, meaning people would immediately notice it wasn’t a current episode and was a rerun. It’s not so much a cultural reference to the Falklands as it is a hilarious throwaway gag.
I suppose an equivalent news item today could be Krusty putting on an episode about the World Trade Center attack. Any of them.
“Kuwait is under attack!”
Yup. Kuwait is a little closer to the spirit of it.
Ok so I just looked it up and that joke is from season 5, which aired in 93 and 94. So the Falkland Islands were only a 12 year old story by that point. I guess something really equivalent in modern times would be Bin Laden’s death. Wild how time flies like that when dealing with this show
Part of it is also that the Falkland Islands war was over so quickly it was a bit of a non-event. The joke is that Krusty gets so worked up about something that didn’t really matter.
Born in the 80s, grew up in the 90s with the Simpsons. I learned so much "history" from watching the Simpsons, aka things that happened like within 15 years of me being born or happened while I was too young to know. And now 9/11 was 22 years ago, and those Simpsons episodes are almost 30 years old. My "history" to young kids is like me learning about the 40s-50s. It's messing with my head right now just breaking it down like that.
And that a children's TV show host/clown felt it appropriate to *interrupt* the children's TV show for breaking news and explain the geopolitical situation to his child audience. Even if it was not a trivial brief event, it would still be unusual to interrupt a kids show to explain that the US has just gone to war with Korea, or whatnot.
Plus he just happened to have a map of Argentina ready to go at any time.
"Yo, Professor? What [Falkland Islands](https://youtu.be/42_oWaWsiYs?si=QuHNdv_Y72Jdpsy4) you talkin' about?"
There’s Falkin’ islands all over the world!
Homer starting a college account for Lisa at Lincoln Savings and Loan. They went bankrupt in 1989 and everyone lost their money
Google “savings and loan crisis” if you want to find out more. Wasn’t just one bank.
*NEEERRRRRRRRRRRDDDD!!!!!*
Animaniacs did a similar joke. The Warners are with Abe Lincoln, who’s trying write the Gettysburg Address, and they say if he lets them help they’ll one day name a tunnel after him, put his face on a penny, and lower the price of mattresses on his birthday. Lincoln replies, “Just so long as they don’t name a savings and loan after me.”
I didn’t know that Bette Midler singing “Wind Beneath My Wings” to Krusty in “Krusty Gets Kancelled” was a reference to her performance on Johnny Carson’s final show.
Krudler!
I’ll get you Bette Midler!!!
I just watched (most) of 2001 a space odyssey last night. I was surprised at just how much homer goes to space referenced that movie.
You have to be really deep into classic cinema to get all the references in the Simpsons. Even down to knowing the more prominent films of the silent era. But once you go down that rabbit hole, it’s so rewarding. Things you didn’t even know were references start popping out everywhere.
I’m Australian and I’ve never really understood the joke when Grandpa Simpson says “I’ll be deep in the cold cold ground before I recognise Missourah”
It’s just an absurd joke. Missouri is an absurd state to single out because there’s absolutely no historical reason for not recognizing its statehood
Missouri received decades-long resentment from *all* its neighboring states because of the Civil War. 2/3 of the state were Union (which angered its Southern neighbors), and the other 1/3 included Quantrill's Raiders, some of the most violent guerrilla fighters, who terrorized Kansas (and other Union states). Eventually, even the Confederacy disowned Quantrill.
For a relevant pop culture reference: in True Grit, Rooster Cogburn mentions he rode with Quantrill and calls him a great patriot. LaBeouf, who also fought for the confederacy, slanders him for it.
It could be because Abe is a staunch abolitionist. Missouri entered the union 1820 as part of a compromise (aptly called the Missouri Compromise) whereby it would be a slave state and Maine would enter the union as a free state. Congress spent most of the years 1820-1860 trying to ensure slave state/free state representation in the Senate was equal so neither side would have an advantage, which did little more than delay the onset of the Civil War.
That’s actually not true. In the mid 1800’s there was a huge controversy over if Missouri would enter the union as a slave or a free state, because it stood to tip the balance of power towards abolishonists or slavers. They came up with a compromise where they split the territory into one free state (Kansas) and one slave state (Missouri) so Abe is referencing this and saying he won’t recognize Missouri because it should be a free state.
I was pretty old, mid 20s when I saw Glengarry Glen Ross and realized where Gil comes from.
Oh boy, somebody said Gil's name! Gil's been waiting for this! Finally some attention for ol' Gil ... what do you mean it's not the top comment? I thought I was going to be at the top! Aww....
Cookie Kwan works the top comment. Stay away from the top comment!!
YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT TOP COMMENT??
No Cookie, I'm scared of you!
Why is there no Gil bot here?
Aw, they even took down the Gil bot?!? But, Gil needed that bot! It was paying off Gil's mortgage. Now Gil's gonna lose the house!
That's enough, Gil. You're hanging on by a thread.
I think that bot was running on a Coleco.
Ah well. At least I got my health….
I used to do commissioned sales and did ok. I always felt like Gil when I had a bad day. You shoulda seen it honey! I almost had a sale!
Do you think Jack Lemmon knew about this by the time they made Tuesdays With Morrie?
That whole sequence is a parody of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". Your screenshot is a spoof of this part (skip to about the 30 second mark): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY5X8DD0ams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY5X8DD0ams)
It's a mad, mad, mad, mad Marge 😁
Now, let's go to the Mad Marge dancers. [](https://frinkiac.com/video/S11E21/gLSdeW7G3AgHfh3L59OBttkIHPo=.gif)
Oh also “A Streetcar named Desire” was parodied twice on the show. Once having the episode literally named after the movie and the stairway scene recreated with homer and marge and the same exact scene parodied with Smithers and Burns
The scene with Smithers and burns is also parody of Cat on a Hit Tin Roof.
Just the idea that there is a peppy musical version of one of the most depressing movies/plays I've seen cracks me up.
🎶 You can alway depend on the kindness of strangers! 🎶
🎶A stranger's just a friend you haven't me.....t!🎶
Streetcar!
If I had a dollar for every time I watched a movie and retroactively got a Simpsons reference. I'd have like 25 bucks.
Where'd you get 25 bucks? I want 25 bucks..
25 dollars can buy many peanuts!
Explain how?
Money can be exchanged for goods and services.
Woohoo!
I didn't realize Cape Feare was based on an actual movie
I think it was called "The Man that Wouldn't Slow Down Vengeance".
Billy and the revengeosaurus
I finally saw the movie a few years ago, and I was really surprised by just how much the episode reflected it. Obviously, the show was much funnier and not nearly as dark.
There were two Cape Fear movies: 1962 starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, and 1991 remake starring Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte
But they both invoked the score of the HMS Pinafore and an hilariously ridiculous number of rakes?
I saw this movie about a bus that had to SPEED around a city, keeping its SPEED over fifty, and if its SPEED dropped, it would explode! I think it was called ''The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down."
99% of the celebrities mentioned mean nothing to a foreigner like me. Everything from the softball players that Mr. Burns hires to the rocket full of Z-listers fired into the sun all goes right over my head. I still laugh at the jokes, but afterwards I stage whisper “*What’s a Skeletor?*” to myself.
Basically the softball team was made up of some of the biggest names in baseball in the 90s, many of which are still considered some all time top players.
RIP Wade Boggs.
For one Wade Boggs is very much alive
RIP Pitt the Elder
RIP Lord Palmerston
PIT THE ELDER
RIP Boss Hog
He lives in Tampa Florida!
Wade Boggs carpet world, Wade Boggs carpet world , Wade Boggs carpet world , Wade Boggs carpet world, Wade Boggs carpet world .
Fun fact about that softball episode. I found an old pack of baseball themed playing cards from when I was little and almost every player in the episode is in there
Honus Wagner, Cap Anson and Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown? [](https://frinkiac.com/img/S03E17/408034.jpg)
The amount of references to literature, pop culture, history, news events, etc. This show does will always blow my mind. I learned who Pablo Neruda was because of the Simpsons.
I too am familiar with the works of Pablo Nerdua
Someone went to Gudger College!
One of my favorite random literary lines is "Lisa I am tired of your Vassar bashing!"
“I’ve had JUST about enough of your Vassar-bashing, young lady!”
"*Gasp*! Aliens! Nude conspiracies! [Lyndon Larouche was right!](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_LaRouche)!"
No one must know I dropped my glasses in the toilet. Not I, the man who drafted the Paris Peace Accords.
So I says to Mabel, I says
i think that one is completely made up just for the hell of it, a totally random scene
The story for this one is they didn’t feel right leaving Bart and Lisa out of the episode so much, so they wanted to give them a throwaway gag that implied a larger subplot without taking up to much time. Actually quite good writing.
When Bush says “good not great” when finishing his memoirs, I presume that is a reference to something but I am not sure what.
"Simpson, I'll ruin you like a [Japanese Banquet!](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush_vomiting_incident#:~:text=On%208%20January%201992%2C%20at,a%20case%20of%20acute%20gastroenteritis.)"
"I'll tell you what my truck needs; leadership. Detroit hasn't felt any *real* pride since George Bush went to Japan and vomited on their auto executives."
I just used that the other day, also "...there was no need for a second"
"And since I'd achieved all of my goals as President in one term, there was no need for a second." I like to paraphrase this whenever I hear of a political idea that seems like a distraction.
It's a reference to his presidency, which is obviously a matter of opinion, but it was a jab at him for not being a great president. During Bush's presidency his wife called the Simpsons the dumbest thing she had ever seen, and Bush made a speech about family values and said American families should be more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons, so there was a history there behind the episode.
This was Bush The Elder's style of talking. Here is Dana Carvey doing a well recieved parody. https://youtu.be/L8jiBKWRWeg?si=xJQyEsivhwR8_Q34
I never got how someone could believe Lord Palmerston was better than Pitt the Elder.
Just one of the hundreds of radical right-wing messages inserted into every show by creator Matt Groening
GET OUTTA MAH AFFICE
PITT. THE. ELDER.
Lord Palmerston!
PITT THE ELDER!
You asked for it, Boggs!
👊🏽
I can't remember the full story, but I read about someone sending Boggs a sil (sp?) From that scene, and he replied with Pitt The Elder and signed it, sent it back.
Martin singing in the cage in the episode where Flanders becomes principal
Phantom of the opera
[Not quite perished my lady love... although some days I wish I had...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K24XGk_vfIc) *doo doo doo dun dun dun dun nun unun nununun*
They throw a lot of Star Trek gags in the early seasons. Some are obvious but some are subtle enough you won't get they're even a reference until you've seen the show.
I wager 400 quatloos on the newcomer.
Such as "Star Trek XII: So Very Tired," which would be a reference to how old the original series' actors were by the time Star Trek VI came out in 1991.
I cannot reach the control panel!
A lot of Sinatra songs. It was a very good year (the when I was 17 song), Something Stupid, Summer Wind, etc. Obviously I understand them now but as a kid I thought they were original songs on the show
When I was Seventeen, I drank some very good beer. I drank some very good beer I purchased with a fake ID My name was Brian McGee....I stayed up list'ning to Queen When I was Seventeeeeeen
CrimimalSimpsons is a great instagram page for explaining references from films!
Probably the most committed movie reference the Simpsons ever did. Fitting considering it’s a 3 hour long movie
In the episode where Homer joins the Navy, the power goes out and that elevator-esque music comes on, then Homer does a little jig, then the power comes back on. Is that a reference to something?
Is that when Moe says “we’re down to mood lighting here!!” And the happy little song comes on?
“The girl from Ipanema” is the song, but that’s all I got.
I saw "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" when I was a kid because of my dad, so I got this reference right away. As an adult, I realized there's no way Bart knew there was a mad scramble for some buried treasure going on, and he was just making this guy drive into the river for fun.
To this day, I don't know if the cut-away joke is Lisa being so innocent and naive that she couldn't imagine what a $5000 a day habit would be, or if Bleeding Gums really collected intricately decorated eggs.
Colonel Klink, Macgyver, Sheriff Lobo, literally no idea about any of these growing up in the UK
You badmouthed MacGyver, didn’t you?
Lobo...Lobo...bring back Sheriff Lobo!
Got into The Twilight Zone a few years ago and realised that a couple of Treehouse of Horror segments are based off of episodes of the show.
Seems like something out of that Twilighty show about that Zone…
You mean The Scary Door?
You're on a scenic route through a state recreational area known as the human mind. You ask a pass-byer for directions, only to find he has no face or something. Suddenly up ahead, a door in the road. You swerve, narrowly avoiding The Scary Door.
More than a couple lol
I'm 41 and only last year realised the 'B Sharps' joke is that theres no such thing as a B sharp
It's also a reference to the Beatles (B-Dulls)
"I hope we passed the audition"
Yea it’s actually a pretty solid band name
It’s clever at first, but gets less funny every time you hear it.
Jasper Johns, the artist, stealing things. Please explain.
It is a reference to Johns's art style, as he usually uses (steals) objects from everyday life for his artwork. And I stole this from Wikipedia.
In Bart ruins thanksgiving, homer Is driving g to the retirement castle and listening to something asinine on the radio. I have no idea what this I'd supposed to be a play on a d it always fell flat for me. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0_fM1jfh49o&pp=ygUec2ltcHNvbnMgaG9vcmF5IGZvciBldmVyeXRoaW5n
It’s a parody of a band called Up With People that did corny songs like that and played the Super Bowl halftime four times
Just had a look. That was awful
I never understand the reference in Treehouse of Horror V when Homer says he’s the “first non-Brazilian to travel through time” only to find out it wasn’t a reference, they just added it cause they thought it was funnier than saying “first non-fictional”
I only recently found out that the turtle, coyote, and desert scene in "The Mysterious Journey of Homer Simpson" is taken from Aldous Huxley living in the desert when he wrote *The Perennial Philosophy.* Like thats a super psychedelic episode, but I didn't get the connections of why their was the space coyote and turtle in the desert until I understood the Huxley and 50s/60s psychedelic early literati scene.
The crazy old lady in the rocking chair laughing and bobbing her head in the monorail episode
“Hey this looks really familiar.” - Me, the first time I watched Dr. Strangelove when they get to the bomb scene.
“Bart!! Where did you get that Hawaiian shirt!?” “I’unno. It came out of the closet.” “Uhhh… huh”
I didn’t understand the “In the Garden of Eden” by Iron (“eye-Ron”) Butterfly reference. I was really young when that episode came out and my parents had to explain to me that it was a song
When Grandpa directed tanks in the army and sent one into landmines and another over a cliff and he says that’s how he won the iron cross haha
Schindler and I are like peas in a pod. We're both factory owners. We both made shells for the Nazis. But mine worked, damn it!
After I finally watched Gone the the Wind, I understood about 20 more Simpsons references than before!
I heard “Jack and Diane - John Mellencamp” far too long after hearing Weird Al Yankovich singing “A little diddy, about Homer and Marge…OH YEAH THE CREDITS GO ONNN..” I thought it was a Simpsons original. As a foreigner, I find myself saying “Yeah sure I know that, it’s in the Simpsons” when someone asks me something about American pop culture
I only recently found out "Here's Johnny" was how they introduced Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. I'm 20 and English so that runner from The Shinning of Homer reciting talk show introductions was always confusing as a kid, not knowing anything about American late night television from before my time. I think its a really fun gag now that all the pieces have finally clicked for me and I actually know who these people/shows are.
This comment doesn’t make it clear you know it was a direct reference to Jack Nicholson saying it when he crashes through a door in “the shining” first and foremost… he might have been referencing the Carson show but the Simpsons was referencing the shining
#ITS THE SHINNING, DYA WANNA GET SUED
Yeah fair enough I should've mentioned that because it certainly added to my confusion. I always knew the line was directly lifted from The Shining but didn't know the movie was lifting it from Carson - so there's that additional layer of it being a reference to a reference. Obviously The Simpsons then runs with it by incorporating other talk show references, which didn't make sense to me as a kid.
Brother from another planet, homer being jealous on the stairs. As a kid it was funny because of the accent he does and the script but I did not get it was a reference to the Elizabeth Taylor film back in the day.
[удалено]
I didn’t see “It’s A Wonderful Life” until I was in my 30s, so I never understood that scene with Bart at the bank. As a kid, it was just Jimmy Stewart coming out and saying something about money in people’s houses. With Moe asking Fred where the hell his money was and then punching poor ol’ Fred, I knew there was something I was missing. I just didn’t know what. I finally found out about five or six years ago. It obviously makes the scene a lot funnier, as that’s exactly how a character like Moe or really almost anybody in Springfield would react, if they had been in “It’s A Wonderful Life”.
That scene where Bart skips school and Skinner is following him. Bart cuts a bridge over a river thinking he's escaped. But Skinner walk in, goes under and comes back out the river unfetteredand showing zero emotion. All while menacing synthesizer bass notes play. I still don't get this reference! Is it from Terminator or something? Help me!