The Squirt and the Whale/References

Cultural references

 * The episode title is a reference to the 2005 film .
 * In the film , a pod of whales wash up on shore.
 * There are two stands in the energy exhibition the family visits.
 * Bart and Lisa play a Zii, which is the Simpsons version of a.
 * While Bart is spinning the turbine manually (due to no wind), Lisa is watching  She says that Dr. House is about to make his third incorrect diagnosis before saving the patient.
 * When Homer writes down his idea for a movie about a whale stuck in prison, he calls it Cool Hand Fluke, punning the prison drama film .
 * The visual of Lisa discovering that Bluella is dead is based on the 1982 British animated short film.
 * Chief Wiggum and the police attempt to dispose of the dead blue whale by blowing it up. The explosion scatters chunks of blubber all over the place—hitting people and cars, and making a big mess, but not having much effect on the whale. This is a reference to the "" incident of 1970, which occurred in Florence, Oregon. The Oregon Highway Division tried to blow up a dead beached sperm whale and achieved results smilar to Wiggum's.
 * The activists on the "Sea Huggers" ship may be a parody of the members of the, several of whom appear in the television series . Ironically, in Whale Wars, the activists are attempting to defend the whales, while the activists aboard the "Sea Huggers" ship are defending sharks which are trying to eat whales.
 * 's weight gains between each ' movie are referenced and parodied when Comic Book Guy notes his corset is progressively failing to contain his girth, like Kirk from Star Trek TOS,1,2,3,4,5,6, and Generations; and from '.
 * The film Tic–Tac–Toe: X v. O is based on the "" game.
 * The chalkboard gag is a reference to the South Park episode, "", which caused controversy after censored a depiction of the Muslim prophet  in the episode. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone receiving death threats from the radical Revolution Muslim regarding it.
 * The song heard at the end and over the closing credits is , written and sung by.

Trivia

 * The men airlifting Bluella to safety in Lisa's dream are wearing T-shirts that read WHALES written as an acronym: We Helped Airlift Lisa's Enormous Soulmate.