View source for Gnaws/References

== Cultural references ==
=== ''{{ap|Jaws|film}}'' ===
*The film is punned in the title and parodied throughout the story.
*Various Springfieldians are cast in the roles of characters from the movie, including:
**[[Edna Krabappel]] as Chrissie Watkins (the girl who is attacked in the film's opening scene)
**[[Chief Wiggum]] as Police Chief Martin Brody
**[[Seymour Skinner]] as Alex Kintner (the boy who is attacked while floating on his inflatable raft)
**[[Agnes Skinner]] as Alex's mother
**[[Horatio McCallister]] (the Sea Captain) as Quint
**[[Mayor Quimby]] as Mayor Vaughan
**[[Martha Quimby]] as the mayor's wife
**[[Professor Frink]] as Matt Hooper
**[[Blinky]] as the shark
*The Sea Captain interrupts the [[Springfield]] town meeting and offers to kill Blinky very similarly to how Quint interrupts the Amity town meeting and offers to kill the shark.
*When Wiggum, Frink and the Sea Captain go hunting for Blinky, Wiggum says, "You're going to need a bigger boat", apparently so he and Frink can escape from the sight of the Captain sunbathing in a thong. Wiggum's line echoes "You're gonna need a bigger boat" (a classic line from the movie), which Brody says to Quint after he (Brody) gets a close look at the shark and realizes how big it is.
*Like Quint, the Sea Captain tells of having served on board the {{W2|USS Indianapolis|CA-35|USS ''Indianapolis''}}. However, unlike Quint (who was on board the ''Indianapolis'' for its final voyage and sinking), the Sea Captain was beaten by his shipmates in a "{{W|blanket party}}" and was put ashore for medical attention before that trip.
*When Wiggum shoots at the gas grill in the shark's mouth, he says "Smile, you son of a bitch!" echoing Brody's line at the end of the movie.
*The last panel of the story shows Wiggum and Frink paddling to shore with a shark in the water beneath them, ascending toward the surface and seemingly about to attack. This is a sight gag on the franchise's movie posters and merchandise, which often featured the shark in the "rising out of the water" pose.

=== Miscellaneous ===
*{{W|JDate}}: After [[Edna]] flees into the water to get away from [[Moe]], she says, "Worst. J-Date. Ever!"
*In exchange for killing Blinky, the Sea Captain demands, among other things, a {{W|Game Boy}}.
*When the townspeople bring the fish they have caught to the docks, [[Comic Book Guy]] is wearing an [[Aquaman]] costume.
*''[[Star Wars]]'':
**Professor Frink cuts open the "suspect" shark with a [[lightsaber]], as [[Han Solo]] does to a {{W|Tauntaun}} in ''[[Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back|The Empire Strikes Back]]''.
**Just before he makes the cut, Frink says, "I guess we're about to find out if they smell worse on the inside", referencing Han's line "And I thought they smelled bad on the outside!" after he cuts open the Tauntaun.
*After Blinky attacks [[Otto]], the song playing in Otto's headphones as his severed head sinks to the ocean floor is "{{W|Once Bitten, Twice Shy}}", originally recorded in 1975 by {{W2|Ian Hunter|singer}}. The song was later covered by the American hard rock group {{W|Great White}}.
*The Sea Captain's boat, the ''[[Orca II]]'', has "die harder" under the name, a reference to ''{{W|Die Hard 2}}'', which is sometimes subtitled "Die Harder".
*As Wiggum boards the ''Orca II'', a dockhand tells him he "packed like a fancy lady crossing the ocean", which could refer to either {{W|Lovey Howell|Mrs. Howell}} from ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'' or Rose in the 1997 ''[[Titanic]]'' movie.
**On board the ''Orca II'' is a {{W|life ring}} that reads "S.S. Titanic". In real life, however, the {{W|RMS Titanic|ship}}'s designation was RMS, for {{W|Royal Mail Ship}}.
*''[[MythBusters]]'': Professor Frink suggests putting something explosive into the fish's mouth and then shooting it with a gun, but then immediately dismisses the idea by saying that it won't work, "but it will look really cool". In the "''Jaws'' Special" episode (airdate July 17, 2005), ''MythBusters'' tested several ''Jaws''-related myths, including whether a scuba tank would explode when shot, as depicted in the movie. They concluded that it wouldn't, and added that they had learned that director [[Steven Spielberg]] had been aware of that fact, but wrote the scene that way anyway to make a more dramatic ending to the film.
*When Blinky bites the Sea Captain on the leg, the captain laughs and says that his legs are "as wooden as [[Matthew McConaughey]]'s acting".