Difference between revisions of "Four Great Women and a Manicure/References"

Revision as of 20:57, March 10, 2021

Cultural references

• The episode title is a reference to Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Queen Elizabeth I

• Walsingham sees Queen Elizabeth I (portrayed by Selma) in her nightclothes and exclaims, "Someone call Beowulf! Grendel got in again!", a reference to Beowulf.
• Queen Elizabeth's horse is named "Tea Biscuit", a pun on Seabiscuit.
• When Moe and the Queen see the Spanish Armada coming, they are standing under a banner that reads "Mission Accomplished". Moe comments, "It's probably a little too early to be standing under this", a reference to President George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech in 2003.
• The Protestant minister says that the "country turned Protestant for the sole reason that our fat, mean king could dump his faithful wife", referencing Henry VIII.

Snow White

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is parodied in the second segment. However, Snow White (portrayed by Lisa) is forced to rename all the dwarfs to satisfy the legal demands of the Blue-haired lawyer.
  • The songs the dwarfs sing, "Off to Work", "It's Time", and "Time to Say Goodbye", are parodies of "Heigh-Ho" from Snow White.
• When Snow White flees from the wicked queen's threat, she comes across a gingerbread house and Grandma's house (referencing the folk tales Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood) before she finds the dwarfs' house.
• Snow White complains about the dwarfs' beds being too hard and too soft, referencing Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Unlike Goldilocks, however, Snow White settles for the soft bed.
• Unlike in the Disney movie, where she dies by falling off a cliff, the way the Evil Queen dies in Lisa's retelling of Snow White is very reminiscent of Scar's death at the end of The Lion King, right down to the shot of her being killed by forest animals being shown in shadow very much like Scar when he is killed by hyenas.

Macbeth

• The people of Springfield star in a play of Macbeth, which is also parodied during the segment.
• Homer forgets his lines and starts reading from scripts concealed on his person, trying to find the right line. Instead of Macbeth, however, Homer ends up reading lines from Bye Bye Birdie and The Matrix Reloaded.
• When Marge says "Screw your courage to the sticking-place and we'll not fail.", a quote from Macbeth, Homer asks if it's a quote from X-Men 2.
• Homer says "No, dear. I'm a man, dear." in the voice of Droopy.
• The group of actors who Homer kills dance to the Conga line, with a Conga song playing.
  • Homer then sings "Killing Makes Me Hungry" to the Conga song.
• Ghost Marge tells Homer that he can take on other Shakespeare plays, including King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Richard III, Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, Henry V, and Titus Andronicus. She also holds a script of The Tempest.

The Fountainhead

• The classical music playing during the "Maggie Roark" segment is the Second Movement of Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony".
• Maggie's architectural creations include the following real-life buildings:
  • The Taj Mahal
  • The Beijing National Stadium, also known as "The Bird's Nest"
  • The Walt Disney Concert Hall
  • The Empire State Building
• The band in the parent-teacher meeting plays "Pop Goes the Weasel".
• The painting that Maggie makes on the wall (for which she is swiftly—and ironically—scolded by Marge) is van Gogh's "The Starry Night".

Trivia

• This is the only episode Bart doesn't appear in (unless you count the opening sequence) to date. Despite this Nancy Cartwright participated in the production of this episode voicing Ralph Wiggum.
• This episode is the second anthology episode to have 4 short stories instead of 3 (the first was "Simpsons Bible Stories").
• This is the fourth episode in the show's history where Maggie has spoken and the second where she's done so directly.
• Selma appears without Patty in this episode.
• This episode was viewed by 5.15 million viewers making it the least watched episode in the shows history. Nearly a year later, it was beaten by "Million Dollar Maybe".
• In the Macbeth parody, no one seems to care that Marge says "Macbeth" in the theater, in spite of the taboo on speaking the name. However, the "Macbeth curse" provides exemptions for speaking the name during rehearsals and performances of the play, so Marge's working as a laundress in support of the production may also be considered to grant her a free pass.
• Maggie also duplicates a van Gogh painting in the comic story Maggie's Crib 26.