Difference between revisions of "Treehouse of Horror XII/References"

Revision as of 13:16, April 18, 2010

Trivia

• This is the second Treehouse of Horror episode not to have the credits littered with "scary names". The others are I and XIII.
• This is the last Treehouse of Horror episode to have the name Halloween Special.
• The "Burns family corpses" in the opening sequence are as follows (from left to right as seen on-screen):
  • A man's body that somewhat resembles General Douglas MacArthur as it's wearing an Army uniform and has a pipe and sunglasses like MacArthur's; however, it's a three-star general and MacArthur was a five-star. The body has a tomahawk stuck in its chest.
  • A man's body dressed as a pirate. It has a patch over its left eye and a cutlass stuck in its right eye socket.
  • A woman's body, dressed as a burlesque dancer, with three bullet holes in its forehead.
  • A man's body wearing a suit of armor with a pitchfork stuck through the helmet's eye slits.
• The voice of the Salesbot in "House of Whacks" is very similar to Gil's.
• One of the items the Ultrahouse attacks Homer with is the electric hammer Homer invented in The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace.
• In "Wiz Kids," Montymort's "wailing wall" features Krusty the Clown, Maude Flanders,Comic Book Guy, Snake Jailbird, Bleeding Gums Murphy, Rainier Wolfcastle, Kent Brockman, Mr. Largo, Patty Bouvier, Blue-Haired Lawyer, Uter Zorker, Old Jewish Man, and possibly Frank Grimes.

Cultural References

Hex and the City

• Sex and the City - Punned in the title. A Hex is a curse.
• ATMs - The sign in the Gypsy's shop window says "Fortune Teller. After Hours Use Automated Teller."
• Homer lures the Leprechaun using Lucky Charms cereal, the mascot of which is a Leprechaun.
  • Homer accidentally pours (Trix) into the hole first, attracting rabbits (The Trix mascot being a rabbit).
  • Bongo, the one-eared rabbit from Life in Hell, is the last rabbit to jump in.
  • One of the creatures lured into the trap by the Lucky Charms is Katie Couric.
• Yoda from Star Wars is the priest at the Leprechaun/Gypsy wedding. He says. "Husband and wife I pronounce you now."

House of Whacks

• House of Wax - Punned in the title.

• The Mafia - "Whacking" someone is Mafia slang for killing them.
• Demon Seed - The film and characters are parodied, especially Susan Harris and the Proteus IV computer.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • The Ultrahouse camera eyes resemble the HAL 9000 computer.
  • The Ultrahouse suggests that Marge take a stress pill. HAL 9000 makes the same suggestion to astronaut David Bowman in 2001.
  • Homer disables the Ultrahouse by removing the circuit boards from its CPU, and while he does so, the Ultrahouse's voice becomes less sophisticated, then slow and garbled, and finally stops. The same thing happens to HAL 9000 at the hands of David Bowman.
• Friends - When the Simpsons test the Matthew Perry voice for the Ultrahouse, it says "Uh, yeah, could I be any more of a house," a reference to Chandler's usual attitude.
• Another voice option for the house is Dennis Miller. Marge and Lisa suggest that this voice caused murder-suicides.
• When Bart suggests "007's" voice for the Ultrahouse (referring to Pierce Brosnan being the 5th Bond actor), Marge thinks of George Lazenby (the 2nd Bond).
• Marge recalls that Pierce played the lead in Remington Steele, which the Ultrahouse confirms the first time it speaks with Pierce's voice.
• Bad Taste - Homer is presumed to have been murdered by the Ultrahouse, but is revealed as having survived when he emerges from the floor. The family discovers that the back of his head is missing, revealing his brain. In Bad Taste, Derek falls off a cliff, presumably to his death, only to wake up later and notice that a piece from the back of his head is missing, also revealing his brain.

Wiz Kids

• The title is a pun on the phrase "Whiz Kids."
• Harry Potter - Hogwarts School and various characters and themes from the Harry Potter books, parodied throughout the third segment.
• When Nelson makes Milhouse zap himself, his third transformation resembles Mr. T.
• Led Zeppelin - The band's name is punned when Lisa uses a spell on Bart called "Head Zeppelin", which turns Bart's head into a Zeppelin.
• Bart enters Montymort's lair via the school bathrooms, the same way that the Chamber of Secrets is accessed in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
• Montymort's "wailing wall" is a reference to the Wailing Wall (also called the Western Wall), a remnant of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

• Montymort says that Lisa has "more wicked witchery than Stevie Nicks".
• Mork and Mindy - Bart exlaims "Shazbut."
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors - the scene where Slithers eats Lord Montymort's body parallels the scene where a girl is almost eaten by a Freddy Krueger snake.

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