Difference between revisions of "The Wizard of Oz"

Revision as of 00:18, February 25, 2019

The Wizard of Oz is a 1900 children's novel by Frank L. Baum. It has been adapted into several film versions, of which the 1939 version, The Wizard of Oz, by Victor Fleming, starring Judy Garland, is the most iconic. This picture is one of Matt Groening's favorite films (placing it at nr. 8 in his personal list of 100 Favorite Things) ^[1] and has therefore been referenced numerous times on The Simpsons.

References to The Wizard of Oz in The Simpsons

Episodes

Picture Season Episode number Episode name Reference 3 38 "When Flanders Failed" Homer sarcastically asks Ned if The Leftorium is in "the merry old land of Oz"? 42 "Treehouse of Horror II" When Mr. Burns is scooping out Homer's brain, he hums "If I Only Had a Brain" from The Wizard of Oz. 4 69 "Lisa's First Word" Ned and Rod Flanders sing "We welcome you to the neighbourhood" to Homer which is from the song "Lullaby League/Lollypop Guild" ... "We welcome you to Munchkinland, Tra la la la la la la. From now on you'll be history. You'll be his, you'll be his, you'll be history.". 72 "Selma's Choice" On their way to Aunt Gladys' funeral, Bart and Lisa sing "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" from The Wizard of Oz. 79 "Whacking Day" Kent Brockman teases that next news segment on Eye on Springfield will answer the question where the Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz are now? The next shot shows a graveyard (in reality, at the time of the episode's transmission, there were still a few former Munchkin actors from the film alive, though). 5 85 "Rosebud" Mr. Burns' guards are parodies of the Winkie Guards. Their song is also very similar. On the audio commentary it is commented that there was discussion in the writer's room about the actual lines from the original song: they actually had to rewatch the film to get the lyrics right. 90 "The Last Temptation of Homer" Mr. Burns sets his flying monkeys free. However, they just fall to the ground rather than fly. 91 "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)" Homer puts on Henry Kissinger's glasses and quotes the Scarecrow's line "The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining sides." from the 1939 film , only to be corrected by another man. While Homer's line is a direct quote from the film, the correct mathematical theory is indeed what the man who corrects Homer tells him. 98 "Bart Gets an Elephant" Homer observes Patty and Selma seated on rockin' chairs during a blizzard. This is similar to the scene where Dorothy observes a woman in a rocking chair floating by during a blizzard 6 105 "Lisa's Rival" Homer decides he can get rich by selling the sugar door-to-door. He keeps the sugar in a pile in his backyard, where he obsessively guards it from thieves. Soon, the sugar attracts bees from a local apiary. The beekeepers track the swarm down and offer to buy the bees back from Homer for $2,000. However, before the transaction can be completed, it begins to rain, dissolving the sugar; the bees fly away, leaving Homer without any money or sugar. The sugar-melting scene is a parody of the "I'm Melting" scene where Dorothy uses a bucket of water to (accidentally) kill the Wicked Witch of the West. "My sugar is melting, melting, oh what a world!" -Homer 115 "Homer the Great" Homer ties a can with yellow paint behind Lenny and Carl's car, it starts dripping paint on the highway which he can observe to follow them. He says: "All I have to do is follow the 'yellow drip road'.", a reference to the yellow brick road. 122 "Lisa's Wedding" The fortune teller says that in the future "the world has become a different place". The next shot shows a group of robots walking around, but they are then followed by people dressed as Tin Men, a Scarecrow and a Cowardly Lion, revealing they are not actual robots, but people in Lisa's university about to audition for a school play of "The Wizard of Oz". 11 231 "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)" At the movie theater, when Homer has butter put on his Milk Duds to the point of overflow, he says "Swim, my pretties," a parody of the Wicked Witch of the West's call to her flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz: "Fly, my pretties:". (This line isn't actually said in The Wizard of Oz, but Homer is relying on popular understanding.) 12 265 "Simpson Safari" One of the pictures of monkeys in Joan Bushwell's "Serious Research" book shows a flying monkey from The Wizard of Oz. 13 278 "Jaws Wired Shut" When Homer is twirling Maggie around by her pacifier, the music playing is the music from the tornado scene in 'The Wizard of Oz. 15 331 "Catch 'Em If You Can" Grampa says that the feet sticking out from under the house in The Wizard of Oz were his. 21 450 "Thursdays with Abie" Instead of the usual music of the choir singing "The Simpsons," the "Miss Gulch/Wicked Witch of the West" theme from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz is heard as Agnes Skinner, dressed up as Mrs. Gulch, rides her bicycle across the title. 23 496 "Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson" The "Liberal straw man's song" is a parody of "If I Only Had a Brain" from The Wizard of Oz. 25 531 "Homerland" Moe Szyslak's grandmother looks like the Wicked Witch of the West. Moe mentioned she was killed by water, a reference to the Witch's death. 26 554 "The Wreck of the Relationship" Homer's fantasy football team is named Somewhere Over the Dwayne Bowe, a pun on the song (Somewhere) Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz and real-life American football champion Dwayne Bowe.

External links

• The Wizard of Oz at Wikipedia