The Squirt and the Whale/References
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"The Squirt and the Whale"
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Cultural references
- The episode title is a reference to the 2005 film The Squid and the Whale.
- In the film Whale Rider, a pod of whales wash up on shore.
- There are two Kid Power stands in the energy exhibition the family visits.
- Bart and Lisa play a Zii, which is the Simpsons version of a Wii.
- While Bart is spinning the turbine manually (due to no wind), Lisa is watching House 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, a pun on the prison drama film Cool Hand Luke.
- The visual of Lisa discovering that Bluella is dead is based on the 1982 British animated short film The Snowman.
- 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 "exploding whale" 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 Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, several of whom appear in the television series Whale Wars. 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.
- William Shatner's weight gains between each Star Trek 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 Denny Crane from Boston Legal.
- The film Tic-Tac-Toe: X v. O is based on the "Tic-tac-toe" game.
- The chalkboard gag is a reference to the South Park episode, "201", which caused controversy after Comedy Central censored a depiction of the Muslim prophet Muhammad 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 La Mer, written and sung by Charles Trenet.
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.
