The Wettest Stories Ever Told/References

General

References/Trivia

Appearances

Gags

Credits

Quotes

Trivia

• In the USA airing, a trailer for the film Poseidon aired during the episode's commercial breaks before Homer's story (a remake of the original film The Poseidon Adventure). Curiously, the third story is a parody of this film.
• Among the people on the Neptune are Moe, Disco Stu, Krusty, Kirk Van Houten, Luigi, Agnes Skinner, Apu, Miss Hoover, Barney, and Dr. Hibbert.
• This episode is the third in the seventeenth season to have the word "stories" or "story" in it, the other two being "Simpsons Christmas Stories" and "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story".
• After only six weeks, this is another episode in the seventeenth season to be a multi-story episode, or to be split into three sections. This is like the "Treehouse of Horror" series or other similar three-part episodes like "Trilogy of Error", from season 12.
• The fourth wall is broken when Moe tells the audience that Old Englishmen spoke with "th" at the end of sentences, along with the inclusion of thee, ye and thou. Moe has similarly addressed the audience in one of flashback scenes in, "The Way We Weren't".
• Homer and Moe's aggressive competition over Marge's love (as shown in Lisa's story) has been an ongoing gag in the show that especially references to season 16 ("Mommie Beerest").
• At the end of "The Neptune Adventure", we see the crew of the HMS Bounty coming out of the mist, only for them to look like skeletons, a possible reference to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
• Bart appears twice in "The Neptune Adventure"; as himself throughout the story, and as Bart Christian/"Capt. Bart-bossa" at the end. The name Bart-bossa appears to be another reference to Pirates of the Caribbean.
• The original USA airdate was intended to be April 16; however, it was replaced by "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas".
• Homer, Marge and Bart are the only characters to appear in all three stories.

Cultural references

• The title of this episode is a reference to the film "The Greatest Story Ever Told".
• This episode also references Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". In the first story, after the storm breaks off, Homer notices an albatross which he eats. Unlike the poem, this action does not lead to unfortunate incidents. The final act with the appearance of the Bounty could possibly be a reference to the appearance of the ghost ship.
• Homer's story is a parody of The Poseidon Adventure, an action film. There are several similarities between Homer's story and The Poseidon Adventure. Several characters die in ways similar to the movie: Lenny falls off a ladder into surging water and Comic Book Guy dies while trying to tie a rope underwater, both quite similar to the deaths of major characters in the movie. This episode also aired just weeks before the remake of the movie, titled Poseidon, premiered.
• The song played at the beginning of Homer's story is "Rock The Boat" by the Hues Corporation.
• Comic Book Guy's "inspirational music" is "Alone Again (Naturally)" by Gilbert O'Sullivan.
• "Island in the Sun" by Weezer plays during the montage of the Bounty crew in Tahiti.
• When the Bounty crew is in Tahiti, the theme instrumental music that is played is similar to that written in the musical movie South Pacific.
• At the end of Homer's story, the crew of the Bounty reappears as living skeletons, parodying Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
• Lisa sings a parody of "The Morning After" from "The Poseidon Adventure", which foreshadows the upcoming destruction of the S.S. Neptune.
• Burns makes references to Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, The China Syndrome, and The Apple Dumpling Gang, which were popular disaster films of the 1970s (except for "The Apple Dumpling Gang").
• The ship in Homer's story is called the Neptune. "Neptune" was the Roman god of the sea; the Greek name for the same deity was "Poseidon".
• Scenes of Bart standing on the mast of the Bounty, and the use of music by Luigi Boccherini, are references to the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Goofs

• Marge is allergic to fish so she should not be in The Frying Dutchman. Even if she doesn't eat anything, inhaling fish particles in the air and on the tables or dishes might make her very ill.