Four Great Women and a Manicure/References
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"Four Great Women and a Manicure"
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Cultural references
- The episode title may be a reference to Four Weddings and a Funeral.
- Beowulf: Lackey Moe sees Queen Elizabeth I (portrayed by Selma) in her nightclothes and exclaims, "Someone call Beowulf! Grendel got in again!"
- 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.
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: 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 Blue-haired lawyer is shown to have long claw-like fingernails (and asks the nail shop to sharpen them), a reference to the cultural stereotype of lawyers being aggressive and predatory.
- 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.
- "Goldilocks and the Three Bears": Snow White complains about the dwarfs' beds being too hard and too soft. Unlike Goldilocks, however, Snow White settles for the soft bed.
- "Sleeping Beauty": When the dwarfs find Snow White asleep, Doc speculates that she may be under a curse and Crabby says that a kiss might awaken her. When Crabby approaches her to do the deed, however, Snow White quickly sits up and exclaims, "I'm awake! I'm awake already!"
- Unlike in the Disney movie, where she dies by falling off a clif, the way the Evil Queen dies in Lisa's retelling of Snow White is very reminiscent of Scar's death of The Lion King, right down to her being killed by forest animals in shadow (very much like Scar when he is killed by hyenas).
- Bye Bye Birdie and The Matrix: During the Macbeth parody segment, actor 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.
- 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 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.
- 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.
