Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)/References

General

References/Trivia

Appearances

Gags

Credits

Quotes

	Season 7 Episode References
← 128 "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)"	129 "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)"	"Radioactive Man" 130 →

Cultural references

• Homer escaping from the overturned paddywagon is a homage to The Fugitive.
• The musical score that ends Part 1 of the episode (when the credits roll) is a parody of John Williams's "Drummers' Salute," which is part of the musical score he wrote for Oliver Stone's movie JFK.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 was playing at Moe's Tavern.
• Smithers refers to a 1991 military scandal: "I feel about as low as Madonna when she found out she missed Tailhook."
• When the DNA scanner confirms the surname "Simpson" after scanning the eyelash, the "tada" sound from Microsoft Windows 3.1/95 is heard.
• The scene where Chief Wiggum has a dream in which Lisa speaks backward is an obvious homage to Twin Peaks and Special Agent Dale Cooper's interaction with The Man from Another Place. Also, after Homer escapes from the paddywagon, the Squeaky-Voiced Teen speaks to his manager Diane, which is the same name as the unseen secretary that Agent Cooper dictates messages to.
• In the first part, Mr. Burns sings, "hello lamp-post, what you knowin', I'm come to watch your power flowin'," which is close to the lyrics of Simon & Garfunkel's "59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)."
• Sideshow Mel demonstrates deductive reasoning and logic similar to that demonstrated by noted fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. This connection is further noted by Mel's smoking of a pipe during his reflections, as Holmes was frequently known to do.
• The DNA database includes the names of Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
• The opening sequence of Part Two, wherein Smithers dreams that he merely dreamed shooting Mr. Burns, before going on to dream that they are in fact undercover detectives on the 1960s Speedway racing circuit, is similar to an incident on the 1980s soap opera Dallas, in which the events of an entire season (including an attempted murder) were explained away as being merely a character's dream.
• Groundskeeper Willie's interrogation scene, where he is wearing a kilt and uncrosses his legs, is a reference to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. Moe's lie-detector test also alludes to the film.
• The book that Chief Wiggum was reading is a parody of Agatha Christie's novel Ten Little Indians.
• Tito Puente's jazz club, Chez Guevara, is a pun on Che Guevara.
• Smithers saying, "Father, I'm not a Catholic, but...well, I tried to march in the Saint Patrick's Day parade." at the church confessional references the 1995 Supreme Court decision Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston.

Trivia

• At the end of the closing credits, the Gracie Films logo sequence ends with a gunshot sound, referring to the mysterious atmosphere of the episode.
• Tito Puente and his Latin Jazz Ensemble perform the Theme Song in the closing credits of Part Two.
• The alternate ending to "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" (featured in the 138th Episode Spectacular) was created to prevent any staff (whether writers or even the overseas animators) on The Simpsons from spoiling the mystery. There were also many people who could have shot Mr. Burns, as shown in the same episode. This included Apu (with a semi-automatic gun, which fired multiple rounds instead of just one), Moe, Barney, Tito Puente, and even Santa's Little Helper (who held the gun in his mouth and somehow pulled the trigger).
• One of the men in Tito Puente's band plays a bongo drum that has Mr. Burns' face on it, paralleling a scene in "And Maggie Makes Three" where Homer actually plays Burns' head like a bongo drum.
• Burns' hospital room number is 2F20, the same as the episode's production code.
• List of names in the DNA computer:

  BOUVIER BURNS SMITHERS FLANDERS SZYSLAK NAHASAPEEMAPETILAN GUMBEL SKINNER KRABAPPEL HOOVER CORY JOHNSTON OAKLEY PULIDO ALLEN LEVYA ANDERSON CONSTANTINDES DEMAKES HERNANDEZ HIKMAN LEIBOVITZ MACMULLEN McGRATH HUTZ RIVIERA MOLEMAN MUNTZ VAN HOUTEN JONES McALLISTER McCLURE POWERS WOLFCASTLE GRINER MEYERS KOMPOWSKI ARNOLD SINCLAIR LARSEN LANLEY KOBB DEVLIN WHITE MEYER JEAN REISS BIDDLE FUDGE WEINSTEIN SIMMONS DUBOSE SPARK LESTER JACKSON KANSLER LAZARUS KIM PHILLIPS DONDELINGER FRINK PIE CHALMERS NIXON SNYDER PUENTE MURPHY PRINCE WARD INGALAND HEIDEN KONTOGIORGOS ADLER BROKAW EMELIN FERNANDEZ MORRIS JABOUR BICK-FORRESTER LESHER COHEN SCHOLL CARVALHO SCHIMINOVICH HANDEL GATTIS SEMMEL MATSUMARA REGE WILENN SCHIFF STEVENS VERNOOY WU NEBBLE ELLIOTT Beardley FALK LANE HERWITZ ZOMBANKS GUTENTAG BARLOW CONOVER SHUTTON McCARTNEY STARR HARRISON MASTERSON HYDELL ZIFF GOLDBEAR GROTSTEIN HODGE ATKINS ITZKOWITZ PIERPONT HANDLEMAN HIGGINSON BUGSBY AMIR FISHER FLENDER GORDON HINES KRAMER LOBKOWICZ LAZEBNIK MOLNER SHIPLEY NESCI ALEXANDER TYSON MONTGOMERY MOSTOW RHINELANDER JACOBS WIDMER SALTZMAN TOBEASON GOODMAN LOVELL TAYLOR BORGNINE SHORT HAPABLAP BRODKA HURLBUT LIEBERSTEIN POWELL GARDNER FRIEND BROSS STEIKER WEINHAUS SCHICK YAFFE BRENNAN SAKAI TATUM POWELL GLICK BERGSTROM MR. MANAGLAN CARLSON BORDEN GRONQUIST WESTCOTT APPEL DANIELS LOVEJOY BROCKMAN QUIMBY WIGGUM KRUSTOFSKY VAN HORNE SIMPSON TERWILLIGER MANN CHRISTIAN HIBBERT SIMPSON

  Goofs

  • Smithers was watching Pardon My Zinger at the time Mr. Burns was shot, yet somehow he knew Burns had been shot in the beginning of this episode. (Debunked: Smithers had been at home drinking and watching TV for some time before he passed out and had the "Burns in the shower" dream. He probably saw a news bulletin about Burns being shot.)
  • When Smithers realizes that he shot Jasper, instead of Mr. Burns, he mentions he left the meeting early in order to watch "Pardon My Zinger". However, in the previous episode, you see him walk out of the meeting with everyone else, very slowly. (Debunked: Smithers was delirious at the time. He probably couldn't remember the fact he did leave the meeting with everyone else.)
  • When the citizens of Springfield race to the hospital, there is a small smudge on Sherri (or Terri)'s lip in one frame.

  Continuity

  • The "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" saga has been referenced several times after:
    • In "The Old Man and the Lisa", Mr. Burns comes to the Simpsons house for Lisa, asking her to help him rebuild his fortune after he loses all his money. While in her house, Homer shows him Maggie, and she makes a gun shape with her hand. Mr. Burns then says "Oh yes, the baby who shot me". Kent Brockman also mentions the sun being blocked out.
    • In "The Cartridge Family", when Homer brings a gun home, Marge asks if he remembers when Maggie shot Mr. Burns, Homer replies "I thought Smithers did it".
    • "Day of the Jackanapes" had Smithers say "Maggie shot Mr. Burns again".
    • In "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love", Homer tells Gloria that Burns blocked out the sun and was shot by a baby.
    • In "Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Three Times", Homer claims he did it and framed Maggie.
    • In "The Fool Monty" Maggie aims a gun at Burns, Lisa tells her "not today".
    • In "Walking Big & Tall", Bart writes "It's the only home we got, the town where Mr. Burns was shot" for the song.
    • In the comic story Baby Got Back (at Burns), when Mr. Burns and Smithers walk past Maggie at the beach, Burns says "look, Smithers, it's that child who shot me".
  • There is another reference of Maggie as a "killer". In the episode "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge", Homer is threatened to be killed by the mafia after stopping their business. Just as the mafia is about to kill Homer, several gunshots wound all the gangsters. The shooter was, of course, Maggie.
    The show also refers to Who Shot Mr. Burns? in the following line after Maggie saves Homer:

  Homer: Look at Maggie. Napping so peacefully.
  Marge: Yeah. Probably thinking of the time she shot Mr. Burns.
  Homer: She's just like Clark Kent. Whenever there's lots of excitement, she's nowhere to be found.
  (Homer and Marge leave. Maggie wakes up and smiles right at the camera ominously)

  • Maggie's propensity for firearms is also seen in the segment "The Fright to Creep and Scare Harms" of "Treehouse of Horror XIII" and in the comic story Maggie's Crib 10.
  • The alternate ending (mentioned above) was featured in the "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular", along with several (fake) alternate versions of Burns getting shot, with a different culprit in each.
  • The "Outhouse Gag": Grampa abruptly ends a discussion to "use the outhouse". Lisa says that the family doesn't own an outhouse, which causes Homer to panic and run outside to try to stop Grandpa from befouling a building (Homer's tool shed) that only resembles an outhouse. The gag is later repeated in "The Bonfire of the Manatees".
  • Chief Wiggum also drinks warm cream and subsequently experiences a bizarre dream in the comic story Future Cop!.

  
  

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  Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two) • Radioactive Man • Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily • Bart Sells His Soul • Lisa the Vegetarian • Treehouse of Horror VI • King-Size Homer • Mother Simpson • Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming • The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular • Marge Be Not Proud • Team Homer • Two Bad Neighbors • Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield • Bart the Fink • Lisa the Iconoclast • Homer the Smithers • The Day the Violence Died • A Fish Called Selma • Bart on the Road • 22 Short Films About Springfield • Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish" • Much Apu About Nothing • Homerpalooza • Summer of 4 Ft. 2