Cape Feare/References

General

References/Trivia

Appearances

Gags

Credits

Quotes

	Season 5 Episode References
← 082 "Homer's Barbershop Quartet"	083 "Cape Feare"	"Homer Goes to College" 084 →

Cultural references

• Cape Fear: The 1962 film is punned in the title and parodied throughout the episode.
  • In addition, one scene specifically referenced the 1991 remake. (See below)
• The Simpsons and Sideshow Bob watch the movie Ernest Goes Somewhere Cheap, an obvious parody of Jim Varney's Ernest movies.
• In the town of Terror Lake, Sideshow Bob stays at the Bates Motel, a reference to Psycho.
• After boarding the Thompsons' houseboat, Bob attacks Bart with a machete, a possible reference to the Friday the 13th movies, where the killer Jason Voorhees uses a machete as his primary weapon.
• When Ned Flanders jumps out of the bushes and scares Bart, he is wearing a clawed glove which he uses to trim his hedges. The glove is a obvious reference to the Nightmare on Elm Street films, where Freddy Krueger kills his victims in their dreams with his trademark razor-fitted glove.
• The names of the towns the Witness Relocation Program considers as possible hiding places for the Simpsons are movie references as follows:
  • Cape Fear: Cape Fear.
  • New Horrorfield: The Halloween series.
  • Screamville: Possibly the Amityville Horror series.
  • Terror Lake: Possibly the Friday the 13th series.
• "Spay Anything," the Itchy & Scratchy cartoon shown during the episode, is a parody of Goldfinger.
• While the entire episode is a reference to the original Cape Fear film, one scene specifically referenced the 1991 remake. When Sideshow Bob is in a movie theatre, smoking and laughing uproariously (spoiling the viewing experience for everyone else in the theatre), it is similar to the poor conduct of Max Cady (played by Robert De Niro) in a movie house where he laughs loudly at the film Problem Child, annoying the other moviegoers.
• Grampa mentions Ben Matlock from Matlock.

Trivia

• This episode was banned in Germany due to the amount of violence and tension in this episode, and also due to the beginning featuring a character holding the ranking of Obergrupperfuehrer and wearing a complete SS officer's uniform. (Germany has laws prohibiting the use of Nazi references and symbols; for example, displaying the swastika is an offense punishable by up to one year of imprisonment.)
• Sideshow Bob's prison number for this episode is A113. A113 is a little-known easter egg that Brad Bird puts into the movies and cartoons he makes, such as this episode, all Pixar films, two other Simpsons episodes ("Krusty Gets Busted" and "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming"), and other productions.
• Irony: Towns with scary-sounding names (Cape Fear, New Horrorfield, Screamville and Terror Lake) being suggested as relocation options for the Simpsons so they can stop living in fear of Sideshow Bob.
• This episode was the last episode produced by the show's original production team.

Continuity

• This episode brings in the start of the running gag of Sideshow Bob being hit by rakes. This is later seen in "Day of the Jackanapes" where Bob mentions rakes as his other nemesis, and "The Bob Next Door". In "Holidays of Future Passed", it was implied that Bob was killed by a rake.
• Moe keeps pandas in his tavern. He later keeps Shamu in his tavern ("The Springfield Files") and in The Simpsons: Tapped Out, one of Moe's jobs is to smuggle endangered species, where he again smuggled pandas.