Lisa the Iconoclast/References
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< Lisa the Iconoclast
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Cultural references[edit]
- The episode's couch gag parodies the opening of the sitcom The Brady Bunch.
- In the movie Young Jebediah Springfield, the pioners left Maryland and head to "New Sodom", a reference to the biblical city of Sodom.
- Skinner refers to the United States Bicentennial, the series of celebrations in the US during the mid-1970s. Kearney, the only student old enough to remember the events, recalls the tall ships that came to the US to participate in the celebrations and also notes how this helped the nation move past the negative sentiments associated with the Watergate scandal.
- Hollis Hurlbut's name is a pun on Hollis and Hurlbut Halls, two dormitories at Harvard University.
- Hurlbut considers Jebediah Springfield as important as American soldier William Dawes or Secretary of the United States Senate Samuel Allyne Otis, important figures during the American Revolution.
- When Hurlbut brings Lisa the plate of cornbread, he says "Heeeere's jonnycakes!" in the style of Ed McMahon announcing Johnny Carson ("Heeeere's Johnny!") on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
- Lisa remarks she is getting over her Chester A. Arthritis as a joke about Chester A. Arthur, the 21st President of the United States. Hollis Hurlbut asking is Lisa actually had arthritis was unscripted response by Donald Sutherland during the recording session.
General Washington sits for portraitist Gilbert Stuart. The painting takes an important role in the episode.
- The man painting the iconic portrait of George Washington is recognizable as portraitist Gilbert Stuart. His best-known work is a portrait of Washington known as the Athenaeum Portrait and used on the $1 bill. In the episode the wet paint stuck to Hans Sprungfeld's boot after he stepped on it and ripped off the lower part of the canvass. In real history the portrait is unfinished.
- When Betsy Ross shows Washington the flag and says she couldn't get the "red hearts, yellow moons and green clovers" he wanted, it is a reference to Lucky Charms cereal, formerly advertised as having marshmallow pink hearts, yellow moons, and green clovers. Lucky Charms however had orange stars instead of the white ones in the flag.
- Insisting that Jebediah Springfield's confession was a forgery, Hurlbut compared it to two historical frauds:
- Aviator and business magnate Howard Hughes's will. Approximately three weeks after the death of Hughes, a handwritten will was found on the desk of an official in a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah. The so-called "Mormon Will" gave $1.56 billion to various charitable organizations but was later ruled a forgery.
- The Hitler Diaries, a series of sixty volumes of journals purportedly written by Adolf Hitler, but forged by German illustrator Konrad Kujau between 1981 and 1983.
- At The Copy Jalopy, Comic Book Guy asks Homer if his name was Ridley Scott or James Cameron.
- The handbills Lisa prints are a reference to the John F. Kennedy "Wanted For Treason" ones that circulated in Dallas, Texas on November 21, 1963, one day before the assassination of the president.
- When Lisa is telling the people at Moe's about the real history of Jebediah Springfield, they all sit with their mouths open in a reference to the 1967 comedy The Producers.
- Executives from the American chain of fast-food restaurants Long John Silver's get offended when they find out that Jebediah Springfield was a pirate. The name of the company, however, comes after the pirate Long John Silver from the 1883 adventure novel Treasure Island, which greatly contributed to the image of the pirate in popular culture.
- Willie throws a shovel full of dirt onto American politician Adlai Stevenson II's headstone putting out its eternal flame. Stevenson lost two presidential elections to Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1952 and 1956.
- Chief Wiggum sings "Camptown Races" by Stephen Foster with Springfield's skull.
- In Lisa's dream, Jebediah Springfield and George Washington have a fight that is similar to the one Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Mr. Joshua (Gary Busey) have in the 1987 action film Lethal Weapon.
- "The Stars and Stripes Forever" composed by John Philip Sousa is heard during the parade.
- Lisa's decision to hide the truth to preserve the legend of Jebediah Springfield is a reference to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. In the 1962 western, Ransom "Ranse" Stoddard (James Stewart) hides the truth about who shot Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) for all his life, only to reveal that it was Stoddard's friend Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) after Doniphon's death.
- The sniper on the roof of the building across from the plaza does take the shot at Lisa, but misses when she moves her head and the shot lands on the floor behind her, just like the sniper shot aimed at Charles de Gaulle at the end of The Day of the Jackal.
- Homer interrupting Ned's march references the parade scene in the 1978 comedy film National Lampoon's Animal House.
Trivia[edit]
- The flag in Miss Hoover's classroom has 25 stars and 15 stripes.
- Ironically, Donald Sutherland played the character "Homer Simpson" in the 1975 film The Day of the Locust.
- The words "cromulent" and "embiggen" were both coined by the writers of this episode. Although completely made up, these words have since taken on a life of their own via the Internet and other media. "Cromulent" has also appeared in the Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English.
Goofs[edit]
- The caption when George Washington is sitting for Gilbert Stuart's famous portrait is TRENTON, NEW JERSEY 1781. Stuart painted several portraits of George Washington, but the "unfinished" portrait in the episode was made in 1796. George Washington was in Trenton in 1781 depicted in Portrait of George Washington Taking the Salute at Trenton by John Faed.
- When Lisa reads the diphtheria line in Jebediah's confession, she is wearing Jebediah's cap. However, upon returning from the commercial break, she is no longer wearing the cap.
- When Lisa realizes that Jebediah is a fraud, there are a few frames where the leftmost pearl on her necklace is colored yellow.
- Adlai Stevenson's grave is in Evergreen Cemetery in Bloomington, Illinois and his grave does not have an eternal flame.
