The Bob Next Door/References

General

References/Trivia

Appearances

Gags

Credits

Quotes

Cultural References

• The title is a reference to the song "The Boy Next Door" from "Meet Me in St. Louis".
• Harry Potter: Sideshow Bob says that his plan to kill Bart will make it the greatest murder since Snape killed Dumbledore, which happened in the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Sideshow Bob also is not insulting the book when he says, "It's a four-year old book." He is actually correct. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released July 2005, about 4 years ago.
• The song Bart and Milhouse sing is from the play The Mikado. When Sideshow Bob reveals himself to Bart, he then sings part of a song from the same play.
• The episode's plot is based on the movie Face/Off. Its title is parodied in Faith Off.
• The couch gag features Harold from the children's book Harold and the Purple Crayon.
• The stuff the cops from New Jersey say after handcuffing Bob is a reference to The Jersey Shore.
• The ending where Ned Flanders cousin arrives and appears to be just like him (including have a bit of similarity in appearance) is likely a reference to the tv series The Patty Duke Show which dealt with two cousins who looked exactly alike.
• One of the magazines Bart looks through in Walt's house is called Not MAD Magazine which is a reference to the popular MAD Magazine complete with having the same kind of cover design.

Trivia

• Adding to the fun, mystery, and controversy regarding Springfield's state: The cops who arrest Sideshow Bob at The Five Corners seem to be from New Jersey, judging from their accents and cultural references.
• The characters that Marge and Homer list off to Bart as having the same voice as Sideshow Bob are all played by Kelsey Grammer who does the voice of Sideshow Bob in the series.
• Bart's graffiti name El Barto appears on the prison wall that Walt/Bob climbs over when escaping from prison.
• The rake joke which started in Cape Feare (then reappeared in Day of the Jackanapes and The Italian Bob) reappears in this episode when Bob tries to kill Bart at Five Corners.
• There is a small goof in the episode. When Walt's face is ripped from Bob by the waitress, he holds it back on with a belt. As Walt holds his. But later in the episode they don't have either.
• Ruth Power's house was sold near the beginning of the episode to Walt Warren, but at Walt's party several minutes later Ruth can be seen in the crowd. Marge also mentioned that Ruth moved to Detroit.
• When Bart hears Bob as Walt say "Hello, Bart" again after asking him to repeat the phrase, a montage of the times that Sideshow Bob says that particular phrase was shown with the first three being from the episodes The Great Louse Detective, Sideshow Bob Roberts and Brother from Another Series. The "Hello Bart."s from Cape Feare and Day of the Jackanapes are the only ones not shown as the remaining two in the montage were made for the episode (which in the latter of those two wasn't actually referring to Bart Simpson, but to the Bay Area Rapid Transit, which its acronym spells "Bart").
• When the real Walt Warren appeared and was caught by Homer and Marge Simpson, Homer used Flanders' garden hose to tie him up. Although it was squirting out water, there was no water stacking up in the tight hose nor any water coming out.

Iceland-Related Trivia

• The episode was aired during the Icelandic economic crisis.
• The signs held by the Icelandic protestors are all very grammatically incorrect.
  • "Við vilja okkar pening!" - should be "Við viljum peningana okkar!" which means "We want our money!"
  • "Neitun Homer!" - I'm not sure what it could mean, directly translated it means "Denial Homer!"
  • "Segna upp nú!" - Segna is not a word, "segja" is, it could mean "Segjið upp núna!" which means "Quit your job now!"
• Following the episode, an image of the protest in the Simpsons with a headline "Iceland in The Simpsons" appeared on the front page of "Fréttablaðið", Iceland's most widely-read newspaper. They also dedicated about half a page to The Simpsons. It should be noted that The Simpsons was not criticized in the newspaper and that The Simpsons are very popular in Iceland.
• Iceland has been referenced twice before on The Simpsons, once Carl mentioned that he grew up in Iceland and in Worst Episode Ever there was a food stand in the Springfield Squidport named "What they eat in Iceland"
• "Beowulf" is Swedish.