Tennis the Menace/References

References/Trivia

Production

This episode was the second episode to be digitally colored (instead of colored traditionally through cel animation), a practice that would later be used starting with the season 14 episode, "The Great Louse Detective." The first was season seven's "Radioactive Man."

The episode title is a pun on the comic strip (and movie) Dennis the Menace.
When the tennis tournament puts Homer and Bart into competition over who gets to have Marge as a partner, Lisa makes a reference to Oedipus.
When Andre Agassi introduces himself at the tennis match, Homer asks, "The wrestler?", confusing Agassi for professional wrestler André the Giant.
Grandpa sings the "What's New Pussycat?" theme by Tom Jones at the talent show, replacing "whoa whoa whoa" with "ow ow ow," and "oh, god, no," having injured himself while attempting to dance.
When Homer is in the shower, Bart adjusts the hot and cold water to make him scream to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," then "Beethoven's 5th Symphony."

Homer mistook tennis for foxy boxing, but didn't know what it was called. He referred to it as "the sport where the chicks whale on each other." Previously, however, in "Lisa on Ice", Homer knew the name of the "sport."