Brother's Little Helper/References
Cultural references
- The title is a reference to The Rolling Stones 1966 single "Mother's Little Helper" (a song about pill abuse), and also to Santa's Little Helper.
- Marge standing in front of the tank is a reference to Tank Man.
- The Fire Safety Day slogan, "Learn, Baby, Learn", is a spoof of "Burn, Baby, Burn".
- Homer remarks that Bart has gone from Goofus to Gallant.
- When on his rampage, in a tank, Bart sings Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac.
- Bart expresses a preference for the allergy decongestant Claritin D over regular Claritin.
- Bart's classmate Sherri reads aloud the poem "The Daffodils" by William Wordsworth.
- The book that Bart gives to Homer, "Chicken Soup for the Loser", is a spoof of the book "Chicken Soup for the Soul."
- On their date, Marge and Homer see the movie Showgirls.
- The t-shirt in the army barracks, which reads "I went to the Persian Gulf and all I got was this lousy syndrome", is a reference to Gulf War Syndrome.
- Bart's Ritalin song at the end is a parody of the theme song sung at the conclusion of the Popeye animated shorts.
- Nelson's reaction when he thinks about violence or a girl while wearing the shock necklace may be a reference to "A Clockwork Orange".
Continuity
Bart's ADD was touched upon in "Lisa's Substitute: At the end, Homer says to Bart, "I always knew you had personality; the doctor said it was hyperactivity, but I knew better!"
Trivia
When Bart managed to appear outside of Skinner's office in a Cheerleader outfit that he managed to steal from the Pep Closet, Homer jokingly states that it's more likely that Bart is coming out of the pep closet, referring to the phrase "coming out of the closet" meaning that someone is deciding to become open about their non-straight orientation.
When trying to introduce the schoolchildren to the Fire Safety skit, he briefly mentioned that one of the helpful things that fire can do is "raining fire on Charlie" which is referring to firing napalm shells on the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.
