The Italian Bob/References

General

References/Trivia

Appearances

Gags

Credits

Quotes

	Season 17 Episode References
← 363 "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas"	364 "The Italian Bob"	"Simpsons Christmas Stories" 365 →

Cultural references

• The episode title is a reference to the film The Italian Job.
• The Lamborgotti Fasterossa is virtually identical to the real-life Lamborghini Gallardo. As a play on the names of Italian exotic cars, the Fasterossa's name is also derived from the Ferrari Testarossa.
• The song Lisa chants as the cheeses bounce towards the Fasterossa is to the tune of "Italiano Calypso", a song on The Seven Hills of Rome.
• Lisa mentions Jean Valjean. Both Bob and Seymour Skinner have worn Valjean's prison number in the past.
• This episode marks the first cameo appearance Stan Smith. He, like fellow "plagiarismo" Peter Griffin is shown with their regular skin color rather than yellow skin.
• After temporarily escaping from Sideshow Bob in Rome, Marge states that she feels like the Bourne Identity.
• The rake-to-the-face gag is recycled from "Cape Feare".
• The Italian police book features Snake as Invasione Di Casa (Home invasion|home invader), Mayor Quimby as Drinko Drive-O (drunk driving), Peter Griffin from Family Guy as Plagiarismo (plagiarism), Stan Smith from American Dad as Plagiarismo Di Plagiarismo (plagiarism of plagiarism), and Sideshow Bob as Omicidio Attentato Multiplo (Multiple attempts of Homicide), even though none of them (except Sideshow Bob) were in Italy or even visited Italy at that time.
• The two year old town drunk looks and sounds like a young Barney Gumble. He may actually be one of Barney's innumerable children, thanks to the Springfield sperm bank.
• When Homer gives an Italian woman a mug with Kentucky emblazoned on it as a peace offering, this may be a reference to "Behind the Laughter", in which the Simpsons are referred to as a "Northern Kentucky family."
• When Lisa rips Sideshow Bob's clothes off revealing his prison suit, his prison number is HABF02, the production code of this episode (a running gag on The Simpsons, where the episode's production code is seen on-screen).
• The writing in the book of fugitives from America on the opposite page from the pictures appears to be Arabic.
• Homer and, to a lesser extent, Bart manifest profound knowledge of the history of Italy in this episode.
• On mayor Bob's balcony, Lisa tells Homer, when he thinks he's impersoning Donald Trump, that he's impersoning Benito Mussolini.
• When the family visits Pompei, there are the remains of a Roman family strongly resembling the Simpsons, which Homer refers to as "savages."
• The PBS logo has the Simpsons' overbite, which was also featured in Missionary: Impossible.
• In Sideshow Bob's flashback, he is wearing the same clothes as he was at the end of his last appearance, in "The Great Louse Detective".
• On Sideshow Bob's globe, Tuscany looks like it is a city, but it is actually a region.
• This episode was shown during the Super Bowl XL Halftime show (February 5, 2006).
• The name of the village (Salsiccia) means "sausage" in Italian.
• Krusty's lines during the musical Pagliacci, with the words changed to "I'm all out of Rice Krispies", is a reference to an operatic Rice Krispies commercial from the 1960s, in which a family is eating breakfast, and the father sings this exact line.
• Bart asking Lisa about wearing a Canadian flag on her backpack is a reference to many Americans wearing Canadian flags on their backpacks while travelling abroad during the Bush Jr.'s presidency, to avoid being criticized for Bush's foreign policy (Iraq War).

Goofs

• Homer did attend college—later in life, though, however, he could forget something like that.
• The Italian language/Italian spoken in the show is a quite literal translation of the English phrases shown as subtitles. It's not grammatically and phonetically correct sometimes, but the literal translation of the English idiomatic expressions would sound nonsensical to an Italian native.
• Bob becomes the "Il Mayore" of Salsiccia but the correct Italian word would be "Sindaco". "Mayore" is probably an intentional Italianization of the term mayor, as the word doesn't even exist in Italian.
• When the family is at the Lamborgotti assembly line, the sign shows "Limea Montaggio No. 1". The correct word would be "LiNea". Plus, "No." is the English abbreviation of "Number", in Italy that would have been "N°", "Num." or simply "N.". "#" is not used in Italy.
• When the Italian Police searches the book of American criminals, Sideshow Bob is listed under "omicidio attentato multiplo". The correct Italian term would be "Tentato Omicidio Multiplo". Attentato is a wrong, although largely intelligible, translation of attempted, as the word in Italian means more or less "act of terrorism", and not the act of attempting to do something.
• "Plagiarismo" is a Spanish translation from the English "plagiarism". The correct Italian word is "plagio".
• "Mortadella" falls out of a cheese transporter and is therefore referenced as a cheese in this episode, even though "Mortadella" is a large Italian sausage (or cold cut) with pistachios.

• It does appear as a meat. The reason for it being with the cheese is likely because cheese and sausage platters are a common hors d'oeuvre.

← Season 16 Season 17 References Season 18 →

The Bonfire of the Manatees • The Girl Who Slept Too Little • Milhouse of Sand and Fog • Treehouse of Horror XVI • Marge's Son Poisoning • See Homer Run • The Last of the Red Hat Mamas • The Italian Bob • Simpsons Christmas Stories • Homer's Paternity Coot • We're on the Road to D'ohwhere • My Fair Laddy • The Seemingly Never-Ending Story • Bart Has Two Mommies • Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife • Million-Dollar Abie • Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore • The Wettest Stories Ever Told • Girls Just Want to Have Sums • Regarding Margie • The Monkey Suit • Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play