The Frying Game/References
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Cultural references
- The episode title is a pun on the 1992 movie The Crying Game.
- The "Reversal of Freedom Act of 1994" cited by the EPA Scientist may be a pun on the Freedom of Information Act.
- Meals on Wheels (where Homer ends up performing his community service) is a real-life service that exists in many communities in the UK, Australia, the USA and Canada.
- Homer's and Marge's insistence that the Man with the Braces murdered Mrs. Bellamy is a reference to Richard Kimble's saying that the one-armed man is the real killer in the 1993 movie The Fugitive, which was based on the 1960s TV series.
- References from the 1999 movie The Green Mile:
- When Homer is on his way to the electric chair, the music in the background is from the movie's soundtrack.
- The prisoner who asks Homer to "Give me your hands, boss" and then threatens to kill him is a parody of John Coffey. Michael Clarke Duncan was planned to voice the character, but he declined.
- Chief Wiggum sheds a tear after Homer is strapped into the electric chair, as does prison guard Dean Stanton at John Coffey's execution.
- The music is played again (briefly) just before the closing credits roll.
- The TV show Frame Up may be a reference to, and parody of, reality television in general.
- The EPA scientist appears to have been modeled after actor William Atherton, who played a high-handed EPA bureaucrat in the 1984 film Ghostbusters. As the EPA scientist sets off a chain reaction of events for Simpsons, in Ghostbusters the EPA bureaucrat attempts to have the Ghostbuster business shut down. When he returns with authority figures the Ghostbusters are forced to open up their containment unit, thus freeing the imprisoned phantoms, who then wreak terrible havoc on New York City.
Continuity
