D'oh-in' in the Wind
"D'oh-in' in the Wind"
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Episode Information
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"D'oh-in In the Wind" is the sixth episode from the tenth season of The Simpsons.
Plot
Mr. Burns plans on eating a jar of puckles for lunch, but is unable to open it. Everyone else in the plant is not able to open it too. Mr. Burns feels he needs tougher employees, so he directs Lenny, Carl and Homer in a commerical to promote the plant. Homer sees what a good job he did in the commercial and plans on becoming an actor. As he fills out his resume, Bart points out he hasn't filled in his middle name, just "J.". He consults Grandpa about it, who remembers where it might be. They drive to a farm run by two hippies, Sid and Munchie, who were friends of Homer's mother back when she has a hipster. They point out a mural she painted which reveals Homer's middle name - "Jay". Homer sees how care-free his life would be if he were a hippie and decides to become one.
Homer dons a poncho and carries around a frisbie as part of his hippie guise. He visits the farm where he joins Sid and Munchie in their game of hackie-sack. The fun soon ends when they must go back to work, as they have their own organic juice plant right in their barn. Homer beleives because of this that they're not hippies and makes them prove it by joining him on a "freak-out". After their little luck freaking out squares, the come back to the barn to see it's flooded with their jiuce and broken bottles and discover Homer's frisbe jammed the machine, thus ruining their order. In fury, they remind Homer he's not a hippie and he never was or will be one.
At night, Homer plans on making it up to them by taking some crops from their garden and making the juice and distributing it. However, he uses some of their "personal crops" (Peyote cacti) which cause anyone who drinks them to have crazy halucinations. The police catch on and surround the farm. Homer comes out front to defend his friends and hippie honor by reminding them of what the what the 60's morals gave us as he plants several flowers in the guns of the police, but he is shot the flower is lodged in his head. Dr. Hibbert can't get it out as he claims ""he's not a gardener".
Trivia
- One of this episode's guest stars is George Carlin. In a previous episode, Krusty the Clown is told he is being sued by Carlin for plagiarizing "The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television".
- While Ned Flanders is driving, he has a hallucination where he sees the Grateful Dead Dancing Bears: Melody and Verse with the Skeleton, also from the Grateful Dead, who says "Mornin' Ned". They are followed by the Marching Hammers from Pink Floyd's The Wall marching down the road and the Rolling Stones' "Lips & Tongue" which ask him to "Pucker up Ned". Series creator Matt Groening has admitted to being a huge Dead, Floyd and Stones fan.
- Seth and Munchie bear striking resemblances to George Carlin and Martin Mull.
- In the flashback to Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, Grandpa Simpson yells to bring on Sha Na Na. If, as implied, Grandpa was at the festival for the full three days, he should know that Sha Na Na immediately preceded Hendrix. (Of course, seeing that it is also Grandpa, he could be booing Hendrix to bring back Sha Na Na)
- On the DVD comentary Mark Kirkland mentions that because he was going through a divorce Matt Nastuk took over this episode for the first act.
- Yo La Tengo performs a psychedelic rendition of the theme song over the end credits.
Cultural references
- The title is a play on Bob Dylan's song "Blowin' in the Wind".
- The chalkboard gag, "No one cares what my definition of 'is' is", refers to a deposition made by Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal.
- The end title for Mr. Burns's promo for the Nuclear Power Plant reads, "An Alan Smithee Film" - from 1968 until 1999, this was a pseudonym used by directors who wanted to dissociate themselves from a movie they had lost creative control over.
- The song that is playing during the Woodstock flashback is "The Star Spangled Banner" by Jimi Hendrix. The song ends just about when Grampa starts chastising Homer.
- Seth and Munchie's dog, Ginsberg, is named after the beat poet Allen Ginsberg.
- When Homer tells Marge to take off her bra and says "free the Springfield 2" it is a reference to Marc Emery and the BC 3 and their slogan "free the BC" 3
- "Incense and Peppermints" by Strawberry Alarm Clock plays while Homer, Seth and Munchie are having their freak-out. Homer changes cassettes and "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel starts to play.
- In the beginning of freak-out "Hair" by Cowsills is playing.
- Some things in the freak-out and after - such as Homer becoming "The Cosmic Fool", the psychedelic paint job on the car, and the juice being spiked (though inadvertently) with drugs - are loosely based on the antics of the Merry Pranksters.
- The song played while Homer does his midnight harvest is "Time of the Season" by The Zombies.
- Homer greets the one of the hippies with the phrase "Good morning Starshine" a reference to the musical Hair.
- The song that plays while the town is tripping is "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane.
- When Barney becomes frightened by his drug-induced hallucination he drinks some beer in order to overcome it. A pink elephant marches through the door to the aid of Barney. This resembles the same pink elephant that Dumbo the elephant sees when he mistakenly becomes drunk.
- When Ned Flanders drinks drug-juice in his car, after happy bears and skeletons, he sees marching hammers - a famous scene from The Wall movie by Pink Floyd. Second pair of hammers have lips - The Rolling Stones logo.
- The scene where Abe and Jasper are sitting on a bench laughing is taken directly from the MTV animated series Beavis and Butt-head.
- When Dr. Hibbert states that he is a doctor, not a gardener, Star Trek is being referenced, as Dr. McCoy often says "I'm a doctor, not an engineer (or other profession)."
- At the end of the credits Homer mutters "I buried Flanders," spoofing the "Paul is dead" theory from the The Beatles song "Strawberry Fields Forever"; in fact, the psychedelic version of the Simpsons theme in the end credits is a knock-off of The Beatles's "Tomorrow Never Knows", performed by Yo La Tengo.
- Another reference to the credits is psychodelic parts of many The Doors songs, where often Jim Morrison screams various phrases. Homer saying "I buried Flanders" may refer to Morrisons "I am the Lizard King" at the end of "Not to Touch the Earth" song.
