Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind/References

General

References/Trivia

Appearances

Credits

Quotes

Cultural references

• The story's title is a pun on the 1977 sci-fi film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
• While Lisa is playing with her dolls:
  • She has Malibu Stacy tend to a sick pony, calling her "Doctor Malibu Stacy Medicine Woman", a reference to the 1990s TV series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
  • She finds that Bart has pranked Malibu Stacy by switching her head for a monkey's head and exclaims in dismay, "A Planet of the Apes head on Malibu Stacy?"
• Homer and Bart watch a FOX TV show called When Cartoon Animals Attack Other Cartoon Animals, a reference to When Animals Attack!.
• When Bart is playing with the controls on Kang's and Kodos's ship:
  • He zaps David Hasselhoff while he's performing "Hooked on a Feeling" for Oktoberfest.
  • He presses a button which activates the "Crop Circle Ray" and draws a peace symbol in Otto's herb garden.

Continuity

• The El Barto and El Grampo graffiti tags are seen on a "Welcome to Springfield" sign when Kang and Kodos arrive in town.
• When Bart is playing with the controls on the aliens' ship, he inadvertently uses the "cow-defacing gun" to leave the El Barto tag on a cow.
• Kodos says to Kang, "I'm sending this one [Bart] back. Unless you want to eat him?" Bart defiantly says, "Eat my shorts!"