Donnie Fatso/References
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Cultural references[edit]
- The episode title is a pun on the 1997 American crime drama film Donnie Brasco.
- The plot of the episode parodies that of the film, with Homer taking the role of Joseph D. Pistone, who uses the undercover name "Donnie Brasco" to infiltrate the American Mafia, and Fat Tony taking the role of mobster Lefty Ruggiero, who befriends Donnie while remaining suspicious.
- In the title screen gag, a Fox News helicopter is seen.
- During the episode's couch gag:
- The popular Christmas carol "Carol of the Bells" by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych is heard.
- Day 2 on the Advent calendar features Comic Book Guy building a "gingerbread" Death Star from Star Wars.
- Day 12 parodies the Nativity of Jesus.
- Day 3 features the Old Jewish man and Hyman Krustofsky eating at a sushi restaurant which has a curtain of Mount Fuji.
- Selma kissed the TV when Ryan Seacrest appeared on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, a New Year's Eve TV special broadcast primarily from New York City's Times Square.
- Marge wants her children to stay quiet about her being hungover until the Fiesta Bowl, an annual American college football bowl game usually taking place at the beginning of January.
- The Blue Angels demonstration squadron fly over Samoa on New Year's Eve.
Homer and Moe interrupt a play of Wicked. Characters of the musical and several references to The Wizard of Oz are seen.
- Homer and Moe interrupt a play of the musical Wicked, based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation:
- The characters Glinda, Madame Morrible, and the flying monkeys appear.
- Glinda says to Moe, "You've always had the power to get back to the bar", a reference to her iconic phrase in the 1939 film, "You've always had the power to get back to Kansas", directed at Dorothy Gale.
- Moe and one of the flying monkeys parody the "Mirror Scene" from the 1933 film Duck Soup, featuring the Marx Brothers.
- At the FBI headquarters:
- The building seen is the J. Edgar Hoover Building, located in Washington, D.C..
- The sign seen outside, "Out of control since 2001", makes an allusion to the expansion of FBI and US government surveillance and power during the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
- A picture of Barack Obama is seen at the FBI agent's office.
- The board of Fat Tony resembles the mosaic board in FlashForward.
- When Homer was struggling to pronounce the word "consigliere", he states that he is Fat Tony's Robert Duvall, the actor who played Tom Hagen, the consigliere (advisor) for the Corleone family in The Godfather.
- Homer's secret name, "Nicky Bluepants Altosaxophony", is a pun on the film Mickey Blue Eyes, starring Hugh Grant and James Caan.
- Clair de lune by Claude Debussy is heard when Homer looks at the family picture.
- The song is heard again when Homer visits Fat Tony's grave and one more time during the end credits.
- Krusty mentions American TV host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
- Moe threatens Fat Tony by telling him he would turn him into a Rubik's Cube.
Fat Tony reads The New York Review of Books. The magazine features Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) on the cover.
- While Homer is sent to burn Moe's down, Fat Tony reads The New York Review of Books which features Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) on the cover.
- Homer is given the initiation ritual to become a member of the Mafia. The ceremony involves Homer's finger being pricked with a knife by Fat Tony and spilling a few drops of blood on a picture of Francis of Assisi.
- The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci can be seen in the ceremony room.
- Fat Tony makes an allusion to pederasty in ancient Greece, the acknowledged relationship between an older male and a younger male.
- The Belgian sailors carry boxes reading "M-16 GL". This is a pun on the M16 rifle and a grenade launcher, named "GL" in military jargon.
- At the gym, Mr. Burns is wearing a Yale University hoodie.
- Fit Tony says, "That's why I keep my friends close". When Homer asks him "and your enemies closer?", he is referring to the phrase from The Godfather Part II, "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer".
- One of the horses at the gambling event is named "Mrs. Ed", a pun on Mister Ed, the talking horse of the series of the same name.
- The line Homer says, "Now I'm just an average snook like everyone else", and the episode's closing sequence are a reference to the film Goodfellas.
- The song "My Way" by Sid Vicious is heard, a song that also plays during the ending of Goodfellas.
- Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay for Goodfellas, is mentioned along with his wife, Nora Ephron.
Trivia[edit]
- There have been other canon episodes where something happens to a major character, but the consequences are dealt with by the end of the episode and everything goes back to normal:
- "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-bot" -- Snowball II dies, followed in quick succession by two more Simpson family cats (Snowball III and Coltrane). Lisa then gets a cat that looks exactly like Snowball II, names it Snowball II (even though it is technically Snowball V), and decides to pretend the whole thing never happened.
- People on the FBI's chart of Fat Tony's associates include:
- Krusty the Clown
- Mayor Quimby
- Luigi
- Snake Jailbird
- One of the Hell's Satans
Goofs[edit]
- The "BRIBE" writing on the brown bag moves around in the shots it is featured in.
- Homer tries to hit Bart with a sidebar, and in the shots there are fewer people in the gallery than there were in the shots before.
