Special Edna/References
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Cultural references[edit]
- This episode features a parody of the EPCOT Center. A sign outside the park reads "When Every Other Place is Booked," and Homer moans that EFCOT is "even boring to fly over!"
- The references to EPCOT Center being different from Walt Disney World is confusing, since EPCOT is indeed one of the four Disney theme parks in Orlando that makes up Walt Disney World. Homer's reference to Disney World and the location to which he escapes at the end is most likely a reference to the Magic Kingdom park. Alternatively, it may be an indication that EFCOT is a distinct entity from Walt Disney World's Epcot.
- Enron's Ride of Broken Dreams is a reference to the fallout caused by the Enron scandal. The ride goes up for quite a distance parodying the stock's rise, then suddenly drops steeply and briefly rises again (stock partial recovery) and then drops down into a poor house shed (total collapse of the company, wiping out the savings of many).
- The attractions shown in the episode are:
- Honey, I Squirted Goo on the Audience - A parody of Honey, I Shrunk the Audience!
- Great Moments with Mr. Eisner - A parody of Disneyland's Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
- The FutureSphere - A parody of Epcot's Spaceship Earth and Magic Kingdom's If You Had Wings
- The Home of Tomorrow - A parody of Disneyland's Monsanto House of the Future
- The World of Tomorrow attraction has some basis in the former Magic Kingdom attraction If You Had Wings, which was sponsored by Eastern Airlines. Eastern Airlines was the official airline of Walt Disney World until shortly before it filed for bankruptcy in 1989.
- The music playing while the giant Eastern Airlines robots herd people with whips is "Happy Together" by the Turtles. The people are walking/marching in step to the music.
- The building where the award ceremony is held is an exact likeness of Epcot's Horizons.
- The Electric Car of the Future, a parody of World of Motion, which was sponsored by General Motors (its replacement, Test Track, still is sponsored by General Motors).
- The nighttime fireworks/laser display being watched by Homer and Marge is a parody of Epcot's Illuminations show, taking place in a facsimile of Epcot's World Showcase.
- The "World of Tomorrow" ride parodies the fact that most of Epcot's attractions were sponsored by huge corporations (General Electric, AT&T, Exxon, United Technologies) that used their attractions to offer a very clean version of themselves and how they were bringing the future to the American public.
- At the Teacher of the Year awards ceremony, Homer twice misidentifies presenter Little Richard:
- When Richard introduces himself, Homer calls out "Purple Rain!", a song by Prince.
- When Richard tells Homer to shut up, Homer (still in awe) says, "Michael Jackson just told me to shut up."
- Julio Estudiante, the teacher who wins the Teacher of the Year award, is reminiscent of Jaime Escalante and the 1988 film Stand and Deliver, where Escalante indeed teaches inner city school students that differential equations were more powerful than bullets.
- When Homer and Bart ride the electric car, the gay robots say "One of us! One of us!" This is homage to the classic line from the 1932 film Freaks. The ride, sponsored by "gas producers of America" exhibits a veiled parody of smear campaigns and conspiracies by oil companies (such as the Streetcar Scandal) to squash alternative transportation (such as mass transit and electric cars) and expand the use of gasoline-powered automobiles.
- Edna mentions that she accidentally showed the "R-rated version of Romeo and Juliet", which is the 1968 film adaptation.
- The opening music to the documentary on holes is the beginning of "Fragile" by Sting. This is a reference to the IMAX documentary The Living Sea, whose soundtrack featured the same song.
- EPCOT had an attraction called The Living Seas from 1986 until 2006.
- When Lisa mocks Bart for befriending Edna, she quotes "put mothballs in the beef stew", a line from the Simpsons' hit single "Do the Bartman".
- The wrestling match Bart watches on TV is an irony of the 2003 invasion of Iraq; the fighter Osama bin Rotten is an ironic reference to Osama bin Laden and the fighter "the Secretary of Hate, Colin Kapow" is a reference to the US Secretary of State during that war, Colin Powell.
- The text that Bart uses to study World War I confuses the agreement between states defined Entente Cordiale with the Triple Entente.
- Bart and Milhouse's intimidating use of the Black Hawk helicopter on flirting couples in cars is a reference to the Blue Thunder movie.
- One of the nominees for the Teacher of the Year award says in his presentation video that he uses humor to reach his students. This elicits a groan from the selection committee, and one member saying, "Dead Poets Society has destroyed a generation of educators." As an example of his point, the scene then shifts to a clip of that teacher, who looks and sounds just Robin Williams's character John Keating, impersonates John Wayne, reenacts a faith healing and dances the Macarena to teach his class about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- During a press conference on the doorsteps of Springfield Elementary School Cletus says he is a reporter with the Outhouse Times-Picayune which is a reference to The Times-Picayune, a daily newspaper in New Orleans.
- The motto "We check IDs" that Moe says in the Moe's Tavern advertisement that Bart inserts in his World War I assignment refers to checking the identity documents made by bartenders to avoid serving alcohol to minors. but Moe winks to the effect that he is joking, so the commercial becomes downright dangerous legally.
- While Bart imagines who could pair up with mrs. Krabappel hears the song You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate; among the various characters that he imagines the only one who is not a cartoon character is George Meyer (one of the producers of the Simpsons).
- The sports car that Willie lends to Skinner and a yellow Lola T70 Mk II, star of track races in the 1960s.
- When Skinner drives off in Willie's car you hear the 007 movie theme and also the monitor with which Willie calls Skinner in the car is a quote from the 007 movie You Only Live Twice.
- The square where the Simpson family has lunch at Epcot Center is a reference to the squares and buildings of the medieval cities of northern Europe (it looks a lot like Bruges in Belgium). Far on the horizon you can also see the bell St Mark's Campanile with the Doge's Palace of Venice, the Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Chichén Itzá pyramid, the Hōryū-ji Pagoda, the Fontainebleau Castle, the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.
- The movie "Honey, I Squirted Goo on the Audience" that is screened at Epcot Center, the green thing stuck on the facades of the cinema building and that comes out of its doors, and that is on Homer and Bart, is a reference to the movie The Blob (1958).
- The phrase Bart says to Skinner in the car simulator "pro boner" is a saying that indicates an activity apparently "pro bono" (definition used by professionals to indicate a job done without compensation) but instead having the purpose of obtaining a sexual reward from someone.[1]
- The ending has two closing credits. the first is the song Happy Together by The Turtles, the second is the song "What Do I Think of the Pie" sung by the Simpson characters and composed by Alf Clausen.
Trivia/Goofs[edit]
- This episode is a sequel to "Grade School Confidential".
- According to a sign Principal Skinner passes on the edge of town, Springfield is 2,653 miles from Orlando.
- The original title for this episode is "Love and Marking".
- This may be an indicator that "The Principal and the Pauper" is non-canon.
- The Simpsons visit EFCOT Center (a parody of Disney's EPCOT Center) in Orlando, Florida to attend the "Teacher of the Year" award, but in the season eleven episode, "Kill the Alligator and Run", the Simpsons were banned from setting foot in Florida.
- In the credits, Homer's chair changes from metal black to wooden beige. Also, when Homer pushes his chair back, he doesn't actually, and the chair is moved one step back, as the frame will have altered the push.
- Two of the kids Bart runs over in "Halloween Hit and Run" are Lewis and Richard in their Halloween costumes from "Treehouse of Horror II".
- In church several people have the wrong color.
References[edit]
