# "Big Boot" reference in Simpson's Australian visit- What does it refer to? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 2, 2002, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006 "2002-11-02T17:07:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/21 "2002-11-06T00:11:06Z")
[C.H.U.D.](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0087015) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/22 "2002-11-06T00:14:35Z")
Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers end hijack ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/23 "2002-11-06T00:30:56Z")
Aaaaaaah. I is informed. Merci. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/24 "2002-11-06T04:32:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bryan Ekers \* > \*\*Among all the other ridiculous pseudo-Oz-isms in that episode is a rather glaring contradition. When Bart first calls Tobias and tells him to check the neighbor’s toilet, Tobias hops on his bike and goes on a six hour round trip to the neighbor’s and back. Later on, when Tobias’s father says he’ll complain about the phone bill to his Member of Parliament, he just yells “Hey, Gus!” out the window, suggesting the neighbor is only a short distance away. \*\* You don’t happen to own shirt that says “Genius at work,” do you? ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/25 "2002-11-06T06:41:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE \* > \*\* > Not the episodes where they make fun of Republicans! They always depict Republicans as evil, cruel, heartless, and rich… and not all of us are rich! \*\* And the Republicans have Bob Dole read from the Necronomican. I’d actually join the party if that were true 😃 (speaking as someone who votes mostly, but not exclusivly republican, but belongs to no political party). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/26 "2002-11-06T07:02:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Crusoe \* > \*\*Yes, but you can make fun more intelligently than resorting to really _bad_ stereotypes. I can imagine what a Simpsons-do-the-UK episode would be like, but I’d hope they’d steer clear of the really obvious _Friends_-style cliches. \*\* You mean you’ve never seen “The Big Book of British Smiles” ?! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/27 "2002-11-06T07:10:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cat Fight \* > \*\*You don’t happen to own shirt that says “Genius at work,” do you? \*\* Not quite, but your flip remark does raise certain unpleasant Grade 6 memories which I won’t go into now. Anyhoo, this isn’t just a matter of petty nitpicking. The contradiction is between two seperate slams at Australia: [ul][li]Tobias goes to the neighbors and has to ride over the horizon: i.e. Ozzies are rural and isolated.[/li][li]Tobias’s father, Bruno, wants to complain to his MP and just yells “Gus!” out the window, i.e. there is no formality or sophistication to Australian government. Even worse (and a lot funnier) is when “Gus” decides to “take this all the way to the Prime Minister” and walks down to a lake to yell at “Andy”, who is floating naked in an inner tube.[/ul][/li] I can see why Ozzies might be upset at this, but I’m cracking up just remembering them. Now, the episode where the Simpsons went to Toronto wasn’t funny at **all**. ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/28 "2002-11-06T11:31:50Z")
> [@](#): > > Tobias’s father, Bruno, wants to complain to his MP and just yells “Gus!” out the window, i.e. there is no formality or sophistication to Australian government. Even worse (and a lot funnier) is when “Gus” decides to “take this all the way to the Prime Minister” and walks down to a lake to yell at “Andy”, who is floating naked in an inner tube. This doesn’t upset me. It’s unfortunately true. The member of parliament for the seat that the tiny country town I grew up in is located is a farmer. And he’s our Deputy Prime Minister. It’s so embarrasing. I mean, a farmer! And, well, I couldn’t see Johnny Howard floating in an inner tube in the middle of a lake, but one of our former Prime Minister’s response to being kicked out of office was to go home and eat a big steak. That’s almost Simpsonian. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/29 "2002-11-06T12:09:08Z")
Well I think the few Irish ref.'s were funny. The Drunken poets float in the Paddy’s Day parade The little leprechaun in one of the Treehouse of Horrors episodes The bigger leprechaunish character who answered gramdpa’s “We kicked the Irish out in ought 8” with “A fine job ya did too” while smoking a clay pipe. Fuck it, it’s the Simpsons. ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/30 "2002-11-06T13:22:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hawthorne \* > \*\*On the toilet thing, not only is the rotation thing a myth, but we don’t even have those sorts of toilets. Our “pool” is much smaller and the flush process is more waterfall than whirlpool. The flush water all comes from around the rim. The first time I saw a North American toilet I thought it was broken. \*\* I’m beginning to wonder whether Aussies toilets are unique. I’ve seen (well, used) systems in Singapore and Malaysia (excluding the squat-style toilets) that resemble this description you’ve given, **hawthorne**. Veering back to the OP, I thought this episode of the Simpsons was incredibly offensive when I first saw it. 'Course, I’m was a overly-sensitive teenager at the time. (I’ve since gotten over myself :)) I still don’t think it’s a terribly funny episode, but it’s pretty harmless. BTW, have any Australians seen this episode on TV in recent years? I remember the few times it did screen it caused something of a overly-sensitive-teenager-style mini outrage. I have an inkling that as a result Channel Ten doesn’t show it anymore. I remember a certain article appearing in a TV magazine after the episode screened the first time. The reviewer was, shall we say, _pissed off_ by the episode in question: **Bart** : “Hey, I think I hear a dingo eating your baby!”\* **Reviewer:** “Hey, I think I hear a gunman shooting your president!” ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/31 "2002-11-06T15:02:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Narrad \* > I’m beginning to wonder whether Aussies toilets are unique. I’ve seen (well, used) systems in Singapore and Malaysia (excluding the squat-style toilets) that resemble this description you’ve given, **hawthorne**. Ireland and the UK have these types of toilets and the majority that I’ve seen in Mainland Europe. ---
**Author:** ![ravage2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d07c76/32.png) [@ravage2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ravage2)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/32 "2002-11-07T16:53:02Z")
Steering this away from dicussions of toilet flow… Narrad, I think Channel ten has shown it quite a few times because I remember it pretty well. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rynn \* > \*\*I really dislike most of that episode, simply because there are so many things that would be ten times funnier to make fun of in Australia than that stupid boot thing (which I’ve no idea what its based on). Some parts were good, like the giant can of beer, coffe/beer argument, but in general, that was a pretty lame episode. \*\* I agree with rynn. I could have written more funnier stuff about Australia that was more subtle. But I like the stamps with the “30 years of electricity” on them. Because Australia Post actually had a series like that years ago with “30 years of the Cochlear implant” and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/33 "2002-11-07T17:24:18Z")
I’ve always taekn the episode to be a knock on blatant steroetypes. Tere is one part of the episode where they are in front of the Parliament building and it clearly says Austria and someone forced into it an extra ‘al’. For me that seems an indication that it was a big 'ol joke on us and not on Australia. At first I wasn’t enamored with the episode, but it has grown on me. And I personally think the scene where Homer sings God Bless America and sheds a tear at the toilet flushing the American away is the greatest scene in Simpson’s history. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2002, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/34 "2002-11-07T17:28:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tretiak \* > \*\* And I personally think the scene where Homer sings God Bless America and sheds a tear at the toilet flushing the American away is the greatest scene in Simpson’s history. \*\* No, that’s the “Now I’m in America! Now I’m in Australia!” _POW_ “Here in America we don’t take that kind of crap SIR!” scene. ---
**Author:** ![Pinkyflee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e274bd/32.png) [@Pinkyflee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pinkyflee)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2023, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/35 "2023-11-22T10:57:02Z")
Many years later, I am here to answer your question lol. And to confirm, yes I am an Aussie. The boot is in reference to a saying we have and use when talking about punishment “Kick in the Ass” used “Give him a Kick in the Ass!”. We say it alot, but we don’t carry it out - well most people don’t lol. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2023, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/36 "2023-11-22T11:25:54Z")
> [@Crusoe](#): > > Yes, but you can make fun more intelligently than resorting to really _bad_ stereotypes. I can imagine what a Simpsons-do-the-UK episode would be like, but I’d hope they’d steer clear of the really obvious _Friends_-style cliches. And of course there was one, less than a year after this was posted. > **[The Regina Monologues](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Regina_Monologues)** > > "The Regina Monologues" is the fourth episode of the fifteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 23, 2003. It was directed by Mark Kirkland and was the final episode written by John Swartzwelder. The episode sees the Simpson family travel to the United Kingdom for vacation. There, they meet several celebrities including Tony Blair, Evan Marriott, Ian McKellen and J. K. Rowling, who all appear a... ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2023, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/37 "2023-11-22T11:33:38Z")
I remember the UK episode as very lame. It aired after the Simpson’s script rot had already started. The Aussie one, though, was very funny. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2023, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/38 "2023-11-22T11:55:58Z")
It was partially a play on _KotH Returning Japanese_. > **[Returning Japanese](https://kingofthehill.fandom.com/wiki/Returning_Japanese)** > > "Returning Japanese" is the one hundred-twenty-fifth episode of King of the Hill. It was first aired on May 12, 2002. The episode is a double feature, which is split during syndication. Part one was written by Kit Boss and Etan Cohen, and directed by... ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2023, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/39 "2023-11-22T12:06:31Z")
That saying exists in the US, as well. I don’t necessarily connect it with stereotypical Australia, but perhaps it’s even more commonplace there. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2023, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006/40 "2023-11-22T15:54:48Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > It makes fun of anything and everything, and yet people seem to think they are being singled out. I really hated the Frank Grimes (or Grimey, as he liked to be known) episode, until I realized…it was making fun of me. That is, people that cared too much about continuity and canon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-boot-reference-in-simpsons-australian-visit-what-does-it-refer-to/135006.md?page=3)