In the 3/13/05 episode, the Simpsons go to China. I think I got most of the jokes – but what’s up with those three flying Chinese dragons with the singsong voices? Are they lampooning something out of anime, or some other Asian pop-culture cliche, or what?
they are just lampooning asian culture and anime along with myths…that was the only funny part in the WHOLE EPISODE. It has been terrible lately, the writing is god-awful.
When the white dragon showed up, I thought it was a “Spirited Away” reference. When the other two showed up… I was just confused.
When the dragons started crying rainbows, I was laughing my ass off.
The song at the end had the lyric “American jerks are leaving…”
The dragonsong continued with something along the lines of, “Now we sleep for a thousand years/when we wake the world will end!”
Chinese dragons, beyond the general association of prosperity, are specifically a fertility symbol.
Dunno if that’s intentional, though. Peanuts have sometimes been used as a fertility symbol as well. I’m sure it would be easy enough to make something of that if one were inclined to, but it might just be one of those airline-drinks and sleeping pills kind of things, too. 