Somewhat off topic but this is the first I’ve realised that Mark Russel was supposed to be funny.
Vagina
Or as one, willy lump lump put it, “complimentary term for a kickin vagina.”
Thanks, neighbors.
“The Death of Sadsack? This better not be another fake-out!”
Me, being a youngin, had to look up Sadsack. And being a non-comic book reader, had to have my husband explain the whole thing to me.
There are so many hidden references in that show that I am sure I will never catch.
And obviously I’d never heard of Mark Russell until now either. 
In the “Homer 3-d” Halloween episode Patty and Selma bring a bunch of clamshells over to the house for cleaning and while they’re prying out dead clams with their fingers one of them (I think Patty but I could be wrong) says “hey, you can just suck them out!” Dunno if it’s meant to be an entendre, but it seems likely.
In The Treehouse of Horror III the Devil Flanders says “hi Bart”. I didn’t get it until I watched it last night and remembered that Bart already met the Devil in Bart Get Hit By A Car.
Well, then. I figured he said hi to Bart because Bart was inherently evil.
I’m pretty sure those were hermit crabs. And none of them in a can of Buzz cola, neither.
This isn’t really a hidden joke or anything, but somehow I’d seen the episode about 50 times before I even noticed this gag. It’s the episode where Lisa gets a vision into the future at the Renaissance fair…
Her husband-to-be says to her at one point:
“You know, I’ve attempted to enjoy your family on a personal level, on an ironic level, as a novelty, as camp, as kitsch, as a cautionary example… Nothing works!”
I thought that was hysterical when I finally noticed it!
Except, possibly the fact that in the painting, it’s a scallop shell, not a clam shell. Not sure about the shell in the episode that referenced the painting, because my viewing record is spotty.
[sub]WooHoo! That means I can still look forward to some older Simpsons episodes![/sub]
Yeah, this was my way of understanding it. It’s funny because Bart has a casual relationship with Satan. If it’s reference to an earlier episode, then it isn’t really funny (and it wouldn’t make sense: the first Satan that Bart meets isn’t the Flanders version). So I think this another misreading of a joke.
Well, just to be overwhelmingly clear, I always thought it was just a reference to the painting, as well. It was only on the date of this thread’s genesis that it dawned on me that there may be another meaning to the line.
I truthfully have no idea whether the writers meant the “clam” to refer to girly naughty bits (which, for the record, I am inordinately fond of), but it adds to the joke. Whether it was intentional is a matter of dispute. Whether it is funny, is (IMHO) not.
I’ll be the first to admit: I’m not sure if I’m getting this one.
If i’m not mistaken, it’s a nod to the many ways in which The Simpsons, as a TV show and cultural artifact, is understood and interpreted by the people who watch it.
Remember the episode where Homer runs for Sanitation Commisioner by promising all sorts of expensive and outrageous services? He ends up jamming the town’s trash in some caves outside of town. He makes some remark to Marge about Springfield becoming America’s trash-hole. Marge responds in pig-latin by saying: “Ixnay on the ashhole-tray”. Do you think the censors realized the writers were trying to sneak the word “asshole” past them? 
Frostillicus!?!
What are YOU doing in a Simpsons thread?!?
Yeah, if the censors didn’t get the “ash-hole” thing, then they were idiots. I prefer to think that everyone knew about this joke and passed it through a technical loophole.
(Huh-huh-huh…I said “hole”…)
Well, there was the Krusty See ‘n’ Say. I’d heard it a few times before it dawned on me.
(The cord is pulled) “‘S’ is for shiksa! S…H…I…uh…I think there’s a T in there…”
At first, I thought it was just another “Krusty shoddy product” joke, with “Krusty can’t spell” thrown in for good measure. But of course, I later noticed that Krusty had spelled out “shit.”
Mine isn’t as off-color as yours, but it does show the many levels of how The Simpsons works. From the episode where Otto ends up staying at the Simpson place, earlier in the episode, he’s seen in a trash bin. Someone asks him, “You sleep in a dumpster?” to which Otto replies, “Oh, I wish. Dumpster brand trash receptacles are top of the line! This is just a TrashCo Waste Disposal Unit.”
This is a funny line in and of itself, but it is funnier when you realize that “Dumpster” is actually a trademarked brand name for a certain manufacturer of trash bins which, like Band-Aid, Kitty Litter, Popsicle, and others, has been used as a catch-all term for the general product.