What brought this on? I was watching an old tape and it had “Homer goes to College”. The following conversation took place:
Huh? Is it a bad book? Was it self-serving with many glarin omissions? What am I missing here? I normally catch the jokes, but this one leaves me scratching my head more than a poorly thought out Far Side cartoon.
I dunno. Could be that one of the writers somehow read the book and thought it was stupid. Although I can’t really see that.
It was probably just meant to be funny because it is completely random. Like when Homer reminds the townfolk how selfish huge celebrities like Ray Bolger can be.
carl carlson talking about the old union boss Chuckie Fitzyou…theres a joke there i dont get and i pride myself on getting all simpsons jokes
The episode where Bart and Homer abuse the “Bigger Brother” program has a part that always confused me. When Homer finds out about Bart’s new dad, he waits on the steps for Bart to come home, and confronts him about it. But the way they both talk is so stuck-up and different from how they normally talk that it has to be a reference to something. I just can’t figure out what.
ElwoodCuse, the scene was played as if Homer and Bart are lovers, and Bart has been cheating on Homer. Of course, Bart is having an extra-paternal affair rather than an extra-marital one, and therein lies the joke.
It may be a parody of something in particular, but I couldn’t tell you what.
My question regards the Hallowe’en episode called (I think) Bart Simpson’s Dracula, where Mr Burns is a vampire and invites the family to dinner at his gothic mansion in… PENNSYLVANIA!!!
When Burnsie bites Bart and turns him into a vampire, Bart makes a late night visit to Lisa, and floating outside her window, tells her that “it’s cool being a vampire,” and that “it’s not like she has a choice,” anyway. He then bursts through her window, but is shown doing so three times, each from different angles. It’s obviously a parody of something, but I don’t know what. Anyone? Bueller?
The common movie cliche of an explosion (or other violent act) being shown three times from different angles.
That’s Chuckie Fitzhugh. It’s a Jimmy Hoffa joke as in the next scene we see a football player tripping over a person shaped lump in the middle of a play alluding the rumour that Hoffa was buried in Giants Stadium, suppossed offed by his own union members.
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
I could be wrong but isn’t the floating outside the window vampire thing a take on Salem’s Lot?
floating outside the window i took to be a take on the lost boys.
I have an embarrassing confession to make. It involved PERHAPS the biggest WHOOSH in the history of man.
The episode’s Lisa Goes to Washington has a great gag that plays on Reader’s Digest and the line Brevity is the Soul of Wit.
Even as a high schooler, I had never heard the famous line and didn’t see the beauty of the joke.
Not THAT bad, perhaps. But it was made worse when I went around USING THE FREAKIN’ QUOTE!
Only when someone pointed out my misquote did I realize the BRILLIANCE of the joke.
Glad to subject myself to some peer shame here on a Tuesday morning.
How bout this one:
Marge: Homer, when are you going to give up this crazy sugar scheme?
Homer: Never, Marge! Never. I can’t live the button-down life like you. I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles. Sure, I might offend a few of the bluenoses with my cocky stride and musky odors – oh, I’ll never be the darling of the so-called “City Fathers” who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about “What’s to be done with this Homer Simpson?”
Burns is always portrayed as relatively ineffectual. His results are usually second best and typically maimed in some way.
Consequently, despite his wealth and imposing masion, it’s only located in Pennsylvania (the forest of William Penn) instead of Transylvania (the place beyond the forest). Knowing the bent crew of script writers they have, there’s probably a Quaker joke buried in there as well.
I thought gex gex was asking about why Bart was floating outside the window. And I figured that Pennsylvania thing was just a simple spoof on Transylvania…
Oh yeah, and about what reference it is…thisepisode capsule states that it’s actually both. Snpp.com is your friend!
I always wondered about Skwerl’s query. It just seems like one of those things that’s funny no matter what…for some reason.
Zenster wrote:
It’s so simple! Wait, no it isn’t. It’s needlessly complicated.
The “flying a kite at night is so unwholesome” bit threw me until a buddy pointed out it’s from Children of the Corn.
But is there any significance to Martin singing “The Summer Winds / Came blowing in / From across the sea…” as he stands naked amid the wreckage of his swimming pool?
Here’s a movie reference I never got:
Bart walks up to Ralph sitting in Chief Wiggum’s police car and propositions him for his soul. Ralph gets scared, and Chief Wiggum comes up and shines his flashlight on Bart, who has cat’s eyes and hisses at Chief Wiggum before scurrying away into some steam from a sewer and vanishing.
This whole scene (especially the vanishing into smoke) plays like a famous film noir horror scene, but I haven’t seen the movie…
I always thought that was a reference to a similar scene in Cat People with Malcolm McDowall.
In the episode where Springfield bans alcohol, Rex Banner is brought in to help round up the bootleggers (in a not-too-subtle “Untouchables” parody). When he arrives, he has two telegrams. One is from Mayor Quimby, saying “Springfield needs you.” The other one says “Daisy had puppies.” Is this a reference to some other coded, catchphrase telegram, or is it just supposed to be mundane and non-sequitorrific?
What about the insane grinning guy who has appeared a few times (usually as a waiter or something similar) who answers questions with “Yeeeeeesssss!!!”??
I know that that’s gotta be a parody of something but…well, I’m confused!