Too damn funny. I’m setting the vcr to tape the west coast feed, this one I have to keep. Brilliant.
“What a Fool Believes”
Biggest laugh I think I’ve ever gotten out of The Simpsons.
They hit a lot of the right notes, and the dinner scene was very funny. Ditto Flanders’ reaction to the Evolution exhibit.
I did enjoy Rodd (or was it Todd?) praying to a Stork.
What was that “jigsaw puzzle” wipe a reference to? Not Twin Peaks, was it?
“It’s decided- you can park in the handicapped space if you’re just going in for a pack of smokes and maybe a Pop-Tart for tomorrow.”
“The system works.”
“The Nunchuk- Cool But Useless”
I do believe it was Get Smart. Which confused me, because the “mask wearing” thing was a reference to Mission: Impossible, no? I don’t recall a lot of mask wearing in Get Smart.
“That’s slander! Charles Darwin was one of the greatest thinkers of all time!”
“Then why’s he making out with Satan?”
“Darwin gives a very persuasive argument. And his ship was the Beagle, which reminds me of Snoopy…my favorite Peanut!”
I also thought “Mission: Impossible” because of the masks, but I couldn’t guess about the puzzle pieces.
I think it may have been a reference to the 1963 John Huston film “The List of Adrian Messenger” where Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster all appeared in heavy makeup and were unmasked at the end. If I recall, it also used the jigsaw puzzle motif during some scene changes.
I thought Get Smart & MI also. I never even heard of “The List of Adrian Messenger”. Seems like a pretty obscure reference.
Great Episode.
“I’m from NY”
“Boo, Hissss”
“Now Lisa is the Ralph”
Jim
Not quite as edgy as I would have liked, but still a good ep.
Getting really obscure here. (No I didn’t watch the SImpsons’ episode).
Anyway, “Get Smart” once had an episode entitled “The Mess of Adrian Listenger” with Pat Paulsen as the guest star. So, maybe they were parodying both?
Nothing like the May sweeps. **The Simpsons ** was up against the series finale of **The West Wing ** as well as the final Survivor episode. Therefore, I chose to miss **The Simpsons ** on the theory that I will eventually see this episode 10,000 times in syndication.
“I’d like you to teach an alternative to Darwinian Evolution”
“Lamarkian Evoltion?” 
Brian
I was hoping they’d work in a reference to Lysenkoism.
Shame on you! Go out and rent it now!
The film, based on a very popular mystery novel, isn’t really that great a mystery, but features five famous and instantly recognizable actors in minor roles, where they’re endered unrecognizable by heavy makeup. You’re supposed to guess whjo they are (and which minor characters are them). Kirk Douglas plays multple heavly-made-up roles. It’s a black and white film from the late 1950s/early 1960s, and hasn’t been played a lot, even on cable. So I suppose a lot of you whippersnappers haven’t seen it. But it was very famous in its day.
I don’t recall The List of Adrian Messenger *or[/o] Get Smart using jugsaw-cutout “fadeouts”. I was thinking of some circa 1970s TV show, like “Jigsaw John”.
I know it wasn’t Get Smart. I remember the reruns of that show. Also, the music was wrong. I can almost remember the show being referenced.
I really liked the little jokes in this show: The Single-Purpose Room, Little Moe Siszlak. The writing is getting a lot better lately.
I hate to admit it, but the Single Purpose Room went right over my head. What was this in reference to?
The writing does seem to be better lately.
Many schools have a Multipurpose room. Only Springfield would have a room called a Single Purpose Room is my take on the joke.
Jim