Cultural References
"Blue Harvest" contains many references to the popular culture, particularly to the Star Wars film series. Most of the episode itself is a retelling of George Lucas' film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The episode's name is a reference to the fake working title for the production of Return of the Jedi. One of the band members that plays at the cantina ask for any song request and then he subtly responds to his own question by saying "play that same song," a reference to the fact that the song being played in the film scene lasts a long time.
When Peter is about to begin telling the story he says that it is about "love and loss, father and son and the foresight to retain international merchandising rights", a reference to the fact that 20th Century Fox gave those rights to Lucasfilm. During the text scrawl actress Angelina Jolie, her film Gia, and the television channel HBO are mentioned.
One of the empire's ship has a sign in the back that says "Bush – Cheney" a reference to United States President George W. Bush's campaign for the 2004 presidential election in which Dick Cheney acted as his running mate. Once Leia is captured, Vader asks her where she hid the Death Star plans, leading her to respond that they are in one of twenty-six briefcases, a reference to the game show Deal or No Deal.
When Luke is watching the sunset he breaks the fourth wall by introducing Star Wars composer John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra who have been scoring the scene. Luke then asks the orchestra to play the theme of The People's Court. Later in the episode when Luke finds his uncle and aunt murdered, he also finds that Williams and the entire orchestra have been killed as well; this saddens Luke since the episode will now have to be scored by composer Danny Elfman. A political commentator on the radio is heard saying that the "liberal galactic media is saying that the planet Hoth is melting", this commentator is voiced by Rush Limbaugh who also runs a political radio program in which he criticizes the liberal media.
Obi-Wan sings a rendition of (I've Had) The Time of My Life from the film Dirty Dancing, in case he never sees Luke again. In a fight with a group of TIE fighters, Luke asks the origins behind their name; the following scene then shows that the pilots are from Thailand. Leslie Nielsen's character from the movie Airplane wishes Han good luck during their encounter with the TIE fighters. When seeking how to destroy the Death Star, the rebels look at an instructional video hosted by basketball player Magic Johnson. Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo's characters from the National Lampoon's Vacation films appear driving by the Death Star. Chris, who is voiced by Seth Green, points out that Robot Chicken already did a Star Wars parody (Green is the creator of Robot Chicken).
Read more about this topic: Blue Harvest (Family Guy)
Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“Hard times accounted in large part for the fact that the exposition was a financial disappointment in its first year, but Sally Rand and her fan dancers accomplished what applied science had failed to do, and the exposition closed in 1934 with a net profit, which was donated to participating cultural institutions, excluding Sally Rand.”
—For the State of Illinois, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)