Cultural References
The episode's title and Homer's attire are references to Colonel Tom Parker, singer Elvis Presley's manager. Films playing at the Springfield Googolplex movie theater at the beginning of the episode include Honey, I Hit a School Bus (a parody of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids), Look Who's Oinking (a parody of Look Who's Talking), and a film called Ernest vs. The Pope which stars the fictional character Ernest P. Worrell. During his long drive to the Beer 'N' Brawl, Homer passes a boy playing a banjo on a porch, a reference to the "Dueling Banjos" sequence in the film Deliverance. The same boy appears later at the recording studio waiting in line with his banjo to record a CD. William Irwin writes in his book Philosophy and the Interpretation of Pop Culture that this "burst of banjo" must convey a message even if the viewers do not "get" the reference to Deliverance: "Thanks to prevailing connotations of banjo music, viewers who do not recognize the banjo tune as the theme from Deliverance will not laugh, but the mere sound of banjo tells the audience that Homer has entered a backward, redneck area."
The Beer 'N' Brawl redneck bar is based on the bar in the film Urban Cowboy. The Beer 'N' Brawl sells Laramie High Tar cigarettes, a reference to the American cigarette brand Laramie. After arriving home from the Beer 'N' Brawl, Lurleen's song is stuck in Homer's head, and he even sings it to his bowling ball for good luck. Homer's co-worker Lenny decides to give it a shot and sings "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)", a 1976 song by The Carpenters, to his bowling ball. Homer says that the last song before Lurleen's "Your Wife Don't Understand You" that he could not get out of his mind was the Lipps Inc song "Funkytown". The syndicated country comedy show that Lurleen appears on, Ya-Hoo!, is based on the country television series Hee Haw, which ran in syndication from 1971 to 1993.
Read more about this topic: Colonel Homer
Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“If in the earlier part of the century, middle-class children suffered from overattentive mothers, from being “mother’s only accomplishment,” today’s children may suffer from an underestimation of their needs. Our idea of what a child needs in each case reflects what parents need. The child’s needs are thus a cultural football in an economic and marital game.”
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