Cultural References
The episode starts with a tribute song to The Flintstones as Homer heads home from work and crashes his car into a chestnut tree. Later, Leonard Nimoy makes a guest appearance as himself. References are made to his role in Star Trek, and an allusion to his role as the host of In Search of... from 1976 to 1982. Kyle Darren, the caricature of Luke Perry star of Beverly Hills, 90210, appears as well. Mayor Quimby uses the phrase "May the Force be with you" from the Star Wars franchise, confusing it with Nimoy's work on Star Trek. Homer's Monorail conductor uniform is based on uniforms from Star Wars.
The episode is also a partial spoof of The Music Man, with "The Monorail Song" strongly resembling the Music Man's "Trouble" and with Lyle Lanley being a doppelganger for Harold Hill. When Mr. Burns is brought into the court room, he is restrained in the same way as Hannibal Lecter in the film The Silence of the Lambs.
Read more about this topic: Marge Vs. The Monorail
Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“The men who are messing up their lives, their families, and their world in their quest to feel man enough are not exercising true masculinity, but a grotesque exaggeration of what they think a man is. When we see men overdoing their masculinity, we can assume that they haven’t been raised by men, that they have taken cultural stereotypes literally, and that they are scared they aren’t being manly enough.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)