Cultural References
The Radioactive Man character is based on Batman, and several scenes in the episode reference the Batman television series from the 1960s. The antagonist of the Radioactive Man films, The Scoutmaster, is based on actor Paul Lynde. The scene in the new Radioactive Man film where Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy are captured in Aquaworld is a reference to the film Waterworld. The director of the Radioactive Man film says: "That Milhouse is going to be big, Gabby Hayes big!", in reference to the American actor Gabby Hayes. Moe Szyslak, the bartender of Moe's Tavern, says that he, as a kid, played the part of Smelly on The Little Rascals, until he killed Alfalfa for stealing his joke. Bill Withers's song "Lean on Me" from 1972 is played at the end of the episode.
In one scene, Comic Book Guy sends a message to other Internet nerds about who will star in the new Radioactive Man film. Two of whom are the nerds Homer met in "Homer Goes to College", and one is Prince dressed in a purple suit. The usenet newsgroup which he posted the message to (alt.nerd.obsessive) is a reference to the alt.tv.simpsons newsgroup.
Read more about this topic: Radioactive Man (The Simpsons Episode)
Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.”
—Carl Bernstein (b. 1944)