The Boy Who Knew Too Much - Cultural References

Cultural References

While riding on the prison bus, Bart looks out the window and has a dream that features him, Huckleberry Finn, and Abraham Lincoln on a raft going down a river in Springfield. Mirkin said Swartzwelder had always enjoyed putting presidents into his jokes, and this was only one of his many references to Lincoln. The scene of Skinner chasing Bart borrows heavily from the film Westworld, especially the scene with Skinner walking across the river. The Simpsons director David Silverman said Lynch and his fellow director Brad Bird took "a long, hard look" at Westworld to make sure the animation in the scenes resembled the film as much as possible. Mirkin said of the Westworld parody: "Again, to show you what a collaboration this is, we had the animators looking at Westworld and making sure of the animation, and then we made sure that Alf Clausen got the brilliant soundtrack from the film. He put in a lot of touches that really made the soundtracks identical." Bart's claim to film star and recurring character on The Simpsons Rainier Wolfcastle (a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger) that his "last movie really sucked" and Chief Wiggum's subsequent claim of "magic ticket, my ass" are in reference to Last Action Hero, a Schwarzenegger film featuring magic tickets that was panned by critics. Additionally, Wolfcastle's wife is named Maria; Schwarzenegger's wife at the time was Maria Shriver.

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening appears in a cameo as the court illustrator in the Quimby trial. He can be seen signing his name on his sketch. Of the twelve jury members, Homer is the only one to vote "innocent", angering the other eleven jurors; the trial ends with Freddy being found innocent. This is a reference to the film 12 Angry Men. During the trial, Homer sings the jingle of the cat food company Meow Mix in his head. Jasper, a member of the jury, wants the trial to be over so that he can go home and watch television. He says that tonight on the science fiction series seaQuest DSV, Eddie, pet dog of Martin Crane on Frasier, will ride Darwin, the talking dolphin character from seaQuest DSV. The new "director's cut" of the 1993 film Free Willy that Homer watches at the deadlock hotel features Jesse being crushed by the whale Willy. Homer is later saddened by this, and says, "Oh, I don't like this new director's cut!" Homer stays with Skinner at the hotel, and in a reference to the television series The Odd Couple, Skinner picks up a cigar butt from the floor with his umbrella while cleaning the room, just as Tony Randall does in the opening credits of that series.