To Love and Die in Dixie - Cultural References

Cultural References

• The title is a reference to the 1985 crime film To Live and Die in L.A., and is also a reference to the song “Dixie”: "I wish I was in Dixie, hurrah, hurrah; in Dixieland I’ll take my stand, to live and die in Dixie."
• The plot of this episode is somewhat similar to the 1991 film, Cape Fear.
• The pig in the classroom shares traits similar to Arnold Ziffel, the pig on the sitcom Green Acres, who also attended school.
• Chris gives Barbara a bottle of Elizabeth Taylor’s brand of perfume and says “I guess that means you’ll smell like bourbon and vicodin,” referring to the actress’s alleged substance abuse problems.
• One of the criminals in the lineup at the beginning of the episode is Morpheus from The Matrix.
• When Meg is in class, the students ask if she has “those talking pictures, flying machines and perfume for your armpit.” This is referring to televisions, airplanes and deodorant or body spray.
• The FBI agents are a reference to The Odd Couple. “We’ll be watching your house together, even though he’s a slovenly liberal and I’m a fastidious conservative,” one of them says. “I smell a sitcom!” the other replies.
• After plucking a banjo string, Stewie explains “Oh, I feel so deliciously white trash. Mommy, I want a mullet!” referring to the derided hair style stereotypically associated with poor, rural whites.
• Soon after arriving in Bumblescum, Peter paints the family car to resemble the General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard. After he and Brian race around, impersonating main characters Bo and Luke Duke, Peter suggests getting Chris and Meg to play the show’s villains Boss Hogg and Enos Strate who Peter mistakenly calls anus.
• When Chris asks where do you go when you die, his friend says “I learnt at church if you’re good you go to heaven, but if you’re bad you go to a place where the dead believe they’re still living and pray for death, but death won’t come” and Chris thinks Hell is UPN, a now-defunct television station that normally aired programming aimed towards African-Americans.
• When Peter and Brian launch the car over a hay bale, a popular stunt on Dukes of Hazzard, Waylon Jennings reprises his role as the show’s narrator. Another parody of the show occurs when Brian tries to hop into the car through the window, another popular stunt on the show.
• After Lois says that she made dinner with Shake 'N' Bake, Stewie says “And I helped!” a line directly from Shake ’n’ Bake commercials.
• After Stewie plays a song on the banjo, he screams “I got blisters on me fingers!” which is what Ringo Starr screams at the end of The Beatles song “Helter Skelter”.
• Sam compares Chris to a “skinny Garth Brooks,” referring to the country singer’s apparent weight gain.
• When the robber asks for the names of Peter and Brian, Peter claims he is “T. J. Hooker” and Brian is “McMillan and Wife,” referring to two television police dramas.
• After the locals kill the thief on the dock, Peter says that all Southerners “suffer from the gum disease known as gingivitis,” in the same manner as the voice on a 1990s commercial for Listerine, a dental hygiene product.
• When Peter and Brian are being chased by the Civil War survivors one of them asks “Has anyone seen my foot?” This is possibly a reference to a Jerky Boys skit in which Sol Rosenberg is selling Confederate memorabilia, one of the items being a Confederate foot. Jerky Boy Johnny Brennan who voiced Sol Rosenberg is also the voice of Mort Goldman on this show.
• After being kissed by Sam (while still under the impression that Sam is a boy) Chris remarks, “I haven’t been this confused since the end of No Way Out!” It is then revealed that Chris’ confusion refers to how Kevin Costner keeps getting work, and not the infamous twist at the end of the film.
• This episode contains a humorous Southern version of a Civil War re-enactment, which plays off of real history, as Robert E. Lee was a teetotaler, while Ulysses S. Grant was forced to resign from the military in 1854 because of a drinking problem (he did not return until 1861).