Cultural References
In the opening sequence of the episode, the Peanuts gang scurry by as trick-or-treaters, à la It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Marge's hair in the opening segment recalls Elsa Lanchester's character in Bride of Frankenstein. The plot of Lisa's nightmare is a reference to W. W. Jacobs's short story The Monkey's Paw, and The New Twilight Zone episode "A Small Talent for War". Near the beginning of the segment, Moroccan soldiers stop and search the Simpsons, finding souvenirs taped to Homer's body which he was attempting to smuggle out of the country. This is a reference to the opening drug-smuggling scene of the film Midnight Express. A billboard advertisement with Bart saying "Get a Mammogram, Man!" can be seen. This was a meta-reference to Bart's popular slogan "Don't have a cow, man!"
The plot of Bart's nightmare is a parody of The Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life", which was remade as part of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Jasper's transformation into a dog is a reference to the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The scene in which Homer goes out with Bart during Bart's nightmare to spend time with the boy, as well as the music accompanying the scene, parody an old anti-smoking public service announcement, while the church layout was taken from a Norman Rockwell painting.
Homer's nightmare is based on much of the film Frankenstein, and the end references The Thing with Two Heads. While Mr. Burns scoops out Homer's brain, he hums the tune of "If I Only Had a Brain" which is sung by the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz. Burns also calls the robot that had Homer's brain a "clinking, clattering cacophany of colligenous cogs and camshafts", similar to the Wizard's line to the Tin Man: "You clinking, clanking, clattering collection of colligenous junk!" In Homer's nightmare, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is broadcast on a TV. When Mr. Burns puts on Homer's brain, he says "Look at me! I'm Davy Crockett", a reference to Crockett's popular image as a frontierman who wore a hat of raccoon fur.
Read more about this topic: Treehouse Of Horror II
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.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)