Cultural References
On the DVD audio commentary for the episode, writer Greg Daniels cited Martin Scorsese's 1985 film After Hours as an influence on Bart's night-time trek to retrieve his soul from Milhouse, only to experience a series of unusual encounters. Reverend Lovejoy leads his congregation in a hymnal version of the song "In a Gadda Da Vida", by Iron Butterfly, titled "In the Garden of Eden". The version of the song in The Simpsons episode lasts for 17 minutes, and Reverend Lovejoy inspects the music and states "Wait a minute — this sounds like rock and/or roll."
During an argument between Lisa and Bart, while discussing the relationship between laughter and the soul, Lisa quotes Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, and Bart responds "I am familiar with the works of Pablo Neruda." Kurt M. Koenigsberger comments in Leaving Springfield "While Bart may be familiar with the canon of Chilean poetry, the joke takes its force in part from the probability that The Simpsons's viewers are not." Bart begins a prayer to God with "Are you there, God? It's me, Bart Simpson". This is a parody of the book Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., by Judy Blume.
Read more about this topic: Bart Sells His Soul
Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“All cultural change reduces itself to a difference of categories. All revolutions, whether in the sciences or world history, occur merely because spirit has changed its categories in order to understand and examine what belongs to it, in order to possess and grasp itself in a truer, deeper, more intimate and unified manner.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)