Cultural References
The episode makes several references to popular culture and history. One of the opening scenes sees Principal Skinner knocking out a man in a very similar manner to Mick Dundee in Crocodile Dundee. The episode includes a scene based on Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, where Lisa and Bob Hope escape the Fort Springfield stage. It also makes two references to Star Wars, where the caricature artist displays a caricature of Darth Vader and a montage shows Lisa with a double-bun hairdo like Princess Leia. The Springfield Waxworks' Chamber of Horrors contains Mr. T, Ronald Reagan and Dr. Ruth, and Laramie's mascot Menthol Moose is a parody of Joe Camel. Musically, Homer mournfully sings a song, "Blimpy Boy", to the tune of The Seekers' "Georgy Girl". Historically, there is a parody of the Hindenburg disaster, when the Duff Blimp crashes into the radio tower, to which Kent Brockman quotes "Oh, the humanity!". When Lisa is sworn in as Little Miss Springfield on her front lawn, Marge is to her left wearing a pink suit-dress in a pose similar to that of Jacqueline Kennedy in the famous photo of Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in on Air Force One after John F. Kennedy's assassination.
Read more about this topic: Lisa The Beauty Queen
Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)