Cultural References
The episode features several references to The Beatles and McCartney's solo career. For instance, McCartney tells Lisa that playing his 1970 song "Maybe I'm Amazed" backwards will reveal a secret recipe for lentil soup. A modified version of the song plays in the final scene, then over the closing credits of the episode; when played backwards, McCartney can be heard reciting the recipe in the song. Mirkin had McCartney record the recipe, which was later added in reverse over the original song. McCartney thought it was "very funny" that the staff wanted to "send up the whole cult thing" of backmasking on the Beatles' songs. "A secret lentil soup recipe seemed a nice parody of that," he said. One of the backwards snippets says, "Oh, and by the way, I'm alive," a reference to the Paul is dead theory.
When Lisa, Apu, and the McCartneys gather on the Kwik-E-Mart roof, Apu tells Lisa, "I learned long ago to tolerate others rather than forcing my beliefs on them. You know, you can influence people without badgering them always. It's like Paul's song, 'Live and Let Live'." Paul corrects Apu and says the song's title is actually "Live and Let Die". In the same scene, Apu refers to himself as the "fifth Beatle", and Linda alludes to a line in the Beatles' 1969 song "Octopus's Garden". The McCartneys later ask Lisa if she would like to hear a song, and Apu sings part of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", to which the McCartneys snap along.
Read more about this topic: Lisa The Vegetarian
Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“At times it seems that the media have become the mainstream culture in children’s lives. Parents have become the alternative. Americans once expected parents to raise their children in accordance with the dominant cultural messages. Today they are expected to raise their children in opposition to it.”
—Ellen Goodman (20th century)