Simpsons Tall Tales - Cultural References

Cultural References

"Simpsons Tall Tales" has been described as a "skewed" retelling of old tales. The beginning of the episode shows the family winning a trip to Delaware. This is a reference to the end of "Behind the Laughter", in which Homer is seen watching an episode of The Simpsons wherein the family is visiting Delaware. The first segment is based on the mythological lumberjack Paul Bunyan, who carved Babe the Blue ox out of the Blue Mountains. The second segment shows Lisa as Connie Appleseed, a female version of the American pioneer nurseryman Johnny Appleseed who introduced apple trees to large parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. "Tom and Huck" features Bart as Tom Sawyer and Nelson as Huckleberry Finn, both of whom are characters in Mark Twain's 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Despite the episode's title, only the first two segments are actually tall tales. This is referenced in the episode, when Lisa says "That's not tall tale, it's a book by Mark Twain." In the first segment, Paul Bunyan and Babe fight Rodan, a fictional Japanese mutated pterosaur introduced in the 1956 tokusatsu film Rodan. When showering Marge with stuffed animals, Bunyan accidentally drops a guard next to her. When noticing the guard, Bunyan tugs his collar in a similar way as American comedian Charles Nelson Reilly. In the third segment, Dr Hibbert can be heard singing the 1927 song "Ol' Man River".

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    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)