Cultural References
The overarching plot of the episode, as well as its title, was inspired by the Disney film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which deals with a large number of puppies similar to "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds". Besides the film, less obvious references to Disney-animated films are made throughout the episode. The song "See My Vest" sung by Mr. Burns is a parody of "Be Our Guest", which is sung by Jerry Orbach in the film Beauty and the Beast. The scene in which Santa's Little Helper and She's the Fastest are presented with a plate of spaghetti at Luigi's Italian restaurant parodies Lady and the Tramp.
The scene in which the greyhounds watch television is similar to the dalmatians of One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Instead of watching What's my Crime? like the dalmatians do in the film, the greyhounds watch the television series Models, Inc. The clerk that performs a mind-meld on Santa's Little Helper is a reference to the Vulcan mind-meld ability in Star Trek; the same music from the mind-meld scenes in Star Trek are played during the scene. At one point, Santa's Little Helper looks wistfully out the window of the Simpson family's car, and then morphs out of the car window in reference to a similar scene in Terminator 2; music from that film plays in the background. Four of the puppies are named Jay, David, Paul and Branford, a reference to late-night talkshow hosts David Letterman and Jay Leno and their respective bandleaders Paul Shaffer and (at the time) Branford Marsalis.
Read more about this topic: Two Dozen And One Greyhounds
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