Wasted Talent - Cultural References

Cultural References

This episode borrows heavily from the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory:

• Pawtucket Pat's contest involves finding silver scrolls hidden in 4 beers, similar to the 5 Golden Tickets from the movie.
• Tom Tucker's lie about the last silver scroll is a parody of the Paraguayan who falsely claimed to have found the last Golden Ticket.
• Peter says "I bet the scroll makes the beer taste terrible" similar to how Charlie Bucket says "I bet the Golden Tickets make the chocolate taste terrible" in the film.
• When Peter finds the scroll near the end of the episode's first act, everything up until Peter's fall on the sidewalk by his house is directly lifted from the film sequence where Charlie finds the last Golden Ticket and triumphantly runs home with it.
• While making his entrance at the gates of his factory, Pawtucket Pat pretends to be gunned down in a drive-by shooting, similar to how Willy Wonka emerged very slowly while walking with a cane, then surprised the crowd by doing a somersault and standing up again.
• Pawtucket Pat is assisted by a group of little people known as Chumbawambas, similar to the Oompa-Loompas from the film.
• The Chumbawambas are named after the British rock band of the same name, who are most well known for their song "Tubthumping", the majority of which's lyrics are about alcoholic beverages.
• The Chumbawambas' song ("Chumba-Wamba-Gobbledy-Goo") is a parody of the Oompa-Loompa song, complete with similar visual effects.
• The song that Pawtucket Pat sings while in the "beer room" ("Pure Inebriation") is a parody of the song "Pure Imagination", sung by Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), as is the sequence surrounding it.
• Peter and Brian's secretly taste the factory's Perma-Suds and wind up floating in the air, much like Charlie and Grandpa Joe did when they sampled Fizzy Lifting Drinks; while Charlie and Grandpa Joe are able to get back down by burping, Peter and Brian do so by farting.
• Peter and Brian are kicked out of the tour for their disobedience, much like how Charlie nearly lost the promised lifetime supply of chocolate for his.
• Two of the guests at the brewery, an old man and a young boy, appear to be Charlie Bucket and Grandpa Joe.

At the competition, Mary Tyler Moore throws her hat in the air, in an homage to the opening credits of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which Peter performs the theme song to.

The end credits are run while Joe Harnell's "The Lonely Man" plays in homage to The Incredible Hulk. The sequence also shows Stewie hitchhiking along the side of the freeway á la David Banner.

When Peter discovers his "talent", he plays the theme songs from Dallas, Nine to Five, and The X-Files.

The final scene, showing Peter's solitary brain cell in despair after breaking his glasses, is an homage to the Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last".