Pop cultural references people believed originated from The Simpsons.
- All of the examples quoted in the episode "The Day the Violence Died" fit this trope:"Okay, maybe my dad did steal Itchy, but so what? Animation is built on plagiarism! If it weren't for someone plagiarizing The Honeymooners, we wouldn't have The Flintstones. If someone hadn't ripped off Sergeant Bilko, there'd be no Top Cat. Huckleberry Hound, Chief Wiggum, Yogi Bear? Hah! Andy Griffith, Edward G. Robinson, Art Carney."
- The same episode contains a parody of Schoolhouse Rock!'s "I'm Just A Bill". Because that show was never aired outside North America until Disney+ was launched, more overseas fans are familiar with The Simpsons parody of the show, and knew of the actual show only upon Jack Sheldon's passing. The same thing goes for most other parodies of Schoolhouse Rock in the media. Even at the time the episode aired, Schoolhouse Rock was already a good 20 years old.
- The Robinson-Wiggum connection was lampshaded several times. In 1994's "Bart Gets an Elephant", Wiggum, skeptical of reports of damage caused by a rogue elephant, exclaimed, "And I'm Edward G. Robinson" - complete with vocalization. Similarly, in "Simpsons Bible Stories", Moses's story has Wiggum playing an Egyptian foreman clearly inspired on Robinson's role as Dathan in The Ten Commandments, down to the line "Where's your Messiah NOW?" (He uses the same line to Ned Flanders in "Homer Loves Flanders".) Finally, in the 2008 "Treehouse of Horror" episode: A bunch of celebrities came back from the dead to get back for gratuitous use of their images after death. Robinson came after Wiggum — and they had a conversation mirroring each other exactly. Even the quote from "The Day the Violence Died" above has Wiggum, in the background, visibly react to the mention of him and Robinson.
- The now-retired Troy McClure is an expy of the actors Troy Donahue and Doug McClure. Both were already well past their prime when Troy first appeared on the show and his "you may remember me from such films as" catchphrase talking about his previous works was meant to reference the fact that both actors were at that point appearing mostly in B-movies that were a far cry from the features they starred in during their peak Hollywood years. The reference would soon be lost on viewers with both actors having long since passed away (Donahue in 2001 and McClure in 1995) so today's viewers won't have any idea that Troy's entire character was meant to be a reference to two mostly-forgotten actors.
- Professor Frink is a parody of comedian Jerry Lewis' nerdy characters, again something that is lost on younger generations. Though it has ultimately come full circle in the "Treehouse of Horror XIV" segment "Frinkenstein" in which Professor Frink brings his father back from the dead. Who plays his father? Take a wild guess! This in turn is rather Meta, as seeing as Frink was created from the style of Jerry Lewis, Jerry in a sense is his father.
- Bumblebee Man is a parody of El Chapulín Colorado, a character from the legendary Mexican comedian Chespirito about a grasshopper superhero. His show airs on "Channel Ocho", a play on the Mexican sitcom El Chavo del ocho, sister show of El Chapulin Colorado.
- Kent Brockman is a mixture of television journalist Ted Koppel and Los Angeles news anchor Jerry Dunphy. While Koppel is still active on television, Dunphy tends to be remembered for inspiring Brockman (and supposedly Ted Baxter).
- Radio presenter Arnie Pye is named after radio presenter Ernie Pie.
- Barney Gumble was an expy of Barney Rubble from The Flintstones; in addition to his name, he was Homer's best friend, originally had blonde hair and a brown shirt, and was going to be Homer's next-door neighbor before Ned Flanders was created. Nowadays, nobody makes that connection anymore, especially considering that his role as Homer's best friend has been taken over by Lenny and Carl.
- Gil Gunderson, the unlucky salesman, is a take-off on Jack Lemmon's Shelley Levene from Glengarry Glen Ross. Prior to Gil's introduction, Lemmon himself guest-starred as another Levene expy.
- In the DVD commentary track for the fourth season, the writers doing the commentary specifically point out that the scene at the end of "Selma's Choice" where Selma is shown cradling her new pet iguana to the tune of "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman" is a reference to Murphy Brown singing to her newborn son, because they were afraid viewers wouldn't "get it".
- "Classic" horror concepts are frequently parodied in the Treehouse of Horror episodes. Most younger viewers, especially outside the United States, who never saw The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits don't realize many plots were borrowed from these TV series. Even more obscure is one segment that parodies a segment from the less known Amazing Stories fantasy/science-fiction anthology titled "Hell Toupee". Unlike its cousins, Amazing Stories didn't usually go into horror, and the original tale was fairly light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek... making it even less likely it would be recognized more than the parody.
- This was itself parodied in an episode of South Park, where Butters, having developed an obsession with not being accused of copying The Simpsons, claims that the episode's plot is a ripoff of a Treehouse of Horror episode. Chef points out that not only does this not matter, but that episode was already a parody of an episode of The Twilight Zone.
- Most people associate the phrase "D'oh!" with Homer Simpson. However, it comes from James Finlayson in the Laurel and Hardy film series, which is something Dan Castellaneta himself admitted in at least one interview.
- The main theme from the 1991 version of Cape Fear was rather famous in its day, as it is a wonderfully atmospheric piece that evokes just the right sense of impending terror. Today, it is almost universally known as Sideshow Bob's theme music, thanks to an episode which parodied the film and played the theme from the movie whenever Bob was around.
- That theme is even older, since it is based on part of Bernard Herrmann's score for the 1962 version of Cape Fear (played once at the very end).
- Eventually the creators took notice of this and made it Bob's official leitmotif. In later seasons, a few bars of it always play whenever he shows up.
- Similarly, all the references to Frasier that tend to go hand-in-hand with Bob episodes become more oblique with every passing year.
- Another musical relation in The Simpsons shows Homer singing modified lyrics to Frank Sinatra's "It Was A Very Good Year" (when he was remembering the time he bought his first six-pack at a liquor store with an obviously fake ID — It is best not to think about how he got away with it). Anyone thinking of the song nowadays is likely to think of Homer's rendition.
- Itchy and Scratchy are an extreme parody of typical animated cat-and-mouse cartoon series like Tom and Jerry, Pixie Dixie And Mr Jinks, Herman and Katnip... and the violence typically found in 1940s and 1950s animated cartoons. Back in the day these cartoons were broadcast daily over the entire world and thus everybody immediately understood the reference. Today, ever since Cartoon Network bought most of the rights, you hardly see these classic cartoons anywhere except for YouTube. Thus, the original joke will be totally lost on younger audiences. In the case of Herman and Katnip, the rights to the film series have changed owners many times, and the cartoons themselves were often unavailable to a wider audience for decades. Most viewers will assume Tom and Jerry are the sole inspirations as they continue to live on in modern spinoffs while the others have fallen to the wayside.
- In a review for the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Conscience of the King", The A.V. Club notes
how "pop culture turns around to bite us on the ass", and ever since the first "Treehouse of Horror", the reveal of Kodos as a man instead of a green alien loses impact. - Nowadays, people are likely to associate Paint Your Wagon with the episode "All Singing, All Dancing", in which Homer and Bart mistakenly think it is a typical Clint Eastwood western, with even more surprised to find out that it is an actual movie made after Eastwood became famous. (Though it does not contain any songs that are literally about painting a wagon.)
- The Superstar Celebrity Microphone, and especially the ad that convinces Homer to buy it (featuring in "Radio Bart") is a very close parody of the Mr. Microphone, with some scenes and dialogue being full-on direct lifts. The ad originally aired in the late 70s and early 80s, giving a lot of room for people to be surprised at the discovery that, yes, it really was like that.
- Many people don't know that "The Monorail Song" is a parody of "Trouble" from The Music Man.
- "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase"'s parody of Magnum, P.I. still mostly lands, as it remains a decently-known series and most of its cliches are common to its genre. On the other hand, My Mother the Car and The Brady Bunch Variety Hour were, even at the time, pretty quickly fading into memory, and were largely considered among the worst shows of all time. Reportedly, Matt Groening was concerned that viewers would think the deliberately awful parts of them would be mistaken for the real thing.
- To many people who are unfamiliar with VeggieTales, especially those who live in regions where it isn't really that popular, their only exposure to it was the parodies in the episodes "The Fat And The Furriest", "Pranksta Rap" and "The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed". The same thing goes for most other parodies of VeggieTales in the media.
- Hank Azaria says his portrayal of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon was inspired by the Peter Sellers character of Hrundi V. Bakshi in the 1968 comedy The Party. Apu is also named after the title character from The Apu Trilogy, a series of Bengali epic dramas created by Satyajit Ray in the 1950s.
- Thanks to the episode "A Streetcar Named Marge", an increasing number of people believe that A Streetcar Named Desire is a musical. The joke was that such a serious drama was being adapted into a lighthearted musical, with some of the most dramatic lines being read in an upbeat tone. Furthermore, the title "Oh, Streetcar!" is a parody of Oh! Calcutta!, which is an actual musical theater production.
- Many younger fans are apparently surprised to discover that the original Planet of the Apes wasn't a musical either.
- Yahoo from "Colonel Homer" is a parody of Hee Haw, a long-running Variety Show that, like its fictional counterpart, showcased country music and rural-themed comedy acts. Hee Haw was still current when the episode premiered, but was canceled in 1997 (although reruns have aired on-and-off ever since), so present-day viewers will likely miss the reference.
- In "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy", Milhouse's speech outlining his conspiracy theory is a parody of Kevin Costner's similar speech in JFK, with "We're through the looking glass" being a direct quote. When people reference the scene and line these days, they're almost always doing it as a Milhouse Shout-Out.
- Since The Critic is not only already fairly obscure in America, but also significantly more so everywhere else, a lot of younger viewers tend to assume Jay Sherman from "A Star is Burns" is either someone created for the episode, or a parody of a real film critic. Due to this, for a great majority of viewers the episode's nature as a crossover doesn't register either.
- The scene in "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)" where Homer recites an incorrect mathematical formula after he finds Henry Kissinger's glasses in the toilet is often thought of being a joke that's unique to the series, when Homer's quote actually comes from a scene towards the end of The Wizard of Oz, where the Scarecrow recites the same line after getting his diploma.
