Weird and/or Obscure Shout Outs in The Simpsons

Yes, I did a search for Simpsons topics first...

Alright, I mostly just read TV Tropes. I rarely ever edit, but I just added something to one of the Simpsons pages because it was so utterly obvious and I was surprised someone hadn't beat me to it:

When my fiancee' and I watched the recent LEGO-Simpsons episode, "Brick Like Me," during the ending sequence, his jaw just about dropped and he said "THAT'S FROM TIME BANDITS!!!" - And then he proceeded to explain to me an old, lesser-known early 80s Terry Gilliam / Monty Python crew fantasy film. He hadn't seen it in a while and I hadn't seen it at all, so he hunted it up and I just watched it. It's actually a pretty awesome movie, especially if you like 80s-era fantasy as much as I do. (Can't believe I missed it growing up, actually).

Anyway, having seen the movie, yep... the crew at the Simspons did a full out montage-homage to the end of Time Bandits , with the Supreme Being rolling up the Map of Time replaced by him rolling up a LEGO-box. Even the music was the same. (My guy said he liked Time Bandits primarily for the music, which is not hard at all, considering who its by). And so, the page for that specific episode's recap has a mention in the Shout-Out now, and... the sequence was so the same I'm surprised that I wound up adding it a week later, here, especially since there's a Time Bandits page on the site.

I'm pretty sure we (together) and I individually have noticed weird, lesser known Shout Outs in this series. I distinctly remember a joke regarding the painting "American Gothic" in an early episode that people who don't know a little about art history wouldn't get. In "Brick Like Me" while my guy pointed out the Time Bandits reference, I had to explain the Philip K. Dick references to him (and I haven't even read any Philip K. Dick... I'm just a good little Troper).

So, have you noticed Shout Outs in this series over any portion of its run that you knew were things only a few people would get / things only a weirdo like you would know?

edited 9th May '14 9:36:02 PM by Shadsie

Don't know if this counts as obscure, but in "Twisted World of Marge Simpson" (the one where Marge becomes a pretzel saleswoman), when Fat Tony and his gang are erasing all competition, a theme song plays. This same theme song would late be used for the title cards of the "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" episodes of Spongebob (sans the second one).

• I remember a scene from "The Food Wife" where a drug dealer tried some food and had a flashback like Anton Ego's from Ratatouille.
• "Mobile Homer" has a scene where Bart and Lisa check a "Flintstones Fun Map" with a message from Homer asking them to look up Dino on Ask Jeeves. Like anybody would know that search engine today.

That's technically still around. It's just called "Ask.com" now.

The entire episode "Homer vs. Dignity" was apparently based on the film The Magic Christian, which has the same plot: people debase themselves for money.

I looked it up, and the song is called "Forearm Shiver" by Sam Spence for NFL Films.

Phantom of the Paradise in the Guillermo del Toro opening.

Didn't they do a Take That! to Fish Police in one episode?

One of the Halloween episodes! A tombstone among a cemetery for failed shows.

I think in another Halloween episode - could have been the same - a tombstone in the opening said Drexel's Class, a show so obscure we don't have a page for it.

edited 11th May '14 4:53:06 AM by Aldo930

My brain is telling me "I vaguely remember that show." - Not enough to make a page for it.

Yes, TV was my substitute for friends when I was a kid.

Tonight, in the "Wow, they're really going off the rails" episode where the family is kidnapped by Kang and Kodos and taken to their homeworld to be zoo exhibits, then food, if anyone watched it besides me...

Did you notice the alien news announcers looked like the announcers in The Hunger Games? One was done up like Caesar Flickerman and the other was that other guy who he was announcing stuff about tracker jackers and stuff with in the movie. Nice little joke there, considering that Homer was "tribute" and that the aliens were hungry.

The Mexican dub Bowdlderized a Ranma 1/2 reference in with an oneshot character who had the same voice actor as Male Ranma.

The machine that force-feeds Homer "all the donuts in the world" is a replica of a similar machine in the 1937 WB short Pigs Is Pigs, which is known to be Matt Groening's favorite toon.

Also, via this list I found a Shout-Out in Futurama. Note that one of Groening's favorite things is this classical piece: Olivier Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony...

That remind you of any character?

I remember that "How Munched is That Birdie in the Window?" did a shoutout to Plutos Judgement Day.

Not sure how obscure this is, but I don't know if everyone will catch it, but the first Clip Show episode referenced One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

Not very obscure, really. I've never watched that movie, yet I think I know most of the plot from Pop Culture Osmosis.

There was a couch gag a few seasons back that was a take on the old Silly Symphony, "Music Land."

(Fun fact: I once met somebody who played on the soundtrack to One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. But that's another story...)

edited 5th Jan '15 6:07:54 PM by Aldo930

I remember, after watching the Season Ten episode "Viva Ned Flanders" (the episode where Homer tries to get Ned to cut loose for once in his life and wind up getting getting married to cocktail waitresses), there's a quick scene where, as Homer and Ned drive by the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, the camera quickly pans to the right as they disappear to show a man wearing a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, and a safari cap, dangling a crudely-drawn blunt from his mouth driving a swanky-looking sports car, with a onion-headed man for a passenger asking (from a rough recollection of this poster's memory) "Do you wanna go back?" The safari cap-wearing man says sardonically "Naw, too many damn kids." before speeding off. Possible Getting Crap Past the Radar reference to Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas?