Trivia / The Simpsons S 4 E 20 Whacking Day

• Creator Backlash: According to the DVD commentary, Matt Groening thought the scene of Reverend Lovejoy lying to Lisa about Whacking Day being allowed according to the Bible was going too far in terms of dark humor.
• First Appearance: Of Superintendant Chalmers.
• Life Imitates Art: In North Queensland, Australia since 2009, citizens have held an annual "Toad Day Out", where thousands of cane toads (which, unlike rattlesnakes, are an invasive, toxic, and highly-destructive species not native to Australia) are collected up and humanely destroyed. The event was inspired by the episode.
• Promoted Fanboy: Barry White was added to the episode because he was a huge fan of the show and wanted to appear on it. He went so far as to record a new shortened version of "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe" with some modified lyrics to reflect the episode's plot.
• Reality Subtext: The plot was based on the famous Rattle Snake Roundups
• Throw It In!: Much of the dialogue and interactions between Skinner and Chalmers were ad-libbed by Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria.
• What Could Have Been: The song Grampa was supposed to sing in his flashback of how he posed as a German cabaret singer in World War II, was "Lili Marlene" by Marlene Dietrich. The staff could not get the rights to it because, according to the people who own the song, "everybody makes fun of it".

---