Lisa the Simpson/References

Trivia

 * Lisa creates a small pig from a rubber eraser and push-pins, which was featured in a Life in Hell comic strip.
 * Despite airing in season nine, this episode has the production code 4F24. The 4F production line is for episodes that have aired (or were meant to air) during the eighth season.
 * When the children try to solve a brain teaser, only Martin, Milhouse and Nelson do it. Bart only shows Milhouse's solution written on the piece of paper to Martin.

Previous Episode References

 * King-Sized Homer: Lisa imagining herself as a morbidly obese redneck is similar to Bart imagining himself as a lardo on workman's comp. Also: Lisa has the same flowery muumuu that Homer wore when he finally gained 300 pounds and went on disability.
 * Lisa the Skeptic and Radio Bart:
 * A carnival sideshow is set up around something bizarre (Timmy O'Toole in a well, the angel statue, and Jasper freezing himself in the Kwik-E-Mart).
 * Lisa appears on "Smartline"
 * Homer and Apu: Kent Brockman mentions "Geezers in freezers" (which is what Jasper is in this episode)
 * Bart Star: Homer orders something weird at the Kwik-E-Mart (a drink made of beer and Skittles; the after-dinner burrito)
 * Homer the Clown and The Twisted World of Marge Simpson: The Freak-E-Mart music is the same music that Homer heard when he began seeing everyone as clowns and in the "Whack-A-Mole Simpsons" couch gag.
 * Separate Vocations: Lisa fears that she won't be smart and creative as she gets older.
 * Moaning Lisa:
 * Lisa goes to the Jazz Hole jazz club.
 * Lisa is depressed and runs away from home
 * Selma's Choice: A female character (Selma/Lisa) imagines a future where she is the mother of several children with an unsavory male character (Hans Moleman/Ralph Wiggum).
 * Lisa the Vegetarian:
 * Lisa watches an educational film starring Troy McClure and a little boy named Timmy or Billy.
 * Homer's relatives who all look and sound like him are similar to Ned Flanders' relatives who look and sound like it.
 * Lisa the Iconoclast: Lisa fails one of her school assignments.
 * Homer's Phobia: A plastic pink flamingo appears.
 * The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular: A K.C. and the Sunshine Band song plays during a scene where a male character is naked ("Shake Your Booty" is used during the end montage featuring "hardcore nudity"/"That's The Way I Like It" plays when Apu and Sanjay turn the Kwik-E-Mart into the Nude-E-Mart)
 * Lisa on Ice: Reference to towel snappings (Homer chases Uter around the locker room and snaps a towel at him/Kent Brockman's report on towel snappings getting worse).
 * Bart vs. Thanksgiving: A Simpson kid runs away from home and ends up on the news (Bart at the homeless shelter during Kent's report/Lisa on "Smartline")
 * The Tracy Ullman Show shorts: Homer's line, "Let's go out for some frosty swirls" is similar to Homer's old catchphrase "Let's go out for some frosty chocolate milkshakes."
 * Mother Simpson: Lisa thinks she's adopted because she's the only smart member of the family.

Cultural References

 * When Lisa is figuring out the puzzle, one of the clues she rules out is that it's not one of Prince's names, a reference to the period between 1993 and 2000 that Prince changed his name to a symbol and was known as "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" (or simply "The Artist").
 * Lisa's story is similar to the book, Flowers For Algernon, about the journal of a mentally retarded man who undergoes experimental surgery to become super intelligent, only to realize the effects were temporary and struggles to preserve his intellect before he relapses into retardation (the season 12 episode "HOMЯ" would follow a similar plot that Flowers For Algernon does).
 * Jasper's subplot calls to mind the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival, held annually in Nederland, Colorado. The events of this festival are in homage to Grandpa Bredo, a cryogenically-frozen corpse who, since 1989, has remained in stasis inside a Tuff Shed and inspired two documentaries. It is unknown whether this festival inspired the scenario.
 * Jasper's note expressing his desire be thawed out "when robot wives are cheap and effective" may be a reference to the 1987 cult film Cherry 2000, in a dystopian future where a man has a gynoid (robotic woman) as a sex object. After accidentally short-circuiting her, he comes to fall in love with a female bounty hunter, learning a real woman is better worth loving.
 * In the show "When Buildings Collapse," the last building to fall is the House of Usher, a reference to an Edgar Allan Poe book of the same name. The building which exploded resembles the infamous arial bombing of the abbey on Monte Cassino, Italy, by the United States during World War II.
 * Lisa recommends some books to TV viewers: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh and Yertle the Turtle, by Dr. Seuss.

Goofs

 * When Kent Brockman gives his after thought on Lisa's speech his hair and clothes all have entirely different colors.
 * The Simpson Gene doesn't explain how Herb Powell (who is partially a Simpson) is rich and successful if all Simpson males are doomed to be stupid and useless to modern society.
 * Also: Homer, Bart, and Grampa have all shown flashes of being book and street smart in past episodes, and it's pretty much established that Homer is dumb because he drinks a lot (and later, because of the crayon stuck in his head) and Bart became a bad student because of how bad his time in kindergarten was as seen on "Lisa's Sax."
 * And Lisa should have known that the women on Homer's side of the family are smarter than the men, since she met Homer's mom on Mother Simpson and, aside from yelling "D'oh!" whenever she gets hurt, Mona was actually very smart.
 * That doesn't count because Homer's mother isn't a Simpson by birth.
 * The couch gag: The only fruit that can actually grow on a vine in real life would be the yellow squash (Homer) [A squash is technically a fruit, though for culinary and trade reasons, it's classified as a vegetable]. Strawberries (Bart), asparagus (Marge), broccoli (Maggie), and pineapple (Lisa) are not vine produce.
 * Kent Brockman doesn't recognize Lisa, even though she was on "Smartline" before, as seen on "Lisa the Skeptic."
 * In this episode, Homer eats soup skin, despite that "Bart Gets an F" established that he hated "...that icky soup skin." He could have learned to like it between that time.
 * Homer gathers his relatives from the tri-city area, but Shelbyville is the closest city to Springfield (unless Homer also meant Capital City, and combined with Springfield, would make it three).
 * Luanne van Houten is shown with Kirk, even though this episode (in both production and broadcast order) comes after Luanne's divorce and her makeover.
 * When The Rich Texan comes to the Kwik-E-Mart,his appearance is completely different from usual. He has black hair, grey coat and a brownish-green pants rather than his usual grey hair and cream colored coat and pants.