Bart's Comet/References

Trivia

 * Homer is the first to kick Ned out of the bomb shelter, but he also leaves first to die with him, leading everyone to safety.
 * Homer states early in the episode that the comet will probably burn up and become smaller than a Chihuahua's head. At the end of the episode he is proven right, and both he and the kids are spooked by Homer being right for once. (Interestingly, there is a Chihuahua right next to where the meteorite lands.)
 * Although flightless birds, the penguins at Springfield City Zoo are able to fly away when the comet approaches, in an intentionally ridiculous joke.
 * The reason why the fighter jets tracking system mistook Groundskeeper Willie for an Iraqi Fighter Jet, as well as the missile guidance systems causing the fighter to blow up both his partner and himself, and presumably why the parachutes ended up crumpling apart, was because one of the fighter jet pilots was cutting funds out of the military and placing it into Health Care.
 * Snowball II and Santa's Little Helper watch TV at night, when the Simpsons are asleep.

Cultural References

 * Everyone getting angry and wanting to come into Flander's shelter is a reference to "" episode, "The Shelter".
 * For a couple of seconds when Homer tries to get the shelter door shut when everyone gets in, Waldo from "" appears rather obtrusively on the left half of the screen.
 * Skinner curses for having discovered helium.
 * Buttzilla, the other name for the water ballon prank by Bart, is a play on to the name of the Japanese monster known as.

Goofs

 * When the crowd joins Flanders on the hill during the "Que Sera Sera" song, Apu appears yellow.
 * Barney's hair is blue in one scene.