Gump Roast/References

Cultural references

 * The opening act spoofs Forrest Gump, including the falling feather. The episode's title is also a reference to the movie.
 * During the opening act, Moe impersonates Austin Powers and Dr. Hibbert impersonates Darth Vader. Both are arrested because of an ordinance that banned impersonations of movie characters, although Homer is not arrested for his impersonation of Forrest Gump and Hibbert later appears at the roast with no explanation.
 * When Mr. Burns steps toward the podium, The Imperial March (Darth Vader's theme from Star Wars) is heard.
 * In this episode Kang asserts that the Earth was created 5,000 years ago by God, and Kang and Kodos then make the sign of the Cross. This is an apparently satirical reference to Young Earth Creationism.
 * At the beginning of the clip show song, there is a picture of Homer jumping the shark, which is a term that describes when a television show has reached its peak and is now declining in quality or has done something to cause a sudden decline in quality. The term is a reference to an episode of Happy Days in which Fonzie literally jumped a shark.
 * Agnes Skinner wears the same dress that Jennifer Lopez wore to the Grammy Awards in 2000.
 * The song sung at the end is a take-off on Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start The Fire".
 * Krusty mentions Mark Spitz couldn't be there and has sent a telegram. Lisa asks "Who's Mark Spitz?" and Bart then asks "What's a telegram?"

In Later Episodes
One of the crazy future plots for The Simpsons shows Patty and Selma getting married to Grampa Simpson. Patty would (almost) get married (albeit to a man impersonating a woman) in the season 16 episode, "There's Something About Marrying", while Selma would almost marry Grampa in the season 18 episode, "Rome-old and Juli-eh".