A Fish Called Selma/References

General	References/Trivia	Gags	Appearances	Gallery	Quotes	Credits

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"A Fish Called Selma"

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Trivia

• This episode marks the only time Fat Tony is voiced by someone other than his original voice actor. Normally, Joe Mantegna voices Fat Tony. However, for this episode, Phil Hartman (who already spent most of the episode as Troy McClure) voiced Fat Tony in the short scene where he explains to Louie that, when he said that Troy McClure "sleeps with the fishes", he didn't mean it as "The Mafia drowned him". According to the DVD commentary, the producers chose not to bring Mantegna in due to the part being so small that they believed he wouldn't want to do it. After the episode aired, Mantegna informed them that he would always make time to voice Fat Tony, and has been voicing him ever since, even when only grunts are required and even when the original Fat Tony died and was replaced by Fit Tony, who became the new Fat Tony due to weight gain.[1]

Previous Episode References

Some of the celebrities shown on the Pimento Grove wall are:

• Bette Midler (who appeared on "Krusty Gets Kanceled"),
• Elizabeth Taylor (who voiced Maggie when she said, "Daddy" on "Lisa's First Word" and was also on "Krusty Gets Kanceled"),
• Leonard Nimoy (who appeared on "Marge vs. The Monorail" and would later be on "The Springfield Files"),
• Adam West (who was on "Mr. Plow" and would later be on "Large Marge" and The Simpsons' main rival show, Family Guy),
• Barry White (who appeared on "Whacking Day" and had a brief speaking role on "Krusty Gets Kanceled"),
• Conan O'Brien (who was one of the writers of the show on seasons four and five and appeared as himself on "Bat Gets Famous" and, later, "Bart's Birthday"),
• Birch Barlow (the Rush Limbaugh-esque conservative radio show host from "Sideshow Bob Roberts" and was later seen on "We're on the Road to D'oh-where" as one of the people buying The Simpsons' expired prescription drugs),
• Sting (who appeared on "Radio Bart"),
• Tito Puente (who appeared on the "Who Shot Mr. Burns" two-parter),
• Brad Goodman (the self-help guru who urged the town to be like Bart on "Bart's Inner Child"),
• David Crosby (who appeared on "Marge in Chains" and looks similar to the caricatures of Simpsons writer, John Swartzwelder),
• Dennis Franz (who appeared as the actor who played Homer on the FOX TV movie Homer S.: Portrait of an Ass-Grabber on "Homer Badman")
• Dr. Joyce Brothers (who appeared on "Last Exit to Springfield" when the crew decided against bringing on O.J. Simpson),
• Ringo Starr (who appeared on "Brush with Greatness"),
• John Travolta (who didn't voice himself on the show, but appeared as a bartender on "Itchy & Scratchy Land" and, later, a pilot on "Beyond Blunderdome"),
• and Brooke Shields (who appeared on "The Front").

• "Selma's Choice":
  • Selma continues her quest to be married and have a family out of fear of dying alone.
  • Troy McClure is included in the 101 Frozen Pops guide from the Springfield Sperm Bank.
  • A male character sees Selma as a sexy woman due to poor vision (Bart when he tries on the Beer Goggles at Duff Gardens/Troy McClure because he actually has poor vision)
  • A character with poor vision (Hans Moleman/Troy McClure) misreads the eye chart at the DMV, and Selma ends up dating him.
  • Selma still has Jub-Jub the iguana as a pet.
• "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular": An episode where Troy McClure is more heavily featured than the Simpsons.
• "Lisa's Wedding": A marrying couple have their wedding outside.
• "Black Widower": Selma marries a side character (Sideshow Bob/Troy McClure) with a celebrity voice actor (Kelsey Grammer/Phil Hartman) and the marriage lasts one episode.
  • "Black Widower" and "Dog of Death": Homer yells, "Down in front!"
• "The Boy Who Knew Too Much": Homer hums a song in his head (the Meow Mix jingle/"Rock and Roll Part 2")
• "A Streetcar Named Marge": A cheesy musical based on a real-life play or movie (Oh, Streetcar! is based on A Streetcar Named Desire/Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off! is from Planet of the Apes).

Cultural References

• The title is based on on the comedy A Fish Called Wanda.
• The rumors about Troy McClure's fish fetish is a reference to an urban legend about Richard Gere and gerbils.[2]
• Marge says that Troy is a "perfect gentleman" like Bing Crosby and President John F. Kennedy, both of whom had controversial personal lives.
• The song "Dr. Zaius" in the Planet of the Apes musical Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off! is to the tune of "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco. The musical's title is a pun on the musical "Stop the World – I Want to Get Off."
• Though not explicitly stated in the film, the Planet of the Apes character being portrayed by Troy McClure is George Taylor. The character was played by Charlton Heston in the original 1968 film.
• Troy drives a DeLorean DMC-12, as made famous in the Back to the Future films.
  • When Troy opens his gullwing door, it strikes Chief Wiggum in the jaw, like how Doc did with Biff in the second movie.
• The opening features Troy McClure in a parody of The Muppets.
• At the wedding, Homer sings "Rock and Roll Part 2" by Gary Glitter (who, coincidentally, is another celebrity whose career is in ruins because of a horrible sex scandal) in his head.
• Troy describes Jub-Jub the iguana as "Everywhere You Want to Be" in reference to a Visa commercial.
• The name MacArthur Parker, in reference to the song "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris.
• Selma's clothes when she's married to Troy McClure are modelled on the clothes of Marilyn Monroe.
• Troy McClure's modernist house is based on the real Chemosphere in the Hollywood Hills.
• When learning of one possible acting gig being a Paramount-made buddy comedy involving Hugh Grant and Rob Lowe, McClure (ironically and hypocritically given his own ruined career) yells "Those sick freaks!?". This was a reference to several sex scandals that the two actors were involved in at the time of the episode. In particular:
  • Rob Lowe had been caught recording a sex tape with two minors.
  • Hugh Grant was caught getting oral sex from a prostitute known as Divine Brown on Sunset Boulevard.

Goofs

• 

  Grandpa's beard overlapping the paper

  

  Selma's ear without a hole

  At the DMV, Abraham Simpson's beard is drawn over the paper he is holding for a few frames.
• When Selma was smoking in the Restaurant's parking lot, she was sitting on the hood of a brown car. When the camera zooms in, she is on a blue car.
• Right before Troy seduces Selma, Selma's ear hole disappears.
• When watching the Muppets film together, Selma tells Troy "Smoke actually smells good when it's coming out of you", which contradicts Selma revealing that she lost her sense of taste and smell due to a bottle rocket accident as a child. She may have received some sort of treatment since then restoring her sense of smell, or she may have just been attempting to set a romantic mood.
• When Marge closes her eyes in the dark, the eyes simply disappear immediately into the darkness instead of being animated closing.