The media sensationalism of Bart not getting an elephant is akin to the media circus that surrounded Sherman McCoy in Bonfire of the Vanities. A headline says "KBBL Cheats Straight A Student!" without bothering to see that Bart is hardly a serious student. The 1990 film had a reporter interviewing a teacher of one of the carjackers, who stated "At Ridell High, an honor student is someone who comes to class at least once and does not piss on the teachers, so he qualifies" which then turns into a sensationalist story of a "straight A model minority student" harmed by McCoy. It is possible that Bart tricked the newspaper by stating he was a straight A student to get the station to give him his elephant.
When Homer accidentally drives into a deer statue, Homer responds with "D'oh!", quickly followed by "A deer!" by Lisa and "A female deer!" by Marge. This is a reference to the song "Do Re Mi" in the 1965 movie The Sound of Music.
The Springfield Tar Pits are a nod to the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. During the DVD commentary to this episode, Matt Groening admitted that one night he saw a bunch of "punks" dumping an old shopping cart into the tar pits.
The scene where Stampy is seen peering into the Simpsons' house parodies the T-Rex peering through the jeep door in Jurassic Park. Also, Stampy laying on his side after eating all of those peanuts is similar to the sick triceratops in the movie.
The Mr. Cleanser cleaning solution and its mascot that Homer uses in the basement are a parody of the real life cleaner, Mr. Clean.
When the cleaning products' mascots attack Homer during his hallucination, Mr. Cleanser's "Must destroy you" line with a Russian accent is a reference to the "I must break you" line said by Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.
Syndication Cuts[]
The scene of Homer using multiple cleaners in the basement, getting dizzy from the fumes, and hallucinating that the mascots on the bottles are attacking him is cut in U.S. syndication (but can be seen on the season five DVD, as well as on Disney+ streaming, and most cable reruns).
Also cut from the old U.S. syndicated version is the part where Stampy walks through a Republican party convention (where everyone cheers for him) and a Democratic party convention (where everyone is fighting each other and booing Stampy), and an earlier scene where Homer sees a bird pecking at Stampy and freaks out, only for Lisa to explain that certain species of bird peck at elephants as a means of cleaning and grooming them, leading to Homer using a bird to peck at his bald head and remaining strands of hair.
Trivia[]
Despite the The Simpsons production staff describing the show as "liberal-leaning," as shown with even the episode's animal rights message, "Bart Gets An Elephant" nevertheless appeared to predict the historic 1994 Republican Revolution, which saw Democrats lose Governor seats, the U.S. Senate get a Republican majority for the first time in eight years, and, even more ironically, the U.S. House of Representatives get a Republican majority for the first time in forty years; unlike the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives did not get a Republican majority even during Jimmy Carter's inflation-ridden, Iran Hostage Crisis baring 1980 re-election disaster. One major hint of this prediction was the symbolic way Stampy, who is of the elephant species which has long served as the Republican Party mascot, was portrayed and also how he was treated when he walked through the Republican and Democrat Conventions.
There are footprints on the walls and the ceiling in the Simpsons' kitchen.
Signs at the Republican meeting: "We want what's worst for everyone" and "We're just plain evil."
Signs at the Democratic Party meeting: "We hate life and ourselves" and "We can't govern!"
In addition to the above two, the different reactions to Stampy are a nod to the Republican symbol being an elephant.
This was ironically a little over seven months before the 1994 "Republican Revolution" elections too.
The premise of a choice between prizes of either cash or an elephant is identical to another promotion in which the cash was refused, bringing an Asian Elephant to Alaska and establishing a zoo.
The bowling ball Homer bought during "Life on the Fast Lane" makes an appearance in the refrigerator at the beginning of this episode.
First appearance of Cletus Spuckler, though he wouldn't go by Cletus until the season seven episode "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily" and his last name wouldn't be revealed until season 13's "Sweets and Sour Marge" (though in that episode, his last name was Del Roy, not Spuckler). In "Yokel Chords" he is referred as Cletus Del Roy Spuckler.
Homer's near death experience regarding his falling into the Springfield Tar Pit was later referenced in "I Am Furious (Yellow)", specifically when he, while expressing amusement at a tipsy Stegosaurus walking into a tar pit in the teaser clip for When Dinosaurs Get Drunk, mentioned that "[Homer's] been there, man."
Bart eating the chocolate middle of the Neapolitan ice cream is a call-back to "Radio Bart" when Homer finds that the chocolate in the middle of the vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream has been eaten.
Goofs[]
The green and purple Olmec head
Mr. Burns' Olmec head is colored green and purple, but when he gives it to Bart, the head is brown and white.
In the beginning when Marge is walking down the stairs, she is shown to be barefoot but when she arrived at the kitchen she has her slippers on.
Homer with a yellow beard
Right before Marge initially expresses fear that Stampy could be dangerous, Homer's beard is colored yellow.
Mr. Burns' lip sync is off when he tells Smithers that being on Stampy is just like that fat man he used to ride to work.
When Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II start fleeing Stampy, a shot shows Stampy's feet with one of them already wearing the chain cuff that Homer will put on later.
When Homer, Bart and Lisa walk into the kitchen, the red part of the sailboat painting is blue.
A shot of Stampy chained up in the backyard is used twice, making it appear that the smashed doghouse is intact again.
