Bart to the Future/References

Episode	References	Gags	Appearances	Gallery	Quotes	Credits

◄ Pygmoelian

Bart to the Future

Days of Wine and D'oh'ses ►

Cultural references

• The title is a pun on Back to the Future. Nelson's hairstyle and attire are a tribute to the 1985-A Biff Tannen from Back to the Future II.
• When Bart asks why a vision of his own future has an unrelated reference to Abraham Lincoln's gold, the Indian Casino Owner says, "I guess the spirits thought the main vision was a little thin", a barb directed at sitcom writers who pepper thin plots with side plots.

Trivia

• This episode aired exactly five years after Season 6's "Lisa's Wedding", which also depicted the Simpsons' universe in the future. An interesting point were the endings of both episodes; whereas the fortune teller told Lisa her future could not be changed, the Indian mystic tells Bart to try and change his future for the better. However, it should be noted that Lisa's fortune teller is implied to be a phony, meaning her foretelling of her future may be partially or completely inaccurate.
• The scene in which Bart was talking to the ghost of Billy Carter in a bar at Camp David is similar to "Treehouse of Horror V", where Homer was talking to Moe's ghost in the bar of Burns' mansion. Both of these scenes are parodied from a scene in Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining
• In 2003, Entertainment Weekly named this the worst episode of the entire series.
• Following a tiny tradition in the series, Ned, the kindest person (and holiest), has bad things happen to him in this episode, yet he remains faithful.
• This is the furthest future episode since it happened after "Lisa's Wedding" and "Future-Drama".
• When showing the Simpsons house in the future you can see the guest bedroom Homer built right before Lisa came home in "Lisa's Wedding."
• Marge mentioned that she had a gambling problem. ("$pringfield")
• In 2015, news media cited the episode as a foreshadowing of Trump's future run for president. Dan Greaney told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2016 interview that the thought of a Trump presidency at the time "just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom. It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane." Donald Trump went on to win the 2016 election. In the Season 28 episode Havana Wild Weekend, Bart writes "Being right sucks" on the chalkboard, a reference of Donald Trump winning the 2016 United States presidential election less than a week prior, predicted by this episode.
  • The episode also indicated that Ted Kennedy would run for president as well, but the Chappaquiddick incident permanently destroyed Ted Kennedy's chances at running for the presidency. Additionally, he died in 2009.

Goofs

• The mosquitoes took the park ranger's class ring from his right hand, but it was previously shown on his left (though kudos to the animators for actually putting the class ring on the park ranger's hand before it became necessary for the joke).
• When Bart plugged in the amp you can see a white (yellow) Carl sitting next to Lenny.
• When Bart throws the Future Duff Beer can on the floor, it turns into a normal Duff Beer can. The other cans are also labeled just "Duff Beer."
• Ned Flanders says that ten years after you get laser eye surgery your eyes fall out. However, two episodes later in Last Tap Dance in Springfield, Homer had laser eye surgery, and as shown here 30 years in the future (as well as in newer episodes in the series since 2010), his eyes did not fall out (though they did crust over due to Homer neglecting to use eyedrops afterward).