Beyond Blunderdome/References

Episode	References	Gags	Appearances	Gallery	Quotes	Credits

◄ Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo

Beyond Blunderdome

Brother's Little Helper ►

Trivia

• The Elec-Taurus car seen at the start of the episode is a driveable vehicle in "The Simpsons Road Rage" and "The Simpsons: Hit and Run"; it resembles the real-life General Motors EV-1.
• Mel Gibson says to Marge, "I speed all the time, but cops never give me a ticket." This episode aired seven years before Gibson was arrested for speeding and DUI.
  • Also, the idea that Mel Gibson was a well-liked celebrity until he released a controversial movie would actually come true when he created The Passion of the Christ and came under fire for making anti-Semitic remarks during his DUI arrest years after this episode aired.
• Troy McClure (or a lookalike/doppelganger) can be seen in Mel Gibson's movie, marking the first time this character appeared since "Bart the Mother" in the tenth season due to his voice actor Phil Hartman's death. He would later be seen in "Worst Episode Ever", "Moe Baby Blues", "A Star is Torn", "See Homer Run", "The Wife Aquatic", "24 Minutes", "The Great Wife Hope", "Mathlete's Feat", "The Serfsons" (severed head), and even the movie.
• There are posters of movies Space Mutants 12 and McBain VI: You Have the Right to Remain Dead at Aztec Theater. The second poster refers to the episode "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", where the movie was mentioned.
• This episode, along with the Futurama episode, A Flight to Remember, aired on the same day as WWF's Unforgiven; in fact, these two episodes aired within an hour of the event.

Cultural References

• This episode's title is a reference to the movie "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome", in which Mel Gibson starred.
• The Flintstone mobile appears with Fred, Wilma and Dino Flinstone in it.
• When Homer is watching a test screening for Mel Gibson's remake of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", he badmouths it, saying, "At least the Jimmy Stewart version had the giant rabbit who ran the savings and loan!" These are references to "Harvey" and "It's a Wonderful Life".
• Rainier Wolfcastle is seen filming "Saving Irene Ryan", a reference to both "Saving Private Ryan" and the TV sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies".
• After the studio cart crashes, Mel says to Homer, "I'm getting too old for this crap," paraphrasing what Danny Glover often says to Mel Gibson's Lethal Weapon character.
• Mel Gibson tossing away his U.S. Senator badge at the end of the "Mr. Smith" remake is similar to the endings of "Dirty Harry" and "High Noon".
• Mel Gibson's pilot is John Travolta, who plays a pilot in a number of films including 'Look who's talking', but is also himself a certified pilot who owns five aircraft.
• The police shoot-out scene with Robert Downey Jr. is a reference to Downey's problems with the law in the 1990s, during which the actor battled drug addiction and was arrested on several occasions.
• The movie billboard in Hollywood that Homer and Mel Gibson crashed through featured a woman (implied to be overgoing labor) and the title "She's Having a Baby... Again!", spoofing the movie "She's Having a Baby".
• Mel Gibson's character does Curly Howard's famous "Whoop, whoop, whoop". Mel is a huge fan of The Three Stooges and even directed a biopic of them.
• Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi appear shouting "We're lesbians," a reference to the former coming out to the public two years earlier.

Goofs

Homer's hand is on Bart's shoulder but also attached to his arm

• When Homer talks to Bart outside of the cutting room, he places his hand on Bart's right shoulder. However, when Homer removes his hand, his fingers are still on Bart's shoulder.

"McBain" misspelled as "McBane"

• One of the posters at Aztec Theater misspells "McBain" as "McBane".
• In the film when the head of senate inadvertently causes an explosion due to striking the gavel simultaneously when Mr. Smith throws a fire extinguisher, the resulting explosion blows off the Capitol Building rotunda. In actuality, the Senate room is to the right of the Capitol rotunda, not at the center of the Capitol and directly beneath the Senate Rotunda. Even though this cut was made by Homer Simpson, the mistake was likely deliberate to showcase Homer's stupidity.
• Mel kicked Homer out from the right side of the limousine even though Homer entered through right side first.