Blame it on Lisa/References

Episode	References	Gags	Appearances	Gallery	Quotes	Credits

◄ Tales from the Public Domain

Blame it on Lisa

Weekend at Burnsie's ►

Censorship

• Rio de Janeiro and Brazil as a whole were depicted very poorly (with geographical errors*) in this episode that the Brazilian tourist board, Embratur, protested against it. As a result, Rede Globo pulled this episode after being shown three times. It would take years before the episode would ever air again, despite James L. Brooks apologizing for the unflattering depiction. Eventually, the episode was released on DVD in Brazil, aired on the Pay-TV FOX Channel with no edits or alterations to content, and has been airing uncut on Brazilian television since November 2012. *see Goofs

Cultural references

• The blonde hostess of the risque children's variety show Bart calls "Teleboobies" (a play on Teletubbies) is a reference to the Brazilian entertainer Xuxa.
• When Marge turns off said parody show, she tells Bart that "Bert and Ernie left it to [his] imagination." Bert and Ernie are a duo from the children's show Sesame Street. Some people have speculated that they may be a gay couple, though this is never confirmed on the show, explaining Marge's comment.
• Rio Days-Inn-Ero is a parody of both the city of Rio de Janeiro and the Days Inn hotel chain.
• On the airplane Bart studies Spanish so he can understand the local people. Marge informs him that Brazilians speak Portuguese.
• Homer and Bart sing the Chiquita Banana song, butchering the lyrics with "I'm Chiquita Banana, and I'm here to say, I will eat this Toblerone and I will not pay!"
• The title "Blame It on Lisa" is a reference to the film Blame It on Rio.
• The Itchy and Scratchy cartoon "Par for the Corpse" is a parody of A Trip to the Moon.
• After Itchy drives Scratchy's head into the moon, he drops several dollar bills onto Scratchy's carcass, referencing Rodney Dangerfield's character in Caddyshack.
• Bart mentions the people here in Brazil "love soccer", whereupon the hotel personnel plays soccer with luggage. Soccer is very popular in Brazil. Pelé, the internationally most famous soccer player prior to his death in 2022, was Brazilian.
• At one point Homer says, "Don't you know the boys from Brazil are little Hitlers? I saw it in a movie whose name I can't remember." Ironically, he says the title of the movie in that line. This is a reference to the film The Boys From Brazil, which revolves around Josef Mengele raising clones of Adolf Hitler. Homer also forgot a film title despite mentioning it involuntarily in The Springfield Files. He did a similar thing in Treehouse of Horror VI, where he refers to The Twilight Zone as "that twilight-y show about that zone."
• The book Lisa is reading on the plane, titled Who Wants to Be a Brazilionaire?, is a reference to the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?.
• When the kidnappers and Homer are traversing down the Amazon River, the theme song from Miami Vice plays.
• The song playing just as Homer and Bart are strolling down the beach is the 1939 tune Aquarela do Brasil (usually just known as "Brazil" around the world), previously featured prominently in the film Brazil.
• Homer's swimming pants who shrink to a shorter size are a reference to the world famous Brazilian "bikini bottoms".
• When Lisa mentions the slums have been painted so that the tourists are not offended a stream of multicolored rats run out in front of them. Homer claims they look like Skittles.
• Homer believing that nuns can fly comes from The Flying Nun.
• Ronaldo mentions that he makes as much money as Malcolm in the Middle.
• The scene with the cable cars is a parody of the popular scene from the James Bond film Moonraker, where James Bond fights the assassin Jaws.
• The Fruit and Mini bar hats are a reference to the Brazilian singer and dancer Carmen Miranda, who used a similar hat to the fruit one that Bart was wearing.

Previous and Future Episode References

• "Krusty Gets Busted": The Itchy & Scratchy cartoon reuses the old Season 1 title card from "Burning Love".
• "Bart vs. Australia": Homer asking Bart if he prank-called Brazil like he did with Australia.
• "Brother from the Same Planet": Homer and Marge notice a charge on the phone bill that neither of them made.
• "Marge Be Not Proud": Reference to Brazilian entertainer Xuxa (the South American entertainer whose name Krusty can't pronounce on his Christmas special/the host of "Teleboobies").
• The Simpsons family vacations to other countries (and their own):
  • North America: Florida ("Kill the Alligator and Run"), New York City ("The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson"), California ("Beyond Blunderdome"), Delaware ("Simpsons Tall Tales"), Washington, D.C. ("Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington"), Hawaii ("Little Big Mom"), and, later, Alaska (The Simpsons Movie), and Canada ("Midnight Rx", "Boy Meets Curl", and "D'oh Canada")
  • Europe: Bart mentions going to France ("The Crepes of Wrath"), though later, the family would go to Britain ("The Regina Monologues") and Italy ("The Italian Bob") and Homer would go to Iceland ("The Saga of Carl").
  • Asia: Japan ("Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo"), though later, the family would go to China ("Goo Goo Gai Pan"), Israel ("The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed") and India ("Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore").
  • Australia: "Bart vs. Australia"
  • Africa: Tanzania, which was comically renamed "New Zanzibar" and "Pepsi Presents: New Zanzibar" ("Simpson Safari")
  • Though Bart says that he's never been on Antarctica, he and the family would end up going there on "A Totally Fun Thing Bart Will Never Do Again".

Goofs

• A sign seen on top of an all-you-can-eat meat-on-a-sword restaurant, called Churrascaria ("steak house") in Portuguese, mistakenly uses the plural, Churrascarias.
• The sign Aeroporto International de Galeão is a misspelled reference to Rio's international airport, Galeão International Airport (also known as Aeroporto Internacional do Galeão).
• The Simpsons go to their hotel while they join a conga dance. The conga is not a popular dance in Brazil.
• The Brazilian dance teacher says that they invented the Macarena, however, the Macarena is a song by Los del Rio, a Spanish duo.
• When Lisa was reading "Who Wants to be a Brazilionare" on the plane, the cover shows Argentina as an ocean, and when Marge was reading it before entering the Conga line, Brazil (except for Amapá) is shown as an ocean.
• The Amazon River is located 2860 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro and would take five hours and fifty-five minutes to get there by plane and six day by car.
• Homer is not wearing the "Try and Stop Us" shirt in the beginning on the scene.

Production Notes

• The final draft for this episode was published on July 12, 2001.

July 12, 2001