Flanders' Ladder/References

Episode	References	Gags	Appearances	Gallery	Quotes	Credits

◄ Throw Grampa from the Dane

Flanders' Ladder

Bart's Not Dead ►

Trivia

• Many deceased characters appear as ghosts inside of Bart's dream in this episode.
  • Maude Flanders
  • Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky
  • Bleeding Gums Murphy
  • Snowball II
  • Coltrane
  • Snowball III
  • Jebediah Springfield
  • Alice Glick
  • Marvin Monroe
  • Shary Bobbins
  • Amber Simpson
  • Waylon Smithers, Sr.
  • Frankie
  • Albert
  • Horace Wilcox
  • Max the Ice Cream Man
  • Frankie the Squealer
• Additionally, Homer, Larry, Barney, and Sam also die in the dream, albeit Homer is ultimately revived.
• Maude Flanders seeks vengeance on Homer for causing her death in "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily". A clip from said episode is played to elucidate.
• Tapes in Homer's VHS Collection:
  • Homer/Marge Proposal
  • Wasp's Nest in Dryer
  • Bart's First Steps/NBA Pre-Season
  • Wedding Video/Alaska Speech
  • Video of Baseball Card Collection
• The VHS tape labeled, "WEDDING VIDEO/ALASKA SPEECH", references to tape recorded events from "The Simpsons Movie".
• The Olivia Newton John tape in the VCR is labelled "HOMERS XXXERCISE TAPE". Presumably a reference to the provocative outfits in the suggestive video being spank worthy and the habit of hiding homemade VHS porn by mislabelling it.
• Homer weighs more than an elephant. This references a gag from "Whistler's Father".
• A parody of the Itchy & Scratchy Theme Song plays in Bart's brain.
• This is Marvin Monroe's third recent appearance, following "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife" and "Treehouse of Horror XXV".
• Bart foresees the ultimate deaths of his family, friends, enemies, acquaintances, and even himself, while comatose. A clip show plays at the end of the episode, showing the deaths of these various characters in action, along with memorial cards for them.
  • Waylon Smithers, Age 50, will fall into a deep depression, after learning that the love of his life, Mr. Burns, has married Angelina Jolie. Smithers would commit suicide, by jumping into a cooling tower from the nuclear power plant.
  • Homer Simpson, Age 59, will get gunned down by police, when he's caught leaving a bank, holding a mysterious item, hidden in a brown paper bag. After his death, investigation, would prove that this "mysterious item" was simply just a foot long sub sandwich.
  • Clancy Wiggum, Age 62, will choke to death on said sub sandwich, when eating it.
  • Marge Simpson, Age 84, will exit peacefully of natural causes.
  • Seymour Skinner, Age 119, will have a heart attack, after over exerting himself in rage, in response to seeing Bart set off fireworks, that spell out "Skinner Sucks". He'll then pass out in his wheelchair and his face will land on the lever, causing him to move forward endlessly.
  • Bart Simpson, Age 80, will get run over by Seymour's wheelchair.
  • Lisa Simpson, Age 98, will pass away from natural causes, seconds after she realizes that she's wasted her entire life on a made-up religion.
  • Ralph Wiggum, Age 120, will become the king of Springfield, but will have one of his drinks poisoned by his future great-great-grandson., for the purpose of assuming the position as the new king.
  • Maggie Simpson, Eternal, will, for unexplained reasons, become some sort of a Goddess and live forever as a divine, celestial entity. As such, she will never pass on and outlive her entire family.
• According to Bart's dream, Marge Simpson would move on to remarry Ned Flanders after Homer's death.
  • Marge would not be Ned's very next wife, following Edna Krabappel, as by the time she marries Ned, he will have gone through an extensive list of countless other wives. Some of these include recurring characters, such as Martha Quimby, Luann Van Houten, Brandine Spuckler, Selma Bouvier, Agnes Skinner, Ms. Berrera, Helen Lovejoy, Cookie Kwan, Bernice Hibbert, Sarah Wiggum, Patty Bouvier, Lindsey Naegle, Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon, Mrs. Muntz, Miss Springfield, Doris Freedman, Jerri Mackleberry, Strawberry, Eleanor Abernathy, Martha Prince, Maya, Kumiko Albertson, Shauna Chalmers and Elizabeth Hoover.
• Bart is shown to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the future, something that was established in "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie".
• This episode was dedicated to the late Tom Wolfe.
• This marks the last time Homer strangles Bart for something bad.

Cultural References

• The title of this episode is a reference to Jacob's Ladder, the name given to a staircase described in the Book of Genesis that connects earth to heaven.
• Bart pranks Lisa, by tricking her playing into The Maze/Scary Maze Game by Jeremy Winterrowd on October 2004, and however, a spoof like being a parodied version of Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist. nearly on the 2nd level and the jumpscare happened, and a pop up of a zombie instead of Regan.
• Bart says that Elon Musk and Angela Merkel got perfect scores on the so-galled "genius maze test".
• The famous tune, "Charge" plays on the TV, while Homer watches the basketball game.
• Homer has VHS recordings of Family Matters, The Tracey Ullman Show, and Saved by the Bell.
• When Homer finds a tape for The Tracey Ullman Show, he reprises his voice and animation style in the shorts from that series.
• It is revealed that Marge used to love the Ricola commercial as she and Homer dressed up as the people in the advertisement.
• Olivia-Newton John's music video, "Let's Get Physical" is one of the tapes Homer watches with the kids.
• Ned Flanders goes on a website called "IMDbible", which is a parody on IMDB.
• One of the paintings on the left side of Bart's brain alludes to The Scream.
• The song that played at the end is "Breathe Me" by Sia. The entire sequence was a parody of Six Feet Under's finale.
• Smithers reads an Issue of "Peephole" magazine, a parody on People.
• Homer's shootout scene is a direct reference to Sonny Corleone's assassination scene in The Godfather and Frank Pentangeli's attempted assassination in The Godfather II.

Goofs

• Frankie the Squealer instructs Bart to kill Fat Tony, despite him already dying in "Donnie Fatso". It might be possible this episode took place before "Donnie Fatso", or Frankie might be referring to the new Fat Tony. Alternatively, since this only happens in Bart's dream, he may not be aware Fat Tony is already dead.
• Patty Bouvier is seen on Ned's wall of dead wives, despite being a lesbian.