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HOMЯ |
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Premiere[]
- This episode was watched by 18.5 million people in the US during its premiere.
Cultural references[]
- The title and plot are both references to CHAЯLY, a 1968 film based on the 1959 Daniel Keyes novel Flowers for Algernon.
- The Sick, Twisted, and Totally F***ed Up Animation Festival may be modeled after Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation.
- A statue of The Iron Giant can be seen in the festival, this is a tribute to the Oscar-winning director Brad Bird who used to work for the show in the mid-1990s.
- A panel for My Neighbour Totoro is seen at the animation festival, featuring cameos of Totoro and Catbus.
- In the anime Bart watches, the final scene features a reference to the Japanese flag.
- The clay animation watched by Flanders and his kids, The New Gravey and Jobriath, is a parody of Davey and Goliath, a similarly Christian-themed animation. This is one of the few scenes in the show to depart from traditional cel or cel-style animation.
- "Gravey" intends to blow up Planned Parenthood, a pro-choice collection of organizations.
- The stand behind Flanders and his kids reading "Animation Today" has imagery of Wallace, Gromit and Feathers McGraw as a reference to Nick Park's second "Wallace and Gromit" short "The Wrong Trousers".
- The voice actor who copies other characters' voices and celebrity voices at the animation festival references how many early Hanna-Barbera "funny animal" characters' voices were often based off popular celebrities of the time. In an ironic sense, Professor Frink points out how one such character obviously has a voice based off Jerry Lewis, just as Frink's voice is.
- The faux old footage of Itchy & Scratchy advertising for Laramie Cigarettes is likely a reference to the first seasons of The Flintstones, sponsored by Winston Cigarettes, with commercials featuring the main characters enjoying the product.
- Eddie "Rochester" Anderson (from The Jack Benny Program, sponsored for 15 years by Lucky Strike) is seen smoking with Itchy and Scratchy in the above commercial.
- Ozmodiar, a parody of The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones, appears twice during this episode, once after Bart says cartoons do not have to make sense, and once more after all the employees are laid off from the plant.
- Homer daydreams about singing "We're In the Money" (from Gold Diggers of 1933) with a chorus line before revealing King Kong holding fistfuls of cash.
- Homer blames eBay (rapidly gaining fame at the time this episode premiered) for the poor-quality cowbell he purchased.
- Intelligent Homer solves multiple Rubik's Cubes in his spare time.
- The film Love is Nice, starring Julia Roberts, Richard Gere and Bill Pullman (but not Bill Paxton) is a parody of the other Roberts and Gere films, Runaway Bride and Pretty Woman.
- The line "Is that your final answer?" refers to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
- When the researchers examine the x-ray of Homer's brain, they use a visual enhancement machine similar to the one used by Deckard in Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner.
- The name of the animation firm, Animotion, is probably taken from the band known for their 1985 hit "Obsession".
- The animated dog that dances to Homer's movements during the Animotion process resembles Snoopy.
- During the couch gag in the opening credits, Fry from Futurama is dropped onto the sofa, before being sucked away again.
- While mailing his suggestions in the suggestion tube, Homer is humming Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto Brandenburg #3.
- When the Simpson family visit the animation convention, Bob, Larry, and Junior from VeggieTales are shown on one of the booths.
- This episode is referenced in The Simpsons comic "Laughter is not the Best Medicine". Dr. Hibbert shows an X-Ray of Homer's head and the crayon is seen.
- Moe, who says he is an unlicensed surgeon, describes his procedure as "the old Crayola oblongata". This refers to the Medulla Oblongata, the lower half of the brainstem.
Previous Episode References[]
- Homer Loves Flanders, So It's Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show, Lisa the Simpson: Homer's stupidity is explained (Bart saying that being a loser is genetic, Homer losing his brainpower from being in a coma, The Simpson Gene, and Homer getting a crayon stuck in his head).
- Homer Loves Flanders: Homer imitates Marge (during his imagine spot of him wearing a tall, blue wig/while he's filling out bank papers)
- Mother Simpson: A flashback to Homer's childhood and his bedroom in the 1960s.
- Treehouse of Horror III ("King Homer"): reference to the scene in the original 1933 version of King Kong where Kong is chained up on a Broadway stage (King Homer is chained on the stage/Homer imagines King Kong chained on the stage during his "We're in the Money" imagine spot).
- Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk: Homer buys stock shares in a company with disastrous results.
- A Star is Burns and They Saved Lisa's Brain: Springfield is a very anti-intellectual city (the citizens tried to burn Principal Skinner at the stake for saying the Earth revolves around the sun/Lisa speaks out against the town's anti-intellectualism following the riot at the "How Low Can You Go?" contest/Homer is bullied and ostracized for trying to improve the town with his 105 IQ).
- Lisa the Beauty Queen: A Dan Castellaneta-voiced character (Barney/Homer) gets a job as a human guinea pig.
- The Homer They Fall: Dr. Hibbert finds something strange about Homer's head/brain anatomy through an X-ray (the layer of fluid that makes Homer impervious to falling after getting hit/the crayon stuck in his head)
- Hurricane Neddy: A Simpson parent (Marge/Homer) solves a Rubik's cube.
- Simpson and Delilah: Homer finally gets the capitol of North Dakota right as Bismarck (on the former episode, he thought it was Hitler, because both Bismarck and Hitler are the last names of German leaders).
- Bart on the Road and Make Room for Lisa: Homer and Lisa bond.
- El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer: Homer sadly walking the streets looking for an intellectual safe haven is similar to him walking the streets looking for his soul mate after realizing Marge may not be the one.
- Fear of Flying: Homer gets banned from Moe's (for his lame sugar prank on Moe/for being an intellectual)
- Cape Feare, The Springfield Files, Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment, Simpson Tide, Pygmoelian, The Computer Wore Menace Shoes: Moe commits a crime while running his bar (cages endangered animals [the pandas and the killer whale from SeaWorld]; runs a speakeasy when Prohibition is enforced; holds The Deer Hunter-style Russian roulette matches run by the Italian and Japanese Mafias; has an expired, falsified liquor license; imprisons Hans Moleman under the floorboards; allows a burning effigy on the premises and performs amateur surgery on Homer).
- Colonel Homer: Homer gets kicked out of a movie theater (for spoiling the ending to the military thriller he and Marge are watching/for pointing out how tired and predictable Love is Nice is).
- Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood: A Simpson kid (Lisa/Bart) assures another (Bart/Lisa) that cartoons don't have to reflect reality or make sense, and is proven right (Homer walks past the house, even though he's been sitting on the couch throughout the scene/Ozmodiar appears besides Bart).
- Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily: The Flanders kids watch a violent cartoon (Itchy & Scratchy/Gravey and Jobriath)
- The Day the Violence Died: reference to plagiarism in animation (Roger Meyers Jr. gets taken to court over his father stealing Chester Lampwick's credit for creating Itchy/Professor Frink and Comic Book Guy call out the fat voice actor for basing his character voices on real actors).
- The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase: Ozmodiar (the Great Gazoo-esque alien) appears.
- The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show:
- Homer voices a talking dog.
- Poochie merchandise appears, despite Poochie not being well-liked and getting killed off with no chance of coming back (though "Treehouse of Horror IX" and "Little Big Mom" showed Poochie in brief cameos).
- Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo: jokes about Japanese cartoons (the family going into epileptic fits over Battling Seizure Robots/Bart and Lisa watching an anime about a girl warrior attacking a robot wolf).
- Lisa the Simpson: Someone pronounces "library" as "li-berry" and that pronunciation being a sign that someone isn't an intellectual.
- Brother's Little Helper: The Screaming Monkey Research Center looks similar to the Pharm Team building.
- Saddlesore Galactica: The Comic Book Guy wears a "Worst _____ Ever" T-shirt.
- Mayored to the Mob: The Simpsons go to a convention that appeals to geeks (sci-fi/animation).
- The Front and Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie: The Itchy & Scratchy cartoons used to be politically incorrect (Lisa remembers the tasteless Itchy & Sambo cartoons of the late 1930s/the World War II cartoon where Itchy & Scratchy beat up Adolf Hitler, then Itchy decapitates Scratchy and Franklin D. Roosevelt kicks both Hitler's and Scratchy's corpses, despite that FDR was wheelchair-bound from polio/the Itchy & Scratchy commercial that has kids' cartoon characters smoking and an African-American man as a servant).
- Three Men and a Comic Book: A series that's popular with children (the original Radioactive Man serials/The Itchy & Scratchy Show) used to shill cigarettes in the 1950s.
- 22 Short Films About Springfield: Nelson gets humiliated and everyone laughs at him.
- Homer to the Max: jokes about the state of TV animation at the time (the line about TV networks liking animation because they don't have to pay the actors anything and the voice actors can be replaced/Marge's line about cartoons being everywhere "...or were, last year...")
Trivia[]
- This is the first episode to air in 2001, as well as the first episode to air in the 21st century (the previous year, 2000, technically belonged to the previous millennium).
- The episode was originally going to end with the crayon coming out of Homer's nostril during his hug with Lisa, with Homer then exclaiming, "Hey, I just remembered! PBS is showing an oral history of the Dust Bowl!" Lisa then pushes the crayon back up Homer's nose, and Homer responds, "Thanks, that was close." For reasons unknown, the ending was changed to the current one where there is a focus on Lisa's content face as she hugs Homer, who eats his sandwich and says, "Mmm, hug."
Goofs[]
- When Homer looks at a book in the library, the book's text disappears.
- Though his intelligence increased, Homer didn't gain a better understanding of a long-term plan. Though everyone was laid off at the time, they would have gotten their jobs back once the plant safety was brought up to code.
- Near the end of Homer's Animotion performance, as Homer walks off stage saying "Goodnight!" to the audience, the animated dog on the screen "walks" in place. But after Homer is shown going into the men's restroom, on the screen the dog walks from the right side back into the center to do his business.
- The IQ of 105 is treated as if that's a high amount of intelligence, because Homer's IQ made it that high and it made him smart. 105 is actually average. Though that could just be a joke on how even average intelligence is considered above average (and worthy of being scorned, ridiculed, and ostracized) in the world of The Simpsons, which, according to episodes like A Star is Burns and They Saved Lisa's Brain, is very anti-intellectual.
- Homer freaks out when he goes blind from the appetite suppressant, but "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner" shows that Homer can sense food in other ways, like hearing pudding and being able to read what a cake says by sniffing the air.