Homer Simpson in: "Kidney Trouble"/References

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◄ Lisa Gets an "A"

Homer Simpson in: "Kidney Trouble"

Mayored to the Mob ►

Trivia

• The dialogue during the shootout was not captioned.
• The robot dancers of the Western themed bar were based on Heather Mills.
• It is mentioned by Dr. Hibbert that Larry Hagman took the entire stock of kidneys, livers and hearts.
• This is arguably the second episode where a Simpson suffers the permanent extraction of an organ, the first being "'Round Springfield". However, Homer still has both kidneys in later episodes.

Cultural References

• The cowboy robot chasing the dancer robot around in a circle on the bar's balcony references the original Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland.
• The scene where the car breaks down outside Springfield Retirement Castle and Homer tries to restart the engine while Abe walks slowly towards the car parodies the 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead.
• Homer states that he wants to watch Inside the Actors Studio.
• At one point "Doc Martens" and "Dr. Bombay" are called for over the hospital intercom. "Doc Martens" refers to a British footwear brand and "Dr. Bombay" refers to a character from the 1960s sitcom Bewitched starring (all deceased) Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York, Agnes Moorehead and David White.
• The sequence of Homer nearly being run over by a car references Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 spy thriller film North by Northwest.
• The scenes on board the ship of lost souls reference Jean-Paul Sartre's 1944 theater play No Exit.
• Homer states that he is now "the luckiest man on the face of the Earth now that Lou Gerhig is dead".

Goofs

Homer's head not directly in the hole in the shirt

• When the Simpsons are in the car, at one point Homer's head is misplaced slightly so that there appears to be a piece of shirt under the collar where his head is meant to be.
• The tracks in the concrete appear before the railcar wheels rolled over it.

The bottom of the knot on Dr. Hibbert's hat is missing

• The idea of Grampa suffering a "kidney blowout" is medically impossible. His bladder would have been the organ that would have ruptured from holding urine in for too long, since the bladder is the organ that retains the urine before it gets expelled by urination (the kidneys just filter what the body has consumed).
• As Dr. Hibbert laughs after Homer exits the hospital, the bottom of the knot on the back of his hat repeatedly disappears, so that there is a noticeable space between the bottom of the kot and Hibbert's shirt (even though the former is supposed to behind the latter).

Homer signing in the middle of the form

• Homer somehow manages to buy an outfit from Davey Jones' Hamper despite wearing his pocketless hospital robe and thus not possibly having his wallet with him. Homer most likely stole those clothes or found them in a Dumpster.
• In this episode, Grampa has two kidneys, but in Season 2 episode "Old Money", Grampa told Bea that he had one (unless he meant one that was still functioning). This also may be a mistake on Abe's part due to his senility.

Homer out-of-proportion with the cars around him

• When Homer signs the form in the hospital, he signs in the middle of the paper instead of on the line at the bottom. However, one could interpret this as simply an example of Homer's lack of intelligence and common sense. Or he probably had to fill out some blank spaces in the middle of the form.
• When Homer was parallel-parking the railcar, he was out of proportion compared to the cars on either side of him. Oddly, he barely comes up to the height of the trunk on the closest car.
• The Frenchman says he stole his accordion from a blind monkey, but what he's actually playing is a concertina. An accordion has a full keyboard on it, is boxy rather than circular, and wouldn't be held easily with two hands (accordions have straps on them worn on the body that keep it in place).
• Homer is stated to still have both kidneys in later episodes, and when he is seen shirtless in "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" and other later episodes, there is no kidney-shaped scar on his body. The scar probably healed after a while.
• Maggie isn't with the family during the hospital scenes.
• Marge tells she blame Homer for having Abe's kidneys explode. She should also have blamed herself for not telling Homer to stop for Abe's sake. That's pretty much in-character for Marge to blame everyone but herself or to pin the blame on Homer for something that is her fault, like when she kicked Homer out for dancing with Princess Kashmir (when it was completely innocent; despite Homer's supervisor's son being embarassed over having a stripper at his bachelor party, all the other men did was hoot and whistle at her. There was no inappropriate touching, no forceful stripping, no offers for sexual favors, no use of vulgar and demeaning language) and only taking him back because she feared that Bart will see this as permission to treat women like sex objects, never mind that Marge should have punished Bart for taking pictures without the subject's consent or knowledge.

Production Notes

• The final draft for this episode was published on May 12, 1998.