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Hungry, Hungry Homer |
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Cultural references[]
- Blockoland is a parody of Legoland. Also, in the first car ride home, Bart refers to his Blocko shirt as a "Lego shirt", and Marge corrects him.
- The ghost of César Chávez visits Homer during his hunger strike, but takes the appearance of Cesar Romero, because Homer doesn't know what Chavez looks like.
- The scene where Bart sees Homer lying on top of the doghouse is a direct reference to Charlie Brown and Snoopy (both from Peanuts). Bart even utters Charlie Brown's signature line "Good Grief".
- The title is a self-reference to the game, Hungry Hungry Hippos. Coincidentally, one of the hippos in the game is named Homer.
- When Kent Brockman says that Mr. Duff is insisting that Homer is a liar, they show footage of Homer with his pants on fire. This is a nod to the classic chant, Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire.
- When Marge gets streaks in her hair, it resembles the Bride of Frankenstein's hair; tall white with two black streaks.
- The name of the barbershop Hairy Shearers is a reference to voice actor Harry Shearer, who voices Mr. Burns, Smithers, Reverend Lovejoy, Ned Flanders, and other characters.
- Homer's attempt to alert the press of the move by showing them a room of evidence, only to find nothing incriminating is found, is a likely reference to the film Moonraker, where James Bond discovers that Hugo Drax is operating a secret lab and making a deadly nerve gas. When Bond takes the Mi6 chief and Sir Frederick Gray to investigate the lab, Bond finds it has been replaced with Drax's study.
Previous Episode References[]
- "Homer's Odyssey": Homer becomes a good Samaritan (cracking down on safety violations in Springfield/standing up for "the little guy").
- "Stark Raving Dad": Homer was "...once in a loony bin".
- "Homer vs. Patty and Selma": Bart is called "rat boy" or otherwise compared to a rat.
- "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie": Homer is crammed into a kid's desk at Springfield Elementary.
- " The War of The Simpsons" and "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie": A baby driving a car.
- "Selma's Choice", "Lisa the Vegetarian", and "Itchy & Scratchy Land": The Simpsons go to a theme park.
- "Selma's Choice": Lisa has bad luck with the water at a theme park (drinks the tainted water from "The Little Land of Duff" and goes insane/gets hit with "water" made out of Blocko bricks).
- "Dog of Death": Homer degrades himself by singing for a small crowd (sings "Buffalo Gals" for beer money/sings "Dancin' Away My Hunger Pangs" for pity and attention)
- "Grade School Confidential": Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner are out on a date.
- "Homer's Barbershop Quartet": Marge tries to replace Homer's presence at home (building a crude dummy of him/making the kids eat all his food).
- "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson":
- Duffman appears.
- Homer sits in one spot for a long time and suffers (has to go to the bathroom really bad after drinking cans of crab juice/goes delirious from not eating for days).
- "Pygmoelian": Duffman's real name is revealed (Larry/Sid)
- "Treehouse of Horror II": Marge has white streaks in her tall, blue hair, making her look like The Bride of Frankenstein.
- "Lisa the Beauty Queen" and "A Milhouse Divided": Springfield has a hair salon with a funny name (Turn Your Head and Coif/The Perm Bank/Hairy Shearers)
- "Homer vs. Dignity": The Mayor of Albuquerque looks like the man who told his wife, "And this is better than a movie, why?" during Smithers' Malibu Stacy musical.
- "Marge vs. The Monorail", "The Springfield Files", and "Simpson Tide": Homer has an embarrassing file photo or video of himself that makes the news (Homer with a mouthful of cigarettes/Homer with his tongue frozen to a metal pole/Homer dressed as a Russian with a bottle of vodka/Homer with his pants on fire).
- "Homer Goes to College": Dan Castellaneta ad-libs a song for his character Homer ("I Am So Smart"/"Dancing Away My Hunger Pangs").
- "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses": Homer has breasts (wears a sports bra he found in the trash because he mistook it for a muscle shirt, but kept it because he finally has the support he needs/one of the signs Homer is wasting away is that he's down to a B-cup).
Trivia[]
- Homer's "Dancing Away My Hunger Pangs" song was actually ad-libbed by Dan Castellaneta.
- The real-life minor league baseball team Albuquerque Isotopes take their name from this episode.
Goofs[]
- After Homer throws the hairnet on the floor at Hairy Shearers, it is shown to be back on the counter again.
- "Veggie" is misspelled as "vegie".
- While he and Milhouse are walking over to Homer, the brim of Kirk Van Houten's hat switches from red to white for a frame.
- H.K. Duff asks Duffman to bring in two bottles of Duff Beer, but Duffman brings in cans of it instead.
- Duffman's first name (Sid) was mentioned here, even though "Pygmoelian" established that Duffman's real name was Larry. In "Jaws Wired Shut", it's revealed that Duffman has been played by multiple actors ("Duffman can never die; only the actors who play him") and "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play" reveals that, much like mall Santas, there are multiple Duffmen working, but it's kept a secret so as not to disillusion children.
- When Homer is singing "Dancin' Away My Hunger Pains", the dark checkerboard square on his seat repeatedly becomes the color of the lighter squares for a frame at a time.
- Homer went starving for over a week (12 days), and with his eating habits, it is possible he would have died by the fifth day. It is (in medicine) near impossible to live over 8 days without food or water. On top of that, his consuming all that stadium food after days of starvation would have led to him dying of refeeding syndrome (if the show followed reality, which it barely does).
Syndication Cuts[]
- The original ending in which the Mayor of Albuquerque decides not to buy the Springfield Isotopes and instead buys the Dallas Cowboys was edited on free-TV syndication in America (international airings have this uncut), making the episode end with Homer celebrating the end of his hunger strike. The scene has since been reinstated on cable reruns, DVD releases, and Disney+ streaming.