This episode is often noted for its famous parody of the Seven Sister Colleges (as they were prior to the 1970s; Vassar College is now coeducational and Radcliffe college merged with Harvard) who appear to Lisa Simpson in a dream:
Barnard College:(wearing glasses): We are the Seven Sisters. And you can attend any one of us! Like Barnard, Columbia's "girl next door."
Radcliffe College: Come to Radcliffe and meet Harvard men.
Wellesley College: Or come to Wellesley and marry them.
Mount Holyoke College:(slurring, champagne glass in hand) No. Party with me! (Falls face first.)
Vassar College: Or nonconform with me! (Raises arms, reveals hairy armpits.)
Smith College:(muscular, carries lacrosse stick, husky voice) Play lacrosse with me!
Bryn Mawr College: Or explore with me! (She and Smith kiss with passion.)
General[]
While opening the school, Principal Skinner sings a parody of School's Out by Alice Cooper.
The song played during the Spelling Bee Olympics is "I Put a Spell on You" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins.
Another song played during the Olympics was "Get Ready to Rumble" (original: "2 unlimited - Get ready for this"). This song was also played in the episode "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass".
The lawsuit against the Spellympics by the Olympics (for using -lympics) is a parody of the law made by Congress which says that the Olympic Committee can sue anyone who uses "Olympics" or makes an arrangement of the five rings.
This episode contains some Grateful Dead references. "Ribheads" are touring the country in devotion to the Ribwich (as opposed to Deadheads) and end up in San Francisco. At the end of the episode, Krusty says, "What a long strange product rollout it's been", paraphrasing a line from the Grateful Dead's "Truckin'."
Booberella, the vampiric hostess appearing at the beginning of the episode, is a parody of television personalities Vampira and/or Elvira.
The title of the episode is a reference to the 1981 book I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can, by Barbara Gordon. The book describes Gordon's addiction to prescription medication and her rehabilitation. This episode depicts Lisa's addiction to fame and longing for acceptance.
Lisa parodies the classic scene from the film Rocky by running up the courthouse steps.
The framed number 0 jersey in George Plimpton's office is in the style of the Detroit Lions, the team Plimpton practiced with in his book Paper Lion.
The RibWich TV jingle is very similar to Bob Seger's "Like a Rock" which was played in the '90s for Chevy trucks.
The spelling bee plot can also be considered a parody of the 1969 animated film, " A Boy Named Charlie Brown", where Charlie Brown wins a local spelling bee competition at his school, and goes on to the National Spelling Bee finals, eventually losing when he mistakenly misspells the word 'beagle'.
Trivia[]
An alternate version of the first scene is used in the season 17 episode "The Monkey Suit".
The Ribwich is an obvious parody of the McDonald'sMcRib sandwich, which is also noted for its intermittent availability and the less-than-obvious origin of its meat.
Portions of this episode were a parody of the Darren Aronofsky film called Requiem for a Dream: the use of a 'hip-hop montage' around a central theme, in the film and this episode, addiction (the Ribwich); also the visuals when Homer eats the Ribwich (dilating pupils, blood pulsing through veins, etc.).
George Plimpton later appears on the movie in "Bart Gets a "Z"".
The Italian guy drives a Corvette, in which Homer drives off in after Homer gives him the final Ribwich.
Goofs[]
A green Krusty Burger outfit
The Squeaky-Voiced Teen's Krusty Burger uniform is green here, not purple like other episodes.
Krusty mentions that the ribwich was made out of an animal that was now extinct. However in the commercial, the animal that the ribwich was made from was clearly ox (which could just be advertising "fibbing").
Layering errors in the crowd scene
At the end of the episode as the crowd cheers Lisa, many of the crowd members are layered incorrectly. For instance, Elizabeth Hoover's arm goes behind someone she's standing in front of, while a woman standing behind Timothy Lovejoy Jr. is layered in front of him.
The subtitles underneath the title card during the opening sequence says "301st episode", even though Pray Anything was actually the 301st episode to air and I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can was the 303rd episode to air. In the episode's original airing on FOX, it aired the same night as "Barting Over" which was promoted as the 300th episode. It was referenced by Marge and Lisa in that very episode, with the former saying, "I could've sworn it was 302."
Production Notes[]
The final draft of this episode is dated May 9, 2002.[1]
