Insane Clown Poppy/References

Episode	References	Gags	Appearances	Gallery	Quotes	Credits

◄ A Tale of Two Springfields

Insane Clown Poppy

Lisa the Tree Hugger ►

Cultural references

• The episode title is a parody of the hip hop group Insane Clown Posse (as is Krusty's line to "get down with the clown," which, in Insane Clown Posse culture means, "to be a fan of the Insane Clown Posse.")
• Krusty's walk through the desert storm is from The French Lieutenant's Woman.
  • In addition, Krusty when doing his USO Comedy Tour was seen holding a golf club, referring to a trademark of real life USO comedian Bob Hope, where he often has a golf club with him on the stage during his sketches, where he always makes a swing whenever his jokes are well-received.
  • When stating that because he saved Saddam Hussein's life, he saved his baseball bit, he then rattles off "Husssein's on First, Ayatollah's on second and..." before being throttled by a very angry Erin, referring to the Costello Brothers' "Who's on First?" comedy routine.
    • In addition, aside from obviously referring to Hussein himself, the other name in the baseball bit was a reference to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamic dictator of Iran.
• Stephen King tells Marge that he's working on a biography of Benjamin Franklin where Franklin uses electricity to "torture small animals and green mountain men." The latter is a reference to the Green Mountain Boys, a militia organization led by Ethan Allen which fought in the American Revolutionary War.
• Coincidentally, the relationship of Krusty and Sophie reflects on the animated Christmas special, Olive the Other Reindeer because Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Krusty) also voices the postman in the special and Drew Barrymore (the voice of Sophie) also voices the titular character, Olive. Also, the special was created by Matt Groening himself, the creator of the Simpsons, who also did a sound bit as an elf for the special.
• During the poker game, Homer starts to sing the chorus to the The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Fat Tony then threateningly tells him not to sing it.
• Fat Tony attempting to find the squealer in the room is a possible reference to the party game "Mafia".
• Christopher Walken is shown reading to terrified children the book Good Night, Moon.
• Fat Tony's interest in playing the violin is a subtle reference to how the Sicilian Mafia often smuggled Tommy guns in violin cases, which is further referenced when Krusty and Homer accidentally drop several Violin cases that contained Tommy guns and inadvertently instigated a shootout between the mafia members.

Goofs

• When Ned Flanders is on the beach, he is of an average build, with visible body fat. Earlier and later episodes that feature him shirtless depict him as being very physically fit with a pronounced six pack.
• When Krusty stops Erin from assassinating Saddam and she retaliates by strangling him, she is mysteriously wearing red shoes. This may not be a goof, but wearing such bright red shoes in the situation, defeats the purpose of having camouflage.
• When Krusty goes to give Fat Tony Sophie's violin, the case has a sticker on it with her name, but when Krusty and Homer go to steal it back, the case is stickerless. Fat Tony could have torn it off after he takes it.
• Stephen King somehow knew Marge's name, despite Marge not telling him who she was. She could've told him in a previous book fair.

Trivia

• Former Saturday Night Live cast member Jay Mohr is credited for voicing Christopher Walken. Mohr, during his short stint on SNL in the mid-1990s, was known for his Christopher Walken impression.
• This is the second episode to feature Lisa's birthday.
• This episode originally had Homer, instead of Krusty, discovering that he had another daughter. This was done in order to not make the plot too far-fetched for it to be canon.
• Tom Wolfe appears in this episode in his signature white suit, Wolfe would later appear in season 18 Moe'N'A Lisa.
• This is the second time a character actually blushes in an episode of the series, the third and latest time being "I'm Goin' to Praiseland" where Ned Flanders blushes in that episode. This is really rare because there were not as much episodes where a character blushes either love struck or feels completely embarrassed. The first time it happened was in Season 8's Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious.