The title of the episode is a parody of the television series Love, American Style.
The first segment is a retelling of Bonnie and Clyde, and the characters in the cartoon of the segment are parodies of Woody Woodpecker and Speedy Gonzales, which Chief Wiggum finds racist (a reference to how a lot of the outdated racial jokes and characters in the old theatrical cartoons have met with controversy from modern audiences).
The second segment of the episode is a parody of Lady and the Tramp. The dog that was taken into the gas chamber in the segment is a parody of Disney's character Goofy.
Coincidentally, one of the proposed names for Tramp was "Homer".
The third segment is a reference to the romance of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen and the film Sid and Nancy. Bart is also featured in the story as Johnny Rotten, and the 1987 film Sid and Nancy which depicted said romance. The plot has chocolate substituting drugs, which is similar to "The Regina Monologues". CBGB was a music bar (though it is discovered that the abbreviation stands for Comic Book Guy's Bar; in real life it stood for "Country, BlueGrass, and Blues" despite the venue's association with Punk Rock).
Although a Sex Pistols song was featured in "Missionary: Impossible" ("No Feelings" during the "Do Shut Up" scene), the pistols in the Sid and Nancy segment do not actually sing any Pistols songs.
Ironically, the first and third real love stories in this episode end tragically. Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed in 1934, as shown in the episode, and in real life Nancy Spungen died of a stab wound in 1978, with Sid Vicious charged for her murder, pleading innocent and after multiple suicide attempts, dying of a heroin overdose in 1979 just after making bail and completing a detox program.
Also somewhat Ironically Bart plays Jonny Rotten, who as a Young man tried to Warn the UK over a radio show about UK TV Personality Jimmy Savile of being a Sex Offender in which years later was publicly revealed to be true, just as Bart Famously Exposed Sideshow Bob on live Television in the season 1 episode Krusty Gets Busted
Goofs and Errors[]
Despite Bart insisting it was dark, the unpleasantness of the real Sid/Nancy romance was definitely eased up on for the audience and there was nothing romantic about it at all. It consisted of a lot of fighting, a lot of make-up sex, a lot of drugs, a lot of drug-fueled sex, and Nancy convincing Sid to enter a suicide pact, and was destined to end in tragedy.
Nancy was never a model student. She was actually a rebellious teenager who ran away from home and moved to New York. She was already doing heroin when she met Sid at a show, and Sid had his own alcohol and heroin problems even before he met her.
Paul Cook (played by Dolph) refers to Sid Vicious as Sidney Sheldon Vicious, but his real name was John Simon Ritchie.
Censorship[]
This episode is only shown after the watershed on Sky Showcase and rarely airs on Channel 4, due to excessive gun violence (in the Bonnie and Clyde story) and depicting overeating candy as a drug addiction (in the Sid Vicious story). On the rare times Channel 4 airs this, the following scenes are cut:
Chief Wiggum shooting Bonnie and Clyde was shortened in Channel 4 airings to only show him opening fire from the bushes.
The scene with the Goofy-like character coming out of the gas chamber and saying that it was better than working for Disney was cut in Channel 4 airings.
The Sex Pistols musical number where Bart repeatedly sings the word "bollocks" was cut in Channel 4 airings.
Despite this, the montage of Nelson and Lisa overeating candy (which includes parallels to and preparation methods uses reserved for hard drug use, like cocaine and heroin) wasn't cut on either Channel 4 or Sky Showcase, nor was Chief Wiggum watching the theatrical cartoon and reacting to the racist caricatures.
