This was the last Simpsons episode to air before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This is also the last episode in the Czech Republic where Vlastimil Bedrna voiced Homer, as he would retire from voice acting due to health problems.
Two scenes appear in the credits, but aren't in this episode:
Kang and Kodos answering their phone from Treehouse of Horror XI.
A deleted scene where Babe kicks Paul in the crotch.
Strangely, Maggie doesn't appear in this episode outside the stories.
Originally, Jim Carrey was supposed to guest star as the hobo, but scheduling conflicts prevented him from appearing, so the hobo was voiced by series regular, Hank Azaria.
Cultural References[]
Homer's Paul Bunyan starts the Great Chicago Fire which occurred in 1871, with a meteor. Ironically, some conspiracy theorists have claimed that the fire was actually started by a space object known as Biela's Comet.
In addition to rewriting Johnny Appleseed into a girl, some, though not all, of Connie Appleseed parodies the infamous 1846-1847 Donner Party expedition. The trip saw Donner's Party migrants traveling on the Midwest United States to California resort to cannibalism during a winter period in Sierra Nevada after food supplies ran low.
Previous Episode References[]
"Simpsons Bible Stories": A non-"Treehouse of Horror" episode consisting of three or more stories starring the main and ancillary characters from The Simpsons.
"Lisa the Vegetarian" and "Das Bus": Lisa gets mocked and ignored for offering a vegetarian/fruitarian alternative to a meat dish.
"Bart's Comet": A comet comes and nearly dooms the town.
"Boy Scoutz n the Hood": A Simpson male (Bart/Homer) has to give someone (Jasper/the hobo) a sponge bath.
"Behind the Laughter": The "Simpsons are going to Delaware" scene is reused here.
"Treehouse of Horror VIII": Mrs. Krabappel is depicted as a sexually promiscuous woman in a historic story (wears a scarlet "A" on her dress in "Easy Bake Coven"/dresses as a saloon prostitute on the "Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer" story).
In the Paul Bunyan story, when Paul grabs the top of the building, the darker side and the lighter side of the building switch colors.
In Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it is Huck Finn and the slave Jim who travel down the Mississippi River, not Tom Sawyer and Huck.
When Paul is preparing to hit the meteor with his club, the red part of his left sleeve (from his perspective) repeatedly turns brown.
At the end of "Connie Appleseed" when the people are going to eat Homer—when Lisa comes with apples, you see Moe take an apple. In the next scene Moe has got a chunk of Homer and is saying "So what, we're not eating Homer?".
Also, at the end of Connie Appleseed, Wiggum says that Homer is the plumpest one among the group, even though viewers can clearly see that Wiggum is much fatter. Although, he might have said that to prevent himself from getting eaten.
In the opening train scene to the third act, one of the buildings near the railroad repeatedly loses the legs which allow it to stand above the water.
When Huck Finn/Nelson shoves Milhouse into a bucket of paint, the top of the bucket changes from brown to gray for a few frames.
