Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)/References

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Trivia

• At the end of the closing credits of the Part One episode, the Gracie Films logo sequence ends with a gunshot sound, referring to the mysterious atmosphere of the episode.
• The alternate ending to "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" (featured in the 138th Episode Spectacular) was created to prevent any staff (be it writers, or even the overseas animators) on The Simpsons from spoiling the mystery. There were also many of people who could have shot Mr. Burns as shown in the same episode. Which included Apu (with a semi-automatic gun which fired multiple rounds instead of just one), Moe, Homer, Skinner, and even Santa's Little Helper (who held the gun in his mouth and somehow pulled the trigger).
• This is so far the only Simpsons story to be a two-parter: The mystery began with "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)", which was aired as the season 6 finale, almost four months previously.
• One of the men in Tito Puente's band plays a bongo drum that has Mr. Burns' face on it, paralleling a scene in And Maggie Makes Three where Homer actually plays Burns' head like a bongo drum.
• While scanning for the DNA, names like (Richard M.) Nixon, Gutentag (German for "good day"), (Mike) Tyson and (Colin) Powell can be read on the screen.
• This episode is referenced in the American Dad! 100th episode, 100 A.D. where Roger comes in and says at the start "Tonight we shall find out Who Killed Mr. Burns", before being told that that happened fifteen years previous and that it was Maggie.

Cultural References

Homer escaping from the overturned paddywagon is a homage to The Fugitive.

• The musical score that ends the Part 1 of the episode (when the credit rolls) is a parody of John Williams' Drummers' Salute, which is part of the musical score he wrote for Oliver Stone's movie JFK.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 was playing at Moe's.
• The scene where Chief Wiggum has a dream in which Lisa speaks backwards is an obvious homage to Twin Peaks and Special Agent Dale Cooper's interaction with The Man from Another Place. Also, after Homer escapes from the paddywagon, the Squeaky-Voiced Teen speaks to his manager Diane, which is the same name as the unseen secretary that Agent Cooper dictates messages to.
• In the first part, Mr. Burns sings "hello lamp-post, what you knowin', I'm come to watch your power glowin'", which is close to the lyrics of Simon & Garfunkel's '59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)'.
• Sideshow Mel demonstrates deductive reasoning and logic similar to that demonstrated by noted fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. This connection is further noted by Mel's smoking of a pipe during his reflections, as Holmes was frequently known to do.
• The DNA database includes the names of Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
• The opening sequence of Part Two, wherein Smithers dreams that he merely dreamed shooting Mr. Burns, before going on to dream that they are in fact undercover detectives on the 1960s Speedway racing circuit, is similar to an incidence on the 1980s soap opera Dallas, in which the events of an entire season (including an attempted murder) were explained away as being merely a character's dream.
• Willie's interrogation scene where he is wearing a kilt and uncrosses his legs is a reference to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. Moe's lie-detector test also alludes to the film.
• The book that Chief Wiggum was reading is a parody of Agatha Christie's novel Ten Little Indians.

References in Other Episodes

• There is another reference of Maggie as a "killer". In the episode "Papa's Got a Brand New Badge", Homer is threatened to be killed by the mafia after stopping their business. Just as the mafia is about to kill Homer, several gunshots wound all the gangsters. The shooter was, of course, Maggie.
  The show also refers to Who Shot Mr. Burns? in the following line after Maggie saves Homer:

Homer: Look at Maggie. Napping so peacefully.
Marge: Yeah. Probably thinking of the time she shot Mr. Burns.
Homer: She's just like Clark Kent. Whenever there's lots of excitement, she's nowhere to be found.
(Homer and Marge leave. Maggie wakes up and smiles right at the camera ominously)

• In "The Old Man and the Lisa", Mr. Burns comes to the Simpsons house for Lisa, asking her to help him rebuild his fortune after he loses all his money. While in her house, Homer shows him Maggie, and she makes a gun shape with her hand. Mr. Burns then says "Oh yes, the baby who shot me."
• In the episode "Revenge is a dish best served three times", Homer states that he shot Mr. Burns and framed Maggie.
• The alternate ending (mentioned above) was featured in the 138th Episode Spectacular, along with several (fake) alternate versions of Burns getting shot, with a different culprit in each.
• The "Outhouse Gag": Grampa abruptly ends a discussion to "use the outhouse." Lisa says that the family doesn't own an outhouse, which causes Homer to panic and run outside to try to stop Grandpa from befouling a building (Homer's toolshed) that only resembles an outhouse. The gag is later repeated in Bonfire of the Manatees.
• Day of the Jackanapes had Mr. Smithers say "Maggie shot Mr. Burns again"

Goofs

• Smithers was watching Pardon My Zinger at the time Mr. Burns was shot, yet somehow he knew Burns had been shot in the beginning of this episode. (Debunked: Smithers had been at home drinking and watching TV for some time before he passed out and had the "Burns in the shower" dream. He probably saw a news bulletin about Burns being shot.)

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