From the outset, The Simpsons has had a reputation as a show jamp-packed with pop culture references, but fans can easily miss many of these jokes. The Simpsons often alludes to movies, TV shows, books and historical events. Sometimes, these references are easy to pick up on, but the show has such a fast pace that the writers can often slip in a few less obvious cultural allusions without harming the comedy.
The key to The Simpsons’ cultural references is that many of them are hilarious without the audience being aware of what they’re from. For example, it’s funny to watch a feeble Mr. Burns trying to bludgeon someone with a baseball bat in “Homer Goes to College” without knowing that it’s a play on a famous scene from The Untouchables. Still, a lot of the show’s subtle jokes gain another layer if fans can figure out the context.
10 Homer & The Rashomon Effect
Season 10, Episode 23, “30 Minutes Over Tokyo”
The Simpsons has plenty of great travel episodes that take the family overseas. Australia, India and France all get the Simpsons treatment, and the family goes to Japan in a memorable season 10 episode. The writers use the opportunity to cram in as many references to Japanese culture as possible. This starts on the plane, as Lisa reads haiku, Bart plays a Game Boy, and Homer and Marge talk about a famous Japanese movie: Rashomon.
Homer and Marge disagree about their recollections of the movie, which reflects what Akira Kurosawa’s classic is all about.
Although anyone who has seen Rashomon will understand the joke, it isn’t the type of movie that’s as widely known among the show’s American audience. Homer and Marge disagree about their recollections of the movie, which reflects what Akira Kurosawa’s classic is all about. The story concerns the conflicting testimonies in a criminal case. Homer’s line, “That’s not how I remember it,” could easily go over the heads of anyone unfamiliar with Rashomon. The idea of two people remembering an event differently has been dubbed “The Rashomon Effect” in tribute to the movie.
9 Grampa’s Estes Kefauver Reference
Season 20, Episode 14, “In the Name of the Grandfather”
Grampa Simpson has a completely different frame of reference to the rest of the family, and he frequently talks about historical events from decades ago as if they just happened last week. However, he’s also prone to some nonsensical ramblings with no basis in reality, like his story about tying an onion to his belt, or the time that he chased the Kaiser after getting the word “twenty” stolen from his vocabulary.
Grampa even follows this line by insisting that it checks out, and he urges people to look it up for themselves.
In the season 20 episode “In the Name of the Grandfather,” Grampa makes another reference that draws blank stares from those around him, but this one makes sense. Estes Kefauver was an American politician famous for taking on organized crime syndicates, so when Grampa says he felt “Lonelier than Estes Kefauver at a meeting of Murder Inc.,” he’s imagining the frosty reception Kefauver would get from one of New York City’s most notorious criminal outfits. He even follows this line by insisting that it checks out, and he urges people to look it up for themselves.
8 Homer Lives Out A Flannery O’Connor Story
Season 5, Episode 11, “Homer the Vigilante”
After a string of robberies upsets the population of Springfield, Homer decides to lead a vigilante group. The power quickly goes to his head, and the group spends more time pushing people around to make themselves feel big than they spend investigating or preventing any crimes. Homer’s new brash demeanor is on display at the Simpson family dinner table, where he regales his family with a tale of violence and unchecked power. It sounds like a funny snippet out of context, but it’s also a subtle reference to a famous short story.
Related 10 Great Simpsons Jokes With Second Meanings Discovered Over 20 Years Later From “Put it in H” to Homer’s towel line, The Simpsons has a lot of classic jokes that even the show’s own writers didn’t get until decades later.
Flannery O’Connor’s story A Good Man is Hard to Find follows a southern family on a road trip to Florida, but their progress is halted by a serial killer known as “the Misfit,” who shows up after their car turns over into a ditch to offer help. Homer recounts a snippet of a story, saying “Listen, buddy, your car was upside-down when we got here, and as for your grandmother, she shouldn’t have mouthed off like that.” In O’Connor’s story, the grandmother’s talking is what gets the family into trouble, so the dark implication from the show’s writers is that Homer is the Misfit. This shouldn’t be taken literally, but it’s another layer to the joke for those familiar with O’Connor’s work.
7 Marge’s “Pimps & C.H.U.D.s” Line
Season 9, Episode 1, “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson”
“The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson” is noteworthy for being one of the banned episodes of The Simpsons, albeit briefly. The prominence of the Twin Towers was enough for the episode to get pulled from syndicated reruns after the September 11 attacks, but it was restored in 2006. There are a lot of great jokes about New York City, and how it’s portrayed in popular culture, but one line could fly over people’s heads.
There are a lot of great jokes about New York City, and how it’s portrayed in popular culture, but one line could fly over people’s heads.
When Homer recounts a story of his first visit to New York, he ends it by saying that the C.H.U.D.s came after him. This is a reference to the obscure 1984 horror movie C.H.U.D. in which New York is overrun by Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers. Marge reminds Homer that there’s more to the city than “pimps and C.H.U.D.s,” which ties New York’s reputation for crime in the 1970s and 1980s to the way it was depicted in the media.
6 George H.W. Bush Ruins Homer Like A Japanese Breakfast
Season 7, Episode 13, “Two Bad Neighbors”
The Simpsons occasionally leans into big-picture political satire, but “Two Bad Neighbors” is an unusual episode, because it focuses on one specific politician. Former President George H. W. Bush moves to Springfield, and he and neighbor start out as friends before quickly becoming enemies. This culminates in a physical fight, and President Bush threatens Homer that he’s going to ruin him “like a Japanese breakfast.”
“Two Bad Neighbors” has a few political references that international fans or those too young to remember Bush’s presidency might not understand.
“Two Bad Neighbors” has a few political references that international fans or those too young to remember Bush’s presidency might not understand. The “Japanese breakfast” refers to a notorious incident in 1992, when Bush vomited onto the Japanese Prime Minister and fainted at a banquet. This incident was the subject of some ridicule in the United States, and it inspired a new Japanese slang term for throwing up, which translates to “do the Bush thing” or “Bushing it”.
5 Put It In H!
Season 4, Episode 9, “Mr. Plow”
“Mr. Plow” is one of the best episodes of The Simpsons, coming right in the middle of an outstanding fourth season. The main plot follows Homer’s attempts to start up a business as a snowplow driver, but there are a lot of hilarious diversions along the way. Before settling on the plow truck, Homer tries to buy a car from Crazy Vaclav’s Place of Automobiles. Vaclav is a brilliant one-off character, trying to sell Homer a strange, tiny car from some unidentified country that no longer exists. His final line is “Put it in H!” as he pushes the car to get it started.
At first glance, Vaclav’s final line seems just as nonsensical as the rest of his salesman spiel, but it’s also a subtle joke about Cyrillic script.
At first glance, Vaclav’s final line seems just as nonsensical as the rest of his salesman spiel, like him boasting that the car can go “300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene,” but it’s also a subtle joke about Cyrillic script. Cyrillic script is used in Russia and several other nearby countries. The letter which looks like “H” to English-speakers is actually pronounced like “N,” so Vaclav is telling Homer to put the car in neutral so he can push it.
4 Nelson Loves Andy Williams
Season 7, Episode 20, “Bart On the Road”
When Bart prints himself a driver’s license, he sets out on a road trip with Milhouse, Martin and Nelson. They took a few detours on their journey, one of which is forced by Nelson when he sees a marquee advertising a show by Andy Williams. Nelson is usually an unintelligent, emotionally stunted bully, so it’s funny to see him showing a more passionate side to his personality. However, Andy Williams hit his peak back in the 1960s, so some fans of The Simpsons might not even know who he is.
The Simpsons layers one obscure reference on top of another in “Bart On the Road.”
The Simpsons layers one obscure reference on top of another in “Bart On the Road.” The marquee advertising the show features a quote from Look Magazine, stating that Williams has “still got it”. The joke here is that Look Magazine went out of business in 1971, 25 years before “Bart On the Road” was written. Clearly, Williams didn’t get any reviews worth publicizing in the intervening years.
3 Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge
Season 7, Episode 11, “Marge Be Not Proud”
“Marge Be Not Proud” is arguably the best Simpsons Christmas episode, and it demonstrates the way that the show can deliver big laughs and a touching story at the same time. Bart gets in trouble for shoplifting a new video game, and he has to find a way to redeem himself in Marge’s eyes in the days leading up to Christmas. Marge eventually forgives him, and she gives him the game that she thinks he wanted. Unfortunately, Bart was hoping for “Bonestorm” rather than “Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge”.
“Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge” works as a great punch line even without the real-world context. It sounds like a boring game with a celebrity who nobody has ever heard of. It’s actually a play on the infamous arcade game “Lee Trevino’s Fighting Golf,” which was panned as one of the worst games ever made back in 1988. “Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge” is even lamer. Replacing the word “Fighting” with the word “Challenge” just about sums it up.
2 Bart Mentions Claus Von Bülow
Season 5, Episode 20, “The Boy Who Knew Too Much”
“The Boy Who Knew Too Much” is packed full of cultural references. The title refers to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, while the plot reflects the trial of William Kennedy-Smith, who was the nephew of Ted Kennedy, just like how Freddie Quimby is the Mayor of Springfield’s nephew. There are also allusions to Huckleberry Finn, Westworld, The Odd Couple, 12 Angry Men, Dirty Harry and more.
It’s strange that Bart would reference the trial of Claus von Bülow, a man who was imprisoned for attempting to murder his wife before being acquitted on appeal several years later.
One reference stands out in “The Boy Who Knew Too Much” for being particularly obscure. Bart tells Lisa “The system works. Just ask Claus von Bülow.” It’s strange that Bart would reference the trial of Claus von Bülow, a man who was imprisoned for attempting to murder his wife before being acquitted on appeal several years later. In this case, The Simpsons manages to get a laugh from just how obscure the reference is. For those who might not understand it, the episode moves on without lingering on the punch line for even a second.
1 Homer Laughs At A Complex Math Joke
Season 26, Episode 22, “Mathlete’s Feat”
The Simpsons often sneaks in some highbrow math jokes to flex the intelligence of the writers. Many of these jokes are hidden in the background as Easter eggs for mathematicians to pick up on, but there are a few which demand more attention. “Mathlete’s Feat” came out many years after the so-called Simpsons Golden Age, but it proves that the show never lost its love of obscure jokes and intelligent humor.
The joke reads “i 8 sum pi,” or rather “I ate some pie, and it was delicious.”
Homer laughs at a joke that requires some understanding of calculus and statistics. The square root of negative numbers is often expressed as i, to symbolize an imaginary number, two cubed is eight and the Greek letter Sigma represents “sum”. This means that the joke reads “i 8 sum pi,” or rather “I ate some pie, and it was delicious.” After Homer has had a good laugh, the camera pans left to reveal a dog with a box stuck on its head. This is what Homer actually finds amusing, but The Simpsons provides an extra joke for math lovers.