Difference between revisions of "The Incredible Lightness of Being a Baby/References"

Revision as of 20:32, June 14, 2025

Cultural references

• The title of the episode is a reference to the 1984 novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, later adapted into a film of the same name.
• In the episode's title screen gag the bald eagle Squawky holds a suitcase with Canada or bust written on it. This is a reference to the newspaper comic strip Candorville, specifically to its 9th collection, named Canada or Bust!.
• The episode's chalkboard gag, "School Online", refers to schools adapting the online learning methodology during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The episode's couch gag, The Extremesons, was created by Polish animator Michał Socha. The song that plays during the couch gag is "We Can Make the World Stop" by The Glitch Mob.
• The name of the playground Sand Tropez is a pun on Saint-Tropez, a commune in southern France known for being a resort for the European and American jet set and tourists.
  • The slide's floor was made of Pirelli's recycled tires.
• The double-G logo in Courtney's purse is similar to that of Gucci, the famous Italian fashion brand.
• The vaccinations Courtney wants to check on Maggie are tuberculosis (TB), diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP), and measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR).
• Lisa mentions the Moon landing and the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
• "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II plays when Homer is driving to work.
• The song that Cletus sings, "The Ballad of Cletus Spuckler", is a parody of "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies.
  • Famous actor and martial artist Jackie Chan is mentioned in the song.
• Mr. Burns goes undercover in the Power Plant as "Chip Incognito", a reference to Undercover Boss, a show in which senior executives are working undercover in their own companies to investigate how their firms really work and to identify how they can be improved, as well as to reward hard-working employees.
• According to Smithers, Mr. Burns is a "Fortune 500 CEO". Fortune 500 is an annual list that ranks 500 of the largest US corporations by total revenue for their fiscal years.
• The two squirrels in the broken TV at Cletus's farm, make a reference to the cartoon duo Chip 'n' Dale.
• The intoxicants Mr. Burns has drank go from beer from Yale University to water from Flint, Michigan. From 2014 to 2019, Flint faced a public health emergency due to lead contamination in parts of the local water supply.
• Courtney told Marge that the floor in her house was installed by 99-year-old I. M. Pei. Pei was a famous Chinese-American architect who made notable designs such as the Louvre Pyramid or the Bank of China Tower. He died at the age of 102.

Mario and Donkey Kong, the characters from Nintendo, are "working" at Courtney's house

• Mario and Donkey Kong, characters from Nintendo appear at Hudson's house, with Mario working on the plumbing, Mario's job, and Donkey Kong throwing barrels at him, his main attack from the original arcade game.
• The pacifier disinfectant Babycide is a parody of Barbicide, a disinfectant solution used by barbers and cosmetologists for disinfecting grooming tools.
• Hudson is registered in a junior version of Tiffany & Co..
• Cletus has an iPhone X.
• The contract Cletus signs mentions cosmology concepts such as the multiverse and Einstein's static universe relativistic model.
• Maggie and Hudson enter the playhouse to the song "Wedding March" by Felix Mendelssohn.
• Homer and Cletus sing a parody of "You're My Best Friend", the famous hit by Queen.

Trivia

• Bart appears in this episode but doesn't have any lines. However, Nancy Cartwright, his voice actress voices Nelson Muntz, who even so is only heard briefly doing a variation of his trademark laugh.

Continuity

• Squawky appears in the title screen. ("The Musk Who Fell to Earth")
• Hudson appears. ("Playdate with Destiny")