Difference between revisions of "Life on the Fast Lane/References"

Latest revision as of 19:50, February 19, 2025

Cultural references[edit]

• The episode's title is a play-on-words on The Eagles' song "Life in the Fast Lane" and a bowling lane.
  • The initial title, "Björn To Be Wild", was meant to be a play on Steppenwolf's song "Born to Be Wild".
• Lisa's birthday card is a copy of the painting "Whistler's Mother" with Marge.
• When Bart tells Lisa that Marge will love his French perfume bottle, he says "all the way from gay Paree". This is a reference to the 1982 musical comedy film Victor/Victoria, specifically to the musical number "Gay Paree" sang by Carroll "Toddy" Todd (Robert Preston) where he was referring to Paris as "gay Paree".
• Homer once gave Marge a calendar of American journalist Connie Chung for her birthday.
• Songs at The Singing Sirloin include:
  • "The Anniversary Song" by Al Jolson.
  • "(You're) Having My Baby" by Paul Anka.
  • "Nearer, My God, to Thee" by Sarah Fuller Flower Adams.
  • "Happy Birthday to You" by Patty and Mildred J. Hill.
• Patty mentions the Heimlich maneuver.
• Jacques uses several words from the vocabulary of bowling, including:
  • Beer frame, a frame in which the only bowler not to roll a strike, or the one who achieves the lowest score, has to buy beer for the rest of their team.
  • 5–7–10 split, also known as the "Three wise men", is considered to be one of the most difficult splits to convert.
• Homer, Bart and Lisa sing "Wiegenlied", the "Cradle Song" by Johannes Brahms, to Maggie.

Jacques and Marge's dance at Fiesta Terrace parodies the "Night and Day" dancing scene in The Gay Divorcee

• Jacques and Marge's dance scene parodies the 1934 musical romantic comedy The Gay Divorcee, specifically the "Night and Day" dancing scene which has a similar setting.
• The "Wedding March" is heard when Marge is on her way to Fiesta Terrace.
• Homer carries Marge out of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant in exactly the same way Zachary "Zack" Mayo (Richard Gere) carried Paula Pokrifki (Debra Winger) in his arms out of the factory in the end of the 1982 romantic drama An Officer and a Gentleman.
  • An instrumental version of "Up Where We Belong" by Joe Cocker, the film's theme song, is heard during the sequence.

Trivia[edit]

• As with "Bart the General", the opening sequence was shortened due to the length of the episode. This means this episode has no chalkboard gag and couch gag.
• The original title of this episode was "Bjórn to Be Wild". This is because it called for Albert Brooks to voice a Swede bowling instructor named Bjórn, but Matt Groening thought it would be better to make Brooks' character French. The first name came from the famous Swede professional tennis player Björn Borg.
• The moon is seen to have three craters on it, much like a bowling ball when Jacques is dropping Marge off.
• Jacques takes Marge to Shorty's Coffee Shop for brunch.
• Albert Brooks is credited under the name "A. Brooks" in this episode, as with all his other appearances on The Simpsons.
• Marge's shoe size is 13 AA.
• Matt Groening once stated that this episode was his favorite. His actual favorite is "Bart the Daredevil".
• Jacques appears again in The Simpsons' seventh season episode "Team Homer" and makes a brief cameo as a bowler in the past in "And Maggie Makes Three". He also appears in the "Do the Bartman" music video dancing with various women.

Goofs[edit]

Marge with white pearls

• In the scene where Marge is next to Homer at work, the pink big line on the top of his tie flips to the opposite side for a split second, and then flips back to normal.
• If Marge is thirty-four, this would mean she gave birth to Bart, now ten, when she was twenty-four. This is inconsistent with most flashbacks to Homer and Marge's earlier lives.
• The filling of Homer's sandwich changes from green to purple.
• Depending on the scene, the label of the French Perfume bottle changes between blue, purple, and red.
• When Marge is talking to Patty on the phone, Marge's pearls are white instead of red.