No review here
S P O I L E R
S P A C E
DYN's
the lack of music in the couch gag? the Enola Gay at the Springfield Air and Space Musem ? the "Now Celine Dion-Free" sign at the Canadian border?
Refs.
Midnight Express -Title -Plotline of smuggling drugs (in the film, the main characters was busted attempting to smuggle marijuana back to America)
Spirit of St. Louis -Spirit of Shelbyville
Spruce Goose -Plywood Pelican
E.T. -Burns and Smithers getaway from the power plant mob similar to the scene where E.T. and Elliot fly with the bike
Doom -Game that the Employment Office worker plays appears to based on this game.
Soupy Sales -Krusty asking kids for pills (see comments)
Cocoa-Puffs -Cuckoo for Contraband
Dudley-Do-Right -Dudley-Do-Drugs
Jefferson Airplane "White Rabbit" -Music when Homer and Grandpa buy drugs in Canada
Comments
Krusty's little stunt in which he asked kids for pills is based on an actual incident that Soupy Sales pulled on a New Year's Day edition on his children's show in 1965. Some say it's due to Sales being upset at having to work on New Year's Day, others believe this is basically a bit that Sales ad-libbed due to him having to kill a few minutes before his show ends. However, what happened on New Year's Day 1965 is very accurate: Soupy Sales, at the end of his show, asked kids to sneak in their parents' rooms (with them not noticing since they'd probably be asleep from their partying they had night before), take out some "green pieces of paper" that thier parents keep in their purses and wallets, and send "the green pieces of paper" to him, with him jokingly claiming that he'll send to those who do so a postcard from Peurto Rico. In the end, while some sources claim that he got up to $80,000 from this little prank, Soupy claims he only received a few real pieces of cash, as most of it was play money or Monopoly money.
Operation Dumbo Drop is a Disney film based on a true story about Vietnam War troop who have to retrieve an elephant that a Vietnamese village needs for a ceremony (as their sacred elephant was killed by North Vietnamese soldiers due to their support for the Americans). As the title suggests, the "Dumbo Drop" refers to the method that the soldiers use to get the elephant to the village: by dropping it out of a plane and having it parachute to the village. The film starred Danny Glover, Ray Liotta and Dennis Leary as some of the soldiers that had to retrieve the elephant.
The balloon method that Homer uses in the episode spoofs a method used by some druggies. To conceal the illegal drugs that they have, they sometimes hide the drug in a balloon, and then swallow it. Then, when it's safe to take it out, the druggies then simply regurgitate the balloon to get the drugs (note that getting the drugs by crapping it out isn't an option as stomach acids would dissolve the balloons before it can reach the intestines).
Joe Klemm