LIST: Wizard of Oz References v.1.3
Boyota
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THE SIMPSONS
Wizard of Oz Reference List v.1.3
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Maintained by Kevin A. Bowman <bowm...@aol.com>
This list is still incomplete. Additions, corrections, and suggestions
will be gratefully accepted and duly credited in the future.
[7G04] The title of this episode "There's No Disgrace Like Home"
recalls the words 'There's no place like home' from the song
“Home Sweet Home,” which words Dorothy repeated as her charm
to use the ruby slippers to return home to Kansas.
[7F10] "And you were there, and you, and you, and you ... and I've
seen you before." <Bart>(reviving from his accident in the hospital)
(recalls Dorothy's recovery from her concussion: 'It wasn't a
dream; it was a place. And you, and you, and you, and you were
there.')
[8F23] "I don't think there's a vibrating chair in that bag for me."
<Homer>(to Herb)(Herb has been passing out gifts in a style
similar to the Wizard. Homer's sullen response is based on his
belief that Herb hasn't forgiven him. However, it echoes
Dorothy's response to the Wizard based on her belief that the he
couldn't grant her wish to return to Kansas: 'I don't think
there's anything in that black bag for me.')
[7F23] ". . . but, gosh darn it, its gonna be a lot of fun, too" <Ned>
"Fun? Where is this store, Flanders, the merry old Land of Oz?"
<Homer>
(In the merry old Land of Oz, they get up at 12:00 and start to
work at one, take an hour for lunch and then, at two, they're
done, a schedule that appears, from all indications, to be jolly
good fun.)
[8F02] Mr. Burns hums "If I Only Had a Brain" as he removes Homer's
Brain. The song was originally sung by the Scarecrow in the
Wizard of Oz with help from Dorothy.
[8F02] "And as for you, you clinking, clanking, cacophony of
caliginous cogs and camshafts!" <Mr. Burns>(to his
now-brainless robot)(echoes the "all-powerful" Oz's dismissive
address to the Tin Man: 'You clinking, clanking, clattering
collection of caliginous junk!")
[8F20] "Cutter, Ice Pick, Snake, I'm going to miss you most of all."
<Sideshow Bob>(leaving prison)
(The scene, of course, parodies Dorothy's farewell to the Lion,
Tin Man and Scarecrow, with Dorothy's departing words to the
Scarecrow: 'I think I'm going to miss you most of all.')
[9F08] "We welcome you to the neighborhood
Fa la la la la la, fa la la, fa la la
Fal la la la la, la la." <Ned & Todd, singing>
(Here Ned and Todd sing the Munchkin welcome song, replacing the
words 'to Munchkin Land' with 'the neighborhood')
[9F08] "I could've trained them all to be my unholy army of the night.
Go, my pretties! Kill! Kill!" <Bart>(contemplating life in a
house owned by many cats.)(The Wicked Witch called Dorothy, 'my
pretty.')
[9F11] "On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese" <Homer, Bart (singing)>
"Hey guys, we're going to a funeral!" <Marge>
"Ding, dong, the witch is dead" <Homer>
"The rich, old witch!"<Bart>
"The wicked witch!" <Homer>
(song sung by the munchkins after the death of the Wicked Witch
of the East)
[9F14] Homer looks up in the sky and sees "Surrender" in puffy white
letters on the side of the Duff blimp. The display scrolls to
reveal the rest of the message: "to Duff." The scene recalls
the Witch's sky-written message above the Emerald City:
'Surrender Dorothy.'
[9F18] "Next on 'Eye on Springfield': The Munchkins from 'The
Wizard of Oz': Where are they now?" <Kent Brockman>
(Scene shifts to a graveyard.)
[1F01] Guards marching outside Burns Manor march like the Winkies
outside the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West, with similar
uniforms. They chant "All We Own, We Owe" to the same tune as
the 'O-E-O Yo-O' chant of the Witch's guards.
[1F07] (This scene is cut in syndication.)(An alarm sounds.)
"Someone is ordering room service on the company, sir"
<Smithers>
"Well, we'll just see about that." <Burns> (releasing winged
monkeys) "Fly, my pretties, fly!"
(The monkeys jump out the window and fall to their deaths.)
"Continue the research." <Burns>
(The scene recalls a similar one in the Wizard of Oz in which
the Wicked Witch sets loose her army of flying monkeys. The
Witch merely says, 'Fly! Fly! Fly!' The Witch often refers to
Dorothy as 'my pretty;' however, I don't recall her calling her
own minions 'my pretties.')
[1F08] "The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles
triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side."
<Homer>(wearing the Kissinger glasses he found in the toilet)
"That's a right triangle, you idiot!" <Man in stall>
(Homer repeats the exact words of the Scarecrow after he
received his diploma. As the man's caustic correction notes,
both Homer and the Scarecrow misstate Pythagoras' Theorem.
Merely replacing 'isosceles' with 'right' only begins to correct
the errors. A more correct statement of Pythagoras' theorem is:
'The sum of the squares of the two shortest sides of a right
triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse.")
[1F15] Patty and Selma sit in rocking chairs caught by a tornado. In
The Wizard of Oz, a friendly woman in a rocking chair flies by
Dorothy's window and waves to her.
[1F17] "Oh my beautiful sugar, it's melting, melting" <Homer>
(echoes the Witch's dying cries. The exact words of the Witch
were: 'Aaaah! You cursed Brat! Look what you've done! I'm
melting, melting. Oh, my world, my world! Who would've thought
a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful
wickedness. Look out, look out! I'm going. Oh...oh!')
[2F08] "Why you clattering clank of cogs and . . ." <Homer as Dr. Smith>
(responding to the Robot/Lisa in Marge's Lost in Space dream)
(recalls the Wizard's dressing-down of the Tin Man, see [8F02]
above)
[2F09] "All I have to do is follow the yellow drip road." <Homer>
(Homer attaches a yellow paint can with ahole in it to Carl and
Lenny's car as a tracking device. Of course, 'follow the yellow
brick road' is Glinda's and the munchkin's directions on how to
reach the Emerald City.)
[2F15] "I see an Eastern University in the year 2010. The world has
become a very different place" <Fortune Teller>
(A parade of robotic looking figures is shown; as they walk
forward, they pass a sign reading: "Wizard of Oz Auditions
Today." Two other individuals trying-out are shown in Scarecrow
and Lion costumes")
"I can't wait to see that play!" <Young Man>
[3F04] "I am the Wondrous Wizard of Latin" <Martin>
(The original title of Baum's work was "The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz")
[4F07] The flying Bowl-a-Rama, caught in the hurricane, resembles the
farmhouse caught in the tornado. <hl>
[4F11] John's Car-horn plays "Over the Rainbow," the classic E.Y.
"Yip" Harburg & Harold Arlen song sung by Judy Garland in the
movie. There are many explanations why the writers might have
chosen this song for John's horn:
(1) John's affection for show-business tragedy might make him a
Judy Garland fan.
(2) John's affection for camp might make him a Wizard of Oz fan.
(3) Gay men are sometimes known as "friends of Dorothy."
Why this particular appellation has been applied to gay men is
cause for speculation in itself. Some reasons I either suspect
or have heard are:
(a) Many gay men are Judy Garland fans because she was a great
cabaret singer, sang many great show tunes, and her life had a
kind of "Candle in the Wind" tragedy to it.
(b) The mannerisms of Dorothy's friends may have struck some as
falling within certain stereotypes of gay men.
(c) A myth has circulated that some or all of the actors who
played Dorothy's companions were gay. To my knowledge there is
no truth in this (not that there's anything wrong with it if
there were!). Jack Haley's performance as the Tin Man, in
particular, strikes some as effeminate. But, most of it was
affectation, Haley adopting a voice and manner he used in
telling his children bed-time stories.
If I had to guess, I'd go with (3)(c).
Credits:
<hl> Haynes Lee
Chad Lehman
when Grampa is being chased by Burns and Fernando--he goes to the
Simpsons house to hide out, lies on the couch--and points at Homer, and
Marge
"Then a knife flew at my head. And you were there, and YOU were
there..."
Chad Lehman
--
Comic Store Guy: "Loneliness and cheeseburgers are a dangerous mix."
Homer: "I'm whizzin with the door open, and I LOVE it."
Homer: "Let us celebrate this occasion by the adding of
chocolate to milk"
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