A while back I checked out the music parodies that cropped up in
The Simpsons, but owing both to the small amount of them and the lack of decent YouTube availability (honestly? Holding the phone up in front of the TV and you can't even hold it still for a minute or two? Why bother?) it died a fairly quick death.
But songs weren't the only things this show put its own spin on. Come with me now as we explore how Groening and Co. lampooned pop culture and shamelessly ripped off scenes from some of the best, and worst, to hit the silver screen. Grab your popcorn and join me as we check out
The first one I want to look at is a movie I personally have never seen, but that doesn't matter, because I know the final scene and it's this that has made the movie famous, along with a song or two.
You know the bit I'm talking about, I'm sure, where at the end Richard Gere goes into the factory and sweeps Debra Winger off her feet, carrying her out of the factory to the guitar theme of “Up where we belong”? Yeah, we all know it, or know of it. In case you don't, here it is.
The Simpsons then parodied this when, after having a fight and not talking, Homer is working in the nuclear power plant when Marge walks in (reversing the gender roles here, but that's The Simpsons for ya!) and kisses him. Naturally, she can't carry big fat heavy Homer out, so he picks her up and yes, she takes his safety helmet off and puts it on her own head, just like in the movie. Here is their version.
Then of course there's their classic homage to this suspense thriller. I've only seen the 1991 remake but thought it was bloody hilarious (wasn't meant to be, but DeNiro just hammed up the role so well I couldn't help but laugh) although it's originally a sixties classic starring the one and only James Stewart.
There are too many scenes to do them all here ---
The Simpsons episode was based more or less on the movie, and was even entitled “Cape Feare” --- but the one I really like is this, when DeNiro is in the cinema, trying to make things uncomfortable for Nick Nolte and his family, smoking a big cigar and laughing uproariously. This is it.
Now, when
The Simpsons do it they again reverse the trend. Sideshow Bob is in the cinema in front of the Simpsons, laughnig and smoking a cigar. Homer is getting annoyed and leans forward to tell him to knock it off but then sees something funny on the screen and laughs even louder, lighting an even bigger cigar and causing Bob to turn around and drawl “Oh now really! That is too much!” Sorry there seem to be no clips of it but I've managed to track down two stills, which hopefully will convey the idea to both of you who have not actually seen the episode.
The last one I want to look at this time is the infamous movie that really propelled Sharon Stone both to almost instant fame and into deep controversy, and made her a pariah among lesbians, gays and transgenders for her depiction of a bisexual killer in
There's really only one scene that could be taken from this pretty terrible movie really, like the bunny boiling in
Fatal attraction, and we all know what it is. But in case you don't, here's the infamous leg-crossing scene that wore out a million videotape heads and made men around the world delighted that such a feature as PAUSE existed...
Oddly enough, it seems hard to find the scene in English, but I got it here in Ukranian. And anyway, you don't care about the language, do you?
Then the Simpsons briefly but very cleverly parodied this, having Groundskeeper Willy being interrogated in the episode “Who shot Mr. Burns?” Willy is of course wearing his traditional kilt, and again in a reversal of the original, when the cops watched lasciviously as Stone crossed her legs, the cops here grimace and try to look away as Willy does the same. Eddie, one of Wiggum's officers, actually points a gun at him and snarls “This is your last warning about that!” Classic.