Oscars 2022 Recap With The Most WTF Oscar Moment Ever

Last night, Rian Heder’s CODA won the Best Picture Oscar beating out THE POWER OF THE DOG, which I had predicted would win. But that wasn’t a surprise as CODA was exactly the kind of feel-good drama that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has rewarded many times over edgier, artsier fare. None of the other wins were surprises either as everyone, myself included, forsaw that Will Smith (KING RICHARD), Jessica Chastain (THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE), Troy Kutsur (CODA), and Ariana DeBose (WEST SIDE STORY) would take home the gold; and that DUNE would have a tech Oscar sweep.

But what was a surprise, maybe even a shock, is the moment that everyone is talking about now, and has already entered into the realm of legend. You know what I’m talking about – Will Smith slapping Chris Rock because of a joke made at the expense of Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Pinkett Smith was sporting a shaved head due to her struggle with alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that leads to hair loss, and Rock, appearing as a presenter for the Best Documentary feature attempted to make light of this by quipping, “Jada, I love ya. GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see it!”

When Rock cracked this joke, the camera cut to this shot of Smith Laughing.

Then the camera cut back to Rock, who was trying to move on in his intro, but had to react (“Uh oh!”) to something we, the home viewers, couldn’t see yet. 

That would be Smith walking onstage towards Rock. It appeared that between the above shot of Smith’s initial laughter, and the long shot of his approaching the presenter, he had seen his wife’s disapproving face, and felt he had to handle the situation.

 

This is where the sound went off on the ABC broadcast, and I watched in WTF silence as Smith slapped Rock then walked back to his seat. In an exchange that I, and many viewers, didn’t hear until later, Rock, litterally trying to keep a good face, said, “Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me,” to which Smith yelled from his chair, “Keep my wife's name out of your f***ing mouth!”

 

Rock, keeping composure, said, “Wow, dude, it was a G.I. Jane joke.” Smith again raised his mouth and with more emphasis repeated, “Keep my wife's name out of your f***ing mouth.” This completely quieted the entire Dolby Theater. It was the moment that we all realized that this wasn’t a bit. Smith was completely serious. “I’m going to,” Rock replied, also as serious as a heart attack. The stunned silence remained until Rock did what he could to reclaim the stage, and the night, with a joke that acknowledged that this was sure to be a much remembered event: “That was, uh, greatest night in the history of television.”

A shaken Rock went forward with his presenting duties, and the show went on. Smith, when accepting the Best Actor award, also was a bit off, leaving one to wonder which parts of what he was saying were prepared or improvised. His apology to the Academy, and his fellow nominees appeared to be referring to the instance with Rock, as did his summation through tears: “love will make you do crazy things.”

One could argue that Rock’s joke on Jada wasn’t really that offensive, especially in the context of the celebrity roast element of the proceedings. I mean, G.I. Jane is a strong female character, and there are tons of other bald targets that would’ve been more insulting, but in the big public arena that is the Oscars, it was calling attention to the actresses’ appearance in a cheap way, and the audience’s reaction was that it was a cruel jab at Jada.

"There’s like, a different vibe in here...," co-host Amy Schumer remarked later in the evening. This line was funnier than most of the material during the broadcast as so many scripted lines fell flat, and prepared bits such as co-hosts Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall, and Schumer dressing up as coach Richard Williams, televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, and Spider-Man were just the epitome of lame award show fodder.

One of the only clever moments for me was the PULP FICTION reveal of the Best Actor envelope.

But despite a few funny lines (I loved Schumer’s DON’T LOOK UP diss: “I guess the Academy members don’t look up … reviews!”), some genuinely touching acceptance speeches (Troy Kutsur, and Questlove’s particularly), and the cool James Bond 60th retrospective video set to “Live and Let Die,” this was one of the lamest Oscars ever.

For example, the In Memorium was mishandled with a choir (singing such appropriate numbers as “Spirit in the Sky”), and dancers drawing attention away from the faces and names of those in the industry who have passed in the last year. There was the nice touch of having tributes presented by Bill Murray for director Ivan Reitman, and Jamie Lee Curtis for Betty White, but there was an awkward air surrounding the segment that felt creepy to watch. And, of course, there were ommisions (Bob Saget, Norm Macdonald, Ed Asner, Robert Downey Sr. to name several).

Honestly, creepy would be a good word to describe the whole event. The Oscars have often been a cringe-fest, but this time the dials were going crazy into the red warning danger-danger zone over and over. 

The Rock/Smith altercation did bring attention to the event - something the Academy (and ABC) was desperate for after years of bad ratings, and audience indifference - but I doubt it will translate into future relevance.

The 94th Academy Awards ceremony will go down in history for Smith’s shocking, awful reaction to Rock’s hosting duty diss. It sure livened up the show, but in such an unnecessary, and unfortunate way. Like everyone I see on social media who is debating about the moment right, I’m still processing what went down. Even after writing this, all I can think of is what Rock said right after the smackdown landed: “Oh, wow…WOW!”

So it was the most WTF moments in Oscar history on one of the lamest, most cringe-festiest Oscars ceremony ever. Yeah, years and years from now, we’ll all still look back at this one and wince.

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The Recollections Of The Colony Theater Series Begins

As The Colony Theater in Raleigh is going to close in December, I've been collecting stories from local folks about their memorable experiences there at the over 40-year old art house.

Our first recollection comes from Brian Hill, a Facebook friend who I've seen at many of the theater's revival screenings such as Cinema Overdrive. Brian writes that this is his favorite story of seeing a movie at The Colony:

“Back in 1994 while I was at NC State for college, my friend and I decided to go see PULP FICTION, which was only playing at the colony. I picked her up at her dorm and we rolled over to the theatre to check out the film. On the way there, I noticed that she was acting a little weird, but not completely out of the ordinary.

We had had a beer before leaving and she was a fairly small girl so I chalked it up to that. Upon arriving at the theatre, we hit the concessions and grab a big thing of popcorn which she immediately starts woofing down like is mana from heaven. Again, odd, but not overly odd. Getting into the theatre she notices the carpeted walls and becomes mildly entranced, to the point that she walked over and petted them for a minute or two before we finally took our seats in the front row (house was packed!) This was sorta weird but I just let it go because I didn't really know what to say about it. Finally the movie started and I figured everything was cool.

Cut to the scene of Travolta and Thurman pulling up in front of Jack Rabbit Slims. Mia looks at Vince and tells him to ‘not be a square daddy-o’ and draws the square in the air. This is depicted on screen with the dots drawing out the square. About a minute after that scene, I feel my friend’s hand roughly grab my arm and I look over and she is completely wide-eyed and looking mildly freaked out.

I leaned over and whispered at her to see if she was ok to which she replied, in a VERY nervous sounding tone: ‘Did you just see Uma Thurman draw a square?’ And I was, ‘yeah?’ She immediately whipped her head around and was like ‘You did????’ in a very happy/excited tone. After that, she sat back and watched the flick with no more issues and the night ended.

The next day I asked her what the deal was and she told me that before I had picked her up one of the people in her dorm had given her some mushrooms and she was tripping the whole time. And when she saw the lines on the screen she thought it was the trip and was about to freak the hell out. After she realized it was part of the movie she calmed down. To this day I think about that every time I go to the Colony (and every time I watch PULP FICTION).”

Editor’s notes: The picture at the top of the post isn't from when PULP FICTION originally played at The Colony in ‘94 - it’s from a more recent Cool Classics screening of the film a few years back. Also, it always bugged me that the square that Uma draws looks more like a rectangle.

Have a story about The Colony Theater to share? Please send them to: boopbloop7@gmail.com. And thanks to Zack Smith and the Indie for their shout-out in this post about the theater's closing.

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Celebrating The 25th Anniversary Of REPO MAN

REPO MAN (Dir. Alex Cox, 1984) 

It doesn’t get any cult classic-ier than Alan Cox’s 1984 ode to the sleazy underbelly of Los Angeles, REPO MAN. As such, I wasn’t alone to be thrilled to see it on the schedule for their great revival series Cool Classics at the Colony as the packed house proved last night.

Denver Hill, manager of the North Raleigh theater, introduced the film and asked how many had seen it before. A huge percentage of the audience including me raised their hands.

He then asked how many had seen it at the theater and a very few people raised their hands. I was too young to see it on the big screen in its original release because of its R rating but I saw the movie many times when it hit cable in the mid '80s.

I believe I had it on a VHS tape recorded in the fast speed so it could be crammed with a couple other movies. That tape is long gone but the movie remained in my memory as one of the funniest weird movies I had ever seen.

I was anxious to revisit REPO MAN and see if it still holds up. I downloaded the soundtrack and its beautiful but scary blend of punk - Iggy Pop who provided the title theme with tracks by the Circle Jerks, the Plugz, Fear, and Black Flag was deliriously dated but still held up. The movie is unsurprisingly the same way - Cox’s surreal story of crusty jaded repossession agents, punk rock thieves, and a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu that may contain aliens in its trunk has lost none of its crazy charm. The audience laughed heartily at the first close-up of a young Emilio Estevez as the movies protagonist Otto with his buzz cut and a crucifix earring but then they laughed at just about every other shot too.

Especially shots of a grocery store full of generically packaged products such as white plain beer cans with only the word -->“beer” on the label. Estevez slugs a coworker (Circle Jerks bassist Zander Schloss) and quits his stock clerk job at said store, but his bad attitude collides head on with bad luck as he finds his girlfriend (Jennifer Balgobin) cheating on him and that his hippie parents have donated his college fund to a television evangelist.



Estevez stumbles into the repo business by way of the crotchety, but always lovable Harry Dean Stanton who is a veteran agent for the humorously named Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation.

At first our hero is reluctant to take the job, protesting by pouring one of those generic beers on their office floor but the lure of loot finds him getting chased and shot at in the process of repossessing cars from delinquent owners. Meanwhile, the before mentioned Malibu driven by a mad government scientist (Fox Harris) is being sought after all over town by an FBI agent (Susan Barnes), and competing repo men for its Top Secret cargo. 

A lethal glow emits when somebody opens the trunk to investigate it - a device which was undoubtedly an inspiration on Quentin Tarentino’s glowing briefcase in PULP FICTION. 

This is all punctuated with that before mentioned punchy punk soundtrack that never lets up, and littered with a bunch of quotable lines including: “John Wayne was a fag,” “Only an asshole gets killed for a car,” “I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees,” “Look at -->‘em, ordinary fucking people, I hate ‘em,” and my favorite: “I know a life of crime has led me to this sorry fate, and yet, I blame society. Society made me what I am.”

The screening at the Colony last night confirmed that REPO MAN still wears the '80s cult classic crown. Sure, it may creak a little at times but it's impossible to imagine the independent film landscape of the '90s and beyond without it.

There is talk of Cox making a sequel called REPO CHICK and why not? I doubt anything he would do would dim the glow of this awesome oddity. If anything it will point more folks to the original but if the enthusiastic audience last evening are any indication the film has legs long enough to last on its own.

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Revisiting RESERVOIR DOGS On The Big Screen - Thanks Again Cool Classics @ The Colony!

As a film geek/blogger it’s probably not surprising that one of my favorite pastimes is to see old movies, whether for the first time or hundredth, on the big screen. A 35 mm print, new or old, of a particular cult or could be cult movie really is most certainly my cup of tea. As I’ve blogged before, The Colony Theater in North Raleigh has been showing a regular round of what they call “Cool Classics.”


Last Saturday night was right for a midnight show of arguably Quentin Tarantino’s best flick. Since my girlfriend and I have attended such previous pop culture staples as ERASERHEAD, PURPLE RAIN and most recently enjoyed re-seeing CITY OF LOST CHILDREN we were game to revisit:

RESERVOIR DOGS (Dir. Quentin Tarantino, 1992)

It was hugely fitting that the night before this late show, The Museum Of Art in Raleigh screened THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE. Why you ask? Because Mr. Too Cool For Film School Tarantino lovingly lifted the use of colors as code names from that classic 70’s heist film - i.e. Mr. Blond, Mr. Brown, Mr. Blue etc. Of course he snarkily threw in Mr. Pink just so Steve Buscemi could have something to hilariously complain about: “Yeah, Mr. Pink sounds like Mr. Pussy. Tell you what, let me be Mr. Purple.” He lifted lots more from other films here too but whether you consider it a rip-off or a homage, RESERVOIR DOGS, 17 years later, is still colossal cinema and one of the most daring breakthrough debuts of a director ever.

This was before independent films were the rage and award nominee regulars. Many notable auteurs had offered up dark crafty fare before but while filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch and Steven Soderbergh made cool indie films, Tarantino made indie films ultra cool. With RESERVOIR DOGS and its overwhelmingly influential follow-up PULP FICTION, the former video store clerk created a world of wise guys in suits with thin black ties, vintage cars with blood splashed interiors, 50’s styled diners, f-bombs and n-words dropped in nearly every line, endless pop culture reference riffing, and soundtracks full of 70’s funk/pop deep cuts. The opening credits slow motion shuffle to George Baker’s “Little Green bag” alone defines Tarantino’s savvy assured style.

Most of the action in RESERVOIR DOGS (nobody really knows what the title means – Tarantino himself won’t say) deals with a never seen heist gone wrong and takes place in a mostly empty warehouse. It has been said that for budgetary reasons most directors first films are essentially ‘filmed plays’. That said, seeing this film on the big screen for the first time enhanced the spare staging scenarios for me to an edgier level than I expected. The iconic shot, used on many posters and the go-to promotional picture, of Harvey Keitel with gun pointed at an on the floor Steve Buscemi is 10 times more effective here than on any TV viewing when it pulls back to reveal Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) coolly watching them in an over the shoulder viewpoint.

Likewise the shot from the P.O.V. of the cop (Kirk Baltz) tied up in Mr. Blonde’s car trunk – I mean it’s obvious to say but it’s so nice to see this film like this how it was truly meant to be seen.

One flaw of many film folks’ first films is that the actors all talk like the writer/director (see Richard Linklater’s SLACKER). This is actually something that works well in Tarantino’s favor here despite all odds. I can practically hear Tarantino coaching Buscemi, Keitel, producer turned actor Lawrence Tierney,Tim Roth et al. through all of their lines but somehow that’s actually a plus in these punchy proceedings. Tarantino wisely kills off his own character (Mr. Brown) after his opening “Like A Virgin” breakdown speech presumably because he was aware his acting wasn’t up to the caliber of his co-stars - too bad he didn’t make the same decision in future films (especially PULP FICTION and DEATH PROOF).

In the low budget framing but the high formula re-thinking that defines Tarantino’s cut and paste career, RESERVOIR DOGS deserves future wave after wave of big screen audiences. Even if you own a special edition DVD or Blu-ray, consider seeing it on the big screen if a print comes to your area. Every detail from Steven Wright’s voice-over on the radio (“K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the Seventies” to be exact) to the sadly late Chris Penn’s scene steals as Nice Guy Eddie just screams for larger projection. 

One great moment – in a pivotal scene, Madsen spoke just as somebody in the audience made a distracting noise by dropping their drink. Keitel responded “excuse me?” as if he didn’t hear because of the offending interruption. Madsen had to repeat himself louder. Many at the Colony theater late show laughed – a communal sensation that can’t be recreated at home. Maybe that’s a disclaimer that should be on this film as well, especially the brutal cop’s ear slicing sequence: “These are trained professionals – don’t try this at home.”

Post note: I realize after re-reading this that I was addressing folks who’ve already seen this movie. If you haven’t seen it – by all means, screw waiting for a big screen opportunity, just rent the damn thing and complete the indie initiation of your film education – why doncha?

More later…

Seven Years Later, Does MULHOLLAND DRIVE Make Any More Sense?

Short answer: Maybe a little.

Long Answer: Last Friday night as part of a series on film noir, the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh had a screening of David Lynch’s twisted surreal drama MULHOLLAND DRIVE. The film was introduced by Independent Weekly Arts Editor David Fellerath who considers the film a masterpiece and one of the greatest of the last 10 years. 

Fellerath asked how many folks were seeing the film for the first time and a surprisingly huge amount of hands were raised. After some background and an attempt at plot summary, he assured the almost full room that 95% of the film holds up to “logical scrutiny.” I’m not so sure about that, but the film did seem to gain levels of coherence that it lacked for me back in 2001. Fellerath had also stated that if anybody still had problems with the film’s meaning afterwards - “there’s lots on the internet.”

There sure is lots on the internet, starting with one of the lengthiest Wikipedia entries for a film that I’ve ever seen with content headings like "Interpretations and Allusions," detailed character breakdowns, and long intricate paragraphs on the style and critical reception. 

The references for the entry site 82 articles with such titles as “Nice Film If You Can Get It: Understanding Mulholland Drive” (The Guardian) and Salon.com’s “Everything You Were Afraid To Ask About Mulholland Drive” (which Roger Ebert considers “the best explanation”). 

Another worthwhile read is Anthony Kusich’s “Mulholland Drive…Explained” which deals which the 10 clues that Lynch included in the notes for the original DVD release. The existence of the clues is curious because Lynch was quoted in the New York Times a few years later as saying that DVD extras can “demystify” a film. 

Perhaps what Lynch and many critics have proposed is the most sensible way to take MULHOLLAND DRIVE – not to try and make sense of it. Just absorb the mood and visual tones winding through the various narrative strands. Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring are either friends turned lovers named Betty and Rita in a dream or the former lovers now estranged Diane and Camilla in reality or vice versa. 

It appears that Justin Theroux is one of the only constant characters – an arrogant film director who is pressured by Mafioso types, to cast Camilla in his newest film. In one of the most memorably amusing scenes has Theroux meet a cryptic character called “The Cowboy” (Lafayette Montgomery) who tells him: “A man’s attitude goes some ways. The way his life will be.” 

When The Cowboy can be seen passing through the background of a party scene later on it is impossible not to take as intensely comical.

A turning point comes when Betty and Rita doing some detective work because Rita has lost her memory (she took her name from a Rita Hayworth movie poster) locate a woman’s dead body.

Identities then blend (the Igmar Bergman-esque screen capture above says a lot about the merging of identities I believe) with Rita donning a blonde wig and then they shatter completely with the aid of a shiny blue box (that of course appears with no explanation) and then reassemble or emerge from a dream - as when The Cowboy says: “Hey, pretty girl, time to wake up.”

Many elements familiar to fans of Lynch fill the frames throughout - among them the darkened old fashioned back room of the mysterious movie studio string puller Mr. Rogue (Michael J. Anderson) wouldn’t have been out of place in the dreams of Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) on Twin Peaks and the creepy Club Silencio that Betty and Rita attend one fateful night is somewhere you would expect to see Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) from BLUE VELVET lounging around in.

Writting before about the “love/WTF?” relationship I’ve had with the films of David Lynch (“Inland Empire Burlesque” and “Hey, I Finally Saw...ERASERHEAD”) I had decided to let go of the idea of determining definitive meanings and just go with the freaky flow. 

Wading through the various analyzing articles previously mentioned of this particular film though is still extremely fascinating because many interpretations can exist side by side, none more valid or more convincing than the other. 

Maybe MULHOLLAND DRIVE doesn’t make any more sense now than it ever did but its captivating spell has indeed grown and its perverse passion is definitely more powerful than when it was first shown in the heady distracting days shortly after 9/11. 

For those who haven't seen it before and lived with it for a while, I have to relate this - while the end credits were rolling at the Art Museum last Friday, a irrate woman who was obviously one of those who had earlier raised their hands, was heard complaining: “I’m very upset - it didn’t make any sense! Even PULP FICTION made sense! At the ending it all came together. I mean even AMERICAN BEAUTY made sense too!” 

So much for discussion, huh?

More later…

A Film Babble Blog Pop Quiz Reprise

To celebrate this being my 200th post (which I know in the bloggosphere is no biggie - my prolific pals at The Playlist have had 1471 posts this year alone!) I decided to re-post a quiz from my 80th post (May 6th, 2007) that didn’t get a very satisfactory response first time out. I’ve had a lot more hits since then and I’ve added a new EXTRA EXTRA CREDIT question so I hope film freak folks will roll up their sleeves, get their #2 pencils, and tackle: Film Babble Blog's Movie & TV Mind Teasers! The major unanswered questions in the realm of modern pop-culture in a quick ’n easy pop-quiz format. 1. What was in the briefcase in PULP FICTION? 2. What was in the package that Charlie Meadows (John Goodman) leaves in the care of Barton (John Turturro) in BARTON FINK? 3. What state is Springfield in on The Simpsons? 4. Why (or how) is Chance the Gardener (Peter Sellers) able to walk on water at the end of BEING THERE? 5. How (or why) did Groundhog Day keep repeating to Phil Connors (Bill Murray) in GROUNDHOG DAY? 6. What is the one thing that 13 CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ONE THING is about? 7. Did Mookie (Spike Lee) do the right thing in DO THE RIGHT THING? 8. When the Fonz (Henry Winkler) moved in over the Cunningham's garage on Happy Days - did he actually pay rent? 9. How on bloody Earth did those images get on that damn videotape in any version of THE RING? 10. Who killed chauffeur Owen Taylor (Dan Wallace) in THE BIG SLEEP? (Man, if you can answer this...) EXTRA CREDIT : Who put the monolith on earth during the opening apes BC segment and on the moon in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY? God or Aliens? Discuss. EXTRA EXTRA CREDIT:

What does Bill Murray whisper in Scarlett Johansson' s ear at the end of LOST IN TRANSLATION?

Okay film folks! Don’t let me down - take the quiz and send your answers to me as comments below or to my email: boopbloop7@gmail.com More later...

5 Sensational Simpsons Cinema Satires

With just under 3 days until the premiere of David Silverman's THE SIMPSONS MOVIE it seems like every pop culture site on this whole world wide web has a Simpsons list or celebratory article these days.

The Onion A.V. Club has a Simpsons list promised for every day this week - so far we've got Monday's Inventory - "15 Simpsons Moments That Perfectly Captured Their Eras",Tuesday's un-numbered "The strangest Simpsons products", and Wednesday's The Simpsons Vs. Civilization - all well worth checking out. 

Vanity Fair recently presented their "survey of the 10 funniest top 10 Simpsons episodes ever", The London Times chimed in with their "The 33 funniest Simpsons cameos ever", and even AOL Television did a 25 "Best Episodes Ever list". Whew!

Being a huge Simpsons fan (and yes, I would defend the recent seasons to anyone) I couldn't resist making my own list. This being Film Babble it should be cinema-centric and that presented an obvious concept : the best most definitive extended satires of a particular film. 

Now there are thousands of film references through-out the entire 18 year run of the classic show. Many characters come from the movies like failed salesman Gil who is a Jack Lemmon GLENGARY GLEN ROSS (Dir. James Foley, 1992) archetype, Chief Wiggum's voice and mannerisms are based on Edward G. Robinson, Apu is named after Satyajit Ray's THE APU TRILOGY, action star Rainer Wolfcastle is obviously based on Arnold Swartzenegger and so on and so on. 

It's hard to think of a movie that hasn't been name-checked and of course many episodes borrow plots, angles, full screen set-ups and quote exact lines and but these are to me the most notable whether they were full episodes or extended sequences satirizing specific movie classics: 

1. “Rosebud” ('93) : A few months back CITIZEN KANE (1941) * made the AFI's Top 100 list and this episode named, of course, after Charles Foster Kane's (Orson Welles) last word is Film Babble's #1 Simpsons Cinema Satire. Not just because it's a parody/homage to that immense immortal masterpiece but because it's a phenomenally hilarious episode that has deservedly made many lists. 

Evil nuclear power plant millionaire C. Montgomery Burns (The C. is for Charles - another similarity to Kane), who keeps a box of Nev-R-Break snow globes at his bed-side longs after his childhood teddy bear Bobo, much like Kane longed after his beloved sled. In a flashback we see that after being abandoned by the pubescent Burns (his father - "Wait, you've forgot your bear! A symbol of your lost youth and innocence!") Bobo has a historical journey involving a plane trip with Charles Lindbergh, a stay in Hitler's bunker, a trip on the submarine Nautilus before finally ending up in a bag of ice in the present day. 

Bart purchases the ice at the Quickie Mart and gives the old ragged bear to Maggie. Burns learns of the Simpsons possession and he offers a huge reward but standing by his daughter Homer refuses. Burns's ineptly funny attempts to steal back Bobo may not recall KANE and a good chunk of the show is the usual Simpsons riffing but the KANE context of the Burns Bobo back-story really puts this one on top. 

A cameo by the Ramones is the icing on the cake. 

"Rosebud" wasn't the first or last Simpsons episode to reference CITIZEN KANE. In the 1990 episode "Two Cars In Every Garage and Three Eyes On Every Fish" Burns protests "You can't do this to me! I'm Charles! Montgomery! Burns!" which obviously comes from "You can't do this to me! I'm Charles! Foster! Kane!" and in that same episode Burns stands in front of a big poster of himself during his campaign speech. 

In one DVD commentary the Simpsons staff remark half-jokingly that they have referenced KANE so much that you could recreate the film completely from Simpsons scenes and shot steals. 

2. “Cape Feare” ('93) Just a few episodes before "Rosebud" both the original CAPE FEAR (Dir. J. Lee Thompson, 1962) and the '92 remake CAPE FEAR (Dir. Martin Scorsese) got their episode length roasting over a Simpsons fire. Substituting Sideshow Bob (voiced by Kelsey Grammer) for recently released revenge minded Max Cady (Robert Mitchum '62, Robert Deniro '92) we get essentially the same narrative - A family is stalked by a man he once helped put in jail. 

The Simpsons in place of the Bowden family leave town and assume new witness relocation identities as The Thompsons and take up residence at Terror Lake. The whole ends in a showdown (actually a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore") on a houseboat. 

Also factor into the mix a slice of Hitchcock's classic 1960 thriller PSYCHO: Sideshow Bob stays at the Bate's Motel. A truly inspired episode but silly as can be - on the DVD commentary writer / producer Al Jean even says "when you look at Sideshow Bob and his master plan it really is just to stab this 10 year old boy! I mean when he gets to the boat it's not very subtle - 'I want to cut him until he dies!'"

There's that and this priceless Sideshow Bob line when defending his "Die Bart, Die" tattoo in court - "no, that's German for "The Bart, The!" 

3. “The Shinning” ('94) In this 8 min. segment of "Treehouse Of Horror V" THE SHINING (Dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1980) gets skewered. Burns has the Simpson family act as caretakers for his mansion in the mountains modeled meticulously on the Overlook Hotel in said Kubrick classic.

When told by Groundskeeper Willie that he has "the shin-ning", Bart replies "you mean "the shining!" Willie whispers "shh - you want to get sued?" When leaving for the winter Burns boasts about his cutting off the cable TV and the beer supply - Two things that Smithers argues may have been the reason the previous caretakers went insane and murdered their families.

Burns says "perhaps, if we come back and everyone is slaughtered - I owe you a Coke." Sure enough in almost no time Homer does go insane. The deconstruction of THE SHINING is a thing of genius here - Marge saying "What he's typed will be a window into his madness", the ghost of Moe prompting Homer to kill his family but having no real substantial reason for it - "uh, because they'd be much happier as ghosts." 

Then there's Homer's take on Jack Nicholson's over the top antics. When blowing his "Here's Johnny" intro because he chopped his axe into an empty room - he finally gets the right room and holding up a stopwatch yells "I'm Mike Wallace, I'm Morley Safer, and I'm Ed Bradley, all this and Andy Rooney too on 60 Minutes!"

4. “Cosmic Wars : The Gathering Shadow” from "Co-Dependent's Day" ('04)– This one is a little odd. I mean STAR WARS (1977-2005) has been directly referred to in many many episodes (go here for a Simpsons Archive List) so to have a likewise film series with a look-alike director (Randal Curtis standing in for George Lucas) seems a bit off. 

Apparently they didn't want to name names because it deals with ridiculing the anticipation killing THE PHANTOM MENACE so the Simpsons creators didn't want to alienate or insult Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox according to Wikipedia. I included it because is has some great prequel parodying moments when breaking down the numbing exposition and specifically satirizing Jar-Jar (Jim-Jam). "Cosmic Wars" only exists for a few minutes so it's one of many films within the Simpsons and is never mentioned after the episode (they go back to STAR WARS references) so it is a perfect example of what Matt Groening has called "flexible reality" or a "rubber-band universe" - in which something lasts as long as the joke does then the next day it's gone.


5. “Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(annoyed grunt)cious” ('97) The answer to stress so strong it's making Marge's hair fall out is for the family to get a nanny but not just any nanny MARY POPPINS! - No wait, make that Shary Bobbins. Julie Andrews was set to play the part but the producers decided on Maggie Roswell to take on the vocal duties of the sweet singing flying umbrella traveling, and just all around neat freak.

The episode is a complete musical and uses several melodies from the original 1964 Disney film. It goes back and forth from the respectful tributes in the songs to the crude satire of the cheap animation and outdated morale. In the end crude satire wins - Bobbins dies by getting sucked up in a passing airplane's jet engine while the Simpsons' backs are turned.


This episode reportedly had to have the most padding out of any Simpsons episode - an “Itchy and Scratchy” Quentin Tarantino parody “Reservoir Cats"” (pictured on the right) was a late addition.

That's the Top Five but special mention should be given to: “Bart Simpson’s Dracula” ('93), from "Treehouse Of Horror IV," a dead on spoof of BRAM STROKER’S DRACULA (1992) right down to Burns' hair-do. Contains better acting than the Coppola version for sure.
“Marge On The Lam” ('93) lampoons THELMA & LOUISE (Dir. Ridley Scott, 1991) 

“Two Dozen and One Greyhounds” to the tune of 101 DALMATIONS (1961)

“Deep Space Homer” ('94) steals its ending from 2001 : A SPACE ODDYSEY (1968).

Al Jean once said it was a close tie between the large amounts of CITIZEN KANE and Kubrick references on The Simpsons.

Maybe when the show is over we can take a tally. I've been trying to only deal with more extended parodies because there have been too many snippet steals from movies in the series run but Homer as the space-baby is just too hard to pass up. 

“Twenty-Two Short Films About Springfield” ('96) - This magnificent episode's title and some of its inspiration comes from THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD but it's really more PULP FICTION as many have acknowledged before me and will again. And so on and so forth. The next time I post will be after I see THE SIMPSONS MOVIE and I will give you a full review. Until then may a noble spirit embiggen your soul. 

More later...