It is no secret that Sam and Dean Winchester (particularly Dean) love TV. The monster-hunting brothers on the middle of the erstwhile CW fixture “Supernatural” made loads of popular culture references over the course of the present’s appreciable run, and as soon as they even ended up caught in a madcap tv world, visitor starring on exhibits that borrowed from “Gray’s Anatomy” and “CSI: Miami.” Angel Castiel (Misha Collins) has a memorable relationship with the boob tube, too; he realized rather a lot about humankind whereas watching dangerous hotel-TV porn in season 6.
“Supernatural” wears its pop culture-loving coronary heart on its sleeve, however manner again in season 1, the present additionally dropped in some delicate “if , “-style references. Amongst them? A shout-out to probably the greatest traditional episodes of “The Simpsons,” dropped squarely right into a useless critical scene a couple of kid-killing witch that is central to Dean’s childhood trauma.
A legendary witch struck in Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook
Within the first season episode “One thing Depraved,” “Supernatural” is in full “miserable daddy points” mode. Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles), nonetheless on the hunt for his or her absent father (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) within the present’s earliest serialized plot, are on the hunt for a Shtriga, an Albanian folkloric determine that steals the lifeblood of youngsters whereas they’re asleep. It seems that the Shtriga they’re after is definitely the identical one that almost killed Sam once they have been younger, traumatizing Dean within the course of when his youthful brother was put in hurt’s manner after Dean broke his dad’s guidelines and left him alone. In fact, the elder Winchester left each children alone in a motel for days, so who’s the true monster right here?
The parental failings of John Winchester could also be a serious theme of “One thing Depraved,” however one of many episode’s greatest moments comes throughout a seemingly run-of-the-mill analysis dialog between Sam and Dean. Throughout a cellphone name, Sam tells Dean that the Shtriga not too long ago struck in Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook — the identical fictional cities that function prominently within the season 4 “Simpsons” episode “Marge vs. the Monorail.” Clearly Sam wasn’t watching “The Simpsons” when he was caught in that motel room as a child, or he would’ve acknowledged the connection.
Marge vs. The Monorail is The Simpsons at its greatest
Launched in 1993 in the course of the long-running animated sitcom’s first and most acclaimed golden period, “Marge vs. the Monorail” is a improbable episode of TV located inside an unbelievable comedic and heartfelt sizzling streak (see additionally: “Mr. Plow,” “Lisa’s First Phrase,” “Homer’s Triple Bypass”). The Conan O’Brien-penned half hour introduces Lyle Laney (Phil Hartman), an old-timey, musically-inclined con artist a la “The Music Man.” The singing, dancing drifter blows into city simply as Springfield will get a $3 million windfall, and does all the pieces he can to persuade the townsfolk to spend their money on a high-speed monorail system as a substitute of much-needed infrastructure repairs.
“Marge vs. the Monorail” is a sequence standout for a number of causes, from its action-packed climax that offers Homer a uncommon, unironic win to its most well-known music, by which Lyle responds in rhyming verse to public discussion board questions like “Have been you despatched right here by the satan” (his reply: “No, good sir, I am on the extent”). It is also one among a number of season 4 episodes that effortlessly eases up on the extra bittersweet recurring elements of the Simpsons household dynamics, like Homer’s alcoholism and Marge’s home listlessness. Throughout his razzle-dazzle presentation, Lyle wows many of the viewers — ever-clever Marge excepted — when he makes reference to the three cities whose economies he is saved with monorails up to now: Brockway, Ogdenvile, and North Haverbrook.
This is not the one Simpsons reference hidden in Supernatural
The reference is sly sufficient that it is powerful to catch if you have not rewatched “The Simpsons” these days, however it’s additionally unmissable for anybody who’s a “Marge vs. the Monorail” devotee. The three cities are talked about a number of instances all through the “Simpsons” episode, and Marge finally saves the day by visiting North Haverbrook and discovering it is develop into a comedically broken-down ghost city ever since Lyle swindled its residents. On this planet of “Supernatural,” these three locations are additionally haunted, however it’s a legendary witch that places children into comas, not an affordable dying lure practice, that is behind all the difficulty.
Hilariously, this is not the one “Simpsons” reference snuck into the early seasons of “Supernatural.” Within the present’s season 3 premiere, Sam jokes that Dean is “polling the voters,” the Springfield cops’ shorthand for Mayor Quimby’s motel trysts, when his brother will get some uncommon motion on the highway. The season 5 premiere options what could be the present’s most obscure “Simpsons” reference, when Dean tells Kurt Fuller’s angel Zachariah to “cram it with walnuts, ugly!” That insult is similar to the one Homer let fly in a season 8 episode of “The Simpsons,” when he was auditioning for the Poochie position on “The Itchy and Scratchy Present.” Sequence creator Eric Kripke, who wrote two of the three “Supernatural” episodes talked about above, is clearly a fan of the groundbreaking FOX sequence; final yr, he in contrast his different present, “The Boys,” to the “very lived-in, ridiculous dystopia” of “The Simpsons” in an interview with Inventive Screenwriting. We’re now accepting bets on which Supe will say “eat my shorts” subsequent season.