Stark Raving Dad/References

==Cultural References==
*At the mental hospital, Homer is introduced to a patient called the Chief who hasn't spoken since 1968, a reference to the book by Ken Kesey and later film starring , who by this point had worked with James L. Brooks in Brooks' movies Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News. The film also featured Simpsons co-producer Brooks' future regular Taxi actors Danny Devito and Christopher Lloyd in supporting roles.
*The title is based on the term "Stark Raving Mad" meaning to be incredibly crazy.
**When Bart is doing the quiz for Homer, one of the questions he asks Homer is if he hears voices, referencing schizophrenia. Homer, however, clearly annoyed that Bart was asking while he's watching TV, proceeds to flippantly "confirm" he is hearing voices while watching TV in an unsubtle reference to Bart's pestering him.
*The show makes a reference to America's Funniest Home Videos.
*The first song that Bart sings about Lisa's birthday is a parody of Colonel Bogey March.
==Trivia==
*Michael Jackson was acknowledged to have co-produced Do The Bartman. Two months after the episode aired, Bart was also featured at the end of Jackson's music video.
*It is commonly believed that the reason why Jackson didn’t sing in this episode and impersonator, Kipp Lennon sang instead was due to contractual obligations forbidding him from singing in the episode. However, the real reason why an impersonator was used for the singing was because Jackson wanted to trick his brothers into thinking it actually was him singing. 
*Lisa has an "End Apartheid Now" poster on her room door from the inside. At the time the episode was airing, negotiations were underway to end the South African Apartheid. Despite airing five days after the South African National Peace Accord was signed, the episode, which featured outspoken apartheid critic Michael Jackson as a guest star, was made many months beforehand and was originally supposed to be the season finale for season 2. Ironically, the episode also aired a a little over a year before the Soweto Uprising detailing film Sarafina! was released in theaters as well. 
*Fans have criticized the beginning of the episode, as it is the only episode in which Lenny and Carl don't wear their normal shirt colors. Further ridicule comes from the fact Carl normally wears a pink shirt and yet, isn't punished or institutionalized for it.
*This is the first episode of the series to be a leftover from the past season as this episode was originally going to be the second season finale, but was pushed to the third season for unknown reasons.
* Mr. Burns' being out of touch with reality is shown again, with him overthinking a man wearing a different colored shirt to work meant that he was a radical thinker.
*In a rare occurrence, this episode was re-aired in prime time following Michael Jackson's death in 2009 in America. In contrast, Sky Showcase and Channel 4 in the UK cut the scene in season 12's "The Great Money Caper" where Bart is harassed by a deranged man dressed as Michael Jackson with stick puppets dressed as The Jackson 5 attached to him following Jackson's death (and again, when Leaving Neverland was released).
*Due to concerns about crediting, Michael Jackson used the alter ego "John Jay Smith" in the credits, similar to Dustin Hoffman. After the airing of this episode, the producers agreed to impose a policy that pseudonyms were disallowed for all future guest stars. The policy also applied to the regular cast, saying that from now on their real names must be used in the credits, which had been done in earlier episodes by some voice actors to skirt SAG regulations on crediting, such as Marcia Wallace, who intentionally misspelled her name as "Masha Wallace" in "Bart the Genius" to avoid double crediting for the gifted school teacher in addition to her usual role of Mrs. Krabappel. 
*This episode originally was supposed to have a sequel, in which Leon Kompowsky (the mental patient who thought he was Michael Jackson) now thinks he is Prince and encourages the town to be free and open with their sexual lives. Prince (who died in 2016) declined the chance to appear on the show due to creative differences (Prince wanted to write the episode himself, which would have been too risque for American primetime TV, while the version Conan O'Brien wrote was too watered-down for what Prince envisioned), making this sequel the only episode that has been written but never produced (though the idea of someone encouraging the town to be free and open with their lives would come about in later seasons, such as "Bart's Inner Child" and the notoriously panned "Lisa Goes Gaga" [the latter of which also has a pop singer whose music and style is also considered shocking and transcends traditional gender norms, much like Prince did, though Lady Gaga is compared more to mid-1980s, early 1990s Madonna]).
**Leon would eventually reappear in "Mr. Lisa's Opus", which was not banned like this episode was (see "Censorship and Controversy" below), though Sky Showcase in the UK cut the part where The Simpsons surprise Lisa by bringing in Leon Kompowsky in her room.
*Recycled animation of Bart sleeping from "Bart Gets an "F"" is used at the beginning of Act 1 when Lisa wakes him up and reminds him about her birthday. This is the first Season 3 episode to use recycled animation.
*This episode was the first to be produced and aired in Dolby Surround.
*One of the comedic home videos Homer watches is apparently titled "Baby with a Nail Gun." Ironically, Maggie would later have a nail gun in "Bye Bye Nerdie".
*The January 1992 rerun of this episode contained a cold opening before the opening sequence in response to George Bush's comments during his re-election campaign that he wished "to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons". In the brief scene, the Simpsons watch Bush's speech over dinner, and Bart states "Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the depression too."
*Lisa's poem about Snowball is also seen in The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album.
*Lisa turns 8 years old in this episode (she used to be 7 years old for the first two seasons, and for the first 35 episodes of the show), and has been that age since this episode.
*Homer would later be put into a mental hospital again in "Don't Fear the Roofer".
* The mental institution's public telephone lists The Larry King Show, Oprah, Phil Donahue, Geraldo and Ski Report on its speed dial.
==Censorship and Controversy==
On March 7, 2019, the episode was removed from circulation and banned after the release of the HBO documentary due to some new, alleged pedophilia allegations of child sexual assault against Michael Jackson. Producer James Brooks remarked on the censorship "We have a lot of fond memories of working on that episode; and the recent documentary did not permit said memories to remain. I am against book burning of any kind. But this is our book, and we are allowed to cut out a chapter." This is also the only episode that is currently banned globally as a result, though, on October 5, 2019, the episode was briefly brought back in syndication on FXX.
*Despite this action, the Jackson estate never retaliated by removing Bart from the end of Jackson's Black or White music video. Ironically, the same day Brooks announced the decision to ban the episode, a rare kind of child sexual assault verdict would occur, with French Roman Catholic Cardinal Phillippe Barbarin being found guilty of covering up child sexual assault committed by a Catholic priest. Additionally, despite the removal of this episode, references to Jackson remain in episodes like "Bart Sells His Soul" (Bart's line about the soul being a fiction used to scare kids, like "The Boogeyman" and "Michael Jackson"), some versions of "Dog of Death" (the map showing Santa's Little Helper's adventures show The Michael Jackson Expressway), and "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" (Lisa telling Bart that the Itchy & Scratchy Movie had cameos by Dustin Hoffman and Michael Jackson, both of which were under assumed names).
Fans of this episode have expressed their dissatisfaction with the show's decision to pull the episode through a "denial meme" which parodied "Marge vs. the Monorail". In it, Marge is in North Haverbrook, where she sees a traumatized woman tell her "Go away! There ain't no Michael Jackson episode and there never was!". The woman then slams her window shut, revealing a painted image of Leon Kompowski. The original image was about the "Monorail Cafe".
==Previous Episode References==
*During the phoning sequence, it shows the following nine characters on the phone from the following previous (and one future) episodes that are being told that Michael Jackson is coming to town:
**Snake Jailbird from "The War of the Simpsons" - Season 2.
**Selma Bouvier from "Principal Charming" - Season 2.
**Barney Gumble from "Homer's Night Out" - Season 1.
**Julius Hibbert from "Bart's Dog Gets an F" - Season 2.
**Sam (barfly) from "When Flanders Failed" - Season 3.
**Sylvia Winfield from "Bart's Dog Gets an F" - Season 2.
**Babysitting Lady from "Some Enchanted Evening" - Season 1.
**Abraham Simpson II from "Old Money" - Season 2.
**Moe Szyslak from "Blood Feud" - Season 2.
fr:Mon pote Michael Jackson/Références
Category:Trivia
Category:Goofs