Homer pointing at the camera, calling everyone behind it suckers. But! He’s pointing at us, too! Dr. Hibbert does the same gag in 6×25 – Who Shot Mr. Burns?

Al Brooks does the voice of the villain, which invites unfavourable comparisons to any of the six characters he’s voiced for the show. Mainly, Hank Scorpio, from one of The Simpsons best episodes, 8×02 – You Only Move Twice.

Grandpa is hit with a beam of light in church and experiences holy palpatations, just like Jake Blues in The Blues Brothers. Oh, and half the town experienced the same thing in 12×19 – I’m Goin’ To Praiseland.

Homer being crushed by a bulldozer? I recognise that from 6×05 – Sideshow Bob Roberts.

As noted above, the film opens with scenes from Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie. We’ve seen scenes from the film before in an episode obtusely titled, 4×06 – Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie.

Homer falls in love with a pig. This is fun. Kind of like that time he fell in love with a lobster in 10×07 – Lisa Gets An A.

When Green Day die, the organist plays a rock song (American Idiot, fittingly) at their funeral. The same organist was tricked into playing In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly in 7×04 – Bart Sells His Soul.

This in itself is a reference to something else – Curly from the Three Stooges, I think – but it has been done before. Grandpa, in church, drops to the floor and begins running round in circles while on his side. He yells “whoop” or “whoot” while he does so. Homer does the same thing in 4×17 – Last Exit to Springfield.

There’s an extended nude montage where objects craftily cover Bart’s genitals. This is a joke that’s been done a million times before by other people, but it also featured in an extended sequence with Marge and Homer in 9×25 – Natural Born Kissers.

Someone mentions Homer’s thinking ability and we’re given an internal glimpse of his head, which contains a monkey of some description. In the movie it’s a toy monkey playing cymbals. In 6×18 – A Star Is Burns, it’s real monkeys. (We see them twice in this episode).

The movie is about pollution in Springfield Lake causing animals to mutate and spurt a freakishly large number of eyes. This was also the catalyst for the story in 2×04 – Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish.

In a gas station, similar-but-different doppelgängers of the Simpsons are mistaken for the family themselves. This is similar to Guy Incognito being mistaken for Homer in 6×11 – Fear of Flying.

Homer meets an Indian woman and departs on a spirit quest. His body goes through various transformative experiences, just like it does during his spiritual journey (also about learning to appreciate Marge) in 8×09 – The Mysterious Voyage of Our Homer.

At the end of the film, Maggie saves Homer from being shot by dropping a rock on the villain’s head. In 13×21 – Papa’s Got A Brand New Badge, Maggie saves Homer from being shot by shooting the villains first.

You can argue that these are knowingly self-referencial, but that doesn’t really make it better.

Having said that, this is a good one near the end of the film. In 2×08 – Bart the Daredevil, Bart plans to jump over Springfield Gorge on his skateboard. Homer accidentally does it instead, and fails. But the ambulance that takes him away afterwards immediately crashes into a tree, and Homer falls down the gorge again. The ambulance is visible in this shot of the movie, still smashed against the tree:

Of course, there are those moments that are just depressing.

Hello! My name’s Tom Hanks, and I’m here today because Phil Hartman is dead.