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Let's Go to the Hop/References

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References
  • The title is the refrain to the 1957 rock and roll hit “At the Hop” by Danny & the Juniors.
  • Peter's choice of the name Lando is a reference to the Star Wars character Lando Calrissian.
  • Peter encounters Spider-Man When he is sneaking out of his room he falls and is caught in a web hammock.
  • The effects of toad licking cause one of the teenagers to “finally get” Aaron Sorkin’s cult television show Sports Night; “It’s a comedy that’s too good to be funny,” referring to the show’s complex but dry humor.
  • The Griffins watch a Doublemint Gum commercial featuring conjoined twins, a parody of the brand’s commercials featuring identical twins.
  • A slang term for licking toads is “Doing Kermit,” a reference to Kermit the Frog.
  • The anti-toad licking public service announcement parodies a classic Tootsie Pop ad.
  • When Peter tells Lois that 'people do a lot of crazy things just to be accepted', a fraternity type initiation of Supreme Court Justices is shown. The Justices, specifically Sandra Day O'Connor, tells David Souter if he wants to be a Supreme Court Justice he must pick up a cherry with his buttocks and drop it in a mug of beer after travelling through an obstacle course.
  • In a cutaway to “the good old days” of public education a girl correctly recites the quadratic formula, causing the class to deem her a witch and stone her. This is a reference to the Salem witch trials and the atmosphere of sexism and paranoia that facilitated it.
  • Lando fakes his way through saying slang terms, one of them being “Poppin’ Fresh,” a reference to Pillsbury.
  • Peter attempts to imitate Happy Days character Fonzie by saying the catch phrase “Aaaay” and pounding on a jukebox in order to get it to start. However, it doesn’t work, and in his second attempt, he breaks the jukebox, causing glass shards to get stuck in his hand. A similar gag appeared on The Simpsons, only it took one blow from Homer Simpson’s fist to bust the glass; he shortly after began to succumb to severe blood loss.
  • When Peter goes to detention, he exclaims, “Holy crap! It’s the Breakfast Club!” However, instead of the gang from the 1985 teen movie, he sees several breakfast cereal mascots including Toucan Sam, Tony the Tiger, the Trix Rabbit, Lucky the Leprechaun, and Cap’n Crunch. Tony The Tiger’s line about how his dad gave him cigarettes for Christmas is similar to Bender’s line in the Breakfast Club film about how his father gave him cigarettes, except “a banner fuckin’ year” was changed to “a banner freakin’ year” and the “They’re grrr-eat!” line was added.[1]
  • Peter spray paints “Thompson Twins Rule” on a school wall, referring to a 1980s new wave band. This is also a reference[citation needed] to the opening credits of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air where Will Smith is spray-painting an “F” on a wall and a cop catches him, with Will getting out of being blamed by pointing out the “F” was already on the wall and he was using the spray-paint can as a can of spray-on deodorant.
  • The song “Give Up the Toad Now” is based on “You're the One That I Want” from the 1978 film Grease.
  • When Meg confronts “Lando” about why he has broken his promise to take her to the dance, he says “Something suddenly came up!” This is what Marcia Brady's date said to her when he changed his mind about taking her to the dance after breaking her nose with a football and seeing it swell up, on The Brady Bunch.
  • Stewie replays his own version of Oliver Twist's famous request: "Please, sir, I want some more."
  • Peter resolves to “fight for my right to party,” referencing the Beastie Boys’ 1986 release “You Gotta Fight for Your Right (To Party).”
  • Peter’s sneaking out of his room is a parody of Fast Times at Ridgemont High’s Stacey sneaking out of her house, with the soundtrack featuring a ripoff of Jackson Browne’s “Somebody’s Baby,” which featured in the original movie.
  • The song being played at the dance is “Get Outta My Dreams” by Billy Ocean.
  • “Lando” says goodbye to his classmates saying “I will ride recklessly into the night, and up Dead Man’s Curve,” parodying the climax of the 1982 movie Grease 2.
  • The ending of the episode mirrors the ending of The Breakfast Club, even the song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds.


Sports Night - Created by Aaron Sorkin, Sports Night ran nearly two full seasons on the ABC network in the US during the '98-99 and '99-00 seasons.

Double Mint Gum - Double Mint Gum commercials generally show twins eating the gum, while this parody (Double Fresh Gum) shows Siamese twins.

How Many Licks? - The anti-toad commercial parodies an old cartoon commercial about getting to the center of a tootsie roll tootsie pop.

Happy Days - Arthur 'Fonzie' Fonzarelli's catchphrase was "Aaaayh!" with a thumbs up, and he was well known for hitting a jukebox to get it to play.

The Breakfast Club - Captain Crunch, Lucky the Leprechaun, Tony the Tiger, Trix the Rabbit, and Toucan Sam parody the movie The Breakfast Club, with Tony's line being almost exactly the same as the movie line.

Thompson Twins - Thompson Twins was a popular synth-pop group of the early MTV era (early/mid 80s).

Grease - "Give It Up" is a parody of You're the One That I Want from the movie Grease.


References

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