10 Incredibly Subtle Jokes From The Simpsons You Might Have Missed

9. The Rashomon Effect ('Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo')

After attending Chuck Garabedian's Mega-Savings Seminar, the Simpsons begin to put their penny-pinching (or should that be squeezing?) into practice. Providing you don't care which country you land in, discount airline tickets are too good an offer to refuse. Or so the Simpsons think. However, when the destination is revealed to be Japan, one family member isn't exactly thrilled. Marge: Come on, Homer. Japan will be fun! You liked Rashomon. Homer: That's not how I remember it! At first, Homer's line seems to be a throwaway gag, just another sign of his stubbornness. But for anyone familiar with Akira Kurosawa's 1950 silent classic, it takes on a much deeper meaning. Rashomon is a seminal study of subjectivity in which four witnesses give different accounts of a rape and murder. And so Homer and Marge having opposing perspectives becomes a rather clever joke.