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The Simpsons is a show that is rife with literary references. So rife, in fact, that we had difficulty narrowing it down to our five favorites. Like many of you students, we here at Eduify have seen every single Simpsons episode (at least once). We love the show for its incisive and hilarious writing, its endearingly obnoxious characters, and the strange relevance that a little cartoon can have on our actual lives. So, without further ado, here are our 5 favorite Simpsons episodes and educational links to the literary references therein.

5. Das Bus – Lord of the Flies

Bart, Lisa, and other kids at the Springfield Elementary School are stranded on an island and are forced to come together to fend for themselves. One day, all the food that the children have been surviving on goes missing, and the kids blame Millhouse because of his corpulent size. Millhouse blames the island “monster,” but the kids don’t listen, put him on trial, and attempt to kill him. He escapes, along with Homer and Lisa, and run into a cave where the monster reveals itself to be a boar (with a potato chip bag on his tusk). As a result, the kids apologize to Millhouse, blame the monster, and kill it to eat as food. This, of course, is heavily influenced by the events of Lord of the Flies, a William Golding novel each of you has probably read in high school.

4. A Streetcar Named Marge – “A Streetcar Named Desire”

Taking a cue from Tennessee Williams‘ famous play, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, this Simpsons episode hilariously draws from the story as Marge wins a spot as Blanche DuBois in a play. For those who aren’t familiar, Blanche is essentially the crazy sister of Stella (of Marlon Brando’s iconic “Stellaaaa!” scene in the film version) who moves to a new town and tries to hide a checkered past that she ultimately fails at concealing. As Homer is not particularly supportive of her acting dreams, she begins to draw a parallel between him and Stanley Kowalski, the macho, insensitive lead male character in the play (Brando’s role in the movie version).

3. The Tell-Tale Head – “The Tell-Tale Heart”

Bart cuts off the head of a statue in order to impress some of his friends, but this incites a mob riot at the town square because people are furious that the statue has been vandalized. Bart realizes his error and confronts his guilt. He goes to the town center to admit his wrongdoing and face the mob — who of course forgive him in the end. This episode references Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” which is about a man who murders another man, in cold blood, for indisclosed reasons. The murderer starts to go crazy when his guilt manifests itself as hallucinations that the dead man’s heart is still beating under the floorboards, where the murderer hid his body.

2. Easy-Bake Coven – “The Crucible”

In 1649, Sprynge-Fielde is after its witches. Moe accuses Marge of being a witch, and though she tries to proclaim her innocence, the townspeople push her off a cliff with a broom. If she is a witch, she’d of course get on her broom and fly off. If she was innocent, she’d fall and die, but at least she wasn’t a witch right? To their surprise and horror, when Marge is pushed off a cliff, she turns bright green and gets on the broom and begins to wreak havoc on the townspeople. Then they go from door to door in the town, and are given goodies and presents in exchange for not eating the children of the town. This episode is based on “The Crucible,” an Arthur Miller play about the events surrounding the Salem Witch Trials.

1. Diatribe of a Mad Housewife – Moby Dick with a cameo appearance by Thomas Pynchon

This is not only our favorite literary episode of the Simpsons, it might even be our favorite episode period. The reason? Not only it a hilarious take on Moby Dick by Herman Melville, but it also features one of our favorite authors, Thomas Pynchon, in a cameo role. Pynchon broke 40 years of media silence to appear on the Simpsons, and appears as himself — not a fictional character. The plot unfolds as Marge begins to write a whaling novel, influenced by a painting of a boat in her living room. The novel is about a woman, ostensibly based on Marge, who is a dutiful wife to a drunk, sloppy sailor who demands that she cook him unreasonably extravagant dinners (he is based on Homer). The book, called The Harpooned Heart is a huge success, despite Tom Clancy and Thomas Pynchon both declining to review it positively. Pynchon’s editor in the episode stands outside Pynchon’s house holding a sign and yelling “Hey, over here, have your picture taken with a reclusive author! Today only, we’ll throw in a free autograph. But, wait! There’s more!” This obviously pokes fun at how reclusive Pynchon is with the press.