The satirical take on Rio de Janeiro in "Blame It on Lisa", in which the streets of the city are teeming with monkeys, rats, thieving orphans, kidnapping cabbies and oversexed children's show hosts dancing suggestively on Carnival floats, provoked a threatened lawsuit by the Rio board of tourism against the producers of the show. In response, executive producer James L. Brooks released a statement saying "we apologize to the lovely city and people of Rio de Janeiro," but added, "If that doesn't settle the issue, Homer Simpson offers to take on the President of Brazil on Fox Celebrity Boxing." Rio tourism board president Jose Eduardo Guinle proceeded with exploring legal action, but eventually got over it. The show's writers, however, did not. After board spokesman Sergio Cavalcanti told Reuters that Guinle was most offended by "the idea of the monkeys, the image that Rio de Janeiro was a jungle", the writers made a running gag of it. In addition to Homer's reference to "the monkey problem getting worse" in Rio in "The Regina Monologues", Krusty the Klown also reveals in "Mr Spritz Goes to Washington" that immigration officials are constantly hounding him because his monkey sidekick, Mr. Teeny, is from Brazil, adding, "His uncle was the Head Monkey on the Bureau of Tourism." Due to all this controversy this episode is rarely aired.
Although Homer is quoted as saying "The Simpsons are going to Antarctica....next year!", the Simpsons did not visit the continent in subsequent seasons. This leaves Antarctica as the only continent that the family has not visited in a canon episode. The closest a family member has reached Antarctica is in season 17 episode 18 "The Wettest Story Ever Told", a non-canon episode with stories where Bart crashes into the continent.
Couch: The Simpsons are marionettes that get tangled in each others' strings. The camera tilts up to reveal Matt Groening as the puppet master.
Homer is seen wearing a T-Shirt with Uncle Sam trying to devour the Earth and "Try and Stop Us" printed below that.