The Simpsons

Title: The Simpsons
Year: 1989-trwa
Twórcy: James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Sam Simon
English dubbing: Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Harry Shearer, Julie Kavner, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Pamela Hayden
Genre: Animation, Comedy
Country: USA
Viewing method: Selected episodes

Why in Database: The cult series The Simpsons is, for a non-turtle series, very turtle-like! For over 700 episodes (as of the end of 2021) it contain some turtle elements in 90 episodes!

The post was written largely in a traditional way, i.e. through research on sites like IMDB, quodb.com and similar places, this is how I put most of the episodes on the watch list. Invaluable help in filling the gaps, however, was the article Turtles on The Simpsons on the pages of Tometheus.com.

It is worth mentioning that we have also described in the database The Simpsons Movie, because it includes song by “The Turtles “.

Below is a detailed list (season and episode number, title and description) of turtle content:
01×08 – The Telltale Head – Bart screams “Cowabunga!” while skateboarding, which can be considered a reference to Ninja Turtles.
03×07 – Treehouse of Horror II – In the nightmare, Homer works as a gravedigger and his boss tells him that he wouldn’t even bury a turtle in the grave Homer dug.

Deeper! Wider! Faster! I wouldn’t bury m’ turtle in that mud puddle!

03×22 – The Otto Show – Bart writes on the board that “he will not spin the turtle”.

I will not spin the turtle

04×08 – New Kid on the Block – In the “Frying Dutchman” restaurant you can see a turtle ornament on the wall.
05×13 – Homer and Apu – Bart writes on the board that he will not come near the kindergarten turtle.

I will not go near the kindergarten turtle

05×17 – Bart Gets an Elephant – This episode features a “Turtle Wax” parody, which is “Terrapin Wax”! Homer additionally has a hallucination in which the characters from the packages come to life and attack him, including the turtle.
06×07 – Bart’s Girlfriend – During the fire alarm at school, one of the characters wants to save the turtles, but soon after being attacked by them, he asks others for help.

If I don’t save the wee tur’les, who will? [beat] doh! Save me from the wee tur’les, they were too quick for me aaaggghh…

06×08 – Lisa On Ice – Episode with a double dose of turtles. The first scene is Homer handing back a turtle to Bart after the boy won at Hockey. He also says that he is fulfilling his part of the contract and gives the turtle back to him safe and sound, which means that the reptile was a hostage. The second appearance takes place in Lisa’s imagination, she is sent to Monster Island where she is seen, among others, Gamera.

Well Boy, you won, so I’m going to live up to my side of the agreement. Here’s your turtle, alive and well.

06×20 – Two Dozen and One Greyhounds – Mr. Burns mentions TurtleNecks in his song, which in theory means normal type of clothing, but in his version it is a vest made of a real shell turtle.

Turtle’s necks I’ve got my share.

08×09 – El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Homer – In the sequence of the dream/nightmare of Homer, a turtle appears, first he write “Follow the turtle” on the ground and then he leads Homer.

Huh? A tortoise?!

08×10 – The Springfield Files – The episode features Grandpa chasing a turtle who stole his teeth. Additionally, at one point the reptile bites the chaser.

For the love of God help me! I’ve been here for four days and a turtle’s got ahold of my teeth! There he is!
(…)
Ow! He bit me with my own teeth!

08×13 – Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala-D’OH!-cious – Turtle is shown in Homer’s thoughts.
08×18 – Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment – Turtles are mentioned in the dialogue, the character reminds that tiny turtles and alligators may seem like a sweet option as a pet, but they will grow up.

Alright. But you people remember; baby turtles and alligators may seem like a cute idea for a pet, but they grow up!

09×11 – All Singing, All Dancing – This episode shows various songs from the previous episodes, including one from 06×20 – Two Dozen and One Greyhounds where Mr. Burns sang about TurtleNecks.
09×12 – Bart Carny – In the ring-throwing booth hangs a (presumably plush) turtle, as a reward.
09×17 – Lisa the Simpson – Lisa mentions the book Yertle the Turtle, calling it arguably the best book ever written about stacking turtles. We also see a policeman reading this book in bed.

And please don’t deprive yourselves of wonderful books like “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “Harriet the Spy” and “Yertle the Turtle” — possibly the best book ever written on the subject of turtle stacking.

10×05 – When You Dish Upon a Star – Homer, parachuting behind a motorboat, is terrified by the snapping turtles chasing him, which is announced by his wife who controls the boat.

The snapping turtles are massing!

10×10 – Viva Ned Flanders – The character of Churchy La Femme is mentioned in the dialogue – Homer calls by this name another character in the dialogue. Churchy is a turtle from Pogo comic strips.

Hey! How did Churchy La Femme get half price?

10×23 – Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo – While flying over Japan, the pilot addresses the passengers about Godzilla-related turbulence. He also mentions other Kaiju, such as Mothra, Rodan and Gamera.

Uh, folks, we’re experiencing some moderate Godzilla-related turbulence at this time, so I’m going to go ahead and ask you to put your seatbelts back on. When we get to 35 thousand feet, he usually does let go, so from there on out, all we have to worry about is Mothra, and, uh, we do have reports he’s tied up with Gamera and Rodan at the present time. Thank you very much.

11×03 – Guess Who’s Coming to Criticize Dinner – You can again see the turtle decoration in the Frying Dutchman restaurant.
11×07 – Eight Misbehavin’ – One of the characters states that animals in the zoo at night (when no one can see) behave very differently. As an illustration of this thesis, we see a turtle jumping from branch to branch.

These animals certainly act different at night.

11×15 – Missionary Impossible – Homer wears a turtle shell on his head as form of protection.
11×19 – Kill the Alligator and Run – After diving in the swamp, Homer emerges with several animals biting him, including turtles.
12×09 – HOMЯ – Cletus comes to the library with turtle and wants to use the book to “open” the reptile.

Now hold still. Nothing cracks a turtle like Leon Uris.

12×18 – Trilogy of Error – When Lisa meets the love of her life, Happy Together by The Turtles is used as soudntrack.
13×17 – Gump Roast – The scene from 10×05, When You Dish Upon a Star is re-shown, one where Homer, being hauled behind a motorboat, was chased by snapping turtles.
14×01 – Treehouse of Horror XIII (The Island of Dr. Hibbert) – In this parody of Dr. Moreau’s Island, Moleman is in the form of a turtle.
14×03 – Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade – There is a turtle in Lisa and Bart’s class.
14×04 – Large Marge – Homer explains to Lisa, that his real wedding ring is inside the turtle, so he wears a wrapped foil fake.

My real ring’s inside a turtle.

14×06 – The Great Louse Detective – As part of the Spa, Marge uses the “turtle massage” treatment. Also a container labeled “used turtles” is shown, where the reptiles end up when they do their job.
14×07 – Special Edna – “The Turtles” band is mentioned in the episode, and there is also a piece of their song.

And now, enjoy the soothing music of The Turtles

14×20 – Brake My Wife, Please – In the aquarium where Bart is diving, a turtle is also swimming (and attacking).
14×21 – The Bart of War – Kirk Van Houten accidentally stabs and kills a turtle.
15×12 – Milhouse Doesn’t Live Here Anymore – Lisa mentions primitive peoples, and that they worshiped, among others, turtles.

The mound builders worshiped turtles as well as badgers, snakes, and other animals.

15×16 – The Wandering Juvie – Bart is sent to a prison/juvenile center. In the “playground” you can see a turtle-shaped rocker.
15×18 – Catch ‘Em If You Can – The TV host mentions the turtle.

I guess you could call him “The Little Tortoise That Couldn’t”! See our website for the recipe.

15×20 – The Way We Weren’t – During the scene-memories of Marge and Homer kissing for the first time, song Happy Together by The Turtles is used as soundtrack.
16×14 – The Seven-Beer Snitch – Wanting to get inside a house, Bart tells the owner that his tiny turtle has entered their house through a basement window.

My baby turtle crawled into your basement window!

16×15 – Future-Drama – During the celebration, you can see Nelson swimming on the back of a sea turtle.
16×16 – Don’t Fear The Roofer – When Homer is about to be electrocuted, Bart asks him if he could hold his dead turtle in hopes of resurrecting him by doing so .
17×08 – The Italian Bob – Earth Turtle is mentioned in the dialogue.

I will make a headdress for the wedding of Earth Turtle and Moon Mongoose

17×18 – The Wettest Stories Ever Told – While showing the story of the mutiny on Barty, the captain is overthrown and removed from the ship, you can see him swimming on a turtle. He threatens turtle, that he will make the reptile swim faster or make a turtle soup from him, and asks what will he do, submerge? What the turtle actually does.

Swim faster or I’ll have you made into soup! What are you gonna do? Go underwater?

17×19 – Girls Just Want to Have Sums – A man dressed as a turtle appears during the performance.
18×04 – Treehouse of Horror XVII – Homer (drunk) confesses to Bart that he passed out and fell on his turtle, killing him. He also added that one day he would thank him.

Bart, there’s something I have to tell you, father to son. I passed out on your turtle and killed it. Someday you’ll thank me.

18×10 – The Wife Aquatic – Marge returns to a place she remembered from childhood. Both in the memoirs and in the contemporary scenes you can see a carousel, one of the elements on which you can ride is a turtle.
18×12 – Little Big Girl – The dialogue mentions the Great Turtle, a mythological figure.

In the name of the Great Turtle, will you answer the question!?

18×15 – Rome-old and Juli-eh – The Sea Turtle is mentioned in the dialogue, Homer recalls the episode to one where the old sea turtle would date with a suitcase that fell out of plane.

It’s not right! It’s like an old sea turtle dating a suitcase that fell out of a plane.

18×20 – Stop, Or My Dog Will Shoot! – A character asks another if he is a human or a turtle. To which the latter, being hidden under a metal bowl, responds by behaving like a turtle.

Cletus, you coward, is you man or turtle?

19×01 – He Loves to Fly and He D’oh’s – In the context of visiting the zoo, it is mentioned in the dialogue that someone was riding naked on a huge turtle.

Well, it seems someone was riding the giant tortoise naked.

19×02 – The Homer of Seville – The episode episode parodies the Entourage series, one of the characters is dressed like Turtle from that series.
19×04 – I Don’t Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – As part of a Itchy and Scratchy show, a baseball game is shown, and a turtle is shown there.
19×06 – Little Orphan Millie – There is a sign in this episode that reads “PLEASE DO NOT KICK SEA TURTLES”.
19×07 – Husbands and Knives – One of the characters (the girlfriend of the guy who opened a new comic book store) is wearing a T-shirt with a turtle drawing.
19×15 – Smoke on the Daughter – Lisa disguises herself as Angelica Button (evidently Hermione’s counterpart, because the whole beginning alludes to HP), a tortoiseshell hairpin is part of her outfit. These are mentioned in the dialogue when another character points out errors in her outfit, saying Angelica wore two such cufflinks (but Lisa states, that she was basing on a book version, not a movie version).

Nice Angelica Button costume Lisa. Althoooouuuugh… the Griffin on your coat of arms is facing left, not right. And FYI, Angelica wears TWO tortoise-shell barrettes. Nice try though.

19×18 – Any Given Sundance – Lisa records on the camera first of the turtle turned on its back, then one of the human in the same position.
20×11 – How the Test Was Won – Fragments from 05×17, Bart Gets an Elephant, showing Terrapin Wax and the turtle from the picture from the package attacking Homer are recalled.
20×20 – Four Great Women and a Manicure – First, we see a turtle that Lisa persuades to go into the pot to… you know. But the turtle also knows and tries to escape. Later, when story is told by Maggie, you can see two different pictures of turtles on the walls.
21×01 – Homer the Whopper – In this episode, Turtle from Entourage (who is another client of Homer’s personal trainer) is mentioned twice.

OK, it was Turtle, from Entourage.

You, me, and Turtle

22×06 – The Fool Monty – Mr. Smith wants to commit suicide, in his style, ie by throwing himself off a cliff and killing as many tiny sea turtles as he can.

Smithers, I want to die quietly, on my own terms, crushing as many of those baby sea turtles as I possibly can. Goodbye insufficiently cruel world!

22×11 – Flaming Moe – Mr. Burns reads his will, in which his turtle, Sheldon, will be the heir. The pet is also clearly visible.

Burns voiceover: I, C. Montgomery Burns, hereby divide my estate in equal shares to: The Yale University Department of Applied Evil, Gary from Gary’s Trapdoor Installation and Repair, and finally my faithful and constant companion…
Smithers: Your tortoise?!?!
Burns: Yes, it always saddens me that you and Sheldon have never gotten along.

23×17 – Them, Robot – After all the robots Mr. Burns wanted to replace the power plant workers with have been destroyed, Bart takes the head of one of them and puts a turtle inside, treating it like terrarium.
24×06 – A Tree Grows in Springfield – Homer has a dream in which while playing baseball he accidentally “smashes” the sky from which a huge amount of water is poured into the stadium, you can see turtles in that water.
24×12 – Love is a Many-Splintered Thing – One of the artists in this episode uses a turtle shell as an instrument – after the show ends, a naked turtle re-enters to his shell.
24×17 – What Animated Women Want – W sprzedaży w lokalu mają “żółwie uśmiechy”, same dziobki żółwi.

What fish may I deplete from our oceans for your passing pleasure? Perhaps some Shark Fin Soup? Whale Tonsils? Baby Dolphin Blow-Hole? Turtle Smile?

25×02 – Treehouse of Horror XXIV (Oh, the Places You’ll D’Oh) – At one point, you see a group of turtles stacked on top of each other and it is knocked over. It is a rather unequivocal reference to Yertle the Turtle.
25×08 – White Christmas Blues (Itchy & Scratchy: It’s a Wonderful Knife) – In the Itchy & Scratchy segment you can see a walking (anthropomorphic) turtle in the background.
25×12 – Diggs – Bart states that his father forbade him from bringing home, among others, any more turtles.

Well, my dad said don’t bring home any more dogs, cats, turtles, or snakes, but he never said anything about predatory birds!

26×20 – Let’s Go Fly a Coot – Turtles appear in two forms in this episode. The first is alumni from Yale University, popping out of the cake, disguised as Ninja Turtle. The second case concerns the work of Abe, who chased wandering turtles from the airport – this is also mentioned twice in the dialogues, not only shown.

I had a crucial job too — keepin’ desert turtles off the runway.

Homer: Uh, you used to work with turtles?
Abe: Yeah, that’s pretty much it. I Used To Work With Turtles!

27×05 – Treehouse of Horror XXVI – Homerzilla, a mix of Godzilla and Homer, is fighting against Gamera.
27×06 – Friend with Benefit – Lisa complains that Harper has knocked a sea turtle on her back, to which the heroine replies that it is her beach, and so it is her turtle. Moments later, you can also see Homer walking past that turtle.

Lisa: Harper flipped a sea turtle on its back!
Harper: My beach, My turtle!

27×11 – Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles – Title seems to refer the Ninja Turtles. Also, Bart had put many different animals in the box, and they broke free when the Headmaster handed them to the new teacher. Turtles can be seen among these animals.
27×15 – Lisa the Veterinarian – Lisa mentions class pets, mentioning, among others, Turtle named Shelly. There are also pictures from the common adventures of these animals.

I know that this is an especially hard time for the other classroom pets, including Mrs. Nibbles, Shelly the Turtle, Sally Mander, Hamilton Fish and Willie’s chicken.

28×04 – Treehouse of Horror XXVII – In a piece depicting an apocalyptic drought world, Apu squeezes water out of turtles and sells it as “Tortoise Water”. They also appears a bit later in the background, when he throws away “used” turtles into the garbage.
28×14 – The Cad and the Hat – Sunblock Sam’s sells T-shirts with turtle graphics.
29×02 – Springfield Splendor – Marge tells Lisa that he can draw comics for her, but he can’t draw turtle feet, so if she has to draw any they’ll be in sneakers. At the very end of the episode, we actually see a drawing of a turtle, wearing sneakers.

Okay, but I’m not very good at drawing turtle feet. So if there’s any turtles, they’re gonna be wearing sneakers.

29×07 – Singin’ in the Lane – In the opening, Marge “drives” a sea turtle instead of driving her usual car.
29×14 – Fears of a Clown – Bart mentions a turtle he was raising.

That must be really tough judge. I raised a turtle by myself. Pure hell! Milhouse said he’d help and he just walked away!

29×15 – No Good Read Goes Unpunished – In one scene, Ned states “time to make a turtle” and pulls his turtleneck/sweater over his head.

Uh oh, time for me to do a Turtle!

29×19 – Left Behind – Flanders, hearing that he has the opportunity to get a nice job, says he will quote his pet turtle, and says “shell yes”.

To quote my pet turtle, shell yes!

30×01 – Bart’s Not Dead – Homer, bored with the Christian heaven, goes to the Hindu, where he asks Vishnu to send him back to earth. The deity asks Homer if he prefers to be the boss of a pharmaceutical company or a turtle, Homer chooses a turtle. And we see him in this form for a moment.

Vishnu: Yes, yes. You can be a turtle or a pharmaceutical CEO.
Homer: Turtle, please.

30×13 – I’m Dancing As Fat As I Can – Bart is staying with Milhouse for the night and is forced by him to read Yertle the Turtle.
30×16 – I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – As Homer and Marge move away from each other, Lisa coaxes her dad into going to the beach (where Marge is), motivating this his school project on sea turtles. Once there, Homer begins to suspect that there are no turtles.

Lisa: Dad, can you drive us down to the beach? I have a school project on… sea turtles.

Homer: Hey, where are the turtles?
Wallace the Hernia: There were no turtles Homer, it’s a trick! These kids are trying to help you because they love you.
Homer: So… there never were turtles?
Wallace: No turtles!
Homer: I’m starting to think there were no turtles!

30×18 – Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy – During the part with “outtakes” in Krusty’s program you can see a turtle tearing off his pants instead of eating the offered lettuce.
31×05 – Gorillas on the Mast – The turtle can be seen on the monitoring screens in the oceanarium.
31×22 – The Way of the Dog – While the logo is showing, several winged animals, including a turtle, fly across the screen.
32×01 – Undercover Burns – Among the balloon animals that Mr. Burns is destroying you can see a turtle.
32×03 – Now Museum, Now You Don’t – In an excerpt from “Lisanardo da Vinci”, Lisa browses a book about art, which shows, among others, Leonardo da Ninji – an obvious reference to the Ninja Turtles.
32×04 – Treehouse of Horror XXXI – This episode features a version of Mr. Burns’ , combining him and Bowser from the Mario.
33×03 – Treehouse of Horror XXXII – The Turtle appears in two segments of this episode! First time in Bong Joon Ho’s This Side of Parasite, you can see turtle graphics on inflatable swimming sleeves that one of the characters has, the second appearance of the turtle element takes place in Poetic Interlude where appears a real animal that Bart tries to burn with a magnifying glass.
33×06 – A Serious Flanders – After one of the heroes, Ned, finds a bag full of money, his children argue about what to spend it on – one wants a lot of turtles.

Rod: We should get a HUGE terrarium, with like a million turtles!
Todd: No, we should get a speedboat with bunk beds on it.
Rod: Turtles!
Todd: Bunk boat!
Rod: Turtles!
Todd: Bunk boat!

In addition to regular episodes, turtle elements also appear in:
Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare” – On the wall behind Maggie in one of the scenes you can see a drawing of a turtle.
Shorts: Maggie in Peril – In the crib, among Maggie’s toys is also a toy turtle.

Author: XYuriTT