Beware My Cheating Bart Club" gave the episode a C+ saying that "A stellar Bill Plympton couch gag is the best part of a mediocre "Simpsons"". Different chalkboard gags appeared for different airings of this episode. The original U.S. broadcast version was "The true location of Springfield is in any state but yours", a response to reactions to a Matt Groening interview in which he revealed that the name of Springfield was inspired by Springfield, Oregon, which was widely misinterpreted as Groening revealing that "The Simpsons" Springfield was located in Oregon. The montage featuring Simon & Garfunkel's "April Come She Will" is a reference
The Springfield Connection that the theme's composer John Williams is dead, complaining: "Laser effects, mirrored balls—John Williams must be rolling around in his grave!". Kurt M. Koenigsberger analyzes Homer's comments about the Springfield Pops rendition of the "Star Wars" theme in Koenigsberger's piece "Commodity Culture and Its Discontents: Mr. Bennett, Bart Simpson, and the Rhetoric of Modernism" published in the compilation work "Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture" edited by John Alberti. Koenigsberger comments: "The joke in this opening scene involves a confusion of high and popular artistic production: Marge treats the Springfield Pops as 'culture' and expects that