The scene I quoted was from the episode "Last Exit to Springfield," and it was a riff on the scene in Citizen Kane where the old man (I forget the character's name) is asked about Mr. Kane and he goes off into some rambling tale of unimportant events from long ago, and is itself a testament to how old people like to answer questions in their long, circuitous ways. A lot of the Simpsons episodes from the first few years would make reference to Citizen Kane during random scenes, either direct scene staging, quotes like the one I gave or simple "prop" placement. During DVD commentary, the producers were willing to bet that you could watch at least two-thirds of that movie by watching the Simpsons.
