just always hated that song. I hate any song from that era, really. It's just a horrible time for music." During the beginning of Mr. Garrison's class, Cartman writes an essay on the TV series Simon & Simon instead of Asian culture. Also, Bill suggested that Stan take Sparky to a Barbra Streisand concert. The disappearance of Big Gay Al at the end of the episode is a spoof of Dr. Lao's disappearance at the end of the movie The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. Big Gay Al's ride also features a number of miniature characters, among them Olympic figure skater Brian Boitano, singing a song called "We Are Gay", which is a parody of the ride "It's a Small World", an attraction at the Disneyland theme park. Boitano was featured in "The Spirit of Christmas", and would later be the basis for the original song "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The song played during the closing credits of "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" is "Now You're a Man" by DVDA, a punk rock band that Parker and Stone founded. This song was also featured in their film Orgazmo. In this episode, the sports announcer states he had not seen a "beating like that since Rodney King", referencing to an incident in 1991 where King was beaten by six LAPD police officers. The incident sparked tensions in LA that eventually led to the 1992 LA Riots. When Pip is tackled later, the commentator states that he has not seen an Englishman take a blow like that since Hugh Grant. This references Grant's arrest in June 1995, when he was caught performing a lewd act in public with a Hollywood prostitute. Grant was fined $1,180, placed on probation for two years, and was ordered to complete an AIDS education program. The announcer makes an incomplete remark about a tackle, "I haven't seen so many children molested since...". This was rumored to have been followed by a line, "since Michael Jackson came to town", or alternately, since the McMartin preschool trial, which was supposedly censored after the broadcast premiere, but there is no evidence of this. Big Gay Al became one of the most popular and easily recognizable of the non-regular South Park characters, and was featured in the 1999 film, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut as the MC of a United