tickets at the door. She is later forced to enter the dance hall, discovering the boys and girls are standing on different sides of the room, and explains to Alex that it is like this because they are only children, not adults. Homer and Bart arrive at the school during the school-dance to steal the grease in the school's kitchen which Bart told him about. They sneak inside and plant a hose in the fryer to suck it into the car, but Willie spots them and finds the hose, claiming the grease to be his retirement plan, and attempts to stop them inside the school vents; Willie grabs Homer's leg and strangles him with the hose sucking the grease, which explodes due to the increased pressure, causing the grease to flood into the dance hall. A grease fight begins among the students, where Alex eventually joins in after being told by Lisa to act her own age. Production The episode originated from a conversation between Jane O'Brien and Mike Scully about how girls always want to grow up so fast, as Scully has five daughters. The idea for the subplot came from Jace Richdale, who came up with Homer stealing grease for business, having read about in a magazine. Several aspects of the characters used throughout the episode had been improvised significantly by Lisa Kudrow. Ron Hauge, a writer for The Simpsons, came up with the initial character of Alex, and Jane O'Brien named the character after her best friend. The scene showing Homer's hemorrhaged eye as Groundskeeper Willie strangles him got a big laugh in the studio. Mike Scully comments that he now uses it in college clip shows. Cultural references The title of the episode is a play on the hymn and later Irish musical Lord of the Dance. Marge sings her own, altered version of the 1990 song "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" when attempting to persuade Lisa to attend the dance. Much of the shop where the girls enter to buy clothes is based on Wet Seal. In the same mall is a party supply store, called Donner's Party Supplies which has a window sign saying "Winter Madness Sale", a reference to the Donner Party. Alex tells Lisa to not be "such a Phoebe", a reference to Lisa Kudrow's character Phoebe Buffay on the series Friends. Reception "Lard of the Dance" finished 31st in