 The writing staff was looking for a way to end the episode and executive producer Sam Simon suggested that they watch the film The Quiet Man . The writers came in on a Saturday to watch the film together . They were inspired by the film 's fight scene between John Wayne and Victor McLaglen 's characters to do a fight scene between Homer and Tom in the episode . The scene was difficult for the producers to sound @-@ mix because they wanted it to be funny but not horrifying . They discovered that the more realistic the effects used sounded , the funnier the scene became . The producers tried all sorts of different sounds for when Homer cracks his back on the fire hydrant and chose the tiniest realistic sound , because they believed that it was the most painful and " hilarious " . 
