 The episode was written by Jonathan Collier and directed by Mike B. Anderson . The story was inspired by the real events surrounding the exhumation of President Zachary Taylor . In the late 1980s , college professor and author Clara Rising theorized that Taylor was murdered by poison and was able to convince Taylor 's closest living relative and the Coroner of Jefferson County , Kentucky , to order an exhumation . On June 17 , 1991 , Taylor 's remains were exhumed and transported to the Office of the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner , who found that the level of arsenic was much smaller than would be expected if Taylor had been thus poisoned . The remains were then returned to the cemetery and received appropriate honors at reinterment . Then @-@ show runner Bill Oakley said " Lisa the Iconoclast " is " essentially the same " story but with Lisa in the role as Rising . At the end of the episode there is an ode to Jebediah Springfield playing over the credits . The music and lyrics for this piece of music were all written by Jeff Martin . 
