In the fifth-season Simpsons episode “Burns’ Heir,” the family goes to see Siskel & Ebert: The Movie at the local Aztec Theater. The scene opens with the familiar, deafening roar that used to accompany THX’s “The Audience Is Listening” logo. As the sound grows louder and louder—as it always really did—eyeglasses shatter, an exit sign splinters into shards, a whole set of teeth ruptures, and, finally, a head pops like a balloon. (The audience roars with approval, save for Grandpa, who demands they turn the volume up.) George Lucas apparently loved the gag, and turned into it into an actual THX trailer; refusing to take the hint, the ILM mogul kept the audio at decibels only Abe Simpson could appreciate, the stamp of superior sound presumably exploding a few more heads in the years that followed. [A.A. Dowd]
