What's better than a new "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" episode? A new "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" with an musical homage to a movie it's target demographic doesn't know! And I loved every second of it!

Every week, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic finds another way to worm its way into my heart. Remember when they threw in the Big Lebowski characters in a bowling scene? How about last week when they finally had Derpy Hooves speak? And let’s not forget the end to the 2nd season’s premiere when they recreated the awards ceremony from Star Wars. Forget the haters, this show is great.

But then came today’s episode, “The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000″ … and it was about four levels of awesome. I’m a sucker for old-timey tropes and you can’t get any better than con artist with the vaudeville voice, as with the Flim Flam brothers who try to run Applejack and her family out of the apple cider business. And they went one step farther by making the brothers look suspiciously like Robert Preston’s Harold Hill from The Music Man, right down to the boater hats, bow ties and slick haircuts. But as if it couldn’t get any better, the Flim Flam brothers do a rousing homage to The Music Man’s iconic “You Got Trouble” number that rivals The Simpsons‘ monorail episode.

Where do I even start? The schmoozing to the audience, the slick rhyming and alliteration, the constant staccatos, the town chanting “cider” ALA “trouble” and the completely suspicious charm of the salesmen … I mean, salesponies. It’s such a spot on homage to a musical classic. As soon as I heard the non-mustachioed brother start luring in the crowd, I knew exactly where they were going — I started bouncing up and down like the giant nerd I am. One of the great things about this show (and all the shows producer Lauren Faust is involved with) is the irreverent use of older references. While viewers who didn’t catch the reference could still enjoy the episode, the ones who did catch it had a real treat this morning.

Also, there’s a nice cameo from Doctor Whooves keeping the time on the competition … why haven’t they made him sound like David Tennant, already!?

Photo Credit: The Hub