Pinsky stated that he felt "really inept" when recording his dialogue. He said: "Amongst my friends I'm funny. In that context of Dan Castellaneta... I would say it was like a disaster movie, and I was that character played by Susan Hayward." The poem Pinsky reads in the episode was picked by the "Simpsons" writing staff, "The poem has two jokes in it," Pinsky said, "and when I say jokes I don't mean witty remarks. It's more like an optician, the pope and a zebra go into the bar and then there's a punch line at the end." He stated that the poem was "an elegy for a friend of mine who liked jokes". He added that his appearance on the show gave him "a lot more prestige" when visiting high schools and colleges. The episode also features Karl Wiedergott as the professor at the Springfield University.