The episode features a fictional education film called "Lava and You", which says lava will pass harmlessly over potential victims who duck and cover their heads. The film was inspired by actual "Duck and Cover" films from the 1950s and 1960s, in which children were instructed to hide under tables or lean against walls in the case of a nuclear weapon attack; Parker and Stone, like many critics of the films, found the methods painfully simplistic and did not believe they would actually help in the case of such an attack. Jimbo and Ned are described as veterans of the Vietnam War, the military conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam that lasted from 1959 to 1975; Cartman, who is far too young to have participated in the war, claims to have flashbacks to his experiences in it. Patrick Duffy, the American television actor best known for his roles in the shows "Dallas" and "Step by Step", appears in the episode as the living leg of Scuzzlebutt. Matt Stone claimed there was no particular reason Duffy was chosen as the leg except that he is such a nondescript actor: "He's just super bland. Like, how could you possibly be a fan of Patrick Duffy?"