In the episode, Lenny and Carl begin to fight each other with plutonium rods, simulating lightsabers. They fight over whether "The Phantom Menace" or "Attack of the Clones" "sucked more". The prank that is pulled in "American Graffiti" is parodied in the Itchy & Scratchy short "Bleeder of the Pack". At the end of "Bleeder of the Pack" Scratchy is involved in an airplane crash together with Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, which is a reference to the tragic plane crash on February 3, 1959. Legoland is referenced when Smithers says Mr. Burns has dumped nuclear waste under it for years. The scene where Ned Flanders stares at Homer and Marge at night from his bedroom window, in the dark with the cigar lit, is a parody of "Rear Window". The scene where Mr Burns attempts to brick Homer up is a satire of "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe. The episode ends with the theme song to the 1969-1972 show "The Courtship of Eddie's Father".