On one wall of Kent Brockman's office is a photo of him on the Berlin Wall, and one of the writings on the wall is German for "Kent was here".
The last time Kent swore on the air and eventually gets fired occurred in "Krusty Gets Kancelled". In that episode, Kent first swore in which he muttered "That oughta hold those SOBs" (which implied to have used "sons of bitches") after reporting about Gabbo using inappropriate language while the cameras were on during a commercial break, thus making Kent fired there. Later, in this episode, after Homer accidentally spilled hot coffee onto Kent's lap while on "Smartline", Kent shouts "OW! That hurt like a motherf**ker!" (which, although it was muffled when he said the last word, implied to have used "motherf**ker").
The last time a character shouts out a swear word in front of Ned Flanders that is unknown to the audience was in "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)", and is covered in the same manner by multiple loud noises.
There is a "Wall of Casual Acquaintances Who Came to Stay for a While" in the Simpson home, which features photos of every person who stayed with them in previous episodes of the series.
This is the second time that The Krusty the Clown Show and its host ended up being negatively affected due to a costly fine from the US Government being imposed, as the show earlier had most of its content stripped by the IRS in response to Krusty's tax evasion. In this particular case, however, the fine was not Krusty's fault, as he and his show had the misfortune of airing on Channel 6, which at that point had been affected by a ten million dollar fine by the FCC due to Kent Brockman's swearing.
This was the final episode to air before the release of The Simpsons Movie. As such, this is the last pre-movie episode.
Rod and Todd's assertions that Ned needs a new mommy/wife are based upon the fact that between Maude's death and him marrying Edna, Ned was shown at times to overprotect the boys.
Cultural references
The scene where Kent Brockman says to stand up to Fox while smoking is a reference to Edward R. Murrow and the film "Good Night, and Good Luck".
The title of the video shown in the dentist's office, "Menace Tooth Society" (which was implied to have been shown without Ludacris' permission), is a spoof of "Menace II Society". Lisa's comment that the cartoon sends mixed messages parallels critiques of the spoofed movie.
When ordering his ice cream cone, Homer mentions several toppings, all of which are real candies with their names slightly but noticeably changed, such as Herschel's Smooches and Mrs. Badbar (even though real candies have been mentioned several times before).
As Marge runs hurriedly home to get Bart and Lisa, the main yodeling music of the Coen brothers film, " Raising Arizona", is heard.
Some of the shows Ned considers naughty are: Smallville (because Superdog licks himself), 60 Minutes (Morleen Sayfer has questionable pantsfold and uses the "L" word), The L Word (because of the L word), and Channel 6 News (because of Kent Brockman's swearing)
The only shows Ned considers nice are The700 Club and Test Pattern (non-Indian).
Goofs
The word "Acquaintances" is misspelled as "Aquaintances" on the Wall of Casual Acquaintances Who Came to Stay for a While".
When Bart is walking in the living room, there is a frame where the animators forgot to remove the previous frame so there are two Barts at once.