Due to SPY×FAMILY homaging several spy fictional works, there are quite a few Shout Outs present.
- Several to James Bond:
- Anya used to be known as Subject 007.
- The protagonist of Anya's favorite TV show is called Bondman (and Bond the dog is named in-universe for Bondman, which brings him back round to the original inspiration).
- Comedic scenes involving Anya's innocence are punctuated by a lullaby-parody of the Big Band segment from the Lalo Schifrin James Bond Theme played on the recorder, a flute synonymous with childhood innocence in Japanese popular culture.
- The "laid back domestic comedy" scenes involving the entire Forger Family also have a theme that parodies the James Bond Big Band theme, albeit played with a muffled saxophone and trombone, not unlike the "laid back" scenes from the Peanuts animated cartoons.
- A final variation of the Big Band chorus is a slowly-and-gently played piano solo, wherein every note from the third is played in a major key instead of minor, turning the smoky and cynical nightclub-number of the original 180-degrees, into a heartwarming melody of tender family bonding and togetherness.
- The Official Fan Data-Book "Eyes Only" is of course an allusion to the Roger Moore era James Bond Film For Your Eyes Only
- WISE's headquarters look like an exaggerated version of the real life MI6's headquarters.
- The amount of secrecy WISE uses, from Loid's propensity for Latex Perfection masks to coded messages used to relay mission briefings, calls to mind the Mission: Impossible Film Series. Loid even uses a familiar trick from Mission: Impossible II where he does a Disguised Hostage Gambit on one of Edgar's goons by swapping places with him and duct-taping his mouth.
- Speaking of which, one of Damian's Imagine Spots in his preparation for the dodgeball tournament parodies the opening of said John Woo film, with Damian and his two friends taking the place of Tom Cruise climbing up the side of a sheer red-rock cliff without the aid of ropes.
- "The Great Witch Yortitia" played by Yor during Anya's castle celebration is a shoutout to The Addams Family , whose galamorous witch-like matriarch is called Mortitia Addams.
- The × in SPY×FAMILY was specifically inspired by Hunter × Hunter, a suggestion by S×F's editor to make the title of Endo's work stand out a bit more the way H×H's did.
- While thinking of a name for her new dog (she decides on Bond in the end), Anya muses about naming him "Peanuts", bringing another white dog to mind.
- The first ending animation of the anime features several shout-outs to famous art: the portraits of Yor and Loid falling to the bottom of their frames and shredding calls to mind Banksy's Love is in the Bin
, and there is a sequence similar to Piet Mondrian's "Composition with Red Blue and Yellow" paintings. - In the anime, during the training montage in episode 10, one of Damian's Imagine Spots depicts him catching a ball of purple energy on Planet Namek.
- Also in the same episode, the way Bill Watkins sees and calculates which way to best bounce his dodgeball off multiple opponents is a direct tongue-in-cheek replica of how Kira Yamato aims at multiple opponents in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED in "Seed Mode". Not to mention the back of the "Macintosh" Computer he learns to do so, keyboard screen mouse and all, still operates on the "World War 2 Rolling Barrel Computation System" as seen in the Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game. Later, Bill and his dad are briefly shown meeting at a park — his dad looks suspiciously like M. Bison, albeit with an olive drab version of his outfit rather than a bright red one.
- Another one in the same Episode. As Anya trains for the Tournament and Yor makes her do sit-ups a Fist of the North Star text appears, claiming them to be 'Death-Defying Sit-ups'.
- The cow at the head of the animal stampede in Mission 5 has a pattern on her face that is exactly the same as the one Gene Simmons used when performing with his KISS bandmates, alongside possessing an ear tag with the numbers "4155" to form KISS numerically, which brings to mind an old rumor about Gene surgically grafting a cow tongue onto his own.
- Loid was feeding the penguins by throwing the fishes very fast one after the other and letting out what sounds like a Stand cry.
- In the German dub, when the penguin keeper was promoted because of what Loid did when he had assumed his identity to confiscate a microfilm of chemical weapons terrorists hid in a penguin, his superior commended his supposed skills by saying "I have nothing more to teach to you, young padawan, may the Force be with you" (likely mirroring how Qui-Gon Jinn reassured his padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi about how he has taught him everything he knows and how his apprentice is ready to become a Jedi Master).
- In Episode 19 of the anime, Yor does a Wall Crawl on the Eden College buildings and one of the students thinks she's the legendary "Spider Woman". Her pose against the window, when the student sees her, is almost exactly the same as Spider-Man's on the cover of his very first appearance.
- In Episode 20 of the anime, Yor's Imagine Spot of her taking Anya on an assassination for her homework assignment has the copious amount of blood splattered everywhere coloured hot-pink.
- The hairstyle, scruffy beard and especially the bandana that Twilight dons for the underground tennis tournament of Episode 22-23 makes him a dead ringer for Big Boss of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which itself is also an Affectionate Parody of Cold War era James Bond films.
- The clearly performance-steroid enhanced couple that Twilight and Nightfall play against are so muscle-bloated they literally resemble Red Hulk from The Incredible Hulk.
- During Anya’s adventures shopping for clothes with Becky in the glamorous Tiffany’s Department Store, the avant-garde “silver space man” set she tries on is an allusion to the music-videos of the experimental 80s Pop-band Pet Shop Boys
- The cafe where Becky and Anya had afternoon-tea after the latter was exhausted by a day of endless shopping was called “The Quekay”, which is the name of the leading-protagonist harpooneer in Moby-Dick. This is likely an affectionate nod to the fact that the Starbucks coffee-chain is *also* named after a protagonist whaler in Moby-Dick.
- When the Forger parents unleash their inner beast and are primed to kill, Loid becomes a humanoid shadow with Glowing Eyes of Doom stalking from shadows, faceless death incarnate, not unlike Dracula (1931) or The Phantom of the Opera (1925). On the other hand, Yor's eyes and teeth sharpen to a savage bestial edge not unlike The Wolf Man (1941).
- Several shout outs are made to Frankenstein (1931).
- George Glooman and his father both sport the flat-top-round-bottom heads of the monster played by Boris Karloff.
- After Loid repairs the Agent Penguinman doll mauled by a jealous Bond, Anya comments how his visible stitches make him "look like Frankenstein".
- Donovan Desmond also sports visible stitches across his temples, not unlike the typical post-brain-transplant stitches of said Flesh Golem.
- In the English version of the manga, when Loid is conducting a "practice interview" with Anya and Yor to prepare for the admission interview to Eden, he asks Yor to describe her parenting style, and she hesitantly answers "Strike first, strike hard, no mercy...?"
- The introduction of Fraky's Steampunk "Powered Suit!!" that he tried to catch Mr Koppi the Cat with is introduced with the same Dramatic Marvel Comics style Bold-Fonts used by Spy X Family's fellow Shonen Jump Manga-Series My Hero Academia , in Kanji Topped With Japanese Katakana-pronunciation.
- The Desmond family butler is named Jeeves.
- When Anya throws Yor's dagger back to her she names the throw Rising Hope.
- In Anime's Mission 21 (Manga's Mission 30), in the timestamp 9:09 to 9:14, Nightfall fantasizes about giving Twilight all her earnings: A lot of 100 dalcs, the money of the show, with the face of Karl Marx! This is Anime-only because in the Manga we cannot see the face.note
- In Mission 38 (Anime's 25) we got to see briefly a female cosmonaut named Yachayka. In real life, Ya Chaika! (I'm a Seagull) was the call sign used by Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, to confirm she was orbiting the Earth.
- Mission 94 serves as a big shout out to the series Detective Conan, complete with little "title cards" showing the names of each suspect, a local legend to be used as a convenient murder excuse, being set in an isolated area (a ski lodge) that gets cut off from all contact, and even an appearance from "The Criminal".
- The SPY×FAMILY CODE: White Motion Picture has two affectionate tongue-in-cheek outs to the Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible Film Series
- Loid suspended above a cellar floor on a harness while trying to steal a rare bottle of Red-Cherry Liquer is a blatant allusion to how Ethan Hunt must similarly hack into the mainframe of a supercomputer without touching the floor in Mission: Impossible (1996)
- Yor's Action-Sequence Leitmotif "Code White" is a deliterate countermelody to the Danny Elfman rewrite of Lalo Schrifin's original 1967 "Mission Impossible" theme.
