Accidentally-Correct Writing: One of the comically over-the-top violent games the store owns alongside Bonestorm is called BloodStorm—given the context, the obscurity of the original game, and that there's supposedly a sequel to it (the original game didn't have one), this was almost certainly an accident. Incidentally, it's not much less violent than the show's parody.
Defictionalization: In 2020, someone has managed to "recreate" Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge as a browser game on Itch.io.
Hostility on the Set: Josh Weinstein, co-showrunner at the time, called Lawrence Tierney's appearance "the craziest guest star experience we ever had". In addition to yelling at and intimidating employees of the show, Tierney made unreasonable requests such as abandoning his distinctive voice to do the part in a southern accent and refusing to perform lines if he did not "get the jokes" (for example, he refused to do the answering machine gag as written since he didn't understand why Brodka would keep talking despite no one being on the line, so Weinstein had to stand in the recording booth and adlib some responses from Marge and later edit them out).
Technology Marches On: All the video games seen in this episode are on ROM cartridges and Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge is shown with pixelated graphics and a very artificial-sounding robotic voice coming from the titular golfer. This dates this episode to the mid-'90s, since compact discs and later digital formats have taken over as the standard video game format by the next decade, and advancements in programing and graphics have given games more realistic visuals and sounds.
Write What You Know: Mike Scully based this episode on his own experiences getting caught shoplifting as a kid, although his mother didn't find out as Marge did with Bart. Scully's father, still alive when it aired, immediately put two and two together.
