- Big League Chew is mentioned when Peter says to Chris, “You know what I haven’t had in a while? Big League Chew.”
- A flashback shows Brian watching an episode of the VH1 program Behind the Music with Leif Garrett. The show is known for documenting the post-success breakdowns of once-popular recording artists and Garrett’s episode is one of the best-known.
- Another Brian flashback has him auditioning for a TV commercial with a toucan. It parodies Toucan Sam of Froot Loops.
- A fantasy sequence shows Stewie and a group of sailors singing a parody of “My Gallant Crew” from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta HMS Pinafore.
- Peter reads The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
- A cutaway to when Brian used to be Peter’s “sidekick” shows Peter as The Late Show with David Letterman host David Letterman and Brian as his musical director Paul Shaffer.
- Brian’s cousin Jasper, in an early, unnamed appearance as a Club Med employee, performs the 1987 Buster Poindexter song “Hot Hot Hot”.
- The newspaper containing an article about Brian also features the headline “Scientists Mystified by Paper Rain,” referencing the paper confetti thrown on him like in most celebrations in the street.
- When Brian enters Peter’s room, Peter is lying on the bed drinking from an eight-pack of beer, a notable divergence from the standard “six-pack.”
- This episode has the first appearance of the Greased-up Deaf Guy.
- This episode is the first episode in which Stewie actually addresses Brian by his name. Unlike previously when it has either been "Dog", "Mutt" or any other Dog related name like Fido, Puddles and Patches.
- Lois knowing the exact street value of 4.5 kilos of uncut cocaine is one of many instances suggesting familiarity.
- Brian states that the real hero is God for blessing him with his drug sniffing nose, in a later episode he states that he is an atheist.
- This is the first episode to get bleeped. When Stewie tells a bad joke, he says, "I don't have to [bleep]ing impress you." Since Seth MacFarlane was aware that this was going to be the final season, he decided not to drown out profanity with scripted censoring as in "Death Has a Shadow", "Fifteen Minutes of Shame" and "And the Wiener is...".
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