A newscaster interprets Butters' vandalism as an homage to a similar incident in The Simpsons; the police are not investigating because they want the statue to remain headless as a tribute.

Butters watches every episode of The Simpsons before introducing his newest plan: a machine that replaces the centers of chocolate covered cherries with rancid mayonnaise.

Butters notes that the Sea-City plot is similar to that of the "Treehouse of Horror VII" short "The Genesis Tub".

While Kyle concludes war is inevitable, Cartman wonders "Why can't societies live in peace?!"

[2] In the season 4 episode "The Wacky Molestation Adventure", Cartman was supposed to block out the sun, but one writer pointed out that "The Simpsons already did it".

The episode "calls out" the obvious observation that The Simpsons have realized a vast number of ideas throughout their long-lived run.

[citation needed] Another reason for the episode's title is that in addition to the disdain for Mr. Hankey, Trey Parker, who coproduced South Park with friend Matt Stone, said that Fox executives told them, "It'll never work because adults don't want to watch a show about kids.

Soon after, in reference to the controversies and terrorist threats surrounding depictions of the Muslim prophet Muhammad in the South Park episodes "200" and "201", the chalkboard gag on that week's The Simpsons episode, "The Squirt and the Whale", read "South Park – we'd stand beside you if we weren't so scared".

[6] South Park was parodied in a 2003 Simpsons episode, "The Bart of War", showing a scene with three of the South Park boys Stan, Kyle and Cartman drawn in Simpsons style, with Marge disapproving of Bart and Milhouse's apparent enjoyment of "cartoon violence", and the latter two contemplating about adults voicing children's characters.

Travis Pickett of IGN gave it an 8.5 rating, especially praising Trey Parker and Matt Stone for managing to contrast the episode with the actual Simpsons with themes like Cartman performing fellatio on "some guy in an alley", while respectfully paying their dues.