In the episode, after the creation of the Bear Patrol, bear sightings decrease to zero, so Homer concludes that the Bear Patrol must be working. Lisa attempts to demonstrate Homer's logical fallacy by the example of a tiger-repellent rock, but it goes over his head. Scott Anthony of the Harvard Business Review describes this scene as a "classic example" of the informal fallacy of assuming that correlation implies causation. Mike Moffatt also called it "the best all-time discussion of faulty reasoning".
Homer's payslip reads:
- Gross Pay (40 hours) = 479.80 ($11.995/hour)
- Federal Withholding = 56.25
- FICA = 36.34
- State Withholding = 10.45
- Municipal Tax = 9.37
- Bear Patrol Tax = 5.00
- ---
- Net Pay = 362.19
This episode marks the debut of Helen Lovejoy's catchphrase "Won't somebody please think of the children!"
Apu studying computer science is based on David X. Cohen's own academic background, where he met and became friends with Indian people in the department. Similarly, the scene where Apu does an in-depth explanation of what caused the American Civil War, only for the test taker to respond with "just say slavery", is something that actually happened to a friend of Cohen when she took her citizenship test.