Quagmire said " I assumed Jodie Foster had stolen my leg warmers, and I was about to go take it out on the president". On March 30, 1981, President of the United States Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C., as he was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton. Also, his Press Secretary James Brady was shot and paralyzed as well, he later introduced anti-gun legislation in Congress known as the Brady bill. Hinckley had a fixation on Jodie Foster.
As stated, Jane Fonda had a set of aerobic work-out tapes in the 1980's and was well-known for her Anti-Vietnam War views, that she was nicknamed "Hanoi Jane".
The episode title, "Take This Job and Love It", is a variation of the phrase "Take This Job and Shove It", title of a song by Johnny PayCheck.
In July 2006, Mel Gibson (Riggs in the Lethal Weapon franchise) engaged in an Anti-Semitic tirade after a vehicle stop by a Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff, who suspected the use of alcohol near Malibu. Gibson is good friends with Jodie Foster.
The Lethal Weapon parody seemed like it was a composite of Lethal Weapon (1987) , Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) and Lethal Weapon 3 (1992). It combined parts of the first one where Mel Gibson and Danny Glover characters were paired up as partners, second where South African arms/drug traffickers hid behind diplomatic immunity, and the third one, where Glover's character plans to retire.