You Don't Have to Live Like a Referee/References

Cultural references

 * The episode title is a reference to the chorus lyrics of the 1980 song "", by Tom Petty, "You don't have to live like a refugee."
 * Nelson's speech mentions a man who "cut his foot off to save his family from Jigsaw." This is a reference to the character Dr. Gordon from the movie "".
 * While mowing the lawn, Homer sings a parody of the song "".
 * The Stuffwich ads featuring Ezra are a reference to, a spokesman for Subway.
 * The song playing while Lisa tries to figure out how to make Homer into a hero is "", by.

Trivia

 * Homer mentions that Rio is the naughtiest city ever since San Francisco got all nerdy.
 * The app that Marge has on her tablet that is helping her with her Portuguese is called "Tower of Babble", possibly a reference to the Biblical story, about how all of the different languages appeared in the world.
 * In the episode, Germany wins the to Brazil. On July 13th, 2014; Germany won the Final to Argentina.

Continuity

 * This is the second time that the Simpsons family travels to Brazil. The first was in the episode "Blame It on Lisa" from Season 13, Tiago, the samba school teacher, reappears and once again calls Marge a "stupid lady". Xoxchitla also reappears and Bart watches her show.
 * This is also the second time that Homer Simpson is a referee in a soccer game. The first time was in the episode "Marge Gamer" from Season 18; the events from that episode are mentioned in Lisa's speech.
 * The music playing in the background when the Simpsons go out to eat (after the Brazil vs. Luxembourg soccer match) is the music from Teleboobies, when Bart watched the show during the family's first visit to Brazil.
 * In her speech Lisa mentions Homer having once worked two jobs to get her a pony ("Lisa's Pony") and having bought her a saxophone ("Lisa's Sax").