Girls Just Want to Have Sums/References

Cultural references

 * The title is a play on the song "", by Cyndi Lauper.
 * The Broadway Version of ' is completely parodied by the Itchy and Scratchy Musical, Stab-A-Lot. Its title is a parody of '. The song "It's Symbiotic" is a parody of the song "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from .
 * Hank Azaria, voice of Moe Szyslak, starred in the Broadway musical .
 * The for the Itchy & Scratchy musical is said to have been written by acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard.
 * The song that Otto plays after he lets the girls off is "Breaking the Law" by.
 * The song that Martin, "Best Flautist", plays and continues playing at the end credits is "" by.
 * ' "I Know What Boys Like" is used in this episode.
 * Seymour Skinner's remark that men are better than women at math and science is a reference to, the president of.
 * The episode's basic storyline is similar to William Shakespeare's . The line "We've been d!" is a reference to a film with a similar storyline.
 * The music that plays in scenes featuring the boys' playground is very reminiscent of the score from 's film version of . Both A Clockwork Orange and the episode feature somewhat apocalyptic, violent settings.
 * In the girls' section of the elementary school, paintings by and  hang on the walls, joined in humorous juxtaposition by a  cartoon, implying an equivalent position in the female-artist pantheon for.
 * Julianna, the director of "Stab-A-Lot," is based on Julie Taymor, who won two for Direction and Costume Design of the original Broadway adaptation of Disney's The Lion King.
 * One Guy Named Moe parodies a Broadway comedy from the late 80s called Five Guys Named Moe.

Trivia

 * During Stab-A-Lot Marge and Lisa wear different formal clothes than they do in all preceding episodes.
 * When Lisa started to dress like a boy, her waist was round just like Homer's and Bart's. Usually, her waist is like Marge's. But in previous episodes when you see Lisa in a bathing suit, her waist is round like Homer's and Bart's.
 * In the promos for this episode, the gag where Bart says he can walk around with Bart Jr. hanging out, then pulls out, the frog's subtitled line "I thought he meant his penis" was removed. The subtitle wasn't removed on Global.