Brother from the Same Planet/References

Trivia

 * The chalkboard gag "The Principal's toupee is not a frisbee" is the only mention of Principal Skinner's hair being fake in the entire series. Therefore, it is safe to assume it is not true.
 * The plot of this episode is similar to a The Ren & Stimpy Show cartoon produced around the same time and vice versa. Dan Castellaneta provided the voices of Ren and Stimpy in this sequence instead of Billy West.
 * Incidentally, Rough Draft Studios does the animation for both The Ren and Stimpy Show and The Simpsons, while Billy West would become one of the main voice actors of Futurama, another Matt Groening creation.
 * The pickup truck that Milhouse, Lewis and Richard are in appears to be driven by Jimbo.
 * The logo for Bigger Brothers Agency is a silhouette of Tom and Pepi walking into the sunset at the end of the episode (possibly a deliberate foreshadowing).

Cultural references

 * The episode's title is a play on John Sayles' movie . The Simpsons has also spoofed this title with the episode title "Brother from Another Series".
 * The R-rated movie Bart's friends are so excited about seeing is , a 1991 drama about a struggling screenwriter in the 1940s, which presumably is far from what they would hope to see.
 * A later episode, "Bart the Fink", would take its title from that film, which, like The Simpsons, is produced by 20th Century Fox.
 * Milhouse writes "Trab pu kcip" on the wall, which is "Pick up Bart" backwards, a reference to Danny Torrance writing "redrum" (which is "murder" backwards) in The Shining.
 * The woman that Bart mistakes for Homer in an ironic touch sings "I Am Woman".
 * While Bart is stuck in the storm waiting for Homer, a nun is lifted up by the wind, a reference to the TV series .
 * The grapefruit scene is a reference of the movie, .
 * When Bart tells himself ", Bart" he is making a reference to what Rocky says to himself in .
 * The organization "Bigger Brothers" is an obvious reference to.
 * When Homer tells Bart "You've been out gallivanting with that floozy of a bigger brother of yours, haven't you? Haven't you!" he is making a reference to  when Richard Burton accuses his wife of adultery.
 * Skinner makes a reference to the movie  when he says "Oh... there's mother now." This is the first time Skinner has been portrayed as a -like character.
 * At one point, Bart tells Homer that he would fake the excitement he would have when Homer pushed him on the swing and demonstrates it, to Homer's horror. This is a reference to the infamous fake orgasm scene in .
 * A section of the fight between Homer and Tom parodies the introduction to .
 * At one point, Bart watches "Tuesday Night Live", which is a parody of NBC's . At a commercial break, Bart comments that he misses Joe Piscopo, who was a cast member on the show from 1980 to 1984.
 * Krusty appears on a sketch called "The Big Ear Family", which could be a reference to either the or ; The Coneheads being a family of aliens with large cone-shaped heads, and the Widettes being a family of people with abnormally-large rear ends.
 * When Lisa goes to Dr. Hibbert's office and gets eardrops, Hibbert offers her a M*A*S*H coloring book in case she gets bored while waiting for them to sink in.
 * The fight between Homer and Tom mirrors a fight at the end of , a John Wayne movie.

Continuity

 * The name "IP Freely" was previously used in "Homer's Odyssey" by Bart as a prank call to Moe. This time the call was made by drunken fraternity boys, who were pranking Kent Brockman by telling him there was a giant lizard in Downtown Springfield.
 * The shot of Homer mentioning about "wiggling one's butt" is recycled from the opening scene from "Life on the Fast Lane".
 * A picture of Bea Simmons from "Old Money" hangs in Grampa's room.

Goofs

 * In one scene, Milhouse's nose is small.
 * In various scenes, the painting behind the sofa has its colors changed.