Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind/References

Cultural References

 * The story's title is a pun on the 1977 sci-fi film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
 * While Lisa is playing with her dolls:
 * She has Malibu Stacy tend to a sick pony, calling her "Doctor Malibu Stacy Medicine Woman", a reference to the 1990s TV series .
 * She finds that Bart has pranked Malibu Stacy by switching her head for a monkey's head and exclaims in dismay, "A Planet of the Apes head on Malibu Stacy?"
 * Homer and Bart watch a FOX TV show called When Cartoon Animals Attack Other Cartoon Animals, a reference to When Animals Attack!.
 * When Bart is playing with the controls on Kang's and Kodos's ship:
 * He zaps David Hasselhoff while he's performing "" for Oktoberfest.
 * He presses a button which activates the "" and draws a in Otto's herb garden.

Continuity

 * The El Barto and El Grampo graffiti tags are seen on a "Welcome to Springfield" sign when Kang and Kodos arrive in town.
 * When Bart is playing with the controls on the aliens' ship, he inadvertently uses the "cow-defacing gun" to leave the El Barto tag on a cow.
 * Kodos says to Kang, "I'm sending this one [Bart] back. Unless you want to eat him?" Bart defiantly says, "Eat my shorts!"