The Trouble with Trillions/References

References/Trivia

Cultural references

The episode title is a pun on the original series Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".
The scene where Homer is pressed into FBI service was taken directly from the 1991 movie JFK.
- Similarly, Agent Johnson, one of the FBI Agents who placed Homer on the job, was apparently named after one of the FBI Agents from Die Hard.
When questioned by Kent Brockman in regards to why he procrastinated in regards to the Tax deadline, Otto remarks that he thought that the tax-line was actually the line for a Metallica concert.
Mr. Burns claims that he owns the suit that Charlie Chaplin was buried in, a reference to the fact that Charlie Chaplin's body was stolen from a cemetery in Switzerland.
When Fidel Castro remarks that Americans aren't all that bad as they named a street after him, he reacts in shock and horror when he learns just who dwells on that street—a reference to Castro Street in San Francisco, a street that is a gay community (although its true namesake was José Castro, who was a governor of the Alta California territory while it was still part of Mexico).
One of the signs in Cuba was based on a Che Guevara poster, altered to say "Duff O Muerto!"

Charlie claims he will assault government officials over the slow progress of HDTV. In actuality, high-definition television was produced by the private sector, not government.