The Springfield Ivenstorettes invested in El Bombastico, a Mexican lucha libre wrestler. According to the poster, El Bombastico performs at "El Coliseo de Tijuana". This is a reference to the Arena Coliseo, an arena primarily used for lucha libre which is located in Mexico City, but not in Tijuana.
The "You'll be there" speech Frank Ormand gives to Marge when she buys the pretzel franchise is a parody of the "I'll be there" speech Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) gives to "Ma" Joad (Jane Darwell) in the 1940 American drama film The Grapes of Wrath.
Marge tries to have a peaceful relationship with Fleet-A-Pita and compares the two to department stores Macy's and Gimbels. Gimbels was also considered the chief rival of Macy's with their feud popularized in American culture.
Agnes recalls that Gimbels is "long gone". The company closed in 1987, ten years before this episode aired.
The scene with the crowd throwing pretzels to the field is based on an incident where the Los Angeles Dodgers were forced to forfeit. It happened on August 10, 1995, when the fans threw promotional baseballs onto the field to protest a bad call during the 9th inning.
The decorated front yard of Frank Ormand's house, with the moving mechanical art parodies the garden in Sam Bissell's home in the 1964 film Good Neighbor Sam. Sam was also portrayed by Jack Lemmon, who voiced Frank Ormand in this episode.
When the short Yakuza member was thrown though the kitchen window, he went into the backyard, but the battle was waging in the front yard - However, it is possible that he just ran around to the front, or the fight enveloped the grounds.
When everyone started throwing pretzels at Mr. Burns in the stadium, pretzels started coming off-screen from nowhere.
A laser is pointed at Principal Skinner; however, seconds later, the laser is nowhere to be seen. Although the laser could have been moved away from being pointed at the face.
At the fair, Helen Lovejoy picks up a pita and bites a corner off it. Then there's an angle change where Christopher tells Helen the ingredients. When the camera cuts back to Helen, the pita is untouched.
Many coloring mistakes occur during the mafia fight, when there is a top-down view of the gangs advancing on each other members of the Yakuza have the colours of Fat Tony, Legs and Louie, when Marge suggests her and Homer go inside, Louie is seen backing away from the overweight member of the Yakuza but has Legs' colours and when Homer starts talking about the short Yakuza member, another member of the Yakuza passes shouting "Hi-ya!" he also has Legs' colours, also when there is a shot of the kitchen with the gang war seen through the window we briefly see Legs with Louie's colours.
When Marge throws down the fliers, one of the people in the crowd who is African-American briefly has a yellow (Caucasian) arm, it happens twice both times when his arm is in the bent position.
