The first line Richard Nixon says, during the Duff commercial, was taken verbatim from the Kennedy-Nixon Debate during the 1960 Presidential Campaign.
The episode contains the first appearance of Sarah Wiggum.
At one point during the episode, Lisa envisions being cruel to Bart and laughs. When her mother asks her what is so funny, Lisa stated she was thinking of a joke she saw on Herman's Head (1991). Yeardley Smith and Hank Azaria were both in that series.
When Bart is going to grab the cupcakes in the kitchen, it is a reference to A Clockwork Orange