During the this pun for hire segment, a parody of Bette Midler enters the room when Yakko says the word sister.
"This puns for hire" is a parody of the Maltese Falcon.
During the "This Pun for Hire" segment, Dot says "I was born in the wagon of a traveling show, my mama used to dance for the money they'd throw". This is the opening line to the 1971 Cher song "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves".
During the "This Pun for Hire" segment, in claiming the statue for Paramount, Hello Nurse said that she claimed the statue in the name of Gulf+Western. However, Gulf+Western was defunct in 1995, the year the episode first aired; Paramount had been owned by Viacom since March 1994, and the Gulf+Western name disappeared in 1989, when it changed its name to Paramount Communications. Meanwhile, the entities that Minerva and Ralph claimed the statue for were the actual owners of Fox and Universal, respectively, in 1995, Seagram having just purchased Universal earlier in the year.
In "This Pun For Hire", Dot's line "Ya can't argue with that; it's too stupid." is a frequently-used sound byte on Svengoolie (1995).