The renowned art connoisseur Price McVincent is named after Hollywood actor Vincent Price, who had a degree in art history and was an avid art collector.
One character, voiced as a Jack Benny sound-alike by Paul Frees, can't believe the news about the stolen art. "But it's impossible!" he says. "How could a picture drop out of sight so quick?" Another character responds, "Oh, I don't know. Remember 'The Horn Blows at Midnight'?"
This is a reference to popular radio and TV comedian Jack Benny, who would often joke about the poor box office performance of his film, The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945), which effectively ended Benny's movie career.
This is a reference to popular radio and TV comedian Jack Benny, who would often joke about the poor box office performance of his film, The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945), which effectively ended Benny's movie career.
When listening in on a phone call on a party line, Boris Badenov has the line, "The party line is my country's answer to the thinking man's filter." Boris's home country of Pottsylvania is a thinly veiled spoof of the Soviet Union, where the communist party would dictate the law of the land. Under such a dictatorship, citizens would have to stick to the "party line" (as opposed to being a "thinking man"). "Thinking man's filter" is also part of an advertising slogan for Viceroy cigarettes in the late 1950s: "The man who thinks for himself knows... Only Viceroy has a thinking man's filter... a smoking man's taste!"
In the "Fractured Fairy Tales" segment, "Cutie and the Beast", an on-screen title card reads: "Great Beast played by Bitsy Krant".
In the "Peabody's Improbable History" segment, "Royal Mounted Police", a wanted poster reads: "WANTED - Ottowa O'Toole and Her (2) Sisters Hermoine + Gingold". This is a nod to British character actress Hermione Gingold.