The title of this episode is a play on the name Ring Lardner Jr.. A blacklisted writer in 1950s Hollywood, Lardner was one of the original writers of the original The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955) TV series. He would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for M*A*S*H (1970).
There is a part if this episode where the Sheriff of Nottingham says "we must catch that pigeon, catch that pigeon now" This is a reference to a cartoon called Catch the Pigeon starring Dastardly and Mutley where they are in the army and a pigeon is a messenger for the opposing army, naturally chaos ensues.