The episode mocked the AOL website for providing trivial and unimportant news, in particular, irrelevant animal stories. Pierce's adherence to his cult, which rips him off by selling him the lava lamp and telling him his mother was vaporized in it, is a reference to Scientology. Jeff tells Pierce that the Buddhist meteor crater (where Pierce believes energon is harvested) is at the foot of Mount SkyMall and the SharperImage valley, alluding to two notoriously odd shopping venues. Professor Duncan taking over the anthropology class despite knowing nothing about the subject matter was a knock on the American education system. Annie and Britta made a diorama of the BP oil spill to raise funds. Annie also mentioned the earthquake in Haiti.