- Cookie Monster munching on Big Bird's posterior is a reference to HBO's Girls season 4 premiere episode, in which Marnie, played by Allison Williams, has her butt eaten out by Desi, played by Ebon Moss-Bacharach.[1]
- School bullies place the Ark of the Covenant in Meg's locker, causing her face to melt as Gestapo Major Toht's did in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Lamar Odom's alleged drug overdose in a brothel is parodied when he does the same in Brian and Stewie's.[2]
- Peter's attempt to beat a student is a reference to a scene in the James Bond film Casino Royale, in which the character La Chiffre tortures Bond using the described chair and a heavy weight rope.
- The episode's title is a reference to the "Peter Principle," a business philosophy that people are promoted until they can no longer competently handle their assigned job.
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