Trivia
The watch featured in the movie is a Timex Men's Watch #T56371 - Ironman Triathlon 42 Lap Combo Dual Tech, though in the film the watch's LCD display is CG enhanced to present clearer graphics. The actual watch is a simple 9 segment per character LCD alphanumeric mode display with three lines and some special-indicators.
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When Harold is asked the product of 67 and 453, he actually gives the correct answer, 30351, the first time. His second answer of 31305 is incorrect.
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The guitar that the narrator describes as saying "Why yes, these pants are Lycra" is a Gibson Flying V Korina. The white one next to it is a normal Flying V.
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The last names of all the characters (and the bus line and publishing firm names) are the names of mathematicians, scientists, engineers, artists, etc. (Harold) Francis Crick: with Watson and Wilkins found the structure of DNA; (Ana) Blaise Pascal: French mathematician and philosopher; (Karen) Gustave Eiffel: engineer and designer of the Eiffel Tower; (Penny) M.C. Escher: Dutch graphic artist; (Dr.) Magnus Gustaf Mittag-Leffler: Swedish mathematician; (Professor Jules) David Hilbert: German mathematician; (Doctor) Gerardus Mercator: 16th century Flemish cartographer; (Kronecker Bus Line) Leopold Kronecker: German-born mathematician and logician; (Banneker Press) Benjamin Banneker: free African American mathematician, astronomer, clockmaker, and publisher; (Dr. Cayly) Arthur Cayley, 19th century British mathematician. Even Dave (no last name) seems to be a reference to the main character from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Could these be the 'heroes' of the writer?
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The book that Professor Hilbert is reading on the lifeguard stand is "I for Innocent" by Sue Grafton.
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Other small math and science references were slipped in, such as references to Euclid Street (a reference to Euclidean Geometry) and the Spoon song "My Mathematical Mind", which plays during a sequence near the end of the film.
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In an early scene, on-screen graphics appear that resemble an image used to illustrate the golden ratio. In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio between the sum of those quantities and the larger one is the same as the ratio between the larger one and the smaller. This ratio can be expressed as a mathematical constant, usually denoted by the Greek letter Phi.
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The movie makes several references to René Magritte's painting "Son of Man". Once when he is running to the bus stop with the green apple in his mouth, and again when he is talking to the doctor at the office sitting in front of a wall painted with clouds.
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In the ending, where the Karen Eiffel is leaning on Professor's Hilbert book case you can see that there are several books about cooking, like "Plain Cooking", "Electric Blender Recipies", "A Year of Diet Desserts", "Cooking and Brownies" and "The Slim Gourmet Book".
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While filming, Will Ferrell wore an earpiece that fed him Emma Thompson's narrative lines in order to assist the other actors in reacting more naturally to Ferrell's seemingly non sequitur lines.
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The guitar that the narrator describes as saying "I'm compensating for something. Guess what?" is a Cherry Gibson EDS-1275, the guitar made famous by Jimmy Page.
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Dustin Hoffman's character (Professor Hilbert) creates a questionnaire of 23 items for Will Ferrell's character (Harold Crick). Professor David Hilbert, the German mathematician, proposed a famous list 23 problems at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris in 1900. Hilbert's problems became so famous that they are typically referred to by number among mathematicians and philosophers and several are still unanswered.
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Harold's two co-workers, played by T.J. Jagodowski and Peter Grosz, appear together in a series of commercials for Sonic Drive-In.
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The title of the movie comes from a famous quote from Lord Byron's "Don Juan": "Tis strange,-but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction: if it could be told, How much would novels gain by the exchange! How differently the world would men behold!"
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In the scene just after Harold's flat gets demolished, and Professor Hilbert advises Harold to go live his life, Professor Hilbert hums "Rule Britannia" as he walks away from Harold.
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In the scene where Professor Hilbert is speaking to Harold in his classroom, there is a list on the chalkboard behind him of four characters from 'The Alexandria Quartet', a four-book set of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1957 and 1960.
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The film borrows heavily from 'Niebla' by Miguel de Unamuno, a Spanish novel about a character who becomes aware he is being narrated by a writer and goes to visit him. In Unamuno's story, however, the main character commits suicide.
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When Harold Crick sits down on the bus in which he meets Ana Pascal, a building with the word "Drury" can be seen on a sign in the background (on the front wall of the bus). Drury Lane is where the Muffin Man in the popular nursery rhyme lived.
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A single page of the book can be glimpsed if the film is paused while Jules is reading it. The page quotes word for word the opening narration of the film as Harold goes about his day. The page also contains a detail that is not mentioned otherwise - Harold's co-worker Diane Gordon has been in love with him since the 8th grade but is too shy to say so, and in the shown page when Harold requests a file from her she asks for clarification in the hopes he might once say "good morning" to her.
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