The scene where Mr. Mackey loses the marijuana cigarette in class was inspired by a real event from Trey Parker's life, where a counsellor came into his class in seventh grade, and passed around a lit piece of marijuana, which then disappeared.
In class. the sign above the chalkboard reads: "DiOsMiOhAnMaTaDoHaKeNnYbAsTaRdOs" which is spelled out as "Dios Mio Mataron a Kenny, bastardo." This is Spanish for: "Oh my God they killed Kenny, you bastard."
At the beginning and end of the episode, there are scenes where the kids imitate Mr. Mackey's voice to him, while he is oblivious to the fact that he is being made fun of. Trey Parker and his classmates used to do the same thing to their counsellor in junior high school who was the basis for Mr. Mackey's character.
Trey Parker said that he was especially proud of Chef's line "There's a time and a place for everything, and it's called college", which is something Parker believes in, noting that if he had a child, he would tell him: "Do whatever you want, just wait till college because you don't know what the fuck's up right now." Chef's sentence would later return in the season four episode The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000 (2000).
This episode suggests Mr. Mackey's head is so large because he wears his tie too tight. Without it on, his head is the size of Timmy Burch's. In Child Abduction Is Not Funny (2002), his parents are shown to have large heads as well.