Spencer's "Sham-POW!" towel is a parody of the Sham-Wow towels. The writers in the writing room would play with the sham-wows for hours on end, and it was incorporated into the episode. Spencer spends most of the episode playing with the towel.
Sam's dream about a monster eating her soup was an actual recurring dream one of the writers had. It was written into the episode because Dan Schneider found it so humorous.