The character Abner Doubledeal is a play on Abner Doubleday, who was at one point considered the inventor of baseball. Doubleday's influence on the creation of baseball is now a debunked myth.
The over the shoulder boulder holder comment made by Amy Wong is a reference to a joke. In the joke a bra was referred to as an over the shoulder boulder holder.
The moon rocks collected during the Apollo moon landings were actually much smaller than the ones depicted here due to the limited space and weight capacity of the lunar modules. The first rocks brought back by Apollo 11 were about the size of a human fist, or smaller, a total of 47.6 pounds (7.93 lbs on the moon) of material consisting of dust and 50 rocks was brought back from the mission. The largest rock brought back from the moon was found in 1972 by the Apollo 16 astronauts, it weighed 26 pounds (4.6 moon lbs) and was named "Big Muley" after Bill Muehlberger, the Apollo 16 geologist. In total the six Apollo missions brought back 2,200 samples weighing a total of 840 pounds (140 moon lbs).
In the opening scene a sign in front of Elzar's advertises the daily special: Jar Jar Tartare. A play on the name of the character Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).