Originally, the episode was very different. It would have begun with the Simpsons meeting a teenage girl at the book fair, who takes an interest in them and follows them home. It's revealed that she's Homer's illegitimate daughter (with an old girlfriend) and Bart, Lisa and Maggie's half-sister. The episode would have been about the ramifications of this. Producer Mike Scully thought that the episode would be too dark so he suggested that Krusty be the one with an illegitimate child.
Guest stars Stephen King and Amy Tan play in a rock band called The Rock Bottom Remainders with Simpsons creator Matt Groening. The band is mainly composed of authors and some times plays live shows to raise money for charity.
This isn't the first time Krusty has fathered a child out of wedlock. In Marge vs. the Monorail (1993)(#4.12), a woman holding a baby approaches him and tells him, "Krusty, you haven't even seen our son!".
Marge says that Reverend Lovejoy's "stigmuffins are to die for!" The stigmuffin, with a hole through it, is a reference to the stigmata, the wounds Christ suffered on the cross.