While wearing a Carver High School T-shirt, Warren laments that he hurt his knee playing basketball, which ended his chances of playing professionally, and he dropped out of school as a result. This explains why Warren is an orderly at St. Eligius after being poised for an NBA career when he was last seen in The White Shadow (1978).
Dr Craig says "I haven't had this much fun since BJ Honeycutt and I closed the Kimchi Palace". BJ Honeycutt was one of the doctors on M*A*S*H (1972). This is one of several oblique implications on the series that it exists in the same fictional universe as M*A*S*H.
The title comes from the 1965 James Brown song "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag".
Dr Craig tells Natasha to say "moose and squirrel", a reference to the Russian spies Boris and Natasha from The Bullwinkle Show (1959).
In discussing body shaming with Elliot, Suzanne mentions the song "You Can Leave Your Hat On" by Randy Newman. That song was a relatively obscure 1972 release, but at the time of this episode had become a recent hit for the Joe Cocker cover featured in the movie 9½ Weeks (1986).