The "litter of three" joke was more or less an "in-joke" dealing with the fact that Larry was the only one of the main three (Moe, Larry, Curly) who was not a Howard/Horowitz. Curly says he was one of the ones "kept" (being a Howard), while Larry says he was the one "they threw away" (not being a Howard).

Near the beginning when Moe explains to the boys that they're working for the Census, Curly asks, "Will Hays?" This is an inside Hollywood joke as Curly must have thought Moe said "censors" who enforced the Hays Code, started by the first president of the Motion Picture Association of America, William Harrison Hays.

Just before the boys go to the football game, they hear a commotion in the distance. Curly says, "Maybe it's the Fourth of July!" Moe says, "The Fourth of July in October?" Curly replies, "You never can tell. Look what they did to Thanksgiving." This reference is lost on most people today. Before 1939, Thanksgiving was not a fixed date, but relied on a Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation each year. Lincoln began the national holiday in 1863 and most people were used to Thanksgiving being the last Thursday of November. In 1939 (the year before this short was released), President Roosevelt changed the date of the national holiday, much to the disagreement of many of the states' governors and their citizens. This change added an extra week of holiday shopping, which pleased the leaders of big business. The move was quite controversial and it wasn't until the end of 1941 that Congress passed a law to settle the dispute and establish the "fourth Thursday" of November as our Thanksgiving Day.

At one point in the short, Moe and Larry attempt to guess the age of the "lady having bridge party". Larry guesses 43 while Moe guesses 50. Averaged out, this is roughly 46.5, or forty-six years and six months old. By the time this was released in October of 1940, the actress playing the role, Symona Boniface, was just barely over forty six years and six months old.