An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig/Trivia

Trivia

 * Trey Parker claims the original title of the episode was "An Elephant Fucks a Pig", but under pressure from Comedy Central, they changed it. He maintains however, that if such a situation ever arose in real life, "the elephant wouldn't be making love to a pig, it would be fucking it."
 * This episode contains one of the first mentions of Cartman's mom's promiscuity. It also sheds a little light on Cartman's behavior possibly stemming from sexual abuse by Cartman's mom (such as being forced to dress like a mailman). Although the fact that Cartman rants about his mom "having sex with some guy I don't even know on my dad's bed" when Cartman has no father has been taken by some to imply that Cartman is simply going on a bizarre rant with no connection to reality, this reference is likely due to the fact that the creators had simply not decided that Mrs. Cartman was a single parent at this point of the series.
 * Half of a scene that takes place in the lunchroom appears in the same frame-by-frame cardboard cut-out style that the pilot episode was shot in. The style is notably different from the rest of the episode, including a noticeable difference in voices, mouth movement, scene coloring, and character positioning. The reason for this is that the scene was originally part of the pilot, but was cut for time and then inserted into this episode.
 * Mephisto is revealed in this episode to be a Buddhist. ("Oh, thank Buddha I found you boys!)

Pop-Culture/Historical References

 * This episode was likely inspired in part by Dolly the sheep, who was the first successfully cloned mammal. Dolly was created on July 5th, 1996 and died on February 14, 2003.
 * Cartman tells Kyle to go back to San Francisco "with the rest of the Jews." Cartman likely has the Jewish mixed up with Hippies, another group that he hates. The Hippie movement still endures, or is at least a common stereotype associated with San Francisco. Kyle actually does move to San Francisco later in the episode Smug Alert!.
 * The character Mephisto is a parody of actor Marlon Brando, who played the role of Dr. Moreau (a genetic engineer) in the 1996 film adaptation of the story The Island of Dr. Moreau.
 * According to both Dr. Mephisto and Chef there is a song by the band Loverboy titled Pig and Elephant DNA Just Won't Splice. In real life, Matt Stone and Trey Parker's band, DVDA, recorded the song with Loverboy.
 * The fetal Stan clone in the incubator in Mephisto's lab resembles the baby fetus depicted at the end of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 * While singing the song "Love Gravey", Chef is backed up by singer Elton John. This is an impersonation, and it parodies his singing style specifically his singing of the song Can You Feel the Love Tonight which was featured in the 1994 Disney film The Lion King.
 * Officer Barbradey suggests that the boys have seen too many episodes of the X-Files.
 * The 'four-assed' creations might be a reference to an episode of Father Ted, where locals are spooked by a 'monster' that, among characteristics, has four asses.

Goofs

 * Mephisto is seen taking blood from Stan, but Stan's sleeve was covering his arm. It's realistically impossible to take blood from the arm if there is a sleeve in the way.
 * Throughout the episode, Terrance talked in a fairly high, child's voice. However, when he presents the 'five-assed monkey', he has a deep, evil villain kind of voice.

Kenny's Death

 * The Stan Clone knocks Kenny into a microwave with a chair. He is then cooked by the microwave.

Hidden Visitor(s)
On the "Our Pets" pegboard in the upper center there is the head of a visitor.