Roger Ebert Should Lay off the Fatty Foods/Trivia

Trivia

 * This is one of the few times Cartman saves the day, even if he was unaware of it at the time.
 * The archway above the door when the class returns to the planetarium reads: "Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni!" This is Latin for "Send me the top, Caledoni!", a reference to the famous phrase "Beam me up, Scotty!" from Star Trek.
 * Cartman's grandmother, Mable Cartman appears for the first time on the phone to Cartman.
 * Mr. Mackey says for the only time "Drugs are good" in order to convince the kid from the planetarium that it was okay to let Nurse Gollum sedate him.
 * Though Dr. Adams has a disorder that hinders him from saying the "T" in planetarium, he can be heard pronouncing the word correctly when Mr. Garrison is absent from the hypnotizing room.
 * This episode marks the first time that Butters speaks, with the words "me too". His voice however, sounds completly different from later episodes, and very similar to Stan's voice.

References to Popular Culture

 * The title to this episode mentions popular film critic Roger Ebert. It's entirely possible that this episode was done to make fun of him in light of the fact that he gave Trey Parker and Matt Stone poor reviews for their films Orgazmo (1/2 star) and BASEketball (star and 1/2) both films he reviewed in 1998.
 * The inspiration of this episode comes from an episode of Stark Trek titled Dagger of the Mind. The premise follows Captain Kirk going to the planet Tantalus V, a prison colony for intergalactic criminals. There he is mentally tortured until his mind is healed by Spock using the Vulcan Mind Meld. Many of its plot elements are used in this episode.
 * At the beginning of the episode Mr. Garrison is forcing the children to watch and answer questions about the television series Barnaby Jones. It was a crime drama that ran from 1973-1980.
 * Mr. Garrison says that episode #203 of Barnaby Jones is called "Barnaby Under Fire". This is incorrect, as episode 203 of the series is called "Echo of a Murder". There is no such episode titled "Barnaby Under Fire".
 * The talent search for a child singing the Cheesey Poof theme song was likely inspired by a similar contest that was done in real life by Oscar Mayer Wieners around the same time this episode was produced.
 * The observatory is called the "Tantalus V. Observatory", this is another reference to "Dagger of the Mind" as Tantalus V is the planet that Captain Kirk travels to in that episode.
 * Mr. Garrison warns his children that the planetarium is not a Bankok Brothel. Bangkok Thailand has a thriving sex trade even though prostitution is technically illegal in the country.
 * Dr. Adams from the planetarium gets his name from Dr. Tristan Adams from the Star Trek episode "Dagger of the Mind". In the Star Trek episode Dr. Adams is the director of the Tantalus V facility and is mastermind behind all the shady goings on at the sanitarium.
 * The little girl named Missy is based on the character Lethe, a female enslaved by Dr. Adams in the same episode.
 * Constellations in space include: Taurus, the Big Dipper, the film critic Roger Ebert, and the 13-14th century Crusades. Later they pull up Polaris the star dog, Orion, and Cassiopeia.
 * Music featured at the planetariums laser rock show include the works of musicians Kenny Loggins and James Taylor
 * The little boy who escapes from the planetarium named Van Gelder is based on the character Dr. Simon van Gelder from "Dagger of the Mind". Simon van Gelder was also tortured by the insane Dr. Adams and stows away aboard the Enterprise and reveals Adam's plot to the crew.
 * When Mr. Mackey attends the laser rock show, the Kenny Loggin's song Footloose. The song was produced in 1984 and was included on the Footloose soundtrack, a film starring Kevin Bacon.
 * When coming up with a Haiku to insult Eric, Kyle compares Cartman's fat to Jell-O.
 * The scene where Mr. Mackey "mind melds" with Van Gelder is yet another plot point parodies from "Dagger of the Mind", in the episode Mr. Spock uses the Vulcan mind meld on Dr. Simon van Gelder to learn the truth.
 * Other than ranting about the planetarium, Van Gelder is upset that model/actress and former MTV VJ Daisy Fuentes is on America's Funniest Home Videos. Daisy Fuentes took over hosting duties of the long running video clip series with co-host John Fugelsang from 1998 to 1999 after the previous host Bob Saget left the show.
 * One of the boys at the audition for the Cheesy Poofs is singing the song Bingo an old country song about a dog named Bingo.
 * Cartman sings the 1983 Donna Summer song She Works Hard for the Money from the album of the same name.
 * Another Star Trek reference: One of the News 4 anchors in this episode is an Asian man who looks like Ricardo Montalbán. Mexican actor Ricardo Montalbán is best known for his role of Khan Noonien Singh in the Star Trek episode "Space Seed" as well as the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
 * Dr. Adams hypnotizes Officer Barbrady to think that he is late musician Elvis Presley the so called "King of Rock and Roll."
 * Mr. Mackey confuses Barbrady's bad Elvis impersonation as him pretending to be the late actor and former head of the NRA Charlton Heston.
 * After Cartman destroys the machine causing the hypnosis, the musical cue is reminiscent of that composed by James Horner for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
 * At the end of the episode while commenting on Dr. Adam's fate, Kyle says to Stan: "Can you imagine it, Stan. A mind, emptied by that… thing." This is a parody of the line that Captain Kirk says near the end of "Dagger of the Mind". Kirk's line was "It's hard to believe that a man could die of loneliness."

Hidden Visitor(s)

 * Before Liane tells Cartman to not pick his nose you can see two glowing visitor eyes and around them, a visitor's body.

Mr. Garrison's Learning Plan

 * Barnaby Jones as Cultural Text
 * Taking the children to the planetarium
 * Haiku