Wow, what a great observation! Great fun. Just generally speaking, I wonder how many in-jokes and subtle references or tributes (homages) there are in MITM we haven't picked up. Some of them may just be coincidental. I came up with stuff like Francis' Quack eating contest in Traffic Jam from the movie Cool Hand Luke, some figure skater - ice hockey mix-up from a TV commercial, and Spangler based on shop teacher Mr. Slurm from The Adventures of Pete & Pete.