Chuck Versus Tom Sawyer - Cultural References

Cultural References

• Jeff Barnes' flashback is a parody of Jeff Spicoli's dream sequence in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Visually nearly identical, the scenes share several lines, and both Jeffs are flanked by models. A fictional "Stu Brewster" (Bill Lewis) substitutes for the late Stu Nahan (himself) from the film.
• Chuck pretends not to recognize Jeff's photograph, asking Farrokh Bulsara if Jeff is a "Sweathog", one of the remedial student characters of Welcome Back, Kotter.
• "Farrokh Bulsara" is the birth name of Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury.
• The episode's title references the song "Tom Sawyer" by Canadian band Rush, which itself is named after Mark Twain's popular novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
• The game Missile Command is also prominently featured. In the Chuck universe, Morimoto is the game's designer, likely a reference to Nintendo video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto.
• When Morgan offers his Zune, Chuck asks "You have a Zune?", to which Morgan replies, "Are you kidding me? No, I'll grab my iPod."
• The episode has also been compared to The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.
• The name "Emmett Milbarge" is a reference to the comedy Spies Like Us, combining the names of Chevy Chase's character Emmett Fitz-Hume and Dan Aykroyd's character Austin Milbarge.
• When Jeff agrees to play Missile Command, he asks for provisions, including "a bag of M&M's without the browns". This stems from the story that the band Van Halen, during the eighties, stated on their contracts during gigs that they wanted bowls of M&M's backstage without the brown ones. Although a lot of people took this as a rock star eccentricity, it was just a way for them to be sure that every detail on their contract was thoroughly taken care of.