The attire, accent, facial features, and much of what is seen of the culture of the Native Martians is similar to that of Native American Indians. Mr. Wong says that his ancestor bought all of Mars' western Hemisphere for a bead, referencing the sale of the land on which rests on present-day New York was bought for a bunch of beads worth approximately $24, and named New Amsterdam.
Kif's experiences taming and riding buggalo are reminiscent of Paul Atreides riding sandworms in Frank Herbert's famous novel Dune.
Music reminiscent of the theme to Star Trek is heard as Zapp and Kif's ship, the Nimbus, is onscreen.
The purported face on Mars is seen as an alien home. The Face was featured in the 2000 movie Mission to Mars.
R.J., the cigarette-smoking cowboy, is a reference to the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. He bears a generic resemblance to the Marlboro Man, a generic mascot of another tobacco company, the Altria group, formerly Philip Morris Companies.
The camel-like character Joe is an obvious spoof of the Camel cigarettes mascot Joe Camel, also of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The 'kids love him' line references the controversy of the mascot supposedly targeting children as future smokers.
When Zapp Brannigan throws the Slurm can onto the ground, one of the Martian natives cries. This is a reference to the anti-littering television advertisement featuring Iron Eyes Cody: A Native American looks down over a sweeping landscape intersected by a highway far below him. A bag of trash is thrown from a moving car. A single tear is seen on the Indian's cheek. However, the Martian native cries because "Cynthia used to drink Slurm".
A newspaper on Mars is called the Martian Chronicles, as in the Ray Bradbury stories collected under the same name. Not necessarily related facts: Bradbury's anthology has many native Martians killed by chickenpox introduced by Earth colonists. The Futurama Martians resemble American Indians. Real Native American Indian populations were diminished by smallpox.
When Zapp Brannigan appears after Amy has been kidnapped, he declares, "I am the man with no name. Zapp Brannigan.", referencing Clint Eastwood's character in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy.
The Martians appear to summon these dust storms via throat singing in a Tuvan style.
The term "buggalo" is a combination of the words "bug" and "buffalo".
The Native Martians' "laser bows" projectiles resemble light sabers.
Amy Wong's mother uses the expression "ai-ya" while pacing. This classic Cantonese expression indicates that she, or her family, is from Hong Kong, or at least Southeastern China. Amy also uses this expression at least once, in "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch".
The Martians' hideout makes a return appearance in the movie Into the Wild Green Yonder. It was speculated to be deserted for 1,000,000 years, until Fry notes it has only been 5 years, the time between when this episode first aired and the movie was released.
The Wong's own 17.9 billion acres, which calculates to roughly half of Mars.
Olympus Mons is a real mountain on Mars and is one of the tallest mountains in Solar System. It is, however, about 22 km high and 600 km wide, so one cannot see its summit from the foot or climb it in a single day.
The Great Stone Face of Mars is a surface feature, probably a standalone hill, that appeared as a humanoid face in a 1976 Viking photo; later, as the phenomenon was surveyed further, the 'face' was dismissed as a play of light and shadow.
The song which Bender sings (Pick a fight with rustlers) is an obvious refrence to the 1960s western Bonanza which Matt himself has said that he's a fan of and has hidden references to it in both The Simpson and Futurama.