The actors were each paid $100 a day for their work.
The character Rhett is based on the actor who portrayed him, Rhett Wilkins, and scene in which he makes a video of a lizard outside his apartment is based on a real incident. The lizard video that the characters watch is the actual footage that Wilkins shot during that real life incident.
The filmmakers marketed this film by placing stickers with the film's title and artwork in public areas, including on the sides of buses and inside urinals.
The film's $15,000 budget was borrowed from the parents of the filmmakers.
Film critic Ray Carney called The Puffy Chair "one of the best American films of the past ten years."