Robert Redford was very offended by this episode, which spoofed the Sundance Film Festival. Trey Parker and Matt Stone made this episode as revenge for Cannibal! The Musical (1993) not being picked for the festival when they submitted it in 1994.
Cartman refers to independent films as being about "gay cowboys eating pudding." This episode aired seven years before the independent film Brokeback Mountain (2005) was released, but one year after the publication of the short story of the same name by Annie Proulx in 1997. In an interview with the Associated Press in October 2005, Trey Parker and Matt Stone responded to questions about the prophetic statement by Cartman. Parker quipped "...if there's pudding eating in there, we're going to sue" and Stone claimed that "No [we're not prophets], but Cartman is. [Laughs] We went to Sundance a lot in the mid-to-late '90s, and you could just tell it was going toward gay cowboydom."
This episode was the last to feature the town as a backdrop in the closing credits. From Chickenpox (1998) onwards the credits are played over a black screen. This stays in the same way until the season ten episode Smug Alert! (2006).
Three visitors can be found in this episode:
. The hidden alien during the stampede outside the theater.
. At the "Bijou" on the 2nd row from the back, behind the man with the cowboy hat.
. Rushing out of the theater with the others at the end of "Me and Mr. Hankey." In the same row mentioned above but behind the person to his left.
. The hidden alien during the stampede outside the theater.
. At the "Bijou" on the 2nd row from the back, behind the man with the cowboy hat.
. Rushing out of the theater with the others at the end of "Me and Mr. Hankey." In the same row mentioned above but behind the person to his left.
Among the crowd outside the library where Robert Redford is talking, Andy Warhol can be seen standing in the front row.