Councilman Pilner, played by Bradley Whitford, says the line, "We play with live ammo around here." This is a line directly from The West Wing (1999) (a show in which Whitford and Lowe starred together) said by Rob Lowe's character, Sam Seaborn. The episode also draws its title from this line.
Bradley Whitford plays a town councilman - in his office is a framed cocktail napkin with "Pillner for Pawnee." This is a nod to Whitford's former character Josh Lyman in The West Wing (1999), where a cocktail napkin with "Bartlet for America" was a key plot device.
Ben is seen in this episode holding a copy of the "Journal and Courier" newspaper. This is a salute to the real life Lafayette, Indiana newspaper upon which the often cited "Pawnee Journal" is based.
Chelsea Peretti who plays Zelda in this episode also co-wrote this episode and is credited as story editor on the series.
Bradley Whitford's character emulates Josh Lyman's popular one word response from The West Wing (1999) when he offers a one word response to a complicated statement - "okay."