While the boys are building the snowman, Tweak voices his concerns of the snowman coming to life and killing him. Stan reassured him by saying "Tweak when has that ever happened except for that one time." This is a call back to the animated short "The Spirit of Christmas" (1992) when the boys built a snowman and it went on a killing rampage.
The original "Amazing Sea Monkeys" and "X-Ray Specs" were developed by Herald Braunhut and heavily marketed in children's comic books in the 1960s and '70s. Braunhut used the profits to buy guns and ammo for the Ku Klux Klan and to help fund the Aryan Nation and other infamously violent white supremacist groups.
This episode is a take on Sandkings (1995), which is based on a short story "Sandkings" by George R.R. Martin.