That seems like nothing but a goofy way of lampooning how a lot of rich TV characters are given totally generic business backgrounds, but Community went with something a little weirder. You see, Chevy Chase's step-grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt Crane, was the heir to the Crane Company, a conglomerate that has, among other interests, a plumbing division. They even gave Pierce's dad the same old-money name of Cornelius, made him resemble a more ridiculous version of the real person, and, uh, wrote him as an abusive racist. Was that based on reality too, or did they kind of screw over a dude who took in Chevy's mother?

Sony Pictures Television, The Crane FamilyBoth options are sad!

The episode "Celebrity Pharmacology 212," wherein the gang puts on a lame anti-drug PSA that Pierce ruins/improves with his antics, is also based on Chase's life. Some of the characters dress as bees for their role in the skit, which seems like a random cartoony visual but is actually a reference to the time that Chase got in a fight with Bill Murray backstage on Saturday Night Live and John Belushi broke it up while wearing a bee costume.

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SNL StudiosYou know things are getting crazy when a Belushi is the reasonable one.

Supposedly, if you watch the relevant SNL episode, you can see Chase come on stage for his monologue in a way that looks like he's being shoved out there by a Belushi who just wants the show to go on. That's not the only SNL reference Community crammed in. When Piece's off-screen death is revealed in "Basic Intergluteal Numismatics," the show is clearly referencing the fact that Chase was banned from hosting SNL for being essentially impossible to work with.

If you're not good at math like, uh, some people we know, know that it's very rare for a number to have that particular set of properties, it was hella impressive for Ramanujan to recognize one offhand, and they're now known as taxicab numbers in honor of that chat. That's why, in the show, there's a cab with the number 87539319.

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87,539,319 is the smallest number that can be written as the sum of two cubes in three different ways (167³+436³ = 228³+423³ = 255³+414³, if you want to get technical). Congratulations, now you're armed with the knowledge necessary to impress countless future dates for untold minutes.

Maude Flanders spying on Marge is an obvious allusion to Psycho ...

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Universal Pictures

... but you probably didn't pick up on the reference in "Three Men And A Comic Book" to a more obscure Hitchcock movie, Saboteur.

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Universal Pictures

The episode in which Mr. Burns tries to reclaim his beloved childhood teddy bear isn't subtle about some of its Citizen Kane references, but it also delves into the movie's more obscure shots. Now you finally know what was up with that weird Burns bird that haunted your dreams.

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And it's not only famous movies and directors that were riffed on. "Radio Bart," wherein Bart fakes a boy being trapped in a well before falling in himself, is inspired by Ace In The Hole, a 1951 Billy Wilder movie starring Kirk Douglas that readers over the age of 10,000 may vaguely remember.

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Paramount Pictures"I know your arms are broken. Just keep staring at the hot chick and lift with the thing that still works."

Douglas played a reporter who exploits a man trapped in a cave to benefit his struggling career. Both rescue sites turn into literal carnivals, satirizing how the media has the power to manipulate a gullible population.

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Paramount PicturesNow we have Facebook to do that.

So if you want to pass along your love of The Simpsons to your children, make sure you sit them down and make them watch dozens of decades-old black-and-white movies first. It's the only way they'll truly be able to appreciate it.