The story of Frasier the Lion, told in this episode, is true.
Damon Lindelof partly conceived this episode in reaction to Vulture critic Matt Zoller Seitz's love for Matt's character and the prior season's "No Room at the Inn," as well as a piece Seitz had written about the struggle for meaning following the passing of his wife.
The choir soundtrack played a few times during the episode is "Avinu Malkeinu", a traditional Jewish prayer (Hebrew: "Our Father, Our King"). In the Talmud records, the prayer helped stopping a drought, which might imply the flood's theme regarding the seventh anniversary of the sudden departure.
The title of the episode is a play on the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
The news station that's on Arturo's TV is ACN, or Atlantis Cable News. That is the news network featured in HBO's series "The Newsroom"