The name "The Roly Poly Man" comes from the classic 1968 song "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan. In the song, the Roly Poly Man is a close associate of the Hurdy Gurdy Man.
The film was a spoof of the Old Hollywood film noir detective and private eye movies in the Philip Marlowe and Raymond Chandler tradition but had a dual-genre parodying as it also sent-up schlock horror movies and combined the two genres in the picture.
The term that shamus gumshoe Dirk Trent (Paul Chubb) used to describe himself as was a "no frills" private detective.
The name of the six-foot-four big cuddly children's character was "Woozy Bear".