In order to make a visual joke that Conan O'Brien has a large head in real life the head was drawn sticking out the top of the jar. This choice caused many difficulties for the animators because it did not work with the animation layers typically used for other head-in-a-jar characters.
The clock tower is shown at the end of the episode and the time on the clock is the same as the actual time that scene would have been shown in its original airing.
The plot for this episode was one of the first storylines that Matt Groening and David X. Cohen came up with aside from the series' pilot. They had the basic idea before they pitched the show to Fox, although they did not develop the detailed plot until much later.
One of the pets Fry considers buying is a one-eared rabbit, a reference to Bongo, a character from Matt Groening's comic strip "Life in Hell".
The episode ended up being controversial although those involved with the show did not expect it to be. Fox was concerned that advertisers would find the episode too controversial for the time slot. When they made a second episode featuring Robot Santa it was delayed for nearly a year before being broadcast in a later time slot.