The plot about the gang playing poker was inspired from the cast playing together on set.
The DVD version of the episode features an additional scene where Aunt Iris berates the girls for having learnt nothing from her poker lesson.
In the beginning of the episode the Friends are whistling "Colonel Bogey March" from The Bridge Over the River Kwai (2003).
In the episode the song that Ross' monkey Marcel plays incessantly is 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' by The Tokens, which was also used during the sex scene that Courteney Cox performed with Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994). Ace also had a monkey identical to Marcel called Spike.
This episode is included on the 2000 DVD release The Best of Friends Volume 1.