This video was the first to use the "morphing" technique (when people of all different races morph into each other in the last minute of the song). The same technology was used in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), released the same year. The fictional date of Judgement Day just happens to be Michael Jackson's birthday. It's even mentioned in the Coda by Sarah Connor: "Michael Jackson turned 40" (he really turned 39).
Michael Jackson and Macualay Culkin decided to play a joke on John Landis, by having Culkin chuck a custard pie in his face, resulting in a pie fight between Jackson, Culkin, Landis, and the kids that appeared in the short film.
Homer and Bart Simpson from The Simpsons (1989) make a cameo, as Bart is watching the Panther Dance on television, which Homer complains about the noise on the television, and switches it off.
The Panther Dance was parodied in the Genesis music video "I Cant Dance".
The video received controversy for its final four minutes, in which Jackson performs suggestive dance moves (including grabbing his crotch and unzipping his pants) and breaks windows (where in one of them there is a Third Reich's swastika painted in graffiti). He apologized for the video.
John Landis: ["See You Next Wednesday"] In the last few minutes of the music video, after Michael Jackson jumps off the car, he throws a garbage can into a window that has "See You Next Wednesday Storage Co." written on it.