At the beginning of this episode, Bart and Milhouse can be seen watching South Park. This spoof appeared on this episode as a response from the creators after South Park parodied their show in the episode "Simpsons Already Did It" in 2002.
The title is a reference to 'The Art of War', a book on military strategy and tactics written by Sun Tzu (also known as Sunzi) in the sixth century BC. This book was popular among business executives in the United States in the 1990s.
After Bart drinks the "40-year-old novelty drink" and is hallucinating, he says, "Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye." This is a line from The Beatles' song "I Am the Walrus", released in 1967.
The drink cans Bart and Milhouse open have pull-tabs, the kind that come off the can when pulled. This is accurate; the modern stay-tabs, which don't come off the can, weren't introduced until 1975 - well after the Beatles era.
Bart's chalkboard gag: Sandwiches should not contain sand.