This episode contains a large amount of religious parody and thus references multiple works of fiction that also have a religious focus.
The title of the episode is a riff on the famous line "Hell is other people" from Jean Paul Sartre's one act play No Exit, though the episode has little to do with the actual play.
The punishments in Robot Hell are similar to the levels and rationale which are portrayed in Dante's The Divine Comedy, specifically the Inferno.
The "Fairness in Hell Act", wherein one must engage in a fiddle battle to save their soul is taken directly from the Charlie Daniels Band song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia".
The jokes poking fun at New Jersey in the episode are due to the fact that writer David X. Cohen and actor John DiMaggio both grew up in the Garden State.
The Temple of Robotology is a spoof of the Church of Scientology, and according to series creator Matt Groening, he received a call from the Church of Scientology concerned about the use of a similar name.
Groening's The Simpsons had previously parodied elements of Scientology in the Season 9 episode "The Joy of Sect".
In a review of the episode, TV Squad later posed the question: "Is the Temple of Robotology a poke at the Church of Scientology?". When TV Squad asked actor Billy West about this, he jokingly sidestepped the issue.
When Fry and Leela enter the abandoned ride, you can see in the corner a heart with the initials H.S. & M.B., standing for "Homer Simpson" and "Marge Bouvier"
The symbol for the church is that of a resistor, which is also an inside joke ("resistance").
When Bender is praying in binary, he may actually be speaking random gibberish, as the first letter was an "é". He also stated a 2 at the end, although such a number does not exist in binary (perhaps indicating a religious "miracle").
The Robot Devil residing in New Jersey is a reference to the mythical Jersey Devil.
During the Beastie Boys (Heads) concert, the camera switches to a fisheye lens view at 1:07, in reference to the real Beastie Boys video for Intergalactic, and many other Beastie Boys videos that use fisheye lens.
