This episode is based on a promotion held by KFC and Oprah Winfrey in May 2009. Winfrey provided coupons for free KFC chicken on her website. The promotion was so popular that the restaurants ran out of chicken causing customers to become irate across the country. Reports of riots at KFC locations spread but KFC later announced that the reports were false. But irate customers did stage protests and made angry statements in TV news reports. The customer saying "How am I supposed to feed my family now?!" is taken from an actual news report.
The chicken franchises mentioned are parodies of well-known chicken restaurants: "Kernel's Fried Chicken"=Kentucky Fried Chicken; "Blooto's Chicken"=Popeye's; "Temple's Chicken"=Church's; "Chick-le-fait"=Chick-Fil-La.