When the grifting students are practising passing their briefcases back and forth, Professor DeSalvo flippantly says "Pass them like your sister's dying," a reference to a scene in Empire, where a record executive directs a singer to remember how she felt when her brother was dying.
This entire episode is a spoof of "The Sting": Credits and establishing shots have Saturday Evening Post style illustrations, Scott Joplin's 'The Entertainer' and other ragtime pieces are on the soundtrack, and the plot revolves around a grifter and his con game.