The mission title "Hungry like the Skag" refers to a Duran Duran song, Hungry Like the Wolf, as Skags are wolf/dog-like creatures in the game.

There is a side mission in the Tiny Tina DLC called "Lost Souls." In the mission, the player helps an undead warrior by collecting souls at camp fires, just like in Dark Souls.

There is a skill for the Mechromancer called "20% Cooler" This is a Reference to the TV Series "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" where the character "Rainbow Dash" says "It needs to be about 20% Cooler".

In Sanctuary, there is a chance that an NPC will say "I used to be a Vault Hunter like you, until I took a bullet to the knee." This is a reference to the infamous "I took an arrow in the knee" meme from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

There is a Shotgun in the game called 'Dog'. In the game's code, its file name is "Thre Dog", and its special weapons effect reads, "Because one barrel ain't enough, and two is too few." This is likely a reference to the character "Three Dog" from Fallout 3, who says "Three Dog, because one dog ain't enough and two is too low, it's Three Dog!"

The "these pretzels suck" and Butt Stallion dialogue spoken by Handsome Jack were ad-libbed by voice actor Dameon Clarke. Writer Anthony Burch was upset that these became Handsome Jack's most popular lines as he had no hand in writing them.

The commando for Borderlands 2, Axton, has been confirmed as bisexual by Borderlands 2 lead writer Anthony Burch.

The red flavor text for the Buffalo gun refers to three notable linguistic constructions:
a sentence that uses the word "buffalo" 9 times and is still grammatically correct, a sentence that repeats the word "had" 11 times to illustrate the importance of punctuation, and a Chinese poem that tells a story using a total of 92 words, which are all pronounced in varying tones of "Shi".

Mister Torgue is censored by a device in his voicebox, rather than being edited later. In his own words:

Tiny Tina's lazy eye is actually a bug in the software. Instead of fixing her eye tracking, the developers thought that it fit with her character, so they decided to leave it in the game.

The Bane side mission, and weapon, are both based off of the 1950's Western movie "Winchester '73" starring James Stewart. The movie revolves around a cursed rifle that leads to the death of anyone possessing it.

In a Reddit AMA, Borderlands 2 Lead Writer Anthony Burch said his inspiration for creating the NPC Face McShooty, the character that demands you shoot him in the face, was the "Close Range" video on The Onion, featuring a fictional video game in which the only gameplay is shooting people in their faces.

"That was mine. I saw this video...and thought it was hilarious, and thought we could play off the idea with Face McShooty." -Anthony Burch

Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep contains a reference to the YouTube user "Bro Team Pill". At the end of the optional mission "My Dead Brother", one of the mission completion messages reads "Bro Team Kill".

The side mission "Rocko's Modern Strife" is a reference to the show Rocko's Modern Life.

The sidequest, "Too Close for Missiles", contains a large number of reference to the film "Top Gun". The quest starts after talking to Loggins (a reference to Kenny Loggins, the writer of the song "Danger Zone" from the film's soundtrack) outside of Ellie's garage. During the mission, Loggins will repeatedly call the player "Goose", in reference to Maverick's wingman. The mission involves gathering volleyballs and gasoline to light a volleyball net on fire. Following that, 3 NPCs known as Shirtless Men spawn and attack the player. All of the objectives reference the infamous sand volleyball scene from the film. Loggins himself also says "Danger zone" multiple times during the quest.

The inside cover artwork for the game was based on artist Olly Moss's art style of his homages to various franchises, however, the clouds in the artwork were taken directly from one of Moss's own pieces; from his Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back fan poster.

When Moss found out, he took to Twitter to express his disappointment, however, Gearbox CEO, Randy Pitchford, soon contacted him and apologized for the incident.

Handsome Jack had dialogue recorded for the New-U Station revival taunts, but they were unused in the final release.

The side quest "Raiders of the Last Boss" in the Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC is a clear reference to the Indiana Jones movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

The optional mission in Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt, "Still Just a Borok in a Cage", is a reference to The Smashing Pumpkins song, "Bullet With Butterfly Wings." More specifically it's a reference to lyrics for the chorus, "Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage."

The Baby Maker SMG explodes into two smaller versions of itself when reloaded. The chances of spawning a pink or blue variation are actually based on US birth statistics for females and males.