An enemy that can randomly spawn in the Eridium Blight map is called Donkey Mong, an obvious reference to the Nintendo character "Donkey Kong". Not only is his name just a simple letter replacement, but he attacks the player by throwing barrels, similar to Donkey Kong's first title. Upon killing Donkey Mong, the player will earn the achievement "Definitely An Italian Plumber", a reference to the Mario series, also by Nintendo, as well as an achievement in the first Borderlands, "My Brother is an Italian Plumber".

In the Scarlet's Booty DLC there are enemies called Mr.Bubbles and Lil' Sis, which are spoofs of Bioshock's Big Daddies and Little Sisters. Defeating Mr.Bubbles without harming Lil' Sis will give the player a special reward.

The Wildlife Exploitation Preserve may contain two enemies called Pimon & Tumbaa. This is a reference to the characters Timon & Pumbaa from Disney's The Lion King.

On the radio dials, each number goes up by a hundred until it reaches 800 where then it moves straight to 9001. This is a possible reference to the line "It's over 9000" from "Dragon Ball Z".

Psychos will sometimes say "Never gonna give you up" when they die, a reference to the song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley.

Occasionally, one of the citizens may say "I'm missing the new episode of Constable What!", a parody of the series "Doctor Who".

At the main menu, Claptrap can be seen entering an outhouse which will then suddenly vanish and quickly land back to the ground, a possible reference to the TARDIS from "Doctor Who" which also travels in a similar fashion.

In the side mission "Hell Hath No Fury", after blowing up the dam, Handsome Jack will read out a list of the week's construction casulaties which are: Hartnell, W. Troughton, P. Pertwee, J. Baker, T.

This is a reference to the actors William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, all of who played in respective order the character 'the Doctor' in the science fiction series Doctor Who.

The challenge "Say Watt again" is reference to the film Pulp fiction where Jules Winnfield says it during an interrogation.

According to "Inside the Vault: The Art & Design of Borderlands 2" that comes with the special edition of Borderlands 2, when the boss "BNK-3R" makes a noise, it's actually the game's sound designer Joshua Davidson yelling about tea.

Upon using Zer0's deception skill he may say "How Hilarious. You set off my trap card. Your death approaches." This is a reference to the Yu-Gi-Oh anime.

There is an unlockable color scheme for Zer0 titled "Why So Serious?" This is a reference to the film The Dark Knight and the Batman franchise, as it is a line used by the Joker. The color scheme also uses similar colors to the Joker.

Upon exiting Dr. Zed's vending machine, it will sometimes state "Who needs a medical license when you've got style?" This is a reference to the internet meme "Who needs 'X' when you have Swag?"

One of the skins for Maya is named "Rose Tailor", a possible reference to the character Rose Tyler from the science fiction series "Doctor Who".

Ashly Burch (the voice of Tiny Tina and Bane the cursed gun) is the sister of the lead writer, Anthony Burch. Both siblings produce and star in the web series Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?.

According to Anthony Burch, the lead writer, Tiny Tina was going to have another quest before it was cut. "After a certain character Spoiler: Roland dies, you get a quest to go tell all of Spoiler:his friends that the person is dead." This would include Tina and, for the first and only time, it would cause her to drop her carefree and insane attitude. She would thank you, give you a new weapon, and then lock herself in her workshop, which she could be heard crying in. Burch did not give a reason for the quest's removal but it is believed that since she lives out in the Tundra rather than at Sanctuary, meaning that players would have to trudge through an area filled with low-level enemies simply for a bit of dialog and a possibly useless weapon, the developers saw it to be not worth it.

Salvador has a skill called titled "Yippee Ki Yay," a reference to the film series Die Hard, in which this is the catch phrase of the main character.

Salvador has a head titled 'Breaking Bald' which makes him look like Walter White from the TV show Breaking Bad.

The mission "Won't Get Fooled Again" is a reference to the song of the same name by 'The Who' which is used as the theme tune of television series CSI: Miami. The mission requires the player to solve a murder and upon completion, Marshall Friedman will say a melodramatic one-liner like the main protagonist of the show 'Horatio Caine' does.

In the Tiny Tina DLC there is a side quest called "Winter is a Bloody Business.", which contains several references to Game of Thrones. King Jeffery is a reference to King Joffery, and the throne is similar to the show's Iron Throne, but made of guns instead of swords.