What's with preschool shows having pop culture references?

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The main ones I can list are Looney Tunes on Sesame Street and Sailor Moon on MLP (all 10 characters), and Mario on both. And although I despise it with a BURNING passion and it's my #1 most hated show, Bluey had Vinesauce, a group of Youtubers who I watched since I got into Tomodachi Life when I was 9-10. What's with these, as TV Tropes calls it, Parental Bonuses, mature reference* or not?


(*Fifty Shades of Oatmeal was pretty wild and I'm surprised it was approved)

Parents and sitters often watch these sorts of shows with their toddlers, so there's jokes for that part of the audience too.

For the benefit of the parents, yeah.
I can go back and rewatch shows from my childhood like Rugrats and I'm sometimes more entertained than when I was a kid. Like the time grandpa was showing the kids the movies he rented from the store, then saying that he would save watching "Space Vixens" for after the kids go to bed. Or the many, many instances of Jewish humor throughout that show:
Antiochus soldier: "Here! You're reading this now! -forcibly hands Maccabite Chuckie Greek philosophy books-"
Maccabee Chuckie: "Hey, it's not all bad, Tommy. At least we get to read about Play-Doh! -holds up a book about Plato-"