We all know Archer tries to be ambiguous about when the show is taking place - older characters all discuss WW2, the sets, politics and cars are pre-1973 as far as I can tell, but they’ve got pocket cell phones instead of bricks and bags and Burt Reynolds is old enough to date Mallory when he should be Archer’s age. But what’s the most recent thing they’ve mentioned? I started wondering when Cheryl talked about the Voight-Kampff machines from Blade Runner (1982, and Cyril released a virus on a CD-ROM (1982). The guns and equipment on the space station referenced Aliens (1986), but I can’t recall anything more recent.
I wonder if this is going to be the same sort of running “gag” that the Simpsons have with “which state is Springfield in?” when the answer is obviously that there is too much contradictory information for there to be any “right” answer.
He calls karate “the Dane Cook of martial arts.” According to Wikipedia, Cook got his big break in 1998, so there’s that.
Nah, this is much more definite - it should be easy to assign a date to every reference made on the show, as done above. I’m not trying to identify the time the show takes place. . In “Lo Scandolo” when Lana’s talking about post-WW2 history, she asks Archer “What year do you think it is?” and he replies “That’s a good question.” They’re never gonna let that get nailed down.
Dane Cook breaking in the late 1990’s completely contradicts the reel-to-reel mainframes, green-screened console computers they use and all the cars they drive.
They can’t ever let it get nailed down because they’ve loaded it with so much contradictory information that it can’t be happening in any particular year on Earth.
It’s like saying they will never nail down which Springfield is in the Simpsons because it simply can’t be done.
If I understand the OP correctly, he (or she) isn’t trying to nail date the show’s time frame, which is admittedly impossible because it’s kept vague on purpose. Instead, the question is an objective one–what’s the most recent thing referenced on the show? That should be relatively easy to determine.
That’s true. I wasn’t really addressing the OP and I apologize for derailing it.
I’m pretty sure that one episode had Cyril spill a bunch of computer punch cards he’d spent all weekend organizing; in the next scene, Pam is texting on her cell phone.
Just going through the cultural references listed on the Archer wikia, and listing the ones that are 1990s or later:
- “Training Day”: Archer refers to Dane Cook (1998) and Alanis Morrisette (1995)
- “Killing Utne”: Archer refers to a 1994 REM song
- “Blood Test”: Lana tells Cyril that “sex addiction isn’t a real disorder” and Cyril responds with “wait until the next DSM comes out”. One of the proposed additions in DSM-V is hypersexual disorder. Was proposed in 2010.
- “Placebo Effect”: In a reversal here, Krieger guesses that Archer’s IV is filled with Zima, which stopped being produced in the US in 2008.
Archer referenced “the Rise of the Machines” a few episodes ago - the Terminator movie of that title having come out in 2003.
Does the Bob’s Burgers reference count? 
The show is most definitely set in the present day. They just fuck with your mind regarding certain details. The ‘look’ of the ISIS offices is clearly 1970s tech and 70s decor, the USSR still seems to exist (frequent mentioning of the KGB) etc. The creators just wanted to have a mix of old & new visuals.
“Does Internet Porn know you’re cheating on it”?
Which could be from 1996 on, but I’d say really puts it closer to modern age.
In the most recent episode Mallory refered to Turkmenistan as being an independent country instead of part of the Soviet Union and reference it’s insane dictator who renamed the months after himself.
Didn’t Archer’s manservant serve in WWI? Since I think pretty much every one of those vets is dead now, that argues for a time frame set further back.
This episode gave us when Archer was born. Mallory wasn’t around for his sixth birthday because she was overthrowing Arbenz, which happened in '54.
Well, when they actually showed us Archer’s birth on the counter at Woodhouse’s bar in Tangiers, it was implied to have occurred during WWII.
I guess “Anachronism Stew” is the best way to put it.
I thought that was just Mallory working a mission after WW2. When she killed the Italian prime minister in “Lo Scandolo,” wasn’t it was for him killing a possible baby-daddy during Operation Gladio?
It’s simple really. Sterling Archer is the same age as James Bond.
And probably always will be, if liver failure or some particularly virulent STD don’t trip him up first.