Clever and Funny book, chapter, or episode titles based on other works

Ron Luciano was a flamboyant and eccentric American League baseball umpire in the 1960s and 1970s; after he retired as an umpire, he wrote several humorous books about his life in baseball, some of which had pun-based titles referring to other works:

  • The Umpire Strikes Back (The Empire Strikes Back)
  • The Fall of the Roman Umpire (The Fall of the Roman Empire)
  • Remembrance of Swings Past (Remembrance of Things Past

Similarly, Bob Uecker, a former major league catcher, who became well-known as a baseball announcer and actor, and who was also known for telling funny stories about his career, wrote several books:

  • Catcher in the Wry (Catcher in the Rye)
  • Catch 222 (Catch-22; I’m not sure what the 222 is referring to, other than a poor batting average, but Uecker’s career batting average wasn’t even that good – he was only a .200 hitter)

Nobody’s mentioned Harvard Lampoon’s Bored of the Rings yet? I’m surprised.

Good to hear the next one’s coming out (looks like Oct. 11th). I’m a big fan of the series.

Leslie Charteris used to have fun chapter titles in his Simon Templer (The Saint) books, although the only one i can remember is :-
“How Claude Eustace Teal opened his mouth and Hoppy Uniatz put his foot in it”

The Tinkling Symbol, an Asey Mayo mystery by Phoebe Atwood Taylor – a play on “a tinkling cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

Evan Hunter had a few books that fit, including
Every Crook and Nanny
Gladly the Cross-eyed Bear

Possibly Room 222, a TV show of the early 70s.

There is always the cookbook Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist with cocktails such as:

  • The Pitcher of Dorian Grey Goose
  • The Last of the Mojitos
  • Love in the Time of Kahlua
  • Romeo and Julep
  • A Rum of One’s Own
  • Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margarita
  • Vermouth the Bell Tolls

among others

Supernatural had a fun mix of song titles, puns of other programs or movies, or cultural references in general for their episodes. Some of my favorites:

Man’s Best Friend with Benefits
Criss Angel Is a Douchebag

Ben Aaronovitch’s latest Rivers Of London book. Title is “Amongst Our Weapons”, and some of the sections are “Surprise”, “Fear”, “Ruthless Efficiency” etc.

Porn flicks do this a lot. Do we want to go there?

Sex Trek: The Next Penetration
The Long Ranger Rides Again
Splendor in the Ass
Barbara the Barbarian (bad movie, but, oddly enough, not as bad as some of the mainstream sword-and-sorcery movies from the early 1980s)
A Midsummer Night’s Cream (this one incorporates a surprising amount of dialog from Shakespeare’s play)

Kim Harrison has a well known series of urban fantasy novels called the Hollows series. The titles are plays on (mostly?) Clint Eastwood movies:

  1. Dead Witch Walking (2004)
  2. The Good, the Bad, and the Undead (2005)
  3. Every Which Way But Dead (2005)
  4. A Fistful of Charms (2006)
  5. For a Few Demons More (2007)
  6. The Outlaw Demon Wails (2008)
  7. White Witch, Black Curse (2009)
  8. Black Magic Sanction (2010)
  9. Pale Demon (2011)
  10. A Perfect Blood (2012)
  11. Ever After (2013)
  12. The Undead Pool (2014)
  13. The Witch With No Name (2014)
  14. American Demon (2020)
  15. Million Dollar Demon (2021)
  16. Trouble with the Cursed (2022)
  17. Demons of Good and Evil (2023)

I, (Annoyed Grunt) Bot with Homer’s “D’oh!” catchphrase spelled as
“(Annoyed Grunt)” in the script. So it becomes I, D’oh!-Bot, referring to I, Robot.

And Cheers had an episode called The Crane Mutiny.

Don’t forget the classic Edward Penishands!!!

Community had the magnificent episodes A Fistful of Paintballs and For a Few Paintballs More in their second season.

Or I, II, III and “What is the name of this one? Fourth? Stairway? Four Symbols? Those Runes? The Hermit? Untitled? Zoso?”

I remember one called “In and Out In Beverly Hills” - a parody on a recent release called “Down And Out In Beverly Hills” and “Shaving Ryan’s Privates” needs no further explanation.

Pretty sure an episode of Get Smart had the “Tequila Mockingbird” as a Maguffin.

For the benefit of younger readers, this is a reference to the (B&W?) Radio/TV/Film series - “The Lone Ranger”. Always masked to preserve his anonymity, he fought bad guys in the American Old West with his Native American friend, Tonto. Tonto always called the Lone Ranger “Kemosabe”, which apparently translates as “Friend”.