# Movie inside jokes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 23, 2017, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429 "2017-08-23T03:09:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ralfy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ralfy/32/600_2.png) [@ralfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralfy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/21 "2017-08-23T17:04:34Z")
Easter eggs in movies: > **[Movie Easter Eggs - Eeggs.com](https://eeggs.com/tree/1361.html)** > > Easter Eggs found in Movies. Find hidden easter eggs in movies, tv shows, software, music, books, and art. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/22 "2017-08-23T18:29:18Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > That’s a remarkably generous interpretation. They used the name of an actual bird that occurs in California (although not restricted to Carmel, as they claimed), and even got its scientific name (_Sitta pygmaea_) correct in the dialogue. So at some point they must have looked up the bird and saw what it looked like. The Pygmy Nuthatch is small and drab, so probably they just wanted to use some more colorful bird. But I’m sure whoever inserted the Troupial didn’t think it was actually a Pygmy Nuthatch. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/23 "2017-08-23T18:53:36Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#): > > I heard, could be apocryphal, that HAL was supposed to be a play on words\* on IBM. > \*Whatever the fuck that word is that describes an acronym with letters that…oh well you know what the fuck I mean…:mad: HAL stands for (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) , so it’s kind of an acronym. The play on IBM is this: H—I A—B L—M Each letter is one place before. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/24 "2017-08-23T19:03:51Z")
In the 1958 Jerry Lewis film [The Geisha Boy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geisha_Boy#In-film_references_to_popular_culture), there is a brief scene that is a parody of the 1957 movie The Bridge on the River Kwai. I saw The Geisha Boy as a kid on TV, and I can’t remember if I recognized what they were doing or my parents had to explain it. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/25 "2017-08-23T19:11:37Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > This is kind of a combo TV and movie inside joke: In one episode of the show _Last Man Standing_ starring Tim Allen, the middle daughter says (paraphrased), “It’s kind of like when I watch the movie with the toys and hear my father’s voice.” Obviously referring to Tim Allen voicing the character Buzz Lightyear in the _Toy Story_ movies. And, in _Toy Story_, there’s an appearance of a [Binford Tools toolbox](http://www.rodandtara.com/images/2010/2010%20-%20Florida%20Vacation/12-22-2009/2009%20-%2012-22%20-%201%20-%20Hollywood%20Studios%20%2811%29.JPG) in Sid’s bedroom. Binford Tools was the sponsor of “Tool Time,” the show-within-a-show hosted by Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) in _Home Improvement_. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/26 "2017-08-23T19:16:03Z")
In “Rosemary’s Baby”, Rosemary (Mia Farrow) befriends a young woman named Terry and the two women remark how she looks “just like the actress Victoria Vetri.” Terry was played by actress Angela Dorian, whose real name was [Victoria Vetri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Vetri). ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/27 "2017-08-23T19:17:26Z")
In Iron Man when Tony is working on his supersuit at his house, the music is Institutionalized by Suicidal Tendencies. Before his work on that film Robert Downey was well known for his drug addiction and was once sentenced to three years in jail because of it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/28 "2017-08-23T19:23:50Z")
> [@caligulathegod](#): > > HAL stands for (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) , so it’s kind of an acronym. The play on IBM is this: > > H—I > A—B > L—M > > Each letter is one place before. Arthur C. Clarke has denied any intentional wordplay with this; he claims it’s purely coincidental. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/29 "2017-08-23T19:24:50Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > In Iron Man when Tony is working on his supersuit at his house, the music is Institutionalized by Suicidal Tendencies. Before his work on that film Robert Downey was well known for his drug addiction and was once sentenced to three years in jail because of it. The story is that he, too, began a new chapter of his life with a Burger King meal. No, really. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/30 "2017-08-23T19:33:01Z")
[Have fun!](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/MythologyGag/Film) ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/31 "2017-08-23T19:41:39Z")
The title of “O, Brother, Where Art Thou?” is an inside joke. It’s the name of the book in the movie “Sullivan’s Travels” that the character John L. Sullivan wants to use as the basis of a movie. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/32 "2017-08-23T20:00:15Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > In SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL, folks note that the character Tony Curtis is playing sure looks like that guy who was in SOME LIKE IT HOT, which is unremarkable. > > The gag comes in when people specify _“Jack Lemmon”_. And to bring that full circle, Tony Curtis does an excellent imitation of Cary Grant, to which Lemmon says, “Nobody talks like that.” In _Sunset Boulevard_, Max von Mayerling says, “There were three young directors who showed promise in those days [of silent movies]: D. W. Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille, and Max Von Mayerling.” Von Mayerling was played by Erich von Stroheim, who certainly rated up with the other two as directors. In fact, when Norma Desmond watches one of her movies, it was from the Gloria Swanson (i.e., Norma Desmond) film, _Queen Kelly_, which was directed by von Stroheim. There’s also a scene where Desmond plays cards with three other “waxworks” – has-been actors from the silent days. They are H.B. Warner, Anna Q. Nilsson, and Buster Keaton. Keaton has become a familiar face these days, but when the movie came out, he was considered as washed up as the other two. Similarly, in _Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?_, there are clips of Bette Davis supposedly showing how bad an actress Baby Jane was as an adult. Davis was asked to pick her worst performances for the clips; she chose _Parachute Jumper_ and _Ex-Lady_. There’s also a snippet from Joan Crawford’s _Sadie McKee_ ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/33 "2017-08-23T21:45:02Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Arthur C. Clarke has denied any intentional wordplay with this; he claims it’s purely coincidental. He claims that, but how awkward and contrived is Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer? We’ll never really know. IBM was a major consultant to the film. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/34 "2017-08-23T22:02:57Z")
IMDb says: In _My Big Fat Greek Wedding_, > [@](#): > > The song playing at the wedding reception, “All My Only Dreams,” first appeared in _That Thing You Do!_ (1996), which was written, directed, and produced by Tom Hanks, who also produced this film. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/35 "2017-08-23T22:06:33Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > _3rd Rock From the Sun_ had a call-out like that. > > Big Giant Head (voiced by William Shatner) explained his tardiness for a briefing by complaining that the vessel he was traveling on had been delayed by a strange creature on the wing that only he could see. Dick Solomon (John Lithgow) said _“The same thing happened to ME!”_ > > And it did;first to Shatner in the original _The Twilight Zone_, and then to Lithgow in the movie version. This is like the ONLY thing i remember from 3rd rock from the sun that actually made me laugh out loud. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/36 "2017-08-23T22:15:50Z")
In the movie version _Arsenic and Old Lace_, Jonathan Brewster is played by Raymond Massey. Everyone remarks how much he looks like Boris Karloff, who played the equivalent role in the stage play on which it was based. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/37 "2017-08-23T22:16:22Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > This is like the ONLY thing i remember from 3rd rock from the sun that actually made me laugh out loud. There’s also one scene wherein one of the human women says she’s not just going to go out with just any “Tom, Dick, or Harry”, at which point the three alien characters named Tom, Dick and Harry start trying to look nonchalant, in hopes that no one notices they chose such cliched names. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/38 "2017-08-23T22:16:23Z")
Stretching the topic of the thread into TV crossovers, there is [an episode of _Scrubs_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-HRR_EPVew) that touches on Jan I. Tor being in _The Fugitive_. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/39 "2017-08-23T22:36:00Z")
> [@caligulathegod](#): > > HAL stands for (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) , so it’s kind of an acronym. The play on IBM is this: > > H—I > A—B > L—M > > Each letter is one place before. I know. What I’m flummoxed on is the actual word that describes such a configuration. I’m pretty sure there is one. oh - and Clarke was lying.😛 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429/40 "2017-08-23T22:48:58Z")
In the 1953 film “How to Marry a Millionaire” Lauren Bacall’s character says that she is crazy about older men, such as the old guy-what’s his name- in “The African Queen”. Which was Bacall’s husband Humphrey Bogart. Walter Lantz helped George Pal gain U.S. citizenship and in return Pal put Lantz’s creation Woody Woodpecker in many of his films as a cameo. Billy Wilder’s “Some Like it Hot” has George Raft as a gangster boss who scolds a young mobster for constantly flipping a coin “where did you pick up a cheap stunt like that?”. One of Raft’s early break through roles was a coin flipping gangster in “Scarface” The John Ford directed film “Wings of Eagles” has Ward Bond playing a film director named John Dodge with Ford’s mannerisms. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-inside-jokes/794429.md?page=3)