The problem with super random references in media, especially before internet, was they could be impossible to figure out.
As a kid I remember the Simpsons episode with the “BOOO bring on Sha Na Na” and holds up Bowzer for President sign gag.
I assumed Sha Na Na was a shitty band, and it was just a comment on the characters taste in music. Bowzer for President baffled me though, I just thought Bowzer like the villain in Mario games?
Hah the internet to the rescue when I encountered the gag now:
The early seasons had mostly pretty obscure but timeless references to science, the later seasons had some refs I assume are going to baffle future audiences because they rely so much on pop culture, like Boyle=boil.
The original run of the series had plenty of pop-culture stuff, plus an episode centered around Lucy Liu, one around Beck and a character based on the “Bam” chef guy. And the whole “head-in-a-jar” thing was basically a mechanic to have modern pop-culture appear for guest-spots.
A lot of those still work though without the ref, Lucy sexbot is just sexy, Bam chef guy a funny alien. When the joke doesn’t work without the ref is when it is a problem.
No, I don’t mean Futurama making references to other things, I mean references to Futurama. Like, I had head “I’m going to start my own casino, with hookers, and blackjack.” many times, and didn’t know what it was a reference to until I saw the show.
You guys probably would hate Mystery Science Theater 3000 - it was produced close to where I live (Minnesota) and it some of their references were really cryptic. Pannakoeken!
South Park did a Christmas Special and every commercial break they would have a guy in a 70s afro say “Fighting the Frizzies at 11”. It was so weird and random.
A few years later I got my hands on a bootleg Star Wars Holiday special complete with commercials and several times during the commercials (which happened to be ABC in NY so this was actually the airing I saw when I was a kid!) was a news tease with a guy in an afro saying…you guessed it.
For years I listened to the Tom Waits song “Ninth and Hennepin” and loved the line “Nobody brings anything small into a bar around here.” I always took it to mean that everyone brought large bills into the bar. They brought in a lot of money with the intent of getting shitfaced. Then I finally got around to seeing the movie “Harvey” and got the reference.
When I was a kid, I watched the Carol Burnett show, and I liked the sketches with Madam, an aging silent-film diva. Turban, cigarette holder, obsequious butler. When I was about 20, I finally saw Sunset Blvd.. Ohhhhhhh! :smack:
I should have known it was from something, actually. CB parodied a lot of Hays-era films: A Stolen Life, Double Indemnity, All About Eve. And, then and now, I bust a gut at Went With the Wind.
Same here. Until this thread, I had no idea what that reference meant. I couldn’t name you a single Sha Na Na member. I’m not sure I can even name a song. I just know my parents had an LP of theirs. I’m 40, so “Bowzer,” regardless of spelling, means Super Mario villain to me.
I just thought Bowzer like the villain in Mario games?