I was well into adulthood before I realized that the name “Boris Badenov” in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons was a play on “Boris Godunov.”
The local TV stations that used to air old WB cartoons during the afternoon didn’t care that many of the jokes referenced what was happening 30 or more years before. It was filler programming they got on the cheap. That said, for at least a couple of generations, it was the first exposure they had to WWII.
The idea of non-politicians reaching high office has always been part of the American story. The idea that business-men are better qualified than politicians has always been a part of the American story. The idea of sportsmen, or astronauts, or Mr Smith reaching high office has always been a part of the American story. George Washington and Eisenhower and Grant were elected as “non-politicians”.
They became children’s fare as time went on, but originally, they were not just shown on Saturday matinees, but were part of the theater’s shows, which consisted of a full evening of entertainment, with newsreels, short subjects, previews, and the feature film. They were designed to entertain the entire family, children and adults. Kids might not know all the references, but their parents (and adults watching without kids) knew them.
When TV came along, cartoons and short subject were repurposed as children’s fare, and cartoon creators have fought that characterization for decades.
Well, yes they were, but also for adults. Part of a theatre experience- cartoon, Main Feature, serial, newsreel, B movie, etc.
Recently I picked up (for free, at a thing similar to a Little Free Library) a boxed set of three DVDs called Forever 50’s. It was released in 2003. It has a random set of newsreels made for movie theaters in the 1950s and some complete short films, some of which were the political ones intended to teach children how to duck and cover.
Probably most REM songs, but “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” and “Man on the Moon” stand out to me. The latter apparently is all about Andy Kaufman, who I knew nothing about until I watched a documentary a few years ago. Once you know that, it might be one of REM’s most straightforward songs.
And “What’s the frequency” is a reference to the 1986 attack on Dan Rather. I just read the wiki on that song and it is just baffling, I guess it’s about a culture critic trying to understand GenX. I would NEVER have worked that out on my own. But I love the line, “you said irony is the shackles of youth.” What a great song.
“A Day in the Life” is my all-time favorite Beatles song but I have no idea what it’s about.
I like the holes joke, though.
And it was referenced itself a year later in the B-section of “Lulu’s Back in Town”:
You can tell all my pets, all my Harlem coquettes,
Mister Otis regrets, that he won’t be aroun’
This post brings up a new one for me. In the Smith’s video for This Charming Man, Morrissey is whipping around a handful of lilies.
Cole Porter’s “Miss Otis Regrets” is indeed a parody, though not of any one song. It’s a blues number sung by the butler of a rich woman who murdered her lover and was lynched for it and, for that reason, she is unable to lunch with the other ladies. Darkly funny.
I’ll nominate Eminem’s We Made You from 2009. The video pokes fun at various celebrities including Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Simpson, Brett Michaels Kevin Federline, etc., etc. The song references things going on like Lindsay Lohan dating Samantha Ronson, Brett Michael’s show Rock of Love, and even the image of a young Eminem rocking his pink Alf shirt. I didn’t get all the jokes because I wasn’t really following celebrity gossip all that much.
In the first two choruses of “That Was Your Mother,” Paul Simon sings:
Standing on the corner of Lafayette, state of Louisiana, wond’ring where a city boy should go…
In the last chorus, he sings:
Standing on the corner of Lafayette, across the street from the Public, heading down to the Lone Star Cafe…
Took me years to finally get the joke: the first version’s setting is Lafayette Street in New Orleans, but the second one’s is Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan.
In a similar vein, there’s a song on Automatic For the People titled Monty Got a Raw Deal. For a long time I took the play on words as a reference to Monty Hall, when the song was actually inspired by the life of Montgomery Clift.
In 'West End Girls. by the Pet Shop Boys there’s the line: ‘from Lake Geneva to the Finland Station.’ I originally misheard it as Filling Station, i.e. a gas station which made little sense. But it turns out to be a reference to Lenin being smuggled back to Russia during WWI. Which also makes very little sense in the middle of a pop song about dating.
This all reminds me of an incident around 1985 with my college roommate who fancied that I was ignorant of things he found important. He asked me who Sandra Dee was, and I correctly answered that she was a movie star from the 1950s. That was not the answer he was looking for, because he misunderstood “Grease” and believed that Sandy Ollson’s name was Sandra Dee because Rizzo mocked her with that name because Sandy was as virginal as Dee.
According to Lennon, it’s “about a dream.” Sure. And probably a lot of other things.
“I saw a film today” is referencing Lennon’s role in the 1966 film How I Won the War, which goes right by me because not only have I never seen it, but outside of ADItL, I’ve never even heard of it.
I grew up as a kid with a lot of Jimmy Buffet playing in the house. I loved the song “Pencil Thin Mustache” though I didn’t know any of the references. Boston Blackie? Andy Devine? Ricky Ricardo jacket?
Whenever I heard the oldie “Mack the Knife” I would wonder who exactly was being name-checked here:
Now, Jenny Diver, ho, ho, yeah, Suky Tawdry
Ooh, Miss Lotte Lenya, and Lucy Brown
…so I eventually looked it up. Turns out the song has quite an interesting history behind it. It’s the English version of a German song from a 1928 German opera that was based on a 1728 English opera, which, in turn, was based on the thief, burglar and escape artist Jack Sheppard.
Disclaimer: I think that article gets most of its facts correct, but here, where the author dissects the song line-for-line, is a pretty weird mistake:
Five’ll get ya ten old Macky’s back in town
This, from what I’ve read is five bags will get you ten people, but this is actually the hardest line for anyone to figure out. Macheath, though, is back because the murders start happening again. It has also been said that this line describes a prison sentence that he has just finished, five murders got him ten years.
The hardest line for anyone to figure out? Uh, pretty sure “Five’ll get ya ten” is simply a gambling term. It’s a bet that comes in at 2 to 1.
Yep - even money, so the singer thinks it’s pretty likely he’s back in town
Just popping in to say that “Mack the Knife” was one of my mother’s favorite songs. We had the DJ play it at our wedding, just to see the smile on her face.