Similarly, I know what Goatse is, and I’ve seen parodies, but plan not on seeing the real thing.
OK, this is kind of the opposite of what the OP is looking for, but:
I saw at least some episodes of every one of the TV programs the OP mentions, when they were originally broadcast.
God I’m old.
::creaks off to bed::
Roddy
I have never heard an episode of the old radio program. the Fred Allen Show and have never heard the character on the show Senator Claghorn. Yet I am familiar with the Warner BRothers character Foghorn Leghorn.
Die Blaue Engel has to be one of the concurrently funniest and most depressing things ever filmed, at least the German version, I understand they did an English filming alongside it but I haven’t seen it. Some of the jokes just don’t seem to translate well like Herr Professor Doktor Immanuel Rath’s name being changed by his students to Unrath (garbage). Marlene Dietrich was an amazing actress, and apparently uh… lifted morale quite a bit for our troops during WWII as well, I know she was a front line entertainer, but I’ve heard tell of, uh, racier things…
Umm… on topic on topic
I’m only familiar with Friday the 13th and assorted Jason hijinks from various parody and reading reviews (especially Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s old horror text reviews).
I’m also only familiar with 90% of rap, hip-hop, and dance music with references in places like Family Guy and various parodies (i.e. Weird Al).
ETA: I now realize my first paragraph sounds like a rambling 4th grader writing a school report, I’d fix it but I’m too tired to care right now. Feel free to substitute something that sounds better.
From the Simpsons:
“Restaurant Employee: YEEEEEESSSSSS?
Homer: Do you have a table for the mayor?
Restaurant Employee: YEEEEEESSSSS!
Homer: Why do you talk like that?
Restaurant Employee: I had a strrroooke!”
I didn’t know who Frank Nelson was until I just looked it up.
Pretty much all of the Bugs Bunny references aside from Groucho Marx I didn’t get until I reached adulthood.
I was familiar with the idea of a brainwashed assassin believing they were listening to a talk on Hydrangeas, being “activated” by the Queen of Diamonds playing card, and killing people on command with no memory of it afterwards through various parodies (including an excellent episode of Duckman, amongst others) but I only got around to watching The Manchurian Candidate last week (the original one, which is excellent- I’ve got no intention of watching the newer version).
I’ve never actually seen a Marx Brothers film or short, but I’m familiar with Groucho et al through subsequent parodies and pop culture appearances. The same goes for things like Clutch Cargo and Howdy Doody- way before my time (and never even on TV here, for that matter), but parodied often enough in TV and film for me to get the references and find them amusing all the same.
There’s also things like “Say Goodnight, Gracie!” from the The George Burns & Gracie Allen Show that most of us know, even if we’ve never seen the TV series, and despite never having seen Battlestar Galactica I get all the Cylon references in Family Guy and Robot Chicken.
I think most of us know what Daleks (and of their famed inability to climb stairs*), and the Time-Travelleing Police Callbox are, even if you’ve never seen Doctor Who…
*Yes, I saw that episode where it was revealed they can levitate up stairs, but you know what I mean.
I’ve never seen Double Jeapordy but have seen thousands of take offs in comedies.