In A Bug’s Life, the circus ringmaster is a flea. It’s a flea circus.
Admittedly I had heard the term “flea circus” my entire life but only this morning looked up what it actually was. I mean it’s pretty straightforward, a bunch of fleas made to look like they’re in a circus, but I was missing the history and context.
Lord Farquad from Shrek.
Farquad. Fuckwad.
Shrek is full of little jokes like that the kids don’t get but the parents enjoy.
Animaniacs: finger prince.
Animaniacs: finger prince.
I don’t think so.
I was in my late 30s when I realized the Beatles were not spelled the same as the insect beetles, and that their band name was a pun on “beat.”
TIL beetles (the insect) is written with double e instead ea.
There was the “Finger Prince” joke from Animaniacs, but I’m sure there were a LOT of Simpsons gags I can’t think of right now.
“No one who speaks German could be an evil man.”
The Bart, the.
Spongebob squarepants, who is friends with a pink starfish and works for mr crabs in bikini bottom.
And Mr Krabs’ daughter is a whale.
Not a joke, but…
In Star Wars, the moments where Anakin turns to the dark side and leaves the dark side were meant to mirror each other. In both instances, he’s watching someone he’s close to being attacked mercilessly, and on the verge of death, and struggles with which side to choose before finally taking action.
Not really a joke, but when Bon Jovi sang “Like Frankie said I did it MY WAY” I had no idea who he was talking about until It’s My Life came on the radio a couple months ago
Most of the rationing jokes in '40s era cartoons.
In the original Fallout I was quite proud of myself for picking up on the fact that Dogmeat was a Road Warrior reference.
It took me years to realize that the leather jacket and (to a lesser extent) sawed off shotgun were also riffing directly on Road Warrior.
“Lake Flacid” from The Simpsons episode where the grandpa is selling that drink that makes you horny that he makes in the bathtub.
I thought it was a legal way around mentioning Lake Placid without having to say the actual name - then felt so dumb when i became a teenager and actually got it
In the Futurama episode where Leela gets blinded there’s another patient in the hospital who asks “Doctor, how’s my cyst?”
The little Doctor, who appears to be an anthro-Chihuahua says “Grande”
I still have no idea what this is about.
I’m not sure it was meant to be that deep. Grande just means large in Spanish.
If anything maybe it was a reference to the Taco Bell dog?
Also hehe “dogtor”
Apparently, now I’ve stopped to check, it’s a reference to Tacobell using the word “Grande” on their menus, and the hospital is called Taco Bellevue, so yeah, it is the Taco Bell dog 😃
Not being American, I had no understanding of these cultural points.
I often wonder how non Americans deal with the omnipresence of American media, all the cultural references and intertextuality that doesn’t necessarily carry over to other cultures. It’s why I can’t get into anime (among other reasons). All the stuff that I’m sure a Japanese person would find clever or topical just goes over my head.
That same disconnect even happens within the US. Most media is produced in Southern California, so a lot of stuff from climate to government to gastronomy to slang terms just get shoved incongruously where it doesn’t belong. For me this comes up most when talking about state government. In California you go to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get your driver’s license, but it’s not called that in all states. In Texas it’s the Department of Public Safety, but even native Texans will call it the DMV because that’s what it’s called on TV. It’s such a little example but it still bothers me. And I can only imagine it gets worse as the cultural divide widens. At least it’s a phenomenon with enough recognition to merit its own article on TV Tropes.
The same phenomenon has been identified even in the UK where cultural divides and differences are present in media and often discussed in terms of accuracy or inaccuracy. Their use and abuse.
I can only imagine in a place like the US, which is on such a different scale, that the problem is going to be even wider, more pervasive due to the dominance of the media, and more infuriating given some of the passionate views people have on their home territory.
Nostalgia Critic has lots of Star Trek references I didn’t get until years later. I only started getting into Star Trek around 8 years ago
