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.
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.”
wtf
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.”
Miles Prower is the “government” name of the Sonic character Tails. It wasn’t until a couple years ago that I realized it’s “miles per hour.” And I played those games when they were new.
Are you fucking kidding me?!? TIL.
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.
It took me several viewings of Hot Fuzz to realize that the pair of shotguns PC Angel has strapped to his back in the climax of the film are meant to evoke angel’s wings.
Spongebob squarepants, who is friends with a pink starfish and works for mr crabs in bikini bottom.
I still remember reading the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in German when I was 9 or 10 years old. In one of the panels where they first encounter the Shredder, I think Raphael says something like “Who is this guy? Darth Vader?”. I had never seen Star Wars before and didn’t even know how to pronounce the name. Still, a few days later I tried to be cool and dropped that reference at the playground. One of the older boys from the neighborhood was like “Who? ‘Dart Fadder’? What are you talking about?” Naturally, they corrected my pronunciation, found it hilarious that I didn’t know Star Wars and I was the idiot of the day. I never forgave Kevin Eastman for that and it took a few more years until I actually watched Star Wars and got the reference.
These days of course I know that having read the very first issue of TMNT at the age of 10 or so is actually several orders of magnitudes cooler than having seen Star Wars. ;)
Are you aware of all the parallels between TMNT and Daredevil?
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.
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.
Most of the rationing jokes in '40s era cartoons.
