With all due respect to 30 Rock, no current show on TV uses as many pop culture references as Happy Endings, which merrily returns for its third season tonight (ABC, 9 p.m.). They can be exhausting to keep track of, but they're almost always hilarious, and oftentimes, quite meta. During one episode, Penny (Casey Wilson) and Alex (Elisha Cuthbert) are discussing elaborate hypothetical dating scenarios, when Penny offers, “What if you were like stuck in a trap in the woods, and like a cougar was trying to eat you. Maybe your dad is the head of some elite counter terrorist unit and he only has 24 hours to...I don't know.) Any fan of either 24 or terrible episodes of television (that damn cougar...) would immediately have recognized this as a winking reference to Cuthbert's character on 24, Kim Bauer, Jack's daughter. Happy Endings has also done the same thing for In Living Color and "one of the guys from In Living Color" Damon Wayans Jr.
If a show does it correctly, these inside jokes can be amusing for viewers who know what the hell's being referenced. Here are 15 examples that are right on the nose, without being too side-nudging.
In a second season episode of Sons of Anarchy, Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) asks Big Otto's wife Luann, "You think I brought you here to Adriana you?" This was a reference to Adriana La Cerva, as played by Drea de Matteo on The Sopranos. Matteo, of course, is also Jax's ex-wife, Wendy.
Simply put, Will Arnett does his chicken impression on Up All Night.
"Back off, Pink Ranger," Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) warns Kendra Young (Bianca Lawson) during "What's My Life," a second season episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This was a reference to Gellar's stunt double, Sophia Crawford, who was also the stunt double for the Pink Ranger on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
In the Futurama direct-to-DVD movie Bender's Big Score, the Chanukah Zombie, voiced by Mark Hamill, owns a ship that looks quite similar to the one flown by the Galactic Empire in Star Wars, which, of course, Hamill stared in as Luke Skywalker.
The entirety of Frank Reynolds plot in the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode "Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack" is one long One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest reference, right down to the Native American in the hospital, who Frank calls "Tonto." Reynolds is played (lived?) by Danny DeVito, who got his big break in 1975 as...Martini in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The quote below has nothing to do with the Miloš Forman film, but I love it too much not to use.
Twelve-year-old girls love Star Trek: Voyager, right? Hopefully. Otherwise, the time when Tim Russ, who played Tuvok on the fourth best Star Trek TV show, said, "Study hard and prosper" on an episode of iCarly would have made no sense.
To quote the only good line from Clerks 2, "If Peter Jackson really wanted to blow me away with those Rings movies, he would have ended the third one on the logical closure point, not the 25 endings that followed...Even the f*ckin' trees walked in those movies." I bring this up because: in a third season episode of Lost, Charlie Pace, played by Dominic Monaghan, a.k.a. Meriadoc Brandybuck in "those Rings movies," tells John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) at one point, "Trees? Yeah, I've heard they're wonderful conversationalists."
This scene from Sports Night, in which Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman) raves about seeing The Lion King on Broadway, takes on a whole different level of meaning when you realize her boss, Isaac Jaffe (Robert Guillaume), is the same guy who voiced Rafiki in the Lion King movie.
In an early episode of Dawson's Creek, "Detention," Joshua Jackson's character, Pacey Witter, and the rest of the gang are chatting about what became of the Brat Pack from the 1980s, when Pacey brings up Emilio Estevez and "those Ducks movies." Jackson played Charlie "Just Getting Started" Conway in The Mighty Ducks, D2: The Mighty Ducks, and D3: The Mighty Ducks.
This has happened a few times, but the most notable instance of Community's Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) being compared to Ryan Seacrest occurred during last season's "Contemporary Impressionists," in which a French Stewart impersonator, who's played by the real French Stewart, tells everyone in the Greendale Seven who they look like. Shirley's Oprah, for instance, and Troy and Britta are black and white Michael Jackson, but it's Jeff who gets the least flattering comparison: Seacrest, McHale's real-life "enemy" on The Soup.
OK, this one's elaborate: Peter Serafinowicz played Duane on Spaced. Duane steals the girlfriend of Tim (Simon Pegg). Tim hates Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Peter Serafinowicz voiced Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Tim leaves his car keys at a bar after a confrontation with Duane. Duane picks up the keys after Tim's left, and says, "At last I will emerge as the victor. At last I will have revenge." Darth Maul said that in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.
Before landing the role of the Janitor on Scrubs, Neil Flynn was a respected character actor, drifting from one project to the next. Scrubs had a little fun with this during season three's "My Friend the Doctor," in which JD is watching The Fugitive, and sees not Flynn, who was actually in the film (during the subway shooting scene), but the Janitor.
Despite not being a chubby child anymore, Jerry O'Connell is and will always be Vern Tessio from Stand By Me, so when Corey Feldman, who played Teddy Duchamp in the same film, appeared on a random episode of Sliders, of course they had to do their special handshake. Out of context, it's confusing, but if you've never seen Stand by Me, you probably don't deserve to understand things, anyways.
Even The Wire, quite possibly the greatest show of all-time, wasn't above playing an inside joke that only eagle-eyed viewers would notice. In need of some $$$, Mayor Tommy Carcetti (Aiden Gillen) visits an unseen Republican governor who sounds more than a little familiar to Robert Ehrlich, Maryland's real-life governor at the time. While Carcetti's waiting in an office for a meeting, Ehrlich briefly appears as a state trooper, doing protection duty for the fictional governor.
Obviously.
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one of my favorites is in the movie urban legend when joshua jackson and alicia witt’s characters are in the car in the woods…and he can’t get the car started…and when it finally does, paula cole’s “i don’t want to wait” starts blaring through the stereo…pahaha.
My god, the footage of Fonzie jumping the shark is more painful every time I see it. Someone APPROVED that.
Winkler: “I’m jumping over a shark on waterskis?”
TV Exec: “I know, it’s stupid. But who’s not gonna want to watch that?”
And thus, a term that’s almost always misused was born.
If you haven’t seen Stand By Me yet, really just should just go ahead and get off the Internet right now.
It probably doesn’t count for your list, but this has to be the greatest thing slipped by a censor since Edith Bunker quoted Reverend Felcher.
They got another lemon party joke in earlier this season as well
The Lemon Party jokes start earlier than that, even.
This absolutely counts, and wins. Never saw that before. Thanks!
Luke skywalker never flew a TIE fighter. TIE fighters were the Empire’s fighter starship. Chumpmeat!
Thank you. You’re the voice of our people.
I had to check the comments as soon as I read that to make there were a hundred people sounding off about that.
Luke flew an x-Wing, not a TIE fighter
Nerd!
I couldn’t tell you the episode, but I distinctly remember an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Peter Boyle dressed up as Frankenstein, which is a reference to his role as the monster in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein.
Found it.
[www.tubechop.com]
Nice.
They were not making fun of Andy Griffith. This cannot be stressed enough.
God help you if a bunch of Star Wars nerds catch you saying Luke flew a Tie Fighter.
Also I always like seeing a Robert Erlich reference from people outside of Maryland. What a head of hair.
Out of context, that O’Connell/Feldman “skin it” handshake is creepy as hell.
It is…
This season of “Wilfred” featured Ryan AKA Elijah Wood AKA Frodo as a ring bearer.
He even joked about cosplaying at comic-con but not as a Hobbit but as Harry Potter
One of my favorite things 30 Rock ever did was when Liz got her talk show and they used that HD camera. Kenneth walked by and was a muppet, Liz looked terrible, Pete looked old and Jack was….young Alec Baldwin.
Also, Chang and Jeff make a reference to “Cherry Daiquiri” while laughing in one episode of Community. Britta does not appreciate it, probably because Gillian Jacobs played a topless stripper by the same name in the movie “Choke”
What? No Nathan Fillion dressing up like a space-cowboy (ala Firefly) on Castle? For shame WG, it’s like I don’t know you anymore?
In that same Halloween episode, Jon Huertas (Javier Esposito) dressed up as a soldier (he was previously in Generation Kill) and Seamus Dever (Kevin Ryan) dressed as a doctor will blood on his scrubs (he played a doctor on General Hospital who got involved in an illegal drug ring and killed someone).
I always figured that Huertas dressed up as a soldier to reference the fact that prior to his acting career, he was an actual soldier. (Air Force according to wikipedia)
Don’t remember the exact reference, but on New Girl last season, someone mentioned that Coach (Damon Wayans Jr’s character who appeared only in the pilot episode) was living with “some other white people” now.
I want the crossover episode where Coach comes back with those “other white people” and its just the cast of Happy Endings.
This might be the dumbest post I’ve ever seen on WG.
Josh – you’re a bad person. You’re a bad person.
Cherry Daiquiri was a way better Community inside joke.
Because boobs!
This entire list could have been composed of Arrested Development inside jokes. Another Happy Days crack, from Bob Loblaw: “Look, this is not the first time I’ve been brought in to replace Barry Zuckerkorn. I think I can do for you everything he did. Plus, skew younger. With juries and so forth.”
But the most brillz Arrested Development inside joke ever involved Tony Hale’s Mr. Roboto commercial:
[www.youtube.com]
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Mr. Roboto is a great song. I will fight anyone who thinks otherwise.
Clerks 2 had more then one great line. Case in point, Porch Monkey, I’m bringing it back.
I was worried that I was the only person who enjoyed that movie. I mean, it’s flawed, but that donkey scene? Top. Drawer.
Terrible movie, still love it and laugh my ass off during it.
Another fan here. Maybe I’m a masochist, but I truly enjoyed it.
Ugh. I just commented and linked to Tony Hale’s Mr. Roboto commercial but it got stuck in moderation. I just thought of another good Arrested Development inside joke — Jeffrey Tambor’s character in Larry Sanders briefly converted to Judaism, insisting upon wearing a yarmulke onstage, as it turns out, because he wanted to bang a female rabbi. Later George Bluth did the same for the purpose of escaping prison.
Also, Jeffrey Tambor corrects people when they talk about his magic tricks, referring to them as “illusions”
Community setup a Beetlejuice joke over three seasons!!! That gets my vote for most elaborate inside joke.
[youtu.be]
I couldnt give less of a shit about these references. I just want to add that i’d like to impregnate Elisha Cuthbert.
Tonight, lets get the same girl pregnant!!!
Eskimo Bros!
I knew almost none of these. Sure the AD and Community references are easy, but that’s it.
Half of these are neither ‘elaborate’ nor ‘inside’ but I suppose that level of effort is par for the list-making course. My only real quibble is that Paul Reiser referencing his character in Aliens during an episode of Mad About You wasn’t included.
/not really.
There was a good one on Law & Order: SVU last season on an episode in which Andre Braugher was playing a defense attorney. Munch introduces himself to Braugher’s character and asks ‘Have we met before?’
Braugher played Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street, which is the show that first featured Belzer’s Munch.
I’m starting to think that Richard Belzer is immortal and Munch will appear on every TV show for the rest of eternity.
So the Tony character on NCIS once joked about dating Jessica Alba… its funny because the actor guy actually dated Jessica Alba when they both were on Dark Angel…ok im going to go to my room now for knowing that.
I can recall a scene in SOA, season three I believe, when Gemma is on the run and one of the sons mentions she could dye her hair red and she responds with something like “I’d rather kill myself”…pretty obvious Peggy Bundy reference.
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The is the WORST list EVER and you totally FORGOT about MY favorite reference.
Am I internetting right?
You forgot to say “First!”.
Well done, but you didn’t question his intelligence and his ancestry.
Also, “mother’s basement,” something about his complete lack of experience with real live nekkid girls.
AH HA! I watched all the old Sons episodes on Netflix a couple of months ago and I THOUGHT I’d heard that Adriana reference, but it came and went so fast and I never saw mention of it anywhere else, I thought maybe I’d imagined it.
and one more thing, speaking of Arrested Development. Either late season 1 or early season 2 there’s an episode where Henry Winkler is in a mens room with GOB. Everyone’s combing their hair and he pulls out a comb and does the Fonzie move. You know, where his hair is already perfect.
I’m guessing there were no Archer jokes because you couldn’t pick your favourite?
Duh and/or hello!
Not ONE Nathan Fillion/Firefly reference? REALLY??????
no christophuh shooting a kid in the foot on the sopranos?
In an early episode of season one of Law & Order: SVU Dean Winters and Christopher Meloni (both playing police officers) had a discussion in the police station about how often criminals have tattoos. When this happens, Meloni casually puts his arm around Winters’s shoulder. Winters and Meloni were both previously on the HBO prison drama Oz, both playing convicts with multiple tattoos.
If anything, you should have included the first season where Chang and Jeff are walking out of the class and Jeff is laughing saying “Cherry Daquiri”… More elaborate imo.
Supernatural has two moments that reference films Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles have been in – in one, Dean (Ackles) says he’s “never even seen House of Wax” and Sam (Padelecki) gives this total, “WTF, Man?” look. In another, Dean pulls a heart out of an anatomical model in a classroom, hands it to Sam and says “Will you be my valentine,” referencing his character in “My Bloody Valentine” who ripped out his victims’ hearts and left that message. I loved those both.
Any discussion of iCarly inside bits begins and ends with this one:
[www.youtube.com]
And as a 30-year-old man, I feel like I need to qualify this by saying that the only reason I know about this clip is because Alan Sepinwall linked to it on his twitter like a year ago.
co-sign.
How the hell do they get away with putting a reference like that in a kids’ show? Most of them won’t get it.
Not only is it awesome to know other people have seen the amazing British comedy that is Spaced, but I literally watched that episode two days ago. The fake gun fights make it my favorite moment in television history:
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In a Halloween episode of Medium, the dad, played by Jake Weber, told his daughter, who was watching a zombie movie marathon, something to the effect of “don’t watch that one in the mall, it sucked”. The one in the mall is Dawn of the Dead, which he was in.
Alan Alda on 30 Rock.
“What’s all this crying about a chicken and a baby? I thought this was a comedy show.”
How about when Scrubs did a whole bummer of an episode about JD’s dad dying, right after John Ritter — who had previously guest starred as JD’s dad — died unexpectedly!
/shows self out….
Community’s small winks to the fans’ efforts to have Donald Glover play Spider-Man was nice.
Also, the dad in Family Matters was clearly playing the same world-weary cop he played in Die Hard. Dealing with John McClane’s antics all day, them Urkel’s bullshit all night.
He was also the cop that let the Ghostbusters out of jail before they went and talked to the Mayor. And now I’m remembering him on Chuck playing the Die Hard character and being the cousin of the manager at the Buy More.
But how did Carl get from Chicago to Los Angeles? Or was it the other way around?
Very few of these actually seem like inside jokes and elaborate ruses. The Tie Fighter comment (unless an elaborate troll itself) shows how little thought was put into this.
However, you forgot another one connected to David Simon is that Oliver Thomas, the former president of the city council in NOLA, plays himself in a story line remarkably like his own life, including his indictment and incarceration. I think this is a pretty sweet, winking cherry on top of a show where so many people play themselves.
Am I the only one who thinks Happy Endings suffers for its excessive pop cultural references? Not that there are too many, but they don’t always get em right. Like the reference to something being more complicated than Season 3 of Lost (seasons 4 and 5 are clearly the most needlessly complicated) or mis-pronouncing the name Carter Beauford in the DMB reference.
No one? Just me? Oh well. I second Kenny’s vote for Community’s Beetlejuice gag as most elaborate on that show, if not besting all others on the list.
On New Girl last night, Jess told Cece her job was easy. “It’s not like you work at the UN!” Hannah Simone did work at the UN.
Missing: Third Rock from the Sun. William Shatner guest stars. John Lithgow picks him up at the airport. Shatner’s character claims to have seen a monster on the plane’s wing. Lithgow says he had the same experience. Shatner starred in the “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” episode of Twilight Zone, Lithgow had the same role in the movie.
Good one, Pop Gold! [www.youtube.com]
What about the 30 Rock episode where Liz and Jack are trying to name African-American people on NBC and incorrectly call Donald Glover “D’Nall Glover”? DG has written for 30 Rock before.
Oh and Cougar Town is full of them, from Scrubs crossovers, to Abed being an extra, to Courtney Cox referencing her on stage with Bruce Springsteen. And I know I’m way late to the party on this and no one will probably read it but I had to get it out of my head.