Favourite Whedonverse Cultural References

nerd4hire

nerd4hire

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Cultural References; we know Joss and his writers love em.

I love them too. I love the way the Whedon guys tip their genre geek hats to stuff like the Tremors worm in Beneath You, or the book version of Golem in Same Time Same Place, or all the Shakespeare stuff in the early seasons.

It really confused me when I kept hearing a reference to some guy called MC Usher in Season 4 and 5 of Angel. I googled it and came up empty. Turned out I was mis-spelling it. It's MC Escher. He's an artist. Wanna see?

http://images.google.com/images?q=mc escher&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=wi

So what's your favourite Whedonverse cultural reference? I put this in Whedonverse so anything can go - Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Fray, Xmen.

Here's my personal all-time favourite WCR...



Quote From Intervention:

GLORY: So start talkin'.
SPIKE: Yeah. Okay. The key. Here's the thing...

Shot of Spike's hands with chains wrapped around them. He twists them around trying to loosen the chains.

SPIKE: It's that guy... on TV ... what's his name?
GLORY: (frowns) On the television?
SPIKE: That show ... the prize show ... where they guess what stuff cost?
MURK: The Price Is Right?
JINX: Oh, Bob Barker!
MURK: We will bring you Bob Barker! We will bring you the limp and beaten body of Bob Bark-
GLORY: (jumps up) It is not Bob Barker, scabby morons! The key is new to this world ... (turns back to face Spike) and Bob Barker is as old as grit. (smiles) The vampire ... is lying to me.
 
I like ones that you pick up on and you feel smart because you did. Or ones you can use in life. I've said "Run pussycat, kill kill" before now and confused people. Oh and "five by five", the classic reference. Also referencing Buffy is fun, I've got my friend saying "we've dejaed this vu". Also said "Who died and made her Elvis?" the other day and have used a load of others.

When Spike says "Here we are now, entertain us" has always intrguiged me about whether hes quoting Nirvana or not. Just always made me wonder.
 
Hehe, I love that, if it wasn't just too weird I'd go around speaking Buffy-talk all the time.. But to my friends, that'd just seem like I was trying to be "cool" or whatever, speaking English without a reason, lol. (Not that I don't quote BtVS all the time anyway but, hehe.)

But, about the cultural references, I love it. I mean, I probably don't get all of, but I love the things I get.. It's one of the things that made me love this show so much.. really..
 
My favourite (Well, next to Bob Barker.) was Buffy's remarkably obscure Anywhere-But-Here. Gleefully random. Nice to know our Buffy has an impressively broad range in music tastes.
 
phoenixrising said:
D'Hoffryn's comment in 'Selfless' is a great one.

'Breathtaking! It's like somebody slaughtered an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog.'
Click to expand...

Did you ever see this one?

The network was unhappy with D'Hoffryn's Abercrombie and Fitch line ("It looks like someone slaughtered an Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue"), not because they may lose a sponsor, but because D'Hoffryn didn't care about the deaths of the frat boys. Drew Goddard explained that D'Hoffryn is in fact evil but the network still didn't get it. He wrote another line - "It looks like Maxim has just lost 15 subscriptions" - but the original line eventually was okayed by the network. [From Drew Goddard's DVD commentary].


http://www.restlessbtvs.com/episodes/season7/5selfless/
 
E
eponinethen
I heard about that, heheh..
Yeah, heard that on the commentary. It's pretty much the same line with different words. How did the network not get that D'Hoffryn would act exactly that way? He's the freaking villain.
 
The cultural references is one of the reasons that I adore Season 6. I love the Trio, entirely for the names they call Jonathon (not to mention all of the other sci-fi/fantasy references). Come on, the entire James Bond conversation from Life Serial was just plain classic. As a fellow Bond nerd, I wanted to slap Andrew as well (Timothy Dalton. Pshaw). ILM, Lord of the Rings, Ken Russell, Ocean's Eleven, Legion of Doom, these guys (both the characters and the writers) are so immersed in American culture that it's astounding. My absolute favorite cultural reference from Buffy, however, is one that only one of my friends got, and he's not even a Buffy fan. He only saw it because he came to a Buffy party to see what all the fuss was about.

Chosen:

Andrew: You go through the door and are confronted by Trogdor the Burninator

TROGDOR! Burninating the countryside! Only Homestarrunner.com fans and, more specifically, Strongbad fans, would get that. I love it. It makes me so happy that Andrew is a Strongbad fan, and that he would choose to include Trogdor in his D&D Game. If you aren't familiar with Trogdor, check this out: Trogdor the Burninator
 
nerd4hire
nerd4hire
Thanks for that, and here's some welcome to boards rep for you. :)
I've heard the Whedon writers refer to themselves as "culture geeks".

On the homestarrunner thing, isn't there another reference to that? It's just a vague memory, but I think it was a T shirt or something like that. I think it may have been in the ATS episode Damage.
 
nerd4hire said:
I've heard the Whedon writers refer to themselves as "culture geeks".
Click to expand...

I can see that, really. Just look at David Fury...he wrote for "Pinky and the Brain", and "Animaniacs" in his pre-Buffy days, and they were littered with pop cultural and historic references...so funny!!!
 
My personal fave:


Cordelia: Willow, Glad to see you've seen the softer side of Sears

I can't think of any more off the top of my head right now. I'm so bad at this stuff!
 
nerd4hire said:
Did you ever see this one?

The network was unhappy with D'Hoffryn's Abercrombie and Fitch line ("It looks like someone slaughtered an Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue"), not because they may lose a sponsor, but because D'Hoffryn didn't care about the deaths of the frat boys. Drew Goddard explained that D'Hoffryn is in fact evil but the network still didn't get it. He wrote another line - "It looks like Maxim has just lost 15 subscriptions" - but the original line eventually was okayed by the network. [From Drew Goddard's DVD commentary].


http://www.restlessbtvs.com/episodes/season7/5selfless/
Click to expand...
I am so glad they left the Abercrombie thing in, I hate those stores.
 
Ok well my all-time fave cultural reference isn't a quote. It's Spike. And Illyria. Playing Xbox. How perfect. I always thought Illyria's reaction to the game was how most parents feel about video games their kids play. LMAO Need I say more? 😀 😀

Also - The Trio and the Star Wars references were FANTASTIC.
 
Love the Creature from the Blue lagoon. Can't reallt remember what ep. but I think it might have been Go Fish and between Cordelia and Xander, but I'm not quite sure. I just know that someone say the Creature from the Blue lagoon and I feel like such a geek for knowing that that's Brooke Shields before they say so, but it always cracks me up.
 
Here's the one from Go Fish:

Cordelia

You, you, you. What about me? It's one thing to be dating the lame unpopular guy, but it's another to be dating the creature from the Blue Lagoon.

Xander

(paces over to her) Black Lagoon. The creature from the Blue Lagoon was Brooke Shields. And thank you so much for your support! (sits by her)
Click to expand...

There's another Creatue of the "Black" Lagoon one, but now I can't remember the name of the ep. I think it's from Season 5. It's at the beginning of the ep. Xander, Willow, and Buffy are having a picnic by a lake when a creature of the black lagoon style creature attacks.
 
Oh, ya know what? I'll bet you're right. I've been watching 2 sets of re-runs lately. One is Season 5, and the other is Season 3. I just knew I'd seen it recently.

No wonder I couldn't find it when I looked in Season 5.
 
I think it occurred after the whole Willow/Xander getting caught kissing thing...it actually may be the beginning of The Wish...let me check...

Is this the scene:

The Wish said:
A large park. The camera pans along some flowery foliage until it
reaches a pair of green scaly legs firmly planted to the ground and a
pair of human legs dangling and kicking from someone pinned high against
a tree. The monster makes gurgling noises and low-pitched roars. Cut to
Buffy being held against the tree by her neck. The monster's face has
tentacles coming off of the back of his head as well as the front in
place of lips. His teeth are placed vertically between the two center
tentacles. His scaly green skin glistens with slime.

Buffy: (yells out desperately) Nnnrrf! Nnnrrf!

Near a picnic table Xander is just coming to, apparently having been
knocked around by the monster as well. At the table Willow frantically
searches through their bag of demon-killing implements.

Willow: Oh, God! Demon! Demon! What kills a demon?!

Buffy struggles with the monster's hand at her neck, but can't get it to
budge and has a hard time breathing.

Buffy: Nnnrrf! Nnnrrf!

Willow: (still searching) Oh, Nerf! Not Nerf. Knife!

She finds a knife and runs with it to Buffy's aid. She tosses the knife
to Buffy, who blindly grabs it from behind out of mid-air and stabs the
monster in the chest. The monster immediately falls over dead, taking
Buffy down with it. Willow and Xander help her up.

Buffy: Okay. That was too close for comfort. Not that slaying is ever
comfy, but... you know what I mean? (takes a deep breath) If you guys
hadn't been here to help...

Willow: But, we were, and we did, and, and we're all fine. (looks down
at the monster) Isn't he gonna go poof?

Buffy: Mm, I guess these guys don't. We'll have to bury him or
something. Uhhf...

They walk over to the picnic table.
Click to expand...

Source
 
Yes. That's the one. That demon looked very Creature of the Black Lagoon to me.

But ya know?... Now that I go back and re-read it, I wonder what I was thinking. It sounds much different.
 
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