Times when you didn't get references, parodies, homages, etc

[H-Virus]

What are some instances where you saw something and didn't realize that it was somehow referencing something else, whether it was a parody or satire or just a shout-out to it, likely due to seeing the reference before seeing the thing it was referencing?


For instance: I started watching WCW when I was 4 years old in the early 90s, so I knew who Johnny B. Badd was before I knew who Little Richard was.

Also, I can't even guess how many times I heard the (misquoted) phrase "Luke, I am your father," as a kid before I actually figured out what movie it originated from.

And of course, the first time I bought a Weird Al cassette (Bad Hair Day), I had no idea he was doing parodies of other people's music. I just thought he was a guy who wrote songs about 'weird' things.

[Spiderf 4]

Second the Weird Al thing. I was into Weird Al years before I was "into music". I did know that Eat It was Beat It and Fat was Bad, but then apparently stuff like Syndicated Inc. was a parody of some Soul Asylum song, and Cavity Search was a parody of a U2 song.

[wildojinx]

I never saw Enter the Dragon until several years after seeing Kentucky Fried Movie first, which made watching Enter the Dragon a very entertaining experience.

[Pure Fusion Jesse Walsh]

The whole "Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home" bit from Airplane. Had no idea it was referencing a commercial that was way before my time.

[MolotovMocktail]

Nov 7, 2018 19:45:48 GMT -5 Spiderf 4 said:

Second the Weird Al thing. I was into Weird Al years before I was "into music". I did know that Eat It was Beat It and Fat was Bad, but then apparently stuff like Syndicated Inc. was a parody of some Soul Asylum song, and Cavity Search was a parody of a U2 song.

LOL, those were the two I didn’t know. But yeah, I never keep up with popular music, so I often hear the Weird Al version before the original.

Looney Tunes ran well into the 90’s, but often caricatured celebrities from the 30’s and 40’s, so as a kid, those went over my head.

[Mrs. Potato Dick]

Nov 7, 2018 19:40:47 GMT -5 H-Virus said:

And of course, the first time I bought a Weird Al cassette (Bad Hair Day), I had no idea he was doing parodies of other people's music. I just thought he was a guy who wrote songs about 'weird' things.

Nov 7, 2018 19:45:48 GMT -5 Spiderf 4 said:

Second the Weird Al thing. I was into Weird Al years before I was "into music". I did know that Eat It was Beat It and Fat was Bad, but then apparently stuff like Syndicated Inc. was a parody of some Soul Asylum song, and Cavity Search was a parody of a U2 song.

I knew from a very young age who he was and what he was about. I've always been into all kinds of music (my mother tells me, I don't remember, that for our 2nd grade talent show, I sang 'Don't You Just Know It' by Huey Piano Smith) BUT I DIGRESS.

It wasn't until I was about 20 that I realized that Al has a masturbation joke in One More Minute.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

There's probably a ton of them from old Bugs Bunny cartoons... As a kid, I had no idea who Groucho Marx was, so anytime Bugs had the glasses and mustache and that cigar I didn't catch the reference.

[MiLB Fan]

I didn’t realize that Scream was meant to be a parody of ‘80s slasher flicks; I just took it as a straight horror movie. And I actually saw Scream 2 first, so all the references to the first one went right over my head.

[Joe Neglia]

There's an MST3K bit where the 'Bots count the boards (and slits in-between) of a fishing pier, to homage an Ingmar Bergman film, so it's b&w and very, very slow. I got that reference but at the end, Crow adds the punchline "So...when you're out of slits, you're out of pier." It took me a couple of decades to realize that was a parody of a beer tagline ("When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer.")

Nov 7, 2018 20:22:22 GMT -5 MiLB Fan said:

I didn’t realize that Scream was meant to be a parody of ‘80s slasher flicks;

I saw it opening night in a theater with my then-Fiancee #1. It was such an interesting time, as we recognized it for what it was and had more fun watching the rest of the audience react to all the tropes and homages.

[Jake, The Jake, Jake]

Nov 7, 2018 20:20:32 GMT -5 Mrs. Potato Dick said:

It wasn't until I was about 20 that I realized that Al has a masturbation joke in One More Minute.

The line about the self-service pump? I only caught that a few years ago.

[WoodStoner1]

Slappy and Skippy do a Woodstock version of "Who's on first?" on Animaniacs.

[arrogantmodel]

In Spawn, Clown says, "I love the smell of burning asphalt in the morning!" And later, when talking to Jason Wynn, he says something will, "Trigger the apocalypse now."

Jason Wynn, of course, is played by Martin Sheen.

[Powerline]

I watched Rocko's Modern Life every morning for...shit, had to be 3-4 years.

Rewatching it on VRV for the first time in years, I expected a few references/jokes here and there. No...there's jokes, innuendo, references, etc. every few minutes that went over my head repeatedly.

[G✇JI☈A]

Saw Spaceballs before I saw Alien.... and One Froggy Evening .. still laughed at the chest busting parody though.

[Rumble McSkirmish]

I didn't realize until years after the fact The Animanics short: "Yes Always." was almost a line for line recreation of an actual Orson Welles recording session.

[agent817]

Nov 7, 2018 23:01:15 GMT -5 Powerline said:

I watched Rocko's Modern Life every morning for...shit, had to be 3-4 years.

Rewatching it on VRV for the first time in years, I expected a few references/jokes here and there. No...there's jokes, innuendo, references, etc. every few minutes that went over my head repeatedly.

I think that happened to a lot of kids. I didn't get a lot of the sex jokes until I got older.

Also, when I was a kid, I remember watching "Don't Be a Menace." Although I had read that it was a parody of certain films, I didn't watch the movies fully until later on and then I started getting a lot of the jokes. However, certain scenes that were spoofed were hard to take seriously at times (Like the scene when Tre was confronted by the self-hating racist cop in Boyz N The Hood).

[Larryhausen]

Nov 7, 2018 21:51:00 GMT -5 WoodStoner1 said:

Slappy and Skippy do a Woodstock version of "Who's on first?" on Animaniacs.

Who's on Stage is one of my all time favorite bits ever. And I even knew what they were referencing.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

Nov 7, 2018 20:22:22 GMT -5 MiLB Fan said:

I didn’t realize that Scream was meant to be a parody of ‘80s slasher flicks; I just took it as a straight horror movie. And I actually saw Scream 2 first, so all the references to the first one went right over my head.

For me, the sign of a good parody movie is one that stands as a good movie even if you don't get the references and parody bits.

Which is a nice segue into my contribution. Galaxy Quest.

I hadn't seen any Star Trek before I saw that so the references went over my head. But I still thought it was a great film.

[mrtuesday]

Nov 7, 2018 20:10:08 GMT -5 Pure Fusion Jesse Walsh said:

The whole "Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home" bit from Airplane. Had no idea it was referencing a commercial that was way before my time.

It took me years to find out that Airplane itself is almost a scene-for-scene parody of the movie Zero Hour.

[Eunös ✈]

Honestly, a made up high percentage of the time I never understand the reference..Only on a few occasions I do.