Obscure references in comedy, like "You're wasting your time" in Big Night Out

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Do you remember the man who went "You're wasting your time" in Vic Reeves' Big Night Out?  I'm just watching the old Will Hay film, Oh Mr Porter, and a postman says that repeatedly to Hay, when he sees him trying to smarten up a very shabby railway station as its new master.  He says it repeatedly before Hay really notices him and gets what he means.  He does so in the same way as the man on BNO, who he also looks rather like, apart from his postman's uniform. I feel almost certain he must have been the reference intended. Can you think of other occasions where comedy has subtly alluded to other fictional cameos?

[thenoise]

"You can't give booze to a baby" is from a film as well as I recall (thanks CAB).

[Dirty Boy]

The wanking Senator Agsby in Brass Eye referencing Budd Dwyer.

[Catalogue Trousers]

"You can't give booze to a baby" is from a film as well as I recall (thanks CAB).

Bill Maynard delivers the line in Confessions Of A Pop Performer.

[BJBMK2]

Is there a case to be made, for knowledge of the source of the reference, diminishing it slightly? War Goes Bang, from On The Hour, for instance. I still think it's brilliant, but it was just 5% funnier when I assumed it was a bizarre bit of end-of-episode whimsy. I didn't twig for ages that it was a Philip Glass parody.

[Glebe]

From Inside No. 9 episode 'Misdirection':

"Just put a T-shirt on."

"No."

"A T-shirt with a bow tie printed on it then."

"Rodney Bewes? No!"



And just found out Steve Pemberton wore just such a thing on Taskmaster!

[letsgobrian]

Is there a case to be made, for knowledge of the source of the reference, diminishing it slightly? War Goes Bang, from On The Hour, for instance. I still think it's brilliant, but it was just 5% funnier when I assumed it was a bizarre bit of end-of-episode whimsy. I didn't twig for ages that it was a Philip Glass parody.

I think knowledge after the fact can diminish it.

I recognised Darkplace's references to The Kingdom and it added to it for me. Whereas I didn't spot Seinfeld's references to the Buddy Rich Tapes and the DVD extra where it's explained took a little bit away from some of my favourite lines.

It's a bit like the feeling of discovering you've been kept out of a private in-joke.

[thenoise]

It's fun when you finally get round to watching some old classic like Citizen Kane or Casablanca and start appreciating Simpsons references in reverse.

[Gulftastic]

I appreciated the reference in an episode of The Big Bang Theory when a clue in a scavenger hunt was based around the civilian name of Element Lad, a member of DCs Legion Of Superheroes. I know it's a 'geek-ish' show, but that was a much deeper cut than they'd normally take

[Utter Shit]

It can go either way really - obviously it can be great to suddenly get a connection you've previously missed, but there's also a beauty in missing a reference because the joke feels much more organically 'random' than a deliberate non-sequitur or bit of whimsy.

Then you have the inversion, where you assume you've spotted a reference that you don't get, but it's actually a bit of nonsense. Classic Simpsons was great for this - it's an obvious example but finding out the GUYS AND DOOOOOLLS song from the Simpsons isn't actually in Guys and Dolls made me laugh more than thinking it was a straight reference.

[Billy]

It can go either way really - obviously it can be great to suddenly get a connection you've previously missed, but there's also a beauty in missing a reference because the joke feels much more organically 'random' than a deliberate non-sequitur or bit of whimsy.

Then you have the inversion, where you assume you've spotted a reference that you don't get, but it's actually a bit of nonsense. Classic Simpsons was great for this - it's an obvious example but finding out the GUYS AND DOOOOOLLS song from the Simpsons isn't actually in Guys and Dolls made me laugh more than thinking it was a straight reference.

...and that's completely thrown me. Even just now as I Googled I assumed it was just an unrelated old song that happened to share the same name, but nope, lyrics entirely made up by the Simpsons team to the tune of Hooray for Hollywood - I thought all the show had done was just add the Star Wars references to it.

Saying that as a kid I assumed that A Streetcar Named Desire really was a musical, and couldn't understand why a third of an entire episode was just them singing songs that I thought already existed.

[Andy147]

(That's "Oh! Streetcar!", though I think they only show the name briefly).

Conversely, I remember some people thinking the joke in the "Paint Your Wagon" clip was that you'd obviously never have a musical starring Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin (although the "Gonna Paint Your Wagon" song is made up for the show).

Monty Python obviously has loads of obscure references, but I remember being surprised to learn that Philip Jenkinson who introduces "Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days" (and gets machine-gunned) was a real journalist/film buff.

[checkoutgirl]

The wanking Senator Agsby in Brass Eye referencing Budd Dwyer.

Budd Dwyer was a compulsive masturbator?

[checkoutgirl]

I think knowledge after the fact can diminish it.

Yeah it depends. If it's just one line that you think is really funny and odd and original, it diminishes it. If it's a more elaborate Simpsons style homage, less so.

[BritishHobo]

Is there a case to be made, for knowledge of the source of the reference, diminishing it slightly? War Goes Bang, from On The Hour, for instance. I still think it's brilliant, but it was just 5% funnier when I assumed it was a bizarre bit of end-of-episode whimsy. I didn't twig for ages that it was a Philip Glass parody.

I had an in-franchise version of this with the Ab Fab movie, which I saw before seeing any of the show. When Joanna Lumley does the "Does he still live in Gabon?" bit, I thought the joke was that Patsy is so horrible and self-absorbed, and very dismissive of Saffy, but surprisingly has paid enough attention to actually remember where Saffy's dad lives, showing up Eddie, who doesn't know. Then I went back and watched the show and realised it's just a callback to it being funny when she says the word "Gabon".