Hey, wait! I know that!

[RoJoHen]

The big Batmobile chase scene from "The Dark Knight" cracks me up when they drive onto "Lower 5th Street" or whatever. They're not even pretending it's not Chicago. It's obviously Lower Whacker Dr.

 

[captcalhoun]

^ wait til you see Transformers 3...

 

[Trekker4747]

One that comes to mind is the S5 opener for "Enterprise" where some propaganda footage is shown of the alien/Nazi menace in 20th century Earth and there's a shot of Times Square showing a Pepsi Billboard.

There's a Fifth Season!?!?!

Fourth season. Whatever.

 

[Mistral]

I was reading John Birmingham's Axis of Time trilogy and a character tells some WWII soldiers, "Don't have a cow, man!"

In his story the idea is that no bit of pop culture gets lost in our digital/Internet age so even a woman born around now knows who the Simpsons are when she hits adulthood.

I found this to be very believable. I suspect my (small) children will know who Bart is even if they cancel the Simpsons tomorrow...Proof in point, I bought my 4 yr old a cartoon on DVD last week and he watched it and enjoyed it. It was A Man Called Flintstone and it was made 44 years ago...but now he knows who Fred Flintstone is.

 

[FluffyUnbound]

Of course, the downside to doing this is that over time your "future-y" easter eggs can age out - like the bankrupt airlines, hotel chains and phone companies referenced in this way in 2001.

 

[Mistral]

Of course, the downside to doing this is that over time your "future-y" easter eggs can age out - like the bankrupt airlines, hotel chains and phone companies referenced in this way in 2001.

Well, yeah, that's true. But in the Birmingham books they reference stuff that won't change like song titles, pop characters that already exist and Microsoft.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I always think it's a little weird in Batman Begins during the car chase when the police say that he's on I-17. I-17 is one of those weird interstates that doesn't actually cross between states. It exists entirely in Arizona, going from Phoenix to Flagstaff. So that means that Gotham City must be in Arizona somewhere.

 

[Trekker4747]

They're not called "interstates" because they cross between states but because they're paid for by an interstate collection of funds.

 

[DigificWriter]

I'm reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and the first four books are chalk full of little 'homages' to our own world and reality, from little things like the words 'Citgo' and 'Chevrolet' appearing in Roland's world, to Roland and the other 3 main characters (all of whom are actually FROM our world, although from different time periods) ending up in the Topeka, Kansas featured in King's novel The Stand.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I actually dislike when the author/creator of a work does something like this. Too often it comes off as forced. One that I remember, though it doesn't annoy me that much, was when Timothy Zahn added hot chocolate to Star Wars. I can't remember what book it was in, but I remember that scene. Easter eggs are fine. Nods and winks to the "camera" annoy me.

That never bothered me as much as Luke drinking absolutely nothing but coffee in Barbara Hambly's Children of the Jedi. Then again, that whole book annoyed me.

 

[The Comedian]

Of course, the downside to doing this is that over time your "future-y" easter eggs can age out - like the bankrupt airlines, hotel chains and phone companies referenced in this way in 2001.

Well, yeah, that's true. But in the Birmingham books they reference stuff that won't change like song titles, pop characters that already exist and Microsoft.

I loved the bit where Heinrich Himmler is messing around with a computer and vowing to exterminate Bill Gates...