Obscure references?

[Sephiroth]

Children. Can't educate them, can't have them executed. What's a guy to do?

I'm SO cross-stitching this on a sampler!

My 13-year-old daughter used the "3 snaps in Z-formation" from In Living Color while talking to a friend this morning, forgetting that this show has never been shown in England. We own the series on DVD, which is how she knows it.

ah, yes, I remember going to a costume party once as a hobo carrying a pickle in a jar of lemonade

 

[Sparky]

Eh. Its just the products of a generation. I actually feel sorry for history teachers because history gets larger while class time does not. Just think in 100 years how much time will be devoted to WW1 or WW2? Or whatever wars are to come. How much time will be spent on Nixon or Kennedy, Bush or Obama? Hell not even 100 years. Our kids will be wondering the same damn thing we are now when they spout off a line from Harry Potter or wonder why someone does not know about the current oil spill or an obscure Lebron James reference.

I can't fault someone for not knowing something I take for granted. Odds are if the roles were reversed they might reference something that i don't know a damn thing about.

As an example years back my mom was talking about her youth and how they had party lines. At the time the only knowledge of party lines I had was the 1-900 numbers you dial after midnight on TV. How was I to know that everyone was on the same loop? I had no frame of reference. I couldn't even imagine taking a phone call where other households could just pick up the phone and listen in. Just imagine what our kids and grandkids will think of us and our references to history and technology.

 

[kathryn i am]

I have a tendency to quote children's books (i.e. Dr. Seuss, The Berenstein Bears, etc.) - and only my sisters understand me...

Help! Help! A boy has fed his fish too much!
A boy has fed his fish too much? I will come at once!

 

[RJDiogenes]

i would've said "I'm Batman" or "I'm Spartacus"...

Better yet, "I'm the goddamn Batman."

nah, the '89 film quote's older.

'sides, really, you'd have to use "what? are you DENSE? are you RETARDED or something? I'm the GODDAMN Batman!"

Making it even more obscure. Although it could also get you punched in the nose.

 

[scotpens]

I have a tendency to quote children's books (i.e. Dr. Seuss, The Berenstein Bears, etc.) - and only my sisters understand me...

Help! Help! A boy has fed his fish too much!
A boy has fed his fish too much? I will come at once!

Sorry, don't know that one.

I do occasionally quote A.A. Milne:

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace Christopher Robin went down on Alice . . .

Or something like that.

 

[kathryn i am]

I have a tendency to quote children's books (i.e. Dr. Seuss, The Berenstein Bears, etc.) - and only my sisters understand me...

Help! Help! A boy has fed his fish too much!

A boy has fed his fish too much? I will come at once!

Sorry, don't know that one.

That's alright - my husband now humours me by responding with the second line when I say the first...

 

[Captain Ice]

I've not even seen the new Get Smart, net alone the old one

Missed it by that much.

You really should see the series. Especially if you like James Bond. Absolutely hilarious.

Edit to add:

Just discovered that the woman who played Quark's mother on DS9 was Don Adams' (Get Smart) daughter...

 

[M'Sharak]

I have a tendency to quote children's books (i.e. Dr. Seuss, The Berenstein Bears, etc.) - and only my sisters understand me...

Help! Help! A boy has fed his fish too much!
A boy has fed his fish too much? I will come at once!

Sorry, don't know that one.

S'okay - I do. [Edit: It's amazing how familiar the illustrations are, when the last time I saw them had to be forty-five years ago or more.]

**waves to Banana Girl**

I do occasionally quote A.A. Milne:

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace Christopher Robin went down on Alice . . .

Or something like that.

Something like that, yes.

 

[Hunter X]

I recently had my students read Frederick Brown's For the Soul of France: Culture Wars in the Age of Dreyfus for my seminar on 19th-century European History. That book is full of obscure references that I had to explain--and some which I couldn't.

During a discussion of the controversy surrounding the construction of the Eiffel Tower, Brown says: "For Catholics, it was the sport of revolutionary Nimrods expounding their secularism in Notre-Dame's parish with phallic arrogance."

One of my students mentioned that she found this line funny--"nimrods," hehe. I had to explain that Nimrod was a figure in the Old Testament, who by tradition is associated with the building of the Tower of Babel.

Then I had to explain what the Tower of Babel was.

But when I was done, the class agreed that they had a much better understanding of the text.

I found that being raised in a going-to-church environment really helped me out later on when I was taking university English classes. Although, it did make for some dull lectures when the teacher would have to go into what The Last Supper or who Adam and Eve were for the benefit of the majority of the class.

My wife was the victim of the over all obscure reference thing once during a mid-term exam that asked a question using Don Cherry as an example. She had to go to the prof and ask who that was, then was rewarded with quite a strange look. She's not a hockey fan, I guess.

 

[scotpens]

. . . My wife was the victim of the over all obscure reference thing once during a mid-term exam that asked a question using Don Cherry as an example. She had to go to the prof and ask who that was, then was rewarded with quite a strange look. She's not a hockey fan, I guess.

I have no idea who Don Cherry is either. I think I once heard of a porn star named Dawn Cherry.

 

[kathryn i am]

I have a tendency to quote children's books (i.e. Dr. Seuss, The Berenstein Bears, etc.) - and only my sisters understand me...

Help! Help! A boy has fed his fish too much!
A boy has fed his fish too much? I will come at once!

Sorry, don't know that one.

S'okay - I do. [Edit: It's amazing how familiar the illustrations are, when the last time I saw them had to be forty-five years ago or more.]

**waves to Banana Girl**

I think I love you!

You are, quite honestly, the ONLY person I know outside of my family who has read that book!

Also, that second link made me think of another reference that my sisters and I use all the time (I'm sure anyone listening to us talk to each other must think we're talking in code! )

You are not my Mother. You are a SNORT!

 

[B.J.]

Sorry, don't know that one.

S'okay - I do. [Edit: It's amazing how familiar the illustrations are, when the last time I saw them had to be forty-five years ago or more.]

**waves to Banana Girl**

I think I love you!

You are, quite honestly, the ONLY person I know outside of my family who has read that book!

Also, that second link made me think of another reference that my sisters and I use all the time (I'm sure anyone listening to us talk to each other must think we're talking in code! )

You are not my Mother. You are a SNORT!

I know both those books too! I have them both on my bookshelf, and have read them to all three of my kids. The first has actually helped my kids understand how to feed our fish.

 

[J.T.B.]

You are, quite honestly, the ONLY person I know outside of my family who has read that book!

I was so hard on that book when I was little (including my own additions to the illustrations) that my mom had to buy a new copy for the grandkids.

Mr. Carp, what a man! "...Or something may happen, you never know what!"


--Justin

 

[Brian]

Not really a reference not gotten, but a recent profound example of lack of knowledge of popular culture ....

I went by the local Hallmark store yesterday to buy the new Enterprise ornament. The clerk put the batteries in it to prove to me that it works, and flew it around for me to see. Upside-down.

 

[Mistral]

Not really a reference not gotten, but a recent profound example of lack of knowledge of popular culture ....

I went by the local Hallmark store yesterday to buy the new Enterprise ornament. The clerk put the batteries in it to prove to me that it works, and flew it around for me to see. Upside-down.

I was in a conference when I read this-got a lot of weird looks for the choking noises I made...

 

[scotpens]

. . . I went by the local Hallmark store yesterday to buy the new Enterprise ornament. The clerk put the batteries in it to prove to me that it works, and flew it around for me to see. Upside-down.

If it was the latest incarnation of the Enterprise, it probably looks better that way. Or at least no worse.

 

[Hunter X]

. . . My wife was the victim of the over all obscure reference thing once during a mid-term exam that asked a question using Don Cherry as an example. She had to go to the prof and ask who that was, then was rewarded with quite a strange look. She's not a hockey fan, I guess.

I have no idea who Don Cherry is either. I think I once heard of a porn star named Dawn Cherry.

It's okay. He's someone you'd only really know if you were Canadian.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

I'm not Canadian but I know who Don Cherry is. Maybe it helped that he coached the Colorado Rockies in the late 70's - early 80's.

I issued an obscure reference today that people got. We were talking about someone having problems reconciling two schedules and I said, "Boo Radley's got a longer attention span" and was rewarded with laughter.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I'm actually very mindful not to say many obscure references, but some things I might have on me at times are obscure (especially for people outside of the sci-fi genre):

-A Number Six badge from The Prisoner.

-A sonic screwdriver in my jacket pocket from Doctor Who.

-A Green Lantern ring.

-A shirt with question marks on the collar (another Doctor Who reference).

-A piece of electrical black tape around my right thumb while playing the bass guitar (a nod to Level 42 bass player Mark King).


Others are more indigneous to my hometown in Saint Louis:

-A Saint Paul sandwich.

-Pork steaks.

-Central West End, North County, South County, West County, and "across the river" (if you're from St. Louis, you know what I mean).

-Imo's (local pizza chain that specializes in St. Louis-style pizza).

-Vess soda (frequently outsells Pepsi and Coke in grocery stores).

 

[Mistral]

A lot of these references are pretty obscure. I've seen The Breakfast Club within the last year, and I still didn't get the "better hallway vision" reference. If you want to be understood, either tailor your references to your audience or be prepared to explain yourself immediately after making the reference.

Or, we could follow the theme of the thread and post obscure references. Funny as a crutch, eh, Richey?