Obscure References

Well, if it isn't my good friend Mr. McGreg! With a leg for an arm, and an arm for a leg!

A quote from Dr. Nick Riviera, a less-than-reputable doctor on The Simpsons. Call 1-800-DOCTORB... The B is for bargain!
Where are the negatives?

From almost any episode of Nowhere Man, my favorite show during the 1995-1996 season. It was on UPN, and some pages that I found that reference it are this one and this other one. It was very much like The Prisoner, and had flavors of The Incredible Hulk.
Oh, my! I forgot. I turned it off!

C-3PO was wondering what's happened to Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca. R2-D2 suggests something about the com-link, prompting today's obscure reference (usually uttered by David Gamache). The movie, for those of you living in a closet since the late seventies, is Star Wars.
Do it! Turn it on!! Give da people air!!!

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall.
Yeah, I have one just like it in my livingroom.

A classic line from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where two men from the government ask him if he recognizes a picture of Devil's Tower, Wyoming.
In fact, you could say, we just ate Ooter, and he's in our stomaches right now! (pause) Wait. Scratch that one.

One of the Simpsons Halloween Specials.
You can use that!

"The Lazlo Letters", a book of letters to various people (and their replies) from Lazlo Toth, American! Lazlo Toth is a character created by Don Novello (Father Guido Sarduchi), used to write these actual letters. It's hillarious! Other references from this include "Come on!" and "Nuts to that!!".
That's nut good.

An episode of Saturday Night Live where in one skit the proposed jingle for the candy bar "Nutterrific" was:

Nutterrific.. Nutterrific..
Nutterrific Nutterrific - It does nut taste good.

Kevin Nealon and Chris Elliot tried hard to make very clear that it didn't say "It does not taste good", but that it in fact said "It does nut taste good".
It could grasp it by the husk!

Arthur, King of the Britons, explains how a swallow could potentially carry a coconut, in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
I answered the darn--- I'm cooperating here!

Jerry Lundergaard to Margie Gunderson in Fargo.
So he was *expecting* human?!?

Tom Royer, trying to figure out one of the cool cool riddles that people either love or hate (I love 'em).
Eat your own pie!

Incredibly stupid line from the Stephen King movie Thinner. The entire line is "Why you don't do right? Eat your own pie! You die too but you die clean!". I saw this movie on cable, realized this was probably the stupidest line I'd ever heard, and told a few friends at work (Frank Sinton and Doug Stetson) about this horrible line. Another closely connected line is "Die clean, White Man From Town. Die clean!". I'd originally thought it went "Die clean, White Man From Town. Eat your own pie!". As a result, every time we heard someone say they were going to do a "make clean", we all thought "Make clean, White Man From Town.. Eat your own pie!!!". It eventually dissolved to just "PIE!!!!!!!". This is probably the most obscure I've become so far with lines only 5-6 people get, from a movie that wasn't at all good, and that totally requires hearing the way it was said to appreciate it, but it so deserved to be in this list that I couldn't resist. Pie!!!
Dirty, dirty whore

This reference came from Todd Sjolander. As the story goes, back in college he and his friends watched the Adam Sandler movie Billy Madison, which had the line "If there is any cheating of any kind, especially with my wife, who is a dirty, dirty, tramp, then I will just go nuts". He and a bunch of his friends started saying "dirty dirty tramp" regularly, and over time it somehow morphed into "dirty, dirty whore".
Then one day, Todd had a test in some history class that he had to go to. He (along with almost everyone else in the class) was waiting outside the classroom, because the teacher wouldn't let them in until everyone showed up. They were waiting there for like 40 minutes or so. Then some girl asked why they couldn't go in, and someone else responded "Because Jane Doe isn't here yet". Todd instinctively uttered "dirty, dirty whore!", then glanced around and realized that none of his friends were around, so no one got the reference. He then had to stand there around all those people for another 10 minutes feeling like a total ass.
"taking the juice for free"

This is actually an original phrase from me (Jeff Keegan), that I coined on September 20, 2001. I had just had a dream where at one point I was sitting down with some guy and his two kids. He mentioned some sports game that he wished he'd been able to go to, and for some reason I kinda nodded like I'd been there. "Really?! How was it?!" he asked, and like an idiot I had to wade through my lie.
He was interested or enthused because of something I pretended to know about, share, or recognize, but I didn't (however offhandedly I had claimed to). His juices got flowing about the conversation because he thought I had something interesting to contribute that he appreciated. I didn't, and I hadn't earned that enthusiasm/interest.
I was taking the juice for free.
(illustrated quite well here)
Throw me in jail with a spool of copper wire

My dad was talking to us one day, trying to explain how he loved to tinker with things and that that could occupy all of his time and he's be happy. He then loudly proclaimed "Throw me in jail with a spool of copper wire!". For Christmas we gave him this:

and it took him a few seconds to remember the reference, but he got it.

Explanations of references from the text on the left

The Simpsons

A television cartoon created by Fox. You can check out the Official Simpsons Website for more info on The Simpsons.

Mystery Science Theater 3000

One of the funniest shows ever conceived. Must be seen to be understood. They take the worst movies ever made, and make fun of them relentlessly. If you're thinking "that sounds stupid", see my sentence before about how you have to see it to understand.

The Sci-Fi channel is the current home for the show, and they have a web page for it. Last but not least there's the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Drinking Game.

Neil Peart

Neil Peart is the drummer and song writer for my favorite band of all time, Rush. You can read up about Rush on the newsgroup alt.music.rush.

Star Trek

The reference here was to the original TV series Star Trek, which is too common for me to have to describe here, I imagine. I myself (unlike a few people I know) love all of the Star Trek series', including Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager.

Kirk

Come on, do I really have to describe who James T. Kirk is? How did you even get to this page without knowing this?

Westworld

Westworld was a movie that came out in 1973, about a futuristic theme park where you get to live out your fantasies interacting with robot characters that seem as real as humans. Check out the Internet Movie Database's review of "Westworld" for more info.

Itchy & Scratchy

Itchy and Scratchy are two characters from a cartoon called (appropriately enough) "The Itchy and Scratchy Show", which is within the cartoon The Simpsons. It's a parody of the violent nature of some cartoons (most likely Tom & Jerry). Bart and Lisa watch this all the time.

Duckman

Duckman was a cartoon on USA about a duck named "Duckman" that is a private detective. The voice of Duckman is played by Jason Alexander (George on Seinfeld). This is a very fast-paced quick snappy type of humor, both in dialog and visually (lots of the cartoon seems to be done knowing that people of today have VCRs/TiVos and can look at the individual frames, since funny signs etc are only visible for a few frames sometimes).

The Life of Brian

One of my favorite Monty Python movies, "The Life of Brian" is a movie about Brian, a man growing up around the same time as Jesus. No description I give here could do it justice. It's a classic that shouldn't be missed.

"Almost there..."

A phrase said a few times by a pilot in Star Wars, while trying to stay alive a bit longer over the Death Star. This is usually follwed by someone else in the room screaming "Stay on target...." or "We're too close!!".

"It's only a flesh wound!"

Another of my favorite Monty Python movies, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", contains this phrase during a sword fight between the Black Knight and King Arthur. "Look! You're leg's off!","No it isn't!","Well what's that then?", "I've had worse.","You liar!","It's only a flesh wound!". Another absolute must see for Monty Python fans, but I shouldn't have to say that since most of them know this already.

"... it is .......... green"

On Star Trek: The Next Generation there was an episode where Scotty was found alive. At one point he becomes depressed so he goes to Ten Forward (the bar) and asks for some whiskey. He complains about the synthahol, and Data tries to find him some real alcohol. He finds a bottle of green liquid, Scotty asks him what it is, and he sniffs it. "(sniff) It is.. Hmm? It is.. .... it is .. green."

"Ohh.. but I was gonna go to the Tashi station and get some power converters! - GLUG GLUG GLUG"

Luke Skywalker moaning about having to work for his Uncle Owen rather than go off and have fun (though to be quite honest, I can't picture that being lots of fun) in the legendary movie Star Wars. The "GLUG GLUG GLUG" refers to the Star Wars Drinking Game.

Obscure References