Most egregious pop culture reference in one of your stories

[EmilyMiller]

I do this all the time. Often references to more than one movie / TV show in a single story.

Heaven & Hole had many such references. But the two most shameless were:

It was unclear to me what such luminaries, or maybe tenebrinaries in Lucy's case, wanted with a third class demon and an ex-angel. I guessed we were about to find out.

The silence hung heavily. Both regarded us wordlessly, and with an air of, what seemed to be, distaste.

They say that Nature abhors a vacuum, but she's an amateur, I totally loathe one. I just couldn't help myself...

"So, who talks first? You talk first? I talk first?"

The reply was stentorian, and sounded as if from a great depth.

"Silence, worm!" bellowed my Mistress. The Daughter of Morning. The Mother of Lies. Apollyon and Abaddon.

[…]

Lucy seemed to gather herself. In the distance storm clouds brewed, laced with lightning.

Then she appeared to think better of it. "Whatever! I just can't bear attitude in the lower hierarchies. And I hated that fucking movie too."

And…

She picked up the conversation. "So, what this bastard has done to her makes things difficult. But, as often is the case, his plans have a loophole. Something that the right type of beings might be able to exploit."

Again, I couldn't contain myself. "A thermal exhaust port, you mean."

Lucy smiled. "Now, that movie I liked.

And that’s just on page 1.

How about you?



Em

 

[MrPixel]

I trotted out the Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote reference last month, so I’ll leave that one alone. Here’s one that’s sort of regional, so maybe a few might get it. From Barstow - Plan B: Their New Home:

The foursome has run out of Route 66 and Steve just merged the SUV into traffic on I-44 east of Joplin. Jax and Cyan have at least put shirts on now that they're in heavier traffic, and are sitting up noting the change in scenery.

"Oh, gag. PULL!" Cyan hollers from the back seat.

Steve starts laughing rather loudly. Em looks at him like he's crazy and she glances back to Jackson who has an equally startled expression.

"Seriously," Cyan repeats. "Gag!"

"'Gag', what?'" Emily insists.

Steve's big laughs have reduced to chuckles, and he finally comes up with the answer.

"Precious Moments. Specifically, the 'Precious Moments Chapel' near the next exit for Carthage. See this billboard coming up?"

"Oh, yeah. Over-the-top big-eyed cartoon characters. So? What is it?"

"The 'chapel' is the centerpiece of a quasi-religious theme park. The 'gift shop' sells a contrived line of ceramic figurines marketed primarily to the recent grandmother demographic as 'collectibles'. They're beyond saccharine cute, like those cartoon characters. They actually cost a lot of money to buy new, but are in the end worthless."

"Why? Uh... do they do cute naked ones?"

"Emily! I said 'religious', didn't I?"

She grins and sticks her tongue out at him.

"Anyway... worthless because they grace garage sale tables everywhere when great-grandma has to move into a senior care home and the kids or grandkids are forced to deal with the mountains of said 'collectibles' all over the house. One in a thousand might be something rare and worth something to somebody, but are the kids going to know that?"

"Are you saying it's a scam?" Jax asks.

"Mmmmm... maybe. It was the 1970s answer to an artist making a buck given the uptick in Hummel figurines becoming collectible. It's a big business now. Supposedly a non-profit, but somebody or several somebodies are getting paid to run the place, for sure."

"Hummel figurines? Never heard of 'em," Emily puzzles.

Cyan tells, "Hummels are painted ceramic figurines that started in Germany before World War II. They are based on a particular artist's sketches of cherub-like children in cutesy outfits. American soldiers stationed in Germany right after the war started bringing them home as souvenirs, and the collector market was born."

"Still don't understand, guys," Em huffs. "And what's with 'PULL!', Cyan?"

"It's an old joke with Steve and me. Aside from the 'gooey' portrayals, the fact that especially the mass-produced Precious Moments figures turn worthless like Steve said gave us a goofy idea. Since they are so gooey and saccharine, and likely a constant annoyance to Grandpa and the kids, we thought about opening a skeet shooting range using the figurines instead of clay pigeons. 'Grandpa's Revenge' we were thinking of calling it."

"'Skeet shooting'?"

"Oh, gawd," Jax responds. "I think I saw skeet shooting on one of the sports programs on cable. It's an Olympics event. Shotguns, right? 'PULL!' is the request to launch the target into the air if I recall. A direct hit vaporizes the target."

"You got it!" Steve grins.

"You guys are sick!" Em laughs. "How can I love you more than I already do?!"

Steve chuckles, "We love you too, Em. We love you, too.”

 

[Rustyoznail]

There's two in here.

"And Stacy is staying here for a few nights. Did you know she's broken off her engagement with Kevin? I knew that boy was no good. Imagine, him going off with Stacy's mom. Mrs Lovejoy said she was sure there was something going on, her wandering around in nothing but that red bikini while he was mowing the lawn. Obviously, the poor girl can't stay at home in that situation."

From https://literotica.com/s/amorous-goods-the-rockabilly-travelling-pants

 

[YDB95]

Probably my favorite is from Brittany's Travels, pt 5:

"Shouldn't we be rushing for the airport to get out of Hawai'i?" Brittany asked.

"That's just what they'll be expecting you to do," Patty said. "And that's if there are even any survivors to spread the word. It's more likely the Mansfield folks will think it really was a freebasing accident, so they won't be looking for you anyway."

"And if they do look for us, it'll be at the airport," Angie added. "So she's right, we've got to hide in plain sight right here."

"Hiding in plain sight," Brittany repeated. "I like it."

"Now you see why I drive a minivan instead of a Ferrari, I trust," Patty quipped.

"I think she's too young to get the joke there, Patty," Angie said.

Not sure if it counts if you actually spell it out, but I happened to be working on Matching Hearts when Fred Parris passed away. So I made one of his songs into a plot point:

That reminded Faith, "That was so cute, that song you made up!" She sang it again herself, "Youuuu're all mi-ine!"

"I didn't make it up," James said. "It's a real song, by Fred Parris and the Five Satins."

"Never heard of them," Faith said. "Sounds like something from my grandmother's time."

"That's about right," James said. "Actually Fred Parris just died, about a month ago. But he left a bunch of great songs for hopeless romantics like yours truly. Here, have you got a computer in here? I can play it for you on Youtube."

Faith went to her desk and opened her laptop, and opened Youtube on the browser. "Five Satins?" she asked. "All Mine?"

"Right."

She clicked on the first video in the list. As the first scat vocals piped up, James said, "That's it. Care to dance?"

"And how!" Faith turned and put her arms around his neck, and they swayed. When the first verse came and went with no music, she asked, "Is this a capella?"

"Yes," James said. "They recorded it at a VFW hall, and the musicians never showed up. Supposedly they left the hall door open and you can hear a truck downshifting outside, but I've never been able to spot it."

That's all true. I own several copies of the recording, on vinyl and CD, and I've never been able to hear the truck. But by all accounts, it's there.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Hi,

A suggestion. Maybe as we have a range of ages here, add what the reference is to at the end. Maybe as a spoiler.



Em

 

[MrPixel]

Also from Barstow - Plan B: Their New Home:

"If I have to. I guess," Jax moaned.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Leonard Cohen, Jim Morrison, Nick Cave. And most recently, Taylor Swift!

 

[EmilyMiller]

Leonard Cohen, Jim Morrison, Nick Cave. And most recently, Taylor Swift!

Details - we need details.

Em

 

[ElectricBlue]

Details - we need details.

Em

I've referenced various song titles or lines from the first three in several stories - all of whom have a large number to choose from.

This is my latest story: Taylor Swift's Lipstick

 

[12oclocktales]

“You should bottle your pussy juice, love, and sell it for $5000 an ounce. Even at that price it would sell like Beyonce concert tickets." --Scat Lovers, ch. 9

I might change it to Taylor Swift tickets now.

 

[MrPixel]

Oh, gosh. I found another one I had forgotten about in Barstow - Plan B: Their New Home :

Cyan softly chuckles, "It's custom. Six is cozy, but we've slept eight on it. You and Jax will probably spend most nights sleeping with us in here in the bigger bed."

"We call it a 'double-double'," Steve adds. "Now you guys will get that joke. It's lost on the folks around here."

"Grilled onions?" Jax laughs.

"No onions!" Em pushes back.

Teddy mumbles, "Oh. I get it. I guess. California humor."

EDIT:

 

[Rob_Royale]

"Lily walked into the room and smiled when she saw he was awake. She wore a pair of loose shorts and a pink T-shirt with "Pink Ladies" printed on it over her left breast, in a flowing script. If it was a reference to something, he was unaware of it. She looked adorable. She flopped down on the bed."

 

[EmilyMiller]

"Lily walked into the room and smiled when she saw he was awake. She wore a pair of loose shorts and a pink T-shirt with "Pink Ladies" printed on it over her left breast, in a flowing script. If it was a reference to something, he was unaware of it. She looked adorable. She flopped down on the bed."

Again, some of us might need some help .

Em

 

[Rustyoznail]

Again, some of us might need some help .

Em

Em - Grease is the word...

 

[EmilyMiller]

Em - Grease is the word...

Never seen the movie. Kinda aware of it as a cultural thing.

Sorry

Em

 

[Rustyoznail]

Never seen the movie. Kinda aware of it as a cultural thing.

Sorry

Em

Don't be. We have a tradition of watching bad musicals on NYE, and our 25yo nephew and 21yo niece have it right up there with "You can't stop the music".

 

[intim8]

The story I'm about to post is named after a Steely Dan song.

And not because, as rumor has it, that Steely Dan was the brand name of a popular sex toy.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Never seen the movie. Kinda aware of it as a cultural thing.

Sorry

Em

Kids these days. Sheesh.

 

[madelinemasoch]

I really hope this can't be considered plagiarism.

As her smile resurged, Eleanor turned back and down the hall into the kitchen. She had to ready herself for her own day at work ahead. As much fun as the weekend had been, she couldn’t wait to see the kids there again. Her fingers clasped the handle of the fridge and she opened it. She searched with her hand and found a ripe orange nectarine sitting on the bottom shelf of the fridge’s open door, taking it back to the table.
While sitting down, she heard the telephone ring out in the hall. That goddamned landline, she thought before turning the shiny ripe nectarine in her fist and raising it to her mouth for a bite. She was about to get up and answer it, whatever it was, when she heard it click off the wall and into someone else’s hand–Madeline was already up, and for what, she could not say. It couldn’t have been that she stayed up all night working on that essay, because she’d already revised it in accordance with Eleanor’s observances, and they’d just gone through it with Malcolm the night before.
In any case, it only took several more seconds for her to hear the phone click back onto the wall. Eleanor took another bite of her nectarine, conjoining with the bite she took before. Soon enough, Madeline came into the room, letting the door swing back onto the wall behind her. She stood there wearing the same black dress with red flowers that she wore the weekend before, not looking as disheveled as she could have been, had she actually slept.
Madeline looked Eleanor in the eyes and said, “You should tell all the little kids, we live in hell.” Eleanor just sat there, holding her freshly bitten nectarine, a little dumbfounded. It was as if she had broken a branch beneath her foot in the midst of dark woods. Madeline resumed to turn and shut the door with a slam, right in front of her face.
Eleanor swallowed her fruit hard and just stared up at the door. She didn’t know whether to laugh and wave it off or to follow her and see what was going so wrong. The disrespect would usually have been enough to get her onto her feet, but that must have been little more than a rare spell of frustration… But for her? Madeline had only love. Eleanor wrote it off as the general irritation of sleep deprivation and what was most likely a spam call, then stood up just to pack herself another fruit for work. Time would tell how Madeline was doing afterwards, and Eleanor really didn’t have time to spare for that in the morning.

Sure Enough, The Telephone Rings

 

[YDB95]

Just remembered another of my favorites, from D Cup Blues Again:

"Oh, Dave!" Now she felt almost weepy as well, and she threw her arms around him. "Look at us, all grown up, huh? Now get me off that pedestal and let's wash this gunk out of my hair!" She wrapped one hand around his cock, which was once again hard, and guided him into the shower. As the steamy water melted her hair like the cake in the rain in whatever ancient song that was that Dave had made her sit through once, she put her free arm around his back and welcomed both of his around her, and they kissed passionately.

 

[OverconfidentSarcasm]

Granted, there weren’t that many people coming after me with knives and guns in school, and there wasn’t much in those training sessions I could reasonably use against untrained bullies without being arrested (“Or worse, expelled!”), but it gave me confidence. I could now look my attackers in the eyes and actually see what they were trying to do, instead of cowering away and being taken by surprise with every single punch. And as long as I could see it, I could defend against it. At least that was what Bill kept telling me.

 

[Rob_Royale]

This is the most egregious pop culture reference in this thread.

 

[AchtungNight]

Not sure how to set up spoilers here, so I’ll just say my biggest one.

My “Passion of Erika Christensen” series is a pun on a notorious film about a religious celebrity in title and themes. Only this time our saint is not enduring extreme violence but enjoying lots of sex.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Extracts from Before She's Thirty

Terminal femcel Susan is on a crusade to lose her virginity by her thirtieth birthday. One suggestion is the adoption of a fresh persona to ease her nervous.

After the wash and dry, they looked through a bunch of retro 60's style haircuts in magazines, which, although more to Susan's tastes, weren't substantially different enough from what she was currently sporting, bar a few extra curls.

Just when it seemed like it was a Gordian knot which no scissors could cut through, the break-through came in a flash, pushing itself rudely from the back to the front of her consciousness. Pulling her phone out of her handbag, she googled for an image. "I want this," she told Miriam [the hair-dresser].

"Ohhh," Miriam cooed, "Olivia Newton John in Grease. The bad girl version from the end. We don't get many requests for that." She thought for a second, "It may take a while."

"It doesn't matter. He'll wait. This is the one I want." Susan said firmly.

"Doo, doo, doo," sang Miriam cheerily, taking a closer look at the photograph.

This is enough to get her back to her date's apartment, but as things kick off she has another panic attack. After her friend calms her down through text messages we get this:

Can I get you anything?" shouted Carl. Fuck, he must have heard. Where was her mind?

"No. Okay," she said, composing herself. She stood up again. She couldn't spend the whole night in the bathroom, one way or another.

She went over to the sink and splashed a little water on her face, being careful not mess up her make-up. She washed her hands, less for hygiene and more to suggest to Carl, if he were still listening, that there had actually been a real purpose to this bathroom visit.

She looked in to the mirror and caught sight of her ridiculous hair.

"Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee," she said bitterly.

"Lousy with virginity," the mirror replied.

"Fuck you," she said to her other self.

"What was that?" asked Carl from outside.

She took a deep a deep breath. She took one more look deeply into the mirror and changed places with her reflection.

"I said, I'm ready to fuck you now," she replied, matter of factly.

Calmly, she took off her heels, then her skirt and blouse. She hesitated for just a second then off came the tights, pants and bra. She was now completely naked. She looked at her body in the mirror. She felt fully armoured for battle.

She opened the bathroom door and leaned on the frame. She knew that the contrast between the bright light of the bathroom and the dim light of the lounge would show off the outline of her body perfectly.

"Hi," she said, "Call me Sandra."

Then one cheeky last referance in the coda chapter

She sat up in bed and fired back a message, "Mission Accomplished."

There was a dressing gown laid out for her on the end of the bed, male, but that hardly mattered. As she was putting it on, a message came back, "OMG. Tell me more?"

 

[geronimo_appleby]

snow patrol - chasing cars (no idea which scene)

and i included images of The Mash Tun pub (Brighton) in a story, too. does that count?