Planting Easter Eggs?

[Rustyoznail]

Obscure arcane reference to a 1970's English band Smokie's hit single 'Living Next Door To Alice'. I got it because I love the song, himself has never heard of it, so he was scratching his head too.

And that's a perfect example of an Easter Egg.

Oh - and "Who the fuck is Alice?" is another one.

It's along the same lines as The Angels song where Doc Neeson sings “Am I ever gonna see your face again?” and the crowd responds with “no way, get fucked, fuck off.”

 

[ElectricBlue]

And that's a perfect example of an Easter Egg.

Oh - and "Who the fuck is Alice?" is another one.

It's along the same lines as The Angels song where Doc Neeson sings “Am I ever gonna see your face again?” and the crowd responds with “no way, get fucked, fuck off.”

Yep. You have to be Aussie for starters, and know who the Angels are.

ANU Bar late seventies early eighties - double headers - 50 minute set, The Angels; audience turn 180°, 50 minute set, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons; repeat. Other combinations included Icehouse, The Divinyls, The Radiators, Australian Crawl - top pub rock bands from that era.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Yep. You have to be Aussie for starters, and know who the Angels are.

ANU Bar late seventies early eighties - double headers - 50 minute set, The Angels; audience turn 180°, 50 minute set, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons; repeat. Other combinations included Icehouse, The Divinyls, The Radiators, Australian Crawl - top pub rock bands from that era.

Ahhh, The Divinyls, 'I touch Myself', what a great track...

 

[BarracudaSwordfish]

Oh - and "Who the fuck is Alice?" is another one.

That would be the delightful English 'comedian,' Roy "Chubby" Brown...

 

[PoisonPen33]

I've tossed in references to other stories I've written in my works - which is easy to do since most of my stories take place in the same small Colorado town. I've had a few readers pick up on them.

In general, I tend to sprinkle song lyrics throughout my stories as prose. Sally Cinnamon has tons of references to the Stone Roses.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I've tossed in references to other stories I've written in my works - which is easy to do since most of my stories take place in the same small Colorado town. I've had a few readers pick up on them.

In general, I tend to sprinkle song lyrics throughout my stories as prose. Sally Cinnamon has tons of references to the Stone Roses.

Same. A lot of my stories are interconnected in some way, even if it's not mentioned directly. Since many of my stories take place in Toronto, that makes it easier should I ever decided to make a direct reference.

And that's actually about to happen for two really big titles of mine.

 

[8letters]

If you're not familiar with the term, it involves tidbits of trivia or cultural references buried in the story somewhere. Movies have done it too. Maybe something completely out of place for the storyline.

That's not an Easter egg.

An easter egg is a message, image, or feature hidden in a video game, film, or other, usually electronic, medium. The term used in this manner was coined around 1979 by Steve Wright, the then Director of Software Development in the Atari Consumer Division, to describe a hidden message in the Atari video game Adventure, in reference to an Easter egg hunt.
:
The use of the term "Easter egg" to describe secret features in video games originates from the 1980 video game Adventure for the Atari 2600 game console, programmed by employee Warren Robinett. At the time, Atari did not include programmers' names in the game credits, both to prevent competitors from poaching its developers, as well as to deny developers a means to bargain with the management of the new owners, Warner Communication. Robinett, who disagreed with his supervisor over this lack of acknowledgment, secretly programmed the message "Created by Warren Robinett" to appear only if a player moves their avatar over a specific pixel (dubbed the "Gray Dot") during a certain part of the game and enters a previously "forbidden" part of the map where the message can be found. When Robinett left Atari, he did not inform the company of the acknowledgment that he included in the game. Shortly after his departure, the "Gray Dot" and his message were discovered by a player. Atari's management initially wanted to remove the message and release the game again, until this was deemed too costly. Instead, Steve Wright, the Director of Software Development in the Atari Consumer Division, suggested that they keep the message and, in fact, encourage the inclusion of such messages in future games, describing them as Easter eggs for consumers to find.

Easter eggs are a new phenomenon and typically involve rewarding the user for interacting with the video game or digital interface in an unusual way.

Burying tidbits of trivia or cultural references in a story is probably as old as storytelling.

Edit: Aristophanes was famous for the cultural references in his plays.

 

[AlexBailey]

Below is a piece from part three of my novel. I'm not sure it's an 'Easter egg' but I like coming across veiled references in other stories so I put this in mine.

****

A fatherly tourist works up the courage to say something. "Hey, knock it off or I'll get a lifeguard in here."

Jake turns to him and puffs out his chest. "What are you looking at, butthead?"

The intimidatingly stupid jocks just glare until the tourist walks away.

"Fine, Biff." I grit my teeth. "Do you want me to 'make like a tree' and get out of here?" I laugh.

"Yeah. Go home, Bailey. Don't let me catch you in here again."

****

 

[TadOverdon]

I don't know whether having characters deliberately referencing pop culture in their thoughts or conversations are strictly Easter Eggs or not. I had something similar in one story, where a character addresses another as "McFly" in the context of him being supposedly out of touch with where and when he was, but I think that kind of character interaction is simply signifying that they are supposed to be living in the same culture that we are.

 

[Thefireflies]

...It's along the same lines as The Angels song where Doc Neeson sings “Am I ever gonna see your face again?” and the crowd responds with “no way, get fucked, fuck off.”

From my story 'Heather's Exquisite Map of Tassie' -

Pat increased the volume of the car's stereo and a classic Angels' guitar riff began to blare from the speakers with Doc Neeson's distinctive voice singing, Without you near meee I got no place to go...wait at the barrr maybe you might show...Am I ever gonna see your face again, at which point Pat suddenly sang at the top of his voice, "NO WAY, GET FUCKED, FUCK OFF!" Am I ever gonna see your face again, "NO WAY, GET FUCKED, FUCK OFF!"

Not sure if the following counts as an Easter Egg, but back when the Song from My Story event was coming up, there was some discussion on this forum about including song lyrics in stories, with some suggesting it wasn't a great idea for several reasons. This prompted me to re-think including lyrics in my story, where I used the lyrics to inspire the prose rather than write them directly.

At the beginning of my story (When We Were Young), several young adults are attempting to encourage the main character, who is their friend, into the back of a Holden panel van. A certain generation or two of Australian's would know these panel vans were called Holden Sandman, so naturally -
"The V8 roared to life, revving, headlights flicking on, and the guitar intro to Metallica's Enter Sandman began blaring from the dark interior."

Then - "Charlie smiled, shaking his head dreamily and he took her hand. "Come, Rin, let's go have some fun." - a reference to the Enter Sandman lyrics, "...take my hand..."

And finally - "The V8 throbbed with noise and stinking smoke from twin exhausts, competing with the heavy music from the stereo, someone singing along at the top of their voice, off with the fairies." - off with the fairies was a reference to the fact the person singing was on drugs, but also a vague reference to Tinkerbell the fairy from Peter Pan, who lives in Never Never Land, because the Enter Sandman lyrics go "...We're off to never-never land..."

Also other meanings along the lines of the scary dangers of entering the dark van, potentially a ride to death.

Probably a bit too obscure but it worked for me, and there's a whole lot more in that particular story, but I suppose one overt lyric Easter Egg was when the title track When We Were Young is playing and the main character see's her former lover standing "...off to the side of the dance floor, standing alone, removing his tie, light shining softly on his face. Too perfect to let the opportunity go.

She found herself mouthing the words to the song, pulling her Nikon with the longer zoom-lens from its bag, lifting it to her eye, taking a breath and steadying herself, and Charlie looked in her direction, noticing her lens on him from across the room. He smiled and waved, and she pressed the shutter release."

This is a direct reference to the WWWY song lyrics - "...Let me photograph you in this light In case it is the last time..."

 

[Thefireflies]

...combinations included Icehouse...

electricblue66 - Electric Blue - Easter Egg confirmed!

 

[ElectricBlue]

electricblue66 - Electric Blue - Easter Egg confirmed!

Well spotted!

 

[Thefireflies]

Well spotted!

The song's been in my head since I read this, because I then watched the music video on youtube, staring Iva's magnificent mullet!