Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality/Shout-Out

""I am going to be in Ravenclaw. And if you really think that I'm planning to do something dangerous, then, with respect, you don't understand me at all. I don't like danger, it is scary. I am being prudent. I am being cautious. I am preparing for unforeseen contingencies. Like my parents used to sing to me: Be prepared! That's the Boy Scout's marching song! Be prepared! As through life you march along! Don't be nervous, don't be flustered, don't be scared -- be prepared!" (Harry's parents had in fact only ever sung him those particular lines of that Tom Lehrer song, and Harry was blissfully unaware of the rest.)"
 * Chapter 3 features Bounce Boots ("Made with real Flubber!"), Knives +3! Forks +2! Spoons with a +4 bonus!, goggles that turn anything you look at green, and cushy lounge chairs with ejection seats for emergencies (???). In later chapters as well, various potions come from D&D.
 * In chapter 6, Harry purchases Rincewind's Luggage.
 * In Chapter 7, Harry is wearing an exercise band to hide his scar while he's on the train.
 * In chapter 13, one of the notes written to Harry by the Game Controller is a reference to The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy: "Ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking."
 * Chapter 15: "Of course you realize this means war."
 * The cube saying "blorple, blorple, blorple" in Dumbledore's office is a reference to the Infocom text-adventure game "Spellbreaker".
 * Dumbledore apparently owns The Maltese Falcon.
 * In Chapter 17, McGonagall discusses the recent disastrous employments of two Defense professors, Professor Blake (who was caught with THREE fifteen-year-olds in a broom closet) and Professor Summers (who failed to teach material correct in the Harry Potter universe).
 * In chapter 18 Harry examines a large dust ball with eyes and feet preserved in a jar.
 * One evil individual mentioned in passing in chapter 19 is named Mornelithe Falconsbane, a reference to the dark wizard who is the main villain of Mercedes Lackey's Mage Winds trilogy.
 * Quirrell mentions a list he made that is suspiciously similar to the Evil Overlord List.
 * In Chapter 20 we learn that mindflayers were exterminated by Harold Shea. This matches with the original making allusions with historical wizards.
 * "Gom jabbar!"
 * And now -- to Death Note, or should we say, Tragedy of Light. And to Gargoyles. Both of which are apparently children's stories in the Wizarding World, meant to teach young Slytherins about a cunning bussinessman named Xanatos.
 * In chapter 23, Harry makes an analogy involving an invisible dragon that is taken almost verbatim from The Demon-Haunted World.
 * According to Word of God, the line "And then Janet was a Squib" was not intended to be a reference to the last line of Doom Repercussions of Evil, but it's an amusing coincidence nevertheless.
 * Chapter 27: Mr. Bester is the Legilimens hired to train Harry. Harry creates an alternate persona in his mind to try to foil Bester's Legilimency; this persona is Kimball Kinnison of the Lensman series.
 * And in Chapter 28, a nice reference to The Black Company.
 * In Chapter 29, an offhand comment is made about a girl who can magically turn her hair bright red (not orange, red) who, upon splashing her tea on herself, briefly became a black-haired boy.
 * In Chapter 30, Harry wants to name his team Dragon Army, but Draco claims priority. So Harry goes with 'Chaos Legion'. The appropriate shout-outs are swift to follow.
 * Also in Chapter 30, Dean gets excited at being able to say, "Red Five standing by!"
 * In the background only, but the wizard in the crowd in Diagon Alley in Chapter 32 wearing a formal top hat and bath-robes sounds suspiciously like Chrestomanci.
 * "Lagann" is the trigger word for the "Breaking Drill Hex" in Chapter 33.
 * In Chapter 33, Harry, an army commander at the age of 11, scolds his army for not abandoning their previous notations of gravity.
 * In Chapter 35, Harry said he would evacuate all the wizards to Mars should a war break out between wizards and Muggles. Guess where the magic world in Negima is.
 * "Imposition of order equals escalation of chaos." The presence of, ultimately, a quintuple agent is probably a reference to the same work.
 * In Chapter 39, Dumbledore taps his fingers through a black plate inscribed with the word "Leliel", a reference to the 12th Angel from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
 * In Chapter 43 we learn that Harry plans to become an Animagus so he can turn into a peregrine falcon
 * In Chapter 46, Harry gives Hermione a letter that contains the answer to a mysterious question. The reference, you ask? The wax seal on the letter is inscribed with the number 42.
 * In Chapter 47, a reference to the founders of Hogwarts fighting Lord Foul.
 * Also in Chapter 47, Harry extinguishes his light with the word dulak; the typical word for extinguishing light is nox, Harry instead used the word the Raistlin Majere used to darken the Staff of Magius in the Dragonlance series.
 * To test Draco sends Harry the message, "beware the green monkey," which was "a sign from a play Draco had once seen."
 * To the author's mother in chapter 49.
 * From the same chapter: Harry read a book called Spell and Speak.
 * From the same chapter: Tenorman's family chili and green lentil soup (served with a glass of Chianti, natch).
 * Chapter 51 references Tom Lehrer, quoting the first two lines of his song "Be Prepared". It also includes Harry saying a password that contains the word "friend". And the world "melon", which sounds like the elvish word for "friend". And swordfish, as a reference to the Marx brothers (because The Password Is Always Swordfish). The Tom Lehrer reference is also a callback to Harry quoting the song to explain why needs to be Crazy Prepared to McGonagall in chapter 6 (see also Second Verse Curse below).

"And finally she grasped her wand in both hands and shrieked, "Lucis Gladius!""
 * Chapter 51: Mary's Room, where Harry and Professor Quirrell have been having lunch, is in Mary's Place, owned by "Jake". Also a reference to the thought experiment "Mary's room".
 * Chapter 54: An auror mentions fighting Madam Tarma as a first year Auror trainee.
 * Also in chapter 54, Auror Li has a son named Kao.
 * Chapter 57: "All right, you primitive screwheads! Listen up!!"
 * Also the Dementors are referred to as spheres of annihilation.
 * The prisoner saying "I'm not serious" is either a reference to The Dark Knight, a hint about Sirius Black's current fate ("I'm not Sirius"), or both.
 * Chapter 61: The Eye of Vance. Possibly Primer in the discussion of time travel.
 * Chapter 62: Silver on the Tree alludes to the story of another 11-year-old English fantasy hero.
 * Chapter 63: Urulat, Verdandi, Iocane Powder (which, of course, is thought to be in one of two flasks), "Bahl's Stupefaction", the phrase "Maximum Fun Location", Robot Unicorn Attack, and "a furry creature like a small child, holding a peculiar flat spear". (The small furry creature may be a Fuzzy and not an Ewok; the "peculiar flat spear" is more distinctive of Fuzzies than Ewoks.) And the Salem Witches Academy of America.
 * Chapter 65: Peter Pevensie is a former student of Hogwarts.
 * Chapter 67:
 * "In the high reaches of Hogwarts where rooms and corridors changed on a daily basis, where the territory itself was uncertain and not just the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map
 * "We're the Grey Knights of Chaos," said Neville's voice.
 * Hermione intends to emulate Superman.
 * Daphne Greengrass and Neville Longbottom basically summon lightsabers:


 * The incantation for the above spell can be translated as "Thunder! Gray skull! Sword of light!"
 * In chapter 70, former students named Miles Naismith and Cimorene Linderwall are mentioned, as is an evil "Professor Barney."
 * Later edited to replace Miles with Lupe Cazaril. Word of God says that this is because Miles Vorkosigan is already attending Hogwarts.
 * Hermione manages to utter "Gleep?" in chapter 72. Also, Lavender's "hero outfit" from the play Chronicles of the Lunarian Soldiers.
 * Chapter 74... needs a bulletted list
 * "Acathla, mundatus sum"
 * Mabra, brahoring, mabra"
 * During the 'ritual,' Tracey and the girls are protected by an AT-Field.
 * "Shuffle, duffle, muzzle, muff. Fista, wista, mista-cuff."
 * "Lemarchand, Lament, Lemarchand"
 * "Khornath, Slaaneth, Nurgolth and Tzintchi" in the Dark Tongue
 * "Darkness beyond darkness, deeper than pitchest black. Buried beneath the flow of time," the Dragon Slave and Giga Slave]
 * "Unknown to death, nor known to life" from Archer's Unlimited Blade Works chant.
 * "From darkness to darkness, your voice echoes in the emptiness."
 * "You who know the gate, who are the gate, the key and guardian of the gate"
 * A "ritual to summon Death itself"
 * The triple-repetition of a name to summon the person named.
 * And finally, at the end, Tracy gets all dark and stuff, likely referring to My Immortal.
 * Chapter 75 has a character describe Hermione and Harry's relationship as being like a play she saw whose plot matches the webcomic Ow My Sanity.
 * "...distant voices crying 'Tekeli-li!' 'Tekeli-li!'"
 * Chapter 78 mentions Venus Fire Traps from Super Mario Brothers 3
 * Chapter 79 has Quirrell claming to have been in Fuyuki City in 1983.
 * Chapter 81 mentions people false believing that Merlin "fought the dread Totoro and imprisoned the Ree."
 * Chapter 85 has Harry's internal monologue explicitly quote characters from the Chronicles of Amber, Fate Stay Night, and Web of Angels.