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Sometimes a '''Call Back''' will take up so much of a chapter or episode that will become a [[Sequel Episode]] to the earlier story it's referencing.
The opposite of this is the [[Call Forward]]. See also [[Chekhov's Gun]], [[Brick Joke]], and [[Book Ends]]. See also [[Internal Homage]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* The final season of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' had oodles of references to the first season, mostly in the relationship between Sailor Moon and Sailor Star Fighter, including Usagi and Seiya meeting almost exactly like Usagi and Mamoru did, Seiya calling Usagi "[[Odango]]" (what Mamoru called Usagi, more commonly known as "meatball head" to Americans), and culminating in Seiya throwing a rose to stop a bad guy while wearing an outfit remarkably similar to Tuxedo Mask's (with [[Leitmotif|Tuxedo's theme]] playing in the background, even).
* ''[[Dragon Ball]]''
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==
* In general, one of the marks of a good [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy|stand-up comedian]] is a good understanding of how to use a Call Back well. It's a great way of keeping a show buzzing.▼
* ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiFrfeJ8dKM Ladies.]''▼
* Stewart Lee does this all the time, especially in '41st Best Stand-Up Ever'. He also lampshades it after about 25 mins. (Remember that? From the beginning of the show?)▼
* Bill Bailey ends his current tour with a short film (accompanied only by swelling, melancholy piano music, no less) that references several jokes made over the course of the evening, showing things such as him standing next to a potted plant, looking suspiciously at joggers, eating Revels with a bucket over his head and him shouting at traffic with a couple of Tesco bags in hand. [[It Makes Sense in Context]]. The same show sometimes (depending on venue) a final encore after the standard two. Previously, in the first half, he plays the opening of La Bamba and makes the audience sing along and trail off, not knowing the specific words. This last encore sees him return and force the audience to learn the words, with displayed lyrics. Just to hammer it home, he plays it four times at increasingly ridiculous speeds.▼
* One example comes from Ron White. In the middle of his performance, he makes a joke about his dog Sluggo, who he needs to feed medication to by sticking it in a piece of cheese. At the very end of said performance, he was talking about trying to give Midol to his wife while she's PMSing. He ends the joke (and the performance) by saying he stuck the Midol in a piece of cheese. In ''You Can't Fix Stupid'', he even references a joke that was made in a previous special. In the previous special, he made a joke about how Dabeers's slogan "Render her speechless" was just code for "Yeah, that'll shut her up!". In ''Stupid'', he talks about trying to shut up his wife, saying that he was "all out of diamonds".▼
* In the Red Neck Comedy Show, Bill Engvall talks about boarding his dog while they're on vacation. At the kennel, they ask him what type of water the dog would like. He replies that the dog eats his own turds, the type of water probably doesn't matter to him. He also talks about taking the dog to the vet, where the vet gives him medicine to make the dog stop eating his own turds. How does it work? It makes the turds taste bad. During the Ron White portion, Ron talks about how he has dozens of people who work for him, but he is the one who goes outside to pick up the turds his dog had dropped, and pondered rearranging his staff so he wouldn't have to do that anymore. White then mentions that he asked Bill to bring his dog over, but Bill said, "No, he always comes home full."▼
* Australian comedian Josh Thomas does this several times during his show ''Surprise!'', the most notable of which is a story, early in the routine, about how living with his first boyfriend; shortly after they moved in together, they decided to shower together, which ended badly when Josh's boyfriend began urinating, because he forgot Josh was there. This is referenced in the final lines of the show:▼
{{quote|'''Josh:''' I told him, "one of my favourite things about you is that you've never vomited on me."... and he said, "Yeah, but I did kind of pee on you once."}}▼
* [[Gabriel Iglesias]] relates a story about a time he got pulled over with a bunch of his friends in the car. Their antics are hilarious to the officer, who lets them go with a warning, Because they made him laugh.▼
{{quote|'''Officer:''' The only thing that beats this is the time a buddy of mine pulled over a fat guy who gave him donuts.}}▼
* The first scene of ''[[Green Lantern]]: Rebirth'' (which tells the story of Hal Jordan's resurrection and his taking up the Lantern mantle once more) is a call-back to Hal's origin story in the very first issue of the series. It starts with an Oan spaceship crashlanding outside of an Air Force base in the desert with an injured Green Lantern in the cockpit. But this time, the injured Green Lantern is Kyle Rayner.
** In the second issue of the ''[[New 52]]'' reboot of the main Green Lantern magazine, Sinestro creates a [[Green Lantern Ring]] for Hal Jordan, who immediately attacks him with the ring. However, as the ring is a construct of Sinestro's, it doesn't harm him as he is in control of it. Later, at the end of the fourth issue, Sinestro creates additional rings for the imprisioned Korugarans, who attempt to attack him due to their misconception of his Sinestro Corps. The fifth issue begins with the reveal that, like before, Sinestro is not harmed by the rings' attacks.
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==
* Done a couple times in ''[[FoxTrot]]'', such as during the Grinch arc when Jason looks through Andy's wallet and suggests cleaning out all the old Titanic ticket stubs, referring to a previous arc in which she became obsessed with Titanic and saw it dozens of times.▼
* The ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X Men]]'' AU fic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7730502/1/The_Wraith_Saga The Wraith Saga]'' features Jason Wyngarde being [[Grand Theft Me|possessed]] by the Wraith (the Phoenix Force's [[Evil Counterpart]]) as a major plot point. The scene where the Wraith takes hold of him is a reference to the famous scene in ''Uncanny X-Men'' #101, when Jean first became the Phoenix.
** First:
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==
* ''[[The Bourne Series (film)|The Bourne Series]]''
** In a beautiful moment at the end of ''The Bourne Ultimatum'', {{spoiler|Jason Bourne says to the government assassin sent to kill him, "look at what they make you give", harking back to Clive Owen's final words to him in ''The Bourne Identity''}}.
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* The 2nd half of ''[[Shaun of the Dead]]'' is made of Call Backs. Every line in the 1st half comes back in radically different context. ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'' too, to a lesser extent.
* ''[[Terminator]]''
** All of the ''[[Terminator (franchise)|Terminator'' movies have these in spades. ''"Come with me if you want to live"'' is right up there with ''"I'll be back"''. And ''"[[Get Out!]]"''. Then Connor picks up that scar over his eye. Come to think of it, most of these are [[Call Forward]] as well.
** Also Dr. Silberman, a character who appears in all of the first three movies for essentially this purpose.
** An awesome one in ''[[Terminator Salvation]]''. When John is about to {{spoiler|try and rescue Kyle Reese from a Skynet camp, alone}}, Kate asks him what she should tell his troops. He answers, {{spoiler|"[[Catch Phrase|I'll be back]]."}}
** Another ''Salvation'' example: when John is trying to lure a Terminator to his location, he starts playing music. The song? The same Guns n Roses song he was listening to in T2.
* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]''
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== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]''
** In ''White Night'', a minor character from ''Storm Front'' comes back and plays a significant role in the plot. Additionally, an aspect of one characters [[Backstory]] which was mentioned only twice in the entire series (Once each in ''Storm Front'' and ''Death Masks'') is expanded on, and becomes a major [[Plot Point]].
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== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Community]]'' is so full of these, it'd be easier just to go read the page.
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''
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** In fact, there are at best a small handful of episodes of Buffy that either don't feature a Call Back or are not called back to in a future episode.
* ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]'' In the pilot episode, Marie and Raymond have a discussion of the 'Fruit of the Month' club that Raymond has bought a membership for his parents. His parents see it as a cult that continually gives them more fruit than they know what to do with. This is referenced often throughout the series.
* ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|
* ''[[Firefly]]''
** In the first two episodes, [[Wrench Wench|Kaylee]] tells [[The Captain|Mal]] that they need a new compression coil or some such part for the ship's engine or they will be [[Space Is an Ocean|dead in the water]]. In the episode "Out of Gas", the failure of this part causes exactly that, thus giving us the [[Plot]] of the episode.
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* In the end of the ''[[CSI]]'' episode "Pirates of the Third Reich", Lady Heather, the recurring dominatrix character, has abducted her daughter's killer, tied him up and is beating him bloody with her bullwhip when Grissom arrives to confront her. In a previous episode, the two had discussed the sanctity of the safeword; in a BDSM relationship, when the dominant is told to stop, she ''must'' stop. So when Grissom (who had once engaged in some [[Unresolved Sexual Tension]] with her) grabs the whip as she's swinging it and tells her "I said ''stop''", she caves, and it's a powerful moment to those who realize the significance.
* The US version of ''[[The Office]]'' has a few Call Back jokes throughout the series. One of the more notable of these is the use of the expression "Win-Win-Win" to describe a favorable outcome of a compromise. According to the season 2 episode "Conflict Resolution", both parties win for having a successful compromise, and Michael wins for having successfully managed a conflict. From this point on, "Win-Win" in almost any context is replaced by "Win-Win-Win".
* Season
* ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' is full of these, but you have to be on your toes to pick up on them. The line "The fact that you call making love 'pop-pop' shows me you're not ready" is used in two completely different contexts by two different characters over the course of two seasons.
* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek]]'' (not known for its continuity) has a moment in the "The Deadly Years" where [[The Kirk|Kirk]] references the Corbomite Self-Destruct Device from "The Corbomite Maneuver" in order to bluff some Romulans. Some of the Bridge Crew actually smile when he makes the broadcast. There's another one in "The Trouble with Tribbles" when the Klingon commander makes a reference to the Organian peace treaty. In "Errand of Mercy", the Organians intervened to stop the Klingons and [[The Federation]] trying to kill each other - apparently they're still watching.
* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''
** In the pilot episode, someone mentions "... [[Star Trek: The Original Series|an Admiral]] who [[Running Gag|hates transporters]]." The importance of this can best be summed up in a quote from [[Wil Wheaton]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20101223165357/http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/01/03/star-trek-the-next-generation-encounter-at-farpoint-part-i
** In the episode "Family", [[The Captain|Picard]] takes shore leave on the French vineyard where he grew up, and before he leaves, his brother gives him a bottle of homemade wine. Later, in the episode "First Contact", before Picard offers a toast to the new friendship between an alien species, he explicitly mentions that he got the wine back home.
* In 1976, Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz was forced to resign because he made a racist joke (cleaned up here): "What blacks want is good sex, loose shoes and a warm place to go to the bathroom." ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', in the News portion of the program, led with this story, stating the joke as given above. At the end of the "news" broadcast, 10 or 15 minutes later, they announced that Muhammad Ali was considering retiring from boxing. According to reader, all Ali wanted was good sex, loose shoes and a warm place to go to the bathroom.
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* In an episode of the TV version of ''[[Hello Cheeky]]'', the second part of the show begins by showing "edited highlights"—a string of [[Orphaned Punchline]]s and set-ups from the first part.
* An episode of [[Power Rangers RPM]] had characters walk by Jungle Karma Pizza, which was the headquarters of the team from [[Power Rangers Jungle Fury]].
* ''Late Show With [[Stephen Colbert]]'' - lampshaded on March 6th, 2019, when referring to a ''"[[Smoking Gun|smocking gun]]"'' - a misspelled word tweeted out by [[Donald Trump]].<ref>[https://youtu.be/KTPR7FLL13w?t=46 Smocking Gun callback by Stephen Colbert] ''youtube.com''</ref>
== [[Music]] ==
* In DMX's ''Damien III,'' Damien mentions "What happened to the right hand, Light Man?", referring to DMX's line in the first ''Damien,'' "For that nigga, I would bleed, give him my right hand, now that I think about it, yo, that's my man!"
* [[Britney Spears]] does this quite nicely in the song "Stronger", where she sings, "The loneliness ain't killing me no more," a call back to "My loneliness is killing me" from her debut single "Baby One More Time."
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==
▲* Done a couple times in ''[[FoxTrot]]'', such as during the Grinch arc when Jason looks through Andy's wallet and suggests cleaning out all the old Titanic ticket stubs, referring to a previous arc in which she became obsessed with Titanic and saw it dozens of times.
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* Melina Perez faced [[Lay Cool|Michelle McCool]] at ''Night of Champions'' 2009 and Michelle dropkicked her off the apron while she was doing the splits as part of her entrance. They faced each other again at the next ''Night of Champions'' event and Michelle tried to do the same thing again. This time however, Melina was ready for her and lifted herself out of the way.
* When [[Trish Stratus]] guest hosted Raw she was involved in an awkward backstage segment with [[Chris Jericho]] where he mentioned their history together and led to Stratus having a return match against him that night.
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== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ==
== Tabletop Games ==▼
▲* In general, one of the marks of a good [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy|stand-up comedian]] is a good understanding of how to use a Call Back well. It's a great way of keeping a show buzzing.
▲* ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiFrfeJ8dKM Ladies.]''
▲* Stewart Lee does this all the time, especially in '41st Best Stand-Up Ever'. He also lampshades it after about 25 mins. (Remember that? From the beginning of the show?)
▲* [[Bill Bailey]] ends his current{{when}} tour with a short film (accompanied only by swelling, melancholy piano music, no less) that references several jokes made over the course of the evening, showing things such as him standing next to a potted plant, looking suspiciously at joggers, eating Revels with a bucket over his head and him shouting at traffic with a couple of Tesco bags in hand. [[It Makes Sense in Context]]. The same show sometimes (depending on venue) a final encore after the standard two. Previously, in the first half, he plays the opening of La Bamba and makes the audience sing along and trail off, not knowing the specific words. This last encore sees him return and force the audience to learn the words, with displayed lyrics. Just to hammer it home, he plays it four times at increasingly ridiculous speeds.
▲* One example comes from [[Ron White]]. In the middle of his performance, he makes a joke about his dog Sluggo, who he needs to feed medication to by sticking it in a piece of cheese. At the very end of said performance, he was talking about trying to give Midol to his wife while she's PMSing. He ends the joke (and the performance) by saying he stuck the Midol in a piece of cheese. In ''You Can't Fix Stupid'', he even references a joke that was made in a previous special. In the previous special, he made a joke about how Dabeers's slogan "Render her speechless" was just code for "Yeah, that'll shut her up!". In ''Stupid'', he talks about trying to shut up his wife, saying that he was "all out of diamonds".
▲* In the ''Red Neck Comedy Show'', [[Bill Engvall]] talks about boarding his dog while they're on vacation. At the kennel, they ask him what type of water the dog would like. He replies that the dog eats his own turds, the type of water probably doesn't matter to him. He also talks about taking the dog to the vet, where the vet gives him medicine to make the dog stop eating his own turds. How does it work? It makes the turds taste bad. During the Ron White portion, Ron talks about how he has dozens of people who work for him, but he is the one who goes outside to pick up the turds his dog had dropped, and pondered rearranging his staff so he wouldn't have to do that anymore. White then mentions that he asked Bill to bring his dog over, but Bill said, "No, he always comes home full."
▲* Australian comedian Josh Thomas does this several times during his show ''Surprise!'', the most notable of which is a story, early in the routine, about how living with his first boyfriend; shortly after they moved in together, they decided to shower together, which ended badly when Josh's boyfriend began urinating, because he forgot Josh was there. This is referenced in the final lines of the show:
▲{{quote|'''Josh:''' I told him, "one of my favourite things about you is that you've never vomited on me."... and he said, "Yeah, but I did kind of pee on you once."}}
▲* [[Gabriel Iglesias]] relates a story about a time he got pulled over with a bunch of his friends in the car. Their antics are hilarious to the officer, who lets them go with a warning, Because they made him laugh.
▲{{quote|'''Officer:''' The only thing that beats this is the time a buddy of mine pulled over a fat guy who gave him donuts.}}
▲== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters]]'' has an "Fetter" Memento (a magic item made by binding a ghost to its own anchor) called the Thirty-Thirty. This is a rifle once owned by a man named Donnie Pritchard, who once tried to sacrifice several people to a ghost town he was convinced was haunted by the ghost of its past. (Pritchard's captives overpowered him and beat him to death with the rifle.) Donnie Pritchard was a character in the [[New World of Darkness]] book ''Ghost Stories'', in the story "Dust to Dust", about a literal ghost town.
== [[Theater]] ==
* Roy Cohn's first line in ''[[Angels in America]]'' ("I wish I was an octopus, a fucking octopus") is referenced in his final line {{spoiler|before dying.}}
* The Man in Chair in ''[[The Drowsy Chaperone]]'' mentions at the very beginning that he is feeling "blue." At the end of the show, he is emotionally drained, and he mentions that it's not a perfect show, but it gives you a tune to hum "for when you're feeling blue."
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Alice: Madness Returns]]'' is full of Call Backs to [[American McGee's Alice]] - odd lines from various characters, a few riddles, and some statues and depictions. If you haven't played the first game, they won't bother you, but if you have, they're beautiful familiarity.
* ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]] Infinity: Blood Tides of L'howon''
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== [[Visual
* Frequently used between ''[[Narcissu]]'' and its [[Prequel]], ''Narcissu ~ side 2nd''
** Setsumi's last words from the original game are identical to the last thing Himeko said to Setsumi in ''Side 2nd''
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== [[Web Animation]] ==
* Practically every good joke in ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' eventually gets a Call Back.
** The longest gap between joke and Call Back - which would probably be a [[Brick Joke]] if not for the [[Memetic Mutation]] of the quote—was Simmons' observation in the first episode that "Even if we pull out today, and they come and take our base, they would have two bases in the middle of a box canyon. Whoopdee-fucking-doo." In episode ninety-five, when the Blues take over the Red Base:
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160314110226/http://th3rdworld.com/web-comic/holiday-wars/episode/holiday-wars-episode-50 In this strip] of ''[[Holiday Wars]]'', [[Labor Day]] makes a reference to some sort event that happened ten years ago in Venice. It's the first time in the webcomic that really hints that there is a large history between all the main characters.
* ''[[Concerned]]'' has a lot of these. In one strip Frohman find out he can use the force (that's what he said, not me) to pick stuff up. For most of the rest of the comic, whenever he holds something it floats in front of him.
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** At one point, Belkar suggests selling a captured female antagonist into slavery because he "knows a guy who knows a guy". Several plot-arcs later, the party runs into said guy-his-guy-knew, Buggy Lou, as he's out catching slaves in the desert.
** V's raven familiar fails to recognize her/him when s/he is transformed into a lizard. [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0714.html 536 strips later], he learns of his mistake.
* ''[[
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'':
*
** Remember Gil's [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20031001 disappeared letters]? Eventually we meet a classy lady who "[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20151030 have been intercepting Gil's mail] [[Unlucky Childhood Friend|since she was a ''child'']]".
* ''[[Homestuck]]'' is absolutely loaded with Call Backs, from the phrasing of words to reused art panels.
** Andrew Hussie discusses it [http://www.formspring.me/andrewhussie/q/898135176 here.]{{Dead link}}
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* ''[[Bob and George]]'': Overlooking all the [[Running Gag]]s, in an early strip Bob agrees to a suicidal plan with the phrase "Sure, why not, I was tired of living anyway." Fast-forward several years, and Alternate Mega Man and Bass cheerfully use the exact same justification for an equally suicidal plan. (Naturally, this being ''[[Bob and George]]'', certain death...isn't as certain as you'd expect.)
* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]''. Remember [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=125 that] hair clip? Eventually it returned.
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]''
** History of Ennesby as the AI formerly [[Virtual Celebrity|known as]] boy band "New Sync Boys" (hence the name) — a dozen books later [//www.schlockmercenary.com/2013-08-30 we discover "their" former fangirl], after which it was used as a plot point. But in-jokes and minor references pop up even after that: a [//www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-10-13 straightforward mention with backup chorus], naming his new ship "[//www.schlockmercenary.com/2014-03-13 Neosynchronicity]", being considered for [//www.schlockmercenary.com/2014-11-16 mixing a song].
** Para Ventura (who was {{spoiler|on a receiving end of a somewhat misguided [[Anti-Mutiny]] once}}) got [//www.schlockmercenary.com/2019-07-09 assigned] to assist Vaal (who had to {{spoiler|kill some friends and colleagues… per suggestion from one of them, issued immediately before being brain-hacked}}, and Chelle was the first to find him in that room). And everyone except Schlock is in a rather dark mood (on account of being stuck deep behind the enemy lines without reinforcements before it's over).
{{quote|'''Chelle''': Just don't mention what became of your last assistants.
'''Vaal''': There's no reason that should come up.
'''Schlock''': [[Don't Explain the Joke|He killed them during a mutiny]]. }}
== [[Web Original]] ==
* In ''[[The Gamers Alliance]]'', various story arcs feature quite a few Call Backs to previous storylines. For example, Leon recognizes the lich Drishnek whom he met several years earlier during another plot, and Ax references Refan's attempted rape during their second encounter.
* Lots in ''[[Echo Chamber]]'', the [[TV Tropes]] original webshow.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''
** There's a fun little Call Back involving turtleducks: In a [[Flash Back]] [[Deuteragonist|Zuko]] shows his mother "How Azula feeds turtleducks" by throwing a loaf at them. In the present, while [[Deuteragonist|Zuko]] is feeding the turtleducks they suddenly scatter... Because Azula shows up.
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* In an early episode of ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', Spidey saves a geeky guy and a hot girl and in his rush webs them up together and hollars "You can thank me later!" to the guy who is now making eyes at the girl. Later in the latter part of the second season, the geeky guy is proposing to her.
* ''[[Archer]]'': a major source of humour is the Call Back. Carrying over from Adam Reed's previous project ''[[Frisky Dingo]]'', as well as establishing/ borrowing a series of phrases from [[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]], Reed develops a substantial [[Running Gag|repertoire]] into Archer's comedic architecture.
** [[
** Also in season 9, there are call backs to the pilot "Mole Hunt" - the "this is how you get ants" joke, and [[Why We Can't Have Nice Things|This is why we can't have nice things]].
* In part 2 of the 5-part, "Super [[DuckTales (1987)]]" story on ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'', when Fenton first accidentally gets the Gizmo Duck suit, he shouts out "I'm being canned like a tuna!" In a much later episode, "A Case of Mistaken Secret Identity," when Launchpad is trapped in the Gizmo Duck suit, he describes himself as "feeling like a canned tuna." Coincidence? I think not!
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