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{{trope}}
{{quote|"''Welcome to Julie Taymor's Playhouse. ''[beat]'' Like five of you got that, but the five of you who got it are gonna be laughing''."
|'''[[Doug Walker]]''' during his tour of Austria.}}
When a reference or [[Shout-Out]] is made, and it's acknowledged [[In-Universe]] to be obscure.
This isn't done all the time, because references tend to be subtle if they are obscure, so that those that don't get them can just enjoy the show. Doing it once in a while can give the audience a bit of curiosity about the reference, but not slow down the show with them wondering about every one.
A [[Sub-Trope]] of [[Genius Bonus]].
Compare [[Pop Cultural Osmosis Failure]], [[Shown Their Work]], [[Late to the Punchline]].
Contrast [[Small Reference Pools]].
'''Not to be confused with characters not getting a commonly known thing.'''
----
{{examples}}
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* In the ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' episode "S.O.B.s", Tobias brings up someone named Freddie Wilson while talking, prompting the other characters to say they "don't get that reference". This doubled as an in-joke about how some people thought the show's inability to gain mainstream appeal was caused by its numerous and sometimes obscure jokes about pop-culture and topical references.
* Played with in an episode of ''[[The Middleman]]'', where Middleman '69 (who has been [[Human Popsicle|in cryonic stasis for the past four decades]]) makes a ''[[Star Trek]]'' reference and notes the [[It Will Never Catch On|unlikeliness]] of Wendy getting it.
* On ''[[30
== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ==
* [[Dennis
== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The
* [[Stuart Ashen]] has a recurring segment in his reviews, "Quincy: a caterpillar that sings obscure Beatles songs".
* [[Hbi2k
* In ''[[Dragon Ball Abridged]]'', after they'd been talking about Raditz, Nappa asks, "But what about the [[Fraggle Rock|Fraggles]]?" Vegeta answers "No one is going to get that reference, Nappa."
* [[The Spoony One]] occasionally succumbs to this:
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* In [[The Randomverse]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de06YM2mDlA Ways to Screw Up The Avengers Movie], it's mentioned that the villain is "not [[The Mighty Thor|Loki]], but [[The Avengers (1998 film)|Sean Connery and his weather machine]]". [[Deadpool]] appears to say "Obscure reference for the win!"
* ''[[Psycomedia]]'' does this, often via the use of Venn diagram. Often involving the Star Wars Expanded Universe in one of the host's case.
* In episode 13 ''[[Code
* Linkara of ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'' does this once in a while.
{{quote|"My thanks to the three people who get that joke."}}
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Animaniacs]]'' did a short where the Warner brothers (and the Warner sister) met Rasputin. They did a pun between "Anastasia" and "anesthesia", and Dot said "Obscure Joke. Ask your parents."
* ''[[Archer]]'': the titular Archer frequently admonishes his colleagues to "Read a book", owing to the obscurity of his references.
* ''[[Family Guy]]'' mentioned [[Benjamin Disraeli]] to set up a [[Cutaway Gag]]. It cut to Disraeli just looking at the camera and snapping that the viewers didn't have any idea who he was.▼
** Several instances in [[Wikipedia:Archer_(season_9)|season 9 Danger Island]] occur:
* The ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold]]'' series finale had a character from [[The DCU]] appear for the first time. ▼
*** Episode 5 - Archer says "insert name of obscure cartographer" and Crackers replies "Henrik Hondius".
*** Episode 6 - Archer says "nobody gets that" (about a [[Frisky Dingo]] reference).
*** Episode 7 - Noah says "they won't get the reference" with regards to the cannibals. The audience ''might'', but the cannibals ''definitely wouldn't'', lacking any filmic references ''whatsoever''.
**** It very much depends on what is meant by obscure - to younger audiences, most of the references will be obscure, but attention is definitely called to references which are believed to be obscure for even the oldest audience members.
▲* The ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold]]'' series finale had a character from [[The DCU]] appear for the first time.
{{quote|''"[[Ambush Bug]]? You're a pretty obscure hero, even for this show."'' }}
▲* ''[[Family Guy]]'' mentioned [[Benjamin Disraeli]] to set up a [[Cutaway Gag]]. It cut to Disraeli just looking at the camera and snapping that the viewers didn't have any idea who he was.
* ''[[Rick and Morty]]'': this trope is [[subverted]] in Season 2 Episode 1 ("[[wiki:A_Rickle_in_Time|A Rickle In Time]]"):
{{quote|'''Rick''': Man, that guy is the "Redgrin Grumble" to pretending he knows what's going on.
'''Summer''' and '''Morty''': Laugh
'''Rick''': You like that "Redgrin Grumble" reference? Well guess what? ''I made him up''. You really are [[Ignorant of His Own Ignorance|your father's]] children. Think for yourselves. Don't be sheep.}}
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' has done this a few times.
{{quote|'''Grandpa Simpson''': I was lonelier than Estes Kefauver at a meeting of Murder Incorporated! <[[Beat]]> That actually makes sense. Look it up!}}
** "They Saved Lisa's Brain":
{{quote|'''Lisa''': ''[reading Comic Book Guy's shirt]'' "C:/DOS C:/DOS/RUN RUN/DOS/RUN". ''[laughs]'' Oh, only one person in a million would find that funny.
'''Frink''': Yes, we call that the "Dennis Miller Ratio". }}
* An episode of ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' spoofed the ending to ''[[Sleepaway Camp]]''. The director of ''Sleepaway Camp'' quickly showed up and was amazed that anyone would decide to spoof the movie, let alone know the movie even existed.
* On an episode of ''[[The Tick]]'', a hand puppet compared The Tick to Achilles in his tent. When no one, even his ventriloquist, got it he said "The Illiad?" (looks around) ''"Homer?"'' (still no reaction) "READ A BOOK!!"▼
* A joke from ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'':
{{quote|'''Bullwinkle:''' Twenty dollars!? That's antihistamine money!
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'''Rocky:''' I get it.
'''Bullwinkle:''' Thousands won't! }}
▲* On an episode of ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'', a hand puppet compared The Tick to Achilles in his tent. When no one, even his ventriloquist, got it he said "The Illiad?" (looks around) ''"Homer?"'' (still no reaction) "READ A BOOK!!"
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