Person as Verb: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"You've been wrong so many times that I'm not even going to say something is wrong anymore. I'm going to say that it's 'Dorian.'"''|'''Dr. Cox''', to John Dorian, ''[[Scrubs (TV)|Scrubs]]''}}

[['''Person Asas Verb]]''' is the practice of describing an action using a cultural reference -- typicallyreference—typically by naming a character known for doing the same thing. The name of the show/book/whatever, or the writer/actor/whatever, may also be used. Often the exact usage will be "They just pulled a...(character-name)" or "They did a... (character-name)."

Related to [[Buffy -Speak]]. Compare [[Popcultural Osmosis]], [[Sein Language]], [[Malaproper]], [[Memetic Mutation]] and [[Weird Al Effect]]. Also check out the various [[Self -Referential Humor]] tropes.

* In ''[[Azumanga Daioh (Manga)|Azumanga Daioh]]'', Yukari, tired of teaching language (and unable to teach Math), drags everybody out into the cold for some P.E.. The first game? Soccer. When Tomo asks Yukari if she even knows the rules, she says "I'm [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Pele |Pelé]]" (manga, ADV translation), "I'm [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_Hamm:Mia Hamm|Mia Hamm]]" (anime, ADV translation), or "I'm [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidetoshi_Nakata:Hidetoshi Nakata|Nakata]]" (anime, original). In any case, Tomo doesn't know what Yukari is talking about.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090208003247/http://www.onemanga.com/Katekyo_Hitman_Reborn/50/07/ This page] of [[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]] has Tsuna's mother "pulling a Yamamoto". (Which is to cheerily come up with a mundane explanation for the obviously dangerous situation at hand.)

* A ''[[Justice League (animation)|JLA]]'' comic had Green Lantern moan to himself, "Doctor Light pulled a [[Harry Houdini|Houdini]] on me."

* ''[[The Fugitive (Filmfilm)|The Fugitive]]'' with [[Tommy Lee Jones]]: "He did a [[Peter Pan]] right off this dam here." Earlier, of a train driver: "Bet he did a Casey Jones."

* In ''[[Twelve12 Monkeys]]'', [[Bruce Willis]]' character is referred to as having "pulled a Houdini." (He was a time traveler, and got pulled back out of impossible-to-escape restraints.)

* The two protagonists of ''[[Gerry (Film)|Gerry]]'' are both named Gerry. It becomes clear that in the personal argot of their friendship, a "Gerry" has come to mean an incident of getting turned around and hopelessly lost somewhere, and that the film's title actually refers to this term.

* In ''[[ItsIt's a Wonderful Life]]'' there's a reference to Clarence having "pulled a Brody" -- period—period slang for jumping off a bridge, after New York bridge-jumper Steve Brody.

* In ''[[The Sorcerers Apprentice (Film)|The SorcerersSorcerer's Apprentice]]'', Dave spills water on his pants after witnessing the confrontation between Baltazaar and Horvath and everyone believes that he wet himself. Even ten years later, kids in grade school still call having a nervous breakdown "pulling a Dave Stutler."

* In ''[[The Gamers]]'':Dorkness Rising, when Flynn is [[Back Fromfrom the Dead|resurrected]], Lodge (the ''[[Game Master]]'') notes that "Flynn pulls a [[The Bible|Lazarus]]."

** This one's become so well-travelledtraveled that it even [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/kare_kano/v09/c041/4.html appears] in the ''[[Kare Kano]]'' manga as a visual-only metaphor for someone snapping under the strain of having perfectionist, controlling parents.

** Oddly enough, to "Carrie someone" usually refers to the act of inflicting such humiliation on the person rather than the act of retaliation. For example, in an episode of ''[[Thirty Rock (TV)|Thirty30 Rock]]'', Liz's former high school friends attempt to dump chocolate on her head and refer to it as "Carrie-ing her".

* Played with in ''[[Dave Barry]] Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States'', describing the occasion of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the first July Fourth ([[Running Gag|October 8]], 1776): "The members took turns lighting sparklers and signing their John Hancocks to the Declaration, with one prankster even going so far as to actually write '[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hancock:John Hancock|John Hancock]].'"

* The first modern novel, ''[[Don Quixote (Literature)|Don Quixote]]'', inspired the adjective "quixotic", which means, to be an ordinary person with grandiose or impossible dreams. However, at least one dictionary uses "quixote" as a lower-case noun with the same connotation. "He's such a quixote."

* ''[[Harry Potter and Thethe Order of Thethe Phoenix (novel)|Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'': "One more lesson like that and I just might [[Accidental Innuendo|do a Weasley."]] (After {{spoiler|Fred and George drop out in spectacular fashion.}})

* Done rather cruelly in ''[[Flowers for Algernon (Literature)|Flowers For Algernon]]'': Pulling a "Charlie Gordon" is messing up.

* From one of the ''[[Dinotopia]]'' books, any instance of [[Aint No Rule]] or [[Loophole Abuse]] is referred to as "Pulling an Andrew", after said Andrew wins an obstacle course race against a ''far'' more athletic dinosaur by simple virtue of ignoring the obstacles and running down the straightaway between the courses.

* [[The Dresden Files|Jim Butcher]] says on [https://web.archive.org/web/20110811102031/http://www.cipher-wotr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=348 this page] about writing the middle of a novel: "It lurks between the beginning of your book and the exciting conclusion, and its mission in life is to [[The Neverending Story (Filmfilm)|Atreyu you right down into the yucky, mucky mire]] in order to prevent you from ever actually finishing."

* In ''The View from Saturday'', the character Luke is such a genius that people believe his name will eventually become a verb, "[[Stuck Onon Band -Aid Brand|like Xerox]]", meaning to do something or other that's really brilliant.

* In ''[[Crysis (Video Gameseries)|Crysis]]: Legion'' Colonel Barclay notes that the Ceph are [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] enough to remove both macrofauna (read: humans and animals) and microbes, obviously having got their tentacles on ''[[War of the Worlds]]'' sometime. Hilariously, Dr Gould the scientist doesn't get it at first.

* ''[[Little Green Men (Literaturenovel)|Little Green Men]]'' has a footnote explaining what the neologism "Bobbitting" means.

* On ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'', when Britta got the group's personality tests back with weird results:

{{quote| '''Jeff''': You probably just Britta'd the results somehow.<br />

'''Britta''': No, I double-checked them... wait, are people using my name to mean "make a small mistake"?<br />

'''Jeff''': (Shifty-eyed) ...[[Sure, Let's Go Withwith That|yes]]. }}

** Later in [[Community (TV)/Recap/S3 /E05 Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps|the same episode]]:

{{quote| '''Britta''': We learned an important lesson tonight. We should never make the "Britta" of "Britta-ing" each other's feelings.<br />

'''Pierce''': You're using it wrong!<br />

'''Jeff''': Wow. You Britta'd "Britta'd".<br />

'''Abed''': Yeah, way to pull an Abed.<br />

'''Shirley''': I don't get it.<br />

'''Jeff''': Shirley, don't Pierce.<br />

{{quote| '''JD''': Well, maybe that's because I found out you stole a hundred dollars from me and I Marcia Brady-ied your ass.<br />

'''Turk''': What?<br />

'''JD''': You know, when Marcia was working at the ice cream shop and she got Jan a job and they liked Jan better, so they fired Marcia.<br />

{{quote| '''Willow''': When you brought me here I thought it was to kill me, or to lock me in some mystical dungeon for all eternity, or with the torture, but instead you go all [[Harry Potter|Dumbledore]] on me.}}

{{quote| '''Buffy:''' Was I the only one awake in English class that day? I'll. Kill. Him.}}

* In ''[[The X -Files]]'', Mulder snaps at Deep Throat to "just cut the [[The Obi -Wan|Obi Wan Kenobi]]" crap.

** And in the second season premiere, Dean is stuck in an out-of-body experience where he can't touch or affect anything around him. So he watches Sam and their father get into an argument, and Dean gets really angry at them for it, so he knocks a glass of water onto the floor. His father and brother stop and stare, and Dean says, with a look of shock on his face, "I full-on [[Ghost (Filmfilm)|Swayze-ed]] that mother."

{{quote| '''Booth''': "Sure, I'm [[The X -Files|Mulder and you're Scully.]]"<br />

* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]''. John Crichton does this all the time. Seeing as he's a long way from Earth, naturally no-one understands a word he's talking about, though the crew of Moya seem to get the general gist after a while.

* In the ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'' episode "Darmok", the entire language of the alien race works this way, making communication impossible with those who don't know the references. The example they give is [[Romeo and Juliet|"Juliet on the balcony"]] representing a declaration of love; unless you know the name and the scene, it means nothing.

* This trope is a defining feature of the main character in ''[[Psych]]'', who frequently uses references to obscure 80's pop-culture, possibly in order to keep the show--whichshow—which could easily become dangerously serious in light of its subject matter--relativelymatter—relatively light and humorous.

{{quote| '''Shawn:''' That's very Cameron Frye of you.}}

* In ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', after Claire beats up someone trying to attack her, the attacker says "don't go all [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy]] on us!"

{{quote| '''Olivia:''' The man was clever enough to ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' himself out of a maximum security German prison.}}

** "Pulling a Clavin" is also a reference to the episode where Cliff appeared on ''[[Jeopardy (TV)|Jeopardy!]]'' and, despite having an insurmountable lead, lost terribly after wagering everything on a Final Jeopardy! response of "Who are three people that have never been in my kitchen?" ''Jeopardy!'' has made countless references to Clavin and that episode over time, making it somewhat of an [[Ascended Meme]].

* During one particular episode of ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'', the term "Michael" becomes used to refer to chickening out (generally regarding something wildly illegal):

{{quote| '''George Sr.''': "Hey don't go all Michael on me here."<br />

* From ''[[Black AdderBlackadder|Blackadder II]]'':

{{quote| '''Edmund Blackadder:''' I'm not very popular, am I, Baldrick?<br />

* ''[[Married... Withwith Children]]''. One episode has Al Bundy attempt to put back a way overdue library book without officially returning it so he won't have to pay a late fee. He ends up being exposed in a very public and humiliating way. At the very end of the episode, a kid catches his friend doing the same thing and remarks "Hey, don't Bundy that book!"

* ''[[Thirty Rock (TV)|30 Rock]]'':

{{quote| Jack: I've Lemoned the situation with Nancy!<br />

** ''[[Thirty Rock (TV)|30 Rock]]'' also had a episode centered around Jack "Reaganing" or going twenty four hours without making a mistake. Named, of course, after Ronald Reagan.

* The pilot episode of ''[[Stargate SG -1]]'', also an [[Actor Allusion]] as Carter is talking to O'Neill at the time:

{{quote| '''Carter:''' It took us fifteen years and three supercomputers to [[MacGyver]] a system for the gate on Earth.}}

* In ''[[ItsIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'', Charlie does this to his own inventions. A "Charlie One-Two" involves someone throwing himself in front of a car and then blackmailing the driver. A "Grilled Charlie" is a questionable grilled sandwich containing butter, peanut butter, chocolate and cheese.

* [[Simon and Garfunkel (Music)|Simon and Garfunkel]]'s "A Simple Desultory Philippic ([[Either or Title|or]] How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)".

* [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]] on an infamous drug-themed PSA: "What a twist! They [[M. Night Shyamalan]]'ed my ass!"

* Parodied to the point of [[Refuge in Audacity]] in the [[RifftraxRiff Trax]] of ''[[Avatar (Filmfilm)|Avatar]]'', as Neytiri fends off the jackal-like animals attacking Jake's Avatar.

{{quote| ''"There's the Flying [[The Lord of the Rings|Legolas]]. Followed by the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Donatello]]. Unexpected [[Star Trek II: theThe Wrath of Khan (Film)|Shatner Khan yell.]] Ahh, the [[OJ Simpson|OJ.]]''<br />

''[[Crosses the Line Twice|I heard Michael Vick pulled a]] [[A Date Withwith Rosie Palms|PeeWee Herman]] [[Crosses the Line Twice|in the theater during this scene.]]'' }}

* In grappling and [[Useful Notes/Mixed Martial Arts|Mixed Martial Arts]], certain moves are named after fighters who popularized them.

{{quote| You woke up early<br />

{{quote| '''Tahu''': We're going to do a [[Boisterous Bruiser|Pohatu]] on him.<br />

'''Kopeke''': A Pohatu?<br />

* The strategy game ''[[Age of Empires III (Video Game)|Age of Empires III]]'' has a cheat called [[Teen Girl Squad (Web Animation)|"Soo good"]], where every unit kill would be accompanied by a bugle blast and an on-screen message along the lines of "'''''KILLER UNIT'D!!!'''''". So, if one was killed by a rifleman, he would get a message called "'''''MUSKETEER'D!!!'''''" or when the killer was a cavalryman there would be a message like "'''''HUSSAR'D!!!'''''". There are even circumstances where cannons or experienced units are named, with their whole titles; "'''''IMPERIAL HOWITZER'D!!!'''''". [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|It is also awesome]].

* At one point, [[Max Payne (Video Gameseries)|Max Payne]] says that he "Made like Chow Yun-Fat"

{{quote| '''Lyndsay:''' Ugh! Buttered again!}}

* ''[[Home On The Strange]]'': "[https://web.archive.org/web/20150403120328/http://www.homeonthestrange.com/view.php?ID=22 I Buffy the door!]"

{{quote| '''Ivy''': Well, where is he, then?<br />

'''Viktor''': I don't know. Vanished like, ehh - vhat's his name? - who does alvays those tricks.<br />

'''Ivy''': Houdini?<br />

'''Viktor''': Ya. Houdini.<br />

{{quote| ''Pulse'': "A Snotto: losing one's arms in a careless or idiotic way". Said to [[Stable Time Loop|Snotto, right after that happens]].}}

** "Pulling a Homer" means [[Seemingly -Profound Fool|doing something great through accident, luck, or stupidity]] and, optionally, looking rather stupid at the same time. ''The Dictionary of Bull****'' actually lists "pulling a Homer" with the full definition from the episode, making it a rare valid example in a sea of self-referential jokes that never get notable pop-culture usage. The writers said on a DVD commentary that they were kind of hoping that "pulling a Homer" would catch on and end up in the dictionary for real, alas it was not to be.

* Go to [[Duck Season! Rabbit Season!]] and count how many examples refer to it as "being [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunnied]]".

* ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures (Animation)|Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' features both "pulling a Viper" and "pulling a Jade."

{{quote| "Yeah, you know, as in: 'he's a total Wally,' or, 'I've got to take a Wally.'}}

* On ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]'', Jack Spicer learns that, much to his chagrin, the supervillain community has been using his name in reference to immense failures.

* [[Uber Haxor NovaUberHaxorNova]] often does a [[The Ballad of Gay Tony|Gay Tony]] jump in his videos, probably referencing the base-jumping from that add-on.

* Various fan communities (including this one) also [[Self -Demonstrating Article|Tuckerized]] [[Tuckerization]].

* In Japan, ''bush-suru'', to mean barfing. ([[George HWH. W. Bush|Bush Sr.]] once got sick at an official dinner and puked in the Japanese Prime Minister's lap.)

* To Bogart a joint is to hold it for a long time without passing it, referencing the way that [[Humphrey Bogart]] would hold a lit cigarette for long periods of time in films without taking a drag.

* Swift Boating, named for the "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth" who came out against John Kerry in 2004. The controversy surrounding the group's authenticity made it a byword for [[Malicious Slander]].

* After ''"allegedly"'' performing a certain act on then president [[Bill Clinton]], White House intern Monica Lewinsky's surname became a sexual euphemism.

[[Category:Person Asas Verb]]