View source for Pop Culture Pun Episode Title

{{trope}}
A subtype of [[Pun-Based Title]] which applies to individual episode titles, and not the fact that the pun is based upon some element of popular culture, such as the title of a film, book or song. [[Catch Phrase]]s, song lyrics, adages and colloquialisms can also be riffed on.

Also a subtrope of [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]. Related to [[Literary Allusion Title]] and can sometimes overlap.

{{examples}}
==  Anime and Manga ==
* Most episodes of the English dub of ''[[Pokémon]]'' (the first ones had quite expository titles). Including one that includes a pun based on the Japanese name of a character. (Barry's Busting Out All Over)
* Many episodes from the English dub of the various ''[[Digimon]]'' series.
* The [[FUNimation]] dub of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' does this a lot.
* As does its dub of ''[[Crayon Shin-chan]]''.
* ''[[Ichigo Mashimaro]]'' does this kind of rarely: "Violent Night", "The Hat's Meow"...
* ''[[Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt|Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt]]'' does this with every episode, referencing famous movies: "[[Fight Club|Catfight Club]]", "[[Pulp Fiction|Pulp Addiction]]", etc...
* The ''[[Ranma ½]]'' movies and [[OAV]]s were retitled in this manner when imported and dubbed for North America, resulting in things like ''[[Big Trouble in Little China|Big Trouble in Nekonron, China]]'' and ''[[Like Water for Chocolate|Like Water for Ranma]]''.

==  Live-Action TV ==
* Many episodes of the Syfy series ''[[Eureka]]'', especially in the third season. ("Bad to the Drone," "Show Me the Mummy," "Best in Faux.")
* ''[[Farscape]]'' did it a lot also, such as "John Quixote," "I Shrink Therefore I Am" and "Bringing Home The Beacon".
* ''[[Gossip Girl]]''
* Several episodes of ''[[Charmed]]''.
* The Food Network cooking show ''[[Good Eats]]'' does this for most of its episodes: "Porterhouse Rules," "Citizen Cane," "The Egg Files," "Field of Greens," etc.
* An episode of ''[[Lost]]'' is called "Some Like it Hoth," a reference to both ''[[Some Like It Hot]]'' and ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]].''
* Too many [[Psych]] episodes to list. [[wikipedia:List of Psych episodes|Observe...]]
* Similar to the ''[[Simpsons]]'' example, there's the ''[[Angel]]'' episode "To Shanshu In LA", in which it eventually turns out that the Shanshu prophecy refers to a vampire [[To Live and Die In L.A.|becoming mortal and thus living and dying naturally]].

==  Video Games ==
* The tasks and scrolls in ''[[My Sims]] Kingdom'' frequently have this kind of name when they're not being boringly prosaic. For example, when you're told where to find a scroll that helps you make gears, the task is called [[Gears of War|"Gears of Where?"]]; when you get the scroll, it's called [[Metal Gear Solid|"Solid Gears of Metal"]].
* Chapter 4 of ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'' is called "For Pigs the Bell Tolls".

==  Web Comics ==
* ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella]]''. Every. Single. Strip.

==  Western Animation ==
* A few episodes of ''[[South Park]]''.
* ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]''
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' achieves many of these puns by incorporating Homer's [[Catch Phrase]], "D'oh!" ("D'oh-ing In The Wind," "The Greatest Story Ever D'Ohed.")
** In keeping with the writers having originally called it an "annoyed grunt," it used to be intimated thus - hence "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(annoyed grunt)cious," "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)" and "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-bot."
* ''[[Fanboy and Chum Chum]]'' had episode titles such as ''The Janitor Strikes Back'' and ''Little Glop of Horrors''.
** One episode was not only named ''A Bopwork Orange'' but also parodied the classic film.
* Every other episode of ''[[Futurama]]''.

{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Title Tropes]]
[[Category:Pop Culture Tropes]]