Pop Cultural Osmosis Failure: Difference between revisions

** Little Rock doesn't know who [[Willie Nelson]] is, much to Tallahassee's horror.

** Or who [[Bill Murray]] is, ALSO to Tallahassee's horror.

'''Little Rock:''' Who’s Gandhi? }}

** Also done in reverse with a hilarious scene where Little Rock is trying to explain the concept of ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' to Tallahassee, which crosses into [[Real Life]], as that scene was, in fact, the two actors just talking as they left the camera running.

* ''[[Armageddon]]'': Owen Wilson's character says he hates when someone says [[Jethro Tull]] [[I Am Not Shazam|is the name of the lead singer]]. The psychiatrist asks back "Who is Jethro Tull?"

* This exchange from ''[[Notting Hill]]'':

'''William:''' Of course. And is... is he your favorite Italian director? }}

* In ''How Do You Know'', George tells Lisa how his mother left his father after watching ''[[Kramer vs. Kramer]]'', but she's never seen the movie, and doesn't get why his story was supposed to make her see him in a different light.

* Occurs in ''Jolly Roger: Massacre at Cutter's Cove'' when a character brings up ''[[Dirty Harry]]'' ("Dirty who?")

* Dirty Harry also causes puzzlement in ''[[Red Heat]]''.

'''[[Arnold Schwarzenegger|Danko]]:''' Soviet Podbyrin, 9.2 milimeter, is world's most powerful handgun.<br />

'''Ridzik:''' Oh, come on, everybody knows the .44 Magnum is the big boy on the block. Why do you think Dirty Harry uses it?<br />

* ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]'': [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]] [[Captain America]] has only a blank expression when Coulson drops [[Stephen Hawking]]'s name in a conversation. Used from the other perspective when Thor mentions an animal from Asgard that Coulson has clearly never encountered. Later, Cap is happy when he gets a ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' reference that is lost on Thor.

* Subverted in ''[[Taken (film)|Taken]]''.

 

 

* In a ''[[Scrubs]]'' episode, the Janitor tells Eliot that he changed the address in his personel file to "[[The Addams Family|1 Cemetery Lane]]" because Dr. Kelso keeps calling him "Lurch". Eliot just looks at him in polite incomprehension.

* ''[[Community]]'':

'''Anne: Who's Jack and Diane?<br />

'''Shirley:''' ''(furious)'' Okay, I get it! You're young! }}

** Another example is when they are suggesting Abed change his personality:

'''Troy:''' ''Ohhhhh'', he wants us to ''Love Don't Cost a Thing'' him.<br />

'''Shirley:''' Ohhh!<br />

* Sam on ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' occasionally fails to get Al's pop-culture references, such as in "Glitter Rock," when he doesn't know who [[The Who|Pete Townshend]] is, leading to a [[Who's on First?]] exchange. This is mostly due to time-travel-related memory loss, although (as in this example) it might occasionally occur just because Sam is a huge nerd.

* The scene in ''[[Angel]]'' where the green-skinned demon Host of Caritas reveals that his actual name is Lorne:

'''Angel:''' ''(smiles)'' Right. Lorne Greene. ''(Cordelia and Wesley stare at him)'' ''[[Bonanza]]''? Fifteen years on the air not mean anything to anyone here? Okay, ''now'' I feel old. }}

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''

** Apparently, Reid's never heard of the sitting in a tree song. He's also completely unaware of ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]''.

** And then there's this:

'''Hotch:''' Just because Manson liked it doesn't mean that it has to be ruined for the rest of us.<br />

'''Reid:''' That's why I stick to Beethoven. No chance of negative associations.<br />

* Happens all the time in ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' with Penny not getting the geeky references.

** And in an episode, Penny sees failure while asking some regular pop culture questions to Sheldon and Leonard ("Singer who sang 'Oops!... I Did It Again'?"). Best summed up by:

'''Sheldon:''' [[Star Trek|Romulan]]? }}

** Sheldon will often not get references of popular subjects he deems to be beneath him.

'''Sheldon:''' ''(pause)'' I know everything ''important'' about the universe. }}

* In the ''[[All in The Family]]'' episode "Archie and the Computer", Mike complains about the increasing role of computers in society:

'''Archie:''' Eh, shut up, you don't even know what year is! }}

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Empty Child", Rose jokingly refers to the Doctor as "Mr. Spock". Jack, who's from the future, doesn't get the reference and assumes it's actually the Doctor's name.

** Vala also regularly complains about her teammates using Tau'ri pop culture references, which she never get.

* In one episode of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', Robin mentioned several canadian celebrities in a row, none of which her friends knew about.

* In the ''[[Seinfeld]]'' episode "The Stranded" Elaine quotes the line "Maybe the dingo ate your baby?" from ''A Cry in the Dark''. The woman she's saying it to doesn't get the reference.

 

* ''[[PvP (webcomic)|Pv P]]'': [[http://www.pvponline.com/2001/10/18/ This strip. [[wikipedia:867-5309/Jenny|Explanation]], in case you don't get it either.

* [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=236 This page] of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', where it indicates that Annie barely knows anything about pop culture because (as we learn elsewhere) she grew up in a hospital.

''(Antimony thinks about this for [[Beat Panel|a panel]])''<br />

'''Antimony:''' I have no idea what you just said. }}

* The comic ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' had this happen with Grace when confronted with a Santa look-alike. Of course, this is someone who was [[Raised by Wolves|cut off enough from society]] to ask the question "World War Two?! How many have we had!?"

"I... What?" }}

 

* Much of the humor in ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'' is derived from the fact that Omi [[Raised by Wolves|has lived his entire life in the Xiaolin temple with virtually no exposure to the outside world]], meaning that he usually has no clue what the other characters in the show are talking about.

** Later in the series, Omi will frequently attempt to make a pop culture reference or use a common figure of speech but badly misword it, prompting another character to correct him, only for Omi to misinterpret the actual reference.

'''Omi:''' Cake? This is no time for food. }}

** In one instance, Omi miswords one of his attempted references so badly that none of the other characters can figure out what he was actually trying to say.

* ''[[American Dad]]'': This probably keeps Stan and Steve from bonding well. Notably, during a father-son road trip when Stan needed to complete restoring his DeLorean, but have never heard of ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]]'' which Steve always reference.

* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' 2011 episode; when Cheech and Chong are making a reunion tour -- ironic considering ''The Simpsons'' ran throughout the 90s, but [[Comic Book Time]] may apply:

'''Homer:''' Cheech and Chong were the [[Beavis and Butthead|Beavis and Butt-Head]] of their day!<br />

'''Bart:''' Who are Beavis and Butt-Head? }}

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* From ''[[Armageddon]]'':

'''Lev:''' No, I never saw ''[[Star Wars]]''. }}

* ''[[Live Free or Die Hard]]'': When John McClane finally gets to "Warlord"'s place, his reluctant ally tries to pass him off as another of the culture, which fails fast. Notable is when McClane fails to recognize a cutout of Boba Fett and tries to cover it by saying he's only familiar with ''[[Star Wars]]''. (McClane's smirk seems to suggest he's just screwing with "The Warlord" with that one.)

== Music ==

* Fountains of Wayne's "I'll Do the Driving" includes an example, although the subject of the song makes the mangled reference without any prompting:

I turn my head and pretend not to hear what she said'' }}

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[South Park]]: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut'':

'''General:''' I don't listen to hip-hop. }}

 

* In a ''[[Robin]]'' annual, Huntress tells Robin it was a clever idea of his to wear mirrors under their ponchos (to blind their enemies in a gunfight). He says he got the idea from an old movie. She says "''[[A Fistful of Dollars]]'', huh?" and he replies "No. ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]] III''.

* In ''[[Fanhunter]]'', it goes something like this:

'''John Konstantin:''' No, the ending of ''[[Evangelion]]''. }}

:: The trope is actually used twice here, since the song was written by Bart Howard, first recorded by Kaye Ballard in 1954 and only recorded by Frank Sinatra 10 years later.