How do people feel about using cultural references? I suppose they're fine if they're used so that even if you don't get them it doesn't deter from the plot or the funny? (like Simon Pegg often does).
Anyway there's a reference I want to use and the gag relies on 'getting it'. So if I say;
ENTER A 10 YEAR OLD GIRL WITH LONG BLONDE HAIR AND A FRINGE.
10 YEAR OLD GIRL
(POINTING) They're here!
Do you knwo what it's referring to?
In real life it's been 50/50 so far.
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ November 24 2008, 3:11 PM GMTHow do people feel about using cultural references? I suppose they're fine if they're used so that even if you don't get them it doesn't deter from the plot or the funny? (like Simon Pegg often does).
Anyway there's a reference I want to use and the gag relies on 'getting it'. So if I say;
ENTER A 10 YEAR OLD GIRL WITH LONG BLONDE HAIR AND A FRINGE.
10 YEAR OLD GIRL
(POINTING) They're here!Do you knwo what it's referring to?
In real life it's been 50/50 so far.
Poltergeist?
No friggin clue.
Quote: chipolata @ November 24 2008, 3:11 PM GMTPoltergeist
Agreed.
Generally, I think references can date a show. A smattering is nice, but too many and it feels like you need a key to fully enjoy the show. You start feeling excluded.
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ November 24 2008, 3:11 PM GMTENTER A 10 YEAR OLD GIRL WITH LONG BLONDE HAIR AND A FRINGE.
10 YEAR OLD GIRL
(POINTING) They're here!Do you know what it's referring to?
The underage vice squad? I did think Poltergeist though. 
Poltergeist. It's a gag that only people in their thirties or over would probably get.
They can date, yeah. Graham Linehan mentions how no one of a certain age will get the Ferrero Rocher gag in Ted now.
I avoid them, unless they're truly universal.
Oh, and I DIDN'T get the original reference.
Me neither. And I've seen Poltergeist a few times!
I'm just thick though.
If I'd seeeen the girl in the sketch, and she was dressed just like her etc, it might have seeped in.
I think they can be fantastic at making an audience feel included - as long as they get the joke. I suppose its always a bit of a risk, but its up to you whether the potential pay-off is worth it.
One of my favourite group of references in Spaced, for example, are the ones with Daisy & her typewriter. There's a bit of everything - 'Misery', 'Murder, She Wrote', 'The Sorceror's Apprentice'... It gives everyone a chance to get one of their references because they use such a range of genres. A nice smug-making bit of comedy.
I'm a big fan of Spaced so I'm definitely speaking as an advocate of the cultural reference. BUT the big thing is how they fit; If they feel shoe-horned in then I think it can stilt the flow of a scene and a bit self-indulgent.
The trouble with Poltergeist as a reference is that it's over twenty years old now. And I can't remember the last time it was even on the telly. It's probably more famous for the girl in it dying.
Quote: Lee Henman @ November 24 2008, 3:31 PM GMTPoltergeist. It's a gag that only people in their thirties or over would probably get.
22 - I got it
You can always explain the reference and get another gag out of it. So you get two hits at it and educate people like Griff. And me.
Quote: Griff @ November 24 2008, 3:38 PM GMTI didn't get it either, but then I've never seen Poltergeist.
Generally I think references have to be done well or not at all. They seem to make a good job of it in The Simpsons, where if you don't get everything that's going on, there's plenty else to enjoy.
But it's the endless references that turn me off Simon Pegg's comedies. "Forget it Nick, it's Sandford." Yes I know that's a reference to Chinatown, I spotted that one. But it doesn't make me laugh anymore than someone reciting famous movie quotes in the pub makes me laugh.
See, I don't like the geekyness levels either, but I'm not a film buff at all, so therefore didn't spot that reference. So it didn't bother me.
Watching the Spaced DVD with the option of reference-o-meter switched on shows just how many geeky things they threw into the show. I didn't spot half of them, so I didn't care.
Quote: Marc P @ November 24 2008, 3:40 PM GMTYou can always explain the reference and get another gag out of it. So you get two hits at it and educate people like Griff. And me.
Some people are just uneducatable.