History MythologyGag / WesternAnimation

** In "Doggone Buster", the Super Sleuths are searching for Buster and think that Lumpy might be with him, since Darby left them together that morning. They speculate also that Roo might be with them because Kanga had indicated that he's missing. Tigger comments "He is Lumpster's best friend forever, ya' know. I mean, you heard the song." The comment is apparently apropos of nothing, as the only song in this installment has to do with Buster being missing. However, Tigger is referring to the song "Shoulder to Shoulder" from ''Pooh's Heffalump Movie'', which is sung by Carly Simon but presented from the perspective of both Lumpy and Roo in the lyrics "''I've never had a best friend before / So I can't be sure what it feels like / But I think it feels more like this, I do / I think I feel more like myself when I'm with you.''" Furthermore, Tigger is LeaningOnTheFourthWall here because nobody in the Hundred Acre Wood actually heard that song, as it wasn't performed by the characters, unlike a lot of other songs in the franchise.

** One episode features one huge mythology gag. It's a bunch of kids telling their RashomonStyle stories about the Batman, one being 60's campy, one being Miller's Dark Knight, and at the crowning moment of funny they stumble upon a very feminine boy stroking a feather boa saying, "I love Batman, that rubber costume, the car that can drive up walls," and another kid remarks something along the lines of, "oh please give me a break Joel," an [[TakeThat/WesternAnimation obvious reference]] to Creator/JoelSchumacher and his Batman movies. As a bonus, the sign on the store behind the kid reads "Shoe maker", a literal translation of the German name Schumacher.

** "Heroes" had three superheroes using the name "the Terrific Trio", which was originally used in the campy 60's series, which was the Dynamic Duo, plus Batgirl.

* In the original 1965 version of ''WesternAnimation/SecretSquirrel'', the title character spoke with a lisp (he was voiced by Mel Blanc, doing a voice very similar to [[WesternAnimation/SylvesterTheCatAndTweetyBird Sylvester the cat]]). In the episode "Goldflipper" of the 90's revival, ''Super Secret Secret Squirrel'', Morocco Mole starts lisping after losing his gold tooth, and Secret affects a lisp too in order to mock him, making him sound more like his original counterpart.

** Leatherhead's lair is taken from the turtles' second lair introduced in [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIITheSecretOfTheOoze the second installment]] of the 90's movie trilogy.

* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'': The episode "Legends of Mr. Gar" opens with Darrel being caught in the act of vandalizing the Lakewood Plaza Turbo sign by adding the words "Smells Bad" underneath, a reference to the show's pilot short.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers'' episode "Un-Barry-Able", Norbert dresses up to look like his brother Dagget so he could try to win Barry back over after he found him "cool". This is a reference to the "Snowbound" pilot, where Norb just looks like a yellow version of Dag.

** In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime''
*** After Megatron is gone at the end of the ''Darkness Rising'' FivePartPilot, Starscream makes himself the new leader using the monicker of "Emperor of Destruction", the same one used by every Decepticon leader in Japanese series.
*** Arcee admires Bumblebee's new paint scheme after they go into hiding: black with yellow highlights instead of yellow with black highlights. She comments that she couldn't do that, since she would be mostly [[PinkIsForSissies pink]], which was her G1 scheme.
*** Soundwave is TheSilentBob, able to carry on a complete conversation despite never speaking or even having a face. He can speak, but he only does so once, a straight call back to G1: "Soundwave: superior. Autobots: inferior."

** In the ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'':
*** Bumblebee first appears next to a yellow Volkswagon Beetle, his ''[[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 G1]]'' altmode.
*** Optimus Prime says "One shall stand, one shall fall", lifted from similar circumstances in [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie the 1986 animated movie]]. In fact, ''several'' of Prime's catch phrases from the G1 series were incorporated, also including "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."
*** A soundclip from Creator/OrsonWelles' ''Radio/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' plays on Bumblebee's radio -- Welles provided the original voice of Unicron.
*** Optimus borrows the main gimmick of ''[[spoiler:Anime/TransformersArmada]]'' for his battle against The Fallen.
*** Jetfire as an ex-Decepticon recalls his G1 incarnations as well, particularly the cartoon version known as Skyfire, being an ancient Transformer who ultimately rejected the Decepticons' ways.
*** Megatron goes "[[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Yessss.]]" twice in ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen''.

** In the ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' film series:

*** Optimus Prime says "One shall stand, one shall fall", lifted from similar circumstances in the 1986 animated movie. In fact, ''several'' of Prime's catch phrases from the G1 series were incorporated, also including "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."

*** Megatron goes "[[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Yessss.]]" twice in ''Revenge of the Fallen''.

** in ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersRescueBots Rescue Bots]]'':

** In "Itchy and Scratchy the Movie", Lisa tells Bart that the eponymous movie had cameos by Creator/DustinHoffman and Music/MichaelJackson: "They didn't use their real names, but you could tell it was them!" Both appeared in classic episodes of ''The Simpsons'' under pseudonyms.

** In "Pokey Mom", Homer, after taunting a bull at a rodeo by drawing attention to Lisa and her red dress, turns to Bart for "some calming blue", then exclaiming "where's your blue shirt?", to which Bart responds, "I don't have a blue shirt" -- referencing the blue shirt Bart tends to wear in [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct knockoff merchandise]].

*** The villain Alice May looks almost exactly like Gwen Stacy from ''Franchise/SpiderMan'', right down to her clothing and color palette. She's even shown wearing a spider pattern dress during her capture.

** In "Apprentice", Slade forces Robin to become his apprentice, and then states that he'd eventually become like a father to him. Robin's response? "I already have a father," while the camera pans up to [[Franchise/{{Batman}} a group of bats]] flying away, complete with music that sounds awfully like the B:TAS opening.

* The [[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzM5MjBmZmYtMGVkNS00NzIxLTgzNDgtYjMwZmRkNzdhZGM3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTEyNzgwMDUw._V1_.jpg teaser poster]] for ''Batman: Caped Crusader'' is a throwback to [[https://cafans.b-cdn.net/images/Category_18170/subcat_36679/Duel-to-the-Death_Large.jpg the cover art]] of the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' novel, ''Duel to the Death''.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** The episode "Applebuck Season" features Applejack, sleep-deprived from trying to clear all of Sweet Apple Acres by herself, acting in increasingly ditzy and klutzy ways. This is a nod to G1 Applejack, whose defining trait was her klutziness.
** The episode "Dragon Quest" is almost a WholePlotReference to the G1 episode "Spike's Search". Both episodes feature Spike going on a journey to discover who he really is, only to find that the other dragons are bullies and end up staying with his friends.
** In "The Ticket Master", Fluttershy hums the G1 theme tune as she cleans the library.
** In "Sonic Rainboom", background pony Sassaflash makes an appearance, bearing a cutie mark that greatly resembles G1 Firefly's.
** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E3AFlurryOfEmotions A Flurry of Emotions]]", the fairy tale Twilight reads to the sick foals, ''Gusty the Great'', is about the heroic unicorn Gusty and her encounter with the treacherous Grogar. Gusty was one of the main characters of the original ''My Little Pony'' cartoon, and Grogar a major villain from the same show.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2015'' episode "Black Vortex Part 1", Drax find himself in a world where he is a Spider-Man style hero called Draxman. Draxman's origin is exactly that of the comic book Drax (estate agent and saxophonist Arthur Douglas is nearly killed by Thanos, but is given a new, superpowered body by Kronos), and his costume is comic book Drax's original look.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/HulkAndTheAgentsOfSMASH'' episode "The Venom Within", which crosses over with ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012'', A-Bomb speculates that Venom is [[ComicBook/SpiderMan an alien creature]] which [[Film/SpiderMan3 came to Earth on a meteorite]]. In this continuity, he's completely wrong.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Invincible2021'', when Nolan takes Mark to Arthur Rosenbaum, Art let's Mark try out a costume that is [[ComicBook/{{Invincible}} Zandale Randolph's (Bulletproof's) costume]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur2023'' has plenty of these, being based on a Marvel comic:
** In “The Beyonder, the grand prize of the science fair is the opportunity to visit a Wakandan Outreach Center. The concept of the outreach centers were introduced in ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}''. Later, the winners of the trip to the outreach center show respect to Lunella by giving her the Wakandan cross-arms salute introduced in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse.
** In “Skip Ad… olescense”, Skipster's shuffle mode takes Lunella to what seems to be a future similar to ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast'', complete with an older Lunella standing in front of a wanted poster of various heroes who are either captured or on the run.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'' likes to do this, particularly in regards to the older cartoon. Among the most prominent:
** In the episode "Secret Origins" April O'Neil poses as a TV reporter to infiltrate a building, wearing a [[IconicOutfit very familiar yellow jumpsuit]]; when she tries to "interview" the soldier supervising the blockade around the Utrom building (it's complicated), she explains that she's from "Channel 9 News *broken tag on jumpsuit flips down* er, Channel ''6'' News". Later, once the smoke clears, Donatello says April would make a good reporter, to which she replied "In another lifetime, maybe." These are all references to the previous ''Ninja Turtles'' cartoon, where April was a reporter for Channel 6 News.
** The van is kept in a warehouse on "the corner of Eastman and Laird".
** ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'', full stop! Not only do we have a crossover between the 2003 and 80s series, but a view of the multiverse shows pretty much every other continuity ever.
** In the same episode, as the alien Utroms escape the under-siege T.C.R.I. building, one makes a complaint, to which the other says "Oh, shut up, Krang."
*** Note that both Krang ''and the Utroms'' were based on aliens that originally appeared in the original comic book series by Eastman and Laird.
** A Season 4 episode features anthropomorphic rhino [[ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo Gennosuke]], exploring NYC when he becomes taken with a muscular punk's outfit. One "shopping" trip later, he is seen wearing the outfit: a tight yellow wifebeater, cargo pants, and an ammo belt strapped across his gut -- the outfit anthropomorphic rhino Rocksteady wore in the original TMNT series. To complete the look, Casey Jones slaps a helmet on him as he leads the rhino away.
*** In addition, that same episode featured a villain from the same dimension as Gennosuke and his friend Usagi, an enemy who was an anthropomorphic warthog. While said character doesn't look anything like Bebop, it could hardly be a coincidence.
** Leatherhead's lair is taken from the turtles' second lair in the movie series.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'', while not as mythos-heavy as the DCAU (being separate from it), has its share of Mythology Gags as well.

** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s second costume was the same one he wears in the Ultimate continuity.

** The episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]] has one. First, let's admit that The ClockKing is an AtrociousAlias. So Fugate, who is NotWearingTights, who averts all the tropes under the EvilMakeover and who [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse looks just like everyone else]] [[ComicBookMoviesDontUseCodenames never uses that codename]]. However, it's the episode title, so they work this:

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "Patrick! The Game", Patrick makes a game called "Tic-Tac", a shorter version of Tic-Tac-Toe. An issue of Magazine/NickelodeonMagazine featured this game long before the episode that featured it. With the ''exact same character,'' nonetheless!

* The [[WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget2015 2015 revival of Inspector Gadget]] has a couple so far observed from the leaked intro and a still image. The new opening contains some scenes from the [[WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget original cartoon]]'s opening, such as Chief Quimby having the door shut on him before his message explodes and Gadget handcuffing a fake Dr. Claw arm to find a bomb that makes him become the "I" in the show's title when it explodes. One of the leaked images for the show is of Gadget using his Gadget Copter, which bears some resemblance to how it appeared in [[Film/InspectorGadget the live-action Disney films]].

*** Rattrap also mentions his "great aunt Arcee", the ''G1'' [[TheChick pink chick]].

** The episode "Rebel" is set on Moonbase Shado-Alpha, which as the name suggests, contains design elements from both [[Series/{{UFO}} SHADO Moonbase]] and [[Series/Space1999 Moonbase Alpha]], both from series by ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' creator Creator/GerryAnderson.