Popcultural Osmosis - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Welcome to the American Museum of Pop Culture, with artifacts dating as far, far, back... as six months ago."

Joel McHale, The Soup

Even my crappy onomonopeotics can evoke one of the most recognizable pieces of music ever used in a movie, Strauss' "Thus Spake Zarustrutha". Hum just those five notes on a crowded bus and everyone around you will get a glint of recognition in their eyes. And even the middleschooler who has, with a straight face, said the words, "Justin Timberlake is, like, a musical genius," will know exactly from whence they came. He'll turn to you and say, "Isn't that from the one where Homer goes to space?"...Damn kids ruin everything.

— 2001: A Space Odyssey review, Revolution Science Fiction

Classics, almost by definition, are works that are considered to be of high quality, are influential on later works, and are widely known. However, one will often find that only scholars and enthusiasts have first-hand knowledge of the material in question, and that the masses know it either only by title or by homages, parodies, direct references and allusions found in more populist works. Essentially, various bits and pieces of high culture are most widely known through their use in pop culture. Ill-informed people might even think these bits and pieces are original to the popular work.

Pieta Plagiarism exists because of this phenomenon. Most artists would be copying some other usage than the sculpture.

Frequently results in Beam Me Up Scotty, It Was His Sled, and Covered Up.

Compare Memetic Mutation, Older Than They Think, Weird Al Effect, Seinfeld Is Unfunny, Small Reference Pools, The Theme Park Version, Repurposed Pop Song.

Examples:

From film: The 1925 Russian film Bronenosets Potyomkin, usually called Battleship Potemkin in English-language sources, is generally considered hugely influential on later cinema. There is a particular scene set on some stairs leading down to the harbour in Odessa which has been imitated several times, including in The Untouchables and one of the Naked Gun films. It is reasonable to assume that, in modern times at least, more people who are not cineasts will have seen these homages/parodies than have seen the original film.
From literature: Various bits from the works of William Shakespeare have been quoted, parodied, imitated and plagiarised too many times to count. Particularly notable are cases in which Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy is confused with the "Alas, poor Yorick" one, leading to an actor reciting the former while holding the prop skull that belongs in the latter. There's a fair amount of Beam Me Up Scotty at work, too: "Alas poor Yorick, I knew him" often has a "well" added to the end in pop culture.
By now, a notable percentage of the people who reference Citizen Kane as a cinema classic and could recognize the opening scene from any one second of footage have actually never seen the film and wouldn't be able to identify any other line, shot or sequence from the whole movie. (Okay, maybe one.)
- Considering Its Been Done several times over, most people are bound to recognise the majority of the movie, they just won't realise it's Citizen Kane.
Many famous pieces of classical music have been hijacked by Looney Tunes and other (usually older) animated sequences, and are many people's only exposure to such works. Many people still have the urge to sing "Kill the Wa-bbit" along to Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, thanks to Elmer Fudd's memorable version in the classic Bugs Bunny short What's Opera, Doc?
- 30 Rock had an episode where it's revealed Liz's cell phone ringtone is Ride of the Valkyries, resulting in this exchange:
  Phoebe: Oh, you like Wagner.
  Liz: No, I like Elmer Fudd.
- "Looney Tunes" also stole heavily from "The William Tell Overture" by Rossini, to the point where almost every major theme in the piece has been used in some cartoon. Of course, for a lot of those, it's via another reference—see below.
- How many people can listen to Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no.2 and not be thinking of a cartoon at the same time?
  - Dance of The Sugar-Plum Fairy: Are you thinking of Cadbury's Fruit and Nut, Lemmings, or Tetris?
  - Before Fantasia 2000, most people would associate Rhapsody in Blue with United Airlines.
  - The Theme from Peter Gunn was composed for the TV series Peter Gunn, in 1958.
  - Ahem, Bugs Bunny's "Rhapsody Rabbit" and Tom And Jerry "The Cat Concerto" stand out pretty much.
  - Felix Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" has probably been heard and remembered more from old cartoons than from the concert hall or recordings.
- Likewise, if you've heard of the turn-of-the-century song "Hello, Ma Baby", it was probably from One Froggy Evening.
  - Or perhaps even Spaceballs, which seems to have used it in reference to One Froggy Evening. It's even the same recording of the song!
  - And a dancing chestburster with a top-hat and cane!
- Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" is inextricably linked to assembly-line montages thanks to Looney Tunes.
- You know the theme song to the old Road Runner cartoons? That's actually the Dance of the Comedians from Smetana's "Bartered Bride". See for yourself.
"Sing, Sing, Sing", originally by Louis Prima, played most famously by Benny Goodman, is known to a whole generation of twenty-somethings as "the Chips Ahoy song".
- It's worth noting that "Sing, Sing, Sing" seems to be the stock music used to evoke '30s swing jazz.
The Bible is the grand-daddy of this trope, with sayings like "there's nothing new under the sun" and references to Pillars of Salt and the like existing in almost every medium, though very few people have actually read the Book in question (people who go to Church ~~will~~ may have heard excerpts).
- You'd think a book that most people in the west supposedly own a copy of would be more widely read, but it is a surprisingly obscure work.
An example so classic, jokes about it pre-date the concept of this trope: a wit from the 1960s noted this definition of a "longhair" (a person of culture): "he can hear the William Tell Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger." The piece of music referred to is from the Rossini Opera William Tell. The dramatic fanfare and thundering string section from the overture was used as the theme music for The Lone Ranger radio drama and then in movies and on television.
- On the subject of the Lone Ranger and William Tell, this commercial, which references not only The Lone Ranger but another TV ad of the day for Lark Cigarettes.
The animated Saturday morning show The Smurfs used nothing but clips of classical music for mood and theme setting.
Futurama has an example in the boy from the pair of Victorian dressed Street Urchin children who are recurring characters. They are clearly meant to evoke Dickens, as his crutch is identical to that famously used by Tiny Tim, although what the writers seem to have missed was that Tiny Tim was not one of Dickens' urchin characters. Then again, it's Futurama; it was probably on purpose.
- Lampshaded again in Futurama, as the Fungineers who designed the Moon Landing 'historical' recreation with singing whale hunters as astronauts have certainly gotten their historical facts through popcultural osmosis.
- Another one from Futurama is simply the theme song. Most people associate it with the series, but it's actually just a slightly tweaked version of part of the Maurice Béjart ballet Mass for our time. The original was written back in 1967 by a man named Pierre Henry and is entitled "Psyché Rock".
People these days seem to think that "Klaatu barada nikto" is that funny nonsense line from Sam Raimi's horror comedy Army Of Darkness (1992) (aka The Evil Dead 3). Actually, it's from the black-and white Sci-Fi classic The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), where the sentence is used to stop Gort, the powerful invincible robot of the alien Klaatu, from destroying the Earth as punishment for the humans killing his peaceful master.
- The fact that the people behind the remake just didn't care and actively tried to render that line incomprehensible when Keanu Reeves insisted it had to be included, naturally, does not help the collective memory.
It's impossible to list all the comic books, novels, fantasy horror movies, roleplaying games, video games, fantasy/Sci-Fi art and music videos that feature blatant rip-offs, allusions, homages, parodies or additions to H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos tales.
How many people quote lines from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's novel Faust and especially the prequel Faust II. (Faust, der Tragödie Zweiter Teil) without knowing where it's originally from?
- The 1981 German-Hungarian film adaption of Faust, titled Mephisto, transports the story into WWII, as a stageplay performed for a Nazi audience. Klaus Maria Brandauer's performance as a stage actor playing the devil, with sinister stark white make-up, black eye shadow and sharply upturned eyebrows, has definitely influenced later despictions of the devil in visual media.
  - The movie is actually a film adaptation of Klaus Mann's novel "Mephisto," which deals with a character based on German actor Gustaf Gründgens - whose most famous role, naturally, is Mephistopheles from "Faust."
  - From this description, the design apparently owes a lot to Cesare from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. On that note, if you showed most people today stills from this movie, they'd think it was some sort of Tim Burton thing.
- In addition to Geothe's Faust, there's also Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, which many people only remember for the line, "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships." Many people today only know it from the Star Trek episode "The Squire of Gothos."
- Or Shakespeare in Love.
  - "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it."
One can argue that Ridley Scott's horror-sci-fi movie Alien (1979) with its dark grimy spaceships and iconic alien menace designed by H.R. Giger singlehandedly kick-started and defined a whole genre.
- The sequel, Aliens, as well.
Same goes for Ridley Scott's dystopian cyberpunk movie Blade Runner (1982), tangentially based on Philip K. Dick's bizarre novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (1968). Forget William Gibson's famous cyberpunk novel Neuromancer (1984). Forget The Matrix (1999) with its Hong-Kong martial art style. Forget Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun RPG. Forget all the movies about clones and androids on the run. They wouldn't have been there without Blade Runner. And Japanese anime cyberpunk series like Ghost In The Shell SAC might never have penetrated into the Western geek consciousness without the blending of Western and Asian culture in Blade Runner.
- Gibson, at least, is up front about this. He has said that he walked out of Blade Runner in tears, because there was his world, already on screen, when the novel was still in the writing phase. He was almost overjoyed when it tanked.
- The reimagined Battlestar Galactica is also heavily inspired by Blade Runner. In fact, the reason Edward James Olmos signed on for what was originally supposed to be a minor one-off miniseries on the Sci-Fi channel is because it reminded him of Blade Runner. And, really, he would know.
- Both Gibson and Scott were heavily inspired by the work of French graphic artist Moebius, specifically The Long Tomorrow and The Incal (the later written by Alexandro Jodorowsky), with their noirish plots and dense, impossibly high metropolis criss-crossed with flying cars and bridges. Moebius' depiction of a future that was as dirty and lived in as the real world was also a huge influence on Star Wars. His scenes are often directly homaged as well, particularly the famous opening shot of The Incal. Of course, Moebius contributed directly to the design of Alien, so even people who don't know his name recognise his influence.
  - The image of flying cars zooming through the skyscraper canyon streets of megacities. The idea was first put on screen with Blade Runner, was visually quoted in The Fifth Element by Luc Besson and the Star Wars prequels by George Lucas, and recently turned up in an episode of the new BBC Doctor Who series.
- There have been flying cars in movies at least from 1950s, if not earlier. Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) is probably the first to show similar scenery on the silver screen, though it still used planes with wings, but the massive megacity with flying vehicles was made the setting for a science fiction film in that moment.
- And the flying cars in The Fifth Element were a homage to French Valerian comics, with Corben's taxi's design almost entirely lifted from a similar vehicle flown by a flamboyant cabbie S'traks in the crowded skies of industrial planet Rubanis.
  - Let's take it a step further : Mézières (the creator of Valerian) actually worked on the production design of The Fifth Element, along with Moebius, mentioned above as having inspired some of the works which in turn influenced The Fifth Element. So Yeah.
Speaking of Fantasia, there's likely not a soul on Earth who dosen't associate "L'apprenti sorcier" by Paul Dukas with Mickey Mouse.
- Or take "Dance of the Hours" from Ponchielli's ballet La Gioconda. When you hear it, you'll either think of the dancing hippos from Fantasia, or you'll start singing, "Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh, here I am at Camp Granada..." (Allan Sherman's well-known funny song). Or both.
Or 2001 A Space Odyssey when they hear the fanfare from Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra".
- Although some people just go "Whoooooooooooo" in response to that one.
Monty Pythons Flying Circus has done a similar takeover of John Phillip Sousa's march The Liberty Bell.
- Hell, Everything by Sousa has become used in commercials and TV shows without much understanding behind them. Most notably the The Washington Post March and The Stars & Stripes Forever.
But here's the question: when Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (fourth movement) plays, do you think of A Clockwork Orange or Neon Genesis Evangelion?
- "Help!".
- Speaking of Evangelion, how about Fly Me To The Moon?
As famous as the 1932 classic Freaks is, many more people are familiar with the parodies and allusions to its "One of us! One of us!" scene out of context.
A large proportion of British people hearing In The Hall Of The Mountain King would be surprised to find out that it wasn't, in fact, written as the Alton Towers theme song.
- Or the theme to the syndicated Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog cartoon.
  - Or scene music from a certain Astroboy ep
- Worse yet, one dance remix of "In The Hall of the Mountain King" has been mis-credited on file-sharing services as a remix of the Inspector Gadget theme, despite there being only a very vague similarity between the two songs.
Due to his habit of pastiching rather obscure movies, Quentin Tarantino is perhaps responsible for more Popcultural Osmosis than any other mainstream filmmaker.
Speaking of Chiba, anyone who's seen the 1976 classic Karate Wariors knows that people had been merging slow motion captures seamlessly into jump cuts decades before 300 came around.
Play the Russian folk song "Korobeiniki" to just about anyone in the world, including Russians, and they are almost certain to identify it as video game music. Specifically, the Tetris theme.
- Of course, Tetris is Russian, so that might be understandable.
"Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" Despite being quoted (albeit, incorrectly) and parodied in pop culture for decades, most people have no idea this line is a reference to the Humphrey Bogart film "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", often attributing its origins to "Blazing Saddles" instead. However, without the understanding that the line in the latter film is intended to be a parody of the former, the joke itself does not make sense. (The actual, original quote from the film goes, "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!")
The song "Anything Goes" actually does not come from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It's an authentic show tune of the period (from a Cole Porter musical of the same name) and, by the way, normally sung in English.
- Show tunes may be better known in the UK, if only through airplay on the top-rated BBC Radio 2.
  - Come now, everybody knows that song: "Anything goes in; anything goes out; fish, bananas, old pajamas..."
- Fallout 3 uses "Anything Goes" (and many others) to establish ITS alternate history post apocalyptic setting.
Likewise, "Puttin' on the Ritz" did not originate from Young Frankenstein. Similarly, its close musical cousin, concerning the naming history of Istanbul, was not originally by They Might Be Giants.
- For that matter, "Puttin' on the Ritz" was not originally performed by Taco.
Many people know the "Love Theme" from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture only from its use in innumerable TV shows (South Park, The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air) and movies (Wayne's World, Clueless) to show that someone has fallen in Love At First Sight.
- Oh! You mean the romantic kiss song from the first The Sims game?
''A Night at the Opera'' has ruined Il trovatore for many people. Just try to hear the Anvil Chorus without thinking of Chico and Harpo after you've seen it...
"A battleship in Il trovatore?!!
Just try listening to "Hoedown" from Aaron Copland's Rodeo without thinking "Beef: It's What's For Dinner."
- Or Emerson, Lake And Palmer.
This might be happening to Batman, if You Tube comments are to be believed.
Random viewer on the Joker from Batman The Animated Series: "That's not the Joker, he doesn't even have the scars!"
- Do you realize what you said there? "if YouTube comments are to be believed" you said.
  - Lowest Common Denominator and all that... and you can't get much lower than youtube commenters.
Many people are unaware that the "Game over man!" line referenced in Left 4 Dead was actually originally from Aliens.
The lines from the hooker in Full Metal Jacket have been incorrectly credited to both Family Guy and South Park.
- Not to mention 2 Live Crew.
The "Mahna Mahna" song, does not originate from The Muppet Show, or even Sesame Street, but rather an Italian soft core porn film set in Sweden.

Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain has unfortunately become known as either the theme music for a comic nemesis, or that scene in Fantasia that scarred generations of children
- Hey, they stole that From Earthworm Jim!
Countin' the Beat by the Swingers is known to a generation of Australians as the Kmart theme song.
Many talk shows cause this, from Rush Limbaugh with "My City Was Gone" by The Pretenders, to Rachel Maddow with "Stealing the Stock" from the Ocean's Twelve soundtrack.
The song called "The Merry Go Round Broke Down" created by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin is better remembered as the music for the Looney Tunes theme song, Daffy Duck sings a more complete version of the song with different lyrics in "Daffy and Egghead".
The new Star Trek movie has instantly recognizable characters, themes and objects - even for those who have never seen a Star Trek episode in their life.
Donald Duck (& Co.). The Disneyverse is simply filled with retold classics, movie and music references and the like, providing lots of kids their first contact with greek myths, Shakespeare's plays, classical history, etc.
Everyone's heard of "Smoke on the Water", but a lot fewer people know Deep Purple. Similarly, find anyone who would recognise any part of the song other than the famous intro. It'll be a lot harder.
- Until Guitar Hero came out, anyway.
- "Oh, it's that song that always gets me on Expert difficulty! I forget what it's called." [Insert Facepalm here]
How many people under 25 or so can hear "The Final Countdown" without thinking of Arrested Development?
"Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings" is a funny case in that hardly anyone remembers where it comes from. The educated guess seems to be Fahrenheit 451, which doesn't use it. (If you're curious, check Memetic Mutation. No subsection given—that would be cheating!)
- For those who are curious but don't want to rip through pages of crap when the answer doesn't really matter that much at all: Heinrich Heine said it in his play, Almansor. He was commenting on the burning of the Qur'an during the Spanish Inquisition.
  - A century later, in 1933, the Nazis engaged in massive book burnings. Freud remarked: "What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burnt me. Now they are content with burning my books." Harsher In Hindsight.
Many people associate the line "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum." with Duke Nukem rather than with Roddy Piper's character in They Live.
The Valkyries rode helicopters. (Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.)
- Well, yeah. And they use miniguns.
There probably aren't that many people who, thanks to Fantasia, wouldn't think of dinosaurs when listening to "Rite of Spring".
That song that everybody associates with clown cars and elephants? The one that goes doot-doot-doodle-doo-dah-doot-doot-doo-dah? "Enter the Gladiators"
Hypothetical Roman announcer at the Coliseum: And now, in this corner, Brutus the Destroyer! (calliope music)
Pop culture even has a habit of obscuring itself. Adam Savage of Mythbusters is frequently credited for the quote, "I reject your reality and substitute my own!" Actually, the line originated from the 1985 So Bad Its Good film The Dungeonmaster (Ragewar outside of the US).
Any time-lapse footage of city life is likely to be a reference to Koyaanisqatsi, either directly or indirectly.
You know how the canonical sound of lasers firing is a sort of "pew pew pew" effect? You can thank Ben Burtt, the audio designer for Star Wars, for that (even though the blasters in that series aren't even lasers!). The original sound effect was created by holding a microphone up to a taut wire while hitting the other end.

Playing With A Trope

Meta Concepts

Positive Discrimination

Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Examples: