Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure examples:
Mistaken Reference
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Anime & Manga
- In A Certain Magical Index, Index is shown watching a Magical Girl anime, and applying her rather warped worldview to it. For one thing, she doesn't seem to understand that it's fiction. She assumes the protagonist goes through a Transformation Sequence to hide from witch hunters, but gets hung up on the blatantly wrong symbology and magic.
Films — Animation
- SCOOB!: Velma dresses up as the judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg for Halloween, but Shaggy mistakes her costume for a Harry Potter school uniform.Velma: I'm Ruth Bader Ginsburg, obviously.
Shaggy: Which house is she in? Hufflepuff?
Velma: She's a Supreme Court Justice.
Shaggy: (disappointed) Oh. Slytherin. - South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut: As the general informs the troops that the black soldiers will be participating in Operation Human Shield:Chef: Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?
General: I don't listen to hip-hop.
Films — Live-Action
- From the Professional Wrestling movie ...All the Marbles: Promoter Eddie Cisco tells Harry Sears, manager of The California Dolls, that if he wanted class, he'd get the Brontë sisters. Harry says, "My girls will tear their legs off."
- From Armageddon (1998):A.J.: Have you ever heard of Evel Knievel?
Lev: No, I never saw Star Wars. - In Baby Driver, one of the crooks is tasked with getting masks of the slasher Michael Myers from the movie Halloween. Instead, he gets Austin Powers masks.Eddie No-Nose: Doc said Michael Myers!
JD: This is Mike Myers!
Bats: It should be the Halloween mask!
JD: This is a Halloween mask!
Bats: No, the killer dude from Halloween!
JD: Oh, you mean Jason...
Bats: No! - In Don't Look Up, astronomy graduate student Kate travels to the White House with Randall, her college professor, to present their findings after she discovers a previously unknown comet heading on a deadly trajectory towards earth: When they mention that it was discovered via the Subaru Telescope, Chief of Staff Jason thinks of the automobile manufacturer, and expresses surprise that they make telescopes too note .
- In Get a Job, Roger tries dyeing his hair and beard black in an attempt to look younger. As he and his son Will argue, Will gives the parting shot "You look like Billy Mays!". Roger thinks he means Willie Mays, the baseball player.
- Live Free or Die Hard: When John McClane finally gets to "Warlock"'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 Warlock" with that one.
- Munster, Go Home!: Herman mistakes the portrait of Elizabeth II on some counterfeit British pounds for Mary Poppins.
- In Sharknado: The 4th Awakens, at one point, Gil jokes, "To boldly go where no one has gone before." Claudia says quoting Star Wars is dorky. He corrects her and says that came from Star Trek.
- Spider-Man: Far From Home: Happy Hogan turns on "Back in Black", and Peter responds that he loves Led Zeppelin.
- In Waxwork, one of the young people asks if the Phantom of the Opera figure's mask is the original from the movie, and the owner is surprised that someone made a movie about the Phantom. It's implied that the owner is not merely pop-culture clueless, but that he knows the Phantom actually existed in the movie's verse and is amazed Hollywood would resort to filming his tale.
Literature
- In Robert A. Heinlein's Methuselah's Children, Lazarus mentions how, since the people on the spaceship will be going back to Earth while 75 years have passed there while only 25 have passed on the ship, there was a great place in Baja California that made great Mexican food. He asks a young girl who was born on the ship if she knows where Baja California is, "Don't you think I studied geography? It's in Los Angeles." Lazarus reflects that by the time they get back she may be right.
Live-Action TV
- 4400: LaDonna creates an illusion of medical equipment she says she saw on Grey's Anatomy. Doc assumes she's referring to an updated version of the medical book.
- In the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode "Halloween II", the rest of the precinct makes the wrong guesses on Boyle's costume selection, such as calling his He-Man costume "gay Robin Hood".
- The Flash (2014): In "Nora", Barry and Iris meet their Kid from the Future, Nora. Barry points out if they screw up, Nora might "Marty McFly herself out of existence." Iris goes, "Right, Terminator 2." Barry is mystified and says that was from Back to the Future.
- On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when Will and Carlton are trying to pawn Aunt Viv's tennis bracelet, Carlton tries to get more money by telling the pawn shop owner, Agnes, it belonged to Catherine the Great. She thinks he's referring to somebody completely different:Agnes: 200 dollars.
Carlton: Okay for an ordinary bracelet, but not okay for one that formerly belonged to Catherine the Great.
Agnes: The one-armed chick that works the corner of Hollywood and Vine? She a class act. Okay, $300. - Gilmore Girls: When Lane's (white) boyfriend Dave asks her traditional Korean mother for permission to date her (so they can do it openly), she responds with "Let never day nor night unhallowed pass, but still remember what the Lord hath done." Lane and Dave have no idea what it means, so Dave resolves to find out. He figures it must be from the Bible, so he reads the whole thing in one night and can't find it. When he confronts Mrs. Kim the next day begging for an explanation, she tells him it's from Shakespeare, but she's sufficiently impressed by his dedication in reading the Bible, so she explicitly grants permission.
- Played with in an episode of Holby City, where an American patient says she understands the medical details because she's seen ER. Arthur Digby, who doesn't own a television, gets excited thinking she means she's been in an actual ER.
- The IT Crowd: To Moss, "Fredo" is just a mispronunciation of "Frodo".Roy: Fredo, in the film, he was essentially a pimp.
Moss: No. He took the ring to Mordor! - Tony on NCIS is a major movie buff and is constantly quoting movies. In one episode he loses his voice from overexertion. Ducky throws his quoting habit back in his face with, "Your ego's writing checks your body can't cash."
- Parks and Recreation: After it is discovered that the Gryzzl corporation was able to distract Ben from noticing that they added a revision to their contract allowing them to data mine Pawnee by doing it on December 18, 2015, the premiere date of Star Wars Episode VII:Ron: Is Star Wars the one with the little wizard boy?
- In the Red Dwarf episode "Parallel Universe", Holly remarks that by jumping into a parallel universe they've "entered the fifth dimension". Lister seems to think the Fifth Dimension is a band: "Didn't they get to number six with 'Baby, I Want Your Love Thing'?"
- A Running Gag in Scrubs is that J.D. refuses to admit he knows nothing about sports, so when other characters make sports references he tries to join in and gets them completely wrong.
- Spaced:
- This exchange from The West Wing:
Music
- Fountains of Wayne's "I'll Do the Driving" includes an example, although the ditzy subject of the song makes the mangled reference without any prompting:We're out, the jukebox plays "Jumping Jack Flash"
She says "I love Johnny Cash, the man in red"
I turn my head and pretend not to hear what she said
Myths & Religion
- People hearing the orphaned aphorism "The Devil can quote Scripture for his own purposes" invariably assume this is from The Bible, and search in vain for it. It's actually from Shakespeare, in The Merchant of Venice.
Webcomics
- An exchange
in Angel Moxie:Mr. Kyokasho: Well, you know Doogie Howser?
Tristan: What's that? A kind of meatloaf?
Web Videos
- In Achievement Hunter Minecraft Series Matt declared that Rugrats taught him the origin of Hanukkah. Jeremy, knowing exactly which episode he means, points out it was actually about Passover.
- In After Hours, Daniel is the nerdiest of the four characters, and apparently knows nothing about sports, which is lampshaded.Katie: Careful. Daniel doesn't follow sports terms.
Daniel: We're supposed to follow sports "terms"? I've been saying "teams". - In the Brock's Dub parody of Silento's "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)", this trope is used to mock the likely One-Hit Wonder status of the artist in a segment where Brock first confuses Silento with "the gangnam style guy", followed by him confusing PSY with Sisqo.
- YouTube Comment Reconstruction #5 — based on an actual comment thread — suggests that a lot of people reacted to the death of Nelson Mandela by getting him mixed up with Morgan Freeman. After the misapprehension is corrected, it transitions into a Type 1.RIP Nelson Mandela. You were a great actor, and Bruce Almighty is my favourite ever film, and I think you were what God is actually like.
- A running gag in Homestar Runner is that whenever the group puts on a Halloween Cosplay, Homestar misidentifies some of them. This varies from understandable (mistaking Carmen Sandiego for the Spanish Inquisition) to weird (mistaking Mac Tonight for Jay Leno) to bizarre (mistaking Commander Borf for "the Aladdin Genie dressed as Captain Lou Albano"). This often doubles as Lampshaded the Obscure Reference.
- The final battle between Kayaba Akihiko and Kirito has the latter pull off the "I Reject Your Reality" line in Sword Art Online Abridged.Kayaba: Nice, Dungeonmaster!
Kirito: What? No, MythBusters. What the hell is Dungeonmaster?
Kayaba: Oh. I was so excited there for a second.
Western Animation
- Bojack Horseman: Wanda misses a lot of references, having been in a coma between the '80s and the new '10s. In one instance Bojack refers to Snoop Dogg, and she's puzzled for a moment until she decides he means Snoopy from Peanuts.
- Rocky and Bullwinkle: The show's spoof of The Three Musketeers ("The Three Mooseketeers") had this exchange:Athos: You want my advice, pay the taxes.
Filet Mignon: But he is a tyrant!
Athos: Pay the taxes.
Filet Mignon: He thinks Clair de Lune is a girl.
Athos: That is different. We will fight! - In an episode of Rugrats "Family Feud", Stu gets frustrated during a game of charades when Howard fails to guess Dances with Wolves. Howard responds that he doesn't watch musicals.Stu: It's not a musical, you imbecile!
- The Simpsons:
- In "Marge vs the Monorail", Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame appears as the guest of honor at the monorail's ribbon-cutting ceremony, where Mayor Quimby says "May the Force be with you" to him.
- In "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star", when Bart recites a Latin prayer at the dinner table.Homer: Bart, what the hell are you saying?
Lisa: That's Latin, Dad, the language of Plutarch.
Homer: Mickey Mouse's dog?
Lisa: No, Plu-tarch. He chronicled the lives of the Roman emperors.
Homer: Oh, I didn't need that new fact! Now I forgot who won Bud Bowl VIII!
- In the episode "What Color Is Your Cleansuit" of The Venture Brothers, The Monarch decides to get kinky in the bedroom and tells Dr. Girlfriend he'll cosplay as Khal Drogo, expecting her to cosplay as Daenerys. Dr. Girlfriend, however, does not watch Game of Thrones. She appears in stars-and-stripes boxing trunks because she thought he said "Drago". As in Ivan Drago.The Monarch: What the hell is sexy about that?!
