A Shout-Out, no doubt about it.
Shout Outs seen in Cirque Royale.
General Shout-Outs and Side Comics
- The Blackfish translator (that Quinn owns and that used to belong to Kingston's father Charles Sr.) is based on the Babelfish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy.
- Charlie plays the Alliteration & Adventurers game Basements and Banshees with friends in the local comic shop. The game is just like D&D except includes fantastic people and generic human characters. (Milo in particular is interested in humans and his character is a human named John Jackson who's an IT specialist.)
- Costumes in the Spooky Day side comic
include Cookie Cat and Pearl, "Arachnid-Boy" (who Quinn initially asks Charlie if he wants to be instead of Swamp Princess), Miraculous Ladybug, and a sheep person dressed as Princess Tiana. - Penelope's cotton candy poodles have been named after various musicians as seen here. This includes Dolly, Charo, Rosetta (Rosetta Tharpe), and Berry. Her current two (that also serve as psychiatric service dogs to her) are Marina and Diamond.
- Claudette's pug is named Peppa. Peppa Pug.
- Ted, Ron Strongson's husband, is a Captain Ersatz of The Simpsons' Ned Flanders.
- A short side comic for Father's day has Leo's older sister Diana dressed like Daria. Aries is also watching Duffy the Werewolf Slaughterer.
Episode 5: Non-Stop
- Red, Kingston, and Ron when fighting the Rock Kingdom during Red's pretend play are backgrounded by the Written Sound Effects "Snap!" "Crackle!" and "Pop!"
- Episode 48 has Shaggy (as a clown) and Scooby from Scooby-Doo walking by, and Rag Doll people versions of Blossom, Buttercup, Bubbles, and Bunny of the Powerpuff Girls attending the play.
- Kingston's new room after moving in with his grandfather Karl has parody posters of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson hanging up.
Episode 6: No New Friends
- Behind Java Chip in the first appearance of Atomic Comics is a pink Power Rangers figure, a Bulbasaur plush, Stitch, and Earring Magic Ken. (These are based on items around the author's room at the time.) Java Chip is also wearing an Arachnid-Boy shirt.
- Among those walking around Yarn Kingdom while Claudette is walking through with Lottie are rag doll versions of Dora the Explorer and Linda Belcher from Bob's Burgers.
- Among the touring group in the Yarn Kingdom Castle is Michelangelo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Episode 7: Loud Mouth
- Red's bedoom has a Isabelle and Detective Pikachu plush visible.
- Red saying what she believes princess stories should be is in the style of the shadow plays from Revolutionary Girl Utena.
- Quinn and Kingston's poses in their portraits when Penelope is complaining to Red about Quinn's rebelliousness are based on Ami Mizuno's "eating a burger" picture and Adult Aang's "marble trick" pose.
- The background when Pascal and Matisse are at the record store include parody covers of albums by Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Nirvana, The Beatles, Lizzo, Björk, and Gorillaz.
- Among Penelope's items in her toy collection are toys and dolls for Raggedy Ann, Leela, Angelica's Cynthia doll, the 2018 She-Ra show, the controversial Earring Magic Ken, Marge and Lisa, Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls' Mars, Sailor Moon, and Steven Universe — as well as the Captain Ersatz brands My Tiny Hippo, Human High, and Burby.
Episode 8: Date Night
- Charlie is wearing a Unikitty! shirt while Quinn and Kingston are getting ready.
- Valeria MajestyMoon, the Unicorn Kingdom Princess, collects My Tiny Hippo; versions of "Hippos" shown include Gen 1 Snuzzle, Gen 3 Rainbow Dash, and Gen 4 Applejack. (Quinn calls it that old toy line they brought back that "creepy old nerds like now" and Charlie says they call themselves "HipHomies" which everyone hates.) A one-of-a-kind ceramic Artisha the Artist version was gifted to Valeria when she was five and toured the factory. Which means the one that antagonist scorpion Scorpowitz attacked Quinn, Leo, and Kingston over breaking was a fake.
- Kingston's dinner includes rainbow fish, which he explicitly says in the background rush text when trying to Change the Uncomfortable Subject.
- One of Kingston's hosting illusions while distracting Scorpowitz is dressed in the glitter suit from Bojack Horseman that Mr. Peanutbutter wears, a character voiced by Paul F. Tompkins. The other one? Dressed like Gomez Addams. Both Paul Tompkins and Gomez Addams are part of Kingston's character inspirations.
- The Mane Six of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic are in the background while Quinn and Kingston are taking Leo to get help during "Date Night". Applejack and Rarity appear as a couple; Twilight is watching Quinn, Leo, and Kingston walking by; and Rainbow Dash is running by carrying a bag for GrubDash. (Since this is the Unicorn Kingdom, they're all unicorns.) Twilight Sparkle is seen again as an assistant to King Hemlock named Eventide.
- The shirt Kingston is wearing in Leo's flashback from when they went camping is a Nirvana face band tee. (He's seen wearing it often in flashbacks.)
- When Leo and Quinn as children do the worst dances they can think of to frustrate Queen Louise, they do two dances that reference the dancing from A Charlie Brown Christmas.
- When Leo is starting to severely hallucinate due to the scorpion venom putting him on the edge of death, he sees Quinn as a Monster High doll. (This is a custom doll of Quinn the author made.)
Episode 9: Lantern Day
- A "Grandma room" Kingston has in memory of his mother has a standee of Claudette Sr. in the pose of Gwen Stefani on the cover of the No Doubt album, Tragic Kingdom. The album is also represented on the wall. Another album in the background represents Lauryn Hill's solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
- The same comic with the memorial room to Claudette Sr. also mentions that Red's current party playlist is nothing but "We Don't Discuss Marco" on repeat, which she insists is the song of the year.
Episode 10: The King's Monster
- Will and Fred's room has references to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Kirby, CatDog, Steven Universe, and Andy Samberg.
