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Shout Out / Gravity Falls

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"That's not for sale!"

In Gravity Falls, there are times where you'll see numerous references and homages to popculture.

Examples:

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    General 
Intro
  • Bat Boy appears in a photograph at the end of the opening sequence.
  • Bigfoot is visible for a frame in the intro◊ in a pose reminiscent of the famous Patterson footage.
  • Pausing on that split second image that flashes at the end of the credits reveals what seems to be a page from Dipper's book that has, besides a few other unusual scrawlings◊, the Konami Code.
  • Journal #3 tells Dipper to trust no one, and one of the taglines for the previews is "Do you believe?" Both are similar to taglines used in The X-Files.
  • The gag in the intro where Stan, Mabel, and Dipper are standing inside a giant footprint without even noticing it is borrowed from a well-known MAD Magazine cover◊ from 1952.

Multiple Episodes

  • The Pines twins' last name is possibly a stealthy reference to Back to the Future, where the mall in Hill Valley is called the "Twin Pines Mall".
  • Grunkle Stan bares more than a passing physical resemblance to Carl Fredricksen from Up.
    • His fez has a symbol that looks like Pac-Man with a fish's tail fin.
  • Bill Cipher's mundane, monosyllabic first name is likely a reference to another demonic antagonist, (Killer) BOB from Twin Peaks. Bill's voice is "a bad impression" of David Lynch, or, more specifically, of Gordon Cole, the character he played in the same series.
  • The waterfall lamp in Stan's living room is like the one made by Hamm's Beer. It even has an "H" on it.
  • The portal we see hidden under the Mystery Shack over several episodes is almost a dead on replica of the Stargate, complete with the alien runes/constellations carved on the sides. The portal ring even spins when activated. It also bears an uncanny resemblance to the Tumor, flanked by two star-filled cylinders.

    Season 1 
Tourist Trapped
  • Comparing zombies to teenagers, you say? Sounds like the author watched Dude of the Living Dead.
  • Mabel hoping that her boyfriend Norman will turn out to be a vampire. Twilight, much?
  • Norman giving Mabel a wreath of daisies is a twofer - a reference to the phrase "pushing up daisies", and to Frankenstein's monster picking flowers with a small girl in an important scene.
  • The gnomes tying down Mabel is very reminiscent of a certain scene from Gulliver's Travels.
  • This screenshot◊ is a nod to The Legend of Zelda.

The Legend of the Gobblewonker

Headhunters

The Hand That Rocks the Mabel

  • The title is a play on the film title The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.
  • According to Gideon's voice actor, Thurop van Orman, he's a parody of tent-revival "miracle healer" televangelists like Benny Hinn. The name "Gideon" is therefore most likely a reference to the Bibles published by Gideon International and distributed in hotel and motel rooms.
  • The room◊ where Dipper meets Lil' Gideon is straight from◊ Twin Peaks. Gideon (white hair, blue suit, white shirt) is even a Palette Swap of The Man From Another Place (black hair, red suit, black shirt). The Club also appears to be influenced—at least in name—by "One-Eyed Jacks".
  • Dipper tells Mabel her fake fingernails make her look like a Wolverine.
  • When Gideon confronts Dipper in the warehouse, he appears holding a doll of himself, much like Sabrina, another creepy psychic child.

The Inconveniencing

  • The name of the convenience store is the Dusk 2 Dawn.
  • Das Flävor Pups is a rip on the U.S. ban of Kinder Egg/Surprise. Granted, the effects are exaggerated.
  • Mabel takes a page from The Three Stooges' Curly Howard, spinning around on the ground saying "Woop! Woop! Woop! Woop!"
  • Mabel's Demonic Possession is a clear-cut reference to The Exorcist, complete with the rotating head.
  • The strange blue flying creature with arms in Mabel's Mushroom Samba is named Aoshima, after one of the show's directors. The episode's cryptogram also gives John Aoshima a nod:
    "RQZDUGV DRVKLPD!" (ONWARDS AOSHIMA!)
    • In the same scene, she says "The future is in the past", which is the title of an episode of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.
  • Wendy tells Dipper that he's surprisingly mature for his age. Dipper responds by saying "yes, yes I am", a clear reference to Phineas and Ferb
  • The game that "tricks people into exercising" is a DanceDanceRevolution knock-off.
  • "The Duchess Approves" gives top billing to "gowns by Pepi".
  • The Cereal Mascot who says "I'm bonkers for eating you alive!" is a clear reference to Toucan Sam, the mascot of Fruit Loops, and his phrase parodies the famous "I'm Coo-Coo for Cocoa Puffs" line, which is also said by a bird.

Dipper vs. Manliness

  • The puma and panther shirts that Tyler compares resemble those of The Mountain T-shirt brand.
  • Dipper's favorite song is "Disco Girl" by Icelandic Pop Group BABBA, the tune of which is nigh-identical to "Dancing Queen".
  • The bag of jerky that Dipper gives to the Manotaur is a nod to Slim Jims, complete with a "Macho Man" Randy Savage/Hulk Hogan like Wrestler on it. Upon reading the jerky's slogan ("You're inadequate!"), Dipper replies, "You said it, brother." Hulk Hogan is famous for using 'brother' a lot.
  • During the Training Montage, the Manotaurs pin Dipper down and force him to look at motivational posters to condition him towards manliness.
  • The cobra tattoo in Dipper's belly is similar to Snake Plissken's.
  • Both the design of Leaderaur — an enormous, brutal tyrant with glowing red eyes and a kilt — and Kevin Michael Richardson's performance as him seem to deliberately invoke Frank Welker as Darkseid.

Double Dipper

  • Mabel wears a Black Adam sweater◊.
  • At one point in "Double Dipper", Mabel calls Dipper "Goofus".
  • The music playing during the party sounds awfully familiar. That party was rockin', you could say.
  • Mabel requests that Soos play "the most eighties-est crowd-pleasing-est song" he had. The song he came up with was called "Don't Start Un-Believing".
  • Dipper has the same mark on his body as Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star. Mainly because that is the most noticeable part of the constellation Ursa Major, aka the Big Dipper, and the Japanese title translates to Fist of Ursa Major. Also, if you take the two stars on the far right of the 'bowl' (Dubhe and Merak), draw a straight line between them, and continue the line out the top, you reach Polaris, the North Star.
  • The first thing Dipper says after looking at his clone Tyrone, is that he has a large head.
  • According to one of the storyboard artists, the dance◊ Mabel does during the party is a reference to a similar dance◊ that Akane does during the first opening of Ranma ½.

Irrational Treasure

  • The title, and basic plot, is a parody of National Treasure.
  • A nod to Arrested Development, Come on! is exclaimed multiple times throughout the episode.
  • While exploring the secret cave underneath the angel statue, Mabel accidentally steps on a raised stone on the ground, activating a trap that shoots darts out of holes in the wall, à la the Mayan temple scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
    • Following up on that, the sound effect used for the darts is almost identical to the one used towards the Disneyland ride "Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye" when the jeep is passing a line of statues with blowguns (that shoot puffs of air at the riders).
  • The document indicating that Benjamin Franklin was a woman is a historical reference to Franklin's alias "Silence Dogood", which he used to secretly publish newspaper articles under the guise of being a widow. Underscored by Mabel's reaction:
    Mabel: Oh man, Benjamin Franklin secretly WAS a woman!
  • At one point, Stan stares up at the sky and shouts out "PIONEER DAY!!"
  • Quentin Trembley has a device (the President's Key) which can open any lock but doesn't work on wood (because there's nothing to unlock in a piece of wood).
  • According to the documents on the coverup of the town's founding, the statues of Mt. Rushmore are actually giant, presidential faced robots.
  • According to the commentary for the episode on the box set, Trembley riding his horse backwards is a direct reference to Dudley Do-Right.

The Time Traveler's Pig

  • The title is a shout-out to The Time Traveler's Wife.
  • When the twins travel into the past, Dipper asks "When are we?" Mabel is about to ask the same question. This is a reference to Back to the Future when Marty asks "Where the hell are they?" and Doc Brown replies with, "The question is, when the hell are they?" Dipper said the line Mabel was about to say, as she expected him to start with, "Where are we?", thereby copying the exchange word for word.
  • At one point in the episode the twins walked out of a blue, rectangular mobile toilet that looks suspiciously like another blue box related to time travel.
  • Waddles, Mabel's pig, tackles Robbie into a table, and a pot of hot water splashes onto Robbie. Dipper is satisfied, and says:
    Dipper: That'll do, pig. That'll do.
  • Toward the end, two time cops arrive. Their names are Lolph and Dundgren. Their uniforms resemble the one worn by Lundgren's character in Universal Soldier, which he starred in alongside Van Damme, who starred on Time Cop. It's a shout out via association.
  • The dinosaur that briefly attacks Dipper and Mabel takes cues from the Carnotaurus in Dinosaur.
  • At one point when Mabel and Dipper travel back in time, there's a shout out to The Oregon Trail. While this seems more like a historical reference, they actually mention dysentery!
  • Blendin isn't the only Time Traveler who has a shoddy cloaking system and uses a screwdriver.
  • Time Police who Blendin Blandin works looks suspiciously similar to Green Lanterns.

Fight Fighters

  • There's an arcade in Gravity Falls, so there are lots of video game references and shout outs to be made. The three games seen in the arcade, aside from "Fight Fighters" listed below, are parodies of Frogger, Pac-Man, and DanceDanceRevolution.
  • Winners Don't Lose.
  • The titular Fight Fighters itself is a reference to Street Fighter, so there are tons of references to it.
    • Rumble McSkirmish is an Expy of Ryu and/or Ken. He also has E. Honda's Hundred Hand Slap move. His You Killed My Father backstory is similar to that of fellow Shotoclone Dan. He's also dressed similarly to Sagat, including sporting an eyepatch.
      • For a split second there is a character select screen including characters like Beastor (Blanka), Suggessica (Chun-Li), N.Buffalo (M. Bison), and others.
    • The code that Dipper has to input into the arcade machine is a reference to the Konami Code.
    • At one point in the episode, a rich teen is given a car from his dad. Rumble comes along and starts to punch the car, in reference to a bonus stage in the Street Fighter games. The teen responds to this by going down on one knee and sighing, "OH! MY CAR".
    • They even used the same level selection screen *Choose a country and a plane flies towards it.*
    • Dr. Karate has Guile's hair, M. Bison's outfit and Kano's distinct red cybernetic eye, and is named after a character from The King of Fighters.
    • When Rumble defeats Dipper, his victory pose mimics that of Akuma. However, unlike Akuma's kanji 天 (meaning Heaven), the kanji on Rumble's back is 屁 (meaning a fart, or alternatively something so worthless it's not worth considering - either interpretation satisfies the joke).
    • When Rumble first comes out of the game, one of the moves he performs is Terry Bogard's Crack Shoot.
  • Soos plays Nort: The Game Based On The Movie Based On The Game. He even plays a game similar to the light cycles, only with Segways. In addition, when Soos, enters the game (i.e., he removes a panel on the back of the game machine and gets stuck when he crawls inside), a customer happens upon his face pressed against the screen ranting about how "It's not just a game anymore!"
  • Nort's controller also looks similar to the controller from Gorf.
  • Rumble breaks into a barrel factory and starts throwing barrels at Robbie, who has to dodge them a la Mario in Donkey Kong.
  • Rumble about to "finish" Robbie and the music that plays during Dipper and Rumble's fight are both nods to Mortal Kombat.
  • One sequence features Rumble destroying scenery like streetlights and fire hydrants before a flashing "GO" arrow appears, allowing him to proceed to the right. These are shout-outs to the Beat-Em Ups produced for arcades and home consoles in the late 80s and early 90s, like Final Fight, Streets of Rage, and Double Dragon.
    • Rumble also picks up a pipe and a katana, both of which were Guy and Haggar's weapons in the original Final Fight!
  • The credits are a shout out to Super Mario Bros. 2 Character Select screen complete with Mabel quoting Mario. Grunkle Stan completes this by immediately saying "I'm slower, but I jump higher!", in reference to Luigi. Then they are eaten by Soos's head as Pac-Man.
  • The Credits cryptogram translates to "Sorry Dipper, but your Wendy is in another castle". Three guesses which game is referenced.
  • While mentioning the "traditional power ups" while looking through the refrigerator, Dipper mentions turkey legs, pizza boxes, and gold rings.
  • Rumble asks the change machine in the arcade to change him into "a powerful wolf", a shout-out to classic arcade beat 'em up Altered Beast (1988) in which the player character could be transformed into a humanoid beast once-per-stage, the wolf form being the most famous, gracing as it did the cartridge cover art.
  • The entire feel of the episode is also very reminiscent of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, which makes sense since the pixel animation was done by the same artist.

Little Dipper

Summerween

  • The whole premise is reminiscent of Trick 'r Treat.
  • The Summerween Trickster's design is confirmed to have been inspired from No-Face from Spirited Away, at least, when he goes One-Winged Angel.
  • Stan trying to scare trick-or-treaters by having Waddles pretend to burst out of his chest is an Alien reference. It's done twice in this episode. At the very end, Soos does it to the Summerween Trickster, and it's no less obvious. It's also done in nearly the exact same way as it did to Stan.
  • In one scene, the young boys tell Stan that they're not afraid of him. He responds by saying, "You will be. YOU WILL BE," in a reference to Luke Skywalker and Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back.
  • The scene where they hide from the Trickster in the Summerween store is highly reminiscent of the kitchen scene in Jurassic Park.
  • The scene where Dipper loses the wheelbarrow of candy is reminiscent of A Bug's Life, when Flik accidentally knocks the food offering to the grasshoppers into the river, even down to another character asking accusingly "what did you do?!"
  • Stan discusses with a few young boys what can scare them, and they show him a video of a cute little kitten, which is abruptly cut by a screaming woman. This is a reference to the rather popular Screamer Prank videos, where a seemingly normal videos is abruptly cut by a creepy image. The kid who shows said screamer somewhat resembles Nelson Muntz.
  • Dipper grabs a sword and shield to fight the Trickster; the shield has a golden triangle on it. Even better, Dipper's holding the sword in his left hand and the shield in his right. note 
  • During the end credits, the pictures Mabel takes of Waddles and their captions are all a pretty obvious reference to LOLcats.
  • Stan's disguise made him look like Grandpa Munster.
  • Robbie has the same costume as Donnie Darko.
  • The whole concept of Summerween is that Halloween has been recreated in summer. Another Disney animated series has featured summer recreations of winter, fall and even Christmas.
  • Summerween's name is also similar to Decemberween, though the latter is simply Homestar Runner's alternative for the real-world holiday, rather than a separate holiday in itself.
  • Mabel's sweater is deliberately reminiscent of Freddy Kreuger's.
  • The talking bowl Soos loves tell puns in a manner very similar to the Crypt Keeper.
  • Dipper makes note of the Bland-Name Product candy that Stan bought to give out to trick-or-treaters, similar to Brian and Stewie in a Halloween episode of Family Guy.

Boss Mabel

  • Mabel holds a book about Managing Business from 1983... the same year the Video Game Crash.

Bottomless Pit!

  • The pinball skeleton says "Yippie-Tie-Yie-What?" which could be a reference to the theme to Hey Dude!.
  • The concept of an animatronic head talking to the player, along with one of the bonus lights on the pinball machine reading "Crazy Steps," means the machine as a whole is likely a reference to FunHouse (1990).
  • In 'Voice Over', when Dipper first greeted Soos with his new voice, he said: "How you diddly-doing, Soos?"

The Deep End

  • Gideon puts his goggles over his eyes while saying "Deal with it." Given the LOLCats references in "Summerween," this is almost certainly a reference to another Internet meme.
  • Mabel invokes the famous scene from Free Willy.
  • Mr. Poolcheck shouts to Dipper, "If one more supply gets taken, YOU'RE FIRED!" The way he says it is absurdly similar to Benson, and considering that the creators of both shows are friends in real life, it was probably intentional.

Carpet Diem

  • During the slumber party, Grenda starts whacking the ground out of happiness, just like the title character in Wreck-It Ralph.
  • "The Sibling Brothers" book is a reference to The Hardy Boys book series.
  • The novel "Wolfman Bare Chest" is a parody of cheesy supernatural romance novels.
  • The title is a play on "Carpe Diem," Latin for "Enjoy the day" or "Seize the day."
  • Soos makes an allusion to Tetris when explaining how he fits in his break room.

Boyz Crazy

Land Before Swine

  • The episode's title is a reference to The Land Before Time.
  • To Jurassic Park:
    • When Dipper and Soos are attempting to photograph the pterodactyl, a mosquito is seen encased in tree sap.
    • The dinosaurs found underground are also trapped in tree sap. Stan even considers turning the place into a theme park called "Jurassic Sap-hole".
  • The bird's-eye shot of the roof of the car being torn off recalls a similar scene in The Lost Boys.
  • Mabel goes to buy a baby harness for Waddles after seeing a commercial, hosted by a clear homage to Billy Mays.
  • Soos's returning to the surface by riding a geyser recalls the end of Journey to the Center of the Earth.
  • When Mabel is playing with Waddles, her dancing on the table is a parody of the same scene in The Breakfast Club.
  • "From heck's heart I stab at thee!"

Dreamscaperers

Gideon Rises

  • The font used for Gideonland's logo is near-identical to the one used for Disneyland, and even the construction advertisement ("We Build the Magic!") is similar to Disneyland's ads.

    Season 2 
Scary-oke
  • The display of seemingly random letters, numbers, and symbols that appears on the screen when Stan powers up the machine is, in fact, mostly comprised of the Pac-Man Kill Screen, with the blank spaces filled in randomly.
  • The song Mabel, Grunkle Stan, and Dipper sing to defeat the zombies sounds a bit like a mix of "Tik Tok" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" to the tune of "Livin' on a Prayer".
  • The method for killing the zombies (exploding their heads with music) is almost the same way the Martians in Mars Attacks! were defeated.
  • The government agents seem to be a subtle nod to Men in Black. In particular, one of them has a rare condition that prevents him from finding humor in any situation, similar to Agent K's claim while posing as an FBI agent: "We at the FBI do not have a sense of humor."
  • A Tamagotchi virtual pet is briefly seen in a box at one point.

Into the Bunker

  • The Shapeshifter's transformations are basically a giant homage to The Thing (1982).
    • The Shapeshifter's default form looks an awful lot like the later life stages of Metroids, and the design of the tunnels in the bunker resemble the layouts of most games in the series.
  • An encoded message from the journal entry on the cryogenic chamber translates to "ICE ICE BABY".
  • In the Russian dub, Dipper references Fallout when he looks around the bunker.

The Golf War

  • The Mexican restaurant that the Pines visit is named "Hermanos Brothers". It seems like a subtle nod to "Los Pollos Hermanos".
  • The miniature humanoids that control the golf balls are known as the Liliputtians, a reference to the Liliputians from Gulliver's Travels.
  • The "Big Henry" sequence is one great big reference to the legend of John Henry tunneling through the mountain.

Sock Opera

  • Candy wears an outfit eerily similar to Ziggy Stardust during Mabel's puppet show.
  • The climax references the iconic chandelier scene from The Phantom of the Opera, and it completes the homage with a menacing shot of Bill in Dipper's body standing in the rafters, black cape and all.
    • Also, the scene where Gabe watches in shock as the puppets get destroyed as "Ave Maria" plays in the background is a possible reference to Hitman: Blood Money.
  • The Stinger of the episode is presented as a live-action puppet show. At the end, two puppets of Grunkle Stan and Old Man McGucket heckle the performance as a reference to Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show.
    • The angry scrunched-up face made by the Dipper puppet is reminiscent of the face made by Kermit the Frog when he gets annoyed.
  • The production team's Tumblr page confirmed that Bipper's reverend outfit for the play was inspired by Reverend Powell from The Night of the Hunter.

Soos and the Real Girl

  • The title of this episode is a reference to the 2007 film Lars and the Real Girl.
  • At the Beedly Boop Games shop, Soos tries to flirt with a cardboard cut-out of the female protagonist of Pit Spelunker.
  • .GIFfany's descent into yandere mode looks a lot like Sadako's video in The Ring, glitches and all.
  • The animation during .GIFfany's account of how she "deleted" her creators bears a strong resemblance to Aperture Science ads from Portal 2.
  • Decoding the secret messages on the journal page that flashes at the end of the episode◊ reveals a reference to the English Sailor Moon theme song:
    Winning hearts by daylight!
    Possessing robots by moonlight!
    Her emotional baggage is a real fright!
    She has the one named Giffany!
  • .GIFfany has told Soos her father is an octopus, which doubles as a shout-out to the more risque side of Japanese anime and dating sims, alongside the many Romance Academy 7 dialogue options referencing squids.
  • The animatronics are a shout-out to Showbiz Pizza. (There's a common misconception that they were inspired by Five Nights at Freddy's, but this was outright denied by the show's team, since Production Lead Time meant that the episode was completed long before the game's release.)
    • The show writers specifically noted that the Freddy's animatronics were based on Chuck E. Cheese animatronics, whereas Hoo-Ha's, and Bear-O by extension, are based on Showbiz Pizza, just to clear up the confusion.
  • .GIFfany and the game she's from, Romance Academy 7, is very reminiscent of the Tokimeki Memorial games.
  • The first thing that .GIFfany jumps into on Soos' desk resembles a Furby.
  • During his brief cameo, Rumble McSkirmish announces .GIFfany's entering his game by quoting the "Challenger Approaching" screens of Super Smash Bros..
    • .GIFfany's appearance in the background is reminiscent of some of the boss fights in the Street Fighter vs. series, such as Apocalypse and Onslaught.
  • Will E. Badger's name is a reference to Wile E. Coyote.
  • Look at the top left corner when the the Year 2000 Electronics logo and the title screen for the game appears. Apparently Soos also has a Nintendo 64 look-a-like as well.
  • .GIFfany's name is a reference to the .gif file format. Furthermore, Soos at one point declares that he's not sure of the correct pronunciation of her name, as a reference to the long debate about the format's name pronunciation.
  • Concept art reveals that, at one point, .GIFfany was to copy the Happy Mask Salesman from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask in expression, posture and words. Considering the context, it may be a reference to the creepypasta Ben Drowned as well. Another piece of concept art shows .GIFfany saying "I'm afraid I can't do that, Soos."
  • Soos playing "First-Person Puncher," a game apparently involving punching leopards, and shouting "Punch those leopards!" seems to be a reference to the Wolf Puncher 2 scene from PONY.MOV.

Little Gift Shop of Horrors

  • The title itself is a reference to Little Shop of Horrors.
  • The structure of the episode is not unlike horror anthology shows like Tales from the Crypt. The beginning of the episode has a title card reading "Tales Designed to Sell My Merchandise," probably a reference to the byline of MAD when it was mostly in the realm of EC self-parody ("Tales Calculated To Drive You MAD").
  • Stan grabs a sphere that looks like a Palantír containing the eye of Sauron.
  • The makeover of the Handwitch's lair is a reference to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and similar shows.
  • The Hand Witch's robes are nearly identical to those of The Master from Manos: The Hands of Fate.
    • The Hand Witch also reveals herself to the Pines after they're captured in her lair by being carried in on a hand replica of the Iron Throne.
  • The stop-motion in "Clay Day" and its in-universe creator are all references to stop-motion artist Ray Harryhausen.
    • Soos is transformed into a creature reminiscent of Gumby.
  • In the basket of sweaters Mabel hides in, there is a blue starry sweater similar to the one Coraline wears in her eponymous film.
  • Old Man McGucket's stall◊ is "Whosits and Whatsits" and sells "thingamabobs."
  • The main character in the Shimmery Twinkleheart cartoon Mabel watches is a giant yellow star with a male voice who looks a lot like the Great Wishing Star from Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation, and his child companion is a little girl with pigtails much like one of the protagonists of that movie (and the previous one).

Society of the Blind Eye

Blendin's Game

The Love God

Northwest Mansion Mystery

  • Candy and Grenda do the famous 'Imagination' hand-wave when talking about going to the Northwest party.
  • Dipper's choice of words when agreeing to help Pacifica:
    Dipper: Fine. I'll bust your ghost.
    • Another reference occurs in the exorcism spell that includes 'Ain'tafraidus Noghostus'.
  • At the beginning of the episode, he's also about to watch "Ghost Harassers", a reference to both Ghostbusters and the various supernatural hunting shows that air on the "Used To Be About History Channel".
  • Grenda and Candy express worry that one of the rich boys coming to the Northwests' party is out of their league.
    Candy: He's a white whale! Hunting him will destroy us!
  • The Category 1 ghost in the journal is clearly supposed to be Casper the Friendly Ghost, while the Category 9 is an obvious pastiche of Freddy Krueger.
  • The ghost emerging behind a white sheet behind Pacifica's head is a nod to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), down to the shot composition and framing.
  • Creepy, talking taxidermy trophies? Where have we seen that before?

Not What He Seems

  • After taking Dipper and Mabel into custody, Agent Trigger tries to entertain them with a "mindless reality show" called Ker-Prank'd.
  • Soos's reaction to the doomsday counter is "It's the final countdown! Like they always sung about!", a reference to "The Final Countdown" by Europe.

A Tale Of Two Stans

  • In one shot of the author's office, we can see a crystalline hexagonal pyramid refracting an upside-down rainbow through it - in other words, a sunstone.
  • All of the Stan-Co™ products are a Shout Out to old 1970's Ron-Co™ products and commercials
  • Stanford is a man obsessed with a portal, slowly going insane, and is voiced by J. K. Simmons? Where have I heard that before?
  • Young man McGucket is a shout out to Steve Wozniak/Bill Gates/Steve Jobs, being in the pioneer days of personal computers out of a garage in Palo Alto.
  • The boat name is a pun on "man o' war", a type of warship from the Age of Sail.
  • In Stanley and Stanford's childhood bedroom, there's posters inspired by 1950s-early 1960s science fiction movies Invasion of the Saucer Men and Mothra, and a MAD-style book called "WHUH?" on Stan's bunk (with Alex Hirsch taking the place of Alfred E. Neuman).

Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons

  • As Stan is walking through the forest to save Ford and Dipper, he notes that they must be getting closer due to "fairy bites". He swats a fairy, and what does the fairy say?
    "Hey, look, listen!"
  • While Stan and Mabel play the game with Probabilitor, he summons an Ogrenado in clear reference to the Sharknado films.
    Probabilitor: It is what it sounds like!
  • The title of the episode is a take on Dungeons & Dragons.
  • The design of the DD&MD artwork is a nod to the D&D Expy Wizard Master from a A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Subsequently, the design and abilities of Probabilitor the Annoying resembles Will's dream avatar from that same film, down to the over-sized collar and lightning from the fingertips.
  • In the background when Stan and Ford are arguing, the boards read "Gorbasch," "Smearghol," and "Omhadawn," which are minor corruptions of the names of three characters in The Flight of Dragons, Gorbash, Smrgol, and Omadan.
  • Probabilitor's ogres are directly based on the Rankin-Bass Hobbit goblins, according to the commentary.
  • The Cutaway Gag of Soos' FCLORP group has Toby Determined pelting him with small rocks while shouting "Lightning Bolt!", referring to the old video clip of a real-life LARP group doing the same.

The Stanchurian Candidate

The Last Mabelcorn

  • The title is an homage to The Last Unicorn. Celesteabethabelle might be a combined reference to Lisa Frank, with her anime-inspired sparkly eyes and rainbow hair.
  • Wendy is wearing a House Stark tank top throughout the episode.
  • Dipper's comic book can be seen as a reference to the The Hardy Boys!
  • The board games the twins consider playing are all references:
  • When Ford calls for a family meeting, Mabel sees scrolls and potions and asks Ford if he's going to tell them that her and Dipper are finally old enough to go to Wizard school. She even wonders if there's an owl in his bag.
  • The unicorn that Mabel and co. find looks suspiciously like Princess Celestia. Her name even starts with "Celesti". And she has Rarity's cutie mark!
    • A fitting shout out would also be to Charlie the Unicorn due to the voice of Celestabellebethabelle and the trollish nature of the unicorn duo to Charlie, AND the voice of the two male unicorns sounding like Charlie. The two male unicorns are also blue and pink, like the unicorn duo.
    • The book that Celestabellebethabelle is shown reading is titled Whinny, Pray, Trot, her comment about it before getting knocked out by the fairy dust, gives it away:
      Celestabelleabethabelle: Oh sure, sure, I wish I could travel, but it's just not feasible in this economy-
  • When she believes that Celestabelleabethabelle will finally accepts Mabel's pure heart, she yells 'BOOYAH!', which is Cyborg's Character Catchphrase from Teen Titans (2003).
  • Stanford saying, "You shouldn't have done that" could be a reference to creepypasta Ben Drowned, especially considering the way he says it.
  • The plot point of Mabel doing numerous good deeds to prove that she's "pure of heart" in order to take Celestabelleabethabelle's hair could be seen as a Whole-Plot Reference to the B-Plot of a Sailor Moon episode which featured Minako trying to prove that she had a pure heart in order to be attacked by a Monster of the Week (It Makes Sense in Context).

Roadside Attraction

Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future

Weirdmaggedon Part 1

  • Obviously the rift's opening resembles the original Xbox logo. However, most players may not want to jump in.
  • One of the monsters to appear out of the rift is a blatant expy of Cthulhu known as C-3-lhu.
    • Kryptos, one of Bill's "Hench-maniacs," is made up of a compass and a carpenter's square. And he's pals with a guy shaped like the Eye of Providence. Hmmm...
  • The pose Ford has when turned into metal resembles the pose of Han Solo in carbonite.
  • The way Gideon's goons are dressed heavily resembles the bandits in the world of Mad Max and Fist of the North Star.
  • Speaking of Gideon and goons, note the vehicle models they all drove and Gideon's roll out call.
  • When driving through the weirdness bubbles, Dipper, Wendy and Gideon changed to different art-styles, including an anime art-style where a monkey and a kid were in the backseat, a classic silent cartoon style with inter titles and all, and a low polygon graphics style similar to old MS-DOS games.
    • The weirdness bubbles themselves bear a striking resemblance to the unreality pockets from the Red Dwarf episode "Out of Time".
    • The low-poly style also bears more than a passing resemblance to the music video for "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits.
    • The scene in general bares a striking resemblance to The Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Job", which also deals with a reality-twisting apocalypse.
  • Giant head that wants to eat people anyone?
  • When Gideon undergoes his Heel–Face Turn, one of his underlings says that fighting a Chaos God sounds fun.

Weirdmageddon Part 2

Weirdmageddon Part 3

    Shorts 
Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained
  • Mabel's plushie Bear-O looks like Billy Bob, the animatronic bear from Rock-A-Fire Explosion.
  • The Hide Behind emerged out of a small bare tree which brings to mind The Stick from Homestar Runner. Things have also been shown to emerge from behind The Stick like the Hide Behind does as well.

Mabel's Guide to Life

Fixin' It With Soos

TV Shorts

Mabel's Scrapbook

Shop at Home with Mr. Mystery

  • In "Mystery Box", Stan hypothesizes that the box could contain a "keychain...that holds an entire other universe!"

    Other Material 
  • A short on the Gravity Falls website called, "Pretty sure you don't want to open that door..." films everything through a camera like the Paranormal Activity franchise.
  • In the book Dipper and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Non-Stop Fun, Bill Cipher ends one of his rants with "How's Annie?"
  • In the official Reddit AMA with Bill Cipher, a user asked how someone could get such a slender figure as Bill's. In response, Bill remarked that he knew someone with a 'Much more slender physique than him.'
  • An unused episode plot was based around Labyrinth, but was scrapped due to the fact that younger viewers wouldn't get the reference.

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