Shout Out / Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Scott Pilgrim may have taken off from his own story, but said story's tendency to reference way too many things did not go with him.

This page only covers references specific to Scott Pilgrim Takes Off; for references that originated from the graphic novels, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, and other miscellaneous sources, go here, and for the movie, go here.

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General

• In the teaser, the logo for the series is rendered in a font similar to the logo for the Street Fighter series.
• The trailer is backed by a parody of The Immortals' "Techno Syndrome"(a.k.a.: the Mortal Kombat theme), along with introducing the cast like the Attract Mode portion of the song. The song also plays over the credits of episode 8.
• Part of the intro is based on the opening for BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad.
• The title cards for each episode (except episode 7, which is entirely original) are based on the title screens for various pixel-era video games:
  • "Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life": Super Mario Bros.
  • "A League of Their Own": Street Fighter II: Champion Edition
  • "Ramona Rents a Video": Bubble Bobble
  • "Whatever": Skate or Die
  • "Lights. Camera. Sparks?!": the NES-era Mega Man games
  • "WHODIDIT": the NES port of Pac-Man
  • "The World Vs Scott Pilgrim": Clash at Demonhead
• Gideon Graves's real name, Gordon Goose, is the same as that of the main character of, of all things, Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme.
  • His old nickname, Fearless, may be a reference (a bit mocking, in context) to Netflix's Cowboy Bebop, were it was apparently Spike's former 'real' name.

"Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life"

• Rather than the "Puck-Man" trivia talk from the movie, Scott attempts to break the ice with Ramona at Julie's party by discussing the tonal disparity between the two different Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons that aired in the early 90s (one dark and dramatic, the other "a hilarious comedy about chili dogs") and how Sonic's voice actor was the same across both series.^note And of course, that voice actor also played two versions of Steve Urkel.
  • Doubles as a mythology gag as Michael Cera also played different versions of Scott Pilgrim.

"A League of Their Own"

• The title is taken from the film of the same name.
• When Knives tearfully confronts Ramona over Scott’s death, she cries “You’re responsible, you’re the one to blame, it’s your fault!” This is actually one of two Into the Woods references made within the show.
• Lucas tells Todd he should "stick to the rivers and the lakes that [he's] used to".

"Ramona Rents a Video"

• Roxie tells Ramona "Roxx you like a hurricane!" before their fight.
• In the college flashback scene where Roxie and Ramona are about to kiss, there are Halloween decorations all over their dorm room. In other words, they fell in love in October.
• The coffee shop has a poster for Neko Case, a Canadian indie musician best known for her work with The New Pornographers.
• The conclusion of Ramona and Roxie's fight visually mirrors the aftermath of Naruto and Sasuke's final duel, specifically the anime version.
• After her fight, Roxie is heard singing "Whistle Stop". Considering the time period, this might also double as a reference to "Hampster Dance", one of the earliest internet memes.
  • In the Japanese dub, she sings "Yoshi Race."

"Whatever"

• Lucas' agent's first bit of bad news has her paraphrase the signature lyric of "Sk8er Boi" by Avril Lavigne:
  "Lucas, between your string of box-office bombs and reports of your toxic skater boi behavior, this town's on the verge of saying, 'see you later, boi.'"
• Lucas sees his agent as Tinkerbell.
• Being largely set in a Toronto film studio (called Torontowood Studios), this episode has a bunch of references to famous films in the background. Most notable when Neil drives Ramona around the studio and several film shout-outs pass them by. For example there's an Audrey II expy, a blue King Ghidorah, a pink xenomorph and Elliot on a bike followed by a bunch of agents in hazmat suits.
• While Neil drives Ramona around the studio, he quips that in America, his golf cart is supposedly called a Mario Kart. The background music is even composed using the Mario Kart 64 soundfont.
• One of the matte paintings carried by the film crew is modeled after Giant Naked Rei from The End of Evangelion.
• The skateboard fight between Lucas Lee and the paparazzi features the song "Police Truck" by Dead Kennedys, notable for appearing in the first installment of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. During said fight Lucas also briefly contends with what appear to be a Cyber Cyclops version of a xenomorph and then a giant shark.
  • Although not featured in the game itself, Liam Lynch's "United States of Whatever" was featured for TV ads leading up to Tony Hawk's Underground's release; and for the episode's credits Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire was featured in Tony Hawk's Underground 2's soundtrack respectively.

"Lights. Camera. Sparks?!"

• The opening text is a riff on the similar opening of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
• The title card's font looks like it came out of a classic Mega Man title screen.
• Young Neil wears a shirt that says "Cronenberg For President".

"WHODIDIT"

• When Ramona realizes the Twins are behind Scott's kidnapping, two exclamation points directly modeled after the iconic "Alert!" indicator from the Metal Gear series appear over her head, complete with a facsimile of the accompanying sound effect.
• The music that plays when Ramona explains the full details on how Scott disappeared and who's behind it, "The How", has a very similar chord progression to "Hello Zepp" from the Saw series; a Leitmotif that plays across the climax and ending of every Saw movie, usually the point when a major twist is unveiled and consequently explained in detail.

" 2 Scott 2 Pilgrim"

• The title is a direct riff on 2 Fast 2 Furious.
• The cover of Old Young Neil's memoirs has him posing like this Steve Jobs photograph.◊ He even has the black turtleneck.
• Old Scott and the Katayanagi Twins performing a cover of "Konya wa Hurricane". The original version plays over the credits for the episode.
  • Keeping with the franchise's tradition of naming bands after video games, they are known as "Pop'n TwinBee."
  • The outfits worn by the Twins are based on Beat's design from Jet Set Radio Future.
• According to Future Scott, the future "is far more futuristic than originally predicted", which sounds like a line from Southland Tales.
• The door to Old Scott's VR room is patterned after a Game Boy Advance SP. The code to open the door is the iconic "Dragon Punch" button combo (forward, down, down-forward, punch) popularized by (and named after) Street Fighter's Shoryuken.
  • Old Scott's VR device is a "Virtual Guuy". The indent in the floor where the Virtual Guuy is located is also shaped like a Virtual Boy controller.
• The animation and sound effect that play when Old Scott describes how he lost his heart are near-identical to that of losing your SOUL in Undertale.
• Future Ramona is shown transporting packages strapped to her back in a manner similar to the cargo Sam Porter Bridges delivers.
• Future Ramona's rollerblades are made up of pieces from a used DeLorean.
• Scott references 'a famous detective' to Ramona, assumed to be Columbo, but actually intended to be Detective Pikachu.
• Matthew Patel's one-man show seems to have been a one-man Into the Woods, as he sings both parts of "Agony."

"The World Vs Scott Pilgrim"

• The theater where the premiere of the Scott Pilgrim musical is held has red curtains and a checkered floor, reminding of Super Mario Bros. 3's iconic intro.
• The energy field that prevents Scott and Ramona from kissing is named "Anti-Kiss field", AK field for short. It even shares the AT field's recognizable octagonal shape.
  • As a bonus, Gendo Ikari's seiyuu Fumihiko Tachiki is cast as Older Scott in the Japanese dub, who actually explains the AK Field.
• When Gideon demands that Even Older Scott send them back into the present, he responds by telepathically strangling him, a move synonymous with Darth Vader of Star Wars fame.
  • In addition, Gideon reasons that they have no beef with Even Older Scott, causing him to respond by asking "What if I have a beef with you?", a direct reference to the 2010 film adaptation.
• The fight with the Even Older Scott appears to reference the fight against Kessler from Infamous - both are in a crater, both Kessler and Even Older Scott Flash Step all over the place, and more importantly both came from the Bad Future, are Future Badass versions of the main character, and (wanted to) prevent their lives from turning out as they did, including preventing them from being with their girlfriend/future wife.
• Even Older Scott appears to take cues from Evil Ryu from Street Fighter: both are Dark Counterparts to their series' respective main protagonists, both are consumed by some form of hatred (Even Older Scott's bitterness over losing Ramona and Evil Ryu's Satsui no Hado), and both are dark-skinned, bare-chested hand-to-hand fighters that wear a red headband.
• During the fight against Even Older Scott, Kyle and Ken Katayanagi have Robot 01 Rocket Punch him, a trope made famous by Mazinger Z.
• When Ramona and Even Older Ramona fuse together, Scott calls their combined form "Super Ramona"; present Scott says that it's "just like Sonic the Hedgehog 3", while Even Older Scott (more accurately) says it's like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 before backpedaling to what his past self said.
• The song that plays over the epilogue is a chiptune cover of "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys - a cover of which also played over the end credits of Bioshock Infinite as a bittersweet reference to how drastically the main character changed with (and without) the presence of a certain pivotal person in their life.

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