Line #91 Main/CreatorInJoke


1	An in-joke is something which is only funny to those people who have a certain piece of knowledge or information. From a sociological point of view, in-jokes are used by groups to identify those who are Not-Us -- anyone who not a member of the group is not likely to get the joke. In-jokes are a stock source of humor in niche comics or shows; like jokes about computer programming that can only be understood by technicians, jokes about a film that only make sense if you listened to the director's commentary, jokes about a country's political system or culture that only citizens of that place could ever laugh at.
2	If you are in on the joke, these can be hilarious; if you aren't, then they get irritating quickly.
3
4	Some creators cannot resist putting references or jokes that only they understand into their works. Usually, these are based on events and people from their childhoods, their families, and their working environments. Sometimes these {{In Joke}}s are explained later (usually on a DVD commentary, or in an interview), but sometimes they are ''never'' explained, leading to a lot of [[EpilepticTrees fan speculation]] regarding their meaning.
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6	Unlike a regular InJoke, sometimes the only person who knows what a particular reference means (at least originally) is the creator who added it. Many a DevelopmentGag also fits this. The extreme of this trope is when the creator himself has forgotten the meaning of the joke.
7
8	Compare TrollingCreator, whose fans might understand the joke but only the creator is amused by it.
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10	----
11	!!Examples:
12	[[foldercontrol]]
13
14	[[folder:Fanfiction]]
15	* In the ''Fanfic/TwiceUponAnAge'' series, it's noted that [[VideoGame/DragonAgeII Hawke]] has a mabari warhound named Rikki. The author always gives this name to the mabari companion when playing ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' or ''Dragon Age II'' - it's the name of her parents' dog.
16	* In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'', Chloe gives Lexi a makeover so that he looks similar to [[Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS Specter]]. In-universe, this is because Chloe made a character known as "The Specter of the Black Forest". The author's notes reveals that this is because she told a friend of hers that Specter had more good qualities than Simon (with loyalty being his biggest one).
17	[[/folder]]
18
19	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
20	* The film ''[[Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact 2010]]'' features a cover of ''Time'' magazine with the American president and Soviet premier. The former is Creator/ArthurCClarke, and the latter is Creator/StanleyKubrick.
21	* The phrase "Poopy Trim", from Creator/KevinSmith's films in ''Film/TheViewAskewniverse''.
22	* "See You Next Wednesday," a fictional movie advertised in many films by Creator/JohnLandis, was originally an unproduced screenplay Landis wrote when he was 17. The name comes from a line of dialogue in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''.
23	* Creator/GeorgeLucas has somehow managed to work "Film/{{THX 1138}}" (if only the numbers or letters) into everything he's ever done.
24	* Creator/SamRaimi puts the same car - a 1973 Olds Delta Royale, referred to as "the Classic," which he inherited from his father - in almost all of his films. Supposedly, this even includes ''Film/TheQuickAndTheDead'', where the presence of a car of any sort would be a major anachronism - Creator/BruceCampbell has claimed that the chassis was used for part of a wagon.
25	* In ''Film/SuperTroopers'', the name of one of the Local Cops is Rando, which was something the writers called people they didn't know "randoms" during college. Not a huge in-joke (as calling people randoms has been around for the last 10 years or so), but one nonetheless.
26	* The working titles for Creator/StevenSpielberg's movies ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' and ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' were "Watch the Skies" and "A Boy's Life" respectively. Both were referenced as a one of these in ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' (which Spielberg produced), as two movies reportedly showing in the town theater when Billy walks past it.
27	* In ''Film/WaynesWorld'', Wayne's PsychoExGirlfriend tries to patch up their relationship by giving him a gun rack, something for which he has no use since, as he points out, he doesn't even own a single gun. This was based on what a (not-so-psycho) ex-girlfriend of Creator/MikeMyers tried on him.
28	* ''Film/TheVillain'': Director Hal Needham includes a couple of ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit'' references, and this is the [[Film/LonelyAreTheBrave second film]] where Creator/KirkDouglas's character owns a horse named Whiskey.
29	* ''Film/GorillaInterrupted'':
30	** The scene where Rich Evans falls down a hillside through brambles is a reference to a nearly identical scene in another amateur film directed by cast member Jay Bauman.
31	** The scene where an alien dumps a whole can of Crystal Pepsi on its face for no explicable reason is an apparent dig at one of the actors, Garrett Gilchrist, who insisted on adding a number of scenes to the script that the director Mike Stoklasa found pointless. One of these added scenes, which was shot but cut out of the finished film, involved Gilchrist's character having soda dumped on his head.
32	* ''Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney'': The character Station was an in-joke between the two screenwriters that came about during writing. After deleting a scene taking place in a police station, they noticed that they'd accidentally left the word "station" in the draft. Giddy on lack of sleep, the writers started saying "station" back and forth in funny voices and cracking up. They immortalized the joke by adding an alien to the story who [[PokemonSpeak only says his name]], "Station."
33	* ''Film/JasonAndTheArgonauts:'' The skeletons' shields are decorated with images of monsters from Creator/RayHarryhausen's previous movies.
34	* ''Film/DoctorInLove'': The book offered to Dr. Hare by the librarian is ''The Captain's Table'' by Richard Gordon, who wrote the books the ''Film/DoctorSeries'' is based on.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Literature]]
38	* When authors Creator/TimPowers and Creator/JamesPBlaylock were in college together, they invented a fake poet named "William Ashbless" to satirize the quality of their college's literary magazine. He ended up appearing as a character in both of their novels, entirely independently. Nearly all of Powers' novels mention Ashbless at least once, often in the form of an invented {{epigraph}}. In the novel ''Literature/TheAnubisGates'' we learn that "William Ashbless" is the alias of a time-travelling English professor, meaning he's also a fake character InUniverse, even in his own origin story.
39	* The son of Kate Cary, one of the authors writing under the Creator/ErinHunter name, once joked that ''[[Literature/WarriorCats Warriors]]'' should be called ''Worriers'' since that's all they seem to do. Kate included a reference to this in one of the books, having a character say "We're warriors, not worriers."
40	* Young Adult author Neal Shusterman often includes a character named Ralphy Sherman in his books, usually as a ButtMonkey.
41	* Creator/KAApplegate put a few small references to ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'' into her book ''Literature/TheOneAndOnlyIvan''. The mouthless alien Andalites smile with their eyes - so do elephants. Human characters objecting to abuse of said elephants also lament that they can't call "the elephant cops". In an early book, Rachel objects to circus elephant abuse by [[{{Animorphism}} transforming into an elephant]] and grabbing a man with a cattle prod, telling him she's a member of the elephant police, and hurling him onto a tent.
42	* Creator/MercedesLackey is behind the ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series - the titular Heralds are heroes all dressed in white and riding [[WhiteStallion special white horses]] that are actually reincarnated humans and [[OurAngelsAreDifferent some form of angel]] - altogether a case of LightIsGood and BeautyEqualsGoodness. When she co-wrote ''Literature/TheObsidianTrilogy'' with James Mallory, its antagonists the demonic Endarkened show up to deceive a neutral city-state calling themselves the Enlightened - some taking the appearance of white horses that others, human-looking and wearing white, ride.
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45	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
46	* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': The CavemenVsAstronautsDebate in the fifth season episode "A Hole In The World" is funny enough as it is, but it was based on a real argument Creator/JossWhedon started in the writers' room that got way out of hand. He just wrote it on the chalkboard and came in later to find that the argument had effectively killed any work getting done.
47	* ''Series/{{Blackadder}} Goes Forth'': In "General Hospital", Blackadder reveals that he figured out Nurse Mary was a German spy when he referenced the three great universities (Oxford, Cambridge, and Hull) and she failed to notice the odd one out. General Melchett responds "Quite -- Oxford's a complete dump!", with Blackadder giving a nonplussed reaction. Creator/StephenFry (Melchett) attended Cambridge, which has had a centuries-long rivalry with Oxford, Creator/RowanAtkinson (Blackadder)'s alma matter.
48	* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'':
49	** 5th season finale episode "If It's Only In Your Head". Lynette is told she's pregnant and says, "Are you sure it's not cancer?" This was based on creator Marc Cherry's personal experience: when his mother was told by doctors in the early '80s that she was either pregnant or had cancer, she said, "God, I hope it's cancer."
50	** Bree's immediate response to learning that her son is gay is the same as Cherry's mother: "I'd love you even if you were a murderer."
51	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
52	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E2TheFiresOfPompeii "The Fires of Pompeii"]]: Latin students everywhere stand a chance of recognizing Caecilius, Quintus and Metella — they're from the widely-used ''Literature/CambridgeLatinCourse'' textbook series.
53	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E5TimeHeist "Time Heist"]]: One of the treasure items in Karabraxos' private vault, visible in the background of several important shots, is a child's cardboard model of a rocket ship. In the making-of documentary, director Douglas [=McKinnon=] explains that it belongs to him, was a gift from his daughter, and is one of his own most treasured possessions.
54	* In ''Series/{{Lexx}}'', Xev's home planet [=B3K=] took its name from the production company's Halifax postal code.
55	* From ''Series/{{Lost}}'', the song "You All Everybody" and its only known lyrics ("you all everybody, acting like these stupid people wearing expensive clothes") came from an inside joke among the writers. One of them had seen someone use the phrase on a talk show many years earlier.
56	** "Geronimo Jackson" is a band that is mentioned several times throughout the series. Showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse swear the band was a legitimate one from the 70s that no one remembers, but the pair are known for making outrageous claims and jokes. However, they are unusually adamant that Geronimo Jackson was a real band. Several independent "investigations" (searches of music databases, copyright libraries, etc) have turned up no evidence Geronimo Jackson ever existed.
57	* ''Series/TheMightyBoosh'' was named after something once said by a childhood friend of Noel Fielding (Vince): upon seeing the large curly hairstyle sported by Michael Fielding (Naboo) at the time, the foreign-accented childhood friend exclaimed: "You've got a mighty bush!"
58	* Roughly half the characters in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' were named Arthur, Ken, or Eric.
59	* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': In one episode, when the Film of the Week shows people looting a house, Tom Servo quips "Hey, she's got Mike's guitar!". At the time the episode was filmed, the real Michael J. Nelson had just been through a bad breakup where his ex-girlfriend took his guitar with her when she moved out.
60	* In a ''Series/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', Count Olaf, played by Neil Patrick Harris, mentions having tried to get his own television show in the city for nine years. This may have been a reference to when Harris played Barney in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', a show set in New York City for nine years.
61	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
62	** In the original proposal for ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' that Roddenberry submitted to MGM in 1964, the ''Enterprise'' was to be commanded by Robert ''M.'' April. The name also turned up in two episodes of ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel'' that Roddenberry wrote in TheFifties.
63	** The number 47 appears frequently throughout the franchise when an arbitrary number is needed. This originates with The 47 Society from Pomona College, the alma mater of one of the writers for ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''.
64	* ''Series/StrangerThings'':
65	** The series contains several references to the Duffer Brothers' home state of UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina, particularly the Durham area where they grew up. Examples include the Eno River, Jordan Lake, roads named "Mt. Sinai," "Cornwallis," and "Kerley," and a neighborhood named "Loch Nora", after the real Lochn'ora neighborhood.
66	** Dustin fakes a phone call regarding the missing cat with a Mr. [=McCorkle=], the name of the Duffers' childhood next-door neighbor.
67	* ''Series/TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob'': The word "chippy", which gets used a ''lot'', comes from some weird foreign porn Tim and Eric once saw.
68	* ''Series/TheXFiles'' loved this one:
69	** Chris Carter's best friend as a child was called Fox and his mother's maiden name is Mulder.
70	** Various other characters are also named after people the writers knew.
71	** Almost every time a date or number is mentioned it has some kind of significance (most commonly 1013/October 13th, Chris Carter's birthday, or 1121/November 21, his wife's). They even subverted it once by using the same number about five times in a single season - the number was completely meaningless but by this point, fans had been trained to look obsessively for the significance.
72	[[/folder]]
73
74	[[folder:Music]]
75	* The band Music/JimmyEatWorld was named after an in-joke from their childhood: "The band's name came from a crayon drawing made after an incident between Linton's younger brothers, Jim and Ed, who fought frequently. Jim usually won, but Ed got his revenge by drawing a picture of Jim shoving the Earth into his mouth; the picture bore the caption "Jimmy eat world".
76	* Music/{{Nickelback}} was named for a phrase Chad Kroeger kept hearing when he visited a friend at Starbucks: "Here's your nickel back." It was $1.95 day, and customers kept paying with two-dollar coins.
77	* Folk singer-songwriter Music/JohnStewart included quotes from someone named Oliver Makin in the liner notes of two of his albums (''Sunstorm'', ''Wingless Angels''). Makin was supposedly "a poet and short story writer from Kansas who died in 1909", but Stewart fans haven't been able to locate any of Makin's works. The fact that the quotes conveniently just happen to include [[TitleDrop Title Drops]] for the albums in question pretty much confirms that Makin=Stewart.
78	* Beginning with 1990's ''Under The Red Sky'', Music/BobDylan has credited himself as "Jack Frost" whenever he's produced one of his own albums.
79	* Music/EltonJohn was fond of his [[TheEighties 1980s]] CampGay pseudonym, "Lord Choc Ice", and it appears in many manifestations. An instrumental B side was called "Lord Choc Ice Goes Mental", he credits his co-writing credit for the Music/{{Cher}} co-written ''Leather Jackets'' song "Don't Trust That Woman" to "Cher/Lady Choc Ice" (he was upset that Cher wanted first billing, and tried to upstage her for revenge), he credits "Lady Choc Ice" as an "inspiration" in ''Leather Jackets'''s liner notes, and "Lord Choc Ice" is billed as "director" on the closing clapperboard in his "I'm Still Standing" video. He was known to substitute "foreign guy" in the line "Susie went and left me for some foreign guy" in "Crocodile Rock" with "...Choc Ice guy" in his 1982 concerts.
80	* Music/SteelyDan members Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are longtime best friends with many in-jokes. When interviewed together, they will frequently joke cryptically about events of their past, but not explain them to the interviewer. Similarly, their lyrics are filled with them. The song Kid Charlemagne, for instance, is lyrically a hodgepodge of events from their past, arranged to create a story.
81	* {{Music/Superchunk}} were originally called Chunk, because of how their drummer Chuck Garrison's name was misspelled in the phone book - the "Super-" prefix was added when they learned of a jazz group that was also called Chunk. Garrison was credited as Chunk on several singles and their first album, at least giving a small hint to the listener. Nowadays their name just comes off as a WordSaladTitle, particularly because the original inspiration for it hasn't even been in the band for the last two decades.
82	* The Lemonheads' ''Come On Feel The Lemonheads'' ends with an instrumental called "The Jello Fund": Lead singer Evan Dando evidently appeared in a Jello commercial as a child and his parents put the money away to fund his education.
83	* Music/SystemOfADown's "I-E-A-I-A-I-O" includes the lines "Meeting John at Dale's Jr. / winked an eye and point a finger, why?". As a child, drummer John Dolmayan had a chance meeting with Creator/DavidHasselhoff in front of a liquor and convenience store called Dale's Jr.; When John exclaimed "Series/KnightRider!", Hasselhoff said "Hey, kid", winked and pointed his finger at him. John told the story to Serj Tankian, who wrote it into the lyrics. It sort of ties into the next line, which is a reference to the premise of ''Knight Rider'' ("a former cop, undercover / just got shot, now recovered").
84	* Adolescents' demo collection ''Naughty Women In Black Sweaters'' has a double meaning that only works if one knows a lot about the 1980s Fullerton, California music scene the band came out of: According to lead vocalist Tony, The Naughty Women was the name of a "transvestite punk band" from Fullerton, while "the black sweaters" was a nickname for a group of women who had a reputation of being groupies. So, the album title is either referencing the SexySweaterGirl trope or something more risque.
85	* Music/CamperVanBeethoven's "Long Plastic Hallway" includes the lines "Playing on a flying saucer/ Box O'Laffs was supporting Talking Heads". Box O' Laffs were a group David Lowery was in before Camper Van Beethoven; their guitarist had the rest of the band convinced they'd landed a gig opening up for Music/TalkingHeads, but after much ado it turned out that he had been high and in a delusional state at the time, and the venue for the supposed event was to be a UFO flying above L.A.
86	** David Lowery and [[{{Music/Sparklehorse}} Mark Linkous]] once had a conversation about things that an artist could do on an album that would cause listeners to think they'd gone insane- Lowery suggested mentioning monkeys in every song on an album. Subsequently, ''Forever'' by Cracker had four separate songs that mentioned monkeys in the lyrics, usually in the form of RecycledLyrics about something or someone being "guarded by monkeys". ''Forever'' itself even had the WorkingTitle of ''Guarded By Monkeys'', until the label asked for a more marketable title.
87	** Cracker's album ''Kerosene Hat'': Early in the band's existence, David Lowery and guitarist Johnny Hickman shared a dilapidated house with only two kerosene heaters for warmth - David would bundle up and walk to a nearby gas station whenever they needed more fuel for the heaters, so the woolen hunting cap he'd wear on these excursions was his "kerosene hat". Though the album has a TitleTrack, the song's WordSaladLyrics don't exactly explain the significance.
88	* The title of Music/LeonardCohen's "Jazz Police" originated as a studio in-joke dating from about 10 years before the song was recorded: When recording the album ''Recent Songs'', Cohen found he frequently had to stop his backing band from adding "jazz riffs" to his songs.
89	* Geggy Tah, AlternativeRock OneHitWonder band from TheNineties ("Whoever You Are"), had a name that stemmed from the BabyTalk mispronunciations of the first names of band members Greg Kurstin and Tommy Jordan by their younger sisters when they were kids.
90	* Music/BeastieBoys' "Hold It Now, Hit It" ends with the lyric "surgeon general, cut professor, DJ Thiggs" - There was a friend of Music/RunDMC named Thiggs, but he wasn't an actual DJ (though Run insisted that he ''should'' be one). They decided to give him a ShoutOut in the song without actually witnessing his alleged DJ skills just because it amused them; According to Mike D, Thiggs ultimately turned out to be a pretty lousy DJ once he did try his hand at it, which just made the lyric funnier to them.
91	** Some of their songs' {{Non Appearing Title}}s have roots in stories that were eventually explained in the autobiography ''Beastie Boys Book'' - for example, the song title "Tadlock's Glasses" refers to a driver the band once had, whose prized possession was a pair of sunglasses given to him by Music/ElvisPresley; neither Tadlock nor his glasses are actually mentioned in the lyrics.
92	* When [[Music/SoulCoughing Mike Doughty]] and {{Music/BT}} were working on the song "Never Gonna Come Back Down", BT received a phone call from DJ Rap, so Mike half-jokingly pestered him for her phone number. Thus the WordSaladLyrics include [[GratuitousSpanish "Donde esta los digits de DJ Rap?"]] and a couple of references to the name "Charice" (DJ Rap's given name is Charissa Saverio).
93	* Music/MatthewSweet was once in a band called The Buzz Of Delight, with the WordSaladTitle originating from an exchange he'd heard while he and [[{{Music/REM}} Michael Stipe]] were visiting Linda Hopper (of Magnapop) at her home: Complaining about a faulty light in the room that was making noise, Linda remarked "the buzz of the light is freaking me out"; Michael responded "[[MondegreenGag The buzz of delight]] is freaking you out?"
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95	[[/folder]]
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97	[[folder:Radio]]
98	* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': The radio episode "The Twin Orphans" features twin boys named Mike and Danny. Al Lewis, the show's writer, had twin boys named Mike and Danny.
99	** There were [[ShoutOut shout outs]] on other occasions as well, although never so prominently (i.e. "Babysitting for Three" and "New School TV Set")
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Theatre]]
103	* In ''Theatre/{{Candide}}'', the Old Lady mentions that her father (or mother, in some versions) came from Rovno Gubernya, an obscure Russian town not mentioned in Voltaire's book. It's where Music/LeonardBernstein's father was born.
104	* In ''Theatre/MerrilyWeRollAlong'', Joe Josephson rejects a Franklin Shepard score on the grounds that "there's not a tune you can hum," adding, "I'll let you know when Stravinsky has a hit." The Music/IgorStravinsky comparison was made by George Abbott when he turned down the offer to produce ''Theatre/WestSideStory''.
105	[[/folder]]
106
107	[[folder:Toys]]
108	* The creation of the name of the character Wedgehead from ''Toys/{{Uglydolls}}'' comes from a reference to something creator David Horvath would pull against a lying toy store. Back in the 80s, when the classic ''Franchise/StarWars'' action figures were out, the only toy store that had them near him was a long bus ride away, forcing a call to them. The store would claim they had the figure he asked for, only to not when he went there. Fed up with having to deal with this multiple times, he concocted the name "Wedgehead" and asked if they had that figure. The store said yes, causing him to be able to catch the store in their own lie with a fake figure name. Come the creation of ''Uglydolls'', the name Wedgehead was reused...and the same toy store ''did'' sell his doll.
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Video Games]]
112	* Almost every Creator/{{Capcom}} franchise has included a character named Joe. From the more well-known VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe and the ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' series' Sniper Joe, there[='=]s been one in ''Franchise/StreetFighter'', ''Franchise/AceAttorney'', ''VideoGame/BionicCommando'', ''VideoGame/LostPlanet'', ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'', and ''VideoGame/GodHand''.
113	* On the walls of the subway in ''VideoGame/CryOfFear'', you can find posters for a movie called ''[[VideoGame/AfraidOfMonsters Intimidated by Abnormalities.]]''
114	* Creator/DanielRemar includes in his games, like ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'', ''VideoGame/HeroCore'', and ''VideoGame/PrincessRemedyInAWorldOfHurt'', an unwinnable HarderThanHard joke difficulty setting named "reallyjoel's dad" as a long-time RunningGag.
115	* In ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'':
116	** The cheat code "iddqd" was named after a fraternity one of the developers formed in college.
117	** "idspispopd" is a reference to a Usenet post suggesting them to name their next game ''[[http://doomwiki.org/wiki/SPISPOPD Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris.]]''
118	* One of the developers of ''[[VideoGame/EscapeVelocity EV Nova]]'' put his ex-boss in the game ... as a cargo drone with the subtitle "Incompetent".
119	* ''{{Franchise/Halo}}'':
120	** Some of the games, especially the [[VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved first one]], contained a ton of ShoutOut references to {{Creator/Bungie}}'s older title ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' which effortlessly go unnoticed by those who had never played their older games.
121	** The Bungie-era games also have plenty of references to [[FauxSymbolism the number 7]].
122	* In "Orange Lights", the tie-in comic book for ''VideoGame/TheConduit'', the mailing address for ConspiracyTheorist Gordon Wells is actually the address of developer High Voltage Software.
123	* The guy Cave Johnson fires at the beginning of the ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' GameMod ''VideoGame/PortalStoriesMel'' for misspelling "station" as "statoion" is named Chris. This is a reference to how level designer Chris Onorati, better known as [=TMast98=], accidentally made this spelling mistake on a sign, which started a joke of the team [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity "firing" him whenever he made a mistake]]. [[BrickJoke This is referenced in the credits]], when Chris's drawing has the word "statoion" with the extra "o" crossed out. Also, in [[DevelopersRoom Chris's office]] at the beginning of Chapter 3, the whiteboard says, "Chris if you erase this board again I'll make sure you get FIRED!"
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Web Animation]]
127	* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'':
128	** The phrase "Kick it out, Behan" was something the creator's Mom said at track meets when he was a kid.
129	** The name Homestar Runner comes from an incident in school when a friend of The Brothers Chaps [[note]] James Huggins of Music/OfMontreal [[/note]] tried to imitate an old-timey baseball announcer but didn't know much about baseball. In the process, he garbled some terms and called a player a "homestar runner".
130	* ''WebAnimation/TimberWolf'': In "Self Helplessness" when Thomas blows out the first bubble after chewing on a ball of alphabet bubble gum, all the floating letters inside it spell out [[spoiler:[[Creator/ChuckJones "C H U C K J O N E S"]]]].
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Webcomics]]
134	* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' recycles a lot of characters and themes from Andrew's more obscure work. For instance, Gamzee [[spoiler: a monster clown serial killer]] is partially based off his little known and [[OrphanedSeries orphaned]] graphic novel series, ''ComicBook/{{Whistles}}''. The character dynamic of the Kids, and the flavor of Homestuck in general, comes from ''Wizardy Herbert'', an incomplete novel Andrew described as magical kids learning how to focus their powers and taking the piss out of it. The characters on the pages on Rose's wall are the concept art of that story. Likewise, there is a poster in Dave's room of two robot rappers, who later appear as minor characters Squarewave and Sawtooth. Andrew had an idea to write a rap music album based on them, but it also never came to fruition.
135	** A few moments in the comic are just incomprehensibly bizarre without knowing that they're in reaction to fans on the forums or social media freaking out about events in the comic. The infamous scene of the AuthorAvatar trying to kiss [[Film/{{Hook}} Rufio]] back to life was to tease fans freaking out over one character's murder of another, and the bizarre scene of a character's insane glee at being Caucasian and another character's BigNo (due to having an actual skin tone in "trickster mode" instead of the monochrome white all other human children have) is a TakeThat to fan controversy over what race the kids actually are (which has since been edited due to blowing up into ''its own'' controversy and case of YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame. the page in question now has the character declaring "I feel PEACHY!").
136	* In ''Webcomic/{{Qxlkbh}}'', specifically [[https://qxlkbh.github.io/91 qxlkbh 91]], the zvillains'rg lair has an alembic tapering off to a hand as a reference to a similar emoji in a nomic some of the creators participate in.
137	* The "You call this a X?" from ''Webcomic/RomanticallyApocalyptic''.
138	* From ''Webcomic/ItsWalky'', Walky's catchphrase "Wiigii" was inspired by a typo of the author's when he was trying to type "Woohoo" and his right hand was off to the left.
139
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Western Animation]]
143	* "A113" is an inside joke amongst a number of animators who graduated from the California Institute for the Arts, with it being the classroom where character animation classes were held for decades. The number is most commonly associated with Creator/{{Pixar}} films, but the room number has appeared in countless films and television series produced/directed by [=CalArts=] alumni.
144	* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': Dean calls Orpheus's pendant a "Dracula trophy". The phrase was originally something overheard during childhood by one of the show's creators, and it stuck.
145	* "Jalapena" as an exclamation in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}''. Creator/KeithDavid had known someone who used it that way and improvised during a recording session. [[ThrowItIn It stuck.]]
146	* In ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'', one of the phrases Stitch says is "Maka maka, sasa!" (meaning "This way, hurry!") Sasa is an affectionate nickname for Sa, the wife of executive producer of the series Creator/JessWinfield, and "makamaka" is Hawaiian for "friend and host". [[http://lasfansite.atspace.me/stuff/history/tvtome/page04.html Every year Sa hosts a luau party and signs the invitations with "Makamaka Sasa."]]
147	* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'':
148	** Al Gore is used as constant joke fodder for two reasons: at the time of the show's original run, people thought he was humorless, and because his daughter wrote for the series (and she wanted people to know she got her sense of humor from somewhere).
149	** In one episode, Leela is upset and tears one half of a Kleenex to wipe her tears away. On the DVD commentary for the episode, writers said that while everyone assumed it was a joke because of her one eye, it was actually poking fun at executive producer and writer David X. Cohen, who would always rip tissue paper in half to save money.
150	* Captain Robert T. April appears in the ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Counter-Clock Incident." In the original proposal for ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' that Roddenberry submitted to MGM in 1964, the ''Enterprise'' was to be commanded by Robert ''M.'' April.
151	* A ''WesternAnimation/MagillaGorilla'' cartoon had Magilla and several men at an Army recruitment center joining the service. They conclude the oath with "So help me [[Creator/HannaBarbera Hanna]]."[[note]]This expression predates the show, however. The classic Disney short "Cured Duck" has the insult machine using this expression when he has Donald Duck promise to "give [it his] attention, [his] whole attention, and nothing but [his] attention".[[/note]]
152	* On ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'', Creator/LakeBell, who voices ComicBook/PoisonIvy, also voices recurring police officer Cheryl, who has a southern accent. This is a nod to the comics where Ivy originally had a southern accent.
153	* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Road to Rupert", while Meg is driving him, Peter demands to watch ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', and the Campfire Song Song from the episode "The Camping Episode" plays. The director of the episode, Dan Povenmire, worked on early episodes of ''[=SpongeBob=]'' and wrote the Campfire Song Song.
154	[[/folder]]

Context Main / CreatorInJoke