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Following

Internal Homage

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"You killed my wife!"
"You broke my car!"

"There's something very familiar about all this."
— Biff, Back to the Future Part II

When a series deliberately references an event from its own past. This goes a bit deeper than a Call-Back or Continuity Nod: An internal homage recreates images, lines, or even entire scenes from the franchise's past. These homages are generally not recognized by the characters in-story (save for, perhaps, a Deadpan Snarker or other Fourth-Wall Observer making it clear for the audience). Similarly, it's distinct from History Repeats in that the recreation of the scene isn't important to the plot (the scene itself may be important, but not the fact that it's happened before). In general, an internal homage is a treat for longtime fans of the series to catch.

A subtrope of Mythology Gag. Bookends (and by extension, Here We Go Again!) are a manifestation of Internal Homage. Expies, especially of the Generation Xerox variety, can be used to this end as well. Continuity Reboots and otherwise alternate-continuity stories will often use Internal Homages to appease fans of the franchise's past. Extreme cases do this Once per Episode. Company Cross References differ in that they are homages between different franchises owned by the same company rather than staying within the same franchise.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Digimon kills off at least one Leomon or otherwise lionlike mon in every continuity from Digimon Adventure onward (thus exempting the earlier Digimon V-Tamer 01). The degree of relevance or tragedy varies:
    • Digimon Adventure: A Leomon that was friendly to the main characters — tragic.
    • Digimon Adventure 02: A generic SaberLeomon.
    • Digimon Tamers: Jeri's Digimon partner, murdered by Beelzemon - Most tragic of all of them.
    • Digimon Frontier: A twofer, an IceLeomon was part of Sakakkumon's internal defense, defeated by Takuya. Koichi was killed (again) at the end by Lucemon, and his Beast Spirit was called KaiserLeomon (in the original Japanese, anyway).
    • Digimon Data Squad: Another twofer; a villainous SaberLeomon was killed while attacking the human world. Near the end, BanchoLeomon, who served as a mentor to the heroes, performs a Heroic Sacrifice.
    • Digimon Fusion: MadLeomon, a member of the Bagra Army was taken out by Xros Heart in episode 3 (though he was later revived as a regular Leomon).
  • The beginning of chapter 424 of Bleach is a reversed homage to the beginning of the first chapter. After we again are given Ichigo's "profile" altered to note that he cannot see ghosts anymore we're then shown a color spread which is like the first one except Rukia isn't there and all the people with portraits in the background are turning away.
  • The first Sound Stage of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS involved a dispatch mission that was a homage to the early episodes of Season 1, what with it involving a Lost Logia that landed on Earth which created a Monster of the Week that the rookies had to defeat via sealing, much like Nanoha did on her first outings as a Magical Girl. Given a Lampshade Hanging after the mission was over, with Fate mentioning to Nanoha how the entire thing reminded her of the past and Nanoha thinking of sending an email to Yuuno about the entire thing afterwards.
  • Following the mid-series time skip, One Piece returned with a color spread mirroring the very first, only with added crew members and post-time skip designs, as well as a volume cover mirroring also the very first, with updated crew members.
  • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Star Platinum, the Stand of Jotaro Kujo, combines elements of previous story villains Bruford and Tarkus: specifically, it borrows elements of Bruford's appearance and mixes his speed and precision with Tarkus's overwhelmingly destructive power.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!, the signature card of the hero will always have 2500 ATK, and, after the original, will also have 2000 DEF. Likewise, The Rival will always have an ace monster with 3000 ATK and 2500 DEF.
  • Osomatsu-san pulls out a parody of the pilot episode "Osomatsu-kun Returns" whenever something that looks like a season opener happens. Episode 18 had "Hijirisawa Shonosuke-san" as the opening segment after Shonosuke wins the race for main character status, and the season 2 opening episode is a full-scale homage to "Returns"' plot.
    • In the first serialized manga for -san, they mimic a scene from the first published chapter of -kun where four of the brothers go up to their mom and ask if food is ready but she doesn't recognize that they're talking to four separate people. In the -san homage, the panelling also mimics that of the -kun original.
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
    • In chapter 11 Shirogane buys a new smartphone and the whole thing becomes another war between him and Kaguya to make the other ask for their contact information (and implicitly confess their feelings). In Chapter 101 Kaguya herself gets a smartphone and Shirogane agonizes over the contact info again, but Kaguya doesn't care because she's upset over losing all the pictures on her old phone. The whole thing is lampshaded by Ishigami, who remarks that people tend to make the same mistakes over and over.
    • Chapter 144 does this for Chapter 38. Both deal with Kaguya and Shirogane seeking advice regarding their relationship in a Two Scenes, One Dialogue manner, both have Kaguya asking Kashiwagi in the Student Council room, and both have Shirogane asking for advice while lying under a tree. The only real differences (aside from the specifics of the discussions) are that Shirogane is asking Maki for advice instead of Ishigami, and the seasons in which the chapters takes place. Both chapters even end with Kaguya touching Shirogane on the lips.
    • Chapter 176 revisits Chapter 23, with a shot for shot recreation of when Fujiwara came across Shirogane practicing volleyball, just with Shirogane replaced with Ishigami.
      Fujiwara: I'm getting deja vu. I feel like I've been in this situation before.
    • The final panel of Chapter 187 is near identical to Kaguya leaving her house and walking to school for the first time in Chapter 9, the only difference being that Hayasaka is going with her.
    • The shot of Kaguya offering her Valentine's Day chocolate to Shirogane in Chapter 195 calls back to her holding a heart balloon after seeing his Grand Romantic Gesture in Chapter 136.

    Comic Books 
  • Superman:
    • Quite a few Superman covers reference the cover of the Action Comics issue in which Supes first appeared (the page image is from Infinite Crisis, with Superman from Earth-2/Kal-L striking regular Superman/Kal-El). Superman Returns staged it in live action, while Superman & Lois inverted it, with Superman setting a damaged car down on the ground.
    • Superman vol 2 #178, written by Jeph Loeb, opens with three teens heading down to Smallville General Store, in exactly the way the teenage Clark, Lana and Pete did in the opening of Loeb's Superman for All Seasons. As a further gag, the counterpart to Pete is black and Lana's is Asian, reflecting the actors from Smallville
  • In Supergirl story arc Bizarrogirl, when the titular character is created, she floats upwards in a position which mirrors Supergirl's one in the cover of Action Comics #252 - her origin story - and spouts the same lines she did.
  • Similarly, Fantastic Four #1's cover is homaged a lot at Marvel Comics.
  • In Marvel Feature #11, while having an argument with Mister Fantastic, the Thing strikes the same pose he did on the cover of Fantastic Four #51.
  • DC Comics character Blue Beetle II, Ted Kord, died in Countdown to Infinite Crisis on his knees, with a gun to his head. In Blue Beetle #24 (2006 series), Blue Beetle III, Jaime Reyes, breaks out of an alien prison and scavenges clothing and equipment off the aliens he dispatches that end up putting him in something that greatly resembles Ted's costume. Then he's re-captured by the Big Bad, who puts him on his knees and puts a gun to his head in an obvious callback to Ted's fate. The cover made it explicit, showing the scene with Jaime repeating Ted's last words ("Rot in Hell!").
  • In the Flashpoint miniseries "Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown", the title character's first lines upon awakening are almost exactly what he says upon awakening in the present day in his Seven Soldiers miniseries, even though history's been changed in Flashpoint so that, among other things, he wakes up 60 years earlier.
  • During Secret Empire and leading up to Marvel Legacy, Marvel put out various covers homaging iconic covers they did in the past, and posted GIFs that lampshaded the similarities. For instance, the cover of Iron Man #282 homaged War Machine's famous debut where the title 'Iron Man' was graffitied over with 'War Machine' by showing a cover featuring a War Machine with a familiar skull logo on his chest and the title 'War Machine' having been painted over with the name 'The Punisher'...
  • Rainbow Dash's nightmare in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW) #6 is basically a re-telling of the events of her micro-series comic if she failed to stop the Cloud Gremlins. They even make a cameo!
  • New Super-Man: The cover of Detective Comics #1 is reproduced faithfully in one issue due to the reappearance of its villain, Ching Lung. And of course, we have the obligatory Action Comics #1 homage.
  • Detective Comics Vol. 1 #387 (May 1969; the 30th anniversary issue), Detective Comics Vol. 1 #627 (March 1991; the 600th issue since Batman showed up) and Detective Comics Vol. 2 #27 (March 2014; the 75th anniversary issue) all contained updated versions of "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate", the first Batman story from Detective Comics Vol. 1 #27. DC #387 even reprinted the original, while DC #627 reprinted both the original and the previous remake before its own remakes (yes, this one had two).
  • The Incredible Hulk #393, another 30th anniversary issue, revisited the site of Banner becoming the Hulk, and answered the question of what happened to Igor Drenkov, the undercover Commie agent who didn't call off the test explosion of the gamma bomb when Banner ran out onto the field to rescue Rick Jones. The cover◊ was also an homage to the first issue's cover.◊
  • The opening scene of Muppet Snow White, in which Gonzo as The Narrator introduces himself and Rizzo as The Brothers Grimm, and Rizzo/Wilhelm doubletakes at the idea, is an internal homage to the opening scene of The Muppet Christmas Carol, in which Gonzo as The Narrator introduces himself as Charles Dickens, and Rizzo doubletakes at the idea.
  • Kathryn O'Brien in The Punisher MAX has it mentioned that a previous married name of hers was McAllister and that she was previously romantically interested in "the truly, irrevocably doomed... that stupid bastard Tommy"... just like Kathryn McAllister of Hitman, both penned by Garth Ennis.
  • Daredevil #264, "Baby Boom". In the middle of a gritty, emotional story arc about the fall of Daredevil, corruption on the streets, and all hell breaking loose (literally, as it was an Inferno tie-in), the book's regular artist took time off to get married. Marvel got the legendary Steve Ditko to fill in, and for one issue the book became a goofy throwback to the Silver Age, with artwork and coloring that could've been unearthed from the '60s, a light, frothy plot about a missing baby being hunted by bee-bopping baby boomers who speak hippie slang, and a remarkably cheerful Matt Murdock temporarily ditching the angst and gloom that had hung over him like a stormcloud. Then, the next week, it was right back to a crumbling society and Black Widow fighting demons.
  • The Aquaman story arc “The Crown Comes Down” follows a deposed Aquaman hiding out in the slums of Atlantis posing as a migrant worker. To disguise himself he grows long hair and a beard, and uses the name “Orin”, references to The '90s version of the character.
  • Thunderstrike Vol 1 #21 has the "Everyman Thor" battle Loki with the help of She-Hulk, Ant-Man (Scott Lang), and War Machine. The cover is an homage to The Avengers #1, with the heroes in the position of the original Avenger they're a counterpart to (Erik = Thor, Jen = Bruce, Scott = Hank and Rhodey = Tony).
  • Each Dan Mora Variant Cover for Tim Drake: Robin is a reiteration of the other Robins' debut covers, with Tim in the place of Robin and the Robin whose debut cover is being homaged in the place where Batman was on the original cover.
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Adam Hughes's variant cover for Wonder Woman #600 is a recreation of the cover of Sensation Comics #1, the first cover in which Diana was front, center and the focus of the comic itself.
    • Wonder Woman: Black and Gold: Diana's first line of dialogue in "The Stolen Lasso of Truth" is "I will fight for those cannot fight for themselves". A famed line from Diana's first theatrical solo film, Wonder Woman (2017).
  • The particular panel in Spider-Man when Peter declares "Spider-Man No More!" (Peter walking away with his back to the audience while his suit is half tossed in a bin) has been copied countless times; from the Superior Spider Man to movie adaptations.
  • Similarly, the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15 when Spidey first appeared has also been reused several tines, but they tend to play with who's carrying who.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Back to the Future franchise:
    • A confrontation between Marty and a Tannen (Biff/Griff/Buford—all played by Thomas F. Wilson) in a diner/saloon, followed by a major Chase Scene (which inspires the page quote above).
    • In the first two movies, Marty wakes up after being knocked unconscious and see his mother looking much younger or with much plastic surgery and says, "You're...You're my mother!" In the third movie, however, he wakes up and says, "You're...who are you?" as it was not his mother this time but still played by Lea Thompson.
    • Back to the Future Part III recreates the famous spinning licence plate shot as the DeLorean is destroyed.
  • In Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack! there is a scene where Godzilla leers down on a gathered group of people from behind a cliff that is almost shot-for-shot from the first film.
  • James Bond: Quantum of Solace: Fields' death is a homage to the beginning of Goldfinger. The agent Bond kills by hitting his own tie is an homage to The Spy Who Loved Me.
  • In Star Trek Into Darkness, Spock's death in The Wrath of Khan is inverted - this time Kirk is the one sacrificing himself in the reactor. And once he dies, Spock screams Khan's name, just like Kirk infamously did in the other movie.
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day features several homages to the original movie. For example, during the T-800's first battle with the T-1000 many shots are intentionally angled to recreate shots of Reese's battle with the T-800 in the Technoir bar from the first film.
  • The first live-action Transformers film had a scene where Jazz speeds towards Brawl, times his transformation so he lands on Brawl, and starts bending Brawl's tankmode's cannon so he cannot shoot. It's almost a shot-to-shot replica of Kup doing the same to Blitzwing in The Transformers: The Movie.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse has plenty of those.
  • This Universal Studios logo, which celebrates their 100th anniversary, has homages to all of their previous logos, including the biplane logo, the Art Deco logo, the Universal-International logo, the Earth with rings logo, and the current giant letters around the Earth logo.

    Literature 
  • In Ender's Game, Ender instructs his Space Cadets that, in the zero-gravity environment of the Battle Room, the enemy's gate is down. In Children of the Mind, Peter and Wang-mu are trying to disable the Little Doctor, and he helps her orient herself by telling her: "The device is down. You're falling toward the device."
  • Gregory McDonald has sections from earlier Fletch books in Son of Fletch, mostly to emphasize the difference in character attitudes towards racism.
  • The Gaunt's Ghosts book The Guns of Tanith has Gol Kolea rescuing Tona Criid and getting shot in the back of the head afterward, losing his memory and personality. In Sabbat Martyr, the same thing happens. One of the Ghosts who had been present the earlier time recognises this happening and pulls Kolea to safety before history fully repeats.
  • Harry Potter: Ron to Hermione, Book One: "Are you a witch or what?" Six books later, Hermione says to Ron: "Are you a wizard or what?"
  • The opening sentence of The Night of the Triffids is the protagonist waking up and realizing something must be very wrong because it's a summer morning but he can't see anything — in almost exactly the same words as his father, in the opening sentence of The Day of the Triffids, woke up and realized that something must be very wrong because it was a weekday morning but he couldn't hear any human activity.
  • In Space Cadet (Heinlein), Matt Dodson is part of a group of freshman cadets reporting aboard the Patrol school ship PRS Randolph, where they are met and escorted by a senior cadet. Later in the book, the scene is repeated — including much of the dialog — with Matt as the senior.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The one-hundredth episode of The Big Bang Theory starts off the same way as its first episode, with Sheldon and Leonard having a Seinfeldian Conversation while going up the stairs, then seeing Penny move things around in her apartment.
  • The Boys (2019) has an episode with Kimiko performing a hit on some Russian gangsters, which turns into a recreation of her first appearance in the original comic as they say the same lines before she immediately slaughters them. The show upgrades it however; in the comic the audience is shown screaming from outside the house and a human face splattering against the window while the show doesn't hide it.
    • The season 2 finale briefly reenacts Stormfront being kicked to death in the original comic, although with Kimiko/The Female, Starlight, and Queen Maeve performing the act rather than the Boys due to the latter's lack of superpowers in the adaptation as well as Stormfront escaping.
  • The Colbert Report's 100th episode saw the return of the show's first guest.
  • CSI: NY's 100th episode is entitled, "My Name Is Mac Taylor." It involves a killer looking for someone who goes by that moniker. The line is spoken by several characters-of-the-week who do, but interestingly, Det. Taylor does NOT utter it - despite the fact that he has introduced himself in this manner quite frequently up to this point, and will continue to do so throughout the series' run.
  • Doctor Who:
    • "Robot", the Fourth Doctor's first story, contains a sequence directly reprising "Spearhead from Space", the Third Doctor's first story, as the recently regenerated Doctor sneaks off in his pyjamas and unlocks the TARDIS with a key in his shoes. The primary difference is that the Third Doctor's escape was a lot less effective — the Fourth Doctor manages to launch the TARDIS and (apparently) go on the disastrous adventure that caused "The Face of Evil" before he rematerialises to talk to Sarah Jane.
    • In the 1996 US-made Made-for-TV Movie, the newly regenerated Doctor, after waking up naked in a morgue, looks through several lockers for clothes, finding several items which were associated with previous incarnations of the character, such as a long striped scarf. Similar scenes followed the regenerations of the Fourth, Seventh, and Tenth Doctors, although these all take place in the TARDIS's wardrobe room and it is consequently rather less remarkable that the Doctor should encounter clothing similar to that worn by his earlier incarnations.
      • Also in the movie, one of the other characters, while trying to cover for the Doctor, claims that the Doctor's name was "John Smith", unaware that the Doctor had used this as a pseudonym previously.
    • Seeing as everyone who works on New Who is a childhood fan (including the Tenth Doctor), there are many, many internal homages to Classic Who across the series, some subtler than others.
    • The opening shot of "Rose", of the Earth hanging in space, is an Homage Shot to the Third Doctor serial "Spearhead from Space", which has a lot in common with "Rose" (both the first stories after a hiatus, both presenting a dramatic increase in production values as compared to the show before, both starting with a new Doctor, new companion and new setting, both being written as entry points for newcomers, both being about the Autons).
    • The destruction of Gallifrey, revealed in "The End of the World", is reminiscent of a major Story Arc in the Eighth Doctor Adventures.
    • When the Ninth Doctor is being tortured via Agony Beam in "Dalek", there's a direct Homage Shot to the Victim of the Week who was being tortured in the Sixth Doctor story "Vengeance on Varos".
    • "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances": The gas-mask zombies' chanting of "Are you my mummy?" echoes the Madness Mantra "Are you my father?" from the Big Finish Doctor Who story "The Holy Terror".
    • "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" is a loving homage to "The Sensorites": the appearance of the aliens, a starship crew stuck in circles around an unexplained celestial body, the Doctor and his companion(s) almost being forced to live out their lives there, etc. It would later be confirmed that the Ood and Sensorites are from neighbouring planets.
    • "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday": Yvonne Hartman is named after Yvonne Hartley from the audio drama "Spare Parts".
    • "42": A sentient celestial body has its substance stolen for use as fuel, and in revenge, possesses the thieves, giving them Glowing Eyes of Doom and making them kill others. It also draws the thieves' ship towards it. The only way to avoid a collision is to jettison the stolen material.
    • "Utopia" references two Expanded Universe works:
      • "End of the Line", a Doctor Who Magazine comic strip starring the Fourth Doctor, which similarly features a handful of survivors on a dying world besieged by cannibal reavers, dreaming of a better life in a mythical land.
      • The Big Finish Doctor Who story "Master", which featured a similar storyline for the character.
    • "Last of the Time Lords": The revelation regarding the Toclafane's origins and its aftermath mirrors what happens to the First Doctor in "The Tenth Planet". In that serial, Earth's sister planet Mondas returns with humanity's dark mirror, the Cybermen, who have replaced their organic limbs and organs with mechanical ones in a bid to survive indefinitely. This knowledge ends up knocking the aged First Doctor out of the narrative (caused by William Hartnell's failing health), just as the artificially-aged Tenth Doctor spends most of this story in a dog kennel and cage, respectively.
    • "The Doctor's Daughter" nods to "The Invisible Enemy" with newly-created clones that are fully-dressed.
    • The creature on Donna's back in "Turn Left" is revealed in a shot very similar to the spider on Sarah Jane's back in a famous promotional photo for "Planet of the Spiders".
    • "The Stolen Earth": UNIT General Sanchez says "Ladies and gentlemen, we are at war!" after finding out who their enemy is, much like Captain Jack did in "The Parting of the Ways" facing the same enemies.
    • "The Next Doctor": The Doctor, staring seriously in a TARDIS that has just taken off for the first time that the viewer sees, with the current opening theme graphics over his face? Where have we seen this before?
    • "The Eleventh Hour":
      • The hospital that features in the episode is remarkably similar to the one the Third Doctor winds up at in "Spearhead from Space", complete with the Doctor stealing his new clothes from a changing room again. Also, during the scene on the roof, Rory is seen holding a red velvet jacket similar to one worn by Three.
      • The episode also nods to "Smith and Jones", with a disguised alien fugitive hiding and a callous alien police force threatening to destroy the fugitive's hiding place unless their quarry is handed over.
    • "The Beast Below": Much like "The Parting of the Ways", the climax involves the Doctor faced with a moral dilemma he does not want to have to make before the companion intervenes.
    • "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang" nods to two Big Finish audio plays:
    • There's a blink-and-you-miss-it shot in a Time-Compression Montage in "A Christmas Carol" where the Eleventh Doctor shows up wearing a garter-stitch scarf very similar to the Fourth Doctor's, but adjusted for Eleven's general colour scheme (it's grey, plum and green).
    • The scene in "Asylum of the Daleks" when the Dalek Oswin attacks the Doctor uses an Homage Shot to the famous cliffhanger from "The Dead Planet" where Barbara is cornered at the end of a passageway by a Shaky P.O.V. Cam Dalek represented only by its plunger.
    • "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" is an overt homage to the very earliest seasons of the show — much of the episode is spent simply exploring the environment and trying to work out what's going on, the villain is very evil but is a threat only to the regular cast instead of a whole planet or universe, and the Doctor displays a ruthless Pay Evil unto Evil streak.
    • "The Power of Three" is a detailed and affectionate Moffat-era homage to Davies-era Earth invasion stories.
    • "The Day of the Doctor" opens with an Homage Shot to the very first episode of Doctor Who ("An Unearthly Child"), displaying the old logo and showing the shadow of a policeman against a brick wall in black and white. It then fades into colour and we cut to the current companion working at the same school that the two first companions, Ian and Barbara, taught at.
    • "Kill the Moon": The Twelfth Doctor's yelling at Clara "In the TARDIS, now, do as you are told!" is a repeat of the Second Doctor barking the same thing at Jamie when everything begins to go absolutely catastrophic towards the end of "The War Games".
    • There's a funny sequence in "Mummy on the Orient Express" in which the Doctor offers someone a cigar case of jelly babies. This is a reference to a Funny Background Event in "The Face of Evil" where the Doctor is amusing himself eating jelly babies out of a cigarette case while miming with them like they are cigars (tapping the end on the case, biting the end off...).
    • "Orphan 55":
      • Much like "Midnight", there's a luxury resort built on a Death World, an expedition across the hostile planetary surface in a heavy-duty vehicle that's rendered immobile by creatures that aren't supposed to live on this planet, attacks by said creatures and dangerous sunlight.
      • This isn't the first time the discovery of an underground station has revealed that a planet is a devastated future Earth.
  • Grange Hill opened its 26th season with a new batch of first year students... who all bore vague similarities to the first year students of its very 1st season, including their names and general behavior. Plotlines and characterizations diverged significantly after that first episode, however.
  • The end of the season 4/volume 5 of Heroes has Claire ONCE AGAIN killing herself on camera, complete with the line, "My name is Claire Bennet, and this is attempt number..." She is doing this to a whole bunch of news cameras though, in an attempt to bring the truth out in the open.
    • She also jumped off the same structure earlier in the series, to bring her memory-wiped friend back up to speed. "As far as you know, this is attempt number one."
  • The first episode of Homicide: Life on the Street begins with Detective Lewis and his partner searching for a shell casing in an alley, followed by Bayliss entering the homicide department, full of wide-eyed naivete, with his possessions in a file box. In the final episode, Bayliss repacks his possessions into the same file box and leaves the department (having just murdered a suspect), at which point we cut to Lewis and his current partner in the same alley, again looking for a shell casing. They exchange exactly the same dialogue.
    • Then, in the reunion/finale movie, when Gee dies, he finds himself in an afterlife police station, where he plays cards with the two regular characters who had been Killed Off for Real (allowing all the previous regulars to appear for the reunion) as a number of past victims of unsolved crimes from the show's history wander the department.
      • In "Nearer My God To Thee" (episode 14), Munch issues a cynical monologue about TV and technocracy; in "Kaddish" (episode 73), a Whole Episode Flashback, a younger John Munch delivers the same monologue, but with a hopeful tone.
  • Interview with the Vampire (2022):
  • Jeopardy!'s 3,000th episode's first round features the clue categories from the first episode.
  • It is very common for the Heisei Kamen Rider series to have one monster who is grasshopper-based (scarves are optional), and an obvious tribute to the original Kamen Rider 1. Examples include the Arch Orphenoch from 555, the Batta (grasshopper) Yummy from OOO and Zu-Badzu-Ba from Kuuga.
    • The Grasshopper Yummy was an even bigger homage than just having the design: Yummies are spawned from the desires of the Victim of the Week. In this case, it was the desire for justice (which was warped into a Knight Templar sorta thing.) So you had a grasshopper monster who fights for "justice" and makes a "toh!" sound when jumping like any good Toku hero from The '70s.
    • Interestingly, the Hopper Dopant from Kamen Rider Double was not a homage to the old-school Riders. She was a scarily psychotic villainess whose monster form was disgustingly insectoid (instead of a grasshopper face, she had a grasshopper for a face.). However, her belt does have a prominent red circle that could be seen as a homage to the fan design on Rider-1 and Rider-2's drivers (which collected wind energy to power them up.) But she sure wasn't the expected "oldschool rider but a bit monster-y."
    • Then there are the more subtle ones. Kamen Rider Kuuga, the first series of the revival, has a spider and a bat as the first Monsters of the Week, like the first series overall. Kamen Rider Agito, the second series of the revival, has a trio of feline monsters and trio of turtle monsters as the first Unknowns seen, homaging Turtle Bazooka and Scissors Jaguar, the first monsters of Kamen Rider V3, the second series overall. Agito also has a scorpion monster with a design and weaponry very similar to the crab-based Doktor G, The Dragon of V3, and both debuted in episode 13.
      • In fact, having the first Monster of the Week be bat- or spider-themed has become a common Internal Homage in and of itself. A few shows change it up: Kamen Rider Kiva has the Spider Fangire as a recurring annoyance and the Bat Fangire as the Big Bad, while Kamen Rider Double had the Bat and Spider Dopants menacing the main character's mentor in a movie set ten years before the series — meaning they really were the first antagonists. Kamen Rider Drive takes it a step further, by having the Mook-level Roidmudes possess a bat, spider, or cobra motif in their base forms before they evolve into stronger ones. Kamen Rider Build has the bat- and cobra-themed antagonists as the lieutenants of the Evil Organization both of whom become Kamen Riders, the former after a Heel–Face Turn and the latter turning out to be the Big Bad; the spider-themed villain doesn't pop up until a Postscript Movie.
    • Kamen Rider Den-O's first few Monsters of the Week were deliberately modeled after several of the Riders from Kamen Rider Ryuki. As a result the Bat Imagin from the first two episodes is a two-fer, a reference to the original series and to Kamen Rider Knight at the same time.
    • The Movie took it a step further: not only was there a Cobra Imagin inspired by Kamen Rider Ouja, but they even cast Takashi Hagino (Ouja's original actor) to voice him!
  • Legion:
    • Charles Xavier and Gabrielle's romance in "Chapter 22" parallels David Haller and Sydney Barrett's from "Chapter 1." They're both patients at a mental institution, one sketches the portrait of the other, the first meal they share includes pie, they stroll around the hospital together, they both kiss note , plus the girlfriend stealthily enters the bedroom of the boyfriend at night and they discuss leaving the asylum in his bed.
    • In "Chapter 26", while inside David's psyche, Charles is surrounded by his son's multiple personalities who are all bombarding him with a chorus of "Daddy," which mirrors how David is addressed as "Daddy" by his many cult followers who crowd around him.
  • The first season finale of Lethal Weapon (2016) has a scene where Murtaugh is tortured with a defibrillator in a utility tunnel, an updated version of Endo torturing Riggs in the original film.
  • Lost The final scene of the finale is one to the first scene of the pilot. In both scenes, Jack is running through the bamboo forest on the island, sees a tattered white sneaker on a tree, and runs into Vincent the dog. The main difference between both is that in the first ever shot of the first scene, Jack's eye opens as he wakes up, whereas in the last shot of the last scene, Jack's eye closes as he dies.
  • Red Dwarf XII:
    • At the end of the episode "M-Corp", Lister has his personality reset from his hologram disc. Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated since he was 23, and it will take a few months to fill in everything that's happened since then. The episode ends with Lister and Rimmer recreating the first scene of the very first episode, "The End".
    • And the following episode sees Rimmer jump through parallel universes, one of which turns out to be shortly before the accident that wiped out the crew. Holly has considerable difficulty convincing him that "Nobody's dead, Arnold," an inversion of the most iconic scene in "The End" (where Holly was trying to convince Lister that everyone was dead).
  • Used again for the Star Trek verse, though in different series'; amusingly, both had Scotty present.
    Alien: What is it?
    Scotty: -looks at liquid- It's...it's, uh... -sniffs it- It's green!
    • And then again...
      Scotty: What is it?
      Data: -looks at liquid- It is...it is, ah...-sniffs it- It is green!
  • In the Supernatural episode "Mystery Spot", Sam repeats Dean's mumbled, little-boy-lost line of "He's my brother" to The Trickster. In "All Hell Breaks Loose", Dean thought nothing of the fact that Sam might be in a better place and in this episode, Sam thinks nothing of the fact that Dean was (from his point of view, anyway) was getting tortured in hell. Both of them just wanted their brother to be with them again. Oh, boys. Selfish, co-dependent, fucked up boys.
    • The pilot episode gets a host of specific homages. Sam recreates the 'Take your brother outside...' line in 'Home'. His final line in the pilot is repeated by Dean at the end of series 2 and a twisted version used at the end of 'Lazarus Rising', and in 'What Is and What Should Never Be', Dean, after they've just recreated the fight, cheerfully repeats his lines as well.
  • Any time a Super Sentai team destroys a monster by kicking a sphere at it, it's a sure nod to the Goranger Storm from Himitsu Sentai Gorenger.

    Print Media 
  • Doctor Who Magazine
    • The 400th issue homaged the subscription ad at the back of the first issue of Doctor Who Weekly, showing Tom Baker reading that very issue. The new image◊ showed David Tennant reading #1 and, with the magic of image manipulation, Baker reading #400.
    • Similarly, the cover◊ of the 500th issue was an exact duplicate of the cover◊ of that first issue, with Peter Capaldi replacing Tom Baker, and a modern Dalek.
  • New York Daily News: One of the paper's most famous headlines comes from the October 30, 1975 issue, which read "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD", in response to President Gerald Ford announcing that he would veto any bill suggesting a financial bail-out for New York City. It would be referenced twice over four decades later.
    • The headline for June 2, 2017 was "TRUMP TO WORLD: DROP DEAD", in response to President Donald Trump announcing that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation.
    • The headline for August 17, 2019 was "FJORD TO TRUMP: DROP DEAD", referencing Trump's talk about buying Greenland, prompting Denmark to declare that it was "not for sale".
  • The cover of the final issue of Nintendo Power is a homage to the first issue's cover.
  • TIME Magazine: In response to the death fo Adolf Hitler in 1945, the magazine's front cover depicted his headshot with bloody "X" marked over it. This motif was used a few more times since in response to the deaths of other enemies to the United States, including Saddam Hussein in 2003, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2006, and Osama bin Laden in 2011.
  • TV Guide: The October 9-16, 2005 issue (the last to be printed in digest size) had a series of nine variant covers depicting contemporary stars in recreations of classic covers from the magazine's 52-year history.

    Music 
  • The Beatles recreated the cover of Please Please Me, using both the same location (the EMI headquarters) and photographer, for their "Glory Days revival" Get Back — that ultimately became the post-breakup album Let It Be. The picture still saw some use: once EMI released two Greatest Hits Albums, 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 (aka Red and Blue albums), the former got the Please Please Me picture and the latter the recreation.
    • During the fade-out of "All You Need Is Love", you hear "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah," a reference to their early hit "She Loves You."
      • Of course, The Rutles had to parody this in their song "Love Life", which has "Hold my hand, yeah, yeah," in its fade-out, referencing their early song "Hold My Hand."
  • The back cover of Metallica's Garage Inc. is a crudely updated version of◊ Garage Days Re-Revisited◊ (as not only it's another Cover Album, but Garage Inc includes said EP in full).
  • Gloryhammer likes to include (humorous) echoes of lines in its earlier albums. Such as:
    • These lines by or about versions of Proletius:
      • "Victorious Eagler Warfare": "Mighty heroes of the galaxy! You have proven yourselves to be mighty indeed!"
      • "Masters of the Galaxy": "Leading the charge is the mightiest scion of evil. Mighty indeed!"
      • "Brothers of Crail": "Deformed goblins of the wasteland! You have proven yourselves to be unworthy of our technology, indeed!"
    • These ones by the Hootsman:
      • "The Fires of Ancient Cosmic Destiny": "All right, Zargothrax! Your evil reign of terror ends today! My name is the Hootsman, and I am the one and only true god of this universe! It's time for you to taste the power of HOOTS!"
      • "Wasteland Warrior Hoots Patrol": "All right, you bunch of nuclear goblins, listen up! My name is the Hootsman, and this wasteland belongs to me. Now, I'm gonna give you to the count of three to get your good for nothing goblonic asses outta here, or you're gonna taste the power of HOOTS!"
    • These two are just weird insets between the main lyrics:
      • "Legend of the Astral Hammer" (which is about the hero): "Minuscule goblin, impractical sword."
      • "Keeper of the Celestial Flame of Abernethy" (which is about the villain): "Laser goblin! Power sword!"

    Theatre 
  • The West End musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a fresh adaptation of the eponymous Roald Dahl novel with songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, but it does have a few homages to — and one song from — the famous 1971 film adaptation.
    • When Mr. Wonka first appears for "It Must Be Believed to Be Seen", he briefly feigns being far more feeble than he actually is — referencing Gene Wilder's famous entrance as Wonka. (Instead of a somersault, he performs an Instant Costume Change.) As in that version, this immediately establishes that he is The Trickster.
    • The 1971 Wonka's tendency to mix up his words, followed by the phrase "Strike that, reverse it", is retained here (as in the novel's sequel, which made it Ret-Canon) to the point that "Strike That, Reverse It" is the title of the Act Two opening number. Since this Wonka can be a Motor Mouth when he wants to be, such mixups are common for him. Also, during the number he makes the parents sign an elaborate contract...
    • The movie's Bootstrapped Theme "Pure Imagination", is repurposed as The Eleven O'Clock Number in this version, used for the flight in the Great Glass Elevator and the revelation that Charlie has won the factory.
    • There is also at least one homage to the 2005 film, as Augustus Gloop finds his Golden Ticket the same way in both versions: Noticing that a Wonka Bar he's eating tastes odd, he realizes it's because he's chewed off a corner of the ticket with his first bite.

    Toys 
  • The first Barbie and Ken dolls came with a zebra stripe swimsuit and red swim trunks, respectively. As an homage, Barbie's 50th anniversary saw the release of a doll with a zebra stripe bikini. Ken's 50th anniversary a few years later coincided with Mattel's announcement that he and Barbie finally decided to become an Official Couple again, so a giftset of the two dolls in updated versions of their original swimsuits became available.

    Video Games 

    Web Animation 
  • Homestar Runner's 10th Anniversary saw the re-creation of the children's book the Flash-animated web series was based on (The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest) as an episode of said series.
  • The first episode of Red vs. Blue ("Why Are We Here?") featured Grif and Simmons of Red team talking, and Simmons asks "Why are we here?" Grif answers with a monologue about life, God, and the universe, while Simmons meant "why are we stationed here?" In the last episode ("Why Were We Here?"), Caboose asks Church the same question in a similar situation, and Church launches into a speech about love, hate, and taking orders, while Caboose simply meant "Why are we here in the sun when we could be over there... in the shade?"
    • In the first episode, Simmons and Grif were talking on top of their base while Church and Tucker were spying on them with a sniper rifle. In the final episode, Church and Caboose are talking on top of their base while Simmons and Grif were spying on them with a sniper rifle.
    • A bit earlier, in the last episode of the first season there was another homage to the opening of the first episode: Grif and Simmons are talking on the roof of the base. Simmons asks, "You ever wonder why we're here?" and Grif replies, "No. I never, ever wonder why we're here. Semper fi, bitch."
    • Another homage to the opening scene comes near the end of Revelations when Sarge is convincing Grif and Simmons to help him save Church and Tex. He asks them if they've wondered why they're here, with the camera then panning to show the two in the exact same position. Grif admits it something they've discussed, but Sarge instead stresses that he's asking why they choose to be here when they could have easily left a long time ago if they wanted.
  • Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse includes the following visual nods to Barbie toys:
    • "Ken-Tastic, Hair-Tastic" briefly shows Ken sporting a bowl cut made of molded plastic, similar to the "hair" of Ken dolls from The '80s.
    • Episode "Closet Clothes Out" has Barbie dress in a black and white one-piece bathing suit, the first apparel she ever wore since her debut to the world.
    • The dress Midge wears during her first day in Malibu looks not unlike an actual 1960s Barbie/Midge dress.
    • "Doctor Barbie" seems to have a diagram of the first Barbie doll hanging in Barbie's doctor office.
    • "Dream a Little Dreamhouse" has Barbie, Ken, Skipper, and Stacie try to rebuild the original Barbie's Dreamhouse,note  for Chelsea to use as a playhouse.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • Atop the Fourth Wall: Linkara's anniversary episodes always have to do with Spider-Man's The Clone Saga, because that's what his very first video review was about. He also celebrates the anniversaries of the show proper (the anniversary of his text recaps as opposed to video reviews in general) by reviewing an issue of Youngblood, his first text recap.
  • The third RP of Darwin's Soldiers references the scene where Cale gets shorted-out by saline solution.
  • The Transformers Wiki has a "Transformers References" section for every episode or issue. Much of it is simply "Starscream mentions last issue's events" but you'd be surprised how many sly homages there are. After all, it's a franchise that's been going across multiple media with several countries producing original fiction almost continuously since 1984, and everything, however obscure, is some fan's favorite and some author's favorite, and some of the creators just like throwing in obscure homages for fun. The result is every single member of any crowd scene in Transformers: Animated being a past character, though it may be as obscure as "That off-white Bumblebee repaint sold briefly and only in Brazil." (Aka Sedan.)

    Western Animation 
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • In the season 2 finale, the sequence where Aang briefly wakes up from his brush with death is staged nearly identically to the sequence in the first episode of season 1 when he and Katara meet.
    • Less significantly, both the first and last episodes of Season 1 have Iroh offering Zuko the sage advice "A man needs his rest."
    • Much later, Sokka attempts to surprise Suki with a kiss while wearing a local guard uniform (as she did him when last they met). Of course he failed to consider that while she did so while working security for a ferry terminal in the unoccupied Earth Kingdom, he was trying the same thing while disguised as a guard in the Fire Nation's most secure prison. Suki bounced him off the wall of her cell before his helmet came off.
  • In its sequel spin-off The Legend of Korra, the ending to Grand Finale is a major homage to the original's ending. Korra and Asami stare longingly at each other while holding hands while music swells in the background right before the camera swoops up to The End in Chinese. All that's missing is The Big Damn Kiss between Aang and Katara.
  • Transformers is forever homaging lines from the 1980s animated movie. "One shall stand, one shall fall" is popular. We get that one (at least in part) and more in Transformers: Cybertron, with "Why throw away your life so recklessly?" and "Such heroic nonsense!" Sometimes it's used in a twist. For example, the first time a Megatron yelled STARSCREEEEEEAM! at the top of his vocal processor, it was begging Screamer not to throw him off the ship in deep space. Every other Megatron since has yelled it upon discovering Starscream's betrayal - before embarking on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge over said backstabbing.
    • Similarly, the first use of "I still function!" was part of Megatron's plea in that scene. Every other time, it was a damaged Determinator disproving "No One Could Survive That!."
    • And of course, "One shall stand, one shall fall", which has since become the stock phrase for every second fight between Optimus and Megatron. Transformers: Prime in particular was guilty of overusing this phrase to the point where after Optimus already dropped it twice, Megatron cuts in and says the latter half himself. In an episode named "One Shall Fall" no less.
    • Some of the tragic Transformers: Animated Waspinator's dialogue is a Dark Reprise of wacky Butt-Monkey Beast Wars Waspinator's dialogue.
    • Sometimes, it's subtler. Ironhide's trainees in a live action movie-based comic are Strongarm, Signal Flare, and Skyblast. In Transformers: Energon, those were the names of the three varieties of Omnicons, and a very different Ironhide led a team consisting mostly of Omnicons.
  • Batman: The Brave and the Bold is all over this, especially in regards to the episode featuring Superman. In that episode alone, they are mostly homages to various comic cover shots (such as Jimmy Olsen's death trick, Superman becoming King of Earth, "Jungle Jimmy" complete with his gorilla bride, etc.), but two in particular come from the first Superman film — one where Superman puts a cat in a tree◊ (an inversion of the scene in the film where he rescues a cat from a tree), and one where he calls Luthor a "diseased maniac".
  • Thunder Cats 2011 contains numerous Mythology Gags, but the most iconic scene (Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thundercats HO!) is a shot-for-shot remake of the original.
  • What was intended to be South Park's 100th episode (it was actually the 97th) starts out with the events of the first episode repeating exactly as before.
  • "The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!", the tenth anniversary special of... well... guess, takes its Mario Kart-homage sequence almost directly from the first Whoopass Girls short, in which the Girls race Him.
  • Twilight Sparkle's first meeting with the human Fluttershy in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls plays out very similarly to her first meeting with the original Fluttershy in the first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, including Fluttershy's Cuteness Proximity reaction to Spike.
  • When Robin added to the title sequence of The Batman, he's shown bursting through a paper hoop. This is how he appears on the cover of his first appearance in Detective Comics #38.
  • In Gravity Falls, the phrase "Eenie, meenie, miney, you" is used three times, once by Stan and twice by Bill. The first two times it's directed at Dipper, but the third time, in an ironic twist, it's directed at Bill almost killing Mabel.
  • In the final episode of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, the animation of the gang running from the Nibiru entity is styled like their stock run cycle from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.
  • The Star Trek: Lower Decks episode "I, Excretus" centers on a series of holographic performance evaluations undertaken by the crew of the Cerritos, which are based on previous events encountered Starfleet crews. With one exception, they all refer to a specific scene, episode, or general situation from the franchise's history.
  • W.I.T.C.H.: The two seasons of the show are reflections of each other in so many ways that they naturally end up full of these. The fact that they're both exactly 26 half-hour episodes long makes references even easier.
    • In the first season, La Résistance opposes the powerful tyrant in Meridian, while in the second The Remnant tries to depose the new, benevolent ruler. And then there's the difference between the two major villains.
    • Also happens with individual episodes, where the plot of a second season episode is quite similar to one from the first on the surface, but significantly Darker and Edgier. Examples include "A Service to the Community" and "Q is for Quarry" (Will jumping to conclusions about a Glamour), "Divide and Conquer" and "T is for Trauma" (a new girl comes to the heroines' school and charms the boys away from them), and rather obviously given the role of the Horn of Hypnos in both, "Walk This Way" and "G is for Garbage". In the first case, it's openly lampshaded, while in the second the same Background Music plays during the scenes in question.
    • Relationships too. Two of the girls get boyfriends in the first season, two in the second. It's almost taken to Leaning on the Fourth Wall levels when the scenes in which two of these finally happen are uncannily similar - one in each season, both at the ends of their respective episodes, again right down to the exact same music.

    Cross Media 
  • In Avengers: Age of Ultron, a vision of Captain America's broken shield references a similar event in the comics continuity. Captain America's shield is broken in Fear Itself.
  • In Captain America: Civil War, Captain America blocking a blast from Iron Man is a reference to the cover of Civil War #7.
  • The POV sequence in the Doom movie is an homage to the FPS view of Doom.
  • Saber's introduction to Shirou in Fate/stay night, where Shirou is on the ground mesmerised as Saber stands above him, asking "Are you my Master?", is repeated with main Master/Servant pairs all over the Fate Series.
  • The panel and cover of Knightfall, with Bane holding up Batman, about to smash his spine against his knee, is referenced when Bane shows up in Batman: The Animated Series, Batman & Robin, and The Dark Knight Rises.
  • In Spider-Man, the Green Goblin letting Mary Jane fall to her death is a shout-out to Gwen Stacy's death in the comics, but Mary Jane is saved in time, avoiding Gwen's fate. Gwen Stacy appears in Spider-Man 3 and almost falls from a building, but the scene isn't recreated like the first movie.
  • Logan's cage fight in Wolverine: Origin references the cage fight in the first X-Men film.
  • In The Wolverine, Logan surviving a nuclear blast is a reference to a similar event in the Logan mini-series.
  • X-Men: Deadly Genesis ends with a funeral with three caskets in the ground, just like X-Men: The Last Stand.
  • In X-Men: The Last Stand, Wolverine impaling Jean Grey with his claws is a reference to Wolverine impaling Mariko Yashida in his own comic series.
  • In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the childhood of Wolverine as the young James Howlett is taken directly from the Origin comic, including James sprouting claws for the first time and accidentally killing John Howlett, until groundskeeper Thomas Logan reveals he is the real father.

    Real Life 
  • The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is no stranger to this. They usually break out internal homages when they're celebrating an anniversary.
    • Twice (2004 and 2006) the parade has started with three inflatable elephants carrying "Macy's 2004/80th Parade" banners. This is what they would do, with real elephants, back when they had live animals instead of balloons.
    • A new Felix the Cat balloon was introduced for the parade's 90th anniversary in 2016, Felix being the first character balloon to appear in the parade back in 1927. The new balloon is even being carried on poles like the first Macy's balloons were.note 
  • The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, hosted by France, also had an example. The official mascot was a young anthropomorphic female chicken named ettie (officially in lower case). She was depicted as the daughter of Footix, an anthropomorphic rooster who was the mascot of the 1998 men's World Cup, also hosted by France.

 
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She-Hulk's Incredible Homage

The opening of the She-Hulk season 1 finale provides an homage to the Incredible Hulk's opening.

No Time to Die

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Alternative Title(s): Milestone Redo

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She-Hulk's Incredible Homage

The opening of the She-Hulk season 1 finale provides an homage to the Incredible Hulk's opening.

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