Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title

Whaddaya mean, "that sounds familiar?"

Judy: Yeah, that's right... Dr. Gary was gonna take my braces off. Have you seen the movie Face/Off? Well, this rhymes with that. This was Brace/Off.
Crispin: Yes! My favorite kind of story is one that rhymes with another, unrelated story.

— The Great North, Season 2 "Brace/Off Adventure"

A Sub-Trope of Pun-Based Title which applies to individual episode titles, where the pun is based upon some element of popular culture, such as the title of a film, book or song. Catchphrases, song lyrics, adages and colloquialisms can also be riffed on.

Also a sub-trope of Idiosyncratic Episode Naming. This trope also highly overlaps with Shout-Out. Related to Literary Allusion Title and can sometimes overlap.

Often a sign of a Whole-Plot Reference; indeed, many of the subtropes listed on that page (like Charlie and the Chocolate Parody) are examples themselves.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Most episodes of the English dub of Pokémon: The Series (the first ones had quite expository titles). Including one that includes a pun based on the Japanese name of a character. (Barry's Busting Out All Over)
• Strawberry Marshmallow does this kind of rarely: "Violent Night", "The Hat's Meow"...
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt does this with every episode, referencing famous movies: "Catfight Club", "Pulp Addiction", etc...
• Kangoku Gakuen does this with several chapter titles, like Taxi Driver (Chapter includes a character talking to himself in the mirror) and other big films.

Asian Animation

• Simple Samosa:
  • The episode "Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Shlagam" is named after the Bollywood film Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham.
  • The episode "Hum Aapke Hai Corn" gets its name from another Bollywood film, Hum Aapke Hain Koun.

Comedy

• Comedian Joe Lycett has named his two comedy tours That's the Way, A-Ha, A-Ha, Joe Lycett and I'm About to Lose Control and I Think Joe Lycett. (For the second, James Acaster had suggested he go the whole hog and call it I'm So Joe Lycett, and I Just Joe Lycett, I'm About to Lose Control and I Think Joe Lycett.)

Comic Books

• The Flash: An Impulse story in Flash 80-Page Giant has Bart freeing a swarm of rats from a genetics lab. The title is "The 5,000 Rats of Bartholomew Allen".
• The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis:
  • The title of the first miniseries' first issue is "Somewhere Over the Brain-Bow!".
  • The one for the second issue is "Liquid Diamond is Forever!".
  • For the first issue of the second miniseries, its title is "Slaves of New New York'".
  • The final issue is titled "The Read Menace", a reference to the 1949 film The Red Menace.
• Spider-Man: One memorable example was The Spectacular Spider-Man #25, "Carrion, My Wayward Son.", which featured the villain Carrion.

Fan Works

• Anchor Foal: "Date A Dead", a reference to Date A Live.
• The title of Gaz Dreams of Genie is a reference to I Dream of Jeannie.
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Tempest Rewrite:
  • Chapter 8 - "Coming to America"
  • Chapter 16 - "Interplay of Sex, More Sex, and Mystery"
  • Chapter 22 - "World Gone Mad"
  • Chapter 26 - "Going Astral"
  • Chapter 28 - "Space Jesus"
  • Chapter 34 - "Shut Up, Nyarlathotep!"
  • Chapter 35 - "The End is the Beginning is the End"
  • Chapter 41 - "Whatever Happened to Nyarlathotep?"
  • Chapter 42 - "Future History"
• My Family and Other Equestrians:
  • The title of the story
  • "Mr Star Goes to Canterlot" (chapter 10)
  • "Law & Order: Equestria" (interlude 16)
• New Tamaran:
  • Chapter 11 - ''Prophet Still If Bird or Devil"
  • Chapter 16 - "The Moon Is A Loving Mistress"
  • Chapter 17 - "Queendom Come"
  • Chapter 22 - "A Wedding and Many Funerals"
  • Chapters 24 and 25 - "One Bad Day" and "I've Proven My Point!"
  • Chapter 29 - "No More Heroes"
  • Chapter 30 - "War Were Declared"
  • Chapter 42 - "Princess of Peace"
  • Justice Returns Chapter 5 - "Dine Under The Sea"
• The Ponies After People universe is most likely named for Life After People, which has a similar premise.
• The title of Freaky Ed Day is a reference to Freaky Friday.
• The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H.:
  • Chapter 3 - "The Heiress Diaries"
  • Chapter 4 - "A Liv of Their Own"
• Total Drama Legacy:
  • Episode 1 - "Here Come The Sons... And Daughters"
  • Episode 5 - "Campfire Emblem Awake-ening"
  • Episode 9 - "Shut Up and Drive"
  • Episode 16 - "The Great Canadian Cook-Off"
  • Episode 17 - "Family Feud"

Literature

• One book of Dinoverse is titled "Raptor Without A Cause". It doesn't actually reference that in-story at all, though.
• Several of the Franny K. Stein books have titles that parody those of movies and books.
  • Attack of the 50-Ft. Cupid parodies Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
  • The Invisible Fran is a play on The Invisible Man.
  • The Fran That Time Forgot spoofs The Land That Time Forgot.
  • Frantastic Voyage parodies Fantastic Voyage.
  • The Fran with Four Brains is a play on The Man with Two Brains.
  • The Frandidate parodies The Candidate.
• Two of InCryptid's books, Magic for Nothing and Tricks for Free reference the Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing" in the title. (they don't have much else to do with the song itself, though)
• The four Merkabah Rider collections each have a title that is a play upon a the title of a popular Western. The books are:
  • High Planes Drifter
  • The Mensch with No Name
  • Have Glyphs, Will Travel
  • Once Upon a Time in the Weird West
• The Fifth Elephant is a play on The Fifth Element, although the book pastiches Hammer Horror and Anton Chekhov, rather than anything to do with that film.
• The seventh chapter of Juniper's Christmas is titled "These Boots Were Made For Walking".

Live-Action TV

• Adventures in Wonderland had a lot of punny titles. Such as "From Hare to Eternity" (From Here to Eternity), "Through the Looking Glasses" (Through the Looking Glass), "The Grape juice of Wrath" (The Grapes of Wrath) to name a few.
• Workaholics does this frequently, usually combining a normal phrase with something else. For example "The Business Trip", in which Ders goes on a business trip with Alice, and then they all trip on acid. "Temp-tress", when the guys are tempted by an attractive office temp, "Model Kombat", "True Dromance" and plenty more.
• Diagnosis: Murder episode name "Write, She Murdered" is a play on the series title Murder, She Wrote.
• Many episodes of the Syfy series Eureka, especially in the third season. ("Bad to the Drone," "Show Me the Mummy," "Best in Faux.")
• Farscape did it a lot also, such as "John Quixote," "I Shrink Therefore I Am" and "Bringing Home The Beacon".
• The Foreign Affairs (1966) episode, "One of Our Islands is Missing" is a play on the film One of Our Aircraft Is Missing.
• Gossip Girl except for the pilot and the finale which is "New York, I Love You XOXO", every episode title is a pun based on a movie name.
• The Food Network cooking show Good Eats does this for most of its episodes: "Porterhouse Rules," "Citizen Cane," "The Egg Files," "Field of Greens," etc.
• An episode of Lost is called "Some Like it Hoth," a reference to both Some Like It Hot and The Empire Strikes Back.
• Psych's episodes and post-series films punny titles keep with the show's 80s/90s-referential humor.
  • "Who Ya Gonna Call?" — Ghostbusters
  • "From the Earth to Starbucks" — From the Earth to the Moon
  • "Psy vs. Psy" — Spy vs. Spy
  • "Zero to Murder in Sixty Seconds" — Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)
  • "There's Something About Mira" — There's Something About Mary
  • "The Old and the Restless" — The Young and the Restless
  • "Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead" — Shaun of the Dead
  • ""Murder?... Anyone?... Anyone?... Bueller?"" — Ferris Bueller's Day Off
  • "There Might Be Blood" — There Will Be Blood
  • "Lassie Did a Bad, Bad Thing" — "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing"
  • "Earth, Wind and... Wait for It" — Earth, Wind & Fire
  • "Any Given Friday Night at 10pm, 9pm Central" — Any Given Sunday
  • "Truer Lies" — True Lies
  • "Tuesday the 17th" — Friday the 13th
  • "High Noon-ish" — High Noon
  • "Bollywood Homicide" — Hollywood Homicide
  • "Let's Get Hairy" — Let's Get Harry
  • "You Can't Handle This Episode" — A Few Good Men
  • "The Head, the Tail, the Whole Damn Episode" — Jaws
  • "Mr. Yin Presents..." — Alfred Hitchcock Presents
  • "Romeo and Juliet and Juliet" — Romeo and Juliet
  • "Not Even Close... Encounters" — Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  • "Dual Spires" — Twin Peaks
  • "The Polarizing Express" — The Polar Express
  • "Shawn, Interrupted" — Girl, Interrupted
  • "Neil Simon's Lover's Retreat" — California Suite
  • "Indiana Shawn and the Temple of the Kinda Crappy, Rusty Old Dagger" — Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
  • "Heeeeere's Lassie!" — The Shining
  • "Shawn and the Real Girl" — Lars and the Real Girl
  • "True Grits" — True Grit
  • "Santabarbaratown" — Chinatown
  • "No Country for Two Old Men" — No Country for Old Men
  • "100 Clues" — Clue
  • "Cirque Du Soul" — Cirque du Soleil
  • "Santa Barbarian Candidate" — The Manchurian Candidate
  • "Office Space" — Office Space
  • "Nip and Suck It!" — Nip/Tuck
  • "Lock, Stock, Some Smoking Barrels and Burton Guster's Goblet of Fire" — Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  • "1967: A Psych Odyssey" — 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • "A Touch of Sweevil" — Touch of Evil
  • "A Nightmare on State Street" — A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
  • Psych 2: Lassie Come Home — Lassie Come Home
  • Psych 3: This Is Gus — This Is Us
• Similar to The Simpsons example, there's the Angel episode "To Shanshu In LA", in which it eventually turns out that the Shanshu prophecy refers to a vampire becoming mortal and thus living and dying naturally.
• Supernatural does it a lot. "Sam, Interrupted", "Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester"...
• Every episode of Andy Barker, P.I. (except the first, which is just called "Pilot") is named after a mystery or thriller movie, such as "The Big No Sleep" and "The Lady Varnishes".
• The Masked Singer has "New Masks on the Block" and "Another Mask Bites the Dust".
• The Twilight Zone (1985):
  • "Tooth and Consequences" is a pun on Truth or Consequences.
  • "Take My Life...Please!" is a reference to Henny Youngman's famous joke "Take my wife...please!"
• Sydney to the Max episode titles are all references to 90s pop culture. To name a few...
  • "Can't Dye This" - "U Can't Touch This".
  • "Who Let the Dogs In" - "Who Let The Dogs Out?"
  • "The Parent Track" - The Parent Trap (1998).
  • "The Lyin' King" - The Lion King (1994).
  • "Caved and Confused" - Dazed and Confused.
  • "Can't Hardly Date" - Can't Hardly Wait.
  • "There's Something About Zach" - There's Something About Mary.
  • "Nuthin' but a Dance Thang" - "Nuthin' but a 'G 'Thang".
  • "Never Been Pierced" - Never Been Kissed.
  • "Mo' Grandmas, Mo' Problems" - "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems".
  • "I Know What You Did Last Sleepover" - I Know What You Did Last Summer.
  • "Good Grade Hunting" - Good Will Hunting.
  • "Adventures in Babe-sitting" - Adventures in Babysitting.
  • "You've Got Female" - You've Got Mail.
  • "How Sydney Got Her Phone Back - How Stella Got Her Groove Back
• Mashin Sentai Kiramager episode titles are all references to films that Toei produced or distributed, most of which are either obscure to Western audiences or Lost in Translation due to an untranslatable pun, the referenced film having a Completely Different Title in English or both.^ExampleThe title of episode 31 "Toys", in which the Humongous Mecha is shrunk down to the size of a toy, is a reference to a 1999 film about geisha in the dying days of legal prostitution, known in Japanese as Toys but officially distributed in English-speaking arthouse circles as The Geisha House. Among the few references that can be neatly retained in English...
  • #9 "The Karuta Path of My Youth" - Captain Harlock: The Arcadia of my Youth
  • #10 "The Girl Who Leapt After Shiguru" - the novel The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (adapted in live-action by Toei in 1983, but better known in the Anglosphere through the 2006 non-Toei anime film)
  • #16 "Marshmallow Royale" - Battle Royale
  • #37 "Sena 1/5" - Ranma ½ (Toei distributed some of the movies)
  • #42 "Battles Without Honor and Humanity" - Battles Without Honor and Humanity
• CSI-verse:
  • CSI has episodes entitled "Scuba Doobie-Doo," "Fur and Loathing," "Grissom vs. the Volcano," and "Eleven Angry Jurors," just to name a few.
  • CSI: Miami has "Freaks and Tweaks" and "Not Landing" for starters, plus a few to their own show and theme song: "Miami, We Have a Problem," "CSI: My Nanny," and "Won't Get Fueled Again."
  • Not to be outdone, CSI: NY gives us "Oedipus Hex," "A Daze of Wine and Roaches," "One Wedding and a Funeral," and "Blood Actually," among others.
  • CSI: Cyber gets in on the act with "URL, Interrupted" and "Gone in 6 Seconds."
• The X-Files:
  • "The Unnatural" is a reference to The Natural.
  • "Post-Modern Prometheus" is a reference to Frankenstein's subtitle "The Modern Prometheus".
• Quantum Leap (2022) has an episode called Ben, Interrupted, a reference to Girl, Interrupted.
• Shine a Light: The third episode, "The Robinson Mutiny", is a play on the novel The Caine Mutiny, but with Les' surname.
• Best of Friends (1963):
  • The twelfth episode was titled "Desert Island Risks", a play on Desert Island Discs.
  • The final episode was titled "This Is Your Wife", a play on This Is Your Life.
• No Appointment Necessary (1977):
  • "The Shampoo Jungle" takes its title from the novel The Blackboard Jungle.
  • "The French Connexion" is a play on the film The French Connection.

Video Games

• A level in Ape Escape 3 is titled Howler Monkey's Unmoving Castle
• The tasks and scrolls in MySims Kingdom frequently have this kind of name when they're not being boringly prosaic. For example, when you're told where to find a scroll that helps you make gears, the task is called "Gears of Where?"; when you get the scroll, it's called "Solid Gears of Metal".
• Chapter 4 of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is called "For Pigs the Bell Tolls".
• Predating the above example, Nintendo released For the Frog the Bell Tolls for the Game Boy.
• Some chapters of Viewtiful Joe and its sequel are titled like this, such as: "Some Like It Red Hot", "20,000,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "The Viewtiful Escape", "The Midnight Thunderboy", and "The Magnificent Five" from the first game.

Webcomics

• El Goonish Shive has the "Legends of Celida" storyline riffing on The Legend of Zelda and "Q&A 8 - The Lord Of The Q&As" (The Lord of the Rings).

Web Original

• Gary: Landlord of the Flies:
  • This post is titled "A Farewell to my Armoire", riffing on A Farewell to Arms.
  • The blog's final post, "The World According to Gary", is one letter off from The World According to Garp.

Western Animation

• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: The title of "Crouching Jimmy, Hidden Sheen" riffs on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, tying in with its nature as a Wuxia pastiche.
• The Babaloos: The episode dubbed in English as "The Adventurers" has its original French title translate to "Raiders Of The Lost Star".
• Big City Greens: Season 1 had "Paint Misbehavin'" ("Ain't Misbehavin'"). Season 2 had "I, Farmbot" (I, Robot) and "Chipocalypse Now" (Apocalypse Now).
• Many episodes of the Beetlejuice cartoon have these, usually as a Whole-Plot Reference. Often they're punny or gross versions of movie titles, such as "The Unnatural", "The Wizard of Ooze", and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."
• Bob's Burgers: Many of the show's episodes reference movie titles or songs, like "Mutiny on the Windbreaker", "The Belchies", and "Live and Let Fly".
• Clone High: The title of the episode "Anxious Times at Clone High" is based on Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy has a number of episodes like this, such as "The Day the Ed Stood Still".
• Many later episodes of The Fairly OddParents! have this type of title, such as "Two and a Half Babies", "The Bored Identity", "Cosmonopoly", and "Finding Emo".
• Fanboy and Chum Chum had episode titles such as "The Janitor Strikes Back", "No Toy Story", and "Little Glop of Horrors". One episode was not only named "A Bopwork Orange" but also parodied the classic film. Another episode, "Fanboy Ahoy!" uses the same format as the Working Title of SpongeBob SquarePants: SpongeBoy Ahoy!.
• A few Looney Tunes shorts made after the "Golden Age" have these, such as "Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers" or "The Whizzard of Ow".
• Several episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Starting with "Boast Busters".
  • There's also the episode "Spice Up Your Life", whose title comes directly from a Spice Girls song. Up to season 4 there are no longer original titles.
• Oscar's Orchestra has a couple, most notably "Bach To The Future", "Star Tours", and "Raiders Of The Lost Park".
• A few of The Owl House's episode titles are puns on the titles of famous works, specifically:
  • S1E1 "A Lying Witch and a Warden" = The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
  • S1E3 "I Was A Teenage Abomination" = I Was a Teenage Werewolf.
  • S1E6 "Hooty's Moving Hassle" = Howl's Moving Castle.
  • S1E9 "Something Ventured, Someone Framed" = A play on the adage Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained.
  • S1E11 "Senses and Insensitivity" = Sense and Sensibility.
  • S1E17 "Wing It Like Witches" = Bend It Like Beckham.
  • S2E4 "Keeping Up A-fear-ances" = Keeping Up Appearances.
  • S2E5 "Through the Looking Glass Ruins" = Through the Looking Glass.
  • S2E18 "Labyrinth Runners" = The Maze Runner
  • S2E19 "O Titan, Where Art Thou" = Gulliver's Travels or O Brother, Where Art Thou?.
• Pelswick had a few, such as "Invasion of the Buddy Snatchers".
• Phineas and Ferb has several. For example, It's a Mud, Mud, Mud, Mud World, Night of the Living Pharmacists, Journey to the Center of Candace, Meapless in Seattle, etc.
• A lot of the episode titles in Ready Jet Go!, especially those in Season 2, are references to vintage popular culture. Just some of them are "My Fair Jet", "From Pluto With Love", "Magnet, PI", "Pet Sounds", etc.
• Rocky and Bullwinkle made use of pop culture pun titles with their episode titles. Among them were "Visit to a Small Panic" (the movie "Visit to a Small Planet"), "This Goon For Higher" ("This Gun For Hire"), "Pantomime Quisling" (TV show "Pantomime Quiz") and "Mourning Becomes Electra-cuted" (the book "Mourning Becomes Electra").
• Every episode of Special Agent Oso is a pun on a James Bond movie.
• A large number of The Simpsons are puns on other works of fiction, often ones completely irrelevant to the episode's plot. Often they'll play on Homer's catchphrase "d'oh", but in keeping with the writers having originally called it an "annoyed grunt," it sometimes intimated thus — hence "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious," "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)" and "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-bot."
• South Park:
  • "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", to Beavis And Butthead.
  • "Up the Down Steroid": The title comes from the book Up the Down Staircase.
  • "Margaritaville" is a reference to the Jimmy Buffett song of the same name.
  • "Insheeption" to Inception.
  • "HumancentiPad" to The Human Centipede.
  • "A Song of Ass and Fire" to A Song of Ice and Fire.
  • "The Problem with a Poo" to The Problem With Apu, a documentary on Apu in The Simpsons.
• Uncle Grandpa has the episode "Big in Japan", whose title comes from a Alphaville song.
• Gravity Falls has a few, including "The Hand that Rocks the Mabel" (The Hand that Rocks the Cradle), "The Time Traveler's Pig" (The Time Traveler's Wife), "Soos and the Real Girl" (Lars and the Real Girl), "Little Gift Shop of Horrors" (Little Shop of Horrors), and "The Stanchurian Candidate" (The Manchurian Candidate).
• Nearly every episode outside the half-hour specials of The Loud House has this, though it has become less common in later seasons. Some specific examples include "Pulp Friction" and "Breaking Dad".
• Too many to list with Rick and Morty, it usually involves titles of movies or some other media and forcing in Rick and Morty into the title.
• Let's Go Luna!: The episode "The Kabaddi Kid" has a title referencing The Karate Kid.
• Wunschpunsch has an episode named "Car Wars".

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