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Shout Out / Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

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Season 1

  • In the credits gag of one of the parts of the pilot movie, Bloo is flipping through the channels, and finally decides on one. You can hear audio from Craig's earlier cartoon, The Power Puff Girls 1998, with the narrator saying his Character Catchphrase.
  • In Blooooo, Bloo's hallucinated reflection looks at him and says "Run, Bloo, run!"
  • In a Halloween episode, Bloo turns white (he's sick) and everyone believes that he's a ghost. Coco picks up a phone:
    Wilt: Who You Gonna Call??
    Coco: Co Co-co!
    Wilt: They've been out of business for years!
    • Doubles as a Pac-Man reference. Bloo looks like Inky, and he turns into a white 'ghost'.
  • Also in that episode, when looking for the ghost, Wilt says, "That phantom menace!"

  • Plenty of shout-outs to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well, though. For instance, the villain from the video game Bloo plays is called "Lord Beeblebrox" and the two nerdy scientists who study Coco are called Douglas and Adam, respectively. Adam wears a blue t-shirt with the number 42 on it.
    • There's also a scene in the episode in which Bloo steals the Foster's bus which has a hitchhiker wearing a bathrobe holding a sign that says "Magrathea." In the same episode, there is a Star Wars shout out when Mac throws money for a toll out the window and misses to which Bloo responds "Negative, it didn't go in. It just impacted on the surface."
    • In yet ANOTHER (much more obscure) Hitchhikers reference, the friends unite together to rescue a cat from a tree using what Frankie calls "Plan Z-Z-9-Plural Z-Alpha".
  • The episode Bye Bye Nerdy gives us this exchange between Bloo and Frankie:
  • Frankie's t-shirt (that she wears 99% of the time) has a Stylized image of The Powerpuff Girls.
    • Similarly, in the episode where Eduardo gets fleas, the flea mayor looks and sounds strangely familiar.
    • In the pilot movie, while Wilt, Coco and Eduardo are taking Mac and Bloo showing them allmthe imaginary friends, Mojo Jojo appears while Wilt is talking about "unimaginative friends" that kids just copy off of TV.
    • "Challenge of the Superfriends" begins with Tom Kenny's voice saying "The City", and ends with Bloo saying "Once again, the day is saved", and for a moment, Bloo adopts Mojo Jojo's speech patterns.
    • "Nightmare on Wilson Way" has Frankie dress as Blossom for Halloween while Bloo went as Mojo Jojo a previous year.
    • In "Destination Imagination", one of Frankie's potential replacements wears a t-shirt with a stylized picture of Mojo Jojo to parallel her own.
  • In "Dinner is Swerved", Mac and Bloo are opening doors along a hallway, one of which reveals a steam locomotive speeding right for them. They shut the door just in time, exactly copying a gag from Ringo's house in Yellow Submarine.
  • The card for Mac in the last episode contains the signatures "Yogi Booboo" and "Big Fat Baby".
  • "Challenge of the Superfriends" contained some pretty blatant references to Revenge of the Sith. Bloo is clearly meant to be a Captain Ersatz of Darth Vader in this, with Nemesis as Darth Sidious.
  • In Destination Imagination, the body Frankie creates for World looks very similar to Snap.
  • There's a resturaunt called "Nice Burger".
  • In Partying is Such Sweet Soiree, when Mac is telling Bloo that he doesn't want to see him get in trouble again, Bloo responds by saying "Do I have to fight for my right to party?"
  • In Go Goo Go, Goo's letter is signed "Your Friend Goo."
  • Someone on the team must really like Nintendo. Let us count the ways...
    • Neighbor Pains has a joke about Frankie being a "mother of 64". That same episode has a boy who looks strangely like Lucas from Mother 3 and Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Search "Mother 64".
    • The Buck Swaps Here has two mustached guys wearing red and green. The heights are there, and the mustaches are the same styles. It would be crazy to think of it a coincidence.
    • Affairweather Friends gives Barry a game console whose controller is awfully like the Wii's remote and nunchuk.
    • The pilot episode, House of Bloo's shows a Game Boy Advance in Mac's apartment.
    • In The Bloo Superdude and the Magic Potato of Power, the magic potato (in real life) is... a Nintendo DS—with mirrored button controls.
    • Foster's Home seems to have a Gamecube. It shows up in Fools and Regulations and Crime After Crime, among others.
    • Destination Imagination has a game level suspiciously like in the Mario games. Complete with snails replacing koopas, piranha plants, a growth item that comes out when Mac jumps under a block, and an item that makes Eduardo invincible for a short while (complete with power up music)!
    • In Emancipation Complication, Bloo plays a game system similar to a Game Boy. The title of the game he was playing was called Super Smash Factory 6.
  • A tall basketball player named Wilt? That's a reference to Wilt Chamberlain.
    • Taken a step further in Who Let The Dogs In? when he names a bunch of the imaginary puppies Michael (Jordon), Magic (Johnson) and Kareem (Abdul Jabbar).
  • Two of Coco's former owners who adopted her to research her look suspiciously like Dexter and Mandark, though their names are different, the concept and look is there.
  • Another from Destination Imagination is the big gem. It's a lot like the old Sonic games, where you feel accomplished winning the emerald and freeing a cute critter.
  • Peanuts references, galore!
    • An old man in Something Old, Something Bloo crying "Curse you Red Baron!" before promptly falling asleep.
    • The piano intro, as well as the decorated doghouse in A Lost Claus.
    • When Bloo shares his story on how Uncle Pockets arrived in Bloo Done It, he starts with "It was a dark and stormy night..."
    • Probably the most blatant of the examples is when Wilt pulls away Bloo—the football, from getting kicked by Mac in Fools and Regulations. "Good grief" indeed. To Wilt's merit, it isn't done in malice.
  • The show Misplaced on Let Your Hare Down.
  • A video game called "Immortal Wombat" in Affairweather Friends and a movie called "Astro Slam" (with Golly Gopher on the poster) in Good Wilt Hunting.
  • In the Pilot Movie, there's a bit where the now legless Extremasaur is chasing Bloo around the dump. It switches to an overhead view and looks like something out of Pac-Man. Not to mention Bloo's ghost shape. But why is Pac-Man chasing the ghost? Well he's Bloo isn't he?
  • The sequence of Jackie running through a suburban house trying to fend off his new family's cat in "Read 'Em and Weep" is an extended shout-out to Tom and Jerry, with several familiar gags. The lady of the house even resembles Mammy Two-Shoes.
  • The episode titled "Squeakerboxx" is a pun on the Outkast album Speakerboxx/The Love Below.
  • In the episode titled "The Big Lablooski" don't these guys look familiar?
    • Speaking of which, in the first episode Bloo rattles off a list of his nick names, one of which is "El Blooderino"
  • When Mac has finally been tracked down after running naked through the town on a sugar high and Bloo snaps him out of it by giving him sugar-free gum, Mac exclaims "It burns us!"
  • In Bloo Tube, we see Bloppy Pants' band, Pizza Party, attempting to film a music video on treadmills. When Bloo distracts them and they fail, Yogi Boo Boo says, "Okay GO... again."
  • There's a telegraph friend called Morsey who talks in either Morse code, or lyrics from The Smiths songs.
  • One of the Bloos in "Bloo's Brothers" resembles Homestar Runner!
    • The episode where Eduardo gets fleas has a flea newspaper vendor going "Eggs-tress, eggs-tree!" much like Homsar once said, while Frankie says "We're sorry, for reals this time" while apologizing to Eduardo.
    • The end of "Sight for Sore Eyes" ends with a long distance shot showing characters going over hills at night, looking similar to an old intro to the Homestar website. "Infernal Slumber" has both Bloo and Goo talking about "killer possums" akin to issue 3 of Teen Girl Squad, while "Duchess of Wails" has a Trogdor-esque imaginary friend (albeit it's colored orange as opposed to green).
  • In the pilot movie, three characters appear based on Ed, Edd, and Eddy. These guys also make a cameo in "Eddie Monster".
  • "Duchess of Wails"
  • The founder of their town is Elwood J. Dowd, the main character in a movie about a Not-So-Imaginary Friend.
    • The character of Mr. Herriman (a six-foot talking rabbit) is an even more obvious reference.
  • One of the biggest Shout-Outs to Video Games in Western Animation history: A chase scene in the pilot episode resembles the game Pac-Man to high degrees (which was easy, since Bloo looks just like one of the ghosts from this game).
  • Later, in "Destination Imagination", there's a longer scene that looks exactly like an NES Super Mario Bros. game, complete with Mac growing upon eating a... not mushroom, but pumpkin. The only real differences are said pumpkin and the appearances of some enemies.
  • Another shout out to Super Mario Bros. occurs during a chase scene, where a Sheet of Glass is being carried by two guys who are clearly Mario and Luigi.
  • In "Mac Daddy", when Bloo is trying to get rid of Cheese, he says to him, in a very sinister tone: "Wanna play a game?"
  • From Berry Scary: "He's the best, Jerry... the best."
  • In one episode, Frankie is basically saying that Mac needs to calm down. Bloo then adds, "Yeah, Mac. "Frankie says relax."
  • One episode features an imaginary creature similar to Pikachu, complete with lightning powers.
  • "Destination Imagination". The first clue thats something is wrong when the gang wakes up in the house, the carpet is the same as the one in The Shining. This pattern appears again at the hotel in "Pranks for Nothing".
  • At the end of "Bloo Superdude & the Great Creator of Everything's Awesome Ceremony of Fun That He's Not Invited To", a hallucinating Frankie imagines herself in a science fiction scene very reminiscent of Barbarella... a movie, it should be noted, that is very nearly porn.
  • In Sight for Sore Eyes, the lost kid bares a strong resemblance to a certain black, blind musician.
    • In the same episode, Eyevan is frantic to find Stevie.
  • In Destination Imagination, sort of. "These people wobble, but they don't fall down!" Referencing, of course, Weebles.
  • Also in Destination Imagination: "Maybe there's another way to the universe! Like Through this wardrobe!"
  • In a flashback in "Nightmare on Wilson Way", Frankie is seen going as Tank Girl for Halloween.
  • At the end of "The Bride To Beat", Bloo and Mac run out of the church and board a bus in a sequence mirroring that at the end of TheGraduate.
  • In "Shlock Star" (the one with all the bands) there are several shout outs to famous rock bands:
    • Bloo's facepaint is a reference to KISS.
    • His entrance to the stage mixes together aspects of the "Stonehenge" and "Alien" scenes from This is Spın̈al Tap.
    • Pizza Party's album/single CD cover is a parody of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A—a shot of a guy wearing pants from behind, Springsteen's cover with a pocket holding a hat, Pizza Party's with a slice of pizza.
    • The costume Wilt picks off of the costume rack is reminiscent of one of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band uniforms.
    • Bloo introduces his band as "The Bloo Sabbath Experience Mach III."
    • Bloo dresses "Taco Fiesta" in gold lamé clothes.
  • In "Cookie Dough", Frankie, while chowing down on Madame Foster's cookies, is crazily shouting "COOKIE! COOKIE! COOKIE! ME LOVE COOKIES!"
  • Mac names one of the imaginary puppies in Who Let The Dogs In? "Buckaroo." Craig McCracken has cited The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension as his favorite movie.
  • As a bit of self-referential humor, the episode "One False Movie" references the creators of the show. The titular protagonist of Eduardo's favorite show "Lauren is Explorin" is named after the series's lead writer, Lauren Faust, who is also the wife of Craig McCracken.
    • Later on, the show is revealed to have been created by an animated version of McCracken, who is voiced by himself.
    • "Lauren is Explorin'" is itself a parody of Dora the Explorer.
  • The forest cottage Eduardo gets sent to in "Read 'Em and Weep" resembles the one in Sleeping Beauty.
  • In "Bad Dare Day", one of the dares Bloo has is for Peas to knock a battery off his shoulder, a reference to a famous commercial for Eveready batteries featuring Robert Conrad.

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