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This page lists Shout Outs seen in Literature.


Works with their own subpages:


Other Works:

  • Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov has a Shout-Out for all comers. The eponymous poem's third canto has a Shout-Out to The Brothers Karamazov. The commentary to one of the lines mentions how a Hurricane Lolita has recently passed over New Wye. Charles Kinbote proposes calling the poem Solus Rex, a reference to one of Nabokov's short stories. There's a minor character named Pnin, which is also the name of one of Nabokov's other novels. Various authors and poets are mentioned, discussed, discarded at length by one of the novel's Unreliable Narrators.
  • Paper Towns:
    • Q's English teacher is Dr. Holden.
  • Penryn and the End of Days:
  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Too many shout outs to Greek Mythology to list. The author really has Shown Their Work
  • In Peter Pan Captain Hook says he's "the only man whom Barbecue feared, and Flint himself feared Barbecue". Flint and Barbecue (better known as Long John Silver) are the leaders of the pirates in Treasure Island.
  • Various ponyfication of artists in Pinkie Pie and the Rockin' Ponypalooza Party: Nine Inch Tails, Switchhoof, Neigh-Z, Coldhay, the Whooves and John Mare.
  • In Primary Colors, the names "Burton" and "Stanton" (and the use of a First-Person Peripheral Narrator) are clear allusions to All the King's Men.
  • Zee Rose's The Princess 99 makes several shout outs, usually through Skye who is probably from our world though Professeur Sweet does make a reference to Harry Potter and its Flying Broomstick accidents: "Unlike in the Non stories, besoms are not for riding. I repeat: do not try to ride a besom. I cannot tell you how many students have wound up with broken legs and arms because of this mistake."
  • Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: From the first story, an In-Universe reference to Quidditch from Harry Potter, explaining how Princess Bianca got her broom locked away:
    there was an incident a couple of weeks ago involving some silly game with enchanted, weighted balls, and a fellow princess got sent to the infirmary with a concussion, so the broom's currently locked in a closet in the teachers' lounge.
  • A recurring character in Robert Rankin's books is the "psychic youth and masturbator" Danbury Collins. This is based on Andy Collins, author of dubious New Age work The Knights of Danbury and a rival of Robert's.
  • A trilogy of Warhammer 40,000 novels are entitled Ravenor, Ravenor Returned and Ravenor Rogue; a rather highbrow nod to John Updike's equally Alliterative "Rabbit" series (Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, Rabbit at Rest and Rabbit Remembered).
  • The Reynard Cycle :
  • In the Rihannsu novel The Empty Chair Gurrhim tr'Siedhri comments that it will be better for the rebellion if he remains Legally Dead for the moment because his heirs will maintain control of his considerable wealth and corporate resources, which can then be used to help the Free Rihannsu. Leonard McCoy then makes a snide remark about Gurri staying dead for tax purposes.
  • Roys Bedoys:
    • In one video, the family does a parody of the song “Baby Shark”. They also sing the song upon seeing a young shark in “Respect Your Elders, Roys Bedoys!”.
    • In “Roys Bedoys Loves Video Games” and "Be Patient with Your Little Brother, Roys Bedoys!", Roys plays a parody of Minecraft, called Blockcraft.
    • In “Roys Bedoys Goes to the Hospital”, Roys mentions a movie called “Toy Adventure 4”, which references Toy Story 4. This movie is also mentioned by Maker in “Don’t Watch Grown-Up Movies, Roys Bedoys!”. ** In “Behave at the Library, Roys Bedoys!”, Roys and his friends listen to a parody of The Cat in the Hat called The Hat on the Cat (which later appears again in “Read a Book, Roys Bedoys!”), and the librarian holds up a book called Don’t Let the Penguin Drive the School Bus, parodying "Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus", which is the first book in Pigeon Series.
    • In “What’s Your Talent, Roys Bedoys?”, Wen dresses up as Elsa from Frozen (2013) and sings a parody of “Let it Go”.
    • In “It’s Spirit Week, Roys Bedoys!”, Roys mentions a parody of Star Wars called “Starry Wars”.
    • In “Don’t Get Distracted, Roys Bedoys!”, Roys invents a superhero called Superbat which seems like a cross between Superman and Batman}, while Maker invents one called Captain Iron, who seems like a cross between Captain America and Iron Man.
    • In “What’s Your New Year’s Resolution, Roys Bedoys?”, Roys tries to resolve to be Spiderman.
  • Safehold:
    • The protagonist of the series is a woman whose personality is uploaded in a robotic body named Nimue. When she has to change her body's sex in order to fit into the patriarchal society of Safehold, she takes the name Merlin. Later, Merlin gives Prince Cayleb a sword that is made of advanced materials, which he names "Excalibur".
    • Weber has had fun with the series' extensive use of My Nayme Is to slip in references to pop culture. Two major secondary characters, for instance, are named Kynt Clareyk, after Clark Kent, and Nahrmahn Baytz, after the title character of Psycho. When introduced, Clareyk's second in command is even named Layn. A member of Charis's nobility is Paityr Sellyrs. A member of the Corisandian resistance movement is named Paitryk Hainree, after American historical figure Patrick Henry.
    • Place names have similar shout-outs attached to them, such as the Earldom of Gray Harbor, after earl grey tea, the Barony of White Castle, after the fast food chain, the Barony of Green Mountain, after a brand of coffee, and the Duchy of Halbrook Hollow, after a celebrity from the fifties and sixties, Hal Holbrook.
    • With the exception of the first book, most of the books in the series take their titles from the titles of hymns, such as "A Mighty Fortress" and "How Firm a Foundation", or their lyrics, such as "By Schism Rent Asunder" and "By Heresies Distressed", which come from "The Church's One Foundation".
  • In the short story "Same-Day Delivery" by Desmond Warzel, the phrase "blue bolts from the heavens" appears twice; this is a direct Shout-Out to first-edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons; specifically, the Dungeon Master's Guide.
  • Saturn's Children by Charles Stross, in addition to numerous Shout Outs to Robert A. Heinlein, has a MacGuffin disguised as a statue of a black bird and an organisation of robot butlers who are all called Jeeves one of whom has taken the name "Reginald"; Jeeves's first name in the books. Also, there's a colony ship called Bark for no apparent reason, which could be a mistransliteration of B-Ark.
  • Schooled in Magic:
    • The plot has a strong similarity with Harry Potter, particularly in the wizarding school Whitehall. One part even seems like a direct reference to something from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where Emily reads about different magical accidents in a book and there's a story of a girl who brewed a potion to look like someone else but accidentally used cat hair instead of the other person's, which turned her into a cat girl instead. This is exactly what Hermione does, except here it cannot be reversed and the girl is stuck that way forever. It could also be a mild Take That!.
    • Later after learning about the world's magically binding contracts, Emily wonders whether being entered into a contest like Harry Potter is in Goblet of Fire with no knowledge of it would still bind you. It turns out no, you have to be aware of it.
    • Emily notes that putting "unscrupulous creatures" in charge of your prison isn't a good idea (a reference to the Dementors of Azkaban). Plus the entire plot of Study In Slaughter is very similar to Chamber of Secrets, though the author stated this was unintentional. Even so, Emily thinks how a basilisk would be easier to kill than what they face in the book.
    • She also uses the blood test for Changelings idea from Deep Space Nine.
    • Later she wonders about whether dwarves spend their free time courting and trying to tell which one is female, like Discworld.
    • At one point she tells Frieda the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
    • There's also a village she visits where a beefy blacksmith doesn't seem impressed with a fishmonger who's shouting "Get your fresh fish here! Fresh fish! It's lovely", a reference to Asterix.
    • Love's Labor's Won references an alleged lost Shakespeare play by the same name, possibly a sequel to Love's Labour's Lost (though the plot is more akin to Romeo and Juliet-another reference).
    • Alassa, at one point, suggests that Emily might want to marry Baron Silver because they both have huge tracts of land. Emily cringes, even though Alassa has no idea that she's dropped a Monty Python meme.
    • When Viscount Hansel says that he doesn't have to play nice with the commoners because he has an army, Emily responds with "They have a Hulk."
  • In Richard Peck's novel Secrets At Sea, one character mentions an ancestor in passing named Katinka Van Tassel, which is the name of the young woman Ichabod Crane loves in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.
  • In Seekers of the Sky, a shout-out to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry can be found: a glider pilot that has met an interesting child.
  • Fyre, the last Septimus Heap book, contains at least contains two:
    • One is to the Harry Potter series and its Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, with an Ordinary Wizard named Bertie Bott being among the deceased.
    • Another is made by Hotep-Ra, referencing the last words of Captain Oats, one of the men on Scott's Antarctic expedition.
      Hotep-Ra got out of his chair and said to his Apprentice, Talmar Ray Bell, "I am just going outside. I may be some time."
      Talmar looked horrified. "Don't say that!"
      Hotep-Ra smiled at his Apprentice. "Why ever not?"
      "It's bad luck," she said. "Someone said it once and never came back."
      "I'll be back," said Hotep-Ra.
      "Someone said
      that once too."
  • A Series of Unfortunate Events:
    • Numerous allusions to literature, history, and mythology, among other things.
    • Why will no-one call me Ish?
  • Shaman Blues:
    • Upon seeing his old flame standing in the door, looking for help, Witkacy immediately thinks of Film Noir.
    • The book itself is named after The Doors song.
    • Witkacy, in his pale coat and with blonde hair, not to mention the ability to see ghosts, is a clear John Constantine reference.
  • Shaman of the Undead: When the main character starts to see ghosts, she says "I see dead people".
  • In Sharpe's Tiger, Sharpe briefly sees (and is warned not to steal) the Moonstone from, well, The Moonstone.
  • Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Was Not: Some of the other Holmes and Watson pairings seen in "The Final Prologue" include one where Holmes is Dracula and Watson is the Frankenstein Monster, and another where Holmes is The Joker and Watson is The Penguin.
  • The Silerian Trilogy: The Honored Society, a play on the “Men of Honor” name the Mafia uses for themselves, and they are even worse. They're “honored” by people because otherwise they'll remove your water and leave you to die of thirst.
  • In the Sinister Six Trilogy, the Gentleman visits The Machiavelli Club, a special society for the Wicked Cultured. His table has on it a welcome back card from an "elegant lady thief of his acquaintance, Carmen." Other members of the Machiavelli Club (setting aside established Marvel Comics villains; they're Continuity Nods) include Hannibal, Auric, the Gruber brothers, Lex, Herr Taubmann, Ra's, Soze, Napier, Randolph and Mortimer Duke, Mr Glass, and Ernst. The Gentleman has also worked with Casper Gutman.
  • Peter David's Sir Apropos of Nothing contains a shout-out to The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. When Apropos and Princess Entipy encounter a herd of unicorns, Entipy cautions Apropos, "You must never run from anything immortal, it attracts their attention." This is word for word what the Unicorn told Schmendrick to discourage him from running from a harpy.
  • The Sister Verse and the Talons of Ruin has a massive amount of obscure references to film, video games, books, anime, and philosophy for the purpose of making the world feel artificial — which it is.
  • Gordon Korman's Son of the Mob and it's sequel, Hollywood Hustle, contain several references to Monty Python:
    • In the first book, when Vince's date opens the trunk of his car and finds Jimmy the Rat unconscious and bleeding (Vince is, after all, the titular mob prince), the only response the horrified Vince can think of is "a line from that old parrot sketch from Monty Python": "He's not dead, he's resting."
    • In the second book, Vince mentions that a girl named Willow could "turn on a guy in a hovercraft full of eels and can recite Monty Python and the Holy Grail in its entirety from memory.
  • The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries have a Shout-Out to Anne Rice; her books are actually books one can buy and read in The 'Verse the series takes place in, and is why vampires are considered somewhat chic. There's also a shout out to Ann Landers.
    • The short story "Bacon" from the anthology Strange Brew contains one for The Dresden Files:
      "Actually, a girl can't make a living at full-time sorcery anymore," Kathy [a witch] said with a brave smile. "Not with so many of the supernaturals trying to do things the official, human way. The only sorcerer who's gone public is in Chicago, and I hear he's struggling."
  • Special Circumstances:

Alternative Title(s): Shout Out Literature

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