If there's one kind of humour that I'm obsessed with analyzing, it's the current trend of "pop culture reference as joke." Why o why do I laugh at Peter Griffin on Family Guy when he screams "Oh no! Run ET!" and ET runs across the room, yet roll my eyes in annoyance when, while watching Shrek 2, I notice that the Ginerbread Man's dying words - "Be Good" - are exactly the same as ET's final words? It's become a very common, but sadly very difficult, style of humour. A lot of it is done poorly, but when it's done well, I laugh my ass off.
A great example of doing it well was tonight's episode of Corner Gas. A stray German shepard comes into town, and Hank is convinced it's the Littlest Hobo. The ultimate pay-off is at the end of the episode.
Hank and Brent are having a BBQ. The dog comes in and starts barking at the tool shed. Hank and Brent go into the tool shed out of curiosity, only to have the dog lock them in, grab the steaks off the table, and head for the hills, all to the strains of the theme song from The Littlest Hobo. The "heading for the hills" was actually a fairly faithful re-creation of the end credits montage from The Littlest Hobo.
It just made me laugh my ass off, to see this German shepard, running down main street Dog River, a giant stolen steak dangling from his mouth, as we heard, "Maybe tomorrow, I'll wanna settle down/Until tomorrow, the whole world is my home."
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