4

Dodge Paid Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer For An Incredibly Dated Reference To Their Old Commercials

In Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, there's a scene revealing the awesome, the amazing, the incredible Fantasticar. Yes, that is seriously what it's called. As the camera slowly pans across the Dodge logo, Johnny Storm asks "Hemi?" and Reed Richards replies, "Of course!"

As Richards had mentioned mere moments earlier, the Fantasticar has a top speed of 550 miles per hour, and can fly. A hemispherical combustion chamber seems an odd thing to focus on. Also, did Richards just pull the engine out of a Dodge Ram and put it in his magnificent flying car? Would that work? What about the logo? Is this an officially licensed Dodge product? Did Richards have a sit-down meeting with a bunch of Dodge advertising douchebags to get that license? Where is that scene?

The whole miserable minute is one of the most egregious examples of product placement ever dedicated to celluloid, but tucked within that minute is a hilariously dated reference. It's all a nod to a series of Dodge commercials featuring comedian Jon Reep, who would famously ask in each commercial, "That thing got a Hemi?"

3

That Running Gag From Airplane! That You Don't Get Was All About A '70s Coffee Commercial

The comedy of Airplane! may be timeless (it's scientifically proven to be the funniest movie ever), but almost much nothing else about it is. It's full of dated references and parodies of things no one knows about anymore. And here's one now!

At one point in the film, a stewardess asks a couple if they would like a second cup of coffee:

When the man, Jim, says yes, his wife balks that he never has a second cup at home. This is a reference to a commercial for Yuban Coffee from the '70s which features a nearly identical exchange, right down to the husband's name:

They turn it into a running gag, with the woman commenting throughout the film on all the things Jim never does at home. They even got the same actress from the commercial to play the wife. Part of what we love about Airplane! is how committed the movie is to even the stupidest of jokes.

2

A Bizarre Reference To A Forgotten Racist Made It Into Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War has a lot of good one-liners, and some inexplicable ones. Like when Falcon accuses Tony Stark of "going Mark Fuhrman" on his tail feathers.

1

A Quick Blazing Saddles Gag Overshadowed A Musician's Entire Career

Mel Brooks' 1974 western comedy has gags flying across the screen at every level, sometimes literally, as well as 25 consecutive seconds of cowboys farting. What we're saying is that it's an undisputed masterpiece. But there's one scene we don't get: When Mongo rides into town, an as-yet-unseen character shouts "MONGO! SANTA MARIA!" and then runs away, never to be seen again.

Is ... is there a joke there? Is this somehow a racist thing? Please don't say it's a racist thing.

It is not! This throwaway line is a shout-out to Mongo Santamaria, Mel Brooks' favorite Afro-Cuban Jazz bongo drummer and percussionist. (How did he pick just one?!)

Although Mongo Santamaria was an insanely talented musician and bandleader, his exposure to the general public was limited. He had a Top Ten hit, "Watermelon Man," which reached exactly #10 on the pop charts in 1962. Mel Brooks' namecheck in 1974 would be like if Judd Apatow made a movie today and threw in a gag about Eiffel 65. By 1987, jazz experts figured that Santamaria was more well-known because of the Brooks shout-out than for his own music. It's probably not the legacy he wanted, or deserved, but hey, it could have been worse. Could've been Eiffel 65.

Wes Corwin is a stand-up comedian currently based in Dallas. You can like him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, or if you live in Dallas and enjoy comedy and alcohol, check out his weekly show at Noble Rey Brewery on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Rani Baker made the video game DEATH SWORD, which just won "Most Innovative" at the Intel Buzz Indie Gamedev Showcase. You can support the project here.

Chase away the horrible memories of seeing, well, any of the Fantastic Four movies by building and programming an awesome, cute little robot you can control with an iPad ... who might be able to literally perform surgery on your brain? Check the directions first.

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