15 Hidden Jokes in TV Shows and Movies to Spoil for Your Significant Other on Your Next Rewatch
Hey, it’s their fault for hanging out with you. Don’t want to get every great hidden joke spoiled? Quit dating an alpha movie buff!
‘Friends’ Celebrates Courteney Cox’s Wedding
The credits on “The One After Vegas” added the surname “Arquette” to every cast and crew member, in recognition of Cox’s wedding to David Arquette.
Tenacious D in ‘Bio-Dome’
A year before Tenacious D’s 1997 Viper Room residency that more or less marks their rise to prominence, Jack Black and Kyle Glass make an impassioned plea to “save some freakin’ trees” in Bio-Dome.
Mara Wilson on ‘Broad City’
The episode “Burning Bridges” pays homage to Mrs. Doubtfire, and features a very rare cameo from former child star Mara Wilson.
Catch Him If You Can
Noted liar Frank Abagnale Jr., the subject of Catch Me If You Can, has a cameo in the movie — he’s one of the cops who catches Leonardo DiCaprio.
George Takei in ‘Heroes’
When Takei steps out of his limo as rich businessman Kaito Nakamura, we see that his license plate reads NCC-1701. That’s also the more technical name of the Starship Enterprise, where Takei played Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu for years.
‘The Departed’s Ominous X’s
Before every murder, the background or foreground of the scene is filled with an X (or sometimes a countless series of X’s).
‘Predator 2’s Cross-Genre Crossover Joke
The Xenomorph Warrior’s taxidermied skull is seen on a trophy wall, alluding to the Alien vs. Predator comic-book series.
‘Fight Club’s Aggressive-Aggressive Jab at Its Own Audience, Styled to Look Like the Classic FBI Warning
“WARNING: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all who claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think everything you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told you should want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned……. Tyler”
Marvel Mapping Out the MCU in ‘Iron Man 2’
A map that appears behind Tony Stark has a bunch of seemingly random locations circled. But they correspond to extremely significant locations: Captain America near Greenland, the Tesseract near Europe, Wakanda in Africa, Shield Airship between Africa and South America, Thor’s hammer in New Mexico and Hulk in New York.
Familiar Droids in ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’
George Lucas snuck a hieroglyph inside of a temple that clearly depicts an ancient Earthling kneeling to address R2-D2, with C-3PO shuffling along anxiously next to him.
Obi Wan in ‘Temple of Doom’
In 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, there’s a bar called Club Obi Wan, which of course makes zero sense outside of the Lucas-verse.
A Jeep with Very Bad Luck Survived Until At Least ‘Jurassic World’
John Hammond and company tool around in a Jeep marked “JP29” in the original Jurassic Park. Instead of hanging up that number in the rafters (or banishing it to bad PR hell), they kept it in service, and the two main kids hotwire Jeep 029 in Jurassic World, the fourth installment of the series.
Li’l Sebastian in ‘The Good Place’
Mike Schur, who co-created Parks and Recreation and created The Good Place, loved to sneak in some Easter eggs for superfans. The equine star of Parks and Recreation is canonically dead in that series, but makes an appearance in The Good Place on The Good Place.
A Trail of Trembling
A torn-up Jaws (1975) poster appears in the background of 1977’s The Hills Have Eyes. Sam Raimi took that to mean The Hills Have Eyes was calling its shot, declaring itself the new scariest movie ever. When Raimi made The Evil Dead in 1981, he included a torn-up The Hills Have Eyes poster, making it known that he intended to take up the mantle of freakiest horror film.
Mel Gibson’s Sick Nod to a Children’s Book
During a scene in Apocalypto, when someone is stumbling around a field of rotting corpses, there’s a single frame where a dude dressed like Waldo (of Where’s Waldo? fame) is lying, alive and somewhat confused, among the carnage. It’s extremely spooky!
