5 Pop Culture References Nobody Got in Movies and TV Shows

It's because banana peels came to symbolize the growing problem of trash-filled streets in late-19th-century American cities, and they became the go-to reference point Vaudevillian comedians used to satirize the issue.

From here, the origin of the reference splits in slightly different directions, but they're all still centered around people in major cities slipping in their own filth. In one proposed origin, a banana peel is symbolic for a much less stage-friendly real-life problem: mounds of shit in the streets. Literal shit. Between the trotting horses and the wild pigs that once roamed free, the streets of New York were a giant septic tank. Comedians wanting to reference it in their acts were a bunch of pussies who didn't believe in the true meaning of art, so they substituted a banana peel for poop, because those, too, were everywhere.

That leads me to the second possible origin: Everyone tossed their trash on the streets because, to hell with everything; let's all just live in a rotting wasteland of our own garbage. Bananas were gaining in popularity and people were disgusting, fancy-dressed animals, so they'd toss their peels on the streets along with everything else.

Either way, the lovable doofus on stage who slipped on a banana peel wasn't just slipping on a banana peel. He was slipping on biting social commentary about the sorry state of 19th-century waste disposal.

They taught it to sing "Daisy Bell." This was a landmark moment in the history of computer engineering. It was the first time a computer was taught to do something distinctly human; it expressed itself via song. Not only does this strengthen the connection between HAL 9000 and IBM (which Kubrick and Arthur C. Clark vehemently denied), the reference adds a new layer to Kubrick's intention when he created the movie version of HAL. He's not only using HAL to warn us of the evils of sentient AI, he's telling the audience that this crazy shit is real. It's already here.

http://ellisar.deviantart.comAnd it's behind you!

But, then again, maybe the joke wasn't on me, because that wasn't the joke Mel Brooks intended. The title History of the World, Part I is actually a reference to a book published in 1614 by Sir Walter Raleigh. He was one of those guys you read about in history class and forgot to ever think about again. He was an explorer and writer who was imprisoned in the Tower of London after he was convicted of allegedly trying to subvert the monarchy and establish a new queen. Raleigh killed time in the Big House by trying write down the entire history of human civilization from memory, starting with the Greeks and Romans. He called it The History of the World. He intended on continuing to do the most boring thing he could possibly imagine, but then he was released and sent to Venezuela to search for the mythical city of El Dorado.

Wikimedia CommonsI could use the same picture for Shakespeare and you wouldn't know it.

There, he broke a peace treaty between England and Spain by attacking a Spanish outpost and had his head chopped off for it when he made it back to England -- a small hindrance when trying to write the entire history of the world from memory. Apparently Mel Brooks found all of that hilarious and named one of his movies after an imprisoned man's ambitious hope to encapsulate all of human history with only words and paper.

Here's the ridiculous explanation behind the reference: Gene Parmesan is the Bluth family's go-to bumbling private investigator, and is played by Martin Mull.

20th Century Fox

Martin Mull co-starred in Clue, wherein he played Colonel Mustard.

Paramount Pictures

Ipso facto, Parmesan and Mustard. Need more evidence that doesn't actually link to Parmesan and mustard but is also a reference to Clue? In the episode "A New Attitude," Gene Parmesan buys a knife at a shop next door to a children's play place that has a ball pit. The name of the play place is My Little Ballroom. The knife is a weapon in Clue, and the ballroom is one of the rooms in Clue.

Oh, and while we're on the subject: In the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, Will Arnett's character can be seen making himself a Parmesan cheese and mustard sandwich while listening to "Careless Whisper" by George Michael.

Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies

The lesson here is, Arrested Development is exhausting.

Martin is a football fan from New Jersey, so he splits his fandom between the New York Giants and the New York Jets. Because he's a red-blooded American, he hates the New England Patriots. This is no more evident than in the quote above. The "patriot" Triarch Belicho is New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. The "unbroken succession of conquests and triumphs" is the Patriots 2007 season, when they won every single game ... except for the Super Bowl, which they lost to the New York Giants.

Jared Wickerham/Getty ImagesNote that losing a sporting event and getting your body chunks digested by a giant are on the same level in George R.R. Martin's eyes.

And there's more. Martin lost a bet to Patrick St. Denis, the writer of a fantasy blog and a Dallas Cowboys fan. For years he and Martin had a long-running bet over whether the Cowboys or the Giants would do better in the standings. One year, the Cowboys finished ahead of the Giants and George had to pay up ... in the form of killing Patrick in one of his books. Martin created Ser Patrek of King's Mountain, a knight with a shield painted with a silver star. He's ripped apart by a giant named Wun-Wun, which is a homophone for One-One, the number 11, which was the number of legendary New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms.

The real Wun-Wun.

George R.R. Martin apparently solves all his problems by making fake giants rip them to shreds. That's only slightly healthier than actually killing people.

Luis is trying to decode the subtle, obscure references lurking deep within the complex tapestry of Family Guy episodes. In the meantime, you can find him on Twitter and Tumblr.

For more from Luis, check out The 4 Hardest Things Done By Great Minds So You Can Be Lazy and 8 Stupid Kitchen Hacks (Tested for Usefulness).

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