I'm back...

 I'd like to talk about-

Oh my word he's still alive - Ed.

Yes, I know I haven't posted in a while, since the Christmas Quiz in fact. Let me tell you though, the theme for this year has been decided and I'm writing it now.

In the meantime, I'd like to talk about obscure references, and you can't stop me because I'm the only one with edit privileges. Let's start with an obscure reference:

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state, then nearly 14 billion years ago expansion started- wait. The earth began to cool; the autotrophs began to drool; Neanderthals developed tools; We built the wall- We built the pyramids, Math Science History, unravelling the mystery, it all started with the Big Bang - CRACK!

I like to hide references in my posts, sometimes quotes and sometimes more subtle references. Take my review of A Christmas Getaway for example, which contains references to (in order) to:

• Peter Pan Goes Wrong
• Monty Python's Flying Circus
• Noises Off
• One Man, Two Guvnors
• The Simpsons Movie
• asdfmovie
• Friends
• Crimes on Centre Court
• Community
• The Moon Sister (Part of The Seven Sisters series of books)

Some of these are quite popular references and would be recognised by most people, but others are more obscure and a bit You had to be there. Want to look up the Peter Pan Goes Wrong reference? Check iPlayer. Want to check the Friends reference? NetFlix at time of writing in the UK (Season 10 episode 12 so you don't have to watch all ~85 hours*). Want to check the Crimes on Centre Court reference? Good luck. That's a play that finished its tour and probably won't do so again.

*Time is approximate as I couldn't find two sources which agreed with each other

However, many of my more obscure references are actually two-parters. Take the reference above for example, in which I reference two completely different sitcoms. I think most of my demographic can work out that the main part of it is the theme song for The Big Bang Theory, even if they didn't notice that the exact wording is incorrect.

That bit appears in all 279 episodes of TBBT, so it's very well known, even by people who don't watch the show. However, the obscure bit lies in the final word - CRACK! I'll give you one more chance to guess what I'm referencing, then I'll tell you:

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state, then nearly 14 billion years ago expansion started- wait. The earth began to cool; the autotrophs began to drool; Neanderthals developed tools; We built the wall- We built the pyramids, Math Science History, unravelling the mystery, it all started with the Big Bang - CRACK!

And we're back. Did you work it out?

It's from The Good Life, more specifically the episode Silly, but it's fun (S4E8). This was the 1977 Christmas special, and one of the jokes revolves around home made Christmas crackers.

The Good Life had a massive viewership (including HM Queen Elizabeth II!) when it was broadcast in 1975-1978, but for some reason that's dwindled more recently. Therefore, I'll briefly explain the plot before we continue:

Tom Good has just turned 40, but he finds himself very unsatisfied with his repetitive life and boring job. Therefore, he, with his wife Barbara, "stop the world and jump off" by turning fully self-sufficient, keeping animals in their garden and growing their own vegetables for food. Meanwhile, their middle-class neighbours Margo and Jerry Leadbetter try to continue with their own 'normal' lives.

Now that's cleared up, I can explain about the crackers. Americans who haven't encountered Christmas crackers before, here's a simple explanation. You can look up a more detailed one if you like, but we haven't got time for that here.

Anyway, in the Christmas special episode Silly, but it's fun, Tom, unable to afford 'professional' crackers, has made his own from tissue paper and toilet roll tubes. However, being homemade, they do not contain the most exciting bit; "They don't go bang". 

Therefore, in order to have the full experience, the participants must shout "Bang" while pulling their cracker. While pulling her cracker, Margo, unfortunately lacking a sense of humour, instead shouts "Crack!", reasoning that that's where the name comes from.

I got my joke from combining the two references, creating this audience:

However, since the overlap is so small, and the Good Life reference is specific to a single episode, the diagram probably actually looks more like this:

Please let me know if you got both references, and even more so if you got the joke without it being explained. I would love to be proved wrong about this.

However, this isn't my favourite double reference on my blog. That title goes to the final joke in my review of the play Cluedo 2, 

There's a murder that takes place prior to the play, in which xxxxx used the lead piping as a murder weapon in a very creative way, by slowly filing it down and poisoning someone.

On the plus side, at least his complexion vould bring all ze boys in.

For context, all the suspects, weapons and rooms were emboldened in my review. The opaque reference is of course from Cluedo 2 itself, but the additional quote is from Six The Musical. It comes from the most chaotic song in the show, Haus of Holbein:

(Relevant lyric at 0:37)

This is my favourite animatic of the song, mainly because of the accordion. If you look closely though, the lyrics onscreen say 

At least your complexion will bring all the boys in

This is officially what the lyrics say, but what she (the line is sung by Katherine Howard but I can't tell which actor was playing her at the time) actually says is:

At least your complexion vill bring all ze boys in

This plays up the comic German accent and is the version I used, albeit with pronouns replaced to turn it from 2nd person into 3rd.

Was there actually a point to this post? - Ed.

Phil - Not really. And I didn't have a proper ending so it just sort of...

I'm irrationally proud of this joke