here's all the pop culture references...
...in our season finale, episode #1012, "the palindrome reversal palindrome!"
- all of the mcguffins in this episode are named after mcguffins from other films or television shows, the beryllium sphere was the mcguffin in "the shadow" (and was also the power source of the NSEA protector in "galaxy quest") the oscillation overthruster was the mcguffin in "the adventures of buckaroo banzai across the 8th dimension," "polydichloric euthymol" was the mcguffin in the film "outland" and a phased polaron cannon is the preferred weapon of the dominion in "star trek: deep space nine"
- "castlevania legends" is a reference to the konami video game series
- "quien le disparo a j.r.?" is spanish for "who shot j.r.?" in spanish "dallas" is spelled "dallas"
- the "one umaster per child initiative" - is a parody of the one laptop per child initiative
- "how many dates have you had unfold like the second act of miss saigon?" - the end of the first act of the original staging of the schonberg/boublil musical "miss saigon" featured a reenactment of the evacuation of the american embassy in vietnam, including a full-sized helicopter
- "bubbe" - is both an homage to hans beimler, who uses this yiddish endearment on almost everyone he knows, as well as hart bochner's character "ellis" in the film "die hard," who says the immortal line "hans, BUBBE, i'm your white knight"
- in the "bourne" movies, matt damon plays a heroic spy, in "the good shepherd" he plays a morally compromised spy, hence the reference
- "today, we're grief counselors with the united states police force, you're officer russell, i'm officer van cleef" - homage by name check to the law enforcement army in "escape from new york" and to actors kurt russell and lee van cleef, stars of the film
- "airwolfed off the roof" - homage by namecheck to the 1980's don bellisario super-chopper series starring jan-michael vincent
- "duke of new york toy factory" - homage to the villain of "escape from new york" played by isaac hayes (the use of the expression "A#1" throughout the episode is also an homage to the duke, who is referred to as "the A#1" throughout "escape from new york")
- "i went green before ed begley jr. made it cool - why can't i catch a break? what about me" - namecheck of the green actor-vist, and simultaneous callback to the last line of pip's spoken word epic "hey, mister god"
- "eyes without a face!" - homage to either the 1984 billy idol song or the 1959 french horror film by georges franju, depending on when you were born and whether you went to film school
- "my little pony!" - homage to the well known toy as well as the winner of an abc family poll for the middleman's colorful expression of the week (beating out other candidates such as "easy bake oven!" and "in a gadda da vida!")
- "the carpenter road transformer station" - homage to john carpenter, director of "escape from new york"
- the outer casing of the quantum singularity machine is a modified gnam breadbox, designed by stefano giovanonni for alessi...fans of "jake 2.0" should also recognize this as the outer casing of the hades-13 tactical mininuke seen in the episode "whiskey-tango-foxtrot"
- the insiginia of the alternate-universe fatboy industries is a parody of the insignia used by the parallel universe terran empire in the classic star trek episode "mirror mirror"
- "i'm pretty much trapped now...in alan parker's 1982 theatrical film version of the wall" - homage by namecheck to the bob geldof-starring film of the classic pink floyd concept album
- noser and wendy's dialogue in the opening scene of act 2 echoes their first exchange of dialogue in episode 1001 "the pilot episode sanction"
- every man in the alternate universe sports a goatee in homage to the alternate-universe spock in the classic star trek episode "mirror mirror" - because of this episode, it is understood by all genre fans that a goatee represents a character's alternate universe counterpart, and is a sure signifier of pure ee-ville
- even in the alternate universe, joe 90 remains our homage to the eponymous gerry anderson supermarionation sci-fi series
- "come with me if you want to live" - homage to kyle reese's signature line from "the terminator"
- father pip drives a hruck bugbear - the hruck automobile brand is an homage to les mcclaine's first comic book series "highway 13" in which the main character drove a hruck greywolf, the name "bugbear" comes from one of the more colorful monsters of the classic dungeons and dragons
- the star trek episode "mirror mirror" is referred to in wendy's conversation with father pip
- "who are you, what's with your suit, where's your beard?" - paraphrase of the single most classic line in the classic star trek episode "mirror mirror"
- "they're real and they are spectacular" - famous "seinfeld" quote
- "now dorothy wants to go home" - reference to "the wizard of oz"
- ivan avi's address is 1997 plissken circle, an homage to snake plissken from "escape from new york" and to the year in which the film supposedly took place
- the mention of the pineal gland is both an homage to stuart gordon's film "from beyond" and a middleman running gag about the source of all paranormal phenomena
- niels bohr - homage by namecheck to the danish physicist and nobel prize laureate
- "holy kill bill vol. 2!" - homage to the quentin tarantino film featuring a similar scenario to the one described by the middleman
- "the dread pyramid of itzilichlitlichlitzl" - callback to our third episode, "the sino-mexican revelation"
- the coordinates given by the middleman correspond to the constellation serpens - the snake - a VERY subtle homage to snake plissken of "escape from new york"
- "new jack city" - homage to the 1991 mario van peebles crime epic
- the scene between alternate-universe middleman and ida is a callback to a similar scene in episode 1005, "the flying fish zombification"
- wendy opens the door to manservant neville's control center using the same gizmo employed by guy goddard to open lord jeremiah purcell's vault in episode 1009, "the obsolescent cryogenic meltdown"
- the phased polaron cannon was not intended as an homage to "dr. horrible's sing-along-blog, this was merely a case of two modestly-budgeted productions renting from the same prop house
- "this place is giving me the willy wonka's" - homage to the roald dahl character
- all of the mcguffins in this episode are named after mcguffins from other films or television shows, the beryllium sphere was the mcguffin in "the shadow" (and was also the power source of the NSEA protector in "galaxy quest") the oscillation overthruster was the mcguffin in "the adventures of buckaroo banzai across the 8th dimension," "polydichloric euthymol" was the mcguffin in the film "outland" and a phased polaron cannon is the preferred weapon of the dominion in "star trek: deep space nine"
- "castlevania legends" is a reference to the konami video game series
- "quien le disparo a j.r.?" is spanish for "who shot j.r.?" in spanish "dallas" is spelled "dallas"
- the "one umaster per child initiative" - is a parody of the one laptop per child initiative
- "how many dates have you had unfold like the second act of miss saigon?" - the end of the first act of the original staging of the schonberg/boublil musical "miss saigon" featured a reenactment of the evacuation of the american embassy in vietnam, including a full-sized helicopter
- "bubbe" - is both an homage to hans beimler, who uses this yiddish endearment on almost everyone he knows, as well as hart bochner's character "ellis" in the film "die hard," who says the immortal line "hans, BUBBE, i'm your white knight"
- in the "bourne" movies, matt damon plays a heroic spy, in "the good shepherd" he plays a morally compromised spy, hence the reference
- "today, we're grief counselors with the united states police force, you're officer russell, i'm officer van cleef" - homage by name check to the law enforcement army in "escape from new york" and to actors kurt russell and lee van cleef, stars of the film
- "airwolfed off the roof" - homage by namecheck to the 1980's don bellisario super-chopper series starring jan-michael vincent
- "duke of new york toy factory" - homage to the villain of "escape from new york" played by isaac hayes (the use of the expression "A#1" throughout the episode is also an homage to the duke, who is referred to as "the A#1" throughout "escape from new york")
- "i went green before ed begley jr. made it cool - why can't i catch a break? what about me" - namecheck of the green actor-vist, and simultaneous callback to the last line of pip's spoken word epic "hey, mister god"
- "eyes without a face!" - homage to either the 1984 billy idol song or the 1959 french horror film by georges franju, depending on when you were born and whether you went to film school
- "my little pony!" - homage to the well known toy as well as the winner of an abc family poll for the middleman's colorful expression of the week (beating out other candidates such as "easy bake oven!" and "in a gadda da vida!")
- "the carpenter road transformer station" - homage to john carpenter, director of "escape from new york"
- the outer casing of the quantum singularity machine is a modified gnam breadbox, designed by stefano giovanonni for alessi...fans of "jake 2.0" should also recognize this as the outer casing of the hades-13 tactical mininuke seen in the episode "whiskey-tango-foxtrot"
- the insiginia of the alternate-universe fatboy industries is a parody of the insignia used by the parallel universe terran empire in the classic star trek episode "mirror mirror"
- "i'm pretty much trapped now...in alan parker's 1982 theatrical film version of the wall" - homage by namecheck to the bob geldof-starring film of the classic pink floyd concept album
- noser and wendy's dialogue in the opening scene of act 2 echoes their first exchange of dialogue in episode 1001 "the pilot episode sanction"
- every man in the alternate universe sports a goatee in homage to the alternate-universe spock in the classic star trek episode "mirror mirror" - because of this episode, it is understood by all genre fans that a goatee represents a character's alternate universe counterpart, and is a sure signifier of pure ee-ville
- even in the alternate universe, joe 90 remains our homage to the eponymous gerry anderson supermarionation sci-fi series
- "come with me if you want to live" - homage to kyle reese's signature line from "the terminator"
- father pip drives a hruck bugbear - the hruck automobile brand is an homage to les mcclaine's first comic book series "highway 13" in which the main character drove a hruck greywolf, the name "bugbear" comes from one of the more colorful monsters of the classic dungeons and dragons
- the star trek episode "mirror mirror" is referred to in wendy's conversation with father pip
- "who are you, what's with your suit, where's your beard?" - paraphrase of the single most classic line in the classic star trek episode "mirror mirror"
- "they're real and they are spectacular" - famous "seinfeld" quote
- "now dorothy wants to go home" - reference to "the wizard of oz"
- ivan avi's address is 1997 plissken circle, an homage to snake plissken from "escape from new york" and to the year in which the film supposedly took place
- the mention of the pineal gland is both an homage to stuart gordon's film "from beyond" and a middleman running gag about the source of all paranormal phenomena
- niels bohr - homage by namecheck to the danish physicist and nobel prize laureate
- "holy kill bill vol. 2!" - homage to the quentin tarantino film featuring a similar scenario to the one described by the middleman
- "the dread pyramid of itzilichlitlichlitzl" - callback to our third episode, "the sino-mexican revelation"
- the coordinates given by the middleman correspond to the constellation serpens - the snake - a VERY subtle homage to snake plissken of "escape from new york"
- "new jack city" - homage to the 1991 mario van peebles crime epic
- the scene between alternate-universe middleman and ida is a callback to a similar scene in episode 1005, "the flying fish zombification"
- wendy opens the door to manservant neville's control center using the same gizmo employed by guy goddard to open lord jeremiah purcell's vault in episode 1009, "the obsolescent cryogenic meltdown"
- the phased polaron cannon was not intended as an homage to "dr. horrible's sing-along-blog, this was merely a case of two modestly-budgeted productions renting from the same prop house
- "this place is giving me the willy wonka's" - homage to the roald dahl character