History Main / CreatorInJoke

* Creator/SamRaimi puts the same car - a 1973 Olds Delta Royale, referred to as "the Classic," which he inherited from his father - in almost all of his films.

* Music/BeastieBoys' "Hold It Now, Hit It" ends with the lyric "surgeon general, cut professor, DJ Thiggs" - There was a friend of Music/RunDMC named Thiggs, but he wasn't an actual DJ (though Run insisted that he ''should'' be one). They decided to give him a ShoutOut in the song without actually witnessing his alleged DJ skills just because it amused them; According to Mike D, Thiggs ultimately turned out to be a pretty lousy DJ, which made the lyric funnier.
** Some of their songs' {{Non Appearing Title}}s have roots in stories that were eventually explained in the autobiography ''Beastie Boys Book'' - for example, the song title "Tadlock's Glasses" refers to a limo driver the band once had, whose prized possession was a pair of sunglasses given to him by Music/ElvisPresley; neither Tadlock nor his glasses are actually mentioned in the lyrics.

* Adolescents' demo collection ''Naughty Women In Black Sweaters'' has a double meaning that only works if one knows a lot about the 1980s Fullerton, California music scene the band came out of: According to lead vocalist Tony, The Naughty Women was the name of a "transvestite punk band" from Fullerton, while "the black sweaters" was a nickname for a group of women who had a reputation of being groupies. So, the album title is either referencing the SweaterGirl trope or something more risque.

* On the walls of the subway in VideoGame/CryOfFear, you can find posters for a movie called ''[[VideoGame/AfraidOfMonsters Intimidated by Abnormalities.]]''

* Music/BeastieBoys' "Hold It Now, Hit It" ends with the lyric "surgeon general, cut professor, DJ Thiggs" - There was a friend of Music/RunDMC named Thiggs, but he wasn't an actual DJ (though Run insisted that he ''should'' be one) - they decided give him a ShoutOut in the song without actually witnessing his alleged DJ skills. According to Mike D, Thiggs turned out to be a pretty bad DJ, which made the lyric funnier.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'', the cheat code "iddqd" was named after a fraternity one of the developers formed in college.

* From ''Webcomic/ItsWalky'', Walky's catchphrase "Wiigii" was inspired by a typo of the author's when he was trying to type "Woohoo" and his right hand was off to the left.
* The "You call this a X?" from ''Webcomic/RomanticallyApocalyptic''.

** David Lowery and [[{{Music/Sparklehorse}} Mark Linkous]] once had a conversation about things that an artist could do on an album that would cause listeners to think they'd gone insane- Lowery suggested mentioning monkeys in every song on an album. Subsequently, ''Forever'' by Cracker had four separate songs that mentioned monkeys in the lyrics. ''Forever'' itself even had the WorkingTitle of ''Guarded By Monkeys'', until the label asked for a more marketable title.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Road to Rupert", while Meg is driving him, Peter demands to watch ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', and the Campfire Song Song from the episode "The Camping Episode" plays. The director of the episode, Dan Povenmire, worked on early episodes of ''[=Spongebob=]'' and wrote the Campfire Song Song.

* "A113" is an inside joke amongst a number of animators who graduated from the California Institute for the Arts; for decades, it was the classroom where character animation classes were held. See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A113 the other Wiki]] for a listing of some of the references.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' prefers Al Gore as a constant source of humor for several reasons. Back when the show was new, people thought he was humorless, not knowing that his daughter writes for the show, and she had to get it from somewhere.
** A subtle one from ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}''--Leela is upset and tears one half of a Kleenex to wipe her tears away. On the DVD commentary, they said that everyone assumed it was a joke because of her one eye, but the writers were referencing the fact that executive producer and writer David X. Cohen would always rip tissue paper in half to save money.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Road to Rupert", while Meg is driving him, Peter demands to watch ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', and the Campfire Song Song from the episode "The Camping Episode" plays. This is a reference to how Dan Povenmire (who directed "Road to Rupert") wrote the Campfire Song Song.

* Almost every Capcom franchise has included a character named Joe. From the more well-known VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe and the ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' series' Sniper Joe, there[='=]s been one in ''Franchise/StreetFighter'', ''VisualNovel/{{Phoenix Wright|AceAttorney}}'', ''VideoGame/BionicCommando'', ''VideoGame/LostPlanet'', ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'', and ''VideoGame/GodHand''.

* Almost every Capcom franchise has included a character named Joe. From the more well-known VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe and the ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' series' Sniper Joe, there's been one in Franchise/StreetFighter, VisualNovel/{{Phoenix Wright|AceAttorney}}, VideoGame/BionicCommando, VideoGame/LostPlanet, VideoGame/ResidentEvil and VideoGame/GodHand.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' recycles a lot of characters and themes from Andrew's more obscure work. For instance, Gamzee [[spoiler: a monster clown serial killer]] is partially based off his little known and [[OrphanedSeries orphaned]] graphic novel series, ''Whistles''. The character dynamic of the Kids, and the flavor of Homestuck in general, comes from ''Wizardy Herbert'', an incomplete novel Andrew described as magical kids learning how to focus their powers and taking the piss out of it. The characters on the pages on Rose's wall are the concept art of that story. Likewise, there is a poster in Dave's room of two robot rappers, who later appear as minor characters Squarewave and Sawtooth. Andrew had an idea to write a rap music album based on them, but it also never came to fruition.

* ''Film/TheVillain'': Needham includes a couple of ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit'' references.

* ''Creator/DanielRemar'' includes in his games, like ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'', ''VideoGame/HeroCore'', and ''VideoGame/PrincessRemedyInAWorldOfHurt'', an unwinnable HarderThanHard joke difficulty setting named "reallyjoel's dad" as a long-time RunningGag.

** Dustin fakes a phone call regarding the missing cat with a Mr. McCorkle, the name of the Duffers' childhood next-door neighbor.

* Music/SystemOfADown's "I-E-A-I-A-I-O" includes the lines "Meeting John at Dale's Jr. / winked an eye and point a finger". As a child, drummer John Dolmayan had a chance meeting with Creator/DavidHasselhoff in front of a liquor store called Dale's Jr.; When John exclaimed "Series/KnightRider!", Hasselhoff said "Hey, kid", winked and pointed his finger at him. John told the story to Serj Tankian, who wrote it into the lyrics. It sort of ties into the next line, which is a reference to the premise of ''Knight Rider'' ("a former cop, undercover / just got shot, now recovered").

** The name Homestar Runner comes from an incident in school when a friend of The Brothers Chap [[note]] James Huggins of Music/OfMontreal [[/note]] tried to imitate an old-timey baseball announcer but didn't know much about baseball. In the process, he garbled some terms and called a player a "homestar runner".

** Cracker's album ''Kerosene Hat'. Early in the band's existence, David Lowery and guitarist Johnny Hickman shared a dilapidated house with only two kerosene heaters for warmth - David would bundle up and walk to a nearby gas station whenever they needed more fuel for the heaters, so his woolen hunting cap he'd wear on these excursions was his "kerosene hat". Though the album has a TitleTrack, the song's WordSaladLyrics don't exactly explain the significance.

* Almost every Capcom franchise has included a character named Joe. From the more well-known VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe and the ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' series' Sniper Joe, there's been one in Franchise/StreetFighter, VisualNovel/{{Phoenix Wright|AceAttorney}}, VideoGame/BionicCommando, VideoGame/LostPlanet, and VideoGame/GodHand.

* In ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'', one of the phrases Stitch says is "Maka maka, sasa!" (meaning "This way, hurry!") Sasa is an affectionate nickname for Sa, the wife of executive producer of the series Jess Winfield, and "makamaka" is Hawaiian for "friend and host". [[http://lasfansite.atspace.me/stuff/history/tvtome/page04.html Every year Sa hosts a luau party and signs the invitations with "Makamaka Sasa."]]

* Folk singer-songwriter John Stewart included quotes from someone named Oliver Makin in the liner notes of two of his albums (''Sunstorm'', ''Wingless Angels''). Makin was supposedly "a poet and short story writer from Kansas who died in 1909", but Stewart fans haven't been able to locate any of Makin's works. The fact that the quotes conveniently just happen to include [[TitleDrop Title Drops]] for the albums in question pretty much confirms that Makin=Stewart.