History Main / PopCulturalOsmosis

** Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country has the Shakespeare quoting Klingon General Chang say the line so one of the film's writers did the research.

** Additionally, Eddie Cantor's "Merrily We Roll Along" is better remembered as the [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]] theme.
* Everyone's heard of "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jp3de50_d8 Smoke on the Water]]", but a lot fewer people know DeepPurple. Similarly, find anyone who would recognize any part of the song ''other'' than the famous intro. It'll be a lot harder.
** Until ''GuitarHero'' came out, anyway.

** Another example that might be more familiar to younger audiences is the scene in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' where post-FaceHeelTurn Anakin/Vader marches at the head of a stormtrooper column into the Jedi Temple.
** In Italy, the scene is extremely famous because of the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantozzi_(film) Fantozzi]]'' movies. In the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_secondo_tragico_Fantozzi second installment]] of said movie series, [[WhiteCollarWorker Ugo Fantozzi]] is forced, alongside his colleagues, to watch (a [[LawyerFriendlyCameo parody-named]] version of) the movie as a "routine ritual" demanded by his boss. The famous scene from the movie is when the protagonist snaps and yells, "To me... Battleship Potemkin... is nothing but crazy bullshit!". Then the [[LemonyNarrator narrator]] - Fantozzi himself in first person - remarks [[MundaneMadeAwesome in an "epic" tone:]] "Ninety-two minutes of applause ensued". ([[HilarityEnsues And hilarity ensued, too]].)

** Considering ItsBeenDone several times over, most people are bound to recognize the majority of the movie, ''they just won't realize it's Film/CitizenKane''.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' might be the biggest perpetrator, as one of the writers said you could probably recreate the plot of the movie using clips from the show.

** Unless you're one of those smug jerks who hears about people regarding it as an ''Army Of Darkness'' reference and thinks: "Duh! ''Everybody'' knows it's [[Franchise/StarWars those three henchmen in Jabba the Hutt's palace]] in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''" (if only because the Creator/{{Kenner}} action figure line [[AllThereInTheManual informed us of that fact]]).
** Of course, there isn't anyone in the entire world who thinks [=AoD=] spawned that line, because the line Ash is intended to repeat there is Klaatu VERATA Nicto. Saying Klaatu Barada Nikto would just confuse an Evil Dead fan.

** Gibson, at least, is up front about this. He has said that he walked out of ''Film/BladeRunner'' in tears, because there was his world, already on screen, when the novel was still in the writing phase. He was almost overjoyed when it tanked.
** The reimagined ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' is also heavily inspired by ''Film/BladeRunner''. In fact, the reason Edward James Olmos signed on for what was originally supposed to be a minor one-off miniseries on the Sci-Fi channel is because it reminded him of ''Film/BladeRunner''. And, really, he would know.
** Both Gibson and Scott were heavily inspired by the work of French graphic artist {{Moebius}}, specifically ''The Long Tomorrow'' and ''The Incal'' (the later written by AlejandroJodorowsky), with their noirish plots and dense, impossibly high metropoflis cris-crossed with flying cars and bridges. Moebius' depiction of a future that was as dirty and lived in as the real world was also a huge influence on ''StarWars''. His scenes are often directly homaged as well, particularly the famous opening shot of ''The Incal''. Moebius contributed directly to the design of ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'', so even people who don't know his name recognize his influence.
** ''GhostInTheShell'' (1989) is actually tightly connected to Shirows earlier work ''Appleseed'' (1986), which revolves about artificial human servants possibly getting out of control.
** There have been flying cars in movies at least from 1950s, if not earlier. Fritz Lang's ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' (1927) is probably the first to show similar scenery on the silver screen, though it still used planes with wings, but the massive megacity with flying vehicles was made ''the'' setting for a science fiction film in that moment.
** And the flying cars in ''Film/TheFifthElement'' were a homage to French ''{{Valerian}}'' comics, with Corben's taxi's design almost entirely lifted from a similar vehicle flown by a flamboyant cabbie S'traks in the crowded skies of industrial planet Rubanis. Mézières (the creator of ''Valerian'') actually worked on the production design of ''Film/TheFifthElement'', along with Moebius, mentioned above as having inspired some of the works which in turn influenced ''Film/TheFifthElement''.
* ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' when they hear the fanfare from Strauss' "Music/AlsoSprachZarathustra". Although some people just go [[Wrestling/RicFlair "Woooooooooooo"]] in response to that one.
** In Germany this may be known from commercials of a certain beer brand. (Seriously, they already used it for decades, and still use it... talk about BrandRecognition!) They even [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAMQPiUcTyo dared to remix it]]
** Russians are mostly familiar with this theme through the game show ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%3F_Where%3F_When%3F What? Where? When?]]''

* Speaking of Chiba, anyone who's seen the 1976 classic ''Karate Warriors'' knows that people had been merging slow motion captures seamlessly into jump cuts decades before ''Film/ThreeHundred'' came around.

** Some don't even attribute it to ''Film/BlazingSaddles''. It also pops up in ''Film/{{UHF}}'' as "We don't need no stinkin' badgers!"
** The line is only misquoted in regards to ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre''. It ''is'' correct in the ''Blazing Saddles'' context. So people ''are'' quoting ''Saddles'' but they may not understand where the joke comes from to begin with.

* The Valkyries rode helicopters (FrancisFordCoppola's ''Film/ApocalypseNow'', Creator/RichardWagner's "Music/RideOfTheValkyries").
** The famous scene in ''Apocalypse Now'' where Colonel Kilgore says, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning.", is actually a lot longer than people care to remember making it a cause of BeamMeUpScotty.

** It's a pun. After all, the gladiators were the main attraction in the Roman [[IncrediblyLamePun circus]].

* Lots of [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]] [[{{Expy}} expies]] and parodies have [[HockeyMaskAndChainsaw a hockey mask and a chainsaw]] as weapon, despite the "real" Jason not putting the mask on until [[Film/FridayThe13thPartIII the third film]] of the series, and never once using a chainsaw, which probably comes from ''Franchise/TheTexasChainsawMassacre''.

** For that matter, the joke itself is swiped (perhaps unknowingly) from an episode of ''Series/TheFactsOfLife''.
* The Dragonheart theme, it has been used everywhere.

* [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2007/aug/07/howthemuppetsmadeusallbergmanexperts This article]], referencing an utterly hilarious [[TheMuppetShow Muppet Show]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqv_qYBgEk0 sketch]], is all about how parodies of Creator/IngmarBergman films are immediately recognizable, even by people who have never watched any of his films.
** ChessWithDeath comes from a Bergman film!
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2f0nfrgaK4 A Joke by Ingmar Bergman]]

* Literature/TheBible is the grand-daddy of this trope, with sayings like "there's nothing new under the sun" and references to Pillars of Salt and the like existing in almost every medium, though very few people have actually read the Book in question (people who go to Church will have heard excerpts).
* "Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings" is a funny case in that hardly anyone remembers ''where'' it comes from. The educated guess seems to be ''{{Fahrenheit 451}}'', which doesn't use it. Heinrich Heine said it in his play, Almansor. He was commenting on the burning of the Qur'an during the Spanish Inquisition.
** This, however, only applies to the English-speaking world. In Germany, the original German quote[[note]]„Dies war ein Vorspiel nur, dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.“ - "That was but a prelude; there where you burn books, you'll burn humans as well in the end."[[/note]] is generally associated with the [[HarsherInHindsight Nazi book burnings in 1933]].
* "April is the cruellest month." Quick - name which poet wrote that, and the name of the poem.[[note]]Creator/TSEliot, ''TheWasteLand''[[/note]]
* How many people do you know who can recite any part of Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's "Literature/TheRaven" ''besides'' "Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore.' "
** [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons "Come here, ya little raven!"]]
** Oh, come on. Most people can at least give you "Once upon a midnight dreary". Getting past that...not so much. ("As I pondered, weak and weary/over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore")

* The "Mahna Mahna" song does not originate from ''TheMuppetShow'', or even ''Series/SesameStreet'', but rather [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063660/ an Italian mondo documentary film set in Sweden]].

** People of a certain age will probably first think of the TwoLiveCrew song "Me So Horny".
*** Or SirMixALot's "Baby Got Back", which similarly references the line.

* Same goes for Creator/RidleyScott's dystopian cyberpunk movie ''Film/BladeRunner'' (1982), tangentially based on PhilipKDick's bizarre novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (1968). Forget WilliamGibson's famous cyberpunk novel ''{{Neuromancer}}'' (1984). Forget ''Film/TheMatrix'' (1999) with its Hong-Kong martial art style. Forget ''{{Cyberpunk}} 2020'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' RPG. Forget all the movies about clones and androids on the run. They wouldn't have been there without ''Blade Runner''. And Japanese anime cyberpunk series like ''GhostInTheShell SAC'' might never have penetrated into the Western geek consciousness without the blending of Western and Asian culture in ''Blade Runner''.

* People unfamiliar with the ''Touhou'' series will automatically assume that "U.N. Owen was her?" is called "[=McRolled=]" all thanks to a viral video much to the annoyance of fans who hate that name.

** In Italy, the scene is extremely famous because of the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantozzi_(film) "Fantozzi".]]'' movies. In the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_secondo_tragico_Fantozzi second installment]] of said movie series, [[WhiteCollarWorker Ugo Fantozzi]] is forced, alongside his colleagues, to watch (a [[LawyerFriendlyCameo parody-named]] version of) the movie as a "routine ritual" demanded by his boss. The famous scene from the movie is when the protagonist snaps and yells, "To me... Battleship Potemkin... is nothing but crazy bullshit!". Then the [[LemonyNarrator narrator]] - Fantozzi himself in first person - remarks [[MundaneMadeAwesome in an "epic" tone:]] "Ninety-two minutes of applause ensued". ([[HilarityEnsues And hilarity ensued, too]].)

** In Italy, the scene is extremely famous because of the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantozzi_(film) "Fantozzi".]]'' movies. In the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_secondo_tragico_Fantozzi second installment]] of said movie series, the titular WhiteCollarWorker, Ugo Fantozzi, is forced, alongside his colleagues, to watch (a [[LawyerFriendlyCameo parody-named]] version of) the movie as a "routine ritual" demanded by his boss. The famous scene from the movie is when the protagonist snaps and yells, "To me... Battleship Potemkin... is nothing but crazy bullshit!". Then the [[LemonyNarrator narrator]] - Fantozzi himself in first person - remarks [[MundaneMadeAwesome in an "epic" tone:]] "Ninety-two minutes of applause ensued". ([[HilarityEnsues And hilarity ensued, too]].)

*** It's also widely known as the middle section of ''[[{{Rush}} La Villa Strangiato]]''.

* "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" Despite being quoted ([[BeamMeUpScotty albeit, incorrectly]]) and parodied in pop culture for decades, most people have no idea this line is a reference to the Humphrey Bogart film ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'', often attributing its origins to ''Film/BlazingSaddles'' instead. However, without the understanding that the line in the latter film is intended to be a parody of the former, the joke itself does not make sense. (The actual, original quote from the film goes, "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!")

* Bogart [[BeamMeUpScotty never says]] "[[{{Casablanca}} Play it again, Sam.]]"

** Or take "Dance of the Hours" from Ponchielli's ballet ''La Gioconda.'' When you hear it, you'll either think of the dancing hippos from ''Fantasia'', or you'll start singing, ''"Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh, here I am at Camp Granada..."'' (Allan Sherman's well-known funny song). Or both.

** People of a certain age will probably first think of the 2LiveCrew song "Me So Horny".

** People of a certain age will probably first think of the 2 Live Crew song "Me So Horny".
*** Or Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back", which similarly references the line.

* Some young adults are reminded of ''HeyArnold'' when they hear music from ''Carmen'' or "Ride of the Valkyries" thanks to the episode "What's Opera Arnold"?
** The name of episode itself could possible be a shout out to the well known Bugs Bunny episode "What's Opera Doc"?

** Humorously it's not the first Zelda game that uses a ocarina either. Both ''TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' and ''TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' featured the instrument.

* The slow motion walk in {{WesternAnimation/MonstersInc}} is often misattributed to {{Armageddon}} , instead of {{The Right Stuff}}.

* Ke$ha's hit "Take it Off" is a pop version of "The Streets of Cairo" (the song usually associated with snake-charming in pop-culture)

* PeterLorre's voice is recognizable, even to those who have never seen any of his movies.

* [[{{Casabianca}} "The boy stood on the burning deck]]/Whence all but he had fled..."

* The nursery tune "Pop! Goes The Weasel" was originally a piece of ''dance'' music that was popular in London dance-halls and American stage acts in the 1850s, and as a playground singing-game for kids dancing in circles. Nowadays, it's irrevocably associated with Jack-in-the-Boxes.

* Similarly, many people have heard this line from Creator/ChristopherMarlowe's ''Theatre/TheTragicalHistoryOfDoctorFaustus'': "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships." However, many people today only know it either from the ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' episode "The Squire of Gothos", or ''ShakespeareInLove''.

** ''RenAndStimpy'' were modeled after Peter Lorre and [[TheThreeStooges Larry Fine]], respectively.

** A particularly egregious example is the way in which Juliet's speech "Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" usually has a spurious comma added after the "thou", completely changing the meaning. "Wherefore" actually stands in the same relationship to "therefore" as "where" does to "there"; it doesn't mean "where", it means "why". Juliet is not wondering where Romeo is as commonly supposed, but is speaking to him and asking the reason for his name.

** Unless you're one of those smug jerks who hears about people regarding it as an ''Army Of Darkness'' reference and thinks: "Duh! ''Everybody'' knows it's [[Franchise/StarWars those three henchmen in Jabba the Hutt's palace]] in ''Return Of The Jedi''" (if only because the Creator/{{Kenner}} action figure line [[AllThereInTheManual informed us of that fact]]).

** Unless you're one of those smug jerks who hears about people regarding it as an ''Army Of Darkness'' reference and thinks: "Duh! ''Everybody'' knows it's [[Franchise/StarWars those three henchmen in Jabba the Hutt's palace]] in ''Return Of The Jedi''" (if only because [[AllThereInTheManual the Kenner action figure line informed us of that fact]]).