A whole lot. The show slightly dates itself with a lot of early 90's and other contemporary-at-the-time references, but it also abounds in references dating back to the dawn of television comedy. This Tumblr feed
complies most of them.
- "The Taming of the Screwy" is pretty much their version of Looney Tunes shorts like "Hollywood Steps Out", with moments like:
- Robert Patrick entering in a policeman's uniform, until Ralph tells him it's a Black Tie affair. At which point he liquid-metal-shifts into a tux.
- Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis landing at the red carpet in a falling car.
- Michelle Pfeiffer in her Catwoman costume. Yakko tells her there's something(or rather, some Thing) in her milk saucer. Michael Keaton also appears in full Bat-costume.
- Danny DeVito in his Penguin costume, eating whole raw fish, which he spits out in disgust when Bea Arthur says she's putting out a swimsuit catalogue.
- Danny Glover complaining that he's "Too old for this [shit]" at Mel Gibson's antics.
- Spike Lee begging "Please, baby!" — to an actual baby.
- When the dance floor abruptly fills, the force of all the newcomers sends Belle and the Beast flying.
- See also the CRGA, mentioned above under Real Life Writes the Plot. It's basically a huge repository of these.
- In the episode "Potty Emergency," when a character looks out of a window into space, above the window the letters MST3K can be seen.
- Dr. Scratchansniff's mantras for "clownophobia":
- "A clown is not a big spider".
- "A clown will not bite me and throw me in the basement" is a reference to the famous Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy.
- This show provided probably the one and only spoof of The Day the Clown Cried in the short, Hearts of Twilight. Surprising since the movie was never released. On the other hand, Steven Spielberg has seen the movie, one of the few people Jerry Lewis has shown it to.
- When Wakko makes a face to freak people out - the one with the swirling eyes and tongue hanging out - it's referred to as a 'Gookie'. The facial expression itself is an homage to a similar face regularly made by Harpo of The Marx Brothers: and Harpo revealed in his autobiography that this goofy face was made in mockery of a certain butcher in his New York City neighborhood named... Gookie.
- A blink-and-you'll-miss-it example: In "Sir Yaksalot", a background cart driver looks exactly like a medieval version of Daisuke Jigen. Not too surprising as TMS worked on the episode.
- In one of the "Good Idea, Bad Idea" segments ("Bad idea: having the circus come to you") the theme from Monty Python's Flying Circus plays in the background.
- A Steven Spielberg reference: this Katie Ka-Boom segment features Katie's younger brother making a tower out of mashed potatoes, much like the protagonist of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- The name of the episode Garage Sale of the Century, though it doesn't reference the show otherwise.
- The Swuit-shaped statue in "This Pun For Hire" is a nod to The Maltese Falcon.
- The Buttons & Mindy episode "Cat on a Hot Steel Beam" lampshades just how old the concept is by having a scene where a sailor and a cat and mouse cross Buttons' path chasing their own babies.
- In "The Sound of Warners", Dot asks, "Why don't you go bug the kids on Goof Troop?"
- In "Brain Meets Brawn", the Brain only transforms into the Hyde monster when he gets angry, much like The Incredible Hulk.
- In "Hello, Nice Warners", after the Warners reluctantly agree to star in Mr. Director's movie, they remark to the viewers, "Be afraid. Be very afraid."
- 'Woodstock Slappy' riffs relentlessly on the famous 'Who's on First' vaudeville exchange popularized by Abbot and Costello.
- The Marx Brothers are also given the greatest honor any comedy series can bestow on any other comedy series: stealing its jokes.Dot/Chico: I can't think of the end of this [song/episode.]
Yakko/Groucho: I can't think of anything else.- "King Yakko" goes one further by stealing the plot of Duck Soup.
- "Googy Goop" in the episode "The Girl With the Googily Goop", a full-on parody of the Betty Boop cartoons. She had a red nose like the Warners', but otherwise looked exactly the same as Betty.
- In one of the episodes featuring the Wheel of Morality, Wakko wants to buy a vowel but Yakko says "wrong wheel" in reply.
- In "Bumbie's Mom", Skippy's bawling rocks Slappy from sleeping at the movies. Her Waking Non Sequitur is "PAT! I'd like to buy a vowel!"
- Beauty and the Beast seems to have been a favorite target.
- In "King Yakko", Belle and the Beast are seen dancing during the second instance of the "Polka Dot" Running Gag.
- The Rita and Runt short "Witch One" features spoofs of several songs from the movie. The Witch Hunter General who goes after our heroes is a Captain Ersatz of Gaston.
- Belle and the Beast also have cameos in "The Taming of the Screwy" (see above) and "A Hard Day's Warners".
- "Cutie and the Beast" is a Whole-Plot Reference episode, with the Tasmanian Devil guest starring as the Beast.
- "Jokahontas", along with spoofing Pocahontas, also takes pot shots at the whole Disney Princess franchise with a song titled "Just the Same Old Heroine", where Dot appears as Jasmine, Belle and Ariel.
- "Star Truck" cleverly spoofs the original television series of Star Trek. It throws in references to actual Star Trek episodes "City on the Edge of Forever", "Mudd's Women", "Spock's Brain", and "The Trouble with Tribbles", as well as three Star Trek movies, The Wrath of Khan, The Voyage Home, and The Final Frontier.
- The final issue of the comic book adaptation features a race car. Minerva Mink's car looks like the Compact Pussycat; the Warner Siblings are dressed like Speed Racer, Spritle and Chim-Chim and their car looks like the Mach-5; the Hip Hippos are driving a parody of The Love Bug; and Skippy and Slappy are in General Lee.
- As another reference to Wacky Races, Minerva wonders if the sponsor is Brad Pitt-Stop.
- in A Quake, Yakko references Dragnet and it's narrative catchphrase verbatim "This is the city: Los Angeles, California..."
- There are a few full-on segment parodies of Broadway shows:
- "West Side Pigeons": West Side Story
- "Les Miseranimals": Les Misérables
- "Pigeon on the Roof": Fiddler on the Roof
- The Goodfeathers are No Celebrities Were Harmed parodies of Robert De Niro (Bobby), Joe Pesci (Pesto) and Ray Liotta (Squit) in Goodfellas, while the Godpigeon resembles Marlon Brando in The Godfather. Pesto's Running Gag of mistaking Squit's innocent remarks and compliments for insults is a parody of Pesci's "What do you mean I'm funny?" scene in Goodfellas – in "Bad Mood Bobby" he even says "You think I'm funny?" Also, their theme song is a parody of ''That's Amore''.
- The cartoon "Raging Bird", fittingly starring Bobby, is a Whole-Plot Reference to Raging Bull, with shout outs to Rocky and On the Waterfront too. Bobby's trainer Max is an owl Expy of Rocky's Mickey.
- In "Goodfeathers: The Beginning", when Bobby and Pesto are walking down the street together at the beginning, Pesto says "I'm walkin' here!" and Bobby says "Are you walkin' with me?"
- "The Boids" revolves around the Goodfeathers acting as stunt-birds in The Birds, complete with a caricature of the real film's director and appearances by Tippi Hedren and Anthony Perkins too. Bobby also says "Am I talkin' to me? Am I talkin' to me?" when he gets knocked silly in one scene.
- The Rita and Runt cartoon "Of Nice and Men" is a loose Whole-Plot Reference to Of Mice and Men, with a cameo appearance by Lennie and George as portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr. and Burgess Meredith in the 1939 film version. Also, when Runt sings a cheesy lullaby, Rita remarks "It's a cartoon! What d'ya expect? Sondheim?" (This doubles as an Actor Allusion, since Rita's voice actress is famous for her Sondheim roles.)
- In "Windsor Hassle", when Prince Edward dances ballet, he exclaims "Mummy, look at me! I'm Papageno in The Magic Flute!" (Fridge Logic: The Magic Flute is an opera, not a ballet.)
- In "Meet Minerva," a fly that looks like Spike Lee buzzes "Please, baby! Please, baby!" when he sees Minerva. Then, when Newt the Dog sees her for the first time and does a Wild Take, he manifests a '50s suit on himself and exclaims "Ooh, baby, that's what I like!" quoting The Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace" – Minerva does the same thing in the end when Trudy's sexy cousin shows up.
- "Le Bouton et le Ballon" is a Whole-Plot Reference to The Red Balloon, with Mindy chasing a red balloon through Paris. It also includes cameo appearences by Madeline and by the Warners dressed as hunchbacks, ringing the bells of Notre Dame and shouting "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!"
- Baloney the Dinosaur, is, of course, a parody of Barney.
- "Of Course You Know, This Means Warners!"(the title is a riff on a catchphrase Bugs Bunny borrowed from the Marx Brothers) is itself a full-on parody of classic World War II Cartoons, with Yakko, Wakko and Dot helping the war effort at home. At one point, J. Edgar Hoover gives them medals for their efforts.
- The skit "HMS Yakko" is a glorious Affectionate Parody of Gilbert and Sullivan's works The Pirates of Penzance and H.M.S. Pinafore (complete with a Major General Song parody).
- The Pinky and the Brain short "Yes, Always". Maurice LaMarche has admitted that the Brain's voice was mainly inspired by Orson Welles, and he used the infamous "Frozen Peas" audio (where Welles got frustrated over the writing and directing of a commercial for which he was doing a voice-over) as a sound check. The aforementioned short centered on the Brain doing commercial voice-overs. Guess where 99% of the dialogue came from?.
- From the 2020 revival:
- A poster of Ralph the bodyguard starring In a Wreck-It Ralph parody.
- Chicken Boo's portrayal in the revival, involving kidnapping and taxidermying people and considerably more Body Horror, echoes the eldritch fear god known as The Stranger from the horror podcast The Magnus Archives, a series which, amusingly, featured a recurring villain who would disguise itself as various people and cloud the minds of those around it to prevent them from noticing except for one single person at a time who would notice that their acquaintance had been replaced.
