Shout Out / Ebott's Wake

Ebott's Wake is chock-full of pop-culture references.

• Hal asks Asriel if Robin Wren ever attempted to contact him, calling it "the sixty four thousand dollars and ninety nine cents question."
• When Discussing the Adults Are Useless trope, Mary gives The Tripods, The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Giver, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation as examples.
• One of the the medical professionals working on Frisk's shoulder says they stopped watching the History Channel after Ancient Aliens.
• After he gets his arm shot off and Alphys promises to build a replacement, Joe says he's going to be "like Ash in Army of Darkness."
• When getting slobbered on by Endogeny, Hal says, "Do not want!"
• Back to the Future:
  • When Dr. Aster's return is made known, along with the impossibility of travel backwards, Burgie muses that criminals always get their hands on time travel technology, citing Back to the Future Part II as an example.
  • At one point, when Frisk and Flowey need to switch conversation topics so Toriel doesn't hear them talking about the time loop, they end up discussing Back to the Future Part III.
  • When Frisk tells Sans about the time loop, they say that they don't really count as a time traveler because they have to die to do it, which Doc Brown, Marty McFly, and Doctor Who didn't have to deal with.
• During a Chase Scene, after Undyne intervenes in Mike's pickup truck and a van grinding against each other to force each other off the road, Justin say's he's glad they're not doing "that Ben-Hur shit anymore."
• Describing the time PETA showed up to protest… something about the monsters, Justin says that "it degenerated into a pie fight like the end of Blazing Saddles."
• Justin gives The Bourne Series as a potential pop-culture source from which the AML could've gleaned some idea of how to act covertly.
• The second week of the story is extremely chaotic at Dreemurr Elementary, including a pair of children named Calvin and Suzie getting into a fight.
• After Asriel becomes Omega Flowey by borrowing Shop Class's SOULs, some characters compare it to Captain Planet and the Planeteers.
• Burgie sets up a "Monsters Against Humanity" club as a counterpoint to the Anti-Monster League. It ends up just being Burgie and his friends playing Cards Against Humanity.
• Michael Van Garrett mentions that Chara watched a lot of anime at the Librarby, including Rurouni Kenshin, Fist of the North Star, and Space Battleship Yamato.
• Frisk's mind seems to have an ornate lamppost in it, "like in The Chronicles of Narnia or something."
• Disoriented after coming out of the Soul Link, Asriel mumbles something about Professor Plum in the library.
• Near the end of the story, Frisk's English class discusses The Cold Equations.
• Hans Therrick races the Zeitberecht in the Kludge Derby. He says he came up with the idea for it while playing Command & Conquer: Red Alert, and the name was an attempt (while high) to translate "Chronosphere" into German. (It's actually basically gibberish; as he himself acknowledges, if he'd just bothered to do a Google search, he would've named it something like Zeitkugel.)
• DanceDanceRevolution:
  • Undyne complains about how much better than her Papyrus is at the game.
  • Sans mentions teaching it to Dr. Aster offhand at one point.
  • Poncho is really good at DDR, partially because he uses his tail as a third leg.
• Justin learned about the St. Ives puzzle from Die Hard with a Vengeance.
• One of the policemen working with Steve mistakes the name "Delbert" for that of a similarly-named comic strip.
• Frisk is a big Discworld fan, and Sans seems familiar with the books, too. He's surprised to learn that their favorite is Thud!, as he'd expected it to be Night Watch or Thief of Time.
• When Frisk tells Sans about the time loop, they say that they don't really count as a time traveler because they have to die to do it, which Doc Brown, Marty McFly, and Doctor Who didn't have to deal with. Sans's immediate response is that the last character is just "the Doctor," and Doctor Who is the name of the show.
• Don Quixote:
  • Chapter 78 is titled "They Might Be Windmills."
  • Van Garrett describes finding out the meaning of human Soul colors as "Joe's personal windmill."
• When Brett expresses confusion at the trees in the Arboretum going on strike, Burgie says, "You've clearly never played Don't Starve."
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
  • Joe is so arachnophobic that he once built a hang glider out of curtains to get away from Muffet at a party; for reasons not even he knows, he yelled "Victory or Sovngarde!" before he jumped out the window.
  • Brett calls Skyrim "Bethesda's award-winning fantsy-themed marriage simulator."
• Chapter 119 is titled "Failure To Lunch."
• Joe mentions trying to get the rest of Shop Class to dress up as Fallout 4 companions with him for Halloween.
• In the Monsters Against Humanity chapter, Burgie nominates Brett as first Card Czar, because it's the latter's first time there. Danny calls it "Fight Club rules."
• Early on in the story, Flowey asks Frisk why they climbed Mount Ebott, and Frisk says that's the wrong question to ask. Frustrated, Flowey asks, "So what's the right question? 'What's the airspeed of an unladen European Swallow?' 'Who put the bop in the bop-she-bop?' 'Do you wanna build a snowman?' You're not exactly dropping hints left and right here."
• While Hal is playing his abomination of a musical instrument outside the Arboretum, somebody in the crowd requests that he play "Free Bird."
• Toriel mentions Frisk having to write a book report on From the Earth to the Moon. (It went very off the rails due to Frisk having a fever at the time.)
• In Flowey's Flashback to the time he came down from the mountain, he learns from Officer Steve what the town's name is and says he always wondered about that. Steve responds, "Well, now you know. And knowing is half the battle."
• Many of the teachers at Dreemurr Elementary School are named after members of the Game Grumps. Music teacher Danny and Math teacher Brian are the most explicit examples, in that they used to have a cover/tribute band based on Ninja Sex Party.
• Thomas O'Dell is explicitly compared to David Xanatos.
• When he goes on a Journey to the Center of Frisk's Mind, Flowey sees books he recognizes in one of their memories, such as The Giving Tree.
• Frisk and Toriel used to watch Good Eats together.
• DJ Pantz admits to never having watched The Goonies.
• Eli's father mentions him watching The Great Mouse Detective as a child.
• While ranting to Justin via text after pulling an all-nighter, Hal says, "THERE CAN BE ONLY SOME."
• One of the passwords to Project NEO is "MegaloVania." Since Undertale doesn't exist in this universe, Alphys acknowledges it as a Homestuck reference.
• Eli says his chances of placing in the top three in the Kludge Derby are about one in three, "about the same as Sean Connery's guy gave the officers' chance of defecting to the USA in The Hunt for Red October."
• Frisk recalls their human mom reading them If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
• Catty wonders if Flowey is to Asriel what The Incredible Hulk is to Bruce Banner.
• Justin predicts that Dr. Aster's testimony in Washington will turn into the Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee scene of Iron Man 2.
• James Bond:
  • At one point, Mike Van Garrett says he doesn't use that much modern technology because he's waiting to let the early adopters work out the kinks. Joe asks Mike if he really expects him to believe that, to which Mike replies, "No Mister Bond, I expect you to die."
  • Justin talking down O'Dell's espionage skill:
    3:52 PM: o dell is not james bond
    3:52 PM: or blofeld
    3:52 PM: or goldfinger
    3:53 PM: hes not even oddjob
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Alphys is planning on dressing as Joseph Joestar for Halloween, with Undyne going as Jotaro Kujo.
  • In one of Frisk's nightmares, Alphys calls them, but the signal is terrible. She seems to say, "[this mu]st be the wor[k of an] enemy sta[nd]."
  • When Asriel gets his body back, Alphys gives him a phone with social media accounts already set up, including an instant messaging handle of "Star_Blazing_Platinum".
  • When he's first given the Condensintrator watch, Justin asks whether the speed boost is closer to running a three-minute-mile, Bullet Time, or ZA WARUDO.
• When Papyrus says that "CIVILIZED SOCIETY CAN HAVE MORE THAN ONE FOUNDATION! LIKE A HOUSE ON STILTS!" Dwayne Riley draws a comparison to Lethal Weapon 2.
• LoadingReadyRun:
  • A number of staff at All Fine Labs are named after members of the group.
  • The author has mentioned that the KEBT Community Radio segments were inspired by LoadingReadyRun's Qwerpline podcast.
• A random customer at Rick's Hardware says he woke up and was commanded by Sauron to build an armoire.
• An unnamed character draws a comparison to Mad Max when discussing how the monsters made all their stuff out of garbage.
• Dr. Ross compares Dr. Akron's personality to that of Frank Burns.
• The room where Shop Class meets has pictures from shows from the members' childhood, such as Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
• Hal briefly describes a dream where he was officiating a wedding while dressed as The Mighty Thor—specifying that it was "the old comic book Thor with that weird winged helmet."
• Monopoly:
  • When Jordan Cater escapes police custody for the second time (third if you count the BADTF not getting him in their raid), Justin says, "How many Get Out Of Jail Free Cards does that asshole even have?!"
  • When Hal and Mike discuss getting lunch after helping Papyrus find his phone, Hal turns down Wanton Wonton. He says he had dinner there both preceding days, and if he has it three days in a row, he has to go to jail.
• There's a fraternal organization mentioned a couple times called the "Knights of the Road Who Say 'Ni.'"
• One of the policemen working with Officer Steve says all his father ever talked about was work and The Moody Blues.
• Chapter 124 is titled "Dr. Aster Goes To Washington."
• Mystery Science Theater 3000:
  • The series is named as popularizing the concept of "riffing" when Brett explains the Dreemurr Elementary School Riff-Off to Burgie.
  • Shop Class was apparently conceived during a "night of drinking, watching Mystery Science Theater on YouTube, and sketching crude vehicle designs."
• Hal serenades a group of reporters with "Never Gonna Give You Up".
• At one point, a broken, tangled-up kite swinging back and forth is likened to "some Charlie Brown-themed pendulum clock."
• A side character tries to get Dr. Aster to say the words "combustible lemons" because he apparently sounds like J. K. Simmons.
• Hal vocalizes the Rocky theme while carrying Dr. Akron out of the hospital.
• At one point, when the CORE is malfunctioning, Sans says that "this place is gonna do the Time Warp Again."
• "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" is the answer to a KEBT FM trivia question late in the story.
• William Shakespeare:
  • The Ebott's Wake Shakespeare in the Park Society plans a "contingency performance" of As You Like It in case the Kludge Derby is canceled.
  • Michael Van Garrett isn't too worried about people stealing his wallet, modifying a line from Othello.
    Van Garrett: 'He who steals my wallet steals cash; tis something, nothing, twas mine, now his, and has been slave to thousands, but he who steals my phone steals my good name, and robs me of that which not enriches him, to say nothing of my music library.' Paraphrasing a bit[,] but it's been about six years since I last read any Shakespeare.
  • Lamenting how Cater has ruined his recent plans, Hal says, "A pox on all his houses!"
• Officer Steve spent years as a child being scared that Val Kilmer would sneak into his room at night and pull his teeth out, courtesy of watching Real Genius without being old enough to understand it.
• The Simpsons:
  • Frisk remembers spirographs from an episode they saw once.
  • During an argument, Hal challenges Joe to "a Truth Telling Contest, three towns over."
• Spider-Man:
  • Dr. Aster spending an entire paragraph laughing at a question from Cater, then finally asking, "You serious?" calls to mind J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man 2. Especially because Dr. Aster canonically sounds like J. K. Simmons.
  • When Dr. Aster finds out at the end that Frisk has magic, and he's trying to figure out how it happened, he asks if they got bitten by a radioactive magician and gained the proportional strength and magical power of one.
• Star Wars:
  • On one broadcast, DJ Pantz claims he broke a fez the last time he wore one. Brett says they'll have to get back to that, to which Burgie responds, "No we don't. These aren't the hats you're looking for." Shortly thereafter, he says he can put his religious affiliation down as "Jedi" if he wants.
  • When Papyrus fails to wake up on time due to his alarm clock going off, Sans claims that he's going to start sleeping a full eight hours every night, just like him. "Search your feelings," he says, "you know it to be true."
  • During a meeting that has gone entirely off the rails, the topic somehow drifts to the original trilogy, which Dr. Aster has yet to see.
  • Joe's medical paperwork apparently says his religious affiliation is "Jedi."
• When Dr. Aster is explaining how he got launched into the future:
  Undyne: Whoa, you guys were working on Time Travel? Alphys is that why you had us marathon Stein's[sic] Gate that one weekend??
• After the lab accident, Joe says it feels like somebody Falcon Punched his chest.
• Eli says at one point that a mutual love of Team Fortress 2 can't hold a relationship together.
  Grillby: ...that can't be the only reason you two started dating.
  Eli: It wasn't. But it's funnier if I imply that it was.
• When Dr. Ross hears that Joe's new arm will be nuclear-powered, she hopes it'll turn out better than The Terminal Man.
• They Might Be Giants:
  • Chapter 78 is titled "They Might Be Windmills."
  • When their Soul is being scanned before the Soul Link test, Frisk asks if Sans notices anything out of the ordinary about it, such as a little birdhouse.
• Chapter 132 is titled "They Blinded Me With Science (And Also Broken Glass)."
• A press of children attempting to leave the classroom (and hindering each other in the process) is compared to something out of The Three Stooges.
• Frisk and Papyrus discuss seeing computer code in their dreams after playing too much TIS-100.
• Frisk and Papyrus are big fans of Transformers.
• When Omega/PhotoShop-Class Flowey fights Cater, he uses some blue paintbrush-shaped attacks that leave odd trails behind them. Cater is reminded of the time he watched TRON.
• DJ Pantz gets stuck on TV Tropes while trying to find an unspecified website.
• When talking about using RPG materials to cover up the Sages' planning in a safehouse, O'Dell considers using Twilight: 2000, which would explain the modern setting.
• The Twilight Zone:
  • An ad for Joe's House of Stuff ponders if a mysterious Andrew Jackson bobblehead should be labeled "made in the Twilight Zone."
  • When he wakes up in the hospital after the lab accident and hears all the stuff that happened while he was out, Joe says he'd joke about "waking up in the Twilight Zone" if he weren't on too many painkillers to put the joke together.
• In a flashback, Chara notes that "the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled is convincing the world he didn't exist" is paraphrasing a quote by Charles Baudelaire, with that specific version popularized by The Usual Suspects.
• At one point, Dr. Aster asks Burgie how the radio business is. Burgie replies, "Pretty good, considering everyone says video killed it."
• Hal compares the Sages before Asriel's appearance to The Village (2004).
• At one point, Van Garrett checks the Shop Class group chat to check if anything serious has happened in the past couple hours. All he finds is Eli and Steve talking about The Walking Dead.
• When Mike learns that magic technology seems to be Color-Coded for Your Convenience, he compares it to Warhammer 40K. "Da red wunz go fasta!"
• Frisk is excited to find The Way Things Work at Joe's House of Stuff.