Shout Out / Fallout 76

As is the norm with this series, the world of Fallout 76 is also chock-full of references to pop culture.

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• To Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:
  • Behind the counter at the Giant Teapot is a series of wooden blocks spelling out the word "LATE" next to a scrap of paper with "10/6" written on it.
  • A mountaintop location east of the Tyler County Fairgrounds features a table setting, as well as hats and board games, reminiscent of the Mad Hatter's tea party.
• A Jangles the Moon Monkey doll can be found lying on a stretcher in the AVR Medical Centre with a toy alien attached to its face.
• A paranoid refugee wearing a tin foil hat at the Whitespring Refuge will say that "there is an impostor among us" and will ask the player to take a photo of a suspicious refugee.
• Nuka-World On Tour's Gunther occasionally says "Don'tcha just love the smell of irradiated ash in the mornin'?"
• A chalk rendering of one of Albert Einstein's field equations can be found in a doghouse near an isolated cabin, referencing Doc Brown's dog Einstein from Back to the Future.
• To Batman:
  • The Order of Mysteries is one to the Batman Family. The group involves a vigilante group run by a hero focused on stealth and gadgets who adopts orphans to train as fellow vigilante fighters.
  • The description for the Heroic Photomode pose in the Atomic Store reads "You may not be the hero Appalachia wants...but you're the hero Appalachia NEEDS."
  • The Smiling Man's greeting "Ever dance with a devil under a blue moon?" is a reference to one of the Joker's lines from Batman (1989), "Ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"
• The Sons of Dane Compound was populated by a group of people known as the Sons of Dane until their partying drew the ire of a monstrous, cannibalistic creature, driving them away. Sound Familiar?
• The Insult Bot random encounter is one to the Zingbot 3000/9000, occasionally borrowing its inspiration's catchphrase as well.
  Insult Bot: "One of us is slow, devoid of a personality, and has no friends. The other is a protectron. Zing!"
• To Beetlejuice:
  • A wrecked truck can be found near The Wayward with a skeleton wearing a dress next to it, another skeleton hanging out the passenger's side of the truck, and a bandana behind the truck, referencing Adam and Barbara Maitland dying after swerving their car to avoid a dog and crashing into a bridge as a result.
  • An outer wall of the church in Point Pleasant (the one facing the graveyard) features a chalk drawing of a door, complete with an "O" for a doorknob . Adam draws a door on a similar-looking brick wall in the film.
• A deceased ghoul called Willie can be found holding a golden holotape.
• One of the generic combat taunts of the Pitt Fanatics is "Careful! You'll shoot your eye out!"
• The glassed cavern in the Cranberry Bog contains a series of wooden blocks spelling out the word "PLUGH".
• One of the game modes in Fallout Worlds is called "Dweller Must Die".
• The name of pre-war bank robber Al Wortzik is a nod to Al Pacino's character Sonny Wortzik in Dog Day Afternoon.
• To Doom:
  • One of the apartments in Morgantown contains a series of wooden blocks spelling out "BFG".
  • The "rip and tear" line from the Doom comic book and the reboot games Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal is referenced twice: the Trogs in the Pitt can often be heard saying "Rip...tear...", and the achievement for killing 10 Lesser Devils in Atlantic City with a melee weapon is also named "Rip and Tear".
• A note found in Braxson's Quality Medical Supplies called "Skeleton extraction guide" concludes with the line "Note: If your tombstone does not read "Rest in Peace", or some variant thereof, you are automatically drafted into the skeleton wars", a reference to a well-known tweet by popular Twitter user @dril.
• A whole bunch of references to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
  • The raid decals used by the raiders bear a strong resemblance to the Shadow marks used by Skyrim's Thieves Guild, even using the same marks for "loot" and "empty".
  • A series of blocks spelling "WE KNO" next to a framed picture with a bloody handprint can be found at the Mount Blair Trainyard, referencing the Dark Brotherhood's mysterious note.
  • Speaking of the Dark Brotherhood, Sara Matthews of the Treehouse Village Retreat proposes their name as an alternate moniker for the Brotherhood of Steel, as she considers their name "lame".
  • A carriage containing three dead settlers can be found on a path west of Vault 96. Fittingly enough, this is one of the possible locations the player can wake up in after blacking out from drinking Nukashine, referencing Skyrim's own intro.
  • One of the questions for the Pioneer Scouts' Medic badge exam references Skyrim's infamous "arrow to the knee" meme with a question about a patient named Ricky that has been shot in the knee with an arrow. One of the incorrect answers is "advise Ricky to give up on adventuring".
  • The Blue Ridge Caravan Company's vendor Rudy Fernandez paraphrases Skyrim's "Khajiit has wares, if you have coin" line by saying, "Rudy has wares, if you have caps."
• The Industrial district of The Pitt features a streetcar numbered "451".
• The name of the achievement trophy for reaching maximum reputation with the Crater Raiders is called "Friends in Low Places".
• The custom Assaultron Helmet "Polly's Old Head" bears the slogan "Built to Kill".
• To Futurama:
  • One of the terminal entries in the RobCo Research Centre is titled "Good news, everyone!", referencing Professor Farnsworth's Character Catchphrase..
  • A piece of graffiti can be found in the Metal Dome that reads "Bite My Rusty Metal Ass", in reference to Bender's Character Catchphrase "Bite my shiny metal ass!"
  • Pre-war actor Elliot Manfield (who now calls himself Xerxo) was best known for playing a "dashing space rogue" called Blast Hannigan, referencing Futurama's Zapp Brannigan.
• Joey Bello's comedy routines have a few references to Garfield:
  • (Sigh) "Mondays. Is it Monday? Feels like a Monday."
  • "Damn, I could really use another hit from that pipe. If I could just remember where it was..." potentially references this Garfield strip from July 27, 1978. Also doubles as an internal reference to the "Pipe is Life" random encounter.
• An unmarked location north of the Sunshine Meadows Industrial Farm is named "Game of Thrones" in the game's strategy guide. It consists of two skeletons sitting on toilets.
• The description for the "Conqueror" player icon on the Big Score scoreboard reads "Are you not entertained?"
• The last sentence of the note "My advice" reads "It's in that place where I put that thing that time".
• The last known survivors of the Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel are named "R. Rosen" and "Gilden", in reference to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet.
• A random encounter features a Miss Nanny called Mia and a Mr. Handy called Vlad talking back and forth in an endless loop, referencing a meme featuring two Google Home devices of the same names likewise stuck asking each other questions in an endless loop.
• To Harry Potter:
  • A Golden Eyebot will roam around the arena during the "Test Your Metal" event, similar to Quidditch's Golden Snitch.
  • "TestZach", one of the game's developer test cells, bears the display name of "Snape Kills Dumbledore".
• One of the terminal entries in the R&G Processing Centre references the "headlight fluid" meme.
• From the Pirate Radio ad for "I Married a Maoist":
  • Three of the film's characters (housewife Lorraine, her husband Robert, and Robert's injured co-worker John) are named after the lead actors from the film's real-life inspiration The Woman on Pier 13 (Laraine Day, Robert Ryan and John Agar).
  • The policeman that answers Lorraine's phone call is named Officer MacArthur, a clear reference to Joseph McCarthy.
  • The Rattling Off Legal at the end of the ad mentions the film was financed by the "U.S. Center of Anti-American Activities", a reference to the House Un-American Activities Committee (and possibly also the Unamerican Activities Force from Fallout: Van Buren).
• A clown holding a red balloon can be found inside a fridge at the Whitespring Golf Club.
• When extracing the mysterious component from Fort Atlas's machine core during the "Mother of Invention" quest, the player can choose to quickly swap it out for a heavy sack of dirt.
• One of the quests for the Crater raider faction is called "From Russia With Lev".
• The illustration on the Enforcer perk card is a parody of the film posters for Killing Them Softly.
• A pre-war concert at the Rusty Pick featured a country singer named Jesse "The Dancin' Bandit" White, a reference to Jesco "The Dancing Outlaw" White. The setlist also included some real-life country songs, such as "Snake Song", "The Wayfaring Stranger" and "The Devil Is My Running Mate".
• One of the guards at Eastern Regional Penitentiary is named Leroy Brown.
• The Jack of Diamonds and Ace of Spades from the Big Score scoreboard are named Jack & Diane.
• One of the terminal entries in the Garrahan Mining Headquarters mentions a Family Fun Day event featuring a band called Rod Torfulson's Armada.
• One of the Raider vendor bot's greetings starts with the words "It's dangerous to go alone".
• The picnic table at the glamping site west of the Pumpkin House features seven beer bottles arranged in the minimalist version of Ctrl+Alt+Del's "Loss" strip.
• The Metal Dome features graffiti reading "Oh what a day what a lovely day."
• A school bus containing a series of wooden blocks spelling "MAGIC" can be found in the parking lot outside Camden Park. In addition, an orange tie Mr. Fuzzy doll wearing a clown hat can be found in the driver's seat, vaguely resembling Ms. Frizzle.
• From Commander Sofia Daguerre's ally questline:
  • The name of the overarching questline is "The Woman Who Fell to Earth".
  • The title of the opening quest, "One Small Step", is a reference to Neil Armstrong's famous quote, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
  • The quest titled "Who Sat Down Beside Her" is a quote from the nursery rhyme "Little Miss Muffet".
• From the "Lying Lowe" quest:
  • The terminal security passcode is "aSQUATCHinSHEEPSclothing".
  • The operation is codenamed "Mary's Little Lamb", referencing "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
  • The field operative, Calvin van Lowe, is codenamed "Blacksheep", in reference to "Baa Baa Black Sheep" (which is also the name of the subsequent questline).
  • His handler is codenamed "Bo-Peep", in reference to "Little Bo-Peep".
  • The fixer is codenamed The Big Bad Wolf (or "Wolf" for short), referencing The Three Little Pigs.
• The "Local Inventory" entry on the terminal in the Lombardi Family's warehouse in Atlantic City's flooded city centre is a blatant spoof of Mastercard's advertising:
  Beer, 20 cases
  Wine, 30 cases
  10mm sub-machine guns, 2 cases
  10mm ammo, 15 cases
  Fine Italian tailored suits, salvaged, 5 cases
  The look on Bim's face when I showed him that two-dollar bill? Priceless.
• CAMP ally Joey Bello will occasionally say "Oh, I'm walkin' here!"
• An unmarked riverside cottage near the Kanawha Nuka-Cola plant contains several references to Monster Factory's series of Fallout 4 videos:
  • The name "PAM" is spelled out in wooden blocks on top of the TV.
  • A Radroach wearing a bowler hat can be found sitting on the toilet, referencing Roachie.
  • A coffee tin can be found in a crib in the cottage, referencing Pam's claim that her real son is a coffee tin.
  • The destroyed Mr. Handy is a reference to Fallout 4's Codsworth, whom Pam calls her "metal husband".
• A couple of the quotes of the Lumberjack Protectron found near Gilman Lumber Mill reference the Lumberjack Song from Monty Python's Flying Circus:
  Lumberjack Protectron: "Lumberjack Protectron works all night and also works all day."
  Lumberjack Protectron: "Lumberjack Protectron cuts down trees, but does not require lunch or lavatory facilities."
• A holotape found in the Black Bear Hunting Lodge is called "The Addington's Dangerous Game".
• In the quest "The Ol' Weston Shuffle", should the player ask Johnny Weston "Why don't we just go there, kill everyone and save Hal?", Johnny will sarcastically call the player a "murder-hobo", in reference to one of the varieties of RPG Munchkins.
  Johnny Weston: "Whoa, kick it down a notch, Captain Murder-hobo. That's plan B. Plan A is all about safety and finesse."
• To Mothman lore:
  • The Mothman cultist lite CAMP ally Steven Scarberry is named after Steve Mallette and Linda & Roger Scarberry, eyewitnesses to the first reported encounter with the Mothman in November 1966.
  • In addition, Mary Scarberry from the radio play The Mothman Cometh shares her first name with Steve Mallette's wife, who was also an eyewitness.
• The customer comment terminal at the Top of the World contains a number of references to Murdoch Mysteries:
  • The heading reads "W. Murdock & J. Ogdin", referencing the show's title character William Murdoch and his wife Dr. Julia Ogdin.
  • The "Crabtree Burger" is a reference to George Crabtree, and one of the burger's ingredients is listed as "Canadian Bacon", referring to the fact that the show was produced, shot and set in Canada.
• One of the terminal entries at Camden Park mentions Marty Porkins being promoted to "Assistant to the Park Manager", before the title is changed to "Assistant Park Manager". This refers to a Running Gag from both The Office (UK) and The Office (US) in which the Assistant to the Regional Manager (Gareth Keenan in the UK version, Dwight Schrute in the US version) repeatedly falsely claims that he is the Assistant Regional Manager.
• One of the old patient rooms on the first floor of Fort Defiance (the former Allegheny Asylum) features a skeleton lying in bed wearing a nightcap with a pillow over its face, referencing the finale of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
  • A doghouse can be found in the forest near Vault 76 with a skeleton on its roof, a birdhouse in a nearby tree and various baseball items strewn on the ground outside, referencing Snoopy, Woodstock and other characters from Peanuts.
• You may occasionally run into an Eyebot leading a pack of Radrats with flute music.
• Pervis Wilson, a pre-war inmate at The Eastern Regional Penetentiary, was nicknamed "Rebel".
• When Lane Platte at the Gilman Lumber Mill introduces himself and the Responders, one of the lines the player can reply to him with is "I'm something of a Responder myself, actually", referencing a similar memetic line of Norman Osborn's from the 2002 Spider-Man film, "I'm something of a scientist myself."
• When Thomas Eckhart of the Enclave asks Colonel Ellen Santiago if she's willing to help him prevent a repeat of the Great War, Santiago replies, "Sir, I would very much like to know more."
• The note "My story" begins with the words "Yep, it's me again. You're probably wondering how I got myself in this situation..." referencing the Record Needle Scratch meme popular on 4chan and Tumblr.
• The perk card images for Archer, Expert Archer and Master Archer all depict Vault Boy dressed up as Robin Hood.
• The "Rodney's poem" note in Clancy Manor is completely composed of punchlines to many of Rodney Dangerfield's one-liners.
• To The Shining:
  • Torrance House contains multiple references to the film, including the "redrum" scene, the fire axe and the hedge maze, in addition to being named after the surname of Jack Nicholson's character.
  • A second floor room of the Allegheny Asylum (now Fort Defiance) also contains a series of wooden blocks on the floor spelling out "REDRUM".
• One of the dialog choices when conversing with the CAMP lite ally Xerxo (a ghoul who thinks he's an alien due to Trauma-Induced Amnesia) is "I, for one, welcome our new Zebulonian overlords," referencing Kent Brockman's famous Quisling meme from The Simpsons.
• The game's live-action trailer begins with a woman in a country-style dress spinning around firing machine guns in each outstretched arm, referring to this meme edit that added machine guns to a similar pose by Julie Andrews' character in The Sound of Music. The Nuka-World scoreboard later added this pose to the game itself as an emote called "The Hills Are Alive".
• The name of Tanagra Town, as well as a graffiti in its bus stop reading "Darmok + Jalad" are references to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Darmok".
• The Ordnance Express perk card features Vault Boy's face on the front of a locomotive, resembling Thomas the Tank Engine.
• The note "Untitled" consists solely of the words "Chapter One: The night was—", referencing the opening scene of Throw Momma from the Train.
• A female skeleton can be found in the middle of the dried-up Summersvile Lake, reaching out to another skeleton's partially-sunken arm.
• A Comrade Chubs teddy bear can be found sitting on the front of a truck on the highway east of Bleeding Kate's Grindhouse, referencing Toy Story 3's ending where antagonist Lotso is found by a trucker and tied to the front of his truck.
• The mycology notes found in Abandoned Bog Town contain the words "time is a flat circle".
• The title of the note "Time enough at last" is a reference to the episode of the same name from The Twilight Zone (1959). The names featured in the note are all those of real-world people involved in the episode: "Venable" refers to Lynn Venable, the writer of the original short story; "Brahm" refers to John Brahm, the episode's director; "Sterling" refers to Rod Serling, the show's presenter and writer of the teleplay; and "Meredith" refers to Burgess Meredith, the actor who played the main character Henry Bemis.
• One of the holotapes from a priest of the Mothman cult begins with the words "The cathode ray tube is the retina to the mind's eye".
• There are collectible bears throughout the game. In one area you can find a Grizzly Bear, a Panda, and a Polar Bear in a stack next to a child's note. The bears are in the same stack order as the main characters in Cartoon Network's We Bare Bears.
• Hank Madigan's corpse being found in a cage is a reference to the 1988 film Willow, in which the protagonists find the similary-named mercenary Madmartigan trapped in a crow's cage.

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