Shout Out / The Critic

There's a considerable number every episode due to the nature of the show, but for some specific examples:

• The theme song is a mish-mash of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and parts of his An American in Paris score.
• In the pilot, they reference Beauty and the Beast with "Beauty and King Dork" - complete with CGI ballroom.
• Turns out Vlada and his son are from Pottsylvania.
• From "Frankie and Ellie Get Lost", Franklin acting like Curly after first drinking alcohol which made him into his present stupid state, with Albert Einstein and Ted Kennedy acting like Larry and Moe respectively.
• Prince Charles sounds like one of the Gumbies, while Queen Elizabeth sounds like the troupe's usual Cross-Dressing Voices, particularly the "women" in the Spam sketch.
  • They're called pepperpots, due to their general shape. See here.
• One of the more Stealth Pun Shout Outs of the show is Alice's sister Miranda using venetian blinds for her dress, a reference to the famous Gone with the Wind spoof from The Carol Burnett Show.
• The Crying Game: In "A Little Deb Will Do Ya", Jay meets the girl of his dreams, but she has a secret - down there. Turns out she's wearing the bottom half of her work clothes - Humphrey the Hippo.
• A reviewer's face melting off and reducing him to a skeleton (after Roger Ebert shows him a clip of a bad movie) is a reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• In "Every Doris Has Her Day", there's Duke's latest producing gig: A Dirty Dozen remake starring Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Willis, Eddie Murphy and Michael Caine with Saddam Hussein as himself, and it's five hours of mind-numbing crap. Sound familiar?
• "Miserable" is an obvious Misery parody. The female projectionist even resembles Kathy Bates.
• Penultimate episode "Dukerella" is a cross between Cinderella and A Streetcar Named Desire.
• A drunken Arthur Bach (Dudley Moore) appears in several episodes.
• The penguin pilot's "Waakwakwakwak" speech imitates Burgess Meredith's laugh as, yup, The Penguin from the '60s Batman series.
• The ending of "Frankie and Ellie Get Lost" has a closing shot of Gilligan's Island, complete with theme song.
• Franklin dressed up as El Kabong is a reference to Quick Draw McGraw.
• Eleanor saying "No more wire hangers!" is a direct reference to Mommie Dearest.
• Alice's Take That! to Tim Allen (one of many at his expense throughout the show) is funnier when you consider The Critic had preceded his show before ABC dumped it.
  Alice: Listen, honey, I've known men like Duke all my life. There was this one boy back in college – dealt drugs, went to jail – yet today he's the star of Home Improvement.
• "A Pig-Boy & His Dog" concludes with "That's all, folks!"
• The "Rosebud Frozen Peas" commercial is a direct spoof of the Frozen Peas blooper tape.
• In "Marty's First Date", the intermission music from Ms. Pac-Man plays after Jay gets a whiff of some fried bananas. The song is omitted in the DVD release.
• In "Dukerella", Jay and Alice dress up as Homer and Marge Simpson, respectively. The same episode has Eleanor as Queen Grimhilde and Franklin as The Mask.
  Franklin: "Daaa-rinkin'!"
• Jeremy mentions his first role was in an Australian film called Kegger Party at Hanging Rock.
• When Jay goes crazy from trying to think of new material, all he's typed is "All work and no play makes Jay a very dull boy." over and over again.
• Satoshi, the Eater of Souls seems to be just about every Mortal Kombat boss rolled into one big, mean, Cookiepuss-eating machine.
• Shout Out To Shakespeare: Keanu Reeves in The Merchant of Venice Beach:
  Shylock: Hath not a dude eyes? If you prick us, do we not get bummed? If we eat bad guacamole, do we not blow chunks?
• Alice's country singer ex-husband Cyrus is a direct parody of Billy Ray Cyrus.
• Whenever Jay's stomach tended to talk, he sounded similar to the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz.
• In From Chunk to Hunk, the face Doris draws on Jay's behind is eerily similar to the one on Pooh's in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.