The Whateley Universe has so many Shout Outs they had to be split into a separate page, or there would be too much indentation.
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Whole Series or has appeared in more than one story
- Tenchi Muyo!: Tennyo looks just like Ryoko, due to the circumstances of her transformation. Possibly inverted in-universe, as it has been suggested by both Aunghadhail and Gothmog that the Tenchi Muyo! character might reflect a sort of ancestral memory or universal archetype based on The Star Stalker.
- Superman: A major figure in the world's back story is The Chicago Champion, a Flying Brick who is clearly meant as a Superman Substitute and even arose in-universe around the same time as Supes. The title 'Champion' is now a Legacy Character, as the specific circumstances of where his powers came from allow those powers to be passed on to others with the same mutant power, and they have been given to a worthy successor by each Champion since.
- Shazam!: the original Champion's Kid Sidekicks, Junior Champion and Miss Champion, are modeled on Captain Marvel, Jr. and Mary Marvel, respectively. The former would become the second Champion, while the unusually Long-Lived latter went on to become Lady Astarte, AKA Headmistress Elizabeth Carson of the Superhero School Whateley Academy.
- American Literature, and Comic Books: The dormitories are named for historical American authors (Poe, Melville, Twain, Whitman, Dickenson, and Hawthorne), and have some cheesy themed decorations to match. Furthermore, most of the other school buildings are named after famous comic book artists or authors: (Joe) Shuster, (Jerry) Seigel, (Bob) Kane, (Jack) Kirby, (Gardner) Fox, (Ben) Dunn, (Peter) Laird, (Kevin) Eastman, and (Todd) McFarlane.
- Kimba the White Lion: Team Kimba is explicitly named after the titular character.
- Æon Flux: Ayla's original name is a reference to Trevor Goodchild, the Corrupt Corporate Executive Anti-Villain.
- I Dream of Jeannie: Dr. Bellows, named after the shrink, is a shrink with a Genie Bottle (from said show) in his office. Jade uses the pink sand inside to animate Jinn.
- Fantastic Four: The paperwork from Whateley goes through a shell company called Richards and Grimm Consulting. This is probably an in-universe shout out, since the comic still exists (and indeed, Ayla catches the reference). And was probably a blatant expy of The Amazing Three in the first place...
- The Incredibles: A major mutants-only website, geared towards the sale of high-end weaponry and espionage gear, is named the Sin d'Rome Mercenarium.
- The Saga of Tuck: Two of the administrative assistants on campus are named Valerie Tucker and Debra Carstairs.
- The name of 'Quinzel-Osborn Syndrome', a psychological condition that makes the sufferer Drunk on the Dark Side, combines references to Harley Quinn and Norman Osborn, both of whom are known for such behavior.
- Rocky and Bullwinkle: In the Teacher's Village, the Adjective Animal Alehouse and the cafe next to it are called the "The Flying Blue Squirrel Pub" and "The Brown Moose Cafe".
- The Avengers (1960s): Fey's magic tutor Sir Wallace Westmont is a Shout-Out to John Steed.
- Kim Possible:
- The side character Shrike (Zenith's roommate) is based on Shego, and is described in-story as resembling her in both looks and personality.
- The end of this exchange is a direct reference to the series:“Okay, any other awesome ideas?” Generator asked. “Because I got nothing. I mean, I don’t have anything that’s gonna take down a sixty-foot super-ape made of diamond with magic protection all over it. Unless you think C-4’s an option.”
[...]
I said, “I can try my baton. I have a few more tangleweb balls and taser shots. I’m out of ice eggs. I have a couple fireball eggs and a couple explosive eggs left. And I have a couple other toys, but nothing designed with giant magical monkeys in mind.”
“Mystical Monkey Power?” smirked Generator in tones that warned me she was making yet another allusion I didn’t get.
- Jackie Chan Adventures:
- Ayla and the Mad Scientist: (Chap 11)
:“Bad day bad day bad day!” said Generator. - Straight from the Squirrel’s Mouth (Chapter 7):Chaka just said, “Bad day bad day bad day!” which Anna was pretty sure was a Jackie Chan cartoon joke.
- Ayla and the Mad Scientist: (Chap 11)
- The Lord of the Rings: Palantir's codename is based on the palantír.
- The Odyssey: Circe - the same Circe who transformed Odysseus's crew - is one of the Mystic Arts teachers.
- Journey to the West: Sun Wukong has appeared repeatedly, mainly in the stories regarding Bladedancer.
- Shout-Out Theme Naming to The X-Files with FBI Agents Fennec Miller and Dinah Scolaidhe, and their boss, Wallace Tanner, a.k.a Fox Mulder, Dana Scully and their boss, Walter Skinner.
- THX1138: Dr. Diabolik's THX series of Genius Serums, the most significant of which is THX-1138.
- The Addams Family: Mystic Arts instructor Elyzia Grimes is consistently described as resembling a live action version of Morticia Addams.
By story
- "Razzle Dazzle" is an extended Deconstruction of a dozen genres ranging from comic books, pulp fiction, radio and film serials, spy thrillers, and animated childrens' shows, some of them being:
- Part 1:
- The Shadow: Mephisto states that the Ancient Tradition which trained Lamont Cranston as a force of Good is based on a real group, the White Monks, and that he himself was trained by their ethical opposites, the Red Monks, to be an agent of chaos (for the greater good). He adds that both The Shadow and Batman were based on his Arch-Enemy, The Dark Avenger.
- The Rover Boys: Word of God has said 'the Wilde Boys' were a pastiche of them. It is also mentioned that their father, Professor Wilde, was based on Professor Challenger.
- Fu Manchu: Mephisto claims that he'd posed as a Yellow Peril type figure in San Francisco in the early 1930s, only to get run out of town by a real one called Fu Hsi. Mephisto says that Fu Hsi so closely matched the novel's description of Fu Manchu that he thinks Sax Rohmer may have based the character on him.
- Superman: While mocking how dorky and easily duped the original Champion was, Mephisto bemoans the fact that, after the Superman comics came out, Champion switched from a wearing a boiler suit to tights, making the hero look even more ridiculous.
- Part 2:
- Captain America: Mephisto claims that the many Captain Patriotic figures which appeared during World War II were almost all the result of Super-Soldier experiments funded by the US Army. They were covertly rotated through homefront missions to test how they reacted to combat stresses before being sent overseas, with the costume then being given over to the next candidate. He goes on to say that their supposed Kid Sidekicks were actually the heroes' handlers, being youthful-looking men and women in their 20s, who were dressed in costumes that made them seem younger in order to keep anyone from noticing that they were calling the shots.
- Doc Savage: The titular character has an Expy in Doc Wilde, where the books' concept of "the Crime College" is referenced with his sanitarium, and the interpretation of that college "removing evil" as some sort of brain surgery akin to frontal lobotomy.
- Part 3:
- Scooby-Doo: From the very beginning of the part. "Old Man Jenkins" was one of Mephisto's disguises, as part of a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax, a You Meddling Kids line, characters named Thelma and Orvy, Expies of Velma and Shaggy, respectively.
- Fantastic Four: Mephisto's actions when facing the Amazing Three mirror those of long-time FF villain Miracle Man, a former stage magician who could create realistic illusions. Several of the places and devices used by the Amazing Three (their base in the Kirby Building; the Pogo Pod, Hardcharger, and Rapidstriker vehicles) are modeled on ones used by the Fantastic Four, while the Cosmic Crystal is a stand-in for the Cosmic Cube (though unlike the Cube, the Crystal only creates an illusion of Reality Warping).
- Real Life: In the 1980s, Mephisto created a supposedly Infernalist alter-ego, 'Satanikos', in order to whip up a Witch Hunt against supposed Satanically-influence child care facilities. It turns out that he was doing this to flush out a different set of supervillains, the Grand Hall of Sinister Wisdom, who really were using such facilities to fake adoptions of children whom they would then use for Human Sacrifice to demonic entities. This is a reference to the real-world 'satanic ritual abuse' panic in that same time period.
- All the President's Men: At the end of the interview, Mephisto reveals that he knew from the outset that the 'journalist' calling himself 'Dustin Redford' was an agent of the Dark Avenger, and berates him for using such a flimsy pseudonym based on the names of the actors who portrayed Real Life journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward in that film.
- Unsorted:
- Silent Nacht (Chapter 2): During the Swashbuckler, Mr. Magic fight (bolding is used in-place of the underlining, in the source text, since that's unavailable to TV Tropes right now):They both rolled back onto their feet and their guard. Mr. Magic produced a fan of cards, which burned with energy. “Oh,” Swashbucker said with a note of disappointed disdain in his voice, “you’re ripping off Gambit from the X-Men™. How original.”
Mister Magic arched a cross eyebrow. “You have the gall to stand there, in that Errol Flynn retread outfit, with a Green Arrow surplus phony beard, and call ME derivative?” Instead of throwing the cards, a flurry of spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds erupted from them, followed by four ‘kings’ ‘queens’ and ‘jacks’ each, one from each suit.
“So, instead, you rip off ‘Card Captor Sakura’,” Swash sneered as he produced an energy blade from the gem on the back of his right hand and disrupted the four energy manifestations.
“Card Captor Sakura?” Mr. Magic bleated in non-comprehension as he back-flipped up to a catwalk above.
Swash quickly followed and lunged with his staff. “Sure! Y’know? The anime? With the girl with the magic deck of cards that she brings critters out of? She goes around hunting down rogue cards and captures them in her deck?”
“You watch cartoons?” Mr. Magic riposted (in more ways than one). “About a little girl? And you’re giving ME grief?”
“HEY, it’s a Classic Cartoon!” Swash countered Mr. M’s riposte, grappled and threw him.
- Part 1
- Ōkami: From Generation 2, used around the girl codenamed such, to annoy her, such as referenced in "Laura and the Village".Laura's jaw dropped as she gazed at one wolf plushie that hung pinned to the wall with what looked like a crossbow bolt or a very heavy dart.
- The Worst Witch: In "The Three Little Witches", Professor Grimes derisively refers to the titular tween witches as 'The Mildred Hubble Fan Club'.
