Shout-Out

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A Shout-Out is something subtle (a name, line of dialogue, or prop) in a show that refers to fans or family members of the cast or crew, or to another source of inspiration. By nature, these can be obscure for casual fans. In English class, it is known by the more proper-sounding name, an allusion.

However, remember that many tropes, symbols, and such are older than they look and can, often, arise in parallel. So despite (or because of) the ubiquitous nature of some creative properties that doesn't mean that anything that seems somewhat similar is referencing said work.

Reference Overdosed is when a series is loaded with these.

Giving references to other works can predate to older times but became increasingly common in medieval times. In modern times, almost every larger film, Video Game and so on intentionally references some other work, making the phenomenon nearly omnipresent.

See also Homage, Stock Shout-Outs, Opening Shout-Out, Shout-Out Theme Naming. Literary Allusion Title is a subtrope. Easily confused with a Mythology Gag and Continuity Nod, and may overlap with Actor Allusion. Contrast Take That, which is a negative-spirited Shout-Out.

See Stock Shout-Outs for a list of Shout-Outs and other references common enough to earn their own page.

Remember, a Shout-Out is intentional. If a character just happened to use a similar turn of phrase to another work, that's just a coincidence.

Examples of Shout-Out include:

General[]

Be it novel, video game, comic or TV show, anything related to Star Wars will do this without shame. We can only assume the makers of Pepto-Bismol must be filthy rich in this universe, what with everyone having a bad feeling about this and that...
When one registers for online content on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website, one of the password recovery questions asks for the airspeed of an unladen swallow.

Advertising[]

A Filipino snack ad best described, as one comment put it, as "SACRILEGE TO Lucky Star." In terms of character designs, Sailor Moon wasn't spared either.
In the New York area, there's a store called B&H, whose advertisements involve a guy named Dave and a robot named Hal.
Trojan Condoms: In The Iliad the Greek army gets into a giant horse, which gets through the enemy's defenses. Men inside a horse, inside the enemy's walls. What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic? And then, after penetrating the enemy fortress, the horse bursts open and all the soldiers inside start rampaging everywhere.
There's a Honda advertisement that uses the opening to the Waldstein Sonata by Beethoven.

Pro Wrestling[]

Pro wrestler and Ring of Honor regular Jimmy Jacobs officially dubbed his Finishing Move the "Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start". The commentators, more often than not, just call it the "Contra Code".
For the last several years, Rey Mysterio, Jr. has appeared at Wrestlemania wearing a costume clearly inspired by a fictional character. This used to be just superheroes, but last year, he was dressed as The Joker... and then this year, he was one of the Na'vi from Avatar
- He was recently dressed in an homage to Iron Man (probably in commemoration of the movie sequel's release in theaters), and his Wrestlemania debut (Wrestlemania XIX, in a Cruiserweight Title match against defending champion Matt Hardy) was as The Flash...which happens to be his most frequent special-occasion costume.
- A Ctually, that was Wrestlemania XX.
- At Wrestlemania XXVII, Rey dressed in an outfit inspired by Captain America.
A possibly unintentional pair of shout-outs for the WWE when the theme songs to RAW and Smack Down were changed to "Burn It to the Ground" by Nickelback and "Let It Roll" by Divide The Day, respectively; both songs (whether intentionally or not) sound very similar to the original debut themes for both shows (RAW's untitled original theme and Smack Down's original theme, "Everybody On the Ground", respectively)
Prior to making his entrance, CM Punk will stop at the stage and shout "It's clobberin' time!" prior to his matches.

Radio[]

Garrison Keilor and Ira Glass have a fake feud going on, whereby they slip little insults to one another into their respective radio shows or public appearances. In Keilor's case, these often take the shape of mentions of Glass in his Prairie Home Companion sketches, impressions of Glass done by his actors, or pastiches of Glass' broadcasting style.
- The ersatz Keilor/Glass feud is itself a shout-out to Jack Benny and Fred Allen, two giants of the Golden Age of Radio, who first hit upon this idea as a running (and recognised) prank on the audience.
Keilor also mercilessly lampoons other NPR figures in sketches, most notably news correspondents, who show up as voice impressions in PHC news sketches. Sometimes these pseudo-cameos are identified by name; often they are either un-named or given a ficitonal name, making the shout-out an inside joke among NPR staff and habitual listeners.

Toys[]

In G.I. Joe, the redheaded Shana O'Hara was born in the South (specifically, Atlanta, Georgia). She is, indeed, a fierce and attractive Southern belle. Her codename? Scarlett.