Casting In-Joke

The bespectacled audition judge who tells Marty's band, the Pinheads, that they're 'just too darn loud' is Huey Lewis — and the song the Pinheads are butchering is a hard-rock…

The toolbox on Sid's desk carries the Binford Tools logo — the fictional sponsor of Tool Time, the show-within-a-show on Home Improvement. Tim Allen, who voices Buzz, was starring…

When the Narrator puts Marla on a bus out of town, the theater marquee behind her advertises Seven Years in Tibet — Brad Pitt's 1997 film. Per Fincher, the gag went further…

When the crew lands on the giant 20th-century garbage ball threatening Earth in "A Big Piece of Garbage," Bender digs up a Bart Simpson doll that squawks "Eat my shorts!" — and…

The Yeti who offers Mike and Sulley yellow snow cones is voiced by John Ratzenberger, who had already played Hamm in Toy Story and P.T. Flea in A Bug's Life. Monsters, Inc. is the…

The film's most quotable character is voiced by Brad Bird himself. He had written the part with Lily Tomlin in mind and pitched it to her; after hearing him perform the voice…

Psych's vampire episode is wall-to-wall genre stunt casting. Kristy Swanson — the original big-screen Buffy from 1992's Buffy the Vampire Slayer — debuts as Marlowe, the…

The Axiom's calm shipboard voice belongs to Sigourney Weaver, and the casting is the joke. In Alien, Weaver spent a film taking orders from a ship's computer called Mother — a…

The Doberman leading Muntz's pack has a malfunctioning translator collar that renders his menace in a helium chirp. Pete Docter has explained the character note behind it: Alpha…

Emmy-winning actress Margo Martindale voices a fictionalized version of herself — introduced by BoJack as "esteemed character actress Margo Martindale" — who moonlights as a…

Zach Braff voices a fictional version of himself whose sole purpose seems to be getting destroyed. In Season 4's "Underground," he's burned and cannibalized by earthquake…

During a flashback in Wade and Vanessa's apartment, Wade fiddles with an actual retail action figure of "Deadpool" as he appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) — mouth sewn…

In the Workshop, the dialogue winks directly at the Merc with a Mouth's infamous first film appearance: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) sewed Deadpool's mouth shut, deleted his…

Agreeing to the program that will cure his cancer, Wade begs that his eventual superhero suit be neither green nor animated — a double-barreled shot at Green Lantern (2011), where…

The gouged tabletop in Victor Creel's cell is a deliberate Freddy Krueger claw-scrape, added on executive producer Shawn Levy's instruction. Casting horror legend Robert Englund…

Early in Season 2, a background resident strolls through the neighborhood in Elsa's signature icy-blue gown and side braid from Frozen — a wink at Kristen Bell, who voices Anna in…

Young Hugh Crain is played by Henry Thomas — Elliott from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — and the props team winked at his most famous role by planting an E.T. lunchbox among the…

Two Community alumni hide in Endgame: Ken Jeong as the storage-facility security guard and Yvette Nicole Brown as a 1970s S.H.I.E.L.D. employee. Before Marvel, the Russos directed…

Giancarlo Esposito's unflappable Vought executive Stan Edgar muses about one day getting out and moving to Belize. For anyone who watched Breaking Bad, that's a loaded…

When the Boys dig through Russian footage of the experiments performed on Soldier Boy, a scientist notes a procedure 'dated January 24.' That's Dean Winchester's canonical…

Supernatural's real co-star was Dean's black 1967 Chevy Impala, and The Boys keeps sneaking it in — including an animated gag in Season 2 where Stormfront gets flattened by…

In Season 5, prepping for a TV hit alongside Firecracker, Soldier Boy proudly calls his sidearm an 'All-American Colt 1911.' For Supernatural fans it lands as another Ackles wink…

Mark's school is Reginald VelJohnson High School, its name visible on the building exterior — a nod to the Die Hard and Family Matters actor. The joke pays itself off later: the…

Art Rosenbaum, the grumpy tailor who stitches and repairs the heroes' costumes out of his Tailor Shoppe, is voiced by Mark Hamill — Luke Skywalker himself and one of animation's…

During the Season 2 finale's dimension-hopping, Mark crashes into Agent Spider — a web-slinging hero mid-fight with a tentacled villain named Omnipotus — an obvious…

In Season 4, when Nolan and Allen are handed a Coalition of Planets vessel, the whole setup parodies Star Trek: The Next Generation — a bald captain, an android, a gruff warrior…

Season 4's Viltrumite flashbacks stage a hidden voice-acting reunion: Peter Cullen, the eternal voice of Optimus Prime, voices Coalition leader Thaedus, while Frank Welker, the…

Season 4 sends the story somewhere the comics never did — Hell — where Bruce Campbell voices Satan and can't resist channeling his Evil Dead hero Ash Williams, dropping "Yeah…

The prologue is narrated by Ian McShane, and the casting is a sly wink: McShane played Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. One Piece has its own Blackbeard…

The Mr. Handy robots in the show — including the organ-harvesting unit Lucy meets in the wasteland — are all voiced by comedy legend Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows). The…

Marvel Animation quietly stacked Season 2's most powerful roles with the Enterprise-D crew. Gates McFadden — Dr. Beverly Crusher — voices Mother Askani. Michael Dorn, TNG's Worf…

The voice guiding visitors through the museum's Voyager display belongs to Kate Mulgrew, who spent seven seasons commanding the USS Voyager as Captain Kathryn Janeway on Star…

The Fortress of Solitude's Superman Robots are voiced by James Gunn regulars, none of whom appear on screen. Their look is designed after their appearance in All-Star Superman…

Michael Rosenbaum, who played Lex Luthor for seven seasons of Smallville, voices one of Lex's armored Raptor guards. You will never see his face. It's a double tribute, since…

When Archer canvasses the neighborhood for Ring-camera footage, the couple who answer — chilly wife Erica and accommodating husband Gary — are Sara Paxton and Justin Long, both…

In the prison sequence, a fox inmate raps on another animal's head and asks Nick, "What are you looking at, butthead?" The inmate is "Michael J.," voiced by Michael J. Fox — his…

Green has explained how screenwriter Samy Burch filled the film's supporting roles: she treated the cast of Looney Tunes as a casting pool, asking "who are these characters who…

Marvin Jones III plays Lonnie Lincoln, a.k.a. Tombstone — the same character he voiced in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). Live-action and animation casting almost never…