Inside Jokes and Layers

What inside jokes or layered references have you slipped into your stories that you wonder if anyone will ever catch them?

It's very rewarding when people do. But sometimes you just have to share your cleverness.

In the chapter I'm working on, there's a fitting quote from Don Quixote that I've put in. I think you can already guess at some of the joke right from that much.

I put a horrible Latin pun in What Begins with an Apple. I took my cue from Moliere, who has his fake "Physician" in Physician In Spite of Himself recite rules of Latin grammar (in Latin) (ie "Quia substantivo et adjectivum concordat in generi, numerum, et casus" (adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in terms of gender, number and case) at which point he falls over, "casus" meaning both "case" and "fall") in order to appear learned in front of the patient's family. So I had River recite the declension of the noun "ovo" (egg) ("decline the following nouns" was one of the most common Latin exercises when I was taking Latin), and then "decline" to answer Mal's question. (*groan*) But nobody commented on it. Either it was too awful, or nobody studies Latin these days.

On the other hand, when I quoted Douglas Adams (in Bandiagara), a lot of people got it. I got lots of positive feedback on that one. Less so with Oscar Wilde (Bandiagara and What Begins with an Apple), who I am fond of quoting because he's so funny. And nobody mentioned my Gilbert and Sullivan reference (to The Pirates of Penzance) back in Break Out. There are actually lots of these in my fic because I am such a literary quotations geek.

Ah! Okay, I remember you mentioning that joke, but yeah, I didn't get that one at the time.

And no, I haven't studied latin. But I did recognize the word for egg, and that you were conjugating it, but I couldn't figure out why.

I feel as though I am a literary dwarf, I have heard of many of these, but not read or seen them.

That's the thing about Latin: you "conjugate" verbs, but you "decline" nouns. Both of which terms have tremendous bad pun potential. Especially in Firefly, when Companions are involved. Given that their business is conjugation. Although sometimes they decline to conjugate. (bunny)

ebfiddler987 wrote:That's the thing about Latin: you "conjugate" verbs, but you "decline" nouns. Both of which terms have tremendous bad pun potential. Especially in Firefly, when Companions are involved. Given that their business is conjugation. Although sometimes they decline to conjugate. (bunny)

Sounds like River has a joke to tell Inara. Since Inara might know latin, she might get it.

So what other inside jokes or layers of references have you included?

I remember reading Guildsister's fic Blue Sun Job, and becoming aware of Buffy references at several points in that story. I don't generally reference Buffy (just because I'm not super-familiar with it) or Angel (same reason), but I do reference Dr Horrible and Castle on occasion. I also (very frequently) reference interviews with Joss Whedon and the cast, and I have referenced the commentary from the DVD's. Some of my references are pretty lame, others might be funnier or maybe even a little bit deep. I had Mal tell someone that Kaylee was a jewel. Joss Whedon commented on the DVD when the theme song was played, that, yes Fox could take the sky from him, and I quoted that in a nightmare I wrote for Mal.

Also, I put in Star Wars and Star Trek references from time to time.

I want to know what kinds of references other people put into their stories.

I generally layer my references to be really obscure. Like, my plot maybe kinda parallels, if you squint, the storyline from La Boheme, which was based on an Indian play called the Little Clay Cart. I have Simon think some English translated lyrics from La Boheme in the context of Inara at one point, and even have an acting troupe perform the Little Clay Cart. I quote various poems, particularly from T.S. Eliot, Byron, and Shelley. Then there's other references that are particularly story relevant like Don Quixote (the upcoming joke is only one of them) and the spoiler-ridden shakespeare references I've scattered around. There's a dance River performs from the ballet La Bayadere. And several of the minor characters in the Ezra resistance are references to the students of the l'ABC in Les Miserables.