the 50 cultural references you must know to understand me

Dr. Robert R. Cargill, falconer. On the grounds of Ashford Castle, Cong, Co. Mayo, Ireland.

i was lecturing at ucla today and made some pop culture references in an attempt to relate the ideas and concepts from antiquity to modern times. and, as any lecturer will tell you, while my favorite movies and bands remain the same over time, the students get younger each year, and their favorite bands and music become much more modern (and increasingly obscure. and not as good). thus, while some of the cultural examples i use as examples in lectures may have at one time ‘killed’ or perfectly conveyed the meaning of a profound point, others have become lost to time, at least in the minds of my students.

thus, as a public service to my students, i have put together a list of cultural references to which i find myself regularly referring. in order to fully understand me, get most of my jokes, comprehend all of my anecdotal textual allusions, know who i’m quoting, and catch all of my deadpan comments, i hereby offer the following list of the greatest and most influential quotes, movies, literature, people,activities, and historical events of all time. (these are presented in alphabetical order, and i reserve the right to add to or change this list as i remember more influential items.)

1. airplane
2. anchorman
3. apple/mac
4. aramaic targumim
5. archaeology
6. austin powers (trilogy)
7. beavis and butthead
8. billy madison
9. blogging
10. boston red sox
11. casablanca
12. colbert report
13. contact
14. damien rice
15. dumb and dumber
16. espn sportscenter anchors’ one-liners
17. facebook
18. fail blog
19. falconry
20. flight of the conchords
21. forrest gump
22. fresno
23. funny king james bible quotations
24. happy gilmore
25. hebrew
26. hunting
27. i’m gonna git you sucka
28. indiana jones (raiders trilogy)
29. jethro tull
30. lost
31. lyle lovett
32. monty python’s search of the holy grail
33. more cowbell (watch)
34. naked gun (trilogy)
35. primus
36. shawshank redemption
37. smashing pumpkins
38. snl jeopardy parodies
39. so i married an axe murderer
40. spinal tap
41. star wars (original trilogy)
42. the big lebowski
43. the dollars/man with no name trilogy
44. the onion
45. the princess bride
46. the west wing
47. tombstone
48. wait wait…don’t tell me!
49. willy wonka and the chocolate factory
50. zoolander

what is your list? if you create one, please link to it in the comments below. -bc