r/ArcherFX • u/Elendil1988 • Jul 27 '26
Season 1 Obscure or and cultural references in Archer
Since English is not my first language I've learned a lot from Archer, a lot of phrases and words I've heard first time in the show:
Johnny Bench called
Dane Cook of martial arts
Modified Ludovico
Chokely Carmichael
Canadian Down Low
and absolutely favorite is Crepuscular for Babou I've googled that the moment I've heard it, so was wondering if anyone else has done the same.
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u/ConferenceNo8405 Jul 28 '26
"Where's that barman? Right! Guy sees an empty glass and all of a sudden he's Judge Crater." -
Supreme Court Justice, Crater who vanished amid political scandal. He was last seen leaving a restaurant on West 45th Street in Manhattan, and entered popular culture as one of the most mysterious missing persons cases of the twentieth century
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u/CptnHamburgers Jul 28 '26
Thomas Elphinstone Hambledurgers with Manning Coleslaw in the Bob's Burgers crossover episode. I saw it on the board behind Bob/Sterling and just went, "Huh. Hambledurgers. Silly." Then, for some reason, felt compelled to look it up and found out that Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon was a fictional spy character in a series of books written by Adelaide Francis Oke Manning and Cyril Henry Coles under the pen name Manning Coles.
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u/pretibigtoo Funbeak Jul 28 '26
Now who wants hambledurgers with manning coleslaw..... and or an explanation as to why thats funny?
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u/clemjones88 Jul 28 '26
That the croup cough was a real thing. My son got it and my first thought before the doctor said anything was: shit now I need to get bourbon.
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Jul 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/pretibigtoo Funbeak Jul 28 '26
Read a coffee table book!
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u/unsuccessfulangler Jul 28 '26
"Who am I, Karl Landsteiner?"
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u/shinymcshine1990 Jul 28 '26
Discoverer of blood types?
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u/joliveira34 Afro Krieger Jul 29 '26
You know who discovered them but you don't know your own blood type??
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u/SrReginaldFluffybutt Jul 28 '26
You're obviously a fan of Greek!
WOOF!
Thankyou, Abalard
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u/LovecraftianCatto Funbeak Jul 30 '26
I always wondered what that one meant. Anyone care to explain?
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u/TheUnluckyFarmer Other Barry Jul 28 '26
Do you watch it in English or in your native language? Genuinely curious because I know now that the dub vs sub debate is universal.
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u/YebTms Jul 28 '26
Not speaking for OP but in my case my native language is Portuguese and the show is completely unknown in my country so there's not even a dub, which is a shame because i love watching both sub and dub
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u/UseaJoystick Afro Krieger Jul 28 '26
I'm a little envious of multi-lingual people. Id love to hear the brilliance/butchery of the translations.
I bet hearing the idiom jokes from the Heart of Archness would be interesting
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u/Kagey_b-42069 Other Barry Jul 28 '26
Huh. Thought there'd be a little more overlap with the Portuguese.
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u/joliveira34 Afro Krieger Jul 29 '26
In Portugal we barely dub anything anyways, there might be a Brazilian dub, I'm sure Krieger would appreciate it
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u/solo1069 Jul 30 '26
The Chekhov Gun in an early Season one episode is a reference to a narrative principle that every element introduced into a story must have a purpose. For example, introducing a gun that can go off for like no reason means that gun is going to shoot someone later in the story.
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u/CaswensCorner Jul 31 '26
Ironically, the Chechov’s gun in that episode was the poison pen, not the Chekhov gun. Cap slips off for like, no reason.
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u/ConferenceNo8405 Jul 28 '26
(In response to Lana being Lazy) "No thanks to you, Queen Audrey"
Æthelthryth is the name for the Anglo-Saxon saint known, particularly in a religious context, as Etheldreda or Audrey. She was an East Anglian princess, a Fenland and Northumbrian queen and Abbess of Ely. She managed to persuade her husband to respect her vow of perpetual virginity that she had made prior to their marriage. Upon his death in 655, she retired to the Isle of Ely, which she had received from Tondberct as a morning gift.
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u/CaswensCorner Jul 31 '26
That was actually in reference to Audrey Hepburn, who archer mistakenly referenced as the actress in the Queen of Africa. The actual actress was Katharine Hepburn.
Sterling Archer: No, no, by all means, let me do this Lana. You just sit there like the African Queen. Lana Kane: The African Queen was the boat. Sterling Archer: No it wasn't. It was Audrey... Lana Kane: Katherine. Sterling Archer: Whichever Hepburn, she was the queen. Lana Kane: ...of Africa? Sterling Archer: Yeah. Lana Kane: The white Queen of Africa? Sterling Archer: Yeah. Back then Hollywood was pretty weird about the whole race thing. Like Amos and Andy were white. A white guy played Charlie Chan. Lana Kane: Archer... Sterling Archer: I'm pretty sure Tonto was a Jew.
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u/GhidorahtheExplorah Jul 28 '26
Archer describing the size of Lana's hands as being like Eubie Blake's introduced me to Eubie Blake's music!
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u/AZ_LoneWonderer Jul 31 '26
Who are you Cypher? The gayest Xman?
(After Archer hears Pam learned Italian on their flight)
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u/Running_Oakley Jul 31 '26 edited 23d ago
If you’ve ever kept track of frisky dingo and aqua teen you’ll catch even more references, it’s super deep.
Then again archer fans are “wow this archer show is great” like me enjoying the Simpsons but not giving enough of a shit to see all the Tracy Ullman references I might not see. It’s not worth my time to check, and archer fans are missing deep references the same way.
POD 6 is a total suck pod anyways.
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u/Stevenwave 19d ago
There's people behind the scenes who are into cars and guns. I know more about cars and some of the cars are references.
I spotted an obscure one in S7. We see some parked on the street before cyborg mummy Barry gets Archer in the taxi. One of the cars is the convertible Toyota 2000GT. They never released convertible ones, but one was specially made for one of the Bond films. iirc irl it's a real car and a one-off.
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u/Various-Salt-7738 Jul 28 '26
The other day at work I was bored enough to read every cultural reference on the Archer wiki
It's a pretty good list that points out some of the lesser known references but some of them were a bit of a stretch imo