Essays · Movies · TV

Turnabout: Pop Culture Homages to Quentin Tarantino

The reference-r becomes the referenced.
By  · Published on April 24th, 2017

The reference-r becomes the referenced.

You can’t talk about Quentin Tarantino without talking about his penchant for pop culture references. The worlds of film, television, literature, music, art, animation, and more are all fodder for QT’s frenetic screen language. Because of this, in part, pop culture has embraced Tarantino in a way it does few other filmmakers, it made him a figurehead overnight, a touchstone source for all things kooky and cult-y, and in fact on several occasions pop culture has returned the favor by referencing the director and his work.

Movies like Swingers, Neighbors, and Space Jam, and television shows like The Simpsons, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and The Office, and even the music of pop princess Lady Gaga are just a few of the various media that have paid homage to Tarantino, and now thanks to editor extraordinaire Jacob T. Swinney, you can see them all in one place.

These are clips and artifacts that span the last quarter-century, which is a testament to Tarantino’s pop cultural staying power and in fact makes him bigger than many of the fads, trends, movements and moments by which he’s inspired. In a sense then, he’s become an indispensable part of our culture by drawing from the most temporal and dispensable elements of said culture. Pretty neat trick, that.

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