Gilmore Girls is known for a few hallmarks: intense amounts of coffee, super speedy dialogue, and mountains of pop culture references. In its seven seasons, the drama called out titles and characters from films, television, and books and featured more band names than most viewers could keep track of. Dedicated fans have devoted websites, Tumblr blogs, and everything in between to documenting every pop culture nod in the series. I am not that enterprising, but a handful of the many geeky references they made popped out at me. Here are seven of the best of them:
1. Waiting for Aragorn
In the season four finale when Lorelai was trying to figure out whether Luke liked her–as in liked liked her, she pondered that maybe he needed to get out of the house and she just happened to be available. “Since I’m currently one of the women sitting home, thinking, ‘If I could only find a man like Aragorn,’ he picked me.”
PS: If anyone knows a guy like Aragorn, give me a shout… For reasons.
2. Don’t Kill Harry
Miss Patty was all about teaching with tough love. She always had the right words to encourage her dance students to learn, and in season one, those words included making the kids work on their balance by threatening Harry Potter’s very existence: “Walk smooth. That’s the new Harry Potter on your heads. If they should drop, Harry will die and there won’t be any more books.” Those words scare even me.
3. Meeting with Vampires
Paris tried to put herself out there in season five. When she left her and Rory’s dorm room to go out late one night, Rory pointed out, “It’s eleven o’ clock at night. Who are you hoping to hook up with now? Spike and Drusilla?” For the record, I think Paris would get along exceptionally well with the vampires from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
4. Those Flashlight Thingies
Can you imagine Luke seeing Revenge of the Sith? Well he did, probably because Lorelai dragged him to the theater. Luke didn’t understand the mechanics of the final fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin though and went on a lengthy Star Wars rant. It’s delightful.
5. Some Kind of Fun
In his second encounter with Rory, Logan dropped a reference to Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. That’s maybe borderline nerdy, but I have a soft spot for Master and Commander (it has both editions of Marvel’s Jarvis!). Huh. Maybe that’s why I like Logan so much. Anyway, he quotes Jack Aubrey and says: “Now, tell me that wasn’t fun?”
6. Turning Right
Oh, Jess. He had his problems, but he had a sweet moment in season two when he told Rory, “As you wish.” I choose to believe this was a nod to Westley in The Princess Bride because Jess was head over heels for Rory.
7. Girls Go on Adventures
Lorelai and Sookie catered a rad birthday party season four: it was Lord of the Rings themed! There were references to Legolas and Mount Doom, and the episode was even called “The Hobbit, the Sofa, and Digger Stiles.”
Head to the comments and tell me about your favorite pop culture reference in Gilmore Girls, nerdy or otherwise. You can also show me in gif form at Twitter.
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IMAGES: Warner Bros., Gilmorisms, Oy with the Poodles Already, Devon, Signature Reads, 20th Century Fox
