The other day I brought up an inside reference in my short script that caused some consternation among the members of my writers group. Mackey reminded me that such a phenomenon is called a two percenter (or is it one percenter? eight percenter? Fifteen and a half percenter?) where only a fraction of your audience will get the joke.
Last week's episode of Psych had a beauty.
Shawn, the hilarious and adorable fake psychic detective, investigates a murder on a Telenovella by taking an acting job on the show. At one point Shawn's father starts ragging on Shawn's acting ability and his Spanish.
"You sound like the El Pollo Loco guy," the father says.
"I'm trying to sound like the El Pollo Loco guy," Shawn replies.
I clapped and laughed with glee because one of the actors playing a star of the novella IS the El Pollo Loco guy.
Not every state has El Pollo Loco so not everybody will know what Shawn is talking about, but those of us who work across the street from one are intimately familiar with the delicious tostadas you may find there and the commercials with the ridiculously melodramatic Latino guy who cocks his eyebrow at you while discussing the sexiness of roasted chicken tortilla soup.
And probably not every single person realized the actor on Psych that day was the same guy. And probably some of them realized it only when Shawn mentioned El Pollo Loco and they went Ohhhhh, hey!
It's a great inside joke, especially on that show because Shawn always makes pop culture references so even if you don't get it, you don't worry too much about it. But if you do get it, you get to giggle incessantly at the joke.
And it makes you feel smart. I get you Shawn, even if these other people don't.
By the way, if you're not watching Psych (USA network Fridays) you really have no excuse. It's pretty awesome.
Hard to say whether it's a good idea. Arrested Development used those kinds of jokes all the time and, although it was possibly the best show ever, it's not on the air anymore and lots of people never got to appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's why I hate The Big Lebowski. Lots of Cali-centric style comedy that I never got until I moved here a few years ago. Fortunately Pysch doesn't usually use Cali-centric crap, so I still love it, or the 3 episodes I've seen. Of course, it's also genuinely funny, unlike that aforementioned piece of Ralph's shill vomit.
TD
I'd like to catch up with Psych.
ReplyDeleteWhat's with the flame-grilled videos on the El Pollo Loco site?
ReplyDelete