Off Book: The Improvised Musical - TV Tropes

In a podcast where every episode is a different improvised musical, there’s bound to be a number of references.

• The first episode, Shrugging Destiny, has a whole song about "Tokyo drifting".
• Wolf/Tuck makes multiple references to Nip/Tuck.
• The title of Run to you Bride is the opposite of Runaway Bride.
• In Everything is Nature, a crab sings a song called “Kiss and Hug the Girl” in order to get two people to fall in love.
• Shawshank Wedemption is named after The Shawshank Redemption, because it’s the story of a prison break led by small children.
• Hungry LOST Survival Games references The Hunger Games, Lost, and Survivor in the title alone. The latter two shows are referenced multiple times in the musical. LOST is a prominent example, with one song about the protagonists asking to know why they are lost in a timely manner without any convoluted plotlines getting in the way, and another song at the end about how you can still enjoy a TV show even if it’s bad, and the hard work put into a bad show by the cast and crew should still be appreciated.
• A Balloon in Paris features Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen as characters, and as such, references the many works of the twin actresses, such as Winning London, Our Lips Are Sealed, and New York Minute.
• The title and plot of Arctic March Madness reference March of the Penguins.
• In Barely, Indiana, the GameStop employee and the customers mention various video games, including Tiny Wings, Gears of War, and Angry Birds Star Wars, and and the employee specifically mentions that the two types of games they sell are “violent games and Jackbox Games”. That last shout-out doubles as Shameless Self-Promotion, as the guest stars are all employees at Jackbox Games.
• The title of Goatbusters references Ghostbusters.
• In Princess LiveJournals, Steve hallucinates various princesses, including Princess Peach, Princess Zelda, and Anne Hathaway.
• In I Spy My Special Guy!, a character named Q-Tip has to clarify that he’s not “Q-Tip the rapper”. The episode also includes a long conversation about how people should like Paddington 2, and discussing a potential third entry in the film series. In addition, the characters compare geocaching to Pokémon GO.
• Legally Can We "Let It Go"? is about a production company that decides to kill everyone working at Disney so they can use "Let It Go" in all their musicals.
• Thank God Superstar:
  • In the intro discussion, the hosts joke that the guest star (Bryan Safi) brought a script for the musical, and Bryan claims that the script is a musical about Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar where every song thanks the other two musicals for having such good songs.
  • In the musical itself, three kids competing in a talent contest decide to call their band "Oasis". The song they perform later on briefly transitions into "Champagne Supernova".
• Ono! Trial Separation contains a character named Bjorkio Ono, who is known for her “experimental” music.
• Men in Black 4 claims to be an entry in the Men in Black series. The bonus song is a rap in the style of the raps from the Men in Black movies that references Will Smith and his daughter Willow Smith, whose musical prowess is praised.
  • In the first scene of the musical, the characters discuss a great event that occurred, referred to only as “the big one”. When one character mentions that it was predicted that monkeys would be everywhere, another replies with “like Planet of the Apes".
  • The characters in the hot spring declare that The Rock should be in Men in Black. Later in the musical, the universe is rewritten so that everyone is The Rock, and references are made to the many movies that The Rock is in in this Alternate Universe, including The Sixth Sense, Skyscraper, A Quiet Rock, Singing in the Dwayne, and Silence of the Dwaynes.
• Limitless Visionless Vision Quest:
  • The pills the characters take are based on the pills from Limitless.
  • The song “Cake-Gliding” from transitions into the melody of “Free Falling”.
  • Jessica decides that her dream is to be a vampire like in Twilight. When she wishes for it, Edward Cullen appears immediately.
• The title of Law & Order: Restaurant Unit references Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. At the beginning of the episode, the hosts compare the guest star’s outfit to that of Richard “the Bells” Bellser, and they go on to discuss the crimes that would be solved by a hypothetical SVU (Snack Victims Unit).
• In Wild by Cheryl Strayed, Cheryl herself appears as a character, and the titular novel of her creation (the one that was adapted into a film) is discussed, as one of the characters carries it with her.
• In We Object to Fear (from the episode listed as “Live! from the Curious Comedy Theatre in Portland”), there is a song about what a genius is. After many references throughout the song, one of the singing characters confirms that their only frame of reference for the definition of a genius is Good Will Hunting.
• The Dr. & The Beast is a musical about the Whos down in Whoville hunting the Beast for their roast beast feast. Dr. Seuss appears as an actual doctor.
• New Year’s Rave-olution (from the episode titled “Live From the Dallas Comedy House (Late Show!)”) is partially set at Skrillex’s rave.
• Candy Crushin' It features extensive discussion of Candy Crush.
• The 100th episode of the podcast is a musical titled Cats 2.
• Love Island: Normal Edition is… well, that.
• High School Musicals: The Musical contains what is described as a Game of Thrones/Les Misérables/Nudist Colony musical.
• The title of Avengers Infinity Monopoly Company War references Avengers: Infinity War, and various Marvel superheroes appear in the musical.
• The title and plot of Lord of the Stops: Fellowship of the Pots reference The Lord of the Rings.
• Dungeons and Datings: The Musical is a musical about Dungeons & Dragons.
• Naturally Orchestrated is themed around Peter and the Wolf.
• Marvel Sing-ematic Universe is a multi-part musical spanning multiple episodes, based (loosely) on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• The title and plot of Stranger Sings reference "Stranger Things".
• The version of Cinderella in Cinderella Name Game is based on a jump-rope rhyme (“Cinderella, dressed in yella’, went upstairs to kiss her fella…”), but she still has two mouse friends named Jacques and Gus.