Remember the old joke whenever someone got hurt, and the comical default response was, "but will he ever play the piano again?" This gag seemed to be ubiquitous when I was younger up to the point that it made its way into a Simpsons episode:



It was only this morning, on the way to work, that I randomly realized this was likely a reference to The Hands of Orlac, a horror novel that had been adapted into a number of popular films and television shows between 1924 and 1976. No one has adapted this story in years and, coincidentally, I haven't heard the reference in decades. That story must have been extremely popular to have been so quotable decades later, and now it seems all but forgotten. I imagine our grandchildren will feel the same about references such as, "That's not true! That's impossible!" "Hello, Clarice," and "You come to me, on the day of my daughter's wedding...".

One day those references will go away, just as the Orlac gag seems to have done.


This is a very longwinded way of setting up a thread where we list/discuss once-popular cultural references that everyone knew - alluding to classics that had stayed popular for decades and gave the illusion that they'd be remembered forever - that have fallen entirely by the wayside in the modern day. For example, folks still know Who's on First, but try explaining to a Millennial what "Say Goodnight, Gracie" means.

So what else? The Charlie Chaplin hobo walk, The Fonz's "Heeeeeey," Kramden's "One of these days, Alice...", Sandford's "I'm comin', Elizabeth!". What have you got?