The Venture Bros./Shout-Out

• The whole show starts and middles as a Shout Out to Jonny Quest.
• Hank's outfit is clearly based on that of Fred from Scooby Doo, a fact that other characters have remarked on, and Dean's clothes and haircut are reminiscent of Peter Parker's from his debut. Dean's pajamas are... Spider-Man themed. Hank's are Aquaman, and as a somewhat beefy blond he actually looks a little like the King of the Seas. To drive it further home, the apartment Dean lives in during his summer internship at Impossible Industries is almost exactly the same as Peter's from the movies.
• Star Wars is a particularly popular subject. Usually patently obvious. This escalated to the point that, upon seeing the sheer volume of them while recording commentary on every episode of Season 2, Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick dared each other to avoid direct Star Wars references for all of Season 3, with the loser having to revert to their eighth-grade haircut.
• Dr. Jonas, Jr. and "Venture Team" combined to form Ventron. "And I'll form the head!"
• This show does lots and Shout Outs to various bands and musicians. Led Zeppelin, The Stooges, The Buggles, Bjork, Adam and the Ants, Depeche Mode, The Residents, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and Jesus Jones have all been explicitly name checked. David Bowie was alluded to at least three times in various fashions before his appearance at the end of season two with Klaus Nomi and Iggy Pop.
  • In "What Goes Down Must Come Up", the first of the Rusty's that Dr Venture comes across has the same hairdo and outfit as the singer in The Prodigy's video for Firestarter, which includes running at random in underground tunnels.
• At one point, Henchman #21 tries to get Henchman #24 to team up with him as "Jet Boy and Jet Girl", just to make a reference to a French indie band despite neither of them qualifying as "Jet Girl".
• Dr Orpheus' observation in "Self-Assisted Suicide" that "the doors of perception have opened all at once" could be counted as a double Shout-Out: once to the book of the same title, and once to The Doors, who named themselves after said book.
• The occasional ray-gun sound effect is a dead ringer for the ones in He Man and The Masters of The Universe.
• Jean-Claude LeTueur's supervillain costume and history as a big game hunter/comic book nerd all harken back to Spider-Man foe Kraven the Hunter; Kraven's costume has a lion head chestpiece and leopard skin pants, LeTueur's has an elephant head and zebra skin.
• Russel Sturgeon is explicitly based on Quint from Jaws in voice and appearance, his costume resembles that of Aquaman, and his entire MO as a fishing themed aquatic villain is a take on Aquaman villain the Fisherman.
• In general, the three assassins sent after Brock are all shout outs to the different kind of villains of Comic Book Ages. Go-Fish is a shout out the Golden Age, Le Tueur to the Silver Age, and Herr Trigger to the Bronze to 90's Darker and Edgier style of villains.
  • The fourth season premiere contains a lengthy shoutout to the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Complete with "Don't look, no matter what happens," and Nazi face-melting.
  • And Molotov's list of targets are actually the writers and artists of the original Marvel Comic #21 gave Rusty earlier in the episode.
• The Dean suit that D-19 is making is reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs.
• The Scooby Doo parody in season two are all references to famous crazy people: Ted Bundy, David Berkowitz, Patty Hearst, and Valerie Solanas.
• A (fake) flashback in the first season shows Hank and Dean dressed like Indiana Jones and Thomas Magnum respectively. This is also how Chip and Dale dressed in Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, making this a rare double Shout-Out.
  • And Brock is dressed as Michael Knight, to boot.
• When Colonel Hunter Gathers arrives at OSI during Operation P.R.O.M.:

Doe: That's none of your concern Mr. Gathers.
Gathers: That's Colonel Gathers to you.
Cardholder: Oh yeah? Well in that case, I'm President Cardholder, and this is my associate, Emperor Doe.
Doe: God-Emperor Doe.

• • Which God-Emperor however, is up for debate.
• Minor villain White Noise is a somewhat convoluted Shout-Out to Glowworm from Astro City. Their mutation is vaguely similar, but while Glowworm was a black man before his accident (and is angered when he was portrayed as white supremacist in an in-universe comic), White Noise is simply a white supremacist. Definitely could be chalked up to coincidence, but not likely given the sheer number of comic shoutouts in the show.
  • SPHINX, while more directly based on Cobra from G.I. Joe and by proxy Hydra from Marvel Comics, seems a little too similar to Astro City's own Nebulous Evil Organization, PYRAMID. The Ancient Egypt motif, as well as the color schemes and general appearance of the uniforms, speak for themselves.
• Captain Sunshine is not only a shout-out to Superman and Batman, but also Birdman, particularly in the way Birdman's powers are restored following his re-exposure to the Sun in some convoluted manner.
• There are several references to 1990s era Nickelodeon shows, from Hank demanding of Dean's disembodied head "Yeah, Clarissa, explain it all" to 24, mad over 21 finally getting rid of his skull, asking 21 if if he's really just going to bury it and "declare this meeting of the Midnight Society over."