Archer
WhenArcher’spilot episode debut in 2009 , the show seemed like a genericJames Bondknockoff . Each episode followed the antics of the show ’s titulary , Sterling Archer , the Earth ’s greatest secret agent who also happened to be a pitiful sottish chauvinist . While the premise seemed pure fordumb humour , the show had some of the smartest dialogue on TV .
In fact , the entirety ofArcheris incredibly smart . While it has struggled to keep fans ' attention in ulterior seasons , the serial publication constantly invokes literary references while meet around with writing style figure . It is basically a love missive to the fictional works that inspired it . With that in head , here are ten obscure literary references in Archer that audience miss .
Bel Panto
" Bel Panto " is a two - part episode in the show ’s 7th season . The episode ’s name is a literary allusion to a novel by Ann Patchett , Bel Canto .
Both the novel and the instalment have a plot involving a hostage crisis . In both the novel ( based on the real - life surety crisis of the Japanese Embassy of Peru in the ' 90s ) and in the episode , the hostage take are mostly wealthy . In what may be a dig at the novel ’s armed criminals , Archerdepicts the criminal as wearing goofball masks .
Emile Gorgonzola Burger
The role player H. Jon Benjamin is the vocalization of both Sterling Archer and Bob Belcher , the protagonist ofBob ’s Burgers . This resulted in an episode ofArcherin which the superspy Sterling had suffer his retention to amnesia and was go as the cook at a Warren E. Burger joint under the name " Bob , " even own a family resemble thecharactersinBob ’s Burgers .
The specialty burger of the day was the Emile Gorgonzola Burger , a citation to the 19th Century French novelist Emile Zola , who was known in his life for his Naturalist flair .
Pantagruel
In the episode " Waxing Gibbous , " Archerreferencesan encounter with Frankenstein . Cheryl Vandertunt is present , and corrects him , saying that Frankenstein was not the brute but was in fact the name of the harebrained scientist who built him . Mary Shelley’sFrankensteinis the first oeuvre ofscience fiction , but it is also not an hidden reference . Then Cheryl tells Archer that a better devil to mention would be Pantagruel .
Pantagruel is a giant , one of the titular characters of a serial of five Gallic novels from the sixteenth century , The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel , indite by Francois Rabelais .
Lenny’s Rabbit
In John Steinbeck ’s novelOf Mice and Men , one of the two main character is Lenny , a large man with incredible strength but whose cognitive ability are impacted by a significant developmental disability . At one point in the book , Lenny is petting a rabbit but unexpectedly kills it , not knowing his own strength .
When Len Trexler , the head of the rival undercover agent government agency , is permanently brain damaged by Krieger , he asks for a rabbit to favorite . In the episode " Archub Y Morfilod , " Lana calls two Welsh terrorist " George and Lenny . " The two are being engage by British agents and want to bleed , which is to say , they want to rabbit .
Emily Post and the Hooker
In the opening vista of the episode " roue Test , " Sterling figure his mother ’s office to find the sexual activity worker Trinette waiting for him alongside his female parent . Trinette mother angry at Sterling for not calling her , which his female parent spend a penny worse by demanding to get laid where his manners are .
In reaction , Sterling says he " pass over the Emily Post chapter about how to inaugurate your female parent to a hooker . " Emily Post was an generator who wrote about good way in the late 19th and former 20th Century . To put it politely , her common sense of traditional etiquette did not make leeway for sexual activity worker .
Mithril
There are a turn of quotation to J.R.R. Tolkien’sLord of the Ringsthroughout the series . The techie at ISIS is screw as Bilbo . In the episode " Archub Y Morfild , " Lana wakes up from having been drugged unconscious , and upon experience she is in the Welsh countryside , she asks whether she is in the Shire .
The best , and most obscurely specific , reference to Tolkien is in the third season in the second part of the episode " Space Race , " when one of the scientists aboard the outer space station describes a door as being made " some metal of adamantium and mithril . " In another multi - layered invocation of the phantasy alloy , Bilbo even bring up mithril armor to Conway Stern . While characters and places like Bilbo and The Shire are not too obscure of references , mithril , a alloy used by dwarf , is probable something only diehardLord of the Ringsfans would notice .
Harry Hole
One of the FBI agents in the 5th time of year episode " White Elephant " is named Agent Hawley . Like many references in the show , this one is is a throwback to detective fabrication , in this showcase , specifically arouse the name of Detective Harry Hole , a quality create by the Norwegian source Jo Nesbo .
Interestingly , Detective Hole shares a routine of traits with Sterling , include an alienated relationship with his father , a folk history of cancer , and a account of working with the FBI .
Jacques Cousteau
The instalment " inhabit and Let Dine " takes its title from theJames Bondnovel / filmLive and lease expire , but it is fill with many more literary reference . At one point , the instalment conjure the Gallic adventurer Jacques Cousteau , who wrote the bookThe Silent World : A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure .
In the episode " Sea Tunt , " Archer also calls Cheryl ’s pal Cecil " Jacques Cousteau . "
“Stay Gold, Ponyboy”
In the second half of the two - part episode " Bel Panto , " Pam state someone " stick around gold , Ponyboy . " This is a reference to the novelThe Outsidersby S. E. Hinton .
The Outsiders dispense with class struggles , which is a skillful item for an episode in which the super - full-bodied of Hollywood are being robbed and the lowest - paid character are forced to dress as servants to go undercover .
Silva Browne
" Vision Quest " is one of the more uncomfortably awkward episode of the series . The secret plan revolve around the master characters all being locked in a broken in elevator together .
At one compass point , Cheryl mentions having psychic abilities . Archer liken her to Silva Brown , an author who also claimed to be psychic . Despite being an retard a spate of the time , Sterling is unbelievably well - read .
NEXT : Archer : 10 Jokes That Have Already Aged Poorly
