Unexpected References

I've recently decided that often times, my love for certain programs or TV shows is proportional to their usage of obscure or unexpected references.  It might be my love for old TV shows and movies, or my appreciation of american popular culture.  Or the general fact that we are a nostalgic society.  It's like on 30 Rock when Jack is trying to find his biological father, and after narrowing it down to three possible candidates, Liz flies all three to the studio, pulling a Mamma Mia!  Recently, two very funny references, one very obscure, one not as much, have captured my attention:

1) Last Thursday's episode of Community, Troy and Ahmed have a biology lab where they have to train their lab rat to respond to a song.  They name it Fievel, and yes, the song they used to train him was "somewhere, out there..."  While it was not only beautifully performed (you must know by now how much I love when characters break into song), it brought to the forefront one of my favorite movies as a child, "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West."  Now I'm not sure what prompted the writers to center a storyline around a not really that popular early 90s animated film, one that I had kind of forgotten about but nevertheless appreciated the reminder.  I think it's kind of genius in a way.  It probably made one of every ten people laugh.  I guess that's why they call NBC thursday night TV a night of niche audiences! (Don't quote me on that--I may have just made that up.)

2) A recent interview with Kristen Stewart on Late Night.  Jimmy Fallon was interviewing her about her co-star Taylor Lautner, who plays Jacob Black the werewolf in New Moon (which I'm seeing tomorrow...eeek!).  They were discussing Taylor's transformation from a skinny little child in Twilight to a very very muscular and attractive body builder in the sequel.  I believe he gained at least 30 pounds of muscle for New Moon. Wow.  Anyways, Kristen apparently hadn't really seen him in between the movies, and therefore witnessed only the final product, in which Jimmy Fallon squeals "Sandy," in a perfect imitation of John Travolta in Grease.  Good job Jimmy, you literally captured the moment in your unexpected reference.  And made me laugh out loud. A literal LOL if you will.

To conclude, I fully acknowledge the possibility that I'm the only one who finds these moments funny.  But by explaining to you why they are funny, I hope you think they're funny too.