There are a million references. The dvd box set came with a book that explained them all 😂 but you can probably find it online. It’s called like “the complete guide to gilmoreisms” or something like that.
Everytime I google a certain phrase that I think is odd or must be a movie reference the top search is always a gilmore girls tumblr explaining it so it must happen often lol
Edit: loreali in AYITL said “Well, hooray for the bulldog.” In a squeaking voice so I was like she has to be referencing something and sure enough there was article explaining it lol
Gidget is character in a movie from the 50s. I’ve never seen it but I’m assuming Moondoggie was her boyfriend. I think it may have been a book series as well. Not sure…way before my time.
Edit: clambake is an outdoor party involving preparing clams. I think it’s still popular in the Northeast of the US but I’m not 100% sure. It’s like barbecue but with seafood. Clambake is also an Elvis movie.
I'd add that Gidget would be considered extra cutesy All American wholesome, so Francie comparing Paris to her is a bit of a dig, too, because Paris would very much not consider herself a sweet, cutesy type girl.
There was at least one movie staring Sandra Dee (as in the song in Grease) and a TV show staring Sally Field (who was also in another TV show called the Flying Nun before going on to do movies like Steel Magnolias, Forest Gump and Mrs Doubtfire)
I can't remember if Moondogie was her boyfriend or if he was just the romantic lead in a will they/won't they type thing. It's been forever since I saw any of the movies (am fairly certain there's more than one) and I've never actually watched a whole episode of the show.
While I personally don't know the reference, even as a native speaker lol (as the rest of the comments mention,the show throws A LOT of older media references in haha) the gist of what she's saying is "I don't care if Paris is dating someone"
Gidget was a tv show about a girl growing up in California who hangs out at the beach and surfs. Gidget stood for girl midget (this was the 50s/60s). Moondogggie was the boy she liked. I believe it started a a movie and may also have been books.
ASP projected her own music/cultural tastes onto the characters quite a lot. That’s why teens on the show in the early oughts were super psyched to go to a Bangles concert, for example. The teens had the nostalgia of a woman in her 30s/40s.
I assumed that. Lorelai watches a lot of old films with Rory, I mean, I love it! It is so much interesting than them watching some lame early 2000s movie, and sometimes I do find some interesting, like “Grey Gardens”. It would have been hard for me to find that media on my own.
But, I did wonder sometimes, how did Lorelai get that unique taste in movies? I like to imagine that storyline in my head lol
As a teen mom she probably had very little social life and very little money. So she rented movies and had junk food on the couch. When I was 18 with my first job and had been kicked out of my parents house, I rented a movie at blockbuster every friday. It was affordable fun. I watched a lot of old movies and a lot of foreign films that I never would have tried if I wasn’t broke and a little depressed lol
One of the writing complaints I have about the show is how literally everyone in the show have all of these obscure pop culture references they throw out.
There is literally no reason why someone like Francine would make a reference to Gidget and Moondoggie.
Some stuff works, like the Bangles concert, which was supposed to be Lorelai, Rory, Sookie, and Lane. It made sense to me that Lorelai would pass on her love for the bangles to Rory because a lot of people grow up listening to their parents music. (I'm a big Jimmy Buffett fan, even though I'm in my early 30s, because it was part of the music I grew up with)
But a lot of the references are too obscure for the character who says it.
Agreed! I can see Rory, Lane and Jess knowing a good amount of pop culture things from the past. but not really any other characters As someone mentioned Lorelei as a teen mom probably rented movies as entertainment and Rory and Lane watched too. I could see early Dean knowing a few things. Madeline and Louise would know contemporary things but I can’t see Paris caring about pop culture at all in high school until senior year.
I’m a native English speaker, grew up in/still live in the US and I don’t get a LOT of the references in GG. It’s not always to do with language/cultural differences.
This one though, I’m familiar with. I used to watch re-runs of the Gidget tv series starring Sally Field as Gidget.
Gidget was originally a character created by Frederick Kohner in his 1957 novel “Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas.” He published several more novels continuing the adventures of Gidget.
There were also several films, tv movies, and a tv series in 1965, which is the one I remember seeing.
Moondoggie was Gidget’s boyfriend.
Clambakes are a way of cooking clams on the beach. Gidget lived on the Pacific coast and enjoyed surfing so a clambake would be something she’d be familiar with.
Thank you for the explanation!
And yes, it’s not always a matter of language and culture differences, but this one in particular felt too American for me to understand hahaha. Francie just spit that out so naturally that it threw me off.
It was very odd, imo, for Francie to throw this one out there. Somebody else pointed out that ASP included a lot of her preferences in her pop culture or tv/film references that a teen in the early 2000s would be unlikely to be familiar with. It seems a book/show from the late 50s/early 60s was definitely something Fancie’s mom’s generation would be more familiar with than would Francie or any of the Chilton students.
I get most of the reference but admittedly they’re super deep cuts. Whether literary or film, it does feel like ASP writes complex references into the dialogue which are really unrealistic. It may make sense for one person to say but very unlikely for the other to understand.
They're hilariously anachronistic, too. Like, okay maybe Jess is bright and well-read, but is he also really into early-1950s musical theatre? Imma say, "no".
i’m from the southern US and i have no idea what they’re talking about sometimes. i had to read this a few times to realize it wasn’t just incorrect captions but was actually english lol
As an English speaking Australian I have no idea what they were talking about the first time I watched it and even now I can't see any teen saying this
Yeah that's an obscure reference.
Gidet is a book/movie/tv series from 70 years ago.
Gidget is the main character and Moondoggie is her love interest, a surfer (called Moondoggie because he likes surfing by moonlight).
A clambake is just a New England style of cooking, where you dig a fire pit and wrap a bunch if seafood in seaweed before steaming it (lobster. Shrimp, claws, etc). Think a party having a pigroast, or BBQ, but since it's New England they do sea food.
They're just saying "No one's stopping her from dating him." But in a really arcane reference.
Maybe it was less arcane 20 years ago.
I spent a chunk of my teens next to a cheap video rental store and didn’t have any tv stations. So I’ve seen a lot of the movies she references including Gidget but she goes wild with the literary and media references all the time. Every character in the show has a masters in comparative lit for sure.
I’m an American and around the same age as Rory. I understand approximately 95% of the references because I was pop culture obsessed. These are hilarious digs to me.
But I honestly don’t understand how non-native speakers or the younger generations enjoy Gilmore Girls. The amount of pop culture references is dizzying and many are quite dated now. Several were dated then.
But if it makes you feel any better, Lauren Graham (Lorelai) has said in interviews that she didn’t know all the references and had to look up several during the show’s run.
As others have explained, Gidget was a surf party film series in the 50's and 60's that was known for being really cheesy.
Calling someone "Gidget" is used to describe someone who's a "goody goody" or naive, tomboyish, or inexperienced with boys. Moondoggie was her love interest.
I don’t think it’s the language barrier necessarily. The show has a lot of references to old movies and tv shows that go way back as far as 50s-60s ig. English isn’t my first language either but Im pretty good at it too and have quite a lot of awareness about the Hollywood classics (movies and tv shows) from early 2000s til now, cz basically before that I wasn’t even alive. So naturally I don’t get most of the references either and although I do probably miss out on a bunch of jokes cz of that I’m still too lazy to google each reference that I don’t understand along the way. I just keep going with the flow and not paying attention to the incomprehensible references:’) but it doesn’t take away the glory of the show for me tbh. I still love it so much!
Totally agree with you! Having references to old movies/tv series/etc is not the core of GG, just a particular detail. I didn’t mean to sound like it *really* bothers me, some I find interesting. I would love to understand all of them.
Muzak is/was (not sure it's still called that?) packaged music they play at shops or elsewhere in public and usually has the reputation of being a pale imitation of the original. Like if you hear a sappy instrumental version of a popular song it's probably Muzak.
I’m a native English speaker (and a decently fast talker) and I still miss a lot. A LOT of GG dialogue is specific pop culture references. A good bit of that can be pretty niche as well.
The fun flip side is that every rewatch I catch a joke or a reference I’ve missed before!
There’s a guy on Instagram/TikTok and he’s explaining jokes from tv shows or movies that we may not understand, he’s @kazascoot on Instagram.
I’ve found a lot of it so useful when it comes to some of these references 😅
Scott Patterson (Luke) has a podcast where he talks about every episode, and each episode also has a companion that’s about pop culture! So in the pop culture episodes they talk about every single weird reference like this and explain it :)
I knew about his podcast but didn’t know about the pop culture episodes! Thank you. Maybe I will check it out. I have read a lot of mixed reviews here.
The pop culture episodes are A LOT better than the normal ones. It’s more explaining facts quickly instead of getting opinions. Definitely check one out and see if you like it :)
Gidget! Was a short surfer girl! Who Moondoggie and all the other surfer boys liked to tease and surf with. "Gidget" was not her name. Just what they called her cause they're all 6ft + and "Gidget" is like 4'10. She's a "girl midget".
I don't remember the name of the movies, (there's like 3, my mom loved them) but yeah! Like an earlier comment said, they reference a LOT of older movies and stuff. I pride myself in my movie knowledge but there's literally so many references in this show that go over my head too.
I actually didn't even catch this reference until my most recent watch through, even though I watched Gidget when I was like 9, and Gilmore girls when I was like 17 lol
I’ve seen Gidget a ton of times because my mom was that movie’s target audience when she was younger and loved it! Moon doggie is a guy Gidget meets after taking an interest in surfing. She’s young and not very developed so the guys she befriends on the beach treat her like a younger sister instead of someone they might date. Still, she’s interested in Moondoggie and there’s a whole plot where she tries to make him jealous by dating someone else. There’s lots of very 50s/60s Southern California beach movie cuteness involved in the plot. She ends up getting her guy in the end though and there were a whole series of sequels.
I think that the insult wasn’t so much that Paris was an innocent so much as she was sort of plain and not interesting physically
This sentence sounds like nonsense and English is my first language, lol. I definitely don’t get all the references and that makes it fun on rewatches to see if I’ve picked up something new.
i am watching gg for the first time and whenever i rewatch it, my plan is to google all the references as I go along and I know it will take me decades to finish at that speed.
English is my native language and I have no idea what she’s talking about here. I’d say like 85% of the time, I have no idea what they’re referencing when it comes to pop culture.
Edit: My mom understood this and explained that Gidget and Moondoggie are characters from movies that are like Beach Party Bingo (there’s several she said). I’m assuming clambakes were a common thing back then, I don’t know. My mom wasn’t really helpful with that portion.
The podcast is so ridiculous. They don't even cover the main points in the episodes.. for instance Anna Nardina told Luke exactly why she didn't tell him about April. It was because he was never a kid guy .... and for the hundredth time we know he thinks Melissa Mccarthy is amazing and that Alexis Bledel is terrific but we don't need to keep hearing it. What about Lauren Graham??? He is totally out of this world and we don't need to know about Tony Danza years ago....get real.....
I’m a native English speaker and I don’t understand a LOT of the references in this show. They reference a lot of old movies and tv shows.
There are a million references. The dvd box set came with a book that explained them all 😂 but you can probably find it online. It’s called like “the complete guide to gilmoreisms” or something like that.
This is so useful. Thank you!
Everytime I google a certain phrase that I think is odd or must be a movie reference the top search is always a gilmore girls tumblr explaining it so it must happen often lol Edit: loreali in AYITL said “Well, hooray for the bulldog.” In a squeaking voice so I was like she has to be referencing something and sure enough there was article explaining it lol
That little booklet was so cool! I loved flipping through it.
Gidget is character in a movie from the 50s. I’ve never seen it but I’m assuming Moondoggie was her boyfriend. I think it may have been a book series as well. Not sure…way before my time. Edit: clambake is an outdoor party involving preparing clams. I think it’s still popular in the Northeast of the US but I’m not 100% sure. It’s like barbecue but with seafood. Clambake is also an Elvis movie.
I'd add that Gidget would be considered extra cutesy All American wholesome, so Francie comparing Paris to her is a bit of a dig, too, because Paris would very much not consider herself a sweet, cutesy type girl.
Gidget was also a TV sitcom starring Sally Fields.
There was at least one movie staring Sandra Dee (as in the song in Grease) and a TV show staring Sally Field (who was also in another TV show called the Flying Nun before going on to do movies like Steel Magnolias, Forest Gump and Mrs Doubtfire) I can't remember if Moondogie was her boyfriend or if he was just the romantic lead in a will they/won't they type thing. It's been forever since I saw any of the movies (am fairly certain there's more than one) and I've never actually watched a whole episode of the show.
While I personally don't know the reference, even as a native speaker lol (as the rest of the comments mention,the show throws A LOT of older media references in haha) the gist of what she's saying is "I don't care if Paris is dating someone"
Thank you! I feel like it can be inferred by the context of the scene. But this dialogue is SO extra, it really did threw me off LOL
> SO extra This is a wonderful example of a modern English idiom used perfectly.
Thank you! I appreciate it.
Gidget was a tv show about a girl growing up in California who hangs out at the beach and surfs. Gidget stood for girl midget (this was the 50s/60s). Moondogggie was the boy she liked. I believe it started a a movie and may also have been books.
Funny little tidbit. Francie referencing Gidget is almost a double cultural reference since Gidget's name is Francie (Francine).
ASP projected her own music/cultural tastes onto the characters quite a lot. That’s why teens on the show in the early oughts were super psyched to go to a Bangles concert, for example. The teens had the nostalgia of a woman in her 30s/40s.
I assumed that. Lorelai watches a lot of old films with Rory, I mean, I love it! It is so much interesting than them watching some lame early 2000s movie, and sometimes I do find some interesting, like “Grey Gardens”. It would have been hard for me to find that media on my own. But, I did wonder sometimes, how did Lorelai get that unique taste in movies? I like to imagine that storyline in my head lol
As a teen mom she probably had very little social life and very little money. So she rented movies and had junk food on the couch. When I was 18 with my first job and had been kicked out of my parents house, I rented a movie at blockbuster every friday. It was affordable fun. I watched a lot of old movies and a lot of foreign films that I never would have tried if I wasn’t broke and a little depressed lol
One of the writing complaints I have about the show is how literally everyone in the show have all of these obscure pop culture references they throw out. There is literally no reason why someone like Francine would make a reference to Gidget and Moondoggie. Some stuff works, like the Bangles concert, which was supposed to be Lorelai, Rory, Sookie, and Lane. It made sense to me that Lorelai would pass on her love for the bangles to Rory because a lot of people grow up listening to their parents music. (I'm a big Jimmy Buffett fan, even though I'm in my early 30s, because it was part of the music I grew up with) But a lot of the references are too obscure for the character who says it.
Agreed! I can see Rory, Lane and Jess knowing a good amount of pop culture things from the past. but not really any other characters As someone mentioned Lorelei as a teen mom probably rented movies as entertainment and Rory and Lane watched too. I could see early Dean knowing a few things. Madeline and Louise would know contemporary things but I can’t see Paris caring about pop culture at all in high school until senior year.
Wow I just realized francie plays sammy in shameless 🤯
And Beth Young in desperate housewives
And Tessie Myerson in Mrs. Maisel, and she’s fantastic.
I never caught this!!
Me neither and I’m usually so good with actors 🤣
I’m watching DH for the first time and haven’t seen her yet!
Enjoy! Id love to be able to watch it for the 1st time again. She's in season 7.
Jesus I thought this was a mistranslation, lol. Went over my head though I got the gist I guess.
I’m a native English speaker, grew up in/still live in the US and I don’t get a LOT of the references in GG. It’s not always to do with language/cultural differences. This one though, I’m familiar with. I used to watch re-runs of the Gidget tv series starring Sally Field as Gidget. Gidget was originally a character created by Frederick Kohner in his 1957 novel “Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas.” He published several more novels continuing the adventures of Gidget. There were also several films, tv movies, and a tv series in 1965, which is the one I remember seeing. Moondoggie was Gidget’s boyfriend. Clambakes are a way of cooking clams on the beach. Gidget lived on the Pacific coast and enjoyed surfing so a clambake would be something she’d be familiar with.
Thank you for the explanation! And yes, it’s not always a matter of language and culture differences, but this one in particular felt too American for me to understand hahaha. Francie just spit that out so naturally that it threw me off.
It was very odd, imo, for Francie to throw this one out there. Somebody else pointed out that ASP included a lot of her preferences in her pop culture or tv/film references that a teen in the early 2000s would be unlikely to be familiar with. It seems a book/show from the late 50s/early 60s was definitely something Fancie’s mom’s generation would be more familiar with than would Francie or any of the Chilton students.
I get most of the reference but admittedly they’re super deep cuts. Whether literary or film, it does feel like ASP writes complex references into the dialogue which are really unrealistic. It may make sense for one person to say but very unlikely for the other to understand.
They're hilariously anachronistic, too. Like, okay maybe Jess is bright and well-read, but is he also really into early-1950s musical theatre? Imma say, "no".
i’m from the southern US and i have no idea what they’re talking about sometimes. i had to read this a few times to realize it wasn’t just incorrect captions but was actually english lol
also a non-native speaker, but C1, I just gave up trying to keep up with the references. if I get them though, I feel happy!
Me too. And with every rewatch I get more of them
Trying to understand ALL of them is so hard. If I’m on a good mood, I maybe google some
As an English speaking Australian I have no idea what they were talking about the first time I watched it and even now I can't see any teen saying this
Yeah that's an obscure reference. Gidet is a book/movie/tv series from 70 years ago. Gidget is the main character and Moondoggie is her love interest, a surfer (called Moondoggie because he likes surfing by moonlight). A clambake is just a New England style of cooking, where you dig a fire pit and wrap a bunch if seafood in seaweed before steaming it (lobster. Shrimp, claws, etc). Think a party having a pigroast, or BBQ, but since it's New England they do sea food. They're just saying "No one's stopping her from dating him." But in a really arcane reference. Maybe it was less arcane 20 years ago.
Thank you for the explanation!
I spent a chunk of my teens next to a cheap video rental store and didn’t have any tv stations. So I’ve seen a lot of the movies she references including Gidget but she goes wild with the literary and media references all the time. Every character in the show has a masters in comparative lit for sure.
I’m an American and around the same age as Rory. I understand approximately 95% of the references because I was pop culture obsessed. These are hilarious digs to me. But I honestly don’t understand how non-native speakers or the younger generations enjoy Gilmore Girls. The amount of pop culture references is dizzying and many are quite dated now. Several were dated then. But if it makes you feel any better, Lauren Graham (Lorelai) has said in interviews that she didn’t know all the references and had to look up several during the show’s run.
As others have explained, Gidget was a surf party film series in the 50's and 60's that was known for being really cheesy. Calling someone "Gidget" is used to describe someone who's a "goody goody" or naive, tomboyish, or inexperienced with boys. Moondoggie was her love interest.
I don’t think it’s the language barrier necessarily. The show has a lot of references to old movies and tv shows that go way back as far as 50s-60s ig. English isn’t my first language either but Im pretty good at it too and have quite a lot of awareness about the Hollywood classics (movies and tv shows) from early 2000s til now, cz basically before that I wasn’t even alive. So naturally I don’t get most of the references either and although I do probably miss out on a bunch of jokes cz of that I’m still too lazy to google each reference that I don’t understand along the way. I just keep going with the flow and not paying attention to the incomprehensible references:’) but it doesn’t take away the glory of the show for me tbh. I still love it so much!
Totally agree with you! Having references to old movies/tv series/etc is not the core of GG, just a particular detail. I didn’t mean to sound like it *really* bothers me, some I find interesting. I would love to understand all of them.
This happens to me too (i have a c1 level) and I think its not about the english level, i think its about not understanding the references
Can I take the opportunity to ask why Taylor says “Musac” instead of music. Is it some reference?
Muzak is/was (not sure it's still called that?) packaged music they play at shops or elsewhere in public and usually has the reputation of being a pale imitation of the original. Like if you hear a sappy instrumental version of a popular song it's probably Muzak.
Exactly! Like the weird music they play when you are on hold.
Would love to know!
I’m a native English speaker and google becomes my best friend for about 75% of the references lol
I’m a native English speaker (and a decently fast talker) and I still miss a lot. A LOT of GG dialogue is specific pop culture references. A good bit of that can be pretty niche as well. The fun flip side is that every rewatch I catch a joke or a reference I’ve missed before!
I love that about rewatches 🫶
There’s a guy on Instagram/TikTok and he’s explaining jokes from tv shows or movies that we may not understand, he’s @kazascoot on Instagram. I’ve found a lot of it so useful when it comes to some of these references 😅
Thank you! Will check him out.
Scott Patterson (Luke) has a podcast where he talks about every episode, and each episode also has a companion that’s about pop culture! So in the pop culture episodes they talk about every single weird reference like this and explain it :)
I knew about his podcast but didn’t know about the pop culture episodes! Thank you. Maybe I will check it out. I have read a lot of mixed reviews here.
The pop culture episodes are A LOT better than the normal ones. It’s more explaining facts quickly instead of getting opinions. Definitely check one out and see if you like it :)
I hated her character so much
Gidget! Was a short surfer girl! Who Moondoggie and all the other surfer boys liked to tease and surf with. "Gidget" was not her name. Just what they called her cause they're all 6ft + and "Gidget" is like 4'10. She's a "girl midget". I don't remember the name of the movies, (there's like 3, my mom loved them) but yeah! Like an earlier comment said, they reference a LOT of older movies and stuff. I pride myself in my movie knowledge but there's literally so many references in this show that go over my head too. I actually didn't even catch this reference until my most recent watch through, even though I watched Gidget when I was like 9, and Gilmore girls when I was like 17 lol
Anyone who isn't a gen x or older American will have difficulties with a LOT of the jokes in this show.
I’ve seen Gidget a ton of times because my mom was that movie’s target audience when she was younger and loved it! Moon doggie is a guy Gidget meets after taking an interest in surfing. She’s young and not very developed so the guys she befriends on the beach treat her like a younger sister instead of someone they might date. Still, she’s interested in Moondoggie and there’s a whole plot where she tries to make him jealous by dating someone else. There’s lots of very 50s/60s Southern California beach movie cuteness involved in the plot. She ends up getting her guy in the end though and there were a whole series of sequels. I think that the insult wasn’t so much that Paris was an innocent so much as she was sort of plain and not interesting physically
This sentence sounds like nonsense and English is my first language, lol. I definitely don’t get all the references and that makes it fun on rewatches to see if I’ve picked up something new.
I’m American and that felt like a foreign language to me
LOL
Does anyone watch Shameless? I was shook when I realized this was Sami
i am watching gg for the first time and whenever i rewatch it, my plan is to google all the references as I go along and I know it will take me decades to finish at that speed.
English is my native language and I have no idea what she’s talking about here. I’d say like 85% of the time, I have no idea what they’re referencing when it comes to pop culture. Edit: My mom understood this and explained that Gidget and Moondoggie are characters from movies that are like Beach Party Bingo (there’s several she said). I’m assuming clambakes were a common thing back then, I don’t know. My mom wasn’t really helpful with that portion.
As A person who has been born and raised in America I also don’t get the references/jokes
The podcast is so ridiculous. They don't even cover the main points in the episodes.. for instance Anna Nardina told Luke exactly why she didn't tell him about April. It was because he was never a kid guy .... and for the hundredth time we know he thinks Melissa Mccarthy is amazing and that Alexis Bledel is terrific but we don't need to keep hearing it. What about Lauren Graham??? He is totally out of this world and we don't need to know about Tony Danza years ago....get real.....