Easter Eggs
| Synonyms: | allusions, in-jokes |
| See also: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Easter Eggs are hidden messages, images or references in fanworks. The term comes from the Christian practice of hiding eggs to celebrate spring during the Easter holiday. The term it was first used in the Atari video game Adventure, where the programmer inserted his name, obscured to avoid breaking a company policy against giving credit. [1]
Canon Easter Eggs
Indiana Jones films include Star Wars easter eggs, such as images of the robots among the hieroglyphics found in a tomb.[2]
There are easter eggs in many Marvel movies, from Captain America's shield first seen in the second Iron Man movie on Tony Stark's workbench [3] to the Endgame reference to Sebastian Stan's role in "Hot Tub Time Machine"[4].
In Voltron: Legendary Defender, the Shiro/Keith pairing was referenced in a flashback by Executive Producer Lauren Montgomery, who said
I put that sh** in there! [...] Shiro was still his [Keith's] guiding light. It was good.[5]
Taylor Swift is well known for using Easter eggs in her work, such as including capitalised letters in her lyric booklets that spelled out secret hidden meanings for the songs. Talking about Easter eggs is now a common buzzword within Swiftie communities. Fans intentionally contriving hidden Easter eggs that they do not believe are intentional sometimes refer to their theories as "clownery" or "clowning". Even so, the potential for these purported hidden meanings to be a deliberate communication from Taylor to her fans bolsters certain conspiracy theories, such as Gaylor theory.
Fanwork Easter Eggs
In fandom, an example is a Vividcon llama joke on the 2011 version of the website [6]
JeanMarco was a popular ship in the Attack on Titan fandom, and many fanworks included Easter Egg details—references to other popular JeanMarco fanworks
References
- ^ Wikipedia:Easter egg (media)
- ^ When Star Wars and Indiana Jones Collide: Attack of the Easter Eggs
- ^ Easter Egg #1: Captain America’s Shield In Iron Man
- ^ Avengers: Endgame Star Sebastian Stan Weighs in on Hot Tub Time Machine Paradox Complex.com, 2019-05-17, accessed 2020-08-07
- ^ Voltron Season 4 Episodes 1 & 2 Review w/ Joaquim Dos Santos, Lauren Montgomery, & Jeremy Shada Oct 16, 2017
- ^ easteregg.txt, accessed March 30, 2011; reference link