Read on Twitter
I've been catching up on "Hope Makes Chris Watch Cartoons" and listening to @HopeMullinax and Chris discuss various references in Gravity Falls and thinking about how well Gravity Falls handles pop culture references.
A thing I've seen more and more recently is making a pop culture reference instead of making a joke. Audiences love feeling smart, audiences love references to other things they love, it's lazy but effective.
I'm not saying you can't have good jokes that also feature pop culture references, I'm saying that just making a pop culture reference is not a joke in and of itself.
Additionally, there's the "making a nostalgic pop culture reference" thing, which I've also seen a lot recently, which again relies on the audience's pre-existing emotional attachment to other media, while also adding in an extra layer of good feelings via nostalgia.
Anyway, I bring this up to say that Gravity Falls, imho, avoids this laziness. Sure, there are pop culture references, but they don't take the place of actual writing. They're fun little easter eggs, but they're not the entire joke, they're not the entire plot.
