Breakfast Topic: Which NPCs cause a double take?

You have to hand it to Blizzard. They have a way with pop culture references and inside jokes. One of the methods that developers use to express their sense of humour is in their naming of the various NPCs in the game.
For instance, the two Triumphant Armor vendors located outside Crusader's Coliseum. Champion Isimode (which I'm going to pronounce as "easy mode") is the vendor for the Alliance players, while Champion Faesrol (or "face roll") is the vendor for Horde players.
Harrison Jones guided us through the introductory parts of Zul'Aman (or at least, tried to). Unlike the real Indiana Jones, Harrison didn't didn't last very long after your raid hit the gong. He'd end up resurfacing again in an escort quest in Grizzly Hills (aptly named Dun-da-Dun-tah!).
Firefly loves might have missed this NPC over in Zangarmarsh. The engineering Grandmaster K. Lee Smallfry is a nod to Kaylee Frye who is the engineer on the television series.
Last but not least, a few Goblin NPCs are named after a few prominent Star Trek characters. In Booty Bay, there's a goblin named Scooty (Scotty)! The first time I ran Gnomeregan as a Horde player, I came through here and did a double take on the name. You could imagine my pleasant surprise when I activated the transporter only to emerge on the other side to be greeted by Sprock (Spock).
Which NPCs have you run across that have caused you to look twice?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Humor
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 11)
Joe Sites Sep 7th 2009 8:19AM
yeah, that's one of my favorite references.
Durid Sep 7th 2009 9:42AM
"Wow, I never noticed that. Looks like they were fully expecting all the QQing about TotC being too easy."
I think they're referring to the classes of the NPCs, which means they're aware of the immortal selfhealing plategods they accidentally created
JKWood Sep 7th 2009 10:25AM
I think it's more that they're aware of the common stereotypes of ret paladins. It's a poke at the people who whine about them being OP.
Evi Sep 7th 2009 7:09PM
I was annoyed they changed her look, though. In beta she had much more appropriate black hair. Then they inexplicably turned her into a white-haired n'elf. o.O
Joe Sites Sep 7th 2009 8:19AM
Floyd Pinkus is the innkeeper at Thrallmar in Hellfire. (Pink Floyd)
Kara Thricestar is an NPC at Fizzcrank Airstrip is a reference to Kara Thrace (Starbuck) from Battlestar Galactica.
PeeWee Sep 7th 2009 8:17AM
http://www.wowwiki.com/List_of_pop_culture_references_in_Warcraft
There, no need for any more comments
Zinn Sep 7th 2009 9:13AM
@ Peewee
Since the question was "Which NPCs have you run across that have caused you to look twice?" a simple listing of all of them by you is irrelevant, unless of course you mean all of them made you look twice.
flakshell Sep 18th 2009 4:36AM
Nice list :-D
Though, i can't understand that they completely forgot about the Blood Elf NPC's comment "Remember the Sunwell" when you click on them. This is a clear reference to "Remember the Alamo", a frase from the American Civil War, where fort Alamo was
overrun by Mexicans.
efrdman2008 Sep 7th 2009 9:42AM
Um... the Mexicans Didn't attack the Alamo during the AMERICAN CIVIL WAR!!
PeeWee Sep 7th 2009 12:02PM
That "irrelevant" listing is much easier to read than poorly-written comments and double-posts here.
Yakuko Sep 7th 2009 12:43PM
That list is missing at least two I can think off the top of my head.
deluded spider Sep 7th 2009 4:53PM
Um, did flakshell actually spell "phrase" with an "f" ? Good god.
Sarabande Sep 8th 2009 7:26AM
Yeah, OK . . . next time my friends and I are sitting around having fun talking and listing funny or interesting things, I'll just hand them a web address and go home so we don't have to talk to each other anymore.
:/
Scarletjade Sep 7th 2009 8:21AM
It always makes me smile when I'm in Un'Goro and I find the lvl 1 raptor called Obi
Betherian Sep 7th 2009 8:20AM
I woulda thought Linkin and Haris Pilton would have been the first to be said.
My favourite name (although not an NPC) is the Arcanist's Cookbook.
Jamie Sep 7th 2009 8:21AM
The quest chain: http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=10227 (I see dead draenei) is full of film references from the starting quest name to Ezekiel (as in Ezekiel 25:17 [the bible verse Samuel L Jackson's character quotes several times during Pulp Fiction).
...and the follow up which contain "Dirty" Larry ("Dirty" Harry) and "Epic" Malone (Bugsy Malone anyone?)
Althought my favourite was doing the Nintendo inspired Un'Goro Crater, the gorillas drop Empty Barrels (as in Donkey Kong), you have Larion and Muigin (Mario & Luigi) which shamely has a Horde Dwarf!!! Neutral NPCs please Blizzard!!! And of course not forgetting the epic Legend of Zelda inspired Linken quest chain, it's ashame the end rewards don't match the Legend but hey ho!
Tethra Sep 9th 2009 7:11PM
He's not Horde. He's hostile to both factions.
xsx Sep 7th 2009 8:56AM
ot, but.. what's the font used in this screen? does anyone know?
Caelys Sep 7th 2009 8:05PM
I believe it's Accidental Presidency, which is available in some of the shared media packaged addons.
krizzlybear Sep 7th 2009 8:22AM
At first I didn't get the reference for Dun-da-Dun-tah! Now I can't get the Indiana Jones theme out of my head. It's going to be stuck all day. Curse you, WoW Insider!