Today while slacking off on wikipedia, looking up transistor radios, I saw that at one point the marketing campaign for Starkist Tuna had their mascot carrying a transistor radio because the radios were apparently the iPod of their day. That mascot's name happens to be Charlie the Tuna. We don't get this brand of tuna where I'm from so the reference went right over my head and I thought the guys were just making some funny name up.

Anyway I thought I'd share the story about how I discovered this. Were there any references the crew have made that you guys randomly found out about later?

My money is on that they were just making a funny name up, but as Ryan did originally yell the name "Charlie Tuna" out at Jeff/Vinny, it might have been an obscure reference Ryan made that no one caught.

I think you may be overestimating how obscure of a reference Charlie the Tuna is.

Charlie Tuna is a radio DJ where they live so that'd be my guess?

Yeah, as far as I know Charlie the Tuna is a pretty big product mascot in the US at least and is almost ubiquitous with canned tuna products.

@nightriff: Yeah I'm pretty sure that Ryan was referencing the mascot, I'm not sure if the guys caught that reference or they just thought it was a funny name and went with it before "japanacising" the last name.

It's the "Mystery Science Theater 3000 riff" effect. MST3K made references to things adults would get and references that kids would get.

The only difference is MST3K did it intentionally, but Giant Bomb just riffs using references to things they know which happens to hit different people in different ways. Ryan and Jeff are the best at this kind of humor on Giant Bomb.

Knowing Ryan, who yelled that out, it could also have been a reference to a game show host. That's what I always assumed it was anyway.

I always figured it was the tuna guy (he's a pretty well known but definitely C-tier mascot in the states. Like the Michelin Man or that creepy glove with a face on it for Hamburger Helper), but it's kinda cool that it might have been a deeper in-joke that none of us would get.

I dunno, they seem to be around the right age/region to be well-aware of who Charlie Tuna is.

It's a pipe dream, but I hope they reference the endurance run in one of the new games. Hell, Persona 4 Golden references Hiimdaisy so anything is possible.

I always thought it was a weird reference to Chali 2na, of alternative hip hop group Jurassic 5.

I'm nearly positive that it was a reference to the Tuna mascot (who, as others have said, is pretty well-known, and is where the phrase "Sorry, Charlie" comes from).

Charlie the Tuna seems like something Ryan would have known about, or had just read about and it was on his mind. I like to think Charlie the Tuna is a ripoff of Charlie Tunoku, though.

@harpell: I also vote that Ryan had Chali 2na in mind when he yelled it out. That was my first thought when I watched the ER episode, at least.