Picard, his face in palm. Riker, his grin wide.

Mischievous girl, her house burning.

Girlfriend, her eyes uncomfortably wide and unsettling.

Leonardo DiCaprio, pointing at the television!

Serious little boy, his upturned fist presented!

Kombucha lady, her face disgusted. Kombucha lady, her face intrigued.

Morty, his hands making finger guns.

Eric Andre, his mag dumped behind him; his face filled with confusion.

https://lemmy.world/post/26543640

Marty McFly, having seen this one before

Pikachu, his mouth open

Image searching returned too many really tone deaf or just plain stupid ones made by far right American mouth breathers.

Colbert, his finger extended.

The fox in fuckin wimd.

We already do this, even when the original reference is forgotten.

We use idioms that refer to Greek mythology (hanging over your head, as with the Sword or Damocles, or Achilles heel), or Bible stories (Judas meaning betrayal, shibboleth meaning some kind of identifier of membership in a group), or Shakespeare (pound of flesh), or horse racing (frontrunner, hands down, across the board) or other sports (bullseye, slam dunk, par).

And in terms of our technology, we use all sorts of things that harken back to some obsolete technology. We use a save icon that is a floppy disk, a database icon that uses cylinder drum memory. We refer to the smartphone interface that enters phone numbers as a "dialer" from the "dial" in the days of rotary phones.

Monsoon to Raiden, his voice in awe

skeletor, laughing with a toothy grin.

Jeremiah Johnson, his head nodding