The IT Crowd - Cultural References

Cultural References

The show tries to add a large number of references to geek culture and professionalism, mostly in set dressing and props. Dialogue (both technical and cultural) is usually authentic and any technobabble used often contains in-jokes for viewers knowledgeable in such subjects. Roy regularly wears shirts that feature abbreviations, such as OMFG and RTFM. Series 3 Episode 1 has Roy wearing the Music Elitism Venn Diagram tee and I Screw Robots sticker from the webcomic Diesel Sweeties. On occasion, there will be movie-style scenes that parody fight scenes and melodrama.

In August 2008, having not had time to source the props himself, Linehan appealed to fans to donate items to use for series 3, to make the set look like "a geek's Shangri-La". The Centre for Computing History loaned a collection of computers from the 1970s and 1980s. They included an Altair 8800, Oric Atmos, Amstrad CPC 464, Sinclair ZX81, Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2, Commodore 64, Commodore PET, Atari ST, Sord M5, Acorn RISC PC600, BBC Model B, an Astro Wars game, circuit boards from a Wang VS mainframe and several shelves of old computer manuals. A Map Overlay and Statistical System (MOSS) manual, with the letters M-O-S-S on the spine, sits on the shelf behind Moss.

Many items on the set reflect Linehan's own personal taste. There are numerous examples of this, but most noticeable are the V for Vendetta (Guy Fawkes) mask, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, various xkcd references, such as the "Map of Online Communities" poster and the "Actual Size!" sticker on Moss' computer, the Buddy Bradley doll, the Robert Pollard and Guided by Voices posters (Guided by Voices is one of Linehan's favourite bands, cropping up in background music, on t-shirts and getting a specific mention in series 3, episode 3), a poster of the album The Campfire Headphase by Boards of Canada and the War on Terror board game, which is played by Moss and Roy in series 2, episode 4. The main stickers found around the office include the Electronic Frontier Foundation ("Fair Use has a POSSE", "MP3 is not a crime", "Coding is not a crime") and the Open Rights Group. In the fourth series, some Ubuntu stickers were added, including one on Moss's monitor, Jen's office door, the mirror and the department's door.