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This is a list of references and allusions in the Goosebumps franchise.

Original series[]

Title references[]

Some Goosebumps book titles are references to other media:

Tagline references[]

Television series references[]

Movie references[]

  • There are references to Stephen King, Steve McQueen, The Blob, The Lord of the Rings, Frosty the Snowman, and The Shining in the Goosebumps film.
  • In the movie, Danny Elfman makes a small amount of music that sounds similar to Dark Shadows, Corpse Bride, Spider-Man, and Sleepy Hollow.
  • When Stine was tied up by the Lawn Gnomes, that was a reference to the book Gulliver's Travels, which was also turned into a 2010 movie starring Jack Black and directed by Rob Letterman. 
  • Stephen King's It is referenced in Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween.

Other references[]

References to Goosebumps[]

  • Spider-Man (2002 video game): During the Scorpion boss battle, music from "Let's Get Invisible!" is played.
  • Slither (2006 film): There's a scene where two little girls are reading Goosebumps books, one reads You Can't Scare Me!, and the other girl reads The Girl Who Cried Monster.
  • Nick News: R.L. Stine appeared in multiple episodes.
  • Clarence: There was an episode called "Belson's Sleepover" where the character Belson reads a book called, Goose Pimples to Clarence and his friends.
  • Arthur: In the episode The Scare-Your-Pants-Off Book Club, the Scare-Your-Pants-Off books parody Goosebumps. Buster mentions a book called The Curse of the Mummy's Breath, a reference to The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb and Vampire Breath.
  • Goosebumps is referenced several times throughout Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Double Down. The characters in this book read the book series, Spineticklers, a fictional series written by the fictional author I.M. Spooky. There are at least 97 books in the Spineticklers series. Some of the titles allude to real Goosebumps books. The fictional book The Brain with Its Own Mind possibly alludes to Brain Juice, and Zombies at Breakfast possibly alludes to Zombie Halloween or Monster Blood for Breakfast!.
    • Additionally, Greg mentions there being multiple Spineticklers ripoffs, likely a reference to the many series inspired by Goosebumps that cropped up in the 90's. The name Spineticklers is similar to Spinetinglers, one of the aforementioned series.
    • The author I.M. Spooky is revealed to not actually exist, being a stand in for various authors. This is a reference to a common accusation of ghostwriters being used for the series.
  • The band, $uicideboy$ has a song called "Say Cheese and Die!"
  • The Simpsons: In the Season 23 episode The Book Job, the phrase "Is R.L. Stine here, cause you just gave me Goosebumps" is uttered by the book executive.
    • Goosebumps is briefly mentioned again in the Season 33 episode The Longest Marge.
    • Season 34's Not It features a scene in which Krusty (parodying Pennywise) becomes a dummy dressed in a similar outfit to Slappy.
  • The Zack Files: In the first episode, The Library of No Return, Zack is put on trial by the Alice in Wonderland characters and first claims the book was by R.L. Stine before correcting himself, saying "No wait, that was Goosebumps."
  • The now defunct deathcore band Dr. Acula wrote multiple songs with titles based on Goosebumps books. These include Shocker On Shock Street, Horror At Camp Jellyjam and Say Cheese and Die! just to name a few.
  • Internet personality Neil Cicierega, under his musical project Lemon Demon, released a song called Goosebumps which references many of the titles of the original 62 in its lyrics. The music video features imagery of the books and all of the first 62 covers. 
  • Goosebumps has been referenced multiple times on the video game channel Game Grumps. Among the references are:
  • Cracked Magazine lampooned Goosebumps in their May 1997 issue.
  • Disney Adventures featured multiple articles on Goosebumps, including their November 1996 issue which featured it as their cover story.
  • Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction: the story entitled "Wheezer" features a scene where the character Zack is reading an exerpt from Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns to his dog.
  • Mad Magazine lampooned Goosebumps in 2017 with "Goosebumps Books For Millennials".
  • The 2002 book The Mysterious Matter of I.M. Fine by Diane Stanley centers around some kids who must figure out why kids who read a series called Chillers are doing strange things that happen to connect to the latest books in the series and track down the mysterious author.
  • In one episode of Glee, a copy of The Phantom of the Auditorium can be seen.
  • In 2018, the now defunct professional wrestling promotion Chikara named several of their live events on Goosebumps titles. These included Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, It Came from Beneath the Sink!, Let's Get Invisible!, Beware, The Snowman, Piano Lessons Can Be Murder and Don't Go to Sleep!
  • The Bunnicula book Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allan Crow features a series called "Fleshcrawlers", written by M.T. Graves.
  • The question "What is the title of the best-selling series of scary children's books created by R.L. Stine?" was asked on the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. The correct answer, Goosebumps, was worth £2,000.
  • Slappy was featured in Watchmojo's "Top 20 Scariest Dolls in Horror Movies" list, taking the 7th spot.
  • The animated series Molly of Denali referenced Goosebumps in the episode "Visit Qyah" as Molly returns a book titled "Moosebumps" titled "The Ghost of Parody Pines" with a front cover design similar to the 2003 reprints
  • In the Animorphs book ''The Separation'', Rachael states she had goosebumps to which Marco quips "I used to read those books". R.L Stine would later be directly mentioned in "The Prophecy".
  • In the Time Warp Trio book "Summer Reading is Killing Me", the titular trio pretends to be book characters from a series while stuck in a universe made up of book characters. Frankenstein's Monster says "series bad!" to which the boss assures him they aren't from "one of those horror series", saying "settle down your goosebumps".
  • 7th Heaven: In the episode "Seven is Enough", Simon is reading Attack Of The Mutant while in the garage discussing with his siblings about their grandparents visiting for the week. Additionally, in "“In The Blink Of An Eye", Simon is seen reading Trapped In Batwing Hall.
  • In the first episode of Season 2 of the 2019 Are You Afraid of the Dark revival, a Slappy dummy, or a dummy similar to him, can be seen in Sardo's magic shop.
  • Power Rangers Dino Fury: The episode "Guilt Trip" features a website advertising a supposedly haunted location called "Stine Hotel". A user reviews says it gave them "Goosebumps" and another says "Guests beware, you're in for a scare!". Additionally, it offers "complimentary purple peanut butter", a reference to Beware of the Purple Peanut Butter.
  • The 2017 book Ban This Book mentions Goosebumps among many banned books.
  • In Susan Wiggs' 2020 novel, The Lost and Found Bookshop, the main character Natalie reflects on her childhood as a reader and the daughter of a bookstore owner and how a lot of kids she knew would only ever read Goosebumps.
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