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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48370
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48370
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

> ...shout-outs by the main character to those other stories, as well as celebrities.  
> The hope is that any readers of similar fiction will find the references and shoutouts funny. However, I don't know how far I can take these references.

### Don't Make Those Reference At All.

They just emphasize to the reader you are imitating Douglas Adams or others, that they are just reading a rehash of Hitchhiker's. That feels like plagiarism to me, not an original work. As a reader I would resent it, not laugh at it.

It **is** plagiarism in the sense you are trying to steal somebody else's successful comedy and use it to make your own work funnier. It is like a stand-up comic telling us:

> "Remember that joke from Ellen DeGeneres, about the airplane seats? Hilarious, right? Pretend I just told you that joke."

Come up with your own original jokes.

Do any of those stories you talk about have shout outs and explicit references to the work of other authors? I know Douglas Adams' work doesn't, I doubt the others do either.

There is nothing wrong with writing another character that is the only one that can save the world. As you said, it has been done thousands of times. It is the equivalent of coming up with two characters that meet, conflict, fall in love, argue, reconcile and live happily ever after. It is still being done, and doesn't require any back-references to "Cinderella" or "When Harry Met Sally" or "Pretty Woman" or "Grease" or "You've Got Mail" or "Sleepless in Seattle".

There's nothing wrong with it being a comedy. Leave the other works alone, make your comedy original. Your plot can echo other plots, but make your characters original and your comedy original, not a rehash of other's comedy, and don't try to steal some glitter from the works of others.

Original score: 1