In Earshot, when Giles and Wesley are talking about the demon heart needed to cure Buffy’s telepathy, Giles says, “Who’s going to get the demon heart? Berk!” The word Berk (Berkeley Hunt) is Cockney rhyming slang for ‘cunt’.

Spike calls Buffy “Betty” in Superstar, either to tease her or because he might not know her name (since she gets so little limelight in the Jonathan-centric alternative universe). Given his special interest in hunting Slayers, however, one could certainly argue Spike knows her name and is razzing her. In …

“Buffy” is also the name of a gene, first isolated in Drosophila (fruit flies), and its corresponding protein. What the protein does is save the cell if it’s been instructed to die.

Angel gave Buffy a Claddagh Ring for her 17th birthday in Surprise. The ring depicts a heart and crown, held by two hands. It symbolises love, loyalty and friendship. The ring originated in the small fishing village of Claddagh in Galway, Ireland, around 400 years ago. The ring can be …

The story of the episode Anne is clearly an allusion to the economic philosophies of Karl Marx. According to Marx, the proletariat, abused and maltreated factory workers, are slaves under the whip of the capitalistic, bourgeoise factory-owners. But eventually the proletariat will rise up and destroy their bourgeoise masters. This …

Anya buys the last known Urn of Osiris on eBay in Bargaining (Part 1). For those who have been living in a cave, eBay is an online auction house where you can buy just about anything - I mean anything.
In Ground State, Gunn says “But if it’s at an auction …

In Graduation Day (Part 2), Cordelia suggested a novel way of stopping the Mayor’s Ascension, “We’ll get a box with the Ebola virus and… and… Or it doesn’t even have to be real, we can just get a box that says Ebola on it and… um… chase him… with the …

Cordelia says to her friends in the Bronze in Welcome to the Hellmouth, “My mom doesn’t even get out of bed anymore. And the doctor says it’s Epstein-Barr. I’m like, pleeease! It’s chronic hepatitis, or at least chronic fatigue syndrome. I mean, nobody cool has Epstein-Barr anymore.” Epstein-Barr is a …

Faith often uses the phrase “Five By Five” to say she’s ok. The origin of the phrase is unknown, but it can be related to a poker term, a piece of wood, US Army talk for a radio signal being loud and clear, and it’s also a reference to the …

In Dead Man’s Party, Joyce Summers tells Buffy she has been looking at different schools to send Buffy to, including a girls’ school. Buffy replies, “A girls’ school? So now it’s jackets, kilts, and no boys? Care to throw in a little foot-binding?” Buffy is referring to the Chinese tradition …

The title of the season four Angel episode Ground State comes from a physics term. Wikipedia says of ground state:

The ground state of a quantum mechanical system is its lowest-energy state. An excited state is any state with energy greater than the ground state. The ground state of a quantum …

The Holy Grail is supposedly the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper. It is considered to be extremely powerful and many quests took place to try and find it. The Grail is alluded to twice in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In The Harsh Light of Day, …

“I like Ike” (referenced by Xander in Help) was the slogan for Eisenhower’s presidential campaign in September 1952.

In the episode Provider, Lorne makes a joke about being able to download Wesley’s web articles about DNA fusion comparisons from “illneverknowtheloveofawoman.com”. This is an actual site. You will not find any of Wesley’s articles there, but you will find “resources and information on Love and Dating services”.

In Angel, Darla says, “Come on, Angel. Just say yes.” She’s paraphrasing the famous anti-drug message from the 1980s: “Just Say No”. It was first coined by Nancy Reagan, though British viewers may remember the kids from Grange Hill singing their version of the message.