Opinions wanted: Story question on memes

[Zephyr]

I'm working on a MF story where the woman in in love with her man and comes by to watch over him when he injures his back (from several states away). While she is there a female friend of theirs stops by. I'm thinking of including a reference to a line from a cult film and am wondering if this sounds stupid or not.

The film is "Return of the Killer Tomatoes". In the movie there's a female lead character is a tomato who is converted to a beautiful young woman. She is a tomato and recently created so she's kinda clueless tho (you'd have to see the film to understand fully). 

At one point the girl in the movie comes out and when asked what she's doing with the mad scientist (who created her but nobody else knows people can be created from tomatoes) she responds in a monotone about said mad scientist: "I'm his lover. I also cook and clean."

In my story when her BFF comes and finds her there, she stiffens up and gives the line, then breaks down giggling. When her BFF doesn't get the reference she identifies the movie and recommends her BFF go watch it and they go on.

I could omit this and write around it and it wouldn't harm the story at all. Sound stupid? Artistic license? Sounds like fun? Would you see such a reference in a story a good thing, a bad thing, or a "whatever!"? Opinions wanted!

Thank you!
Z

[teanndaorsa]

If it's just a throwaway line, I think the impact of a portion of the audience not getting it is negligible. If you have to explain it, through your character's exposition, for most people to get it, I'd say it's probably a bit clunky. Unless you specifically want to convey that this character is someone geeky, who likes goofy eighties films, in which case the fact it's super-niche works in its favour.

If you used it without explaining the reference, anyone it niggles at would probably Google it, and that doesn't reveal the source of the line, which probably speaks to how iconic / well known it is. Anyone who saw the film might remember, and everyone else probably won't, but that leaves the average reader with the nagging feeling that they're not understanding, or with the sense that your characters themselves are weird. Like, that line makes sense when you know the character is a tomato turned human... Okay, scratch that, the line *still* doesn't make sense when you know the character was a tomato, not unless you're on board with all the rest of the film, which is pretty screwball. But it might just make your readers think your character is as weird as a tomato-girl, which is probably also not what you want.

[Zephyr]

Thank you! All good points!