Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (TV)

The text around Laughing Man's circular face says, “I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.” This line is taken from J.D. Salinger's classic novel The Catcher in the Rye.

In the last episode of the first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (episode 26), when Motoko ("Major") walks down the staircase of the library you can read "Fuck You" engraved on the blue metal railing when she removes her hand. This refers to an excerpt from J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" just a few pages after the Laughing Man's tagline ("I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."): "That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write 'Fuck you' right under your nose." (Chapter 25, pg. 204)

The opening scene for the second season's 'Tachikoma Days' parodies MGM's 'Roaring Lion' opening. Also, the closing credits is an homage to the arcade game 'Dig Dug'.

J. D. Salinger also wrote a short story titled "The Laughing Man." The story also uses the literary device known as a story-within-a-story, which is not unlike that of The Laughing Man Saga in GITS:SAC which shadows the political corruption of 1980s Japan.

In episode 9 (Chat! Chat! Chat!), the leader of the chatroom gives his name as "Net Master Omba". In the short story "The Laughing Man" by J.D. Salinger, Omba was the title character's lovable dwarf companion.

In Episode 11, the text on the mitt at the very end is also from The Catcher in the Rye. "I mean if I had my goddam choice, I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all."

In episode 11, "Portraitz", the head of the facility is definitely drawn to look like Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher, who won the Best Actress Oscar in 1975) in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

One of the characters in J.D. Salinger's novel, "The Catcher in the Rye", Allie Caulfield, had a baseball glove on which he used to write poems in green ink. almost like the glove seen in episode 11, "portraitz" but written in blue ink instead.

In Episode 12: Tachikoma Runaway; ESCAPE FROM, when Major was speaking to a certain Movie Director, an ad can be seen posted on the wall just behind the Director's head, it says: GO SEE BANANAFISH. JD Salinger's Nine Stories included a short story titled: A Perfect Day for BananaFish.

In Episode 12: Tachikoma Runaway: ESCAPE FROM, at about the 19 minute mark, when the Major is speaking to the director, an ad can be seen posted on the wall just over her right shoulder. It shows a man wearing a red jacket, with a blue shirt and yellow tie. Although the text on the poster mentions something about a French detective woman, this is quite possibly an homage to the great Lupin III.

In episode 12, Miki asks Tachikoma if it is familiar with the story "The Secret Goldfish". At the begining of "The Catcher in the Rye" Holden mentions that his older brother wrote a terrific book of short stories under the same name. The story was about a young kid that wouldn't let anyone look at his goldfish because he had bought it with his own money..

In episode 17 (Red Data) the figurines are taken from the Red Data EX and EW series, this is a reference to the IUCN Red List of endangered species - the list that determines the world status of a species - with species classified as EX being extinct and species classed as EW being Extinct in the Wild. This is re-iterated later in the episode when a documentary states that (in the SAC world) the Ostrich (part of the EW series in the episode) has become completely domesticated.

Episode 9 mentions a "designer named Paul" who had come up with the design for a logo, only to have it stolen by the Laughing Man. This is a reference to (and possibly is) Paul Nicholson the designer of the actual logo. Later in Episode 17 one of the buses features an advertisement for "Prototype 21" which is the design company he used to work for before TerraTag.