Who Framed Roger Rabbit: 13 Easter Eggs & References You Probably Missed

There’s three levels to this action.

First, if you had a dirty mind and thought “patty cake” was a euphemism this proves the lie to that.

Second, in a meta moment, Roger flips the photos so fast they become an animated flip book.

Third, and most clever of all, it’s a direct reference to the opening scene of Chinatown (1974) where a man named Curly flips through compromising black and white photos of his wife and her lover. Roger even has-at the Venetian blinds and downs a shot of booze, much as Curly does. In fact, Judge Doom’s looney tooney freeway rest stop plan is a spiritual cousin to the plots of both Chinatown and its sequel, The Two Jakes (1990), which concern municipal corruption and the lives destroyed by it. (An oft-repeated myth that a never-made followup to The Two Jakes was to be called “Cloverleaf” and have a similar plot to Roger Rabbit has no factual basis.)

Heck, even though Jessica Rabbit's 1939 Packard One-Twenty may not be the exact same make and model that Evelyn Mulwray's 1938 Packard Twelve Convertible Victoria in Chinatown, but it’s clearly intended to evoke it.

So much Chinatown you almost expect Lt. Santino to say, "Forget it, Eddie. It's Toontown."