So I like to read the knights of the dinner table comic series. It's a very long running comic about dnd and the people who play it, but more about the people from the generation that grew up on adnd sort of thing. It generally presents the players as dysfunctional and chaotic, and it's a fun time. It's making fun of this sort of thing, you know? If you've ever heard of Hackmaster, that system was built to be the dnd parody they play in the comic.
In any case, I've been running a 3.5 campaign for a bit now, and I decided to use some ideas from kodt in my game. Specifically the stuff introduced in the bag wars comics, if you're familiar. In doing so I ended up adding some locations from the comics. These locations exist because of the actions of the PCs from the comics, The Untouchable Trio +1. My players asked some questions about the history, which ended up with me introducing the concept of the UT+1 to them. All in all they had some fun and are looking forward to exploring some new areas.
But then they started asking about the UT+1 at the next town. Easy enough, the person they asked was actually a silver dragon in disguise (long story) so she knew of them. I referenced a different plotline from the comics and moved on.
But here's the thing. My players have (despite my best efforts) never read kodt. They don't know about the chaos that happens in those comics, and don't know this stuff is a reference to them. Right now this is all just a fun background reference for my own amusement. But every time they ask about the UT+1 that group gets a little more real in my setting. Every time they mention that group, the chances of them meeting in game increase. If they're not careful... well, I'll have fun. And that's important too.