American Dad Saints Row 3 Reference?

[Mournful Crow]

So there's an American Dad Episode, "The Missing Kink," and in the end of it, there's a nice stab at insurance commercials, utilizing... Well, here's the clip link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynSrrQE2Aqs

I recognized the logo from Saints Row 3, it's the same logo that's used by the Morningstar, a gang whose themes include kinky sex dungeons (Rescuing Zimos mission anyone?).

Is this intentional, or is this a reference to something more obscure that I'm unaware of?

 

[Lilani]

If it is referencing something else I don't know what it is, either. I don't really feel like it's referencing SR3 though, isn't the Morningstar logo a different color? And if that's what they were referencing I thing they would have been even more blatant about it, the works of Seth Macfarlane don't usually do pop culture references subtly.

 

[Jamash]

The Morningstar symbol from the game has different colours/design (it's a hollow 5 pointed star, where the one in American Dad if filled with a darker colour to the outline), and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Saints Row: The Third was the first time something with star in it's name also used a star for it's symbol, so it's just a coincidental use of the word star and the star symbol.

The five pointed star and variation of it is quite an old and popular symbol and has been used by many organisations for a long time, even before the first Saints Row game... hell even before the PS1.

It is also quite popular with Communism, as you can see above (with the symbol from Saints Row in the middle from comparison, so I can say with almost certainty the symbol in American Dad was just a coincidental use of the star symbol to fit with the name Dark Star (as the inner part of the star symbol is dark).

I also think the symbol in Saints Row: The Third is actually misused and doesn't fit the name, as most traditional symbols for the Morningstar aren't 5 pointed stars and are shaped and oriented differently, so it's more likely that the name Morningstar was an afterthought when they'd already came up with the Communist/Russian imaginary and symbolism for the gang and it's Red Star inspired symbol (which isn't actually a Morningstar).

If this is true it means that the Darkstar reference in American Dad certainly isn't a reference to Saints Row: The Third because American Dad actually uses a symbol that is symbolic of it's name, whereas Saints Row uses a Red Star to represent Morningstar, which would be a bit like using an octagon to represent an organisation called The Circle.