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In episode 6 of Unbreakable Kimmy there is a scene where the rich daughter's friends are sat around a fountain (at about 18:30 into the episode) and a girl says

'and she stepped on the ball' enter image description here

and starts laughing, the manner of how she said this very reminiscent of this scene from Trading Places:

Is this a sendup/homage to this scene as it's mocking the rich and vapid society group?

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    Seems likely. Other people think the same (like this one). But not sure how we can prove it for now.
    – Walt
    Mar 14, 2015 at 23:58
  • @Walt thanks for that link, at least I don't think it's just me that thought this.
    – EdChum
    Mar 15, 2015 at 7:02
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    @Walt - The link you provide ties it back to Trading Places and from there back to Auntie Mame ... It says towards the bottom of the writ, At one point, when the show cuts to a group of Xanthippe’s rich friends, one of them is heard saying, “And she stepped on the ball!” That’s a reference to another three-decade-old movie, “Trading Places,” which adapted the line from the 1958 movie “Auntie Mame.” That seems about as golden as anything you're going to find.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
    Mar 15, 2015 at 11:53
  • I mainly meant it's too early to find comments from the creators. It's a very recent episode of a new show.
    – Walt
    Mar 15, 2015 at 13:24
  • I think the line was delivered more like the way it was delivered by the Gloria character in the 1958 movie Auntie Mame. Perhaps I just like the idea of it being a homage to that movie.
    – user32160
    Mar 11, 2016 at 6:14

1 Answer 1

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I think it's safe to say by now that this is indeed an intentional homage as it's not only mentioned in several TV sites (like this or this and also TVTropes), but it's also now on IMDb:

In Episode 6, Xanthippe's female friend is finishing a story with the punchline "...and then she stepped on the ball." This line, the context and the pompous "Yuppie-esque" delivery, are borrowed from a similar scene in "Trading Places" (1983). Which in turn borrowed it from Auntie Mame, the Rosilind Russell classic from the 50s.

It's both a thematic allusion (Xanthippe's hipster-looking friends are really no less preppy and snobbish than the ones in Trading Places) and a pop-culture reference that's expected from a Tina Fey series - especially when it's from a classic 80s comedy that featured SNL members so prominently.

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