Game Of Thrones made a Walking Dead reference and everyone promptly freaked out

When one of the biggest TV shows in the world makes a nod towards one of the other biggest TV shows in the world, you better believe people noticed.

It can't be easy to make a reference in Game Of Thrones, since nobody has a TV or a cinema or anything you might call entertainment, except for either (A) murdering people, or (B) putting on a play about murdering people. Fiction of any kind doesn't seem to exist in Westeros in any large amount, and when music is played, it comes via Ed Sheeran and ends up being one of the weirdest moments in the show to date. So for it to make any kind of homage towards another massive and currently running TV show, it can't be easy for the writers to pull off, but when they do, everyone notices. Especially the folk behind the actual show they're referencing:

Tyrion, no one should ever underestimate any kind of #WalkingDead men ? #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/grkewLd7sA

— The Walking Dead (@TheWalkingDead) July 31, 2017

While it makes sense for Jon and Tyrion not to out-and-out say "zombies", the word isn't used in The Walking Dead either, as creator Robert Kirkman once told Conan O'Brien: "We wanted to give you a sense that The Walking Dead takes place in a universe where zombie fiction doesn't exist." "No one inside The Walking Dead has seen a [George Romero] movie, so they can't get the rules from that. It felt like having people not use that word would kind of separate it from that, make it a little bit more clear." And, of course, fans of both shows were VERY happy to see this nod, however imperceptibly slight it may have been:

GOT writers with that "Walking Dead Men" joke ? #GameofThrones7 #GameofThrones #ThronesYall #NoConfederate pic.twitter.com/XST6ay6j6A

— Paola Paulino (@paopaulino) July 31, 2017

TMW when Tyrion said #WalkingDead in #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/D6zRLJ9cW0

— FANDOM (@getfandom) July 31, 2017

When Tyrion said... the walking dead #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/ZcSfivEZDx

— CGABR (@CGABR) July 31, 2017