Trivia: When the movie played in theaters, there was a scene where Dr. Catheter begins to tell Billy about the gremlins before the movie is interrupted by gremlins until they are threatened by Hulk Hogan. When the movie was released on VHS, the scene was changed to static appearing and gremlins constantly changing the channels. This caused many people who bought or rented the movie to think there was something wrong with the tape and took it back to the stores they purchased it from.
Trivia: When that insane gremlin has Billy sitting in a dentist chair and is attacking him with the dentist tool, at some point he asks, "Is it safe?", for many it must have seemed senseless, but it is actually a nod to the 1976 movie "Marathon man", in which, during a scene, Dustin Hoffman is sitting on a dentist chair while tortured with a dentist tool by an ex- Nazi (played majestically by Sir Laurence Olivier) who keeps asking him the same question once and again.
Trivia: The white-haired man who asks about the gremlin in the ice cream is the film's composer Jerry Goldsmith.
Trivia: According to director Joe Dante, the humorous "End of the World" broadcast that Clamp Cable Network has on stand-by is based on reality. Dante discovered that at least one major news network (allegedly under order or suggestion of media-mogul Ted Turner) has a similar video on standby in the event of a world-ending catastrophe. Dante and the other filmmakers found the concept so darkly humorous, it was incorporated into the script.
Trivia: Director Joe Dante had previously directed the original "The Howling", but passed on directing the sequels. Co-star Christopher Lee had coincidentally starred in the first sequel "Howling II." Upon being cast in this film, the first thing Lee did was apologize to Dante for his involvement in the "Howling" sequel, as it was generally considered an exceedingly poor sequel that tarnished the legacy of the well-received original.
Trivia: Director Joe Dante has a cameo role in this film as the director of Grandpa Fred's show.
Trivia: During the beginning of the film, when we are re-introduced to Billy and Kate, if you look very closely, there's a theater in the background of one shot. And on the theater marquee is the fictitious sequel "The Howling XI." This is a nod to the film "The Howling," which was directed by "Gremlins 2" director Joe Dante. (It can be hard to see on VHS and DVD copies as it's far in the background and slightly out of focus, but it can be made out on the Blu-Ray version of the film).
Trivia: The angry mother who comes out and scolds the theater usher over the film's content during the "fourth wall breaking" scene was based on something that happened to director Joe Dante during early screenings of the original "Gremlins." He was attending a test-screening and standing at the back of the theater to get audience feedback when about halfway through, an irate mother dragged her young daughter out and began to scream at him, claiming the film was too scary for children and that he should be ashamed of himself for making it. Neither Dante nor the woman notices that the young child actually slipped away during the commotion. Turns out, the child was nowhere near as frightened as her mother assumed, and hid under a chair in the theater so she could watch the rest of the film.
Trivia: Director Joe Dante, who made the original, didn't originally want to make a sequel, as he felt the first film was a proper self-contained story. Thus the studio decided to move on without him. However, after failing to find an adequate replacement director and being unable to find a satisfactory script, they again approached Dante. Dante agreed to do the sequel if he was given complete artistic freedom, which the studio granted given the success of the first film. Dante decided that since he didn't feel a sequel was necessary, he would base the entire film around this fact, by making the sequel something of a satirical, farcical parody that made light of the original film and the concept of making a sequel. (Hence the abundant absurd content and numerous meta fourth-wall-breaking jokes).
Trivia: The twins at the science lab who show Gizmo to Christopher Lee were also in Terminator 2. Don and Dan Stanton.
Answer: He wasn't relevant to the plot.
Rob245