'Vatican Cameos' is a phrase used in BBC's Sherlock when Sherlock is about to open Irene Adler's safe. The phrase first originated in World War 2. It was used when a non-military person, who was armed (gun or knife) entered a British military base. The phrase was a signal for everyone duck out of the line of fire. Sherlock knew that John, being a military man, would recognise this phrase and duck out of the way of the gun in the safe. It is not a code phrase which Sherlock and John coordinated as a safe word. Very clever, don't you think?
Il Vaticano is a special chess move, which allows bishops two squares apart to take what's in between them. It's denoted B-O-O-B in standard chess notation.
A variation of the Eiffel Tower in which the person in the middle is a young boy, and the two people on the outside are preferably, but not necessarily, priests.
Instead of referring to the waning days of American sit-com Happy Days and the episode where Fonzie jumped a shark, only to see the show sink further and further into irrelevance and low ratings, it refers to the opening episode of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC's) 2009 return of comedy show "The Chaser," where the "edgy" comedians go to the Vatican City to abuse nuns and fly a blimp with foul anti-Catholic slogans past the Pope in the Vatican.
Marked the beginning of the end for the ABC's "The Chaser."
"Jeez, I used to think they were so edgy and funny, but now they've just flown the Vatican."
"'Crikey' used to be really cool until they took on the chk-chk-boom girl... but they really flew the Vatican on that one."
"Yeah, right... from Mo-Toons to toilet-bowl-Jesus. They've flown the Vatican."