In one episode of New Girl, a character's dad requested to have an Elvis themed funeral. They get an Elvis impersonator (a Las Vegas, older impersonator) for the funeral, but he's too drunk to perform, which is a bit of an ode to the real Elvis. Zooey Deschanel's character to save the funeral dresses up and impersonates Elvis, clip below:
She uses specific identifiers to create the persona: the voice, diction, song, movements and dress. An example is his hip dance movements.
In the romantic comedy What If, a motif is the Fool's Gold sandwich. They show how to make the sandwich, which is iconic and an Elvis invention. This reference is also references older Elvis.
This clip doesn't include Radcliffe's line in which after he says after it can feed 6-8 people, he says "or one Elvis."
Elvis in both situations is used to connect people. While Elvis might not be as referential anymore, he is still an icon that we draw from.
In both these instances, Elvis's status as an American icon is demonstrated. In New Girl, Elvis's timeless fame is shown through Nick's father requesting his funeral to be themed after the late icon. In the second example, the intertextuality shows some of Elvis's iconographies such as his association with the "Fool's Gold" sandwich. People readily recognize these traits as belonging to Elvis,; thus, it is possible to have an Elvis themed party.
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