I got the reference instantly.
If it's used in dialog, that's fine, since dialog is privileged. The use of the term also defines the character. If a particular reader doesn't get the reference presumably there's enough else that the story still makes sense.
You don't need to write on a third-grade level. Detective novelists throw in underworld slang all the time and don't bother to footnote. Fantasy novelists put in occasional words in made-up languages and no one thinks the less of them.
________________
(I saw the film when it was first released. (Optional trivia: It was filmed in the town where I grew up so I recognized all the locations.) When the cute little pet rabbit showed up and the little girl is wondering what to name it, I said to myself, "Better name it Hasenpfeffer, because that rabbit isn't going to live to see the final credits." I glanced at my watch and predicted when the rabbit would die, and I was right to the minute. To say that was a formulaic movie is doing it a kindness.)