Sunday, January 22, 2012

Media References Part IV: Christopher Nolan Movies

With such tremendous critical acclaim, it would be hard for Christopher Nolan's Batman movies not to find their way into popular culture. Cementing the popularity of the character and raising the bar for comic books movies, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight's mark made it to quite a few movies, series' and shows. The following list is by no means a full one of all the references and spoofs of the show as the list goes insanely long, but collects the most interesting and memorable ones from 2005 to date.

* Bart's story in Simpson's "Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Three Times" is a spoof of Batman Begins


* Robot Chicken also did their own spoof with Heimlich Begins


* In Community: Introduction to Statistics", Abed dresses up as an imitates Bale's voice


* In The Office's "Employee Transfer", Creed, Kevin and Dwight all dress up as Ledger's Joker


* On the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania, Rey Mysterio Jr dressed up as the Joker


Wrestler Sting adopted Joker's persona in 2011


* In 2011 a dance group performed on America's Greatest Talent in Joker's makeup


* In The Simpson's "Treehouse of Horror" one of the kids is dressed up as Ledger's Joker 


* In Robot Chicken's "President Hu Forbids It", the Batpod ejection scene is spoofed. Here the batpod keeps breaking into smaller peaces


In another episode, "Rambling with Maurice", Two face makes an appearance. He is shown to constantly cause his own deformations


* SNL also spoofed TDK with its short story about Batman contacting Gordon wherever he went


* In the Brave and the Bold cartoon, Bale's version of the batsuit can be briefly seen


* South Park's The Coon is an obvious spoof of  Bale's Batman


* There's a reference to Ledger's Joker in the tv show IT Crowd, in an episode called Friendface. One of the female characters is likened to Joker and then resembles him afterwards



An instant classic lines like "Why So Serious" also made it to several TV shows.
Any interesting and worthy additions welcomed

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Media References Part III: Joel Schumacher Movies

As oppose to the other incarnations of the Batman mythology, Schumacher's Batman movies don't have many references or nods in media. Pretty much almost all the references are just mentions or posters/photograph in the background

* Batman Forever's Batmobile appeared in one of the Drew Carrey episodes


* Robot Chicken made 3 references to the movies. In "Half Assed Christmas Special" Snoopy dressed up as Batman and was constantly referred to as Val Kilmer. In "Dragon's Nuts", a maid discovers the entrance to the batcave


In "Piece of the Action" episode Joel Schumacher is shown trying to sneak out of the ComiCon. He then gets spotted, referred to as the biggest monster in history and lynched by Batman and scifi fans


* George Clooney's suit and Batman Forever's batmobile were used in 2011's movie Arthur


*In Brave and the Bold cartoon Batman tries on the suit from Batman & Robin stating its "too icky"



* Poison Ivy's pink monkey suits can be seen in the movie Big Fat Liar




Any interesting and worthy additions welcomed

Media References Part II: Tim Burton Movies

The Tim Burton movies forever changed the perception of Batman in mass media and to this day remains a golden classic and a milestone in Bathistory. Because of its stature and success, many TV shows, series' and movies featured homages, nods and spoofs of Batman and Batman Returns. The following list is by no means a full one of all the references and spoofs of the show as the list goes insanely long, but collects the most interesting and memorable ones from the late 1989 to date.

* In Full House "Divorce Court", Stephanie and DJ dress as Batman and Joker from the movie


* Batman appeared numerous times on Tiny Toons. In 1990's "Gang Busters" an obvious Batman lookalike character encounters Bugs and Duffy entering his cave by mistake. He says "First that blonde and now this. Ah cheesh Alfred, why dont you just tell the world we're down here!"


In 1990's "Hollywood Plucky", Batman visits a Hollywood restaurant. Hamton tries to valet park his Batmobile


Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman also made an appearance in one of the episodes (although in TV show's costume)


And so did an animal version of Joker


Tim Burton made a cameo too


* Batman, referred to as Mr. Keaton, appeared numerous times on Animaniacs. Noticeably in 1993's "Taming of the Screwy" when he appears at WB party. Some of the other guests included were other movie icons of the times like the T-1000 and the Lethal Weapon cast


Penguin also made an appearance as the guest at the party


In "Twas the Day Before Christmas", Keaton exits the WB studios greeted by the guard saying "Goodnight Mr. Keaton, that's a lovely sedan!"


* In the beginning of the Batman: The Animated Series episode called "Off Balance", Batman meets an informant named Twitch on the tower of the statue of Liberty. The informant has black hair, a long face, and has been confirmed by the producers to be "Tim Burton". The series itself made a great deal of references to the movies


*The Simpson also made numerous references to the movies. Here are the most interesting ones. In "Last Exit to Springfield" the scene with the surgeon is recreated with Lisa. Same scene was also reenacted with Krusty before in "Homie The Clown"


In "Marge vs Monorail" the Flugelheim Museum rescue scene is reenacted with Mr. Burns and Smithers



*There were also references in Family Guy as well



*Nicholson's Joker made an appearance in South Park's "Imaginationland"



* In 2007's Shaggy and Scooby Doo Get a Clue episode "Operation Dog and Hippie Boy", the villain - CatLady - is an obvious homage to Pfeiffer's Catwoman



*Keaton's Batman made several appearances in the MAD cartoon


Classic phrases like "I'm Batman" and "You Wanna Get Nuts? Lets Get Nuts" made it into many, many TV shows and movies, most notably Seinfeld and American Dad in which the character pickups up a sign, breaks the glass next to him and screams "You wanna get nuts?! C'mon! Let's get nutsss"


Any interesting and worthy additions welcomed

Friday, January 20, 2012

Media References Part I: The 1960's Show

The 1960's Batman TV series was so popular, and entrenched itself so much in American pop culture that even to this day TV shows, Animated series' and movies still make spoofs or references to this memorable show. The following list is by no means a full one of all the references and spoofs of the show as the list goes insanely long, but collects the most interesting and memorable ones from the late 1960's to date. 

* The Monkees show of the late 60's made several references and nods to the show, even guest starring Burgess Meredith as the Penguin in one of the episodes. One of the very first references in the show featured the Bat phone in the episode called "Dance, Monkee, Dance"


*The Simpsons series made several references to the show throughout the years. From the opening...


to the actual appearance of Adam West's and Burt Ward's Batman and Robin



In the episode called "I'm going to Praiseland", the Comic Book dreams of Julie Newmar's Catwoman


Dancing Adam West could be seen in the episode "My Mother the Carjacker"


The Simpsons featured plenty more quotes, nods and cameos


*Tiny Toons spoofed the series in "Inside Plucky Duck"


* In Friends episode "The One with the Halloween Party", Monica dresses up as Newmar's Catwoman


* That 70s Show also made several references. One of them can be seen in the episode "Halloween" in which Fez dresses up as Batman


*Naturally there were also several references made in Family Guy


* Robot Chicken also had its share of spoofs and parodies. "That Hurts Me" shows a Monkey version of the show


In "Christmas Special" Batman and Robin punish a bunch of kids who were singing "Batman smells" 


*Howard Stern's 52nd Birthday Special premiered a BatStern cartoon


*Cartoon Network's MAD cartoon made several references, most notable the inclusion of Romero's Joker visiting Superman's remodeled fortress


Spongebob Squarepants features two superhero characters, MermaidMan and the BarnacleBoy which are an obvious spoof of Batman and Robin from the series


* Adam West is the mayor of Quahog in Family Guy, voiced by the actor himself


Adam West appeared as himself before in Johnny Bravo cartoon, acting the same way as Batman. The entire episode was constructed like a Batman episode


*Burt Ward guest starred on WCW


 * The Kim Possible cartoon also featured a 60s Batman parody, The Fearless Ferret, in an episode of the same name. The character, who was voiced by Adam West, was the alias of "Timothy North", a cranky superhero from the 60s



The iconic phrases like "Holy..." and ""To the Batmobile" made it into many, many TV shows and movies
Any interesting and worthy additions welcomed