Fight Club in popular culture

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Fight Club in popular culture covers the influences of the novel Fight Club and the film based on it on popular culture and mass media. Much of this came as a result of the film's popularity, though due to similarities between the novel and film it is difficult to determine which version of the story is being referenced in some situations.

Contents 1 General references 1.1 Television 1.2 Films 1.3 Video games 1.4 Music 1.5 Other 2 References to the novel 2.1 Television 2.2 Video games 2.3 Music 3 References to the film 3.1 Television 3.2 Film 3.3 Video games 3.4 Music 3.5 Other 4 References

[edit] General references

These references could refer to either the novel or film.

[edit] Television

• Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide — In the "Reading" episode, there is a book club, and "The first rule of book club is you don't talk about book club."
• Corner Gas — In one episode, Lacey talks about a book club with Karen, who says "I thought the first rule of book club is we don't talk about book club." Lacey says "No that's fight club." Karen responds by asking "How do you know about fight club?"
• The Daily Show — In an episode featuring a discussion with Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart about Internet bloggers sharing a job similar to that of reporters, Colbert criticizes them, saying "The first rule about journalism is, don't talk about journalism! Or maybe that was Fight Club." In another episode Juliet Eilperin, the author of the non-fiction book Fight Club Politics, is a guest. When she is trying to state the number one rule Jon Stewart interupts saying "I thought the first rule was don't talk about fight club?"
• ER — When Carter asks about her night out with Lewis and Chen, Abby Lockhart replies, "The first rule of girls' club is: you do not talk about girls' club."
• Excel Saga — The DVD releases of the series came with small, paper bonus items (such as paper dolls). The first DVD came with an "official ACROSS membership card", complete with a list of rules for the organization. The first rule of Across is "You don't talk about ACROSS".
• Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger — One episode focuses on illegal fighting rings similar to Fight Club. The ringleader is named Tyler Seijin Durden.
• Freaky — There is a sketch in one episode were a knight in gold is introducing a new red knight into knight club. "First rule of knight club is you do not talk about knight club. Second rule of Knight club is you do not talk about knight club!
• Futurama — Professor Farnsworth, in the episode "Three Hundred Big Boys," leaves the Royal pajamas at the National Silk Surplus saying "Gotta go, fight club." Also, earlier in the episode Leela steals some rotten fish saying, "Paydirt". Quoted from Fight Club as Jack and Tyler steal fat.
• Good Eats — In the episodes "Let Them Eat Foam" and "Olive Me," Alton references Fight Club when discussing soap and lye, respectively.
• Grey's Anatomy — In the episode "Who's Zoomin' Who", Dr. Yang says "Meredith, this is Fight Club. Nobody talks about it."
• The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy — In the episode "Druid, Where's My Car?", in the scene where the wizard tells Grim to think about nature, he sees a cold snow area where a penguin walks up to him and says "slide".
• The OC— In season one, episode one, after Seth and Ryan get into a fight Seth says "That was like a scene straight out of Fight Club or something."
• MADtv — featured a sketch called "Fight Like a Girl Club."
• Phil of the Future — In the episode "Good Phil Hunting", when Phil poses as an AV club member, Mr.Hackett asks "What is the first rule of AV club?" Phil replies "Do not talk about AV club!"
• Spaced — In the episode "Mettle", Tim and Mike become part of the underground Robot Club. This also parodies Robot Wars. The setting looks similar, with the competitors in similar modes of dress. The referee also states that there are two rules of Robot Club, "You do not talk about Robot Club", and "You do not talk about Robot Club". He then says that this is an error, and says instead that Rule 2 is "no smoking".
• Undergrads — In the episode "New Friends", Rocko decides to start a fight club, calling it "Brawl Group." But since he is the only member, he has to fight himself.
• The Wrong Coast — A sketch parodying "First Wives Club" and "Fight Club" combines the two and turns it into a movie called "First Wives Fight Club".
• The X-Files — An episode entitled "Fight Club" involved two pairs of identical people who are not twins and share a cosmic connection.
• Xiaolin Showdown — After winning the Shen Gong Wu, the Crystal Glasses, Raimundo uses them to pick a fight with Omi, telling him to hit him as hard as he can. He conceales them using a pair of wrap-around blueblocker sunglasses, and predicts his every move.
• Typisk Norsk (Typically Norwegian) — The Norwegian language program featured a Fight Club spoof, the "Language Fights". It was in a dark cellar and featured rules such as "You don't talk about the Language Fights", "It's accepted to think of your own dialect as the only right dialect" and "If this is your first time here, you MUST fight". A huge brute attacks the show host, and he awakes with a startle.
• Bones — In an episode of Bones, there was featured a fight club with the case placed in LA. The episode also had several references to the film.
• The OC— In The Avengers, the first episode of season one, Seth says "I liked your whole performance, it's very Fight Club. Of course, at the end of that movie it turns out Edward Norton is insane" to Ryan after watching Ryan cage fighting. Seth also mentions Fight Club in the pilot, after Ryan starts a fight with Luke at Holly's party.

[edit] Films

• Daredevil — When Matt Murdock walks into the cafe sporting a cut above his eye, he dismisses it saying he was at a fight club and that he cannot talk about it.
• Fun with Dick and Jane — Dick's boss says "I want you to hit me as hard as you can."
• Grandma's Boy — When Jeff is asked why he's so sweaty he replies, "Oh I just started a fight club."
• Out Cold — When explaining the snowboarding contest entitled "King of the Mountain," Luke remarks that the first rule of King of the Mountain is that you do not talk about King of the Mountain.

[edit] Video games

• Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters — There are four fight clubs in different villages of Albion. The player must fight without shirts on and barehanded without the use of magic.
• Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel — there is a scene in the game when you are in a desert town. When you first walk into a building, there is a dead man on a table, and a message pops up saying "His name was Robert Paulson."
• Halo 2 — In this sequel to the original Xbox console game Halo (by Bungie Software), a particularly intense sequence of the game is titled "Fight Club".
• World of WarCraft — There is a one-handed Mace weapon in the game called the "Fight Club" [1]
• World of WarCraft — In the Undead (Forsaken) city of UnderCity, in the War Quarter, there’s a 'fight club' where you’ll find four NPC fighters named Edward, Tyler, Marla, and Chloe battling randomly spawned mobs.

[edit] Music

• Anthony Barrese — The American composer wrote an orchestral piece entitled "Project Mayhem" in 2000.
• Bliss N Eso — The band has a song called "Creepy" which contains, in the chorus "By the time I get to the club man, I'll be hurtin. I get there, there's one guy, some dude named Tyler Durdin".
• Evergreen Terrace — The band has an album entitled Losing All Hope Is Freedom, named after a line from the novel that the narrator says after crying with Bob.
• Gnarls Barkley — the video for "Gone Daddy Gone" has a sex scene much like Fight Club.
• Finch — The band has a song called "Project Mayhem" on their first major label release, What It Is to Burn. The song's lyrics can be seen as mirroring some of the events in Fight Club.
• Forgive Durden — The name of the band Forgive Durden was inspired by Tyler Durden of Fight Club.
• Fourth Score — The fifth song on their self-titled, debut EP is entitled "I Wanted To Destroy Something Beautiful."
• Frontline — The song "Hold 'Em" contains the lyrics "Generations of Tyler Durdens/who identify his wordin'/as something pertinent to the/way they feel right now/a sense they’ve been roped in that/them debts is ownin them that house/they’ll never own that shit no..." which reflect Tyler's anti-consumerism ideas.
• Panic! At the Disco — Some songs by the band contain references to Fight Club as well as other novels written by Chuck Palahniuk.^{[citation needed]}
• Seether — A music video for the song "Remedy" was confirmed to be inspired by Fight Club.
• Slagsmålsklubben — The Swedish band (whose name translates to "the fight club" in English) was named after the film.[2]
• Taking Back Sunday — The music video for "Cute Without The 'E' (Cut From The Team)" was inspired by Fight Club. Also, a Fight Club poster can be seen in the background in Adam Lazzara's laundry room in the "Great Romances of the 20th Century" video, and they have done many Fight Club-themed photo shoots for magazines.

[edit] Other

• Bite Club — A Vertigo Comics series about a group of vampires.
• The Onion — The satirical newspaper ran an article parodying Fight Club titled "The First Rule Of The Quilting Society Is You Don't Talk About The Quilting Society".^[1]
• Flashmob pillow fights have been humorously referred as Pillow Fight Clubs.
• Part of the Altador Plot on Neopets featured a pet inviting you to Punch Club. Part of the text on this page reads the first rule of Punch Club is that you don't talk about Punch Club.

[edit] References to the novel

[edit] Television

• Invader Zim — In the episode "Rise of the Zit Boy", Gaz reads a book called Punch Club.

[edit] Video games

• Gothic 2 — Features a fight club, complete with rules, including "No one talks about what goes on behind the warehouse." Chuck Palahniuk is also listed among the game's credits.

[edit] Music

• Papa Roach — The song "Between Angels and Insects" includes the lines, "You're a slave to the system working jobs that you hate for that shit you don't need" and "the things you own end up owning you". These are taken from the novel since the movie had not yet been released at the time the song was written.

[edit] References to the film

[edit] Television

• Dead Like Me — Throughout the series the character Mason often wears clothes very similar to ones worn by Tyler in the movie version.
• Home Movies — In the episode "Bad Influences," after the characters put on weight, they shoot a movie about a "fat club," which includes a subliminal Tyler.
• NCIS — In season 2 episode "Red Cell", Anthony DiNozzo says "First rule of fight club, never talk about fight club. God, that's a great movie. Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, it's like the greatest guy movie...ever, I'm going to rent that for you."
• Undeclared — In a spoof episode, the main character is asked by his friend to "Hit me as hard as you can" and proceeds to punch him in the ear before getting beat up.

[edit] Film

• Fight Club: Members Only — A 2006 Bollywood film inspired by Fight Club directed by Vikram Chopra and starring Zayed Khan. As is traditional in Bollywood, it featured song and dance routines alongside the fight scenes.^[2]
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith — When Mr. Smith (played by Brad Pitt, who played Tyler Durden in the film adaptation) and Mrs. Smith are interviewing a hostage, the hostage is wearing a Fight Club t-shirt.
• Old School — The main characters start a secret fraternity where they deny the existence upon questioning. Luke Wilson's character mimicks "the narrator"/"Tyler Durden" character as the untouchable "godfather". Director Todd Phillips has stated in the DVD commentary that he was inspired by the film and that many fans of it have been able to pinpoint all the direct references to him.

[edit] Video games

• Tony Hawk's American Wasteland — a gang of anti-commercialists called Skate Club blow up buildings and torch billboards. A few of the members resemble Brad Pitt. The rules of Skate Club are similar to those of Fight Club.
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos — In one of the Undead campaign missions, there is a group of peasants gathered around two peasants who are punching each other. The peasants are named Tyler and Robert.
• World of Warcraft — There is an area in the Undercity where a Tyler and Edward (Edward being a reference to Edward Norton, who played the narrator in the movie version of Fight Club) are fighting different monsters. The undead around them also have names from the movie, such as Bob, Marla and Chloe. A weapon in the game is also named Fight Club.

[edit] Music

• Black Eyed Peas — The band has a song called "Like That" which contains the lyrics, "To be at fight club, even Brad had to crack a tooth".
• Limp Bizkit — The band has a song called "Livin' It Up" on their album entitled Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water where lead singer Fred Durst claims to have seen Fight Club 28 times in the lyrics. They also have a prescription bottle label on the inside cover of their Results May Vary album where the prescribing doctor is Dr. Durden, Tyler. Durst subsequently appears as a playable character in the video game adaptation of Fight Club.
• Sean Paul — The song "Top of the Game" from the album Dutty Rock featuring Rahzel of The Roots fetaures the line "You'll be assed out, passed out like Mitch Green/Fight Club, from a Brad Pitt scene."
• Thrice — The post-hardcore band released their third album titled "The Illusion of Safety." This was mentioned during Jack and Tyler's flight as they discussed emergency procedures.
• Wumpscut — The industrial music band, has a song titled "Christ Fuck" that plays a sampled Tyler Durden.
• Velvet Acid Christ — The song titled "Pretty Toy" contains samples of the lines "On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero" and "Oh God...I haven't been fucked like that since grade school".
• Nine Inch Nails — The song "Only" is about the multiple personalities experienced in Fight Club.
• Incursion 502 - The end of the song "502" features a sample from Tyler Durden.

[edit] Other

• A popular Greek radio program is named Fight Club. The opening theme is a remix of "Ramaya", a song by Afric Simone, with samples of Tyler Durden announcing the rules from Fight Club layered on top. The program is mainly oriented around two antagonistic hosts discussing current events - mostly football.^{[citation needed]}
• After the release of Fight Club, the weekly radio program Pirate Radio in Nashville, Tennessee began paying homages to the film. From that point on, the program's intro music was the same music as Fight Club's opening credits'. Every program after Fight Club's release contained at least one reference to characters or dialogue from the film.
• A trailer for the film of Fight Club was re-edited to make it look like a romantic comedy, much like the wildly popular one that turned The Shining into a feel-good family film called Shining.^[3]
• Ctrl+Alt+Del — The online comic strip are many indirect, but obvious, references to Fight Club. In one comic, Ethan is beaten up by Lilah and sent to the hospital. A character who looks like Tyler explains to the doctor that he "fell down some stairs", and Ethan repeats, just like a scene in the film. Two other comics making references to Fight Club, including the scene where Tyler asks the narrator to hit him (leading to the narrator hitting Tyler with a wooden board, claiming payback for the movie The Mexican, which Brad Pitt starred in), and the scene where the penguin tells the narrator to slide (mirroring Ethan's disgust with his roommate Scott's pet penguin, Ted). [3] [4] [5]
• Broken Saints - Another, more sombre online flash comic, made comercially available on DVD in 2004, has several references throughout the series to Fight Club. The most prominent is the introduction animation to Episode XVIII "Forecast", which consists of an animated version of the basement used to host fight club in the film, flashes of men gathered around two central fighters, and audio samples of Tyler Durdan's 'Middle Children of History' speech. The segment ends in a bar of pink soap being placed into a metal trough, a scene that was commonly used in commercials for the film during its initial release.
• Bomber Luke Helder was caught while planting mailbox pipe bombs in such a way as to create a smiley face shape on the U.S. map. This is reminiscent of an Operation Mayhem scene in which the Space Monkeys gleefully watch TV news coverage of a burning building, presumably their work, in which the pattern of flaming windows resembles a smiley face. However, it is not known whether Helder was in fact inspired by Fight Club.
• One of the audience callbacks in The Rocky Horror Picture Show is "His name was Robert Paulson. His name was Robert Paulson." when Frank N. Furter emerges from the freezer after killing Eddie.
• The Romanian community Psycho Metal is the first virtual fight-club, based on psychotherapy through excessive verbal violence and defamation of the cultural values, as well as scandals and offensive slandering between the members and others who join the forum.

• A nonsensical flash animation called The 5th Avocado contains many references to Fight Club.The ending scene (in which an underwater village of fish burns down and explodes), two of the fish are seen holding hands in a high rise, to the song that played during the same scene in the film ("Where Is My Mind", by The Pixies). Plus, during the scene,an avocado flashes in a single scene. This refers to the single frame of porn from the film, and to the fact that the first character to appear in the animation buys FOUR avocados for guacamole. The flashed frame is the eponymous "5th avocado". Finally, the graveyard depicted at the end of the flash animation contains several more references to the film, such as the inscription:"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate of everyone drops to zero". In addition to this, if one clicks on the many gravestones, more animation appears. For example, clicking on Oscar's gravestone results in a voice syaing, "Oscar isn't here right now. Oscar's gone away." This is a line in Fight Club referring to Tyler Durden.
• In 2002 Illinois Senator Dick Durbin's re-election campaign billboards contained the phrase, "Durbin, with a B" in a joking reference to Tyler Durden's last name.

[edit] References