Idi Amin in popular culture
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Idi Amin has been mentioned several times in popular culture:
- Mentioned by comedian Robin Williams in his performance at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1986. 'It's kinda like Idi Amin looking at Gandhi saying, "You are too intense." No, no, no.'
- In 2007, actor Forest Whitaker won a Golden Globe award, a BAFTA and a Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor (Drama), as well as an Academy Award for his portrayal of Idi Amin in the film adaptation of Giles Foden's 1998 novel of the same name. '"The Last King of Scotland".
- The gangsta rap group Outlawz, inspired by Tupac Shakur, had a member with the stage name E.D.I. Mean
- Mentioned in F-U-N-K recorded by Society & The Field N---as Clique produced by DJ Slice on Luke Records 1994 3rd verse (Mighty Buddha The Bald Dread) (We blow up the spot like Idi Amin)
- Mentioned in "Suicide Bounce" (feat. Busta Rhymes) by Nas (Album: Street's Disciple, 2004).
- Mentioned in the Manic Street Preachers song "Archives of Pain" (about the glorification of mass murderers in the media) in the chorus; "Kill Yeltsin/Who's saying...Blanche and Pickles/Amin and Milosovic"
- Mentioned in "Seems 2 Be" by Dizzee Rascal (Album: Boy in da Corner, 2003) (Dizzee runs things like Idi Amin).
- The Collected Broadcasts Of Idi Amin (1998) – Audio satire of Idi Amin based on Alan Coren's anti-Idi Punch columns starring the voice talents of John Bird. Featured is the song "Amazing Man" that has Idi Amin singing reggae with backup singers about himself. As the song progresses "Idi" shoots the backup singers one by one as his natural paranoia/megalomania manifests.
- In the 1970s Amin appeared at least twice as a regular villain in the Belgian comic strips The adventures of Nero and co by Marc Sleen and "Kiekeboe" by Merho. In both versions he was depicted as a dumb and cruel egomaniac. Sleen drew Amin with his boxing gloves on which continually drip with blood. In the comic he has the tendency to throw everybody to the crocodiles and loves to write "I love Elisabeth" (Elizabeth II) on the walls of his palace. At the time Amin was considered a friend of the Belgian government, so Sleen was forced to draw a beard on each picture he had drawn of Amin. By the end of the decade however, Western media had finally discovered Amin was a ruthless dictator and Sleen was allowed to draw him as"recognisable". In Merho's version Amin was called "Bibi Pralin Gaga" ("a pralin" is a Belgian bonbon and "gaga" means "crazy"). Merho poked fun at the dictator's egomania and tyranny by showering him with so many medals he looked like a Christmas tree. In the album, the infamous Raid on Entebbe is also parodied.
- The late comic legend Richard Pryor poked fun of Idi Amin during a fake NBC Rebuttal sketch on his short-lived sketch comedy show.
- Musicians Chuck E. Weiss and Tom Waits collaborated on a song titled, "Do you know what I Idi Amin?"
- In a sketch on The Benny Hill Show, Hill in blackface played Amin. Amin's desk has trays marked "Amin" and "Amout"
- In a sketch on Saturday Night Live called "Idi Amin: Houseguest", which first aired on May 19, 1979, cast regular Garrett Morris portrayed a recently exiled Idi Amin who moves into a house shared by Bill Murray and Laraine Newman. Murray and Newman comically berate their new tenant after finding dismembered body parts of Amin's enemies stored in the refrigerator and hidden underneath the furniture. Morris also portrayed Amin in several other SNL sketches during the show's early years.
- Actor Prince Hughes portrays a comical version of Idi Amin in the opening scene of the first The Naked Gun film.
- Although he was already dead at the time, a puppet of him can be seen in the audience during Kim Jong-il's show near the end of the film Team America: World Police (2004).
- The Onion's book Our Dumb Century includes a fake 1977 headline reading, "Idi Amin Praises Former Ugandan Defense Minister as 'Delicious'".
- At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the "Grogo incident" was a campus uproar when a black porcelain gorilla "Grogo", which was the yearbook mascot, appeared in the 1976 Freshman Picturebook as coming from "Kampala, Uganda", which was in the news because of Amin at the time. African American activists in particular were incensed.
- In Thomas Harris' novel Hannibal, the antagonist Mason Verger claimed to have travelled with Amin, executing villagers using a guillotine
- In Mike Resnick's "Mwalimu in the Circle Squared," Amin is shown in a boxing match against Julius Nyerere, the President of Tanzania.
- In the award winning play Blue/Orange which premired at the UK's Royal National Theatre the lead believes himself to be the bastard child of Idi Amin
- Hand shadows entertainer Bablu Mallick depicted Idi Amin, complete with a beady eye, during a guest spot on the Paul Daniels Magic Show.
- In 1978 Canadian punk rock band The Battered Wives recorded a song entitled 'Uganda Stomp (Bomp Idi Bomp)' - that poked fun at Ugandan dictator Idi Amin on their album Battered Wives on Bomb Records.
- In an episode of The Steve Harvey Show, Steve calls Cedric the Entertainer's character "Idiot Amin", an allusion to the African dictator.
- The Finnish boxer Amin Asikainen is colloquially known as "Idi".
- Wyclef Jean did a rap version of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust", with the lyrics "...the hide Idi Amin in Timbuktu..."
- The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois displays a satirical portrait of Amin by Madelyne Thompson, celebrated local painter and writer.
- Rise and Fall of Idi Amin was released in 1981 and directed by Sharad Patel. Writing credit: Wade Huie. Jospeh Olita portrays Amin. (Side note: Olita also portrayed Amin in the 1991 film Mississippi Masala)
- Spirit of the West's song "King of Scotland", from the album Star Trails, is about Amin. (Apart from their titles being inspired by the same incident from Amin's life, this song is not connected to the film The Last King of Scotland.)