To Kill a Mockingbird in popular culture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Since the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960, there have been many references and allusions to it in popular culture.
- In the TV series Lost, Season 3 - Episode 5, The Cost of Living, Juliet shows Jack a video tape, calling it To Kill a Mockingbird, while the tape is actually a secret message requesting his help to overthrow Ben, the apparent leader of The Others.
- The 2006 film Failure to Launch contains a subplot about killing a mockingbird. The book is specifically mentioned in the gun shop scene.
- The character of Boo Radley – a mysterious neighbor who lives quietly in his dark house and is feared by the local children – gave his name to the British band The Boo Radleys.
- In the TV series Get Smart, Maxwell Smart hunts down the Mexican artifact, the "Tequila Mockingbird."
- In one of the episodes the TV series Smallville (Hug,season 1) Lex refers to Clark as "Atticus" due to the fact that Clark is trying to help a seemingly guilty man. Lex explains he is in the book To Kill a Mockingbird. When Clark asks Lex how the book ends Lex pauses and replies "The ending's not important, it's the journey".
- The Knoxville, Tennessee-based rock band Atticus was inspired by To Kill a Mockingbird.
- In the DC Comics continuity, it has been established that To Kill a Mockingbird is Superman's favorite book and movie.
- In 2005, the Seattle-based rock group Acceptance released an instrumental track on their album Phantoms titled "Ad Astra Per Aspera", after the Halloween pageant that Scout is in near the end of the book.
- Bruce Hornsby has a song on his 1988 release Spirit Trail entitled "Sneaking Up on Boo Radley" as told from Jem's point of view.
- A Flash animation called How to Kill a Mockingbird found on AwesomeFunny is a mockumentary about To Kill a Mockingbird. It starts out as a genuine description of the book, but quickly turns into a science-fiction fantasy about pirates, ninjas, nuclear explosions, various burning wildlife, and time-traveling castles.
- In the romantic comedy film Mr. Deeds, Babe Bennett (Winona Ryder), a reporter concealing her identity, introduces herself as Pam Dawson from the small town of Winchestertonfieldville, Iowa. When asked by Deeds (Adam Sandler) to provide details of her growing up in Winchestertonfieldville, Iowa, she borrows from some of the characters and events in To Kill a Mockingbird. At one point she claims to have fallen out of "the Boo Radley tree" and broken her arm when she was a child. When walking with Deeds through the town (after Deeds finds it for her) she refers to an old man as Atticus Finch.
- In the movie "A Walk To Remember", Mandy Moore's character Jamie Sullivan is reading a book while eating lunch and when ask what was she reading, she lifts up the book and shows the title "To Kill a Mockingbird".
- In 2001, Blink-182 band members Tom Delonge and Mark Hoppus created the clothing line Atticus Clothing, named after the character in this book. Similarly, the female line of the brand is called Scout. The brand's logo is a dead bird.
- An episode of the popular U.S. sitcom Frasier was titled 'To Kill a Talking Bird'; a direct reference to the novel.
- In one episode of The Simpsons Homer says, "I vowed never to read again after To Kill a Mockingbird gave me no useful advice on killing mockingbirds! It did teach me not to judge a man by the color of his skin, but when am I ever gonna use that?"
- In the cartoon strip Frazz, Caulfield is a ham for Halloween. Frazz is the only person to guess that Caulfield is Scout Finch in the pageant.
- In Everybody Loves Raymond, Debra wrote her college thesis on "To Kill a Mockingbird."
- In one episode of popular comedy Everybody loves Raymond, viewers learn that Debras favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird.
- In Gilmore Girls, season 3, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore refer to Boo Radley. "A town needs as many Boo Radleys as they can get".