Animal Farm in popular culture

Animal Farm is an allegorical novel by George Orwell, ostensibly about a group of animals who oust the humans from the farm on which they live. The book was written during World War II and published in 1945. As with Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four ("1984") references to this novella are frequent in other works, particularly popular music and television series.

In music

• Pink Floyd's 1977 record album Animals was partially inspired by Animal Farm.^[1] It categorises people as pigs, dogs, or sheep.
• R.E.M.'s song Disturbance at the Heron House is based on Animal Farm.^[2]
• The Clash used an image from the 1954 animated movie Animal Farm on their 45-RPM single "English Civil War".^[3]
• Canadian-based band Boxer the Horse takes its name from a character in the novel.^[4]
• Dead prez based a song on their 2000 album, Let's Get Free called "Animal in Man" based on the novella, putting emphasis on how the other animals should not trust the pigs during a revolution.^[5][6][7]
• The lyrics of the song ″Arthur's Farm″ from the Half Man Half Biscuit album Back Again in the DHSS tell the story of Douglas Bader and Arthur Askey visiting Animal Farm. The song features the line 'Four legs good, but no legs best′ in apparent tribute to the two famous amputees.^[8]
• Radiohead's song Optimistic contains a lyric mentioning Animal Farm.^[9]
• The Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps 2014 show was titled Animal Farm, which was based on the novel.^[10]

On television

• In The Daleks' Master Plan, a 1966 episode of the long-running British science fiction show Doctor Who, a character references the modified seventh commandment of Animal Farm, saying: "Though we are all equal partners with the Daleks on this great conquest, some of us are more equal than others."^[11]

• In the seventh episode of the second season of the HBO series Oz was titled Animal Farm, in reference to the conniving and manipulation of the characters vying for control, similar to the characters of the novella.^{[12][13][14][15]}

• In the third episode of the first season of the X-Men animated series, "Enter Magneto," Beast is seen reading a copy of Animal Farm, and is mocked by the prison guards for "reading a picture book" and is asked if he "sees any relatives in there" because they assume he is an illiterate animal.^[16][17]

• In the tenth episode of the second season of Johnny Bravo, "Aunt Katie's Farm", Johnny, while dressed in a pig costume, yells, "Four feet good! Two feet bad!".^[18][19]

• The Lost episode "Exposé", in season three, involves flashbacks with Nikki and Paulo involving an argument with Kate about the handgun case. During this scene, Dr. Leslie Arzt yells at Kate that "The pigs are walking," a reference to Animal Farm where Napoleon and his generals begin to adapt human characteristics and change their oath from "Four legs good, two legs bad" to "Four legs good, two legs better."^[20][21]

• In the ninth episode of the fourth season of Sex and the City, "Sex and the Country", Carrie goes with her new boyfriend Aidan to his cottage, and informs her friends that it reminds her of Animal Farm, and would not be surprised to hear an outburst of "four legs good, two legs bad!"^[22][23]

Notes