Flying Pig - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• Because of the historical importance of the pig industry to the city, prominent in the local iconography of Cincinnati are such events as the Big Pig Gig and the Flying Pig Marathon.
• In the 1968 movie The Lion in Winter, King Henry II tells his wife Eleanor of Aquitane "When pigs have wings!". She replies "There'll be pork in the trees come morning!"
• In The Beatles song I Am the Walrus second verse John Lennon mentions pigs that run and fly.
• Pink Floyd had a flying pig on the cover of the Animals album, and since then has used a flying pig as a prop for concerts. See Pink Floyd pigs.
  • This album cover is one of the many cultural references in the game Jet Set Willy; the Emergency Power Generator is a miniature indoor version of Battersea Power Station with a pig flying over it. That flying-pig sprite is also used in several other rooms.
• In "Alice", a popular TV series based on the movie (1976 - 1985), "Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More". Alice (Linda Lavin) worked at Mel's Diner along with a spunky waitress named Flo (Polly Holliday). Flo spoke with a southern twang, and one of her favorite sayings was, "When Pigs Fly!"* A 1996 musical When Pigs Fly.
• In The Simpsons episode, "Lisa the Vegetarian", Lisa pushes Homer's prize pig down a hill into a river, where it ends up getting shot through the air by a dam's spillway suction. In his office Mr Burns says to Smithers he would like to do something charitable with his wealth. When Smithers questions this, he answers "when pigs fly." The pig then passes his window in flight, at which point he admits he would still like to keep his money.
• As a reference to the phrase, in the game Viva Piñata, you can obtain a Pigxie, a pig-like piñata with wings, by crossbreeding a Rashberry (piñata based on a pig) with a Swanana (piñata based on a swan).
• In the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game subspace highway screens, players may be rewarded with money by destroying flying Piggy Banks.
• In Hexen the player can be turned into a pig and use wings of wrath, this results in a flying pig.
• Arjen Anthony Lucassen's second solo album, Lost in the New Real features a track titled "Where pigs fly".
• In the UK BBC One series called ShakespeaRe-Told adaptation of Macbeth, the character Joe Macbeth's monologue "Is that a helicopter? Is it landing on this building? Pigs will fly! Pigs will fly!" It is the film's translation of "The Birnam Wood" reference to the warning given to Macbeth in the Shakespeare play of the same name, in which he is warned that "Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until / Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him."
• After the New Orleans Saints, long known for their lack of success, won the 2009 NFC Championship Game by making a field goal in sudden death overtime, longtime Saints radio announcer Jim Henderson exclaimed, "Pigs have flown! Hell has frozen over! The Saints are on their way to the Super Bowl!"
• Flying pigs were seen in the film Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang and were a large part of the promotion related to it, including its major promotional posters. The original Nanny McPhee film had featured the phrase "snow in August" as a similar reference to something that was supposed to be impossible.
• The cover of Stephen Colbert's adult-targeted picture book I Am A Pole (And So Can You!) features an emblem stating that it is a "Caldecott Eligible Book" and a picture of Colbert riding a flying pig, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the book's actual likelihood of being nominated for this award.