The Phantom of The Opera (adaptations) - Pop Culture References

Pop Culture References

• On CollegeHumor.com, Streeter occasionally plays the Phantom of the Office, portrayed as an annoying co-worker who makes numerous references to fire, his home in the catacombs, and various violent games (i.e. "Beat The Greek" which involves "putting an adolescent Greek girl in a sack and beating her to a pulp"). He also shows violent tendencies, suggesting hanging bat boys at baseball games, splitting Sarah down the middle, etc.
• On an episode of Late Show with David Letterman, Will Ferrell sings "The Music of the Night", with mostly incorrect lyrics, after stating, "I don't have it totally down" and "I don't know the name of it."
• A picture of the Lon Chaney Phantom is used at least once on Monty Python's Flying Circus.
• The villainous "Phantom of Vaudeville" and his ventriloquist dummy, Elmo, as featured on The Ghost Busters may be a reference to the Phantom, as both are masked, and, as Kong notes, "the only way to send a Phantom back is to unmask him."
• In one episode of Kappa Mikey, the Phantom is parodied as "The Phantom of the Studio", using a mask because someone wrote "fart" on his forehead.
• In the episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody entitled "Arwinstein", at London's Halloween party, one guest is dressed as the Phantom with the full mask. Also, when Arwinstein kidnaps Carey and brings her to Arwin's secret room, it is similar to the "Down Once More/Track Down This Murderer" scene from the musical. In another episode, "Cookin' with Romeo and Juliet", there is a man wearing the Phantom's half-mask in the ballroom scene.
• A statue of Red Death can be seen a few times in the background by the door.
• A bust of Lon Chaney as the Phantom can be seen twice near the stage.
• In the first High School Musical, The Phantom of the Opera is mentioned in dialogue when Chad is trying to talk Troy out of the musical while the two are in the library.
• There is an episode of The Snorks (called "Summer and Snork"), where Junior takes on a Phantom-like role to scare All-Star out of the lead part. Tooter takes over the role of a crossover between Sherlock Holmes and The Persian from the Gaston Leroux novel.
• A production briefly appeared in an episode of Family Guy. Peter makes a reference to the Phantom in saying "this is even more boring then when I went to see The Phantom of the Opera", which then cuts to Peter in the audience of the musical. He then yells, "Show us the gross half of your face, that's what we all came to see!"
• The Phantom is called "the gayest super villain ever" by Homer Simpson, particularly the Andrew Lloyd Webber version. Erik seems to be a recurring background character on The Simpsons. He has appeared in several episodes, the most noticeable of which include:
  • "Homer of Seville"

Behind Homer is a poster for "The Phantom of the Opera"

Also, Marge is worried about a disaster happening while Homer is performing, so Chief Wiggem informs her that they have pre-crashed the chandelier.

• • "Flaming Moe"

Homer's haughty speech from the rafters when he reveals that the Flaming Moe's secret ingredient is cough syrup.

Notice the robe deftly draped over his face like the Phantom's mask (from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical).

• • "Lisa's Wedding"

Martin Prince has become him in the future after a horrible science fair accident

• • "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife"

He appears in Lenny's HiDef TV when Homer first turns it on.

• The Phantom has also been featured in Married... with Children, multiple children's shows (an episode of Animaniacs is quite memorable, while a whole episode of the show Count Duckula was set in Paris and featured the Phantom throughout), and even soap operas like Passions.
• An episode of The Mask: The Animated Series called "Broadway Malady" had The Mask as The Phantom of the Opera who tried to ruin the Mad Monkey Musical with a falling chandelier, but due to budget constraints, was reduced to using a small light fixture (the chandelier fall was seen at the end of the episode when the insane Broadway director creates a musical number with many Mask villains while in prison).
• In one Tiny Toon Adventures episode, Buster Bunny is playing the organ and is wearing the Phantom of the Opera mask.
• In an episode of CyberChase episode, the two-headed creature Sams is playing an organ, and when he stops a chandelier above Matt and Inez drops and stops right above them.
• Wilson on Home Improvement dressed-up as the Phantom in a Halloween episode.
• In the animated film Quest For Camelot, during the song If I Didn't Have You, two-headed dragon(s) Devon and Cornwall morph into the Phantom and Madame Butterfly.
• In Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Count Olaf (Jim Carrey) has a newspaper with a picture of Lon Chaney as the Phantom on the front page.
• The Phantom (from Andrew Lloyd Webber) showed up in Backstreet Boys music video "Everybody".
• Erik (from Leroux) shows up in Have You Got Any Castles? together with Frankenstein's monster, Mr. Hyde and Fu Manchu, on the The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume. It was also featured on the cover of Video Watchdog.
• In an episode of Sex and the City, Carrie sees her old flame Mr. Big at the Opera. After storming out she thinks to herself "I felt like I had just seen The Phantom of the Opera".
• He appears in an episode of Jimmy Neutron that focuses on Jimmy unmasking a series of "Phantoms" who turn out to be his classmates before finally coming to the "real" Phantom.
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, "Something Smells", SpongeBob thinks he is ugly, and at one point he is seen in a long black cape playing a pipe organ.
• In an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Carlton is in charge of the Peacock, but something goes wrong and a lot of strange figures arrive, one of them being the Andrew Lloyd Webber Phantom.
• In Neopets, two collectible cards make references. "The Phantom", which is clearly meant to resemble the Phantom, and "Riyella" which features the description "The Phantom's true love".
• The Phantom is included among the band in the Beetlejuice cartoon show at Universal Studios Theme Parks. He also is a featured character in The Sadie Chronicles.
• In the children's series, Arthur, a 'clip' from the "Phantom of the Opera" appears when Arthur is watching television, avoiding practicing piano. He also appears in an episode about plagiarism when Francine has a dream about the consequences of copying.
• An episode of Histeria! featured a "Dating Game"-type skit with composers instead of suitors, and one was Andrew Lloyd Webber (he was just identified as Andrew) wearing the Phantom's costume while standing in the boat from the title number in the middle of a Gothic, subterranean lake.
• Slovenian metal band Coptic Rain covered/remixed the main theme song on their Discovery EP.
• During Batman Returns, there is a scene at a costume party, and in the background we see a guest with a skull mask and a large, red hat standing on a staircase.
• In season 1 of That Girl, an episode is entitled "Phantom of the Horse Opera"
• The rapper Lil' Wayne mentions Phantom of the Opera in his song Hustler Musik.
• During a sketch called "New Off-Broadway Shows" on Conan O'Brien, they performed "Infomercial: The Musical", during which the Phantom appears with a juicer, while singing "I am the Phantom of the Juicer!"
• The Doctor Who story The Caves of Androzani shares many similarities to Leroux's work, although the circumstances of Sharaz Jek's disfigurement owe more to the 1943 film version.
• "The Phantom Opera Ghost" is a song done by Iced Earth on their Album "Horror Show"
• In the pilot episode of Clerks: The Animated Series, the Phantom can been seen briefly in a sewer watching a signal go through a cable line.
• Meatloaf's video for"I'd Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That)" is based on The Phantom of the Opera as well as Beauty and the Beast.
• World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler The Undertaker had to wear a Phantom of the Opera like mask after Mabel fractured Undertaker's orbital eye bone in 1995.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Raphael references the Phantom nearly at the end of the climax when Walker appears with April O'Neil as hostage, saying "Hey look, it's the Phantom of the Opera."
• In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode, Timing Is Everything, a poster can be seen for Alien of the Opera, an obvious parody of The Phantom.
• The Phantom briefly appears in Waxwork. In one scene, the villainous tour guide Lincoln (played by David Warner (actor)) learns that there are at least several Phantom movies in existence. Lincoln says in disbelief, "They made a movie about the Phantom of the Opera?" Lincoln shoves a teenage visitor named Jonathon into the display and whispers under his breath, "They'll make a movie about anything nowadays." Seconds later, Jonathon appears in the display as the Phantom. In the climatic ending, the Phantom appears among the army of now-living wax figures.
• In Gremlins 2: The New Batch, one of the Gremlins gets splashed with acid on his face. He immediately dons a mask and imitates the Phantom.
• In the webcomic, CONvicts, pages 78–85 deal with David, Andrew, and Alex going to the Masquerade to hunt down the Masquerade Ghost (dressed as Webber's Phantom) for a reward. Throughout the arc the Masquerade Ghost crashes a chandelier and takes down his opponents not by strangling them, but by kicking them in the groin.
• In the Japanese horror film, Ring 0: Birthday, the main character, Sadako Yamamura, a character similar to the Phantom, wears a half mask in an amateur play called 'Mask'. Also, the leading actress, Aiko, is killed to make room for Sadako, as Carlotta was replaced by Christine. A lighting rig also crashes to the stage, like the chandelier.
• The rose and mask logo appears in the 'Irregarding Steve' episode of American Dad, in which Steve and Roger run away to New York City. In another episode, Roger becomes the "Phantom of the telethon".
• In Meet the Robinsons, Doris the hat tries to cut the chandelier on top of Lewis's head.
• In a very short-lived Saturday NBC series titled The Kids from C.A.P.E.R. (1976–1977), there is an episode titled "The Phantom of the Drive-in Movie." One of the team members, Bugs, describes the falling chandelier scene from the 1943 movie. As the others remind him that they are at a drive-in movie and thus should fear no such thing this time, a chandelier comes crashing down.
• In an episode of MacGyver, MacGyver's mortal enemy, Murdoc, who was horribly disfigured due to a flamethrower accident in a previous episode, disguises himself with a prosthetic face and goes by the name Jacques Leroux (a reference to Gaston Leroux). He falls in love with MacGyver's friend, Penny Parker, eventually kidnapping her, and the episode climaxes in an underground lair filled with booby traps.
• Are You Afraid of the Dark had an episode similar to the plot of Phantom of the Opera about a monster who lived in a high school and kidnapped a talented female violinist. (2000)
• Goosebumps: "The Phantom of the Auditorium" episode has a school put on a play called The Phantom. Unfortunately, someone is out to stop the show. (1995)
• Flying Rhino Junior High features a character, Earl, who lives underneath the school and constantly wants people to call him 'The Phantom'.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force: In the episode Super Model, at the end Frylock comes without his goatee and is wearing firemen's clothes. Meatwad hands Frylock a Phantom mask and says to him that "the fire was so bad that it burnt your face".
• In one episode of Wishbone titled Pantin' at the Opera, the beloved Jack Russell terrier plays the role of Raoul de Chagny.
• An episode of Babar features a Phantom-esque character who lived in the cellars of a rundown movie house, and frightened people away so that he could be left alone. He (unnecessarily) wore a domino mask.
• Rhydian Roberts sang a version of "The Phantom of the Opera" in the 4th series of The X Factor (October 27, 2007).
• The Muppet Show had a Phantom that haunted the theater dubbed "The Phantom of the Muppet Theater".
• Mega Man Star Force 2 has a character named Dark Phantom (Phantom Black in Japan).
• In a season 2 episode of Night Gallery, Leslie Nielsen appears in one of his first comical roles as a "Phunny Phantom" in a short feature titled The Phantom of What Opera?
• In a season 4 episode of Supernatural, Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) is seen walking into a moviehouse called the Goethe Theater after hours. The feature film is The Phantom of the Opera. In the stereotypical Phantom fashion, a "mysterious" shadowy figure inside is at the organ playing Bach's "Toccata and Fugue". Believing this organist to be a murdering shape-shifter, Sam sneaks up behind him in a gender-bender parody of the unmasking scene in an attempt to tear off his ear. This turns out to be an embarrassing mistake for Sam.
• On Chowder's "Panini for President", Gorgonzola wears a black cape and Phantom's mask and a part from the Phantom of the Opera's Theme Song Beginning starts to play.
• In Dean Koontz's book From the Corner of His Eye, a Phantom reference is made on page 559, 2nd paragraph.
• In Season 9 of Night Court, in episodes 1 (173) and 2 (174), titled "A Guy Named Phantom (Part 1)" and "A Guy Named Phantom (Part 2)", Harry and Christine are both confused over their feelings for each other, but before they can work them out, the deranged Dan (referring to himself as "The Phantom," wearing a mask and cape, and living in hiding) kidnaps Christine at a courthouse costume party.
• In the Degrassi film Degrassi Takes Manhattan, a Phantom of the Opera poster can be seen in the background in one of the first scenes in New York.
• In Phineas and Ferb, in an episode called Rollercoaster the Musical: Part 1, Phineas sings, and a famous musicals montage comes in during the song. Phantom of the Opera is one of them.
• In Grey's Anatomy, Season 5, Episode 9 (In the Midnight Hour), the unmasking scene from Lon Chaney's 1925 Phantom of the Opera is seen playing on a TV screen in the Seattle Grace waiting room.
• In the Monster High series there is a character named Operetta, who is the daughter of the Phantom.