In Popular Culture
In 1994 the Walt Disney Animation Studios animated movie The Lion King brought the phrase international recognition, featuring it prominently in the plot and devoting a song to it. A meerkat and a warthog, named Timon and Pumbaa respectively, teach the main character, a lion cub named Simba, that he should forget his troubled past and live in the present. The song was written by Elton John (music) and Tim Rice (lyrics), who found the term in a Swahili phrase book. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1995 Academy Awards, and was later ranked the 99th best song in movie history by the American Film Institute on a list of 100.
- In the 2006 South Korean comedy 200 Pounds Beauty, Kang Han-na (Kim Ah-jung) often draws a sign supposedly symbolizing hakuna matata for good luck in love.
- In the July 25, 2007 episode of Jeopardy!, "What is hakuna matata?" was the Final Jeopardy question."
- The PlayStation 3 game Afrika was renamed Hakuna Matata in its Asian release.
- In the first season of Benidorm the quiz at the Solana featured the question: "What is Swahili for no worries?"
- Debby Ryan covered the original song for "Disneymania 7" in 2011.
- On the premiere episode of The Real World: St. Thomas, Marie and Robb learn they both have a tattoo that reads "hakuna matata".
- In episode 4 of Citizen Khan, Mr Khan mentions the Hakuna Matata.
Read more about this topic: Hakuna Matata
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:
“Popular culture entered my life as Shirley Temple, who was exactly my age and wrote a letter in the newspapers telling how her mother fixed spinach for her, with lots of butter.... I was impressed by Shirley Temple as a little girl my age who had power: she could write a piece for the newspapers and have it printed in her own handwriting.”
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“Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers another.”
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