Allusions
The rhyme is mentioned in several films and TV episodes about spelling bees, including A Boy Named Charlie Brown, The Simpsons episode "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", and an episode of Arthur.
I Before E (Except After C): Old-School Ways To Remember Stuff was a miscellany released in the UK for the Christmas 2007 "stocking filler" market, which sold well.
"I Before E Except After C" is a song on Yazoo's 1982 album Upstairs at Eric's. The Jackson 5's 1970 hit "ABC" has the lyric "I before E except after C". "I before E except after C" was a 1963 episode of the TV series East Side/West Side.
In the musical, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huck learns how to read and Widow Douglas tells him to remember "I Before E Except After C" in the song "I can Read".
It is the center of a joke by comedian Brian Regan in which Regan adds a made up extention of the rhyme which goes "I before E except after C, and when sounding like A as in neighbor or way... And on weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and you'll always be wrong no matter what you say".
It is also mentioned in an episode of Mind Your Language. Mr Brown taught his students how to spell receipt with this method.
I Before E is the name of both a short-story collection by Sam Kieth and a music album by Carissa's Wierd, in each case alluding to the unusual spelling of the creator's name.
Until the 1930s, Pierce City, Missouri was named "Peirce City", after Andrew Peirce. A 1982 attempt to revert to the original spelling was rejected by the United States Census Bureau.
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