In Popular Culture
Despite its fictional status, fans have made trips "to" the town. A book of photos, co-authored by Keillor, documents images which could have come from Lake Wobegon.
The Mall of America had a "Lake Wobegon, U.S.A." store which sold products connected with Keillor's program, and also with selected NPR and PBS programs. This store closed January 31, 2009.
In the episode "Don't Make Me Over" of Family Guy, in an attempt to calm a crowd of angry rioting prisoners, Peter begins to tell a "funny about Lake Wobegon". The story starts "It was the day of the tuna hotdish jamboree..." when he is hit by a chair and stopped.
In the animated PBS adult television series Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns, the "News from Lake Wobegon" segment is jokingly revealed to be an outsourced radio show from India. Garrison Keillor provides his own voice.
In the 30 Rock episode "Dealbreakers Talk Show #0001," Jack (Alec Baldwin) says that "Kenneth's been out there for an hour telling cleaned-up Garrison Keillor stories," referencing the wholesome style of Lake Wobegon stories.
In April 2009, satirical news source The Onion released an article detailing the discovery of several grisly murders in Lake Wobegon, possibly committed by Garrison Keillor himself.
In "Garfield in the Rough", Jon Arbuckle, Garfield, and Odie, go on a camping trip in a park near Lake Woebegone, before being attacked by a black panther.
In the April 2010 premier of the HBO series Treme John Goodman's character, after becoming irate during a phone interview with NPR regarding the rebuilding of New Orleans, slams down the phone and exclaims "Lake Wobegon. God-dammit."
The name of the cryptographic computer program Pretty Good Privacy was inspired by Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery, one of the businesses in Lake Wobegon, reportedly modelled after (Ralph) Malmbergs General Store in Marine on St. Croix, MN.
The song "Whatever it was" by folk artist Greg Brown (himself a frequent guest on A prairie home companion) on his 1997 album Slant 6 mind has one verse going: "The little towns are lying on their faces/All that's left are fading parking spaces/It's been quite a week, There was a drive-by shooting in Lake Wobegon/I was looking for what I love, whatever it was, it's gone"
The closing scene of The Office episode "Christening" (Season 7, Episode 7) has Erin driving Michael, Andy and a young man home. Erin excitedly turns on Lake Wobegon, which she calls "Lake Wobblegone," and Keillor says "Well, the Lutherans brought their banana bread, but Fred Nordquist had no appetite. He was thinking about his pair of new boots. It'd been ten years after all. As he told Mrs. Nordquist, it would take two years to get comfortable with the new boots."
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