Mike Tyson in Popular Culture - Parodies and Satire

Parodies and Satire

• In The Simpsons, boxer (and convicted felon) Drederick Tatum is clearly modeled after Tyson. Charged with pushing his mother down a flight of stairs, Tatum was directly involved in the plot of two episodes. In "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment", he was the inspiration for Homer Simpson to hold a boxing party to watch Tatum's "Bout to Knock the Other Guy Out", though the catch was that match was on Pay-ver-view and Homer had illegal cable. The other episode was "The Homer They Fall" which took place during Homer's short-lived boxing career. Homer faced Tatum during a comeback bout that closely mirrored Tyson's comeback bout with Peter McNeeley. Also noted, Tatum's promoter Lucius Sweet is clearly modeled after long time Tyson promoter Don King right down to the trademark hair (Sweet was voiced by Paul Winfield, who played the real Don King in the 1995 biopic Tyson).
• In a Simpsons Comics sketch where Sideshow Bob recruits Nelson, Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney for a child crime gang, he is seen reading a prison magazine that reads: "Prison Weekly- Inside: Mike Tyson's five favourite penitentiaries!" This is a reference to Tyson's time in jail.
• Tyson's well hyped and short bout with Peter McNeeley in 1995 served as obvious inspiration for the parody film of that phase of Tyson's career, The Great White Hype, with a caricature of Tyson played by Damon Wayans and a caricature of Don King played by Samuel L. Jackson.
• ESPN.com Page 2 columnist Bill Simmons makes frequent references to "The Tyson Zone" (named after Tyson), which is a status an athlete or celebrity reaches when their behavior becomes so outrageous that one would believe most any story or anecdote about the person, no matter how seemingly bizarre.
• During the 2000 Presidential election, comedian Chris Rock produced several parody political ads endorsing Tyson for president on his TV program, The Chris Rock Show.
• In Scary Movie 4, during a flashback scene (a boxing match not so subtly disguised as a Million Dollar Baby spoof) involving lead character Cindy (Anna Faris), her opponent is a buff female boxer who resembles Tyson; who at the conclusion of the fight, proceeds to bite off the ears of every spectator and official within the boxing stadium – a reference to the infamous bite fight. Faris denied the rumors about Tyson playing Cindy's opponent in the boxing scene. She said it was a boxing trainer who quite resembles Tyson a lot. However, in the DVD commentary, David Zucker contradicts her, stating it was indeed Tyson.
• Mike Tyson was referenced by the Grand Royal Records artist, Nullset in their 2001 self-titled record in the song "Smokewood".
• Mentioned in the Sublime song "Don't Push" in 1992
• In the episode The Fight, in the T.V. show The Office the boss, Michael Scott, does an impression of Mike Tyson by speaking with a high-pitched voice. However, Michael begins to laugh.
• Mike Tyson appeared on an episode of Family Guy (though not voiced by himself) in which he fights Carol Channing on a show titled "Fox Celebrity Boxing", a fight which Tyson lost when he passed out from exhaustion because Channing kept getting back up every time he knocked her down.
• Aries Spears occasionally played as Tyson on MADtv.
• Keenan Ivory Wayans occasionally played as Tyson on In Living Color in the "Three Champs and a Baby" sketches.
• In the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Hollywood Plucky", Mike Tyson breaks through a wall and stomps into a restaurant being waited by Plucky Duck and orders Santa Fe finger links, making Plucky quip to the viewer "I'd have never figured him for a soprano."
• In an episode of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, a parody of Mike Tyson was a boxing champion named "Mike Dyson", the 2nd one to be down.
• In CSI: NY Season 1 Episode "A Man a Mile", Detective Danny Messer remarks on seeing a suspect having his left ear bandaged after been bitten in a fight remarked that he had been "Tysoned"
• Tyson was a character in the 1996 Colin Bateman novel, Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men.