Cultural Impact
The character is loosely inspired by General Makabe Rokurōta, a character from The Hidden Fortress played by Toshirō Mifune, whom series creator George Lucas also considered casting as Obi-Wan. Mad magazine parodied the original film under the title Star Roars and included a character named "Oldie Von Moldie"; a grizzled 97-year-old whose lightsaber runs on an extension cord. The Shanghai nightclub shown in the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is called "Club Obi-Wan" because George Lucas wrote both the Star Wars and Indiana Jones Series. A real bar/club by this name existed in the Xihai district of Beijing, China but closed in the summer of 2010. The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode "Star Koopa", being a spoof of Star Wars, also had its own parody of Obi-Wan Kenobi called Obi-Wan Toadi. The 1998 Animaniacs episode "Star Warners", which spoofed Star Wars, featured Slappy Squirrel portraying a parody of Obi-Wan Kenobi as "Slappy Wanna Nappy". In the Family Guy episode "Blue Harvest", Obi-Wan is parodied by the character Herbert. In the short film Thumb Wars Obi-Wan is parodied as the character Oobedoob Benubi. In the film his full name is Oobedoob Scooby-Doobi Benubi, "the silliest name in the galaxy". In the 1977 Star Wars parody Hardware Wars, Obi-Wan is parodied by the character "Augie Ben Doggie".
In French Internet subculture, "Obi-Wan Kenobi" became an expression meaning "your question does not make sense", and is said when one does not know what to answer but wants to respond in an amusing way. It was popularised by Les Guignols de l'info, which made a parody of the French version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in which for every question, the fourth choice was invariably "Obi-Wan Kenobi" (and the question invariably nonsense). Humorous multiple choice questionnaires made on the internet since often featured an "Obi-Wan Kenobi" option.
TV Tropes uses Obi-Wan's name for the archetype mentor figure.
In 2003, the American Film Institute selected Obi-Wan Kenobi as the 37th greatest movie hero of all time. He was also listed as IGN's third greatest Star Wars character, as well as one of UGO Networks's favorite heroes of all time.
In 2004 the Council of the Commune Lubicz in Poland passed a resolution giving the name Obi-Wan Kenobi to one of the streets in Grabowiec, a small village near Toruń. The street was named in 2005. The spelling of the street name, Obi-Wana Kenobiego is the genitive form of the noun in the Polish language: the street of Obi-Wan Kenobi. "ul." is an abbreviation of ulica, the Polish for street.
Manu Ginobili from the San Antonio Spurs NBA team, has sometimes been referred to as Obi Wan Ginobili, due to his quick movements and play on the court.
In the Disney Channel show Good Luck Charlie, the fifth Duncan Baby was called Toby Wan Kenobi Duncan.
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