Ziggy (comic Strip) - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

The episode "The Cartoon" of the sitcom Seinfeld centers on the character Elaine Benes publishing a cartoon that she unwittingly plagiarized from Ziggy. When Elaine's plagiarized cartoon was published in The New Yorker, the actual Ziggy retorted at the complaint desk again, saying "The New Yorker is stealing my ideas."

In one episode of the sitcom Cheers, the character Woody Boyd breaks into a fit of hysterical laughter after reading a Ziggy comic strip. Bar manager Rebecca Howe then asks who let him read it, as it is apparently his typical reaction to the strip.

In the episode "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One" of the cartoon Family Guy, it is revealed that Brian has a tattoo of Ziggy.

In the "Brush with Greatness" episode of The Simpsons, Waylon Smithers is shown reading aloud a typical Ziggy comic panel to Mr. Burns. Mr. Burns emphatically responds "Oh Ziggy, will you ever win?" In "The Last Temptation of Homer", Homer wonders if Mindy Simmons agrees that the comic strip's protagonist has become "too preachy".

Ziggy's lack of pants stoked the fire of Rat from the comic strip, Pearls Before Swine. In 2009, from December 12th through 16th, Rat held protests demanding Ziggy put on pants. On December 17 the issue was addressed in Ziggy's strip and on the 18th, Ziggy's pants were found at a dry cleaners and he has been seen wearing them intermittently since. This was a planned joke between Tom Wilson and Pearls artist Stephan Pastis, but due to a mixup the planned strips did not run in the order they were supposed to.

On HBO's television program Mr. Show, the longevity of Ziggy was explained by its creator's on-going battle with the fictional disease Imminent Death Syndrome.