The Beatles in popular culture

Television
  • The Beatles, a late 1960s American fictional animated television series featuring the musical misadventures of The Beatles.
  • The Beagles, a 1967-1968 American animated television series in which its name was an obvious takeoff on The Beatles.[1]
  • The Rutles, a mid 1970s series of sketches on the BBC television series Rutland Weekend Television, which would lead to the 1978 mockumentary film All You Need Is Cash.
  • Sesame Street featured a parody band called "the Beetles", a group of four bugs with Liverpool accents and Beatle hair performing parodies of their songs, such as "Letter B" and "Hey Food".
  • In The Powerpuff Girls episode "Meet the Beat-Alls", Mojo Jojo, "Him", Princess Morbucks, and Fuzzy Lumpkins form a group of supervillains named "The Beat-Alls". There are many additional references to the Beatles, their history, songs, and albums through the episode. Also, in two parts of the episode, all 4 Beatles appear in their animated forms from The Beatles cartoon series and the Yellow Submarine film.[2]
  • The Beatles appeared and were mentioned several times in The Simpsons. Specifically, the episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" roughly parallels the Beatles' story, providing numerous references. The three surviving members of the band, at the time, have guest starred as themselves during the series on separate occasions.
  • The Super Readers from Super Why! made these references physically by doing the 4-person walk while singing "Over The River And Through The Woods". Taken from "Little Red Riding Hood" (Season 1, Episode 17)
  • In the Wonder Pets! episode "Save the Beetles!", the group save a rock band named The Beetles (parody/reference to The Beatles).
  • Codename Kids Next Door - Numbuh 4’s real name is Wallabee Beatles. His codename is a reference to the number of members in the band.

Film
  • The 1967 film The Jungle Book features four vultures named Buzzie, Flaps, Ziggy and Dizzy, with Liverpudlian accents and mop-top hair style referencing the Beatles.
  • The 1978 film I Wanna Hold Your Hand is about "Beatlemania" and is a fictionalised account of the day of the Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
  • The rock musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in 1978, featured Beatles covers by the Bee Gees, Peter Frampton, Aerosmith, Earth, Wind & Fire and many other musical and non-musical celebrities. It went on to be a critical and commercial disaster.
  • The 2007 film Across the Universe is a musical that takes place during the 1960s. 34 Beatles compositions were performed in the film along with names of characters referenced in their music and multiple small allusions to The Beatles are scatted throughout the film.
  • The 1978 television film All You Need Is Cash (based on a single sketch from a mid-1970s sketch series called Rutland Weekend Television) traces the career of a British rock group called The Rutles in mockumentary style.
  • The film Ferris Bueller's Day Off features at least two references to the Beatles: Ferris (Matthew Broderick) states his admiration of John Lennon's quote "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me," and later sneaks onto a parade float and lip-synchs to "Twist and Shout", to positive reception from the crowd.
  • In the 2007 comedy film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, fictional Dewey Cox meets The Beatles who are purposefully portrayed satirically by Jack Black as Paul McCartney, Paul Rudd as John Lennon, Jason Schwartzman as Ringo Starr, and Justin Long as George Harrison.
  • In the 2001 film I Am Sam, Sam's daughter is named after the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Lucy's idyllic early years are accompanied by "Across the Universe". We see Sam and Rita's relationship grow to "Golden Slumbers". Sam's lawyer's name comes from The Beatles' song "Lovely Rita", a point made by Lucy. At the end of the film, "Two of Us" is used.
  • The 2008 film I'm Not There features a segment in the mid-1960s in which singer Jude Quinn (a fictionalised version of Bob Dylan, played by Cate Blanchett) visits London and is briefly seen fraternising with the Beatles.
  • The 2000 Icelandic film Angels of the Universe, which focuses on schizophrenia and is mainly set in a psychiatric hospital, features one character, Óli, who believes himself to have written most Beatles songs and to have transmitted them to The Beatles via telepathy, even after the split of the band. "Hey Jude" is being "composed" by Óli in one scene of the film.
  • In the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, Bond is disparaging of the group, commenting: "My dear girl, there are some things that just aren't done, such as drinking Dom Perignon '53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That's just as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs!"
  • The 2019 film Yesterday (2019 film) written by Richard Curtis and directed by Danny Boyle is set in a world where everyone has forgotten The Beatles apart from one man. The film contains covers of many of their songs, including the titular track: Yesterday.

Video games
  • EarthBound had a large number of references to The Beatles.
  • The Beatles: Rock Band, developed by Harmonix Music Systems, was released 9 September 2009.
  • Wolfenstein: The New Order, an alternative history game developed by Machine Games, features a german singing version of The Beatles under the name "Die Kafer", who sing Nazi propaganda songs, which are mostly parodies of real life Beatles songs.

The Beatles mentioned in song

References
  1. "The Beagles | Biography & History". AllMusic.
  2. "Beatles References in "Meet the Beat-Alls"". Rowdyruff.net. Archived from the original on 18 April 2008. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
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