The Circle of Life and its many, many imitators.note
Mrs. Goda: The nurse raised Takeo over her head, and said, "the yokozuna is here".
Rinko: Like in The Lion King?
Rinko: Like in The Lion King?
Disney's The Lion King opens with the song "Circle of Life" playing over Rafiki lifting the newborn Simba in presentation to the animal kingdom. It was such a distinctive scene that it served as the teaser trailer for the film, and it has since turned into a stock parody and stock shout-out in pop culture.
Humorous examples can include the lifted character getting dropped or thrown.
The music accompanying the scene is usually an African Chant.
One of The Newest Ones in the Book.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In My Love Story!!, Takeo's mother recounts how when Takeo was born, he was held up for everyone to see a la Simba. Rinko then asks if it was a reference to The Lion King, only for Mrs. Gouda to not understand the reference.
Comedy
- The poster
◊ for Chelsea Handler's Uganda Be Kidding Me: Live Netflix special has her holding up a dog on a rock that looks like Pride Rock flanked by a couple of lions.
- On Seth Meyers's Netflix special "Lobby Baby", he tells the story of his wife giving birth to their second son in the lobby of their apartment building, and watching as she "Lion-Kinged her own baby".
Fan Works
- In the lead-up to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, some fan-art had Darth Vader lifting Kylo Ren this way, as a reference to the fact that James Earl Jones provided the voices of both Darth Vader and Mufasa. This became Hilarious in Hindsight when The Force Awakens revealed that Kylo Ren was Darth Vader's grandson.
- In the Howondaland-set Discworld fic 'Strandpiel'', A.A. Pessimal works in an extended Lion King homage/parody where the Paramount Crown Princess of the Zulu Empire has to formally present her newborn son to her people. Her father, the undisputed Paramount King of the Empire, is at her side to see this is done right, and at a time of disputed and unclear succession, he names his grandson as the formal Heir.note . Lion King parody duly abounds.
Films — Animation
- In the wraparounds of Around the World with Timon & Pumbaa, Pumbaa gets struck by lightning and develops amnesia. Timon tries to restore his friend's memories through the episodes featured in that video. In the seventh wraparound, Timon lifts Pumbaa on Pride Rock in front of all the animals, then asks him, "Well?". Pumbaa then says, "Nope, doesn't ring a bell.".
- The cover art for the original home video release of The Lion King 1 ½ depicts Timon lifting Pumbaa on Pride Rock in a parody of Rafiki lifting Simba.
- The source movie itself has fun with this in the Animated Outtakes, when Rafiki goes to lift Simba...and drops him off Pride Rock.
- One of the "Inter-Stitch-als" produced as promotional material for Lilo & Stitch replayed the sequence of Rafiki walking out onto Pride Rock and presenting Stitch instead of Simba. After Timon (or in an alternate version, a random warthog that's not Pumbaa) points out the switch Rafiki drops him and the gathered animals run away, leaving Stitch alone to attempt a roar.
- In Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, early on in "Everything's Better With Perry", Phineas recreates the exaltation of baby Simba with Perry in his arms.
- Quest for Camelot: During Cornwall's verse of "If I Didn't Have You," Devon holds him up from a Pride Rock-esque ledge, matching the lyric: "Cornwall, they would sing/ 'Cause I would be the dragon king."
- Teen Titans Go! To the Movies: After Robin's humiliation at the movie premiere, he has a nightmare spoofing "Circle of Life" where he's presented by Batman, only to get dropped off the rock for being a "sidekick".
Films — Live-Action
- George of the Jungle: The movie parodies this at the end with George holding up his and Ursula's newborn son for the animals to see as the movie closes out.
Live-Action TV
- One of the prizes on Billy on the Street was a Photoshopped image of Amy Schumer holding up Jennifer Lawrence over Pride Rock.
- On the pilot episode of Modern Family, Mitch and Cameron introduce their newly adopted daughter Lily to the family with this, complete with the "Circle of Life" music. In the Series Fauxnale "A Year of Birthdays", Haley and Dylan's twins were given a similar introduction.
- The Office (US) episode "Baby Shower" has a scene where Michael raises Jan's baby, Astrid, above his head and yells "Lion King!"
- An episode of the Singaporean dramedy, Phua Chu Kang, have the titular character randomly playing with his client's Persian cat and seemingly on a whim, he then lifts the cat in both hands and starts singing, "Circle of lifeeeeee..."
- Applied straight in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Titus, fails to land a part in The Lion King, so he stages a one-man No Budget version of the musical. He sings a Suspiciously Similar Song to "Circle of Life", and lifts up an alley cat in Simon's place. The only audience member is a lawyer serving Titus a cease-and-desist notice for his IP infringement against Disney.
- The Weird Al Show: During the Expository Theme Tune, when Al is said to "really [make] a mighty fine jelly bean and pickle sandwich, for what it's worth", just as the CGI Al places the last jelly bean and slaps on the top piece of bread, the shot zooms out to show him standing on Pride Rock, holding the sandwich up to the sun as a beatific choir sings. Then the rock snaps and falls out from under him.
Web Comics
- Schlock Mercenary: Lieutenant Foxworthy (temporarily legless) asks an uplifted gorilla to lift her up so she can issue an order by line-of-sight. The page includes a footnote on how the similarity to a certain movie poster is coincidence.
- In Square Root of Minus Garfield, "Hakuna Lasagna" by Densetsu Bros has Garfield about to throw Odie off of Pride Rock. Jon, in the distance, shouts "Put the dog down!"
- This was how the 'off brand' pregnancy test Leona and Carl purchased showed that Leona was pregnant in Kevin & Kell. For bonus points, Leona's a lioness.
Web Videos
- Ask a Ninja: The Stinger of Episode 16 "How To Kill A Ninja" ends with the Ninja in heaven, singing the Circle of Life while lifting a miniature version of himself like Simba.
- The Nostalgia Critic: The end of the The Lion King (2019) review, naturally, ends on Critic lifting his cat Buster into the air to christen him as the fandom's "cash cow."
- The Nostalgia Chick: The title card of "The Lion King 3D" features Chick on Pride Rock, lifting her dog Kali into the air. At the end of the review, she embarrassingly admits to doing that pose in real life, then shows a montage of her and many others lifting their pets into the air.
- Third Rate Gamer: In his review of both E3 2009note and The Lion King, the title card of the latter is a poorly rendered scene with Rafiki lifting up TRG's head in place of Simba.
- One edit of the sequence has Rafiki catapult Simba off the cliff.
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police: In the fake Previously on… segment in the very first episode, the last of of the random flashbacks has Sam holding up Max on top of Pride Rock, beams of light shining through the clouds. Then the rock instantly snaps and falls out from under them, taking them with it. The flashback before that has them both riding an angry, bucking warthog through the jungle, which might or might not be an intentional reference to Pumbaa.
- Animaniacs spoofs this scene with Yakko playing Rafiki, raising a newborn tiger cub only to accidentally drop him from a Pride Rock-esque rock formation, then saying "Oh, I thought they were supposed to land on their feet."
- Animaniacs (2020): In "Gift Rappers," Jay-Pac raps about being "like Billy Joel meets Simba," punctuating the bit by picking up Wakko and lifting him into the air.
- Big Mouth: At the end of "Rice Purity Test," Maury gives birth to his new baby, Montel, and lifts them into the air. Montel proceeds to projectile urinate into the crowd.
- Brickleberry: The episode "Squabbits" has a scene where African chanting is heard over a magnificent sunrise and tourists gathering at the park to see a squabbit dramatically raised in the air.
- In an episode of The Critic, a preview of The Cockroach King is shown, in which New York City wildlife (sewer alligators, pigeons, alley cats, seagulls, rats, and so on) gather in front of a crate to be shown their new king, a cockroach voiced by Howard Stern.
- Drawn Together: In "Clum Babies", Wooldoor masturbates for the first time and produce a "clum baby", to which the other housemates bow in respect to as faux-African chanting is heard.
- Family Guy: In "Peter Problems", Peter shows up a monkey holding up a lion cub by lifting a cub with his new forklift.
Giraffe #1: Uh, are you gonna stay for the bris?
Giraffe #2: Nah, I don't wanna see that! - Parodied in the House of Mouse episode "King Larry Swings In". While preparing for the arrival of King Louie's twin brother, Mickey reminds Donald that he's had bad luck with royalty in the past; cut to a Flashback recreating Simba's presentation, with Donald holding the baby Simba... only to drop him.
Donald: Uh-oh.
- The poster for Ice Age: Scrat Tales depicts Scrat doing this to his acorn, with Baby Scrat clinging onto it. Then again, Disney does own the rights to Ice Age.
- The Simpsons: As "Itchy & Scratchy" partially parodies Disney animation, they had to spoof it in the episode "Girls Just Want To Have Sums", with the musical Stab-A-Lot: The Itchy & Scratchy Musical directly parodying the Broadway adaptation as depicted in the page image.
- South Park: Occurs in "A Very Crappy Christmas", at the end of the song "The Circle of Poo", with Mr. Hankey lifting up his son Cornwallis from a high rock as many African animals look on (and take a dump).
- "Tink'n Bout Animals" is a bonus short from Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast, in which Fawn sings the collective names of groups of animals. When she gets to "pride," she naturally does one of these.
Real Life
- Fittingly, the Detroit Lions team from the National Football League introduced the "Lion Cub Cam" in 2016, where Lions fans raise their kids for the jumbotron camera between quarters. Most notably, when Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford became a father in 2017, his wife Kelly introduced their twin daughters this way to the Lions fandom.
- In 2019, the Denver Nuggets had a "birthday party" for their mascot, Rocky the Mountain Lion ("birthday parties" for mascots, with a variety of local sports mascots and mascots from the same league as guests, are a common halftime diversion in the NBA). During the celebration, Stuff the Magic Dragon (the mascot for the Orlando Magic, which is located in the same city as Walt Disney World) lifted up Rocky while the "Circle of Life" theme played.
