Referenced By / Barbie

Advertising

• An animated Barbie appears in commercials for the McDonald's Happy Birthday Happy Meal from 1994, where she interacts with other animated characters, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as a live-action Ronald McDonald.^note One of the toys featured in the promotion was Barbie-themed.
• A commercial for Progressive that tied in with Barbie (2023) has Jamie visiting Barbie's house, giving not-so-subtle hints to the other Progressive insurance agents about how Barbie is his client.

Anime and Manga

• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Joseph pokes at D'Arby's name by calling him 'Barbie' to irritate him.

Comic Books

• The Sandman (1989) has a recurring character called Barbie, who first appears in the "Doll's House" story arc as one half of a yuppie couple with a man named Ken (a coincidence they immediately lampshade whenever they introduce themselves to anyone).

Comic Strips

• Off the Mark:
  • In this strip, a family of mummies goes shopping. One of the kids wants Barbie bandages.
  • A man has something on his foot, either a LEGO piece or a Barbie shoe.
  • "That's not what I meant when I asked you to put a chicken on the Barbie..."
  • The NHL hires Mattel to redesign hockey penalty boxes with a Barbie design.
  • One of the latest exiles to The Island of Misfit Toys, "First-Thing-In-The-Morning Barbie".
  • The Little Bad Wolf's Sister tattles on him when he blows down Barbie's house and eats the doll.
• Some For Better or for Worse comics have Elizabeth and April playing with Barbies. And when April and Becky are into the Spice Girls, Barbie was mentioned as the thing they were into before that, with John mentioning Barbie being a "natural precursor to the Spice Girls".

Fan Works

• The Kedabory Verse:
  • One chapter of Junior Officers mentions that Deborah enjoys Barbie movies, with her favourites being Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper and Barbie & The Diamond Castle.
  • Pretty Cure: Magic of the Rainbow is named after Barbie Fairytopia: Magic of the Rainbow.
  • The Season's My Reason: Liana and Alexa of Barbie & The Diamond Castle, and later, Barbie herself (both Brooklyn and Malibu) appear to help Yui and Seraphina on their quest.
  • In Shining and Sweet, there is a character named Isla Fallon with the username "dancingprincess9", evidently based on Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses.
  • In the Encanto fanfic Storytime, Sabrina is mentioned to have owned a Peaches 'n' Cream Barbie before she fled America and came to the Encanto.
  • What Your Favourite Cure Says About You claims that fans of Cure Butterfly are also likely to enjoy Barbie movies.

Films — Animated

• One of the promos for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, released a few weeks after the 2023 Barbie film, parodied the promotion for that film with toy versions of the turtles spying on real Barbies dolls in their dream houses from their sewer lair. The promo was taken down not long after for legal reasons.
• Toy Story:
  • Toy Story 2:
    • Many Barbie dolls first appear in their respective aisle in Al's Toy Barn. Most of them are minor characters and are mostly just used for a few gags. One in particular serves as a tour guide who gives Andy's toys a tour of the store rather than take them directly to Al's office as they intended.
    • When Andy's toys save Woody from Stinky Pete, they stuff the latter into a Barbie backpack. Amy, the girl who owns the backpack, has a Barbie doll who reveals to Stinky Pete that Amy likes to give her dolls makeovers, much to the latter's horror.
    • When Wheezy sings a reprise of "You've Got a Friend in Me" at the end of the movie, three Barbie dolls appear as backup singers.
    • In the blooper reel, Woody turns Stinky Pete's box to reveal him talking to a pair of twin Barbies, telling them he's sure he can get them a part in Toy Story 3. This blooper, unfortunately, was cut from the 2019 4K and Digital releases.
    • Tour Guide Barbie appears again at the very end of the blooper reel, where she says goodbye to the viewers and reminds them to properly dispose of their trash. After bidding everyone goodbye, she finally stops smiling and comments on it exaggeratedly:
    Barbie: Oh, my gosh, my cheeks are killing me! I can't even keep smiling like this anymore! I am exhausted!
  • Barbie and Ken are prominent characters in Toy Story 3. Barbie is donated to Sunnyside by Molly, and Ken originally worked for Lotso. Barbie's relationship with Ken is what leads the latter to switch sides, and by the end of the movie, they become the new rulers of Sunnyside.
  • Barbie and Ken re-appear in the Toy Story Toons short, "Hawaiian Vacation". The two end up in Bonnie's bedroom after a failed attempt to stow away on her trip to Hawaii, so the toys all try to create their own island paradise.
  • At the beginning of Toy Story 4, three Barbie dolls appear in a flashback sequence where they assist Woody and Bo Peep in rescuing RC.
  • In Lamp Life, a Barbie doll that previously belonged to Molly makes a cameo appearance as one of the little girl's toys.

Films — Live-Action

• In The Florida Project, some of the kids can be seen playing with Barbies.
• Fred Claus: During the scene where Fred fights the Mall Santa army in the Toys R Us, some Barbies can be seen on the shelves.
• Jingle All the Way: There is a scene near the end with a large parade of famous cartoon characters and mascots. Barbie (portrayed by Deena Driskill) can be seen driving a pink convertible in the parade in a few shots.
• In Legally Blonde 2: Red White and Blonde, Elle gets a job in Washington, D.C., and a member of Victoria Rudd's staff refers to her as "Capitol Barbie".
• Halfway through Small Soldiers, Chip Hazard stumbles across a collection of Christy's "Gwendy" dolls, which are pretty obviously meant to be Bland-Name Product versions of Barbie.

Literature

• In The Berenstain Bears Count Their Blessings, the Bearbie doll is a spoof of Barbie.
• In the Carl Hiaasen novel Sick Puppy, the Big Bad of the novel played with his sister's Barbie dolls as a young boy, and wants to makeover two prostitutes to look like twin Barbie dolls. The disclaimer at the beginning of the novel also references the doll:
  To the best of the author's knowledge, there is no such licensed product as a Double-Jointed Vampire Barbie, nor is there a cinematic portrayal thereof.
• In the The Dresden Files short "A Restoration of Faith" Faith Astor relates that her parents bought her a bunch of Barbie toys (when she wanted a simple baby doll), then told her to leave them in their packages so they'd retain their collectible value.
• In Parable of the Talents, Asha recalls an incident with a doll that matches Barbie's description (a young white woman with a very thin build, blonde hair, blue eyes, feet shaped in a permanent tip-toe, and a scrap of pink cloth for clothing). Her adopted mother burns the doll in front of her and makes three-year-old Asha hold the still-burning lump of melted plastic to instill a fear of Hell in the kid.
• In Rules, David drops a Barbie doll into the fishtank. Catherine has to rescue her.

Music

• Aqua's hit single "Barbie Girl" depicts Barbie as the ultimate submissive girlfriend, and earned the band a lawsuit from Mattel. Despite this, some commercials in The New '10s included a cover of the song.

Web Comics

• The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: Molly has Barbie's sister Skipper dating Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing.

Web Video

• The Angry Video Game Nerd: In "Episode 102: The Making of an AVGN Episode", the Nerd reviews the Barbie Licensed Game for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Hi Tech Expressions.
• Caddicarus has reviewed two Barbie licensed games in his "The Horrifying World of PS1 Games For Babies" video; Barbie: Explorer and Barbie: Race & Ride.
• SuperMarioLogan: In "Bowser Junior's Summer Vacation", when Junior and Cody go to Toys R Us, Cody buys a doll of Ken (specifically based on his incarnation from Toy Story 3). Cody believes that Ken is real and shares a lot of his closet homosexual traits with him, and his relationship with Ken has become the subject of many episodes.

Western Animation

• In the 6teen episode "Boo, Dude", the Clones all dress up as "Khaki Barn Barbie" for Halloween, which makes them even harder to tell apart than normal^{Here's how!} Chrissy wears the striped dress, Kristen wears the shirt and skirt, and Kirsten wears the plain dress.
• In one Dexter's Laboratory episode, Dexter and his friends accidentally end up involved with people (mostly women) who collect Kristal dolls. Kristal is a blonde fashion doll with such sets as "Bicentennial Kristal".
• Robot Chicken:
  • A sketch from "Shoe" has Barbie and Ken engage in intercourse, only for Barbie to be turned off over Ken's lack of a penis.
  • A sketch from "Yancy the Yo-Yo Boy" has Barbie as a contestant on MTV's Exposed.
  • A sketch from "Due to Constraints of Time and Budget" has a mother give her daughter a Barbie doll against the wishes of her grandmother, due to Barbie being an Affirmative Action Girl. The daughter decides to go on adventures with her Barbie doll and dies in a race car accident as a result.
  • A sketch from "Poisoned by Relatives" features Barbie on "The Fattest Fat Loser", not as a contestant^note those honors go to Mario, Garfield, Miss Piggy, and Winnie the Pooh, but as a trainer in a gym.
  • A sketch from "Choked on a Bottle Cap" has Ken in a parody of Fight Club.
  • A sketch from "Catdog on a Stick" features the Bratz killing Barbie in a parody of I Know What You Did Last Summer.
  • A sketch from "Joel Hurwitz" has Barbie and Ken rescue Skipper from being a reluctant contestant on Bone Bus.
  • A sketch from "Hopefully Salt" has Barbie and Ken in a parody of Gone Girl.
  • A sketch from "Hermie Nursery in: Seafood Sensation" features a commercial for Ryan, Barbie's new toxic boyfriend.
  • A sketch from "Snoopy Camino Lindo in: Quick and Dirty Squirrel Shot" has the pregnant Midge doll as one of the inhabitants of The Island of Recalled Toys.
  • A sketch from "May Cause a Whole Lotta Scabs" has Rappin' Rockin' Barbie engage in a rap battle.
  • A sketch from "May Cause Immaculate Conception" has Barbie appear in The Young & the Plastic, where she discovers that Ken has been cheating on her with other Barbies, who are revealed to be her long-lost twin sisters.
  • A sketch from "May Cause Season 11 to End" involves Barbie assassinating George Washington so she can become George Washington Barbie.
• Rugrats: Angelica's Cynthia doll is a parody of Barbie.
• The Simpsons has Malibu Stacy. She's a ditzy blonde that was the focus of a whole episode, inspired by a real controversy over a talking Barbie which could say, "Math class is tough!".
• Tiny Toon Adventures: In "Once Upon a Star" (part of "Toon Physics"), Elmyra makes a wish that her Barbette doll were real so they could play together. Her wish comes true, but Barbette proves to be a big handful, and her attractive looks make Elmyra envious.

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