References to Ben-Hur in pop culture. They're most likely to reference the 1959 film.
Advertising
- A commercial for Duracell batteries from the 1980's parodies the chariot race, with Ben Hur being powered by the newer Duracell battery, and Messala being powered by the older Duracell battery.
Film - Animation
- Asterix Versus Caesar has a Roman Chariot Race in its climax, and the heroes' chariot's wheelset scraping against another competitor's wheelset clearly evokes Messala's Spiked Wheels.
Film - Live Action
- The Adventures of Philibert, Captain Virgin: The galley scene is a clear parody of the one from Ben-Hur.
- Any Given Sunday: During an intense argument between two characters, the scene cuts back and forth between them and a TV set showing the Ben-Hur Chariot Race, a symbol of the film's comparison of pro football to ancient blood sports.
- The Phantom Menace: The pod race is inspired by the Chariot Race, especially in its staging and use of ambient sounds instead of a music score.
- Up Pompeii: From the credits theme:And they're quite at home at the hippodrome,You can choose who you prefer,Coz Ben Him looks like Ben-Hur.
- The War Lord: There's a pretty clear Actor Allusion, with Charlton Heston's character Chrysagon being skilled at spear-throwing, fighting while wearing just a loincloth and blinding an enemy with a torch.
- Morton Humbert from Rosaleen among the Artists is writing a novel set in Ancient Rome, and is using Ben-Hur to do research.
- SCTV dedicated most of a half hour episode to a spoof of Ben Hur, starring Curly Howard, played by John Candy, as Ben Hur.
- Bear in the Big Blue House: In "Welcome to Woodland Valley: Part 1", Doc Hogg watches a movie called Ben-Hare at the Woodland Valley Cinema. The scene shown parodies the chariot race.
- In a sketch from The Marx Brothers' 1924 Broadway revue I'll Say She Is, Groucho goes to a talent agent and mentions that he played a part in Ben-Hur.Groucho: A girl, she played the part of Ben.Agent: And you?Groucho: I played Hur.
- The Nostalgia Critic: In his review of Rock-A-Doodle, the Critic refers to the car chase scene as "Ben-Fur".
- Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: In "Robotnik's Pyramid Scheme", the third part of the "Quest For the Chaos Emeralds" saga, Sonic and Dr. Robotnik race each other to the Pyramid of Robotnikhotep in chariots. Robotnik uses the spiked wheels of his chariot to sabotage Sonic's chariot.
- In the Chalkzone episode "Rudus Tabootus", Rudy enters chalk ancient Rome and competes in a chariot race. Snap suggest he draw some turbo boosters on his chariot in order to win, but Rudy refuses, claiming that Bun-Hur didn't cheat so neither will he.
- Doug: In "Doug's Derby Dilemma", when Doug realizes Roger is cheating during the Go Kart Race, Doug imagines a Chariot Race with him as Judah and Roger as Messala using the scythe wheel. The scene is portrayed with black bars on top and bottom to resemble the 1959 film's Letterbox sequence.
- Garfield and Friends: One U.S. Acres segment is titled "Ben Hog". In this episode, Orson guards his harvest while his friends are off to the State Fair. His brothers, Gort, Wart, and Mort distract him with a copy of Ben-Hur so they can steal his harvest. This results in Orson having an Imagine Spot where he partakes in a chariot race against his brothers, leading to him foiling his brothers' heist.
- The Littles: There is an episode titled "Ben Dinky", and it features a climactic chariot race.
- Looney Tunes: In the short Devil's Feud Cake, Yosemite Sam infiltrates the set of Bugs Bunny's new picture Ben-Hare.
- The Simpsons:
- In "Saturdays of Thunder", the clash between Bart and Nelson during the soapbox derby spoofs the chariot race.
- In "Kamp Krusty", the campers in the titular camp are forced to work in a sweatshop while Kearney bangs a drum.
- In "A Star is Burns", Mr Burns' film A Burns for All Seasons spoofs the opening credits and the scene where Judah Ben-Hur is given water by Christ.
- In "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", the sequence where Homer races alongside the carriage in Central Park was a reference to a similar scene in the chariot race.
- In "Little Big Mom", Maude asks Ned "Remember those scary lepers in Ben Hur?" when Homer and Bart, tricked by Lisa into thinking they have leprosy, are coming to their house.
