Being one of the most famous films ever made, Citizen Kane has had its share of parodies and homages, including its famous ending. Expect Maurice LaMarche to pop up a lot.
Comic Books
- The Batman Chronicles #21 featured "Citizen Wayne", a Whole-Plot Reference to Citizen Kane, replacing the film characters with that of the Batman (with the inclusion of Clark Kent in the Jerry Thompson role) and a slight twist on the original ending: "Rosebud" was the name of the gun used to murder Bruce's parents.
- The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck:
- The last chapter in the saga, "The Richest Duck in the World" has almost a verbatim reference of the entire opening, up to and including the "News on the March" sequence. The opening panel "pans" through the window of Scrooge's big mansion and shows him sitting there with a globe similar to Kane's, whispering the word "Goldie" (on a close up of his beak). Later in that chapter, Donald even finds the original Rosebud sled in a storage room in Scrooge's money bin. Don Rosa himself was actually intent on this all the way.
- The story "Last Sled to Dawson" makes a point of having Scrooge getting back his old sled (yes, a sled he had lost decades before - It Was His Sled). Donald's nephews also recite the end of the movie verbatim, stating that this sled represents "something he lost, or never got, or both".
- Peanuts has referenced the movie several times, including in a Sunday strip where Linus is watching the movie for the first time on TV, and Lucy spoils the ending for him by telling him It Was His Sled.
- Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out: A sled with with the phrase "Rosebud" painted on it can be seen in Wallace's basement.
- Over the Hedge: Ozzie says "Rosebud!" when he stages a hammy death scene.
- François Truffaut's Day for Night pays tribute to the film in a dream sequence depicting a childhood memory of the character played by Truffaut stealing publicity photos from the film.
- Indecent Proposal: John Gage gives a speech about a woman he remembers even after only seeing her once that's exactly the same as the speech Bernstein gives about a woman in Citizen Kane.
- Velvet Goldmine's narrative structure is modeled on the film, in that the reporter Stuart tries to solve a mystery about Slade, traveling around to interview Slade's lovers and colleagues, whose recollections are shown in 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s flashback sequences.
- Immortal Beloved uses a similar plot structure, taking the perspective of a reporter as he interviews several people in Beethoven's life to find out who his Immortal Beloved is.
- Muppets Most Wanted: Pepe says that Spanish reviewers gave El Muppet Show five out of five jamón serranos (not knowing they were bribed), while Citizen Kane got only four.
- The shot of Rey in the hall of mirrors in The Last Jedi is a reference to a similar shot in Citizen Kane.
- In the John le Carré novel Agent Running in the Field, one of the British agents is running an operation on a Russian named Orson; naturally, the code-name of the operation is "Rosebud".
- In the Massive Multiplayer Crossover Angels of Music, Charles Foster Kane appears as a Bond-villain-esque adversary.
- Carlos Fuentes' novel The Death Of Artemio Cruz was partially inspired by the film.
- The Expanse: There's a quick Shout-Out in Leviathan Wakes that goes:"Razorback", Naomi said. "What's that?"
"It's a sled," Miller replied.note - In There's More Than One Way Home, Anna thinks that the stock footage of Crime Conquerors makes Godzilla look like Citizen Kane.
- Married... with Children, in the episode "Pump Fiction", had the final scene of the "SHEOS" movie being Al saying "Rosebud" and dropping a shoe from his hand.
- NCIS: In the episode "One Last Score" they mention the building looks like Citizen Kane's house.
- On a third-season episode of Veronica Mars, Keith is hired to find a missing college trustee by her husband, whose name is Budd Rose (not only that, but the missing trustee is played by Patty Hearst, granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, the model for Charles Foster Kane).
- In the The Adventures of Pete & Pete episode "Sick Day", when young Pete is holding the snow globe, he utters the words "Sick Day" then proceeds to drop the snow globe which smashes on the ground. This is nearly identical to the first scene in Citizen Kane in which Charles Foster Kane says "Rosebud."
- Red Dwarf: Rimmer's death (as depicted in "Me2") is a parody of the opening scene, right down to a falling slow globe and cryptic last words.
- In the 3rd Rock from the Sun episode "Citizen Solomon," the storyline about Tommy becoming a School Newspaper News Hound is a Whole-Plot Reference to Citizen Kane. Tommy is Kane, Alissa is Susan, August is Leland, and the principal is Mr. Thatcher.
Music
- The politician running for office in the music video for "Hook" by Blues Traveler is shot like Kane's campaign.
- Kate Bush's "King of the Mountain" draws parallels between Kane and Elvis Presley, among other things surmising that Elvis Lives and is now spending his days in hiding, playing "in the snow with Rosebud." The music video furthers this by using Elvis' mansion as a framing set similar to Xanadu, ending with a shot of Rosebud almost exactly like the one that ends Citizen Kane.
- The White Stripes paid unauthorized tribute to the film in the song "The Union Forever".
- Rob Cantor's "Shia LaBeouf" Live shows Shia LaBeouf doing a Slow Clap in the silent theater while wearing a dead-serious expression, a nod to Kane doing the same for Susan after her terrible opera performance. LaBeouf is shot from the same angle as Kane and is even wearing the same tux and white bowtie.
- Bear in the Big Blue House: In "Words, Words, Words", one of the things Bear reads about in his newspaper is an advertisement for a movie called Citizen Crane, which is described as the story of a young bird's rise to fame and power.
- Sesame Street: A 1999 Loews Theaters policy trailer, which is about the history of motion pictures, features Cookie Monster eating the Rosebud sled.
- Nancy Drew: In Curse of Blackmoor Manor, Loulou sometimes says "Rosebud..." if you poison her to death.
- Wolfenstein 3-D has General Fettgesicht's death quote being "Roseknospe", "Rosebud" in German.
- The Defunctland episode on Walt Disney's original vision of Epcot is framed by homages to Citizen Kane: in the opening Disney dies saying 'Epcot' and drops a model of its planned Cosmopolitan Hotel, while the end shows a picture of Disney in front of his plans for Epcot burning before cutting to a picture of him in his childhood and his childhood home, Marceline, Missouri, burning as well, implying that Epcot, and indeed everything Disney had ever done, was an attempt to recreate his childhood.
- An episode of 101 Dalmatians: The Series is titled "Citizen Canine". In this episode, Lucky decides to run against Ed Pig as the farm's mayor after the mayor makes a few too many unfair laws.
- Animaniacs:
- One of the interchangeable lyrics from the theme song is "Citizen Kane-y!". Yakko is also holding up the Rosebud sled.
- From the song sequence in "Video Revue"...There was a sled named Rosebud
And a citizen named Kane
He rode it 'till the snow was melted
Now he's Singin' in the Rain - At the beginning of the movie Wakko's Wish, the Warners are using the Rosebud sled as firewood.
- Bump in the Night: In the episode "I Dream Of Silverfish" a sled with "rosebud" written on it is shown.
- CatDog: In the episode "It's a Wonderful Half-Life", the close up of Cat's lips saying "Winslow" and then dropping his ball of yarn and rolling into his bedroom door in the beginning of his dream mirrors the film's opening sequence.
- The Critic:
- Jay attends a lecture on the later works of Orson Welles. The film starts with a closeup of Welles saying Rosebud, before pulling back to reveal Welles is talking about Rosebud Frozen Peas.
- Family Guy:
- In a cutaway from "Screwed the Pooch" about Peter getting banned from the video store for taping over their movies, the scene cuts to a scene from the film being interrupted by the famous quote...Peter: It's his sled. It was his sled from when he was a kid. There, I just saved you two long, boobless hours.
- At the beginning of "Rich Old Stewie", there was a shout-out to this movie where Stewie says "Fart joke" instead of "Rosebud".
- In a cutaway from "Screwed the Pooch" about Peter getting banned from the video store for taping over their movies, the scene cuts to a scene from the film being interrupted by the famous quote...
- In Garfield's Thankgiving, Garfield's talking scale mockingly mistakes him for Orson Welles, and claims to have seen Citizen Kane eight times. When Garfield destroys the scale, it says, "Rosebud".
- Looney Tunes: In Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, Prince Chawmin arrives to wake up So White and makes this statement.I'll give her a kiss, and it won't be a dud
I'll bring her to life with my special rosebud - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Ponyville Confidential", Diamond Tiara becomes the editor of her school's newspaper and makes a speech in front of a giant portrait of herself.
- Pet Alien: The opening is parodied with Swanky saying "Roast beef" instead.
- Phineas and Ferb: In "The Lake Nose Monster", Captain Webber whispers "Nosebud" and drops a snowglobe when he is rendered immobile by a cramp and sees the boat Nosebud heading straight toward him.
- Pinky and the Brain: A scene from "Snowball" features where Pinky, living the high life with Snowball but lonely without his friend, mutters "Brain" in his sleep and drops a snowglobe model of Acme Labs a la the film's opening scene.
- The Real Ghostbusters: "Ghostbuster of the Year" was a Whole-Plot Reference concerning the ghost of Charles Foster Hearse, publisher of ghost-related periodicals. The entire episode hinges on Maurice LaMarche's peerless Welles impression.
- Robot Chicken had a sketch that was a Whole-Plot Reference to the movie with Britney Spears in the starring role.
- There have been so many references on The Simpsons, the staff joked that they might just recreate the entire film with clips from the series.
- Several moments from "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish", including Mr. Burns making a speech in front of a giant picture of himself, and a scene of him shouting "I'm Charles Montgomery Burns!" and trashing the Simpsons' living room.
- In "A Streetcar Named Marge", Homer plays with a piece of paper while attending the play, similar to Joseph Cotten.
- In "Marge Gets a Job", Smithers puts on a big performance at Mr. Burns' birthday party, which is a parody of the show put on for Kane.
- The appropriately titled "Rosebud" has a scene of Mr. Burns dropping a snowglobe in his sleep and a flashback of Mr. Burns leaving his parents for a "twisted, loveless billionaire" with a shot of his teddy bear Bobo lying in the snow. There's even Kane's sled in the background among Burns' stuff.
- In "Sideshow Bob Roberts", Sideshow Bob makes a speech in front of a giant picture of himself when he is elected mayor of Springfield.
- The third segment from "Treehouse of Horror VII" is titled Citizen Kang.
- In "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?", the Simpsons are looking at movie props on display at Planet Hype, and Lisa looks at "the cane from Citizen Kane" before realizing there was no cane in Citizen Kane.note
- In "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington", Mayor Quimby hears his mistress's screechy voice for the first time and laments "Now I regret building you that opera house".
- In the "Treehouse of Horror XVII" segment The Day the Earth Looked Stupid, Chief Wiggum threatens Orson Welles with "...and I'll punch ya in the nose, bud!", leading Welles to ponder "Nosebud".
- A TaleSpin episode is called Citizen Khan.
- The Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Citizen Max" is a Whole-Plot Reference to this film.
- Another episode has Jay talking about a list of movies he loves with his boss, Duke. When he threatens that they better not be art films that no one cares about, Jay tears off a small piece of paper leaving just the film itself, which Duke still dismissively asks, "Citizen who?" before crumbling up the piece in anger.
- In the Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse episode "Game Night" During Donald's dream sequence, one of he scenes he is shown in is giving a speech in front of a giant portrait of himself.
