Referenced By / Jabberwocky

Anime and Manga

• The PandoraHearts manga, being heavily influenced by Alice in Wonderland, features Jabberwocky as one of the most powerful chains in the series.

Comic Books

• An early Archie Comics storyline has Ms. Grundy read the poem to her class. After Betty clarifies that yes, those are the actual words in Jabberwocky, Jughead starts Speaking Simlish whenever called upon for conversation, leaving everyone else to interpret the nonsense words however they see fit. He stops when Ethel decides to interprets it as asking her out.
• In Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! The Oz-Wonderland War miniseries, the Jabberwock is one of many Wonderland residents that appears. The Big Bad summons it from Wonderland to guard a site in Oz, and (mis)quotes the poem while watching the heroes fight it.
• A 2011 Batgirl comic featured a one-off villain named after the Jabberwock. Despite his appearance, he did not work for the Mad Hatter.

Comic Strips

• FoxTrot: Andy lampoons the poem while making guacamole and offering some with nacho chips to Peter.
  Andy: Twamato and avoc ados
  Did styr with unn-yunn in the lime...
  All mincy were the jal'peños
  And c'lantro for the rhyme.
  Beware the Jabberguac, my son!
  Peter: You're officially scaring me now, mother.

Fan Works

• Babbletechy shows the poem can be used to spoof contemporary nonsense as well.
• Megami no Hanabira: Jabberwock is a demon that appears on the sixth day of the outbreak: despite its nonsensical origins and bestial appearance it's quick-thinking and a powerful fighter, even playing dead when it realizes it's been beaten and making a quick escape when the protagonists turn their backs. The line about "eyes of flame" gets referenced with its devastating Eye Beams.

Films — Animated

• Disney's Alice in Wonderland has the Cheshire Cat singing the first verse, which becomes the song "Twas Brillig". Alice also wanders into Tulgey Wood and encounters mome raths. Despite all this, the Jabberwock itself never appears, though it was intended to, at the very least.

Films — Live-Action

• Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010) features the Jabberwock^note although the movie refers to the creature as "Jabberwocky", the Bandersnatch and the Vorpal Sword, and there is a brief appearance of the Jubjub Bird. The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) also recites a part of the poem at one point.
• Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is about the development of the Fictional Video Game Bandersnatch.

Literature

• The seventh book of The Chronicles of Amber has a scene set in Wonderland (or a world very much like it), and the Jabberwock makes a brief but violent appearance.
• Larry Niven's Known Space universe has an alien species called the frumious bandersnatch.
• Douglas R. Hoftstadter's Metamagical Themas uses "Jabberwocky" as an example of a text that is difficult to translate, providing an example of several translations of the poem and discussing them in detail.
• In the short story "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (writing under the joint pseudonym of Lewis Padgett), the poem turns out to have been dictated by Lewis Carroll's young daughter after she received some Sufficiently Advanced toys from the far future, and is a secretly-coded instruction manual for how to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence.
• Presumed Dead by Rick Kennett. Cy De Gerch dreams of a lecture on the Starfish Aliens she's fighting, with the instructor quoting the poem instead. She then wakes to hear an alien advancing in her direction in the darkness.
• The children in Swallows and Amazons seem to be fans of the poem, as they decide "galumphing" is the best way of quickly returning after visiting the charcoal-burners.
• In My Dark Vanessa, Henry Plough tells Vanessa that he memorized Jabberwocky for fun when he was ten.

Live-Action TV

• When The Muppet Show did an Alice in Wonderland themed episode, it included a very faithful rendition of the poem, although the actors had no idea what it was about. Scooter played the protagonist, and Rowlf played his father.
• In the Doctor Who story "Ghost Light", when the Doctor is messing with the biology-obsessed villain Light by listing mythical creatures that he "missed" when he catalogued Earth's lifeforms, he throws in a couple of the creatures from "Jabberwocky".

Music

• S. J. Tucker's "Cheshire Kitten (We're All Mad Here)" is from the viewpoint of the Cheshire Cat. It features the line "The Jabberwock never bothered anyone, but no one believes him to this day. And why should they?"
• "Jabberwocky" by RedHook is about vocalist Emmy Mack's experience of being sexually assaulted while on tour in 2019, and portrays her as being In the Dreaming Stage of Grief (or rather, trauma) over the experience. The song also receives a Call-Back in "Scream 2" ("And I fucking hate I let you suppourt me/The night that I met the Jabberwocky")

Newspaper Comics

• In Peanuts, there's a fictional brand of breakfast cereal called Snicker-Snacks.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • The vorpal weapon property derives its name from the poem's vorpal sword. In D&D, such a weapon automatically decapitates its target on a critical hit/natural 20.
  • A pair of tongue-in-cheek adventure modules that Gary Gygax wrote, based on the Wonderland books, included not only the Jabberwock, but also the bandersnatch (whose name is taken literally: it grabs opponents and ties them up) and jub-jub bird.
• In Pathfinder, the Jabberwock is among the most powerful statted creatures, more powerful than (almost) any dragon. It's a monstrous fey creature whose only purpose is to spread destruction and chaos. Naturally, it has an instinctive aversion to vorpal weapons. The jub-jub bird and the bandersnatch also make appearances here.
• In the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay bestiary, the Jabberwock is a monster almost identical to the one in John Tenniel's original illustration for the poem.

Toys

• In Monster in My Pocket, Jabberwock is Monster #50 in Series 2, described as a dragon with tentacle-like arms, born in 1871 England.

Video Games

• American McGee's Alice features the Jabberwock, now a clockwork cyborg, as a major antagonist.
• Bandersnatch was an unreleased game for the ZX Spectrum.
• The first game in The Bard's Tale Trilogy contains both a wolf-like bandersnatch and a dragon-like Jabberwock (who guards a Sword of Plot Advancement).
• The Japanese version of Breath of Fire IV has dragon forms called the Bandersnatch, Jubjub, and Jabberwock (the English-language version calls them the Behemoth, Weyr, and Peist, respectively).
• Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp has a Wonderland level in which, amid other hazards one might expect from the setting, Dirk has to fight the Jabberwock. The Cheshire Cat also appears and sings the first part of the poem.
• In the Dynasty Warriors and Warriors Orochi series, weapons can have the 'vorpal' element applied to them, which typically gives the weapon a chance to One-Hit Kill weaker enemies.
• In The Elder Scrolls series, the Wabbajack is the Daedric artifact given out by Sheogorath, the Prince of Madness. It is a Magic Staff that, fittingly, has random, nonsensical effects, from turning the target into a chicken to summoning lesser Daedra from Oblivion.
• At the beginning of each stage in eXceed 3rd - Jade Penetrate, a Doujin Soft shmup, the poem is faintly visible underneath the text displaying the stage name and number.
• In Fate/EXTRA, Alice and her Servant (who is also Alice) summon a Jabberwock in the arena, interpreted here as a glowing red Humanoid Abomination. Conveniently, she leaves you a page of the poem to identify the creature and that its weakness is a Vorpal Sword, which you can obtain through a Chain of Deals.
• The main villain in in Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is a dragon named Gurglewocky.
• In Grimms Notes, the Jabberwock shows up as a gargantuan dragon, and a boss character.
• In the Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft expansion "The Witchwood", Shudderwock is modeled after the Jabberwock, referencing the line "The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!" with "My jaws that bite, my claws that catch!" The flavor text mentions vorpal daggers.
• In Quest for Glory IV, the Vorpal Bunnies reference Jabberwocky, with a dose of the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog to boot.
• Resident Evil – Code: Veronica has monsters called Bandersnatches.
• Rock of Ages: The third game includes Wonderland as a setting where the player must guide Humpty Dumpty through a hazardous level. The poem gets several references in the level names, with the final and most difficult level outright called "The Tulgey Wood".
• In the original Rogue, the Jabbewock is a kind of monster, one of the most powerful in the game.
• Nethack, a Spiritual Successor to Rogue, also contains a Jabberwock, as well as a Vorpal Sword (which indeed goes "snicker-snack" when attacking).
• In Secret of Mana, Jabberwocky is a two-headed dragon fought in the Water Palace.
• In 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds, the ending were the titular vampire is beheaded is called "snicker-snack".
• In Stellaris, three pirate ship names include Jabberwock, Boojum, and Snark.

Web Comics

• In the fairytale themed Namesake, vorpal is a type of magical metal. Alice Liddell and Alice Purcell had/has a vorpal sword, Emma has vorpal bracelets, Penta had vorpal hands, and there are vorpalsmiths.
• In Planescape Survival Guide, Milny's Vorpal Sword goes Snicker-Snack when decapitating a Slaadi (giant frog monsters).
• In a non-storyline strip of Exterminatus Now, Rogue's laser sword beheads a dragon and makes the Unsound Effect "snicker-snak".

Western Animation

• Alice's Wonderland Bakery: Princess Rosa has a pet Jabberwock, named "Jabby", who behaves like a playful puppy.
• The Simpsons: In "Eeny Teeny Maya Moe", Moe is elated when he actually gets a date and shouts "Oh, frabjulous day! Calloo-callay!"
• The Jabberwock appears as an antagonist in the season 1 Summer Camp Island.
• In the Young Justice episode "Earthlings", Adam Strange quotes "Jabberwocky" line-for-line in order to distract a patrol of alien enforcers.
  Alanna: "Jabberwocky?" "Bandersnatch?"
  Beast Boy: His last name is "Strange."

Real Life

• The troodont theropod dinosaur Borogovia is named after one of the creatures in the poem, which elsewhere are called and described as long-legged birds (something troodonts in life resembled).

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