- A Halloween-themed commercial for Empire Carpets spoofs the Weird Sisters' incantation. A witch stirs her cauldron, saying, "Boil, boil, toil and trouble/Time to call Empire on the double!"
- Robin: Tim goes with Ariana, Ives and Callie to a production of "Macbeth on the Beach" in a pubic park for extra credit. Ives thinks the play is so bad everyone involved should be arrested for violating the Bard's work while Ariana argues it's great that in America people can put on such ridiculous productions if they feel like it, but she finally relents as they're leaving and admits that it was pretty unbearably bad. The two of them end up quoting a bit of Shakespeare from some of his other works at each other in their argument as well.
- The Sandman: In issue #7, John Dee dreams that he's asking a trio soothsayers to interpret a dream he's had, and one of the soothsayers replies that the dream is "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". The issue's title is "Sound and Fury", from the same quotation.
Film — Animated
- In Beauty and the Beast, "Screw your courage to the sticking place" is heard when the villagers storm the castle.
- In the classic Donald Duck short "Trick or Treat", Witch Hazel helps Huey, Dewey and Louie get back at Uncle Donald's playing a trick on them earlier by brewing a potion:Witch Hazel: Double double, toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble!
Eye of needle, tongue of shoe
Hand of clock that points at two!
[aside to the boys] This is the real thing, y'know, right out of Shakespeare. - Oliver & Company sees Fagen's bulldog Francis watching Macbeth (specifically his famous speech on the futility of life) on television. The chihuahua Tito dancing nearby keeps distracting him, and eventually the rest of the dogs arrive.
- In Dead Poets Society, when Professor Keating tells the class they're going to talk about Shakespeare in class, he imitates John Wayne playing Macbeth and delivering the soliloquy, "Well, is this a dagger I see before me?"
- Doctor... Series:
- Doctor at Large: Pascoe quotes a bit of the play.
- Doctor in Distress (1963): Mrs. Clapper refers to Sir Lancelot Spratt's Sleep Walking as a "Lady Macbeth routine".
- In Halloweentown, Aggie (a witch) tries to microwave a potion. The buttons say "Bubble" (which she presses twice), "Toil" and "Trouble."
- In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the song "Double Trouble" is composed of lines from the Three Witches' chant.
- In Holiday, Linda mentions to Johnny among the many things she tried to do (and failed) was being an actress, and she starts the "Out, out damned spot" soliloquy before Johnny interrupts her.
- In Rain Man, Charlie sees that Raymond owns a volume of Shakespeare plays and sarcastically asks him if he's read Macbeth.
- In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Trevor Slattery reveals that he did an impromptu performance of the play right when he was about to be executed by Xu Wenwu for appropriating him, which ended up saving his life.
- In Venom: Let There Be Carnage, as Cletus is about to be executed, he intones, " Something wicked this way comes," referring to the symbiote in him.
- Thane of East County: Macbeth is a Show Within a Show where a theatrical production goes awry as the actors begin to carry out the actions of characters they portray.
- Avatar (Théophile Gautier): In chapter 6, when about to perform his Body Swap spell, Balthazar Cherbonneau says "We are going to make a strange broth in our caldron, like Macbeth's witches, but without the ignoble sorcery of the North."
- In Bored of the Rings, Goodgulf chants a Parody Magic Spell which finishes:Presto change-o
Toil and trouble
Rollo chunky
Double-Bubble! - In Call Me Sunflower, Sunny asks Lydia if she's ever seen Hamlet. Lydia replies, "Mom took me to see Macbeth. But I didn't understand much of it."
- In Counting to D, Sam, Kaitlyn, and Eli make a video acting out a scene from Macbeth for their English class, with Kaitlyn as Lady Macbeth, Eli as the doctor, and Sam as the maid.
- In Harry Potter, the most famous band in the Wizarding world is called the Weird Sisters. They provide live entertainment for the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Tonks is also a Weird Sisters fan.
- In Marcus Pitcaithly's The Hereward Trilogy, a chapter entitled "Daggers in Men's Smiles" contains a flashback to the death of Macbeth. It doesn't go quite as in the play, though.
- In Jane Eyre, Mr Rochester quotes from Macbeth (the part with the witches).
- The Lord of the Rings features two prophecies that parallel the ones from the play:
- The ents and their march upon Isengard is one big shout out to the first prophecy. Tolkien was simply disappointed that Great Birnham Wood didn't actually rise and come against Macbeth.
- For the second, just like Macbeth, the Witch King is said to not be killable by any man. He dies to a woman and a hobbit instead, providing a work around for the prophecy.
- Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes takes its title from the witches' incantation.
- In the Star Trek: Enterprise Relaunch novel Patterns of Interference, human colonists name a planet of walking trees "Birnham", and its star "Dunsinane".
- In There's More Than One Way Home, Anna thinks that Alex washes himself like Lady Macbeth.
- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin takes its title from Macbeth's soliloquy in Act Five.
- Wyrd Sisters is essentially Macbeth Discworld-style, and from the point of view of the witches. Naturally includes such lines as:As the cauldron bubbled, an eldritch voice shrieked, "When shall we three meet again?"...
Another voice said, in far more ordinary tones, "Well, I can do next Tuesday."
- Blackadder:
- The original series had a lot of Shakespearean references; the end credits even list "Additional dialogue — William Shakespeare". the first episode was basically the last act of Richard III crossed with Macbeth, complete with three witches.
- The third season had an episode involving the Scottish Play and its related superstitions.
- The third episode of The Culture Vultures was titled "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble", after a line from the play.
- Horatio Hornblower: In "The Duchess and the Devil", when Archie is breaking the news to Horatio that the Duchess of Wharfedale is actually an actress impersonating a noblewoman, he says she has more claim to be Lady Macbeth than to be a duchess.
- Oz: One of the plots in Season 6 is about the inmates at Oswald State Correctional Facility attempting to stage a production of Macbeth. In the final episode, "Exunt Omnes", the play is staged, and Beecher uses a Not-So-Fake Prop Weapon to stab Vern Schillinger to death during the final act.
- Probe's "Black Cats Don't Walk Under Ladders (Do They?)": Marty Corrigan misquotes one of the lines when Sabrina Stillwater enters his dressing room; "By the pricking of my thumbs, something rancid this way comes".
- One of the creators of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, John D. Payne, confirmed in an interview that the three mysterious worshippers of Sauron from the lands of Rhun are inspired by the old crones and the three witches.
- In The Love Boat episode "Tell Her She's Great," Isaac's Aunt Tanya's husband pressures her to play Lady Macbeth in a local production. Despite the entire crew agreeing that she's the worst actress they've ever seen, they tell her she was amazing to make her feel better, causing her ego to swell. She performs some "highlights" from the play in the dining room, including the famous "Out, damned spot!"
- The Outer Limits (1963) episode "The Bellero Shield" has many parallels and contrasts with Macbeth. The villain is an already rich and powerful woman who is still consumed with ambition and tries (but fails) to corrupt her husband. In the end, the horrors she brings upon herself with her ruthless crimes wind up driving her insane with guilt.
- In Slings & Arrows, the company puts on Macbeth as its main attraction, and run into several troubles right up to opening night, including the original director falling off the stage and hurting herself.
- The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Conscience of the King" starts with Captain Kirk and his friend watching a performance of Macbeth — one of several references to the bard in this story.
- Temps de chien: After realizing that Manon betrayed Antoine just for the sake of a business deal regarding the hospital the two of them own, Jean-Philippe calls her "Lady Macbeth".
Tabletop Games
- An early Warhammer Fantasy campaign was a Whole-Plot Reference, appropriately named "The Tragedy of McDeath". Featuring several heirs secretly vying for the throne, violent Scottish clans, a miner's strike broken up by government-sent orcs
, tree-men shifting themselves to attack the castle, a Stock Ness Monster, and "Out damned spot" being a command given by Lady McDeath to her two-headed hellhound, Spot.
- In Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton likens his political career to the plot of this play in a letter to his sister-in-law. Later in the same song, his wife encourages him to "Screw his courage to the sticking place", but in a twist, she's trying to get him to do something productive and mentally healthy. If you know what saying "Macbeth" in a theater entails, it should be no surprise that things go downhill for Hamilton after this.
- In Princess Ida, Melissa claims her mother could not say that the three girl students are men because "'are men' stuck in her throat," spoofing a line from Macbeth II.ii.
- In The Curse of Monkey Island, a character decides to rewrite various Shakespeare plays to better suit the local pirates' tastes, mangling not only famous Shakespeare quotations but entire plotlines, resulting in lines such as "Spot, ye blasted dog, get out of me bloomin' garbage! Out damned Spot!"
- The witch from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past sings/chants a couple of the three witches' lines while "making mushroom brew."
- Star Fox 64 has the planet Macbeth, which according to the official Nintendo Player's Guide has its own Birnam Wood, though Andross had most of it cleared away in order to build his weapons factory.
- In Mass Effect, after the success of his all-elcor production of Hamlet, the same director announces his next project will be Macbeth, with the role of Macbeth being played by a krogan.
Web Comics
- Hark! A Vagrant: "The Scottish Play" pokes fun at the play, mostly by having people seriously underact to the main characters being completely over the top and for the bard playing safe politically with his current monarch.
- Housepets!: The arc 'Let's Imaginate Macbeth' is, as the title implies, a performance of the play with Max as Macbeth as one of many Imaginates throughout the comic. Several parts are quoted verbatim, and the end result is surprisingly faithful despite the satire.
- Animaniacs: There's an episode called Macbeth, where Dot, Hello Nurse, and Slappy the Squirrel play witches re-enacting the "Double, double, toil and trouble" speech, while Yakko translates and Wakko throws all kinds of things into the cauldron. Eventually, they conjure up - Mr. Director (a Jerry Lewis type), and everyone reacts in horror and annoyance.
- Dan Vs.: In "Ye Olde Shakespeare Dinner Theatre", the trio of tech ladies working at the theatre seem to be modeled after the witches from Macbeth.
- In Gargoyles, Macbeth is a recurring character. His backstory is actually closer to the historical Macbeth than the Shakespearean version, and he's probably the most Anti Villainous of the major antagonists. (His wife fits Lady Macbeth even less.) There's a bit of a play on the "no man of woman born" prophecy—due to magic, he and Demona (a female gargoyle, meaning she hatched from an egg) are both immortal until they Mutual Kill each other.
- The Weird Sisters are also recurring, often enigmatic antagonists. Though they appeared to Macbeth as old witches, they're actually members of The Fair Folk who typically look like young women, identical except for their hair color. Manipulating Macbeth and Demona was actually part of a millennium-long Revenge plot against the Avalon Clan of gargoyles.
- In the first Halloween Episode of Phineas and Ferb, Buford dresses us as his worst fear — Little Suzy Johnson, the closet Enfant Terrible. He attempts to "wash away the horror" with the garden hose.
- In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "CopyBob DittoPants", as the SpongeBob clones playing with Patrick warp out of existence next to him, he solemnly says "life is but a walking shadow" before rolling around on the floor, laughing goofily.
- The episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, "Out, Darn Spotlight", has Principal Willoughby producing a Recycled In SPACE version of the play with the kids as performers/stagehands/etc. A standout moment has Bolbi give a performance of Macbeth's Soliloquy in a very deep and dramatic voice (courtesy of Phil LaMarr's excellent range)...but the principal brushes it off and has Nick as the lead with Bolbi as the villainous Rangun the Space Pirate. Also, The Scottish Trope is in full effect in this episode: Nick breaks his leg in an accident before he is to play Macbeth forcing Jimmy to fill in (which he didn't mind since his crush Betty Quinlan was Lady Macbeth) Jimmy's inventions run haywire at the end and ultimately ruin the play (though the spectacle impressed both the audience and the stage critic Corky Shimatzu), and the episode ends with the school teetering on a mountaintop.
- An episode of The Simpsons ("Funeral for a Fiend"), when Sideshow Bob attempts to blow the Simpson family up:Sideshow Bob: Let's not tarry. As Shakespeare said, "If it were done—when 'tis done—then 'twere best / It were done quickly." Power on! [turns on the laptop as a detonator and laughs maniacally] This time I've made no mistakes.
Lisa: Actually, you made one. What Shakespeare really said was, "'twere well / It were done quickly."
Sideshow Bob: Yes, I'm sure you've studied the immortal bard extensively under your "Miss Hoover." [leaves and shuts the door]
Lisa: Macbeth, Act I, Scene vii. Look it up.
Sideshow Bob: [reenters the room] I shall! [takes the laptop] Come on, Wikipedia. Load, you unwieldy behemoth!
[the laptop explodes, and Bob falls to the ground]
