The MGM logo has had its share of tributes over the years.
Advertising
- During the late 1990s to the early 2000s, Cartoon Network had weekend "Cartoon Theater" broadcasts of animated films, with animated introductions and bumper sequences that spoofed studio logos. One MGM-styled intro/bumper has the Lion (patterned after the one in the Tex Avery cartoon "Slap-Happy Lion") eating an ice cream cone, then he sees the feature is starting, so he hastily finishes his ice cream, packs his things and exits the logo, and the camera zooms through. It can be seen here
. - French comic-book writer René Goscinny launched a production company, Studio Idefix, to adapt his own works into animated form. The logo is a parody of the MGM logo, but with Dogmatix the dog, a Roman laurel wreath and the motto "Delirant Est Romani" ("These Romans are Crazy"), seen here. Unfortunately, the studio only made two films before folding due to Goscinny’s untimely death.
- MTM Enterprises went on to base its company logo on MGM.
- Richard Williams Animation Studio had a MGM-style logo with the Pink Panther, seen here. Williams had previously worked on title sequences for two Pink Panther films.
- The opening of the Shari Lewis Home Entertainment series from MGM/UA Home Video would start with a painting of the MGM lion logo. The fanfare plays, And then Lamb Chop pops through the board (similar to Looney Tunes' Porky Pig breaking out the drum) and remarks "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists present the Shari Lewis Home Entertainment library. Rawr!"
Anime and Manga
- Episode 156 of Gintama opens with a black-and-white MGM-style logo featuring the alien being Elizabeth replacing the lion.
- Season 5 Episode 18 of Hetalia: Axis Powers has America roaring in a MGM-style logo that reads "USA".
- The OVA episodes of Maze Megaburst Space opens with Princess Mill saying her Verbal Tic ("Ukyuu!") in place of the roaring lion.
- One chapter of Miss Not So Sidekick has the MGM lion’s mane resembling Latte’s hairo.
- About three episodes of Pokemon that involved movie-making has featured an MGM-style logo, each with a different Pokemon (Meowth, Zorua, Pikachu).
- Every episode of Ramen Fighter Miki opens with a MGM-style logo with Miki roaring in place of the lion.
- The anime comedy Vlad Love uses this in its seventh episode: a school film made by film student Maki Watabe opens with a MGM-style logo, with a basset hound (a trademark of Mamoru Oshii) in place of the lion.
Films - Animated
- Cats Don't Dance features a parody of MGM known as Mammoth Studios, which features a mammoth in its logo (played by the film's supporting character Woolie the Elephant) and the motto "Optimum Est Maximum" (Latin for "Bigger Is Better").
Literature
- The Executioner, In "Vegas Vendetta" standup comedian Tommy Anders is discussing the Stage Names trope, and says that it's not just actors who get their names changed."Anybody here ever heard of a guy called Sam Goldfish? Of course not. You know why? Imagine. Metro-Goldfish-Mayer sounds silly, especially with a lion roaring out of the titles."
Films - Live-Action
- The Hindi sci-fi comedy Action Replayy features a character named MGM (for Morgan G Morgan).
- Body Bags features its studio 187 Corp's MGM-style logo with bones, "sanguis gratia artis" ("Blood for art's sake" in Latin) and the Coronor in the lion's place running a chainsaw to simulate a roar.
- The Great Muppet Caper has a MGM-style logo reading "Lord Grade Presents" note and Animal in the logo who roars and then takes a bite on the logo.
- Mank: When Mank walks through MGM studios in one scene, a lion's roar is heard.
- The Disney film The Shaggy DA has a doghouse with the door resembling the MGM logo, with the sheepdog Wilby in the lion's place and the Latin inscription reading the "Canis Corpore Transmuto" incantation.
- Silent Movie has an MGM-style logo for Big Picures Studio featuring the Studio Chief mewling and the motto "Ars est pecunia" ("Art is money").
Live-Action TV
- Monty Python's Flying Circus did a Terry Gilliam-animated parody for "20th Century Vole", which has a vole (a small furry rodent) rising into the MGM crest with a squeak. In And Now For Something Completely Different, this same logo was used, but changed to "20th Century Frog" along with a croaking frog in the MGM crest.
- The 1981 special The Muppets Go to the Movies has a MGM logo parody that reads "Metro-Goldwyn-Bear" and has Fozzie Bear is in place of Leo.
- Sesame Street has made various parodies of the MGM logo using several Muppets in place of the lion.
Music
- The music video for Echo & the Bunnymen's "Bring On the Dancing Horses" opens with a parody of the MGM Vanity Plate, featuring a cow that whinnies like a horse.
Video Games
- Compile, the video game company that created Puyo Puyo, had a MGM-style logo in the 1990s that had Carbuncle, a character from that game series.
- Troll Face Quest: USA Adventure has a MGM logo, dubbed Metro-Trollwyn-Mayer, seen here.
- Wonder Momo started up with a MGM-style logo with Momo Kanda roaring at the camera and then winking.
Webcomics
- In the webcomic Everyday Heroes, when Steve's stomach is growling, the lion stays, but the motto "Ars Gratia Artis" ("Art for art's sake") is replaced by "Pasce Me Gratia Petri" ( "Feed me, for Pete's sake!")
Western Animation
- The logo was parodied in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo in the episode "That's Monstertainment": an in-show movie opens with a custom MGM-style logo with Scooby-Doo in it. The logo reads "Ranna-Rarrera" (Hanna-Barbera, in Scooby's dialect) and "limitus animatus" (Latin for "limited animation", which Hanna-Barbera was famous for).
- The Chipmunks Go to the Movies uses a MGM-style logo with Alvin in the lion's place.
- In the earlier seasons of Arthur, the Couch Gag for episodes starring Buster had Buster appear in the center of the title card's circle and roar like a lion. Sometimes for added comedy, the roar was replaced with an elephant's trumpet, a rooster's crow, a horse's neigh, or a giant burp.
- Cat Burglar, a blatant parody of Tex Avery MGM cartoons, features a blatant parody of the MGM logo, with an elephant in the logo and the slogan "Logo Parodis Spoofus".
- The Family Guy episode "Brian's a Bad Father" parodied the logo, with Leo the Lion going "Wassup now, bitches?" at having achieved his childhood dream of stardom, as seen here.
- The Ghost and Molly McGee: The episode "Hooray for Mollywood!" has a MGM logo with Scratch in place of the lion and the reading "Spooks Gratia Spooktis".
- The The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius episode "Lights! Camera! Danger!" has a MGM logo with Neutron's dog Goddard, and an atom at the bottom.
- The Looney Tunes shorts "Bosko's Picture Show" (1933), "She Was an Acrobat's Daughter" (1937) and "Bacall to Arms" (1946) all use a parody of the MGM logo.
- The Disney cartoon Mother Goose Goes to Hollywood features a MGM-style logo with Mother Goose in place of the lion and roaring instead of honking, and the logo “Ertznay to Ouyay” (“Nutz to You”).
- Two episodes of Muppet Babies (1984) use a MGM logo with Animal in place of the lion.
- The Soviet parody film "Ograblenie po..." features an animated MGM logo featuring the film’s studio mascot Cheburashka with a lion mask.
- The Steven Universe episode "Lion 2: The Movie", which features Steven and his lion at the cinema hall, ends with a MGM-style logo with the lion roaring in the logo.
- From 2012 to 2015, all the Tom and Jerry cartoons produced by WB had the WB logo be colored blue and set against a blue background, imitating the old Hanna-Barbera Tom and Jerry cartoons which had MGM logos with a blue background.
