Referenced By / The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Works referencing The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

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Anime and Manga

• The announcer/narrator from Mobile Fighter G Gundam opens the first episode by saying (in English), "I would like to, if I may, to take you..." before switching to Japanese and saying, "No, let me start over."
• Emporio Ivankov from One Piece is clearly based on Frank.

Comic Books

• Dylan Dog has a film poster on the wall of his study/office/living room.
• Kingdom Come: Minor villains Goblin Lord and April Fool are clearly based on Riff Raff and Columbia.
• MAD did a satire of The Drew Carey Show complete with a parody of "The Time Warp", complete with flying props and audience call-backs.
• The fourth Rick and Morty trade paperback is called The Ricky Horror Peacock Show.

Films — Animation

• The Boss Baby: Family Business: When Tim and Ted are de-aged by a formula, their transformation is accompanied by "The Time Warp".

Films — Live-Action

• Director Alex Proyas said he based The Strangers from Dark City on Riff Raff. Richard O'Brien ended up playing one of them.
• Fame: Ralph, Bruno and Doris attend a midnight show complete with Audience Participation.
• Hocus Pocus: Max tells a police officer to tattoo his virginity status on his forehead, referencing a common ritual by shadow casts to virgins^note "Virgins" are first-timers to theatrical screenings.
• i am sam: Spicoli's lawyer is talking to him about testifying and keeping his testimony short and sweet...and he says "Short and sweet....Tim Curry played a sweet transvestite in 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show''..."
• Jawbreaker: "I made you, I can break you just as easily".
• Loser (2000): The protagonists walk by a line of people waiting to see Rocky Horror.
• Man on the Moon: When Andy is walking out of a club, you can see posters from the Balasco Production.
• Men in Black: The guy working in Frank's newspaper stand is obviously based on Riff Raff. Given the setting, he likely is an alien in disguise.
• Pulp Fiction has a character called Tony Rocky Horror.
• Serendipity: Sara has the Rocky lips on her shirt.
• Suicide Club: Word of God has admitted that Genesis was partly based on Frank.
• Tank Girl: The "Rain Lady" is wearing a yellow shirt with the lips on it.
• Urban Legends: Final Cut: A poster is hanging on a wall in the film studio.
• Valley Girl: A drive past a movie theatre shows people in line for Rocky Horror.
• Zoolander 2: Susan Sarandon made an uncredited cameo where she says "Touch-a, touch-a, touch me. I want to be dirty" to Hansel.

Literature

• Doctor Who New Adventures: The novel, First Frontier, a German-accented scientist called Doctor Von Scott comes to investigate a crashed UFO. He even refers to the Transmat as "something we ourselves have been working on for quite some time".
• Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd: The short story, It's Just a Jump to the Left by Libba Bray, focuses on two Rocky Horror fans.
• The Ozone Hotel: In his Foreword, R. K. Williams said the main villain, Lucy-Fur Quim was inspired by Frank N. Furter combined with the Great Tyrant, Darth Vader and Servalan.
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Charlie, Sam and Patrick sponsor weekly showings of Rocky Horror, act in the floor show and print a weekly magazine called Punk Rocky, all about RHPS updates and punk rock. Only the screenings extend to the film adaptation, where Patrick shadowcasts as Frank.
• Timmy Failure: One chapter of Sanitised For Your Protection is called "Let's Do The Timmy Warp Again".
• Ready Player One: The Metaverse has a Planet Transsexual where the protagonist and his girlfriend sing during a showing of the movie with their avatars changed to look like Eddie and Columbia.

Live-Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In "Band Candy", Buffy quotes "Let's do the Time Warp again" when she sees The Bronze full of adults.
• Cold Case: "Creatures of the Night" opens with characters going to see the movie in costume.
• The Drew Carey Show: "New York and Queens" features Drew and his friends go to see Rocky Horror at midnight, but it's been replaced with The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, leading to a drag-off in the street with Mimi, Mr. Wick and their Priscilla cronies.
• Glee devoted an entire episode, "The Rocky Horror Glee Show" to performing the film adaptation's songs.
• The Goldbergs: "A 100% True Story" has Barry becoming obsessed with the movie and hosting a Rocky Horror themed Halloween party. Barry Bostwick (Brad Majors) cameos as a college professor named Majors, who dislikes the movie and gets defensive when Barry calls Brad a doof.
• The Muppet Show: Performer Steve Whitmire named one of his characters Lips after the imagery of red lips used in the film's marketing.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000;
  • In the episode that parodies Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders, when Jonathan has been aged by magic, Servo comments "It's Riff Raff at home".
  • In the episode targeting The Time Travelers, the gang sing "Time Warp" when the characters talk about a warp in the space time continuum.
• That '70s Show: In "Too Old To Trick-Or-Treat, Too Young To Die", Fez dresses as Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
• Veronica Mars: In the second season episode "Ahoy Mateys!", Veronica and Mac track down the signal for Cap'n'Krunk's show, only to discover it's the house where Vice-Principal Clemmons lives. After a moment of shock, Veronica recovers and says, "I'm glad we caught you at home. Would you mind if we used your phone? We're both in a bit of a hurry."

Tabletop Games

• Magic: The Gathering: The card Time Walk the flavor text on the card says "Lets do it again!".

Music

• Elio e le Storie Tese's song "Balla coi barlafüs" is a parody of the Time Warp made for the "Mai Dire Gol" show. They even made a video that spoofs the film and includes characters from Mai Dire Gol among the Transylvanians.
• Rob Zombie titled his 2014 concert film The Zombie Horror Picture Show.

Professional Wrestling

• One of "Exotic" Adrian Street's songs is titled "Sweet Transvestite with a Broken Nose".

Theater

• Evil Dead: The Musical: One of the deadites singing "Do the Necronomicon" describes it as being like the Time Warp but better.

Trading Cards

• There was a Garbage Pail Kid called Rock E. Horror that looked like a fat, stubbly Frank.
  • The Revenge of the Horror-ible series had one called Cavorting Columbia which shows Columbia tap-dancing Frank's body into a pile of gore while Riff Raff and Magenta stand in the background.

Video Games

• Crash Tag Team Racing: One of Dr. Cortex's lines when clashing with another kart is "Can you sense the antici...pation?"
• Left 4 Dead 2's Last Stand update includes an achievement entitled "Rocky Horror Picture Throw".
• Mario Party 8: During Bowser's Warped Orbit, if a player lands on a Reversal Space, Bowser mentions doing "the crime warp".
• No More Heroes: Travis has a t-shirt with the famous lips on it.
• World of Warcraft: One of the bonus NPCs that can spawn in the Throne of Thunder raid is an earth elemental called the Rocky Horror.

Visual Novels

• Date Warp: The whole premise borrows heavily from Rocky Horror. It starts with a couple called Janet and Bradley's car breaking down and them going to a mysterious mansion to ask for help.

Web Comics

• In the Erfworld story, Love is A Battlefield, Jillian's outfit at the start is the same as Columbia's during the Time Warp.

Web Original

• James Rolfe gave it a short review, admitting that he doesn't really get the movie but loves the atmosphere at public showings.
• "Sweet Transvestite" tied seventh on The Nostalgia Critic's Top 11 Villain Song alongside "Dentist!" from Little Shop of Horrors.
  • In his review of Masters of the Universe, he complains that the first team of henchmen that Skeletor sends to Earth look like the ThunderCats on their way to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
  • In the Dungeons & Dragons (2000) review, Critic points out Richard O'Brien as Riff Raff and he plays a short clip of "Time Warp".
  • In his review of Ferngully The Last Rainforest with the Nostalgia Chick, Critic sings a parody of "Sweet Transvestite" alluding to the fact that the main villain is voiced by Tim Curry... and then, Chick comes in playing an accordion, leading to a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment.
  • A brief snippet of "Sweet Transvestite" plays during his review of It (1990) after the scene when Pennywise appears in a book.

Western Animation

• Bob's Burgers:
  • In "Vampire Disco Death Dance", Bob takes Tina to see the titular movie, which, like Rocky Horror, is a horror-themed musical with audience participation encouraged. Bob and Tina even go dressed as characters from the movie.
  • A Burger of the Day in "So You Stink You Can Dance" is called the "Guac-y Horror Picture Show" burger.
• Family Guy: "Dammit Janet" is named after the song of the same name. In the episode, Stewie falls in love with a girl called Janet who loses interest in him and goes after a boy called Brad.
• Harvey Street Kids: A first season episode is titled "Raccoon Hoarder Picture Show".
• Phineas and Ferb has a moment where Lawrence Fletcher, voiced by Riff-Raff's Richard O'Brien, complains about a horror movie he's watching on TV, asking "Where's the rock and roll musical numbers?"
  • Another episode sees Lawrence dress up in what is basically Riff-Raff's space commander outfit. He notes that he feels oddly comfortable in these clothes.
  • Then in "Night of the Living Pharmacists", Candace, Vanessa, Isabella, Phineas and Ferb (sorta) recreate the "Janet! Dr. Scott! Rocky! Brad!" gag.
• Regular Show: "Meat Your Maker" has Tim Curry voicing an anthropomorphic hot dog. ^note You're a hotdog but you'd better not try to hurt her, Frank Furter.
• Rocko's Modern Life: In "I Have No Son!", some yes-men tell Ralph Bighead "It's a credit of your genius!" "A triumph of your will!" "It's... okay!"
• The Simpsons:
  • "A Star Is Burns": Dr. Hibbert shows up at the Springfield Film Festival dressed in lingerie and says "I thought they were playing The Rocky Horror Picture Show tonight".
  • "Halloween of Horror": Characters perform a parody of "The Time Warp".
• The Venture Bros.: "Return to Spider Skull Island" starts with the family returning from a showing while dressed as the characters.

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