Referenced By / The X-Files

Fan Works

• From Keijo Note Dark Yagami and the Haunted Chest by D'arkYagam'i:
  Nears ghost screeched and he also blasted out the window and double died and became two gosts.
  AND THAT'S WHEN THE STORY CAN REALLY START!
  IMAGINE THE XFILES SONG HERE
  DOODLYDOODLYDOODLYDOO
  DOODOODOODOODOODOO
  AND THE TITLE FLYS IN ALL
  DARK
  YAGAMI
  AND
  THE
  HAUNTED
  CHESTS!
• Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space. A popular weekly serial The Y-Not Files has two stalwart G-Men seeking to debunk the lunatic conspiracy theories spread by the evil Marijuana-Smoking Man.

Film

• In The Faculty, Casey theorizes that aliens are real and they're attacking their school. In other words, "The X-Files is right." Additionally, Gillian Anderson turned down an offer to play the principal, and hilariously in hindsight, the coach is Robert Patrick.
• In Independence Day, a television customer service representative talking to a customer who's angry about service disruptions tries to calm them by saying that he likes The X-Files too.

Literature

• In Odd Thomas, Odd's girlfriend Stormy calls him Mulder when she thinks he's being overprotective. He only calls her Scully if he's willing to get smacked for it.
• In Girlfriend In A Coma, Richard and his friends wind up working on an unnamed television show that's obviously that world's version of The X-Files.
• In the Goosebumps book Return to Horrorland, Margo Strange is directly compared to Scully.
• In the 14th Animorphs book when Marco, Rachel and Cassie get busted sneaking into an Area-51 type installation, they give their names as Fox Mulder, Dana Scully and Cindy Crawford. Somehow, the arresting officer doesn't get either reference and later gets odd looks at an amusement park when he claims to be looking for the same.
• In Johnny and the Bomb Johnny thinks The Men in Black say "The truth is out there" (which is kind of the wrong way round, but he's under a lot of stress and probably only knows the series second-hand).
• A parody of conspiracy theories in Hogfather concludes "The truth is out there, but the lies are in your head".
• In The Tuning Station, Ted and Chris visit Chris's past self, who is watching The X-Files with his roommate.
• Whateley Universe: FBI Agents Dinah Scolaidhe and Fennec Miller, and their boss, Wallace Tanner.

Live-Action TV

• Castle did a whole episode to homage The X-Files. Castle whistles the theme song, Becket is called Scully, they become entangled in a government project, and the villain is called the cigarette-smoking man.
• Bones: When Bones and Booth investigate a weird case, the theme songs starts playing... Too-doo-dooo-DOOO-dooo... Turns out it's the victims mobile phone.
• Home Improvement: Jill and Tim played Mulder and Scully once.
• Supernatural had an episode where the Monster of the Week originally appeared to be aliens, for which they changed the title sequence to resemble that of The X-Files.
• Breaking Bad has an episode titled Cancer Man. Vince Gilligan, creator for the series, was a frequent writer on The X-Files, which has a character called the Smoking Man. Cigarettes give cancer.
• Crusade had an entire episode, "Visitors From Down the Street", devoted to parodying The X-Files, via the introduction of a conspiracy theory-themed Planet of Hats.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In the episode "The Pack", an exasperate Buffy tells her friends "I cannot believe that you, of all people, are trying to Scully me.".
• Once a Thief: the episode "The Director Files" (Season 1) is a spoof of The X-Files made in part because both shows were being produced in British Columbia, Canada at the same time and often shared filming locations. Once A Thief's "Director" character is used as a parody of Agent Scully.
• Series/Goosebumps(1995): in the episode "Go Eat Worms", a little girl proudly announces her involvement in the school science fair. An older boy jokingly mocks her, asking her if she's going to "use dolls to act out a story from The X-Files" (the girl reveals that her science project is actually about the life cycle of a robin).

Music

• The band Eve 6 took their name from the episode "Eve".
• The Catatonia song "Mulder and Scully".
• One of the many pop-culture references in the Barenaked Ladies song "One Week" is "Watching X-Files with no lights on"
• Bloodhound Gang suggests they "do it doggy style, so we can both watch X-Files" in their song "The Bad Touch."
• Bree Sharp's hit song "David Duchovny" about a fangirl with Celeb Crush on David Duchovny and invoked Perverse Sexual Lust to "secret agent man" Mulder. She got those two all confused and she mixes the show with reality.

Professional Wrestling

• At the start of the Beyond Treasure Hunt semifinal match between "The Galaxy's Greatest Alien" Kris Statlander and Jordynne Grace, one of the commentators said "I want to believe" and the other said, "OK, Mulder."
• At WWF In Your House 17: Ground Zero, September 9, 1997, "The Loose Cannon" Brian Pillman defeated Goldust in an Indecent Proposal match, meaning he got Goldust's valet (and then-Real Life wife) Marlena for 30 days.^note This would be roughly the length of time he had left to live, since he died on October 5th, the date of the Badd Blood PPV. Had Goldust won, Pillman would have had to leave the WWF forever. Pillman's death meant that both stipulations were fulfilled, just not in a way anyone intended or expected. During this time, Pillman showed videos on WWE Raw of himself and Marlena titled "Pillman's XXX Files."

Radio

• The 1990's parody series The X-Fools, starring Agents Smolder and Sulky, along with Assistant Director Skinhead, Sore Throat ("our Mysterious Informant"), Dancer Man and the Cigarette-Sucking Woman.

Tabletop Games

• An X-Files type show exists in the world of GURPS Technomancer, in which Cat Morrigan and Dara Skuld investigate links between the government's stealth dragons and The Fair Folk.
• The second "Gangsters of the Underdark" spoof article in Dragon introduced two members of Sir Eliot of Kness's Forthright Band of Investigators named Vanyard the Fox and Danna the Skull, as well as vague mention of a pipeweed-smoking man.
• A Pyramid article for TOON called "The X-Fools" introduced TBI Agents Fax Muledeer and Dana Screwy, the Lone Punmen, and the Bubblegum-Chewing Man. The spoof is out there...

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: Completing the Freeway 42 area following a supernatural revelation earns the achievement "The truth is out there".
• The Darkside Detective:
  • The detective protagonist's boss is a red-haired woman named Scully who doesn't share his interest in supernatural phenomena.
  • His sidekick Dooley owns a guitar with "The Truth Is Around Here Somewhere" written on it, and a cheap knock-off edition of Mulder's favorite poster which reads "I Want To Be Leaves".
• In Stay Tooned!, the channel surfing portion at the beginning of the game has a promo for The XXX Files, with the tagline, "The naked truth is out there.".
• Phantom Doctrine: You can find a document in which a spook suggests that "our friends in Hollywood" make a TV show about an agent who investigate ghosts and aliens and conspiracies. Plots would include distorted versions of real conspiracies, so that if investigators uncover those, people will accuse them of getting their ideas from TV.
• Mass Effect: Just like the Cigarette Smoking Man, the Illusive Man is an immensely powerful, elderly, cigarette-smoking antagonist who alternatively helps and hinders the protagonists with his massive conspiratorial organization that seeks to ensure humanity's survival no matter the cost.

Webcomics

• Agents Wolf and Cranium, the two government agents in El Goonish Shive who are highly skilled at hushing up aliens and magic, and completely inept at hushing up their relationship, are a pastiche of Mulder and Scully.

Web Video

• One riddle on 7-Second Riddles involves a man named Mulder and a woman named Scully.

Western Animation

• Animaniacs (2020) referenced the show during their song about reboots. Dot even says that David Duchovny is a "real snack".
• Ben 10: Phil Billings (voiced by Robert Patrick) was an agent for the Plumbers, a secret government organization that investigates and deals with alien threats.
  • In Ben 10: Ultimate Alien episode "The Widening Gyre", there's Agent Locke and Agent Bryson, who are obvious expys of Scully and Mulder. One of them also says "I want to believe."
  • Ben 10: Omniverse: Zack Saturday's room has a poster of a UFO on it with the caption "BELIEVE".
• Big City Greens: In the episode "Bill-iever", there's this line; "The truth isn't down here. The truth is up there."
• Gravity Falls: The show's creator Alex Hirsch was a huge fan of The X-Files and served as an inspiration for the show.
  • "Trust no one." is the show's Arc Words.
  • The phone calls from Grunkle Stan in the Cipher Hunt ARG had the X-Files theme playing in the background.
• ReBoot: The episode "Trust No One" kicks off the show's own myth arc and features binomes Fax Modem and Data Nully, the latter voiced by Gillian Anderson herself.
• The Simpsons: The episode "The Springfield Files" is an homage to and Affectionate Parody of the X-Files craze.
• Had it not been for its cancellation, Star Wars: The Clone Wars would have had an X-Files-esque episode about the Yuuzhan Vong abducting Jedi.
• Eek! The Cat: Mulder and Scully appeared in one episode.
• Oh Yeah! Cartoons: The short The F-Tales is a parody of the show that takes place in a fairy-tale setting.
  The sky is falling.
• Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "Aliens Among Us" has Velma's mother (who turns out to be a huge believer in aliens) use Mulder's quote "When convention and science offer us no answers, might we not finally turn to the fantastic as a plausibility?" while trying to convince her skeptic daughter of aliens. Also, her room has a poster of a rocket with the caption "BELIEVE IT!", tape in the shape of an X over her window, and pencils in the ceiling above her desk.

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