Referenced By / West Side Story

Considering how iconic and influential the musical and 1961 film are, it's inevitable that it will get referenced from time to time in other popular media.

See Also: Finger-Snapping Street Gang (Codified by The Jets)

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Advertising

• In 2000, to promote their new pants line, the GAP store began a "Jeans vs. Khakis" campaign and put out several commercials based on key dance sequences in the film—"Mambo", "America", and "Cool".

Anime and Manga

• Jet Link (002) of Cyborg 009 was a gang member in New York City before being kidnapped and cyborged. The flashback to those days is very much a West Side Story shout-out, complete with dancing.
• Idol Densetsu Eriko: In the New York City arc, there's a bit where a male pop singer shows up on the fire escape outside Rei's apartment to woo her. He says it's just like West Side Story; she snarks that they're actually in Soho, and slams the window closed.
• In episode 34 of Jewelpet Sunshine, to celebrate a cultural festival, the students of Sunshine Academy perform a School Play called "Jewel Side Story" that is a reference to West Side Story, in this case with the gangster groups being named the Cats and the Dogs. And yes, they do the finger snapping as well, if you were wondering.
• An early episode of Pokémon: The Series had two Nidoran called Tony and Maria. Fittingly, they were in love, but their owners hated each other.
• Episode 9 of Sarazanmai has Reo dance home in excitement while shot for shot imitating a dance from the 1961 film. This doubles as an Actor Allusion, since Mamoru Miyano (who voices Reo) was set to play Tony in a Japanese production of West Side Story at the time.
• Soul Eater: In one of his many, many (probably made up) stories of his past, Excalibur relates his story that actually implies that he was Tony from West Side Story.

Film — Animated

• Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa: Alex is tricked into taking part in a battle. Thinking it's a dance battle, he dances to "Be Cool".

Film — Live-Action

• Anchorman spoofs West Side Story in the meetings with the rival news team and the huge anchorman battle scene.
• Bring It On: In It To Win It is a Whole-Plot Reference to WSS, to the extent that the two rival cheerleading groups are even called the Jets and the Sharks.
• Camp: A young actor performing in a Troubled Production of Romeo and Juliet forgets his lines and, panicking, starts reciting lines from West Side Story.
• The Killer (1989): The scene where Jeff first sees Sally at the bar while she's singing is an Homage to the scene in the movie when Tony and Maria first see each other across the dance hall floor.
• Sleeping with the Enemy: When Laura first sees Ben, he's hosing down the backyard while singing "When You're a Jet".
• Teen Beach Movie features two teenagers stuck in a movie called Wet Side Story, featuring a group of surfers and a group of bikers in a turf war.
• The Academy Award-winning short film West Bank Story is a musical about a romance between an Israeli man and a Palestinian woman who fall in love despite the pressure from their feuding fast-food restaurants.

Literature

• Discworld:
  • Unseen Academicals references this trope with its tale of warring football gangs, with the star-crossed lovers Trevor Likely and Juliet Stollop coming from opposing camps. A piece of musical theatre suspiciously similar to WSS is also referenced.
  • In an earlier Discworld example, there are a pair of noble Feuding Families called the Venturi and Selachii. Venturi is a term associated with jet engines and Selachii is the term biologists use for the shark family (The joke is that the Montague and Capulet equivalents are given names that reference the gangs in West Side Story).
• The Dresden Files: In Ghost Story Harry starts singing West Side Story lyrics to himself at one point, which he is unhappy about once he takes notice.
• In Evidence of Things Not Seen, James tells Sheriff Caldwell, "Back off, Officer Krupke. I mean, Sheriff Caldwell. Sorry, West Side Story."
• The first story in the collection Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd is titled "Once You're a Jedi, You're a Jedi All The Way" (punning on a West Side Story song), and is about the "forbidden" romance between a Star Trek fan and a Star Wars fan.
• In Our Dumb Century, the January 4, 1959 page has an article headlined "One Shark, One Jet Dead in Choreographed Street Fight." Officer Krupke was available for comment.
• Tony from The Pelican & After isn't allowed to watch West Side Story because it's "rather disturbing," even though he's fourteen years old.
• In Tricky Business, Frank, seeing the obvious hostility between Juan and Tark, says that he feels like he's "working with the Sharks and the Jets." Unfortunately, neither of the two gets the West Side Story reference, even when he explains it.

Live-Action TV

• The Drew Carey Show: One episode has one of the older bigots on Winfred-Louder's board of directors stir up racial tensions during a public speech where he openly admits that the store only hires certain ethnicities for certain jobs. As the Assistant Director of Human Resources, Drew is naturally forced to deal with it, but since the board refuses to address the issue in any meaningful way, like forcing the bigot to resign, Drew is reduced to putting on an "educational" play that's little more than a rip-off of West Side Story.
• The Glee episode "The First Time" features the school musical performance of West Side Story, as well as comparing this to Blaine's struggle to decide whether to be part of New Directions or the Warblers. The episodes "I Am Unicorn" and "Asian F", where the kids are auditioning for the musical, also feature Quinn and Mike's loyalties being tested. All three are reminiscent of the in-fighting and gang wars of WSS.
• The short-lived 1990-91 sitcom "Going Places" references the movie repeatedly in the episode "I was a Teenage Bride." Next-door neighbor Lindsay falls for Jack and David's little brother, Jay. Lindsay even quotes the song "Somewhere" at length. Which leads to a Seinfeldian Conversation of Jack and David trying to remember the lyrics.
  Kate: I think you two need to have a talk with your brother!
  Charlie: What for? We can look up the lyrics.
• One sketch from House Of Buggin' has the Sharks confronting a modern street gang. Their singing and dancing are no match for the other gang's guns.
• The Muppet Show:
  • A number from the Charles Aznavour episode features a girl singing "I Feel Pretty" as she uglifies herself for a date.
  • The Pearl Bailey episode ends with the jousting scene from Camelot cobbled together with songs from other musicals since Kermit couldn't secure the music rights. Miss Piggy sings "Stick With Your Own Kind" to one of the knights.
• In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Santa Claus", all three spectators start singing "Gee, Officer Krupke" when the movie shows three juvenile delinquents.
• Done via Actor Allusion in One Day at a Time (2017) where Rita Moreno’s character dresses up like something from this movie when starring in her grand-sons School Video on his Cuban heritage. In another episode when asked about her becoming an American Citizen, she answered ”I like to be in America”
• Saturday Night Live: The musical is parodied in one sketch where Norm Macdonald plays the leader of a gang called the Cobras, who are the enemies of the Panthers. Norm's character is the only one who doesn't realize he's in a musical.
  Cobra 1: You're a Cobra, boy. And don't you forget it. 'Cause when you're in trouble, you won't have to sweat it. You're a Cobra, boyyyyy...ya!
  [Cobra 1 goes back to the craps game while Cobra Leader stares in amazement]
  Cobra 1: All right so, ah, let's see...
  Cobra Leader: What the hell was that!?
  Cobra 1: What? What was what?
  Cobra Leader: You just sang!
• In an episode of Scrubs, JD describes the rivalry between surgeons and internists as like being in the movie, complete with one of his fantasies of the two groups of doctors sparring/dancing in this manner, as well as the heads of each department recreating the balcony scene.
• The West Wing: In the third season episode "H. Con 172", Sam is obsessed with a tell-all book a former staffer at the White House has written, even though the rest of the staff remember him as third-rate on the job, if they remember him at all (Sam has his own reasons for being obsessed that have nothing to do with the book). When C.J. points this out to Sam, as well as the fact the White House isn't going to dignify the book with much of a response, she starts out by singing, "Boy, boy, crazy boy/Keep cool, boy."
• Whose Line Is It Anyway?: In the original U.S. show, a game of Song Styles had Wayne Brady and the rest of the cast putting their own gang musical number, but instead of The Sharks, they were known as The Goats. This lead to Kathy Greenwood's infamous "Goat dance", which became a Running Gag for the rest of the episode.

Music

• "Almost Like Praying", a song written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and recorded by Artists for Puerto Rico as a fundraising effort in the wake of Hurricane Maria, utilizes lyrics from the song "Maria", including the title.
• The film adaptation served as the primary influence for the music videos for Michael Jackson's songs "Beat It" and "Bad".
• Momoiro Clover Z's Mirai Bowl video is a Homage to West Side Story.
• British progressive rock group The Nice were criticised in the USA for their version of the musical's hit number ''America". This was perceived as disrespectful, anti-American, etc. As this is exactly how the band intended their version to be taken, they were quite pleased with this.
• "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits directly references "Tonight":
  And there's a place for us
  Y'know, the movie song

Professional Wrestling

• World Wrestling Entertainment featured a spoof as part of their promotion of the 2005 Royal Rumble, with the Smackdown and Raw wrestlers accompanied to their brand's sides. The poster for the Rumble featured the wrestlers posing as the Jets and Sharks in front of West Side Story-esque backdrops.
• CM Punk, when asked how he felt about his handicap match with The Shield, sarcastically sang "I Feel Pretty".

Radio

• The Reduced Shakespeare Company Radio Show: William Shakespeare goes to America and gets "inspiration" for his plays from watching modern TV. His roommate points out that he ripped off the plot of West Side Story to write Romeo and Juliet.

Theatre

• Assassins has several in Sam Byck's first monologue (a recorded tape for Leonard Bernstein), first with him saying that if Bernstein can't listen to the tape during the day, he could listen to it "tonight", singing the word as it's sung in the song. He then goes on to praise the songs "Tonight" and "Maria", and ends the tape by angrily singing a few verses from "America".
• Urinetown has the song "Snuff That Girl", which parodies the singing and choreography of "Cool".

Video Games

• The Adventures of Willy Beamish briefly involves a run-in with a Frumpton gang called the Cripes, introduced snapping their fingers rhythmically. Their introduction to Willy directly references "The Jet Song".
  "We are the Cripes, we bust heads when we play, from our first cigarette to your last dyin' day!"

Webcomics

• Erfworld: Transylvitians dance-fighting with a parody of the Jet Song, in Book 1: Page 123.
• Kevin & Kell: Rudy's high school puts on 'West Habitat Story', which is basically the Funny Animal take on West Side Story. Rudy was initially cast as Bernardo, which made things really awkward as his girlfriend Fiona was cast as Maria. After Rudy got jealous of Edgar (who played Tony) kissing Fiona and slugged him, he was recast as Chino, a part which suited him better.

Web Original

• CollegeHumor had an online video in 2009 that went viral called "Web Site Story", which featured a Tony and Maria who met and fell in love using various social media networks.
• Spoofingly referenced in the youtube video "Let's Go See Shakespeare" where a couple of people ignorant to theater discuss going to a Shakespeare play.
  Him: Which play are you and your daughter going to?
  Her: It's the one that's based on West Side Story.
  Him: A Midsummer Night's Dream?
  Her: I think so.
• Sketch Side Story, a forbidden love affair between a Sketch Comedy girl and an Improv Comedy boy leads to a rumble.

Western Animation

• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: In "Party at Neutron's", Hugh sings lyrics to song from Ducks: The Musical, which is a spoof of "The Jet Song".
  When you're a duck, you're a duck all the way
  From the first time you quack to the last egg you lay
• American Dad!:
  • In "Surro-Gate", Greg and Terry do some WSS choreography to get Stan to leave their house.
  • In "Daddy Queerest," Stan and Greg sing "Maria" when they're invited to Bullock's cocktail party.
• Animaniacs:
  • The Goodfeathers segment "West Side Pigeons" is a direct spoof, with the Goodfeathers as the Jets and a flock of sparrows as the Sharks, with Squit falling in love with a sparrow girl named Carloota.
  • Another Goodfeathers episode, "Pigeon on the Roof" ends with a version of "Cool".
• The Codename: Kids Next Door episode "Operation L.O.V.E." is a Whole-Plot Reference to West Side Story, which the "school play" in question is very clearly based on.
• Family Guy:
  • "Chitty Chitty Death Bang", Peter explains that was in a gang in high school where he didn't fit in... because he couldn't dance.
  • "Saving Private Brian" has Brian and Stewie marching as they and the rest of the army troops sing that West Side Story is one of their favourite Broadway shows, ending in the group dancing and singing to "Mambo".
  • "Killer Queen" has Peter referencing having played Anita in a production at camp - the cutaway shows he doesn't know any of the lyrics in "America except the title.
• Phineas and Ferb: In the "Save Summer" special, the villains sing "OWCA's Goin' Down", a parody of the fight musical numbers in West Side Story. Everything from the opening overhead shots of the city with accompanying whistling, the group of Jets on a playground snapping their fingers, and the graffiti written on the road are all referenced in some form.
• An episode of Rugrats is entitled "Wash/Dry Story", where the babies have a musical showdown against the McNulty brothers at the laundromat. Teddy, the youngest of the McNulty brothers, falls in love with Angelica's Cynthia doll, which had stowed away in Charlotte's laundry when Charlotte sent Jonathan to the laundromat.
• The Simpsons:
  • In the episode "Moms I'd Like To Forget", Milhouse mentions WSS, specifically that "the Jets fought the Sharks". Bart's Imagine Spot on the subject involves aerial warfare between human and shark fighter jet pilots, and a shark being attacked by the New York Jets, all with the accompaniment to the "Jet Song" playing in the background.
  • In "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner", Homer sings about his love of food to the tune of "I Feel Pretty".
  • The episode "Lisa with an S" features a parody of "Tonight", sung by Lisa as she prepare to submit her audition to band camp, and by Homer and his friends as they prepare to play poker.
  • An online mini-short, titled "West Wing Story", is a parody of "America" performed by Donald Trump and "The Squad".^note Referring to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, four liberal U.S. Representatives with whom Trump has frequently locked horns.
  • In "The Old Man And The Key", when Abe, Jasper, and Old Jewish Man are at the Kwik-E-Mart, they get into a tense showdown with Los Souvenir Jacquitos, a group of elderly Latino men who wear souvenir jackets, parodying the one between the Jets and Sharks at Doc's drugstore, with a similar musical sting accompanying it.
  • In "This Little Wiggy", Lisa launches a model rocket with a warning that the electric chair in a long-defunct prison was still on, but it ends up in Mr. Burns's mansion, landing in his jacket pocket, prompting to say "Smithers, there's a rocket in my pocket!", to which Smithers says "You don't have to tell me, sir", paraphrasing both "Cool" and There's a Wocket in My Pocket!.
• Pops up with the rival gangs in Superjail!, the leaders of which eventually fall in love and get married.
• The Hanna-Barbera cartoon Top Cat is firmly rooted in the characters and setting of WSS. Officer Krupke from the musical inspired the character of Officer Dibble in the cartoon. The street gang on Krupke's patch, who bamboozle him in song, become the streetwise alley cat T.C. and his gang of street-talkin' Noo Yoik moggies. Who similarly run rings round the dim and ineffectual Dibble.

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