Zorro is a franchise famous in many incarnations: novels, comic strips, plays, live-action TV series, animated series and films. Being so iconic and popular he was been referenced countless times in other media, usually someone appearing in Zorro's outfit or mimicking the Zorro Mark with his sword on somebody's shirt.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Corny Snaps was a Kellogg's breakfast cereal created in 1975 featuring Snappy the Turtle, a Zorro-like character, with mask, sword and steed, who delivered his corny-oats "S" shaped cereal to the masses, while carving his trademark "S" as he went.
- A commercial for Duracell batteries from the early 90's featured a masked crime fighter known as "Dorro", who is powered by the newer Duracell battery. After fighting a guard powered by the older Duracell battery, Dorro carves a "D" into a cantaloupe.
Anime & Manga
- Naganegiman from Anpanman, who is a parody of Zorro, slashes an "N" on Baikinman's UFO and robots, which will cause them to short out and break their casing, leaving only the machine components.
Comic Books
- Asterix: In Caesar's Gift, Asterix has a sword duel with a Roman and slashes a Z-sign on his shirt, causing the bulbous-nosed Roman to look completely surprised.
- Tintin: Zorro can be seen among many other fictional characters in the carnival celebrating crowd of Tintin & The Picaros.
- Suske en Wiske: In De Raap van Rubens (Rubens' pupil) Lambik travels back in time to meet Peter Paul Rubens, the famous 17th century painter. He decides to have a duel with painter Anthony Van Dyck where they fight with use of their paint brushes. Lambik then paints a Z on Van Dyck's bare chest and says: You don't know him [Zorro], do you? You might learn about him in school, when you're older!
- In The Dark Knight Strikes Again Batman uses the sharp edge of a batarang to carve a Zorro-style Z on Lex Luthor's face. In fact, in several incarnations, Batman is inspired by Zorro in-universe and the movie he saw the night his parents died was The Mark of Zorro. Many elements, like the Batcave and Bruce Wayne acting like an idiot in public out of costume also were inspired by Zorro.
- A short Lucky Luke story features a Zorro parody, whose mark is an "X" instead of a "Z" because he can't read or write.
Films — Animation
- Puss from Shrek and Puss in Boots (2011). He's even voiced by Antonio Banderas.
Films — Live-Action
- Iron Monkey has a little-seen, obscure sequel, simply named Iron Monkey 2. While the original film's titular character runs on Just Like Robin Hood, the sequel features the Iron Monkey's descendant who's more like Zorro, Badass Cape, Calling Card at scenes of his crimes, and leading a dual-identity as a wealthy businessman.
- Jerry Maguire: Rod tells Jerry (his agent) that because he only has a limited time to play professional football and provide for his family, he's going to get Jerry to "show me the money" if he has to ride Jerry's ass like Zorro.
- Johnny demonstrates his newly developed skill with a sword by slicing the Z into his mentor Zatch's shirt in Surf Ninjas.
Gamebooks
- La Saga du Prêtre Jean: In Book 5, Prester John can spot a Zorro-lookalike performing some swashbuckling feats during the Bar Brawl.
Live-Action TV
- Eureka: In a dream sequence, Zorro-style hero Douglas Fargo slices an "F" into the dress of fair maiden Jo Lupo.
- The 3rd series of UK comedy sketch show Alexei Sayles Stuff had a title sequence that was a parody of Zorro ("This fat renegade carves a 'B' with his blade, a 'B' that stands for 'Bastard'")
- M*A*S*H: In the fifth season episode "The Colonel's Horse", before Col. Potter goes on a second honeymoon to Tokyo, he tells Hawkeye that Margaret requested him to operate on her appendix if it ruptures while Potter is away. Hawkeye pulls up an imaginary sword, thrusts in the air, and says, "Zorro will leave his mark."
- In the Shining Time Station episode, "Scare Dares", Tito Swing dresses up as Zorro for Halloween.
- In a few episodes of Sesame Street, Luis appears as Señor Zero, a parody of Zorro.
- Wheel of Fortune: A 1994 episode has ZORRO as a Bonus Round puzzle which the contestant fails to solve. Pat Sajak sings the 1957 theme song, holds the prize envelope like a sword and writes a "Z" in the air with it.
Music
- French singer Henri Salvador's novelty song "Zorro est arrivé" (1964) is an adaptation of "Along Came Jones" by The Coasters, but since this hero wasn't as well-known in France, Salvador choose Zorro instead.
- Alice Cooper's 1982 album Zipper Catches Skin includes the song "Zorro's Ascent" which is about Zorro facing his death.
Tabletop Games
- Amongst the many western tropes in the "Backwoods Brindisi" setting of Discworld Roleplaying Game is a White Sheep of the Varozag clan, who spends his time running around in an all-black outfit and mask, calling himself El Aguila del Cubo. He's not completely incompetent, but he's too in love with the idea of being a dashing masked hero to be particularly effective.
Video Games
- There Is No Game: When the narrator is trying to speak Spanish, he says "Señor Zorro."
- In Persona 5, Morgana's Persona is Zorro. It even slashes a "Z" in the air in its first appearance.
- The main cast of Codename STEAM are all characters from classic literature — with one exception, a Dashing Hispanic woman known as the Fox. Based on her ethnicity and alias, plus the fact that she acts Just Like Robin Hood, she appears to be a Gender Flip of Zorro; and an in-game bio hints that she may be his daughter.
- Sonic the Hedgehog: In most incarnations, Tails the fox has a biplane called the Tornado, after Zorro's horse.
Western Animation
- Courage the Cowardly Dog: In "Cowboy Courage", Courage dreams of being a sheriff in the Old West. Eustace plays a bandit named The Whip who was quite proficient with his weapon, even leaving a Zorro-style "W" on the clothing of his victims.
- Duck Dodgers: In "The Mark of Xero", Dodgers is assigned as Galactic Protectorate ambassador to a planet that resembles 18th century California, and he dons the guise of "Xero" to free the peasantry.
- Family Guy: A cutaway from "Long John Peter" shows what happened when Disney cast Michael J. Fox in a Zorro remake. The "Z" marker is rendered as an unrecognizable scribble, referencing Fox's famous struggle with Parkinson's disease.
- Futurama: In "Why Must I be a Crustacean in Love?", Dr. Zoidberg carves a "Z" on Fry's shirt, and then adds "Dr." above it.
- The Looney Tunes Show: In the Merrie Melodies segment "Queso Bandito", Speedy Gonzales leaves "S" behind after his cheese thefts.
- Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain: In "The Mask of Braino", The Brain becomes a masked crime fighter named "Braino".
- Rocky and Bullwinkle: One story arc, titled "The Mark of Zero", features a mysterious rider whose trademark is stamping the numeral 0 in unexpected places.
- The Simpsons:
- The episode "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)" starts off with The Simpsons seeing a parody of The Mask of Zorro called The Poke of Zorro. In it, Zorro fights The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, unseen ninjas and challenges The Scarlet Pimpernel to a duel. Inspired by Zorro, Homer defends Marge, challenging Snake to a duel by slapping him with a glove. Victorious, Homer marks Marge's dress with an "H" scrawled out in ketchup.
- The Treehouse of Horror segment "I've Grown a Costume on Your Face" features Nelson Muntz wearing what he claims to be a Lone Ranger mask. When that episode was dubbed for Brazilian audiences, the claim was changed from "Lone Ranger" to "Zorro".
- The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!: The episode "The Mark of Zero" is a parody of the Zorro stories.
- Quick Draw McGraw's "El Kabong" persona is a direct parody of the 1957 series. Instead of a sword, however, he wields a guitar he calls his "kabonger" that he uses to clobber his opponents on the head.
- Walt Disney Presents: In "This Is Your Life, Donald Duck", Donald's nephews dress as Zorro (and leave a "Z" on their uncle's shirt) to coerce him into going to the TV station to appear as a guest on Jiminy Cricket's show.
Real Life
- Bill Bryson has mentioned being inspired to try and learn this skill by the Zorro serials he watched as a kid. He and a friend tried to imitate it with a steak knife but gave up after they kept cutting each other's chests. (This was before the days of Don't Try This at Home messages.)
