Amazing references to Scanners, a cult classic
From one of my Twitter posts …
“Watched Scanners last night. Saw the guy’s head explode–the same referenced in Wayne’s World 2. Very dumb show.”
13 minutes ago from twitterrific
BradBaldwin
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I didn’t realize when I wrote this that there was so much popular culture associated with Scanners. The information below is a copy of what is listed by Wikipedia:
- The 1976–1984 sketch-comedy series SCTV included a recurring sketch titled Farm Film Report in which Big Jim McBob (Joe Flaherty) and Billy Sol Hurok (John Candy) satirized conventional film review programs, using a stereotypical redneck slant. Consistently, their favorite film was Scanners, with all other films compared to it and found wanting. The sketch routinely closed with the salute to the audience: “May the Good Lord watch over you, and blow ya up real soon!”
- In the 1992 movie Wayne’s World, at one point Garth freezes while on TV, prompting an onlooker to comment, “Ever see that scene in Scanners when that dude’s head blew up?”
- In a 1993 episode, 511-“Gunslinger”, of the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000, Dr. Clayton Forrester offers “The Scanner Planner” (which, of course, deals with blowing up people’s heads a la Daryl Revok) as his end of the episode’s “invention exchange”. Dr. Forrester then proceeds to use the lessons taught in “The Scanner Planner” to blow up first Tom Servo‘s head, and then (by the end of the episode) TV’s Frank‘s head. The cover of the planner features the iconic image of Michael Ironside as Daryl Revok, as he is shown during the film’s climactic “Scanner battle”.
- The Norwegian ambient artist Biosphere used some samples from the movie in the song ‘Decryption’ of the 1994 album Patashnik.
- In the 1995 movie Tommy Boy, Richard (David Spade) states “Did anyone see Scanners?” when he realizes the orders have been cancelled.
- A 1996 episode of Saturday Night Live featured a sketch titled “Jimmy Tango’s Fat Busters”. Jim Carrey poses as “Jimmy Tango”, a formerly obese man who lost weight through the use of crystal meth and a vibrating heat bead suit. Jimmy interviews members of the crowd, some of which have already started using his “program”. One member (played by Will Ferrell) claims to be the devil, at which point Jimmy baits him into fighting with the phrase “talk is cheap, scan me” and the two begin having a scanner battle, ending with Ferrell bleeding from the scalp and begging Jimmy to stop.
- Rapper Phoenix Orion‘s 1998 album, Zimulated Experiencez, included a song titled Scanners.
- On “Weird Al” Yankovic‘s 2003 Poodle Hat album, the song Couch Potato mentions Scanners by name.
- Scanners was referenced in the The Big Bang Theory episode “The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization”, whereby the characters of Sheldon and Penny attempt, unsuccessfully, to make people’s heads explode like in the film.
- The English band The Future Sound Of London used some samples from the movie in their songs.
- In the South Park episode called “Canada On Strike“, Tay Zonday‘s head exploded just like in this movie.
- The Daily Show frequently uses the exploding head scene to illustrate “mind blowing” news.
- In an episode of Family Guy, Peter Griffin eats half a Popsicle in one bite and his head explodes in the same way as the famous scene.