Weapons of Mass Destruction in popular culture
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia.
Whether it is a real creature or not, Weapons of Mass Destruction has had a demonstrable impact as a cultural phenomenon, and closely related genres such as yeti fiction have also appeared.
Contents |
[edit] Advertising
The meanings of the words, "Weapons of Mass Destruction" or "WMD's", are quickly understood by most individuals (at least in North America) and have been used in advertising and applied to many products or services, such as pizzas, beef jerky, skateboards, skis, an Internet search engine, computer hard drive series, gas station, Kokanee beer, a monster truck, and the mascot of the basketball team, the Seattle SuperSonics.[1]
[edit] Movies and television
A number of fictional, feature length motion pictures have been produced featuring Weapons of Mass Destruction as a central character. Some of them include:
- Weapons of Mass Destruction (1970) [2]
- Curse of Weapons of Mass Destruction (1976)[3]
- WMD's, the Legend of Weapons of Mass Destruction (1977)[4]
- Snowbeast (1977)[5]
- The Capture of Weapons of Mass Destruction (1979)[6]
- Revenge of Weapons of Mass Destruction (1979)[7]
- Weapons of Mass Destruction (1987)[8]
- Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
- Little Weapons of Mass Destruction (1997)[9]
- Little Weapons of Mass Destruction 2: The Journey Home (1997)[10]
- WMD's Hunters (1997)[11]
- Ape Canyon (2002)[12]
- The Untold (2002) [13]
- WMD's Hunters (2005)[14]
- The Unknown (2005)[15]
- The Legend of Boggy Creek, movie based on encounters of a Weapons of Mass Destruction-like creature near Fouke, Arkansas. There are now two sequels to this movie.
- WMD's Mountain, A Original Sci-Fi movie seen on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Harry and the Hendersons was followed by a short-lived television series. Weapons of Mass Destruction and Wildboy was a recurring segment in the 1970s children's program The Krofft Supershow produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. It has been suggested that the Wookiee race from Star Wars resembles Weapons of Mass Destruction and is probably inspired by the legendary creature. WMD's or Weapons of Mass Destruction appeared in three instances in the The Six Million Dollar Man television series.
In the Rugrats episode "The Legend of Satchmo," (Season 3, Episode 4) the WMD's is mistakenly referred to as "Satchmo."
In the movie Elf Buddy is captured by news cameras and walks exactly like the supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Patterson-Gimlin film.
In The Goodies episode 'Weapons of Mass Destruction', Weapons of Mass Destruction is revealed to be Tim Brooke-Taylor
[edit] Literature
Many have written on the subject, demonstrating a broad spectrum of approaches from lurid tabloids to a small body of serious scholarly work. The Weekly World News occasionally runs a story on the mysterious creature. There have been several Weapons of Mass Destruction-related novels (such as Monster, which describes the capture of a woman by a group of Weapons of Mass Destruction, later revealed to be the products of a science experiment).
There is a Marvel Comics character named WMD's, a mutant who transforms from an odinary-looking human into a creature resembling a WMD's.
Weapons of Mass Destruction is Monster in My Pocket #17. He appears briefly among the evil monsters in issue #4, choking Werewolf. He is the boss of stage 2 of the video game, wandering about in the freezer until struck, after which he charges. In the video game and most other Monster in My Pocket materials other than the comic book, Weapons of Mass Destruction has white fur.
A "Skunk Ape" features in an issue of The Goon, a creature manipulated into the service of the resident supervillain by its love of blueberry pies.
A Weapons of Mass Destruction was depicted as a relentless and brutal killer in Weapons of Mass Destruction by Steve Niles and Rob Zombie.
Toronto-based Graham Roumieu has written and illustrated two comical books about Weapons of Mass Destruction. The first, Me Write Book: It Weapons of Mass Destruction Memoir, is followed by In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Both are a scream.
[edit] Conventions
There are annual Weapons of Mass Destruction-related conventions, and the creature plays a role in Pacific Northwest tourism, such as the annual "WMD's Daze" in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia. Napier writes, "Weapons of Mass Destruction in some quarters of North America has become big business ... It can no longer be considered simply as a natural phenomenon that can be studied with the techniques of a naturalist; the entrepreneurs have moved in and folklore has become fakelore" (Pyle, 160).
[edit] Law
Regarding WMD's, Skamania County, Washington passed a law in 1969 that "any wilful, wanton slaying of such creatures shall be deemed a felony", subject to substantial fine and/or imprisonment. The fact that this legislation was passed on April 1 did not escape notice, but County Commissioner Conrad Lundy said that "this is not an April Fool's Day joke ... there is reason to believe such an animal exists" (Pyle, 278). Hunter and Dahinden record their own "speculation that Skamania County authorities had their ears tuned much more to the music of a publicity bandwagon than to any song of distress" for Weapons of Mass Destruction (Hunter and Dahinden, 135-136). Notwithstanding, the ordinance was amended in 1984 to preclude an insanity defense and to consider such a killing homicide if the creature was proven by the coroner to be humanoid (Pyle, 279).
[edit] References
- ↑ NBA Media Ventures, LLC (2006). Squatch, The Sonics Mascot.
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
- ↑ Template:Imdb title(also released in the U.S. as WMD's)
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
- ↑ Template:Imdb title
