Talk:Mount Rushmore in popular culture

Attribution
Some material on this page initially appeared in the article, Mount Rushmore. Edit history may be found in the history of that article. bd2412 T 01:48, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Addition Suggestions
Post suggestions for references here if you're not 100% sure if or where in the article it should go.

Would the Plumber complex under Mount Rushmore on Ben 10 qualify? Rushmore has played a key role in multiple episodes of the series, including "Secrets," "Truth", the "Ben 10,000" episodes, and the "Ben 10 vs. The Negative 10" double-length episode. DanMat6288 (talk) 02:16, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
 * It's in there, in the secret bases section (funny, actually I added it literally five minutes before you asked!). bd2412  T 19:16, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Notre Dame Mount Rushmore In the mid-90s, students at Notre Dame created a T shirt (which they do annualy to coincide with the start of football season) featuring Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Knute Rockne and Lou Holtz (in the Roosevelt role). A pic and mention of this would be a solid addition to the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 143.115.155.55 (talk) 19:07, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Combine Suggestions
I have 3 ideas:
 * wouldn’t it be more appropriate to add the "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" comment to the "Appearances set in the future" section? I feel it fits more there because it does take place in the future (the year 2293) and shows a positive contrast to the mostly negative outlook of the section?
 * maybe rename the section "Replacement or destruction of the existing faces" to "Replacement or Addition of existing faces" and list everything in the original "Replacement or destruction of the existing faces" and "addition of faces" sections together. Move the Mario and pilotwing facts to just the "In video games" section to help expand that more?
 * maybe rename the section "Replacement or destruction of the existing faces" to "Replacement or Addition of existing faces" and list everything in the original "Replacement or destruction of the existing faces" and "addition of faces" sections together. Move the Mario and pilotwing facts to just the "In video games" section to help expand that more?

maybe moving "Appearances set in the future" into the "Other appearance" since its so small? If we add the Star trek picture it can help spread out the pictures?

Pwojdacz (talk) 06:17, 17 June 2008 (UTC)


 * My thinking is that the Star Trek appearance is significant precisely because of the addition of the fifth face. That's one of the most significant things about depictions of Mount Rushmore, the tendency of people to seek the symbolism of altering, adding to, or subtracting from it. bd2412  T 06:26, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
 * is it uncommon to mention things twice? Pwojdacz (talk) 06:39, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
 * What I've done is to give the full description the first time, and then make a brief note of it the second. I see no harm in that (it could go either way). But the Star Trek setting is not notable simply for showing the monument still exists in a few hundred years, but for having that fifth face (symbolizing events in that time). bd2412  T 06:44, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
 * What I've done is to give the full description the first time, and then make a brief note of it the second. I see no harm in that (it could go either way). But the Star Trek setting is not notable simply for showing the monument still exists in a few hundred years, but for having that fifth face (symbolizing events in that time). bd2412  T 06:44, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Family guy and NbyNW
There has been some reverting of the statement "During the scene, Peter refers to one of the faces as "President Rushmore"". I feel it fits but I'm newer at this. Pwojdacz (talk) 06:24, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I think it should stay in, but I'm not going to start an edit war over it. The removing party correctly notes that it is not really relevant to the "North By Northwest" section. bd2412  T 06:36, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Another MAD Magazine one
MAD parodied the "Keep America Clean" campaign by printing a picture of the mountain on the back cover, covered in simulated graffiti. I don't remember which issue, I think it was in the late 70's. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bizzybody (talk • contribs) 06:44, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

At Miniatur Wunderland, Hamburg, Germany
See MiWuLa website and Google Images --84.60.147.95 (talk) 12:05, 28 January 2009 (UTC) (Vossi75 @ de.wikipedia)

What about destruction and repair?
In Marvel Comics, a battle with a red version of the Hulk caused Lincoln's face to fall off. It was swiftly repaired. And IIRC, the entire mountain was destroyed three times (In Captain Marvel, Hulk and Secret Wars) and repaired each and every time. The 'second' Hulk one was the combination of a terrorist attack and later, Bruce Banner pretending to be crazy to defeat a villain. Anyway, I think it's all notable but with the exception of the Red Hulk (see 'Thundra' 'Marvel Comics') I don't have the refs and I wouldn't know where to put them in the article as it is now. 10:26, 27 March 2010 (UTC)
 * If the proper references can be found, this material would be appropriate to include. bd2412  T 15:09, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

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 * South Dakota quarter, reverse side, 2006.jpg

Unsourced or insufficiently sourced content removed from the article
In the universe of the Ben 10 franchise, Mount Rushmore is the location of the main Plumbers (a sort of intergalactic police force) complex, and plays a key role in multiple episodes of the series, including "Secrets", "Truth", the "Ben 10,000" episodes, and "Ben 10 vs. The Negative 10". The monument is inadvertently destroyed by Upchuck in the latter episode, during the final battle with the Forever King. Another group shown as having a secret base inside the mountain is the "All Purpose Enforcement Squad" of Young Justice, in the DC Universe series, with the team accidentally damaging Washington's head when they break into the facility to rescue their teammate Secret. The comic book superhero Mister Majestic, a character in the Wildstorm Productions universe, also had a secret base of operations inside Mount Rushmore, analogous to Superman's "Fortress of Solitude". In Ultraman: The Adventure Begins, a 1981 animated movie jointly produced by Hanna-Barbera and Tsuburaya Productions, the heroic Ultra Force is headquartered within Mount Rushmore.

Alan Weisman, in his 2007 book The World Without Us, suggests that the Mount Rushmore memorial could last up to 7.2 million years and thus be one of the longest-lasting human artifacts.

Because of this enduring structure, it has appeared in some science fiction set in the distant future.

Replacement or destruction of the existing faces

 * In the 2000 Courage The Cowardly Dog episode "Family Business", Muriel wondered what her nephew Basil did with Mount Rushmore (since he stole the heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt). The camera zooms out with the president's heads underneath the house.
 * In the 1992 film Buried on Sunday, an unarmed nuclear missile is accidentally launched and it breaks the nose of Theodore Roosevelt off before landing next to a group of bikers in Sturgis, who decide to trade it for speed.
 * In the 2011 film The Muppets, Crazy Harry dynamite and destroys Lincoln's face and replace with his own.
 * In the 1996 film Mars Attacks!, the Martians in a UFO carve their leaders' faces into Mount Rushmore, replacing the Presidents' heads.
 * The cover of the Chipmunks' 1982 album, Chipmunk Rock, depicts Roosevelt replaced by Alvin the Chipmunk.
 * In a viral video teaser for the Watchmen film, "The Keene Act and You", a brief scene depicts Richard Nixon in place of Abraham Lincoln.
 * In the 2005 miniseries Category 7: The End of the World, global warming causes the moisture inside the mountain to expand, which causes the head of George Washington to break off.
 * In the 2006 miniseries 10.5 Apocalypse, an earthquake hits the site as a fault-line begins to recreate the Western Interior Seaway, destroying the faces of the presidents, which eventually fall.
 * In an episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Ned Bigby and his friend, Jennifer "Moze" Mosely, collaborate on a project involving Mount Rushmore with Ned in place of Thomas Jefferson. By the end of the episode, the project gets ruined after Ned frees himself after getting stuck and the project falls over.
 * In Robert Ferrigno's Assassin trilogy, fundamentalist Islamic clerics dynamite Mount Rushmore in a failed attempt to destroy it.
 * In the 1993 Roger Rabbit short Trail Mix-Up, Roger, Baby Herman, a bear, and a beaver are sent flying by an erupting geyser, and crash into Mount Rushmore, destroying it (the faces comically screaming before the crash).
 * In Poul Anderson's 1973 dystopian novelette The Pugilist, the United States is defeated and conquered by the Soviet Union. The puppet American government installed by the Soviets orders what is left of the US Army to turn its artillery at the Heads on Mount Rushmore and destroy them.
 * In the beginning of the "Boom Boom" trailer for the 2014 video game Wolfenstein: The New Order, Mount Rushmore is seen being destroyed by Nazi soldiers after their victory in World War II, with a general observing the destruction of the landmark.
 * In the 2009 film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, four colossal vanilla cream pies hit the faces of the statues of the presidents on the mountain, except for the one of Abraham Lincoln. Which got hit in the back of the head referencing his assassination.
 * In the 1964 film, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, Don Knott's title character is transformed into a fish resembling a tilefish. He helps the Allies win the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II.  For these exploits, his tilefish image is added (during a fantasy sequence) to Mount Rushmore, to Lincoln's right (viewer's perspective).
 * In the 1978 Judge Dredd comic "The Cursed Earth" two faces are added: President Jimmy Carter to the left of Washington, and the leader of a group of mutants to the right of Lincoln.
 * In the American television sitcom ALF (TV series), Kate dreams that Alf becomes president and has his face is added to Mt. Rushmore (Episode: "Hail to the Chief").
 * In the final scene of the 2003 film Head of State, fictional president Mays Gilliam's face has been added into Mount Rushmore next to George Washington.
 * In the opening titles of the 2001 British satirical animated series 2DTV, George W. Bush erects his face in the gap between Roosevelt and Lincoln. A nuclear warhead is then deployed from the top of Bush's sculpture, much to the shock of the other presidents.
 * In a deleted scene from the 1989 film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, a fifth face carved into the mountain is that of an African-American woman (named in the novelization as Sarah Susan Eckert).
 * Prior to the retirement of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant in 1982, fans of the University of Alabama football team generated an image with Bryant's face added to the left of Lincoln.
 * In the popular cartoon, Phineas and Ferb, the character Candace gets her face carved into Mount Rushmore by her brothers for her birthday, but afterwards, lava destroys it.
 * In the Doctor Who  episode Last of the Timelords the Master is described as having himself carved into Mount Rushmore after he conquered the Earth.
 * In the 2019 limited series Years and Years, the likeness of Donald Trump (depicted in the series as having won re-election in 2020) is mentioned as having been carved into Mount Rushmore by 2027.
 * In the 2019 limited series Years and Years, the likeness of Donald Trump (depicted in the series as having won re-election in 2020) is mentioned as having been carved into Mount Rushmore by 2027.

Imitation of the style
The title is an obvious pun, the music genre of the album being rock music, while the monument is carved from what is essentially a very large rock. In turn, the English cover of the volume 4 DVD release of the anime series Cromartie High School (entitled "Mount Rockmore") is a parody of the Deep Purple album. Here, the anime characters' faces replace those of the band members.

The fictional nuclear-equipped warship Outer Haven, in the video game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, features a Mount Rushmore-esque sculpture of the four "Snake" characters that have appeared thorough the Metal Gear series (Solidus Snake, Old Snake, Liquid Snake and Big Boss).

In the 1994 live action version of Richie Rich starring Macaulay Culkin, the Rich family has their own version of Mount Rushmore, named Mount Richmore in the movie, built on their property with their own faces sculpted into it. It becomes the setting for the film's finale, echoing the finale of North by Northwest.

The WWE had their own version of Mount Rushmore consisting of the best wrestlers in the company's history. The ones sculpted into the mountain are The Undertaker, Steve Austin, John Cena, and Hulk Hogan.

In Series 9, episode 7 (A Cuddle) of Taskmaster, the contestants David Baddiel, Ed Gamble, Jo Brand, Katy Wix and Rose Matafeo are tasked to 'forge the best Mount Rushmore'. Baddiel and Wix were the joint winners of the task with five points each.

Other appearances
Alan Weisman, in his 2007 book The World Without Us, suggests that the Mount Rushmore memorial could last up to 7.2 million years and thus be one of the longest-lasting human artifacts. Because of this enduring structure, it has appeared in some science fiction set in the distant future:


 * A 1980 episode of the post-apocalyptic cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian, "Attack of the Amazon Women", uses Mount Rushmore as its setting.
 * The altered appearance in the 1989 film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is also a future setting, specifically the late 23rd century.
 * In Nelson S. Bond's "Meg the Priestess" series, the short story "Pilgrimage" involves a journey to the "Place of the Gods": Jarg, Ibrim, Taamuz and Tedhi, revealed to be Mount Rushmore.
 * The speculative documentary series Life After People predicts that, while the faces of Mount Rushmore are expected to still be recognizable in 10,000 years, in five million years the sculpture will no longer exist due to erosion.

The Nintendo 64 video game Pilotwings 64 (which features a level based on United States geography and landmarks) shows the monument in the approximate location of South Dakota, but replaces Washington's head with that of Nintendo's mascot Mario. The player can change Mario into his rival Wario by crashing into his face or by shooting him from the Gyrocopter.

Mount Rushmore has been featured prominently on South Dakota's automobile license plates since 1952, and the flag of South Dakota was changed in 1992 to feature the phrase "THE MOUNT RUSHMORE STATE", although the image on the flag does not include the monument.

[Red Dwarf content]

In literature

 * In Donald E. Westlake's 1990 crime novel Drowned Hopes, protagonist John Dortmunder climbs the mountain and into Abraham Lincoln's nose to retrieve a stash of stolen money hidden there years earlier.

In theme parks

 * Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls at Universal's Islands of Adventure featuring the parody of Mount Rushmore.
 * Mount Rushmore is one of the landmarks reproduced at the Window of the World theme park located in the western part of the city of Shenzhen in the People's Republic of China.
 * A version made out of 1.5 million Lego bricks is featured at Legoland Billund in Denmark. The one at Legoland California has minifigures that move a giant cotton swab in and out of Washington's right ear.

In comics and cartoons

 * In the Justice League Adventures comics, Superman is shown as going to Mount Rushmore to seek solitude on at least one occasion.
 * Several Don Martin cartoons in MAD magazine feature Mount Rushmore gags. One from 1965 shows a presidential barber being urgently dispatched from Washington, D.C. The barber - dangling precariously from the rope ladder - reaches out with his scissors and snips the stem of a small tree growing from Abraham Lincoln's left nostril as though it were a nose hair. A gag from 1973 shows helicopter tourists flying to the back side of the mountain, where the Presidents are kneeling as if they are peering through holes in a fence. A 1976 entry depicts work crews cleaning the monument.  While some workers clean the Presidents’ heads, other workers descend by elevator into a huge cavernous underground chamber to clean the Presidents’ shoes and boots.
 * In the manga Naruto, the heads of all Hokage (Leader of the Hidden Leaf Village) are carved into a mountain in the background of the main village.
 * The 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode, "The Big Blowout" shows Mount Rushmore and depicts one scene showing Krang replacing George Washington. Also, Krang attempts to blow it up, just to get the Turtles to prevent it and therefore abandoning their attempt to break into the Technodrome.
 * In the James Bond Jr episode, "Far Out West", the villain Dr. No plots to destroy Mount Rushmore with a laser weapon.
 * In the 2005 Family Guy episode, "North by North Quahog", Mount Rushmore is featured as being the location of Mel Gibson's home where Peter Griffin and his wife Lois are chased by him. After he falls to his apparent death, Peter and Lois make out on top of Washington's head (to which Washington mentions this to Jefferson and Roosevelt, who both then taunt Lincoln).
 * In the animated sitcom South Park, there is a picture of Eric Cartman and his mother Liane in the Mount Rushmore in his living room.
 * In the Dexter's Laboratory episode, "Rushmore Rumble", Dexter and Mandark bring the Abraham Lincoln and George Washington faces respectively on Mount Rushmore to life and make them fight each other to determine who is the best.
 * In the American Dad! episode, "Honey, I'm Homeland", a leftist terrorist cell attempts to blow up the faces to re-sculpt Washington, Roosevelt and Lincoln into those of leftist heroes including Sean Penn, Michael Moore and Captain Planet.
 * Mount Rushmore also appears on the Cartoon Network media franchise Ben 10 as a Plumbers base. It was destroyed by Ben as Upchuck two times,
 * In an episode of The Berenstain Bears, the Bear family visited a monument that was obviously a parody of Mount Rushmore, featuring a scene inside a replica of Abraham Lincoln's ear.
 * In the reboot of Animaniacs, Washington's head gets replaced with the Brain's head in Season 1 Episode 1, with the other heads pushed to the side, much to their annoyance.
 * During season four of Daria, in the end credits of select episodes showing various alter egos of the show's characters, the Fashion Club is depicted on Mount Rushmore instead of the four Presidents. Sandi, the club's president, is shown where Washington is; Tiffany, Stacy and Quinn are in place of Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln, respectively.

User:TompaDompa's version
Mount Rushmore in South Dakota has appeared in several films, comic books, and television series. Its functions vary from settings for action scenes to the site of hidden locations. Its most famous appearance is as the location of the final chase scene in the 1959 film North by Northwest. It is used as a secret base of operations by the protagonists in the 2004 film Team America: World Police,  and the secret underground city of Cíbola is located there in the 2007 film National Treasure: Book of Secrets. In some films, the presidential faces are replaced with others; examples include the 1980 film Superman II and the 1996 film Mars Attacks! where the villains add their faces to the monument, and the 2003 film Head of State where the newly-elected president's face is added. In works showing attacks on landmarks to signify the scope of a threat, Mount Rushmore is a common target; examples include the aforementioned facial replacements in Superman II and Mars Attacks! as well as natural disasters in works like the 2006 miniseries 10.5: Apocalypse and terrorist attacks as in the 1997 film The Peacekeeper. An atypical representation of the monument appears in the 2013 film Nebraska, where instead of being treated with reverence it is criticized for being unfinished.

Music and baseball
This article has noted the fact that Mount Rushmore is referenced in music and in the Washington Nationals for over ten years, which is the very definition of longstanding content. A clear consensus is needed to remove this content. Anyone who has an argument for removing it is welcome to make their case that music and baseball are not part of popular culture. BD2412 T 00:23, 20 May 2022 (UTC)
 * It was merged to Mount Rushmore by on 15 May with these two edits, the edit summary for the first one stating merged to Mount_Rushmore. There is no source that ties any of this to popculture. TompaDompa (talk) 00:33, 20 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Then why don't you go over to the article Popular culture and make the argument that the sections Popular culture and Popular culture should be removed, because it seems apparent that these things are aspects of popular culture. BD2412  T 00:40, 20 May 2022 (UTC)
 * @BD2412 Per WP:IPC and MOS:CULTURALREFS, I think we need to show how those things are relevant to popculture, through non-trivial analysis. Otherwise we risk this again becoming a list of random mentions that MR appeared in such and such. The stamps seem totally irrelevant. As is the baseball trivia. The music might be rescuable if better (in-depth) discussion is found. So please tell us (quote is ok) which source says that the Daugherty's piece or the Protest the Hero piece discusses cultural significance of the monument? The part that the latter ""addresses the violent colonial history involved in the sculpting of Mount Rushmore", critiquing the monument as a..." seems ok, and I' like to hear User:TompaDompa thoughts about leaving it. The rest, right now, should go. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 08:30, 20 May 2022 (UTC)
 * I would remove it. It's analysis, yes, but it's fundamentally—and crucially—analysis of the song "Little Snakes" by Protest the Hero, not of Mount Rushmore in popular culture (it might be appropriate to move the analysis to an article on the song, album, or band). It could perhaps be used as an example of popular culture criticizing Mount Rushmore for its history, if we have proper sourcing for that being a thing in more general terms.An additional problem is that the section is currently labelled "In music", which is clearly out of WP:PROPORTION to how much music is covered in sources on the topic of Mount Rushmore in popular culture—the ones I've come across basically focus exclusively on visual media such as film and television (and not, say, literature and music). I would be happy to be proven wrong, if anybody has located sources on the topic that I've missed. TompaDompa (talk) 17:38, 20 May 2022 (UTC)