User:EJSawyer/Giant Pandas in popular culture


 * For the main article on the animal, see Giant Panda.

right|thumb|240px|Kung Fu Panda Representations of the Giant Panda are common in popular culture, particularly in China and the United States of America.

Examples of representation
The following sections give an approximate sample of the many forms of representation of the Giant Panda in popular culture:

In music

 * Giant Panda (group), an underground hip hop
 * Panda (band), a Mexican alternative rock band
 * Panda (musician), a Dutch electronic musician
 * Panda Bear (musician), an experimental musician
 * Panda Bear (album)

In popular culture

 * Panda Express, an American fast-food chain
 * Canal Panda, a Portuguese television channel
 * Panda, a character in the video game series Tekken
 * Panda, a character from the Hamtaro series.

Cartoons

 * Kung Fu Panda, a 2008 animated film featuring the voice of Jack Black
 * Andy Panda, star of a series of cartoon shorts produced by Walter Lanz

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Sculpture
The French sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet won a medal of honour at the Salon of 1887 for his masterly "Gorilla Carrying off a Woman". Although praised in its time, this work now evokes ridicule from some observers for its depiction of a gorilla abducting a nude woman, presumably with the intention of raping her - something totally alien to actual gorilla behaviour. Nonetheless, this act has somehow caught the public's imagination as witnessed by the repeated popularity of the King Kong theme.

Cartoons

 * Magilla Gorilla is a well known Hanna-Barbera cartoon from 1960s
 * An intelligent gorilla named Grodd is a recurring super-villain of The Flash in DC Comics and the animated TV series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.
 * In the animated Disney version of Tarzan, the hero's adopted family are gorillas (unlike the "Great Apes" of the original book), including Kala, Kerchak, Terk, and Tublat.
 * The Great Grape Ape Show
 * In the Tarzan-parody animated TV series George of the Jungle, George's best friend is an erudite talking gorilla named Ape. In the 1997 film adaptation, Ape is voiced by John Cleese.
 * In one episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, a non-animated gorilla appears and attacks the animated Patrick and Sandy.
 * Windsor, a supporting character in the animated Cartoon Network series, My Gym Partner's a Monkey, is a gorilla.
 * In the anime series "Sakigake! Cromartie High School", a gorilla is one of the more powerful delinquents at Cromartie High. He (she?) also plays backup guitar for "Freddie," a fellow student who may or may not be Freddie Mercury.
 * The Iron Kong in the Zoids universe is a mecha shaped like a gorilla.
 * In the Beast Wars and Beast Machines TV series, the leader of the Maximals, Optimus Primal, adopted an organic-skinned "beast mode" of a gorilla; and later in the series a TransMetal gorilla, and then (Beast Machines) he became a techno-organic gorilla.
 * In the animated TV series Ben 10, the future version of Dr. Animo has a detachable human head and the body of a gorilla as seen in the episode Ben 10,000.
 * Ultimate Spidermonkey from Ben 10: Ultimate Alien is based of a gorilla mixed with a spider.

Comics

 * In the Tintin comic book The Black Island, a gorilla called Ranko was there, who people thought was a monster.
 * Gorillas were frequently used as a gimmick to sell comics during the Silver Age of Comic Books: see Gorillas in comics.
 * Marvel Apes A Marvel Comics mini-series in which The Gibbon is transported into an alternate earth where all the Superheroes have simian counterparts (Captain Apemerica).
 * In the Planet of the Apes comic books, normal-sized gorillas fill security/military roles.
 * Grease Monkey is an entire sci-fi series centered around intelligent gorillas.

Film

 * The giant gorilla is a recurring theme in film, especially in the various incarnations of King Kong and Mighty Joe Young.
 * Trading Places, starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, features a scene wherein a gorilla transported on a train meets 'Harvey', played by James Belushi, dressed in a gorilla costume. Later in the film, the protagonists Louis Winthorpe (Aykroyd) and Billy Ray Valentine (Murphy) are saved by the real gorilla when Clarence Beeks (Paul Gleason) tries to kill them; Winthorpe and Valentine then dress Beeks in the gorilla costume, and the real gorilla falls in love with the costumed Beeks.
 * Bride of the Gorilla starring Raymond Burr who changes into a gorilla and torments his wife.
 * Congo
 * Another 50's classic is Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla a comedy featuring Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo, as Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis clones, meet Bela Lugosi on a remote island who can turn people into gorillas.
 * Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey was a drama which documented a scientist in Africa crusading for the rights of gorillas.
 * Various non-human apes dominate the world in the Planet of the Apes novel and film series, among them gorillas, who act as the soldiers and laborers in ape society. Notable characters include General Ursus and Aldo.
 * In the Marx Brothers movie At the Circus, Jeff Wilson, the circus owner (Kenny Baker), is robbed of $10,000 in full view of a gorilla on the train. In the last scene of the movie, the gorilla goes after the villain and retrieves the money, and counts it. "Is it all there?" Groucho asks; the ape signals Yes, it is.

Magazines and literature

 * Fester Bestertester, the protagonist of Don Martin's Mad Magazine strip "National Gorilla-Suit Day" is beset by gorillas (or persons dressed as gorillas). "National Gorilla-Suit Day" is celebrated every year on January 31st.
 * In the award-winning novel Ishmael, written by Daniel Quinn, a gorilla teaches the protagonist about the history of humanity and the effect "civilized" culture has had on other species.
 * In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle are frequently compared to gorillas.
 * Congo
 * In The Uplift War, a science-fiction novel by David Brin, gorillas transported to the planet Garth for experiments in uplift play a significant role in the plot.
 * In the North American Confederacy alternate history series by L. Neil Smith, gorillas (along with other greater primates) are recognized as sentient beings and are granted full citizenship in the eponymous political entity. In the first novel in the series, The Probability Broach, a gorilla, Olongo Featherstone-Haugh (pronounced "Fanshaw"), is mentioned as having served as the largely ceremonial Vice-President of the NAC. The second novel, The Venus Belt, states that he was then elected as the equally ceremonial President of the NAC from 1996 to 2000, retiring after one term.
 * In the Animorphs book series, one of the main characters, Marco, shapeshifts into the form of a gorilla as his main 'battle morph'.

Music Groups

 * There is a children's musical group called Barking Gorillas . Its theme is a dance song called "Barking Gorillas Bounce", and its logo features three gorillas dressed as a barbershop trio.
 * A popular virtual band "Gorillaz" is named after the animal.
 * There is a Los Angeles-based industrial and electronic musician / film composer who names himself Great Ape and has composed the original score for films such as Ondi Timoner's Ondi Timoner "Join Us", a documentary featured at The 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival. However, his real name, Richie Kulchar, is credited in the film.
 * There is a legendary American Hardcore band called "Gorilla Biscuits".

Online games

 * Gorillas are also Beasts in the popular fantasy MMO World of Warcraft some can be tamed and used by the Hunter Class in the game though they are not nearly as commonly used as other potential pets.

Schools

 * Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas, is the only public college in the United States to have a gorilla as mascot.
 * Several high schools and boarding schools also have a gorilla as their mascot. 

Sports

 * A gorilla is a mascot for a number of sports teams:
 * The NBA's Phoenix Suns mascot is The Gorilla
 * World Wrestling Entertainment SmackDown! Superstar Mark Henry uses the nickname "Silverback"
 * There is a Central Hockey League team called the Amarillo Gorillas.

Television

 * The gorilla suit is an eternally popular gag costume on television series.
 * Among the earliest examples is the gorilla-suited Nairobi Trio, a recurring-gag element of the 1950s TV comedy series, The Ernie Kovacs Show
 * On the Canadian children's cable network YTV, a recurring character on the series The Zone is Gorilla Stan, a person wearing a cheap Halloween costume.
 * In the Oct. 31, 2002, Halloween episode of the NBC series Scrubs, chief of staff Dr. Bob Kelso (Ken Jenkins) wears a gorilla suit, unbeknownst to the doctors.
 * In the first season of NBC's L.A. Law, Harry Hamlin's character wooed the Susan Dey character while wearing a gorilla suit.
 * Tracy, as featured on The Ghost Busters--"trained by" Bob Burns.
 * Drs. Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre occasionally dressed up in gorilla suits during the first three seasons of M*A*S*H
 * Silver the mobster Gorilla from Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation
 * The British comedy series The Mighty Boosh features a talking gorilla named Bollo.
 * The 2007 Cadbury advertising campaign Gorilla, featuring an actor in a gorilla suit playing a drum kit.
 * The Canadian animated series Beast Wars features a character named Optimus Primal who transforms into a gorilla.

Video games

 * The namesake of the Donkey Kong video game franchise is a gorilla.
 * The Crash Bash character Rilla Roo is a gorilla with the lower body of a kangaroo.
 * Gorilla in Gekido
 * Gorilla Mask, from God Hand
 * Silverback and various apes from Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes