There are many classic and iconic movies embedded in pop culture that seem to be referenced in TV shows endlessly, whether it’s replicating the music of The Godfather, copying the voice of Darth Vader, or reciting the rules of Fight Club. But there’s one movie that has been referenced to no end despite how strange the premise of the film might seem.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is iconic for many reasons. Between the movie’s musical numbers, the Oompa Loompas, and Gene Hackman’s incredible portrayal of the chocolatier, TV shows have never halted on parodying the 1971 classic.
Malcolm In The Middle
With Francis being stuck at military school as a cadet and being under the thumb of Commandant Edwin Spangler, the retired air-force general often uses the cadets for his own personal gain, and that’s when he’s not humiliating them.
However, in the episode “New Neighbors,” Spangler does both, as the cadets are humiliated when he makes them sing “The Candyman Can” in unison, and it’s one of the funniest scenes in the whole of Malcolm In The Middle.
My Wife And Kids
With many episodes of My Wife And Kids being based around Jay’s struggle to lose weight, it reached its peak when she was imagining all of her family as morbidly obese in the kitchen.
As the family is stuffing their faces full of pancakes in “Thru Thick And Thin,” Jay then imagines Kady rolling into the kitchen overweight, dressed all in blue, and largely resembling Violet Bureguard.
That 70s Show
In That 70s Show, as Fez is a foreign exchange student and knows little-to-no English when he first appears in the pilot episode, he has to learn through his stoner friends, American music, and, of course, through movies.
So it doesn’t come as a surprise as he sometimes repeats what he sees on TV, and he hilariously does it in the same vernacular as the character he’s repeating. The best example of this is when Fez screams, “I said good day!” in the exact same way Wonka says it to Charlie at the end of the movie.
Family Guy
Family Guy hasn’t only referenced Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory once, but twice. Firstly, in typical Family Guy fashion, Willy Wonka is a cutaway joke and is written as a pedophile.
But the main reference to the chocolatier comes in “Wasted Talent,” as a brewer, who shares an uncanny likeness to Willy Wonka, shows Peter and company around his beer factory, and it’s one of the funniest spoof episodes.
Hey Arnold!
As Hey Arnold is the home to several strange animations of characters, as no one character has the same shaped face, it isn’t surprising that the animators would take influence from such a strange movie like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Monkey Man, randomly voiced by Andy Dick, is a superhero in the world of Hey Arnold, but he left his crime-fighting days behind for a normal life in “Monkeyman.” Only it wasn’t that normal, as the character enjoyed dressing up exactly like Willy Wonka.
The Simpsons
When Homer finds a new passion in life, as he becomes a garbage man in “Trash of the Titans,” he performs his very own version of the classic song from the movie, “The Candyman Can,” only he changes it to “The Garbage Man Can.”
With The Simpsons not being shy to throwing in a musical number here and there, this scene often lives in the shadows of songs like “Monorail” and “We Do (The Stonecutters Song),” but it’s actually one of the best musical numbers from the show.
Rick And Morty
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is one of the movies for fans of the show to watch due to Gene Wilder’s eccentric acting as the titular character, so it comes as no surprise that there’s a big nod to the movie in Rick And Morty.
Rick D. Sanchez III has the same purple clothing as Willy Wonka and he is the owner of Simple Rick’s Wafer Cookie Factory, and though he hasn’t been in the show much, his only appearance in “Tales From The Citadel” is the best moment of the episode.
South Park
Just like The Simpsons, South Park is best whenever it dabbles in music, and in “Le Petit Tourette,” the song “I’ve Got A Golden Ticket” is interpolated in the episode.
The episode is one of Cartman’s funniest storylines, as he believes he has found a metaphorical golden ticket when he learns about Tourette’s Syndrome. The character believes if he tells people he suffers from it, he has the ability to say anything he wants.
The Office
Being one of Michael Scott’s best alter egos, the Scranton branch manager becomes Michael Wonka, as he dresses up as the iconic character, even carrying a cane, and dishes out five golden tickets across five palettes of paper in the warehouse.
The golden tickets give the customer 10% off for a whole year, but little did Michael know that all of the palettes were being shipped to the same company, leading the company to get 50% for a full year. Due to Michael’s idiocy in “Golden Ticket,” it has become one of the very best episodes of The Office.
Futurama
In “Fry and the Slurm Factory”, one of the episodes that never gets old, Futurama not only references the classic 1971 movie but bases the whole episode on the film, almost beat for beat.
With the fictional drink Slurm being an obsession of Fry and Bender’s, they gain entry into the factory to see how the drink is made. They are led by a giant slug in a purple get-up and the factory is full of Oompa Loompas and even a Slurm river.