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This is a list of references to Gremlins in popular culture. As one of the most critically-acclaimed monster movies in the late 20th century, there have been numerous allusions, homages, and parodies of the films.
Roger Corman produced a 1987 critically bashed movie called Munchies, which is a spoof of Gremlins.
The film Beasties is a parody of Gremlins.
The 1989 film Kamillions is a parody of Gremlins.
In Evil Ed,
In Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman, the little snowballs and the way they act are exactly like the Gremlins (mischievous and dangerous). Furthermore, one of the snowballs has a spiked mohawk of icicles for hair, just like the lead villain in Gremlins.
A hobgoblin
Hobgoblins and Hobgoblins 2 are parodies on Gremlins, both films directed by movie director Rick Sloane.
In the 1985 film Dead End, a zombie is playing with a Gizmo doll.
In The Goonies, when Chunk calls the police to explain about the Fratellis, the cop disbelieves him, recalling all of Chunk's wild stories. One involved "little creatures that mutate when you pour water on them."
In the 1985 film Explorers, a newspaper headline reads "Kingston Falls 'Riot' Still Unexplained". Kingston Falls was the town in Gremlins.
In the beginning of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, when Pee-wee is playing with his toy truck, at the foot of the bed is a Stripe toy from Gremlins.
In One Magic Christmas, Abby wears a sweater with Gizmo on the front when her mom is taking a shower.
In Esto es un atraco, a Gremlins poster can be seen in a video store.
In The Puppetoon Movie, a gremlin makes an appearance towards the end.
In Adventures in Babysitting, Sara sports a backpack with Gizmo on the front. This film was directed by Chris Columbus, who wrote Gremlins.
In Mac and Me,
In The 'burbs, there's a box of Gremlins Cereal by the Peterson's sink, a reference to the movie also directed by Joe Dante.
In Gate 2: The Trespassers, John calls one of the demon minions a Gremlin.
In The Flash: Ghost in the Machine, not knowing what the Kremlin is a goon says: "Kremlins? You mean those cute little furry dudes from the movie?"
In Dead Alive'', zombies are put in a blender like the Gremlins
In Time Machine: The Journey Back,
In Prehysteria!,
In Freaked,
In Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers
In I'll Do Anything,
In Funny Man, a Gremlin is seen
In True Lies,
In Two If by Sea
In Mars Attacks!
In the 1998 film Small Soldiers, also directed by Joe Dante, Irwin's project nickname is Gizmo.
In Welcome to Hollywood, there is a poster of it in the first office (Dreamworks office) shown.
In the documentary The Fly Papers: The Buzz on Hollywood's Scariest Insect, Gremlins are mentioned twice.
In Meet the Parents,
In Quiet, a man puts a dog in a microwave oven to kill it and says to the camera, "I saw them do this in 'Gremlins.'"
In Eight Legged Freaks,
In Unleashing the Beast: Making 'The Howling',
In Looney Tunes: Back in Action, musical score from Gremlins heard in film. In both movies, Jerry Goldsmith provided the score, and Joe Dante directed.
In Citizen Shane, Gizmo doll is visible on a shelf.
In The Last Shot, there is a Gremlins poster on the wall.
In The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing, the film Gremlins is mentioned.
In Margaret Cho: Assassin, Gremlins are mentioned.
In Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight - The Road to Gotham City, Gremlins are mentioned once.
In both films of Snakes on a Plane, a panicked character throws an attacking creature into a microwave, causing it to explode.
In Chris & Reed in: Nightmares!, the film Gremlins is mentioned.
In The Good Night, Mel says, "That's like inviting gremlins to a pool party."
In Silence, Jordi remembers when both he and his mother has to leave the theater because of bad Mogwai/Gremlins.
In Kickin It Old Skool, Mogwai are mentioned.
In Filler!, The Swedish Backpacker is wearing a Gizmo backpack.
In Cyprien, Gizmo doll visible at Godzilla Internet CafĂŠ
in the 2012 film Frakenweenie, Gremlin-like sea monkeys attack the city of new Holland
In The Hangover, Phil says Allan is like a Gremlin for all the rules Tracy gave about him
In The Big Sleaze, Mogwai seen in Casting Session.
In the 2017 film The LEGO Batman Movie Gremlins appear as minifigures in the Phantom Zone and are freed by the Joker to help him with other known villains terrorizing Gotham City.
In Space Jam: A New Legacy, Stripe and a couple of Gremlins can be seen among the Warner Bros. characters summoned to the basketball court by Al G. Rithm.
TV Shows[]
In At the Movies, footage from the Gremlins films are used for the Conan the Destroyer/Top Secret!/Under the Volcano episode. The film itself is reviewed in the episode "Gremlins/Star Trek III: The Search for Spock/Streets of Fire/Once Upon a Time in America".
The comedy-skit series Saturday Night Live referenced the franchise several times:
In the Saturday Night Live episode "Jeff Goldblum/Aerosmith", a video of the film is on shelf in Karl's Video Store. The tape reappears in the set in the episodes "The Best of David Spade" and "Bob Saget/TLC".
In "Julia Louis-Dreyfus/Paul Simon", gremlins are referenced in Unsolved Mysteries
In "Seth Rogen/Phoenix", Bill Hader talks to a friend like Gizmo on his cellphone
"Gremlionis", an episode of The Chipmunks Go to the Movies (a spin-off of the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise consisting of movie parodies), is a spoof of Gremlins.
In Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: "Dancing with the Stars 4", the film is included in a $2,000 question
In the NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service episode "Moonlighting", when DiNozzo sees scars on Palmer's back, he yells "Someone fed him after midnight."
In the Law & Order episode "Privileged", the film is referenced by McCoy.
In the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode "The Baby Comes Out", Will quotes the famous tagline, "and whatever you do, never ever feed her after midnight".
The anime show Pet Shop of Horrors has drawn many parodies of Gremlins.
The long-running animated series The Simpsons has referenced Gremlins several times:
In "Treehouse of Horror III", there is a horror story where Homer (Mr. Peltzer) buys a clown puppet from a Chinese store keeper that parodies Mr. Wing.
In "Bart Has Two Mommies", Homer says he's going to get the Gremlins wet.
In the Powerpuff Girls episode Pet Feud, the genetically engineered pet BEEBO must only be feed once, similar to the rule about how the Mogwai must never be fed after midnight.
In the SpongeBob Squarepants episode "A Pal For Gary", SpongeBob buys a strange piranha monster that acts like a Gremlin and Mogwai from a silent Chinese pet store owner that parodies Mr. Wing.
An episode of the sitcom My Wife and Kids mentions the Gremlins franchise several times, mostly the original one.
In the Spanish-language show Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez: Montecarlo aĂąos 20 (1,2,3... Respond Another Time), in one episode the Host compares the Chollo to Antichollo transformation of the Gremlin transformation.
In the Clerks episode "A Dissertation on the American Justice System by People Who Have Never Been Inside a Courtroom, Let Alone Know Anything About the Law, But Have Seen Way Too Many Legal Thrillers" Randal mentions Gremlins in the court.
In the Family Guy episode "The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou", Peter feeds his Mogwai after midnight with a chicken leg (the same food that Billy fed the evil Mogwai in the first film).
In the Robot Chicken episode "Tapping a Hero" skit, "George W. Gremlin", George Bush gets a pet Mogwai with expected catastrophic results.
In the South Park "Imaginationland" trilogy, a Gremlin is seen in the first part, while Gizmo appears in the second part.
The 2003 miniseries I Love the '80s Strikes Back: 1984 plays footage from the film.
During the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, clips from the film are played.
In The 100 Greatest Family Films, Gremlins is mentioned in the top 100.
In the The Rotten Tomatoes Show episode "Fast & Furious/Adventureland/Sugar", the film's footage contributed into the sketch 'Cars never start when you need them to'.
In the High Chaparall episode "Corey Feldman", the film Gremlins is mentioned.
In the Veronica Mars episode "Weapons of Class Destruction", one asks if the problem is "Gremlin gumming up the works?".
In the How I Met Your Mother episode "The Wedding", Marshall talks about feeding Gremlins after midnight. In the episode "Definitions", Barney explains that the rules of dating are the same as the rules for Gremlins.
In Jimmy Neutron, there was a TV movie called Attack of the Twonkies that pays extremely heavy tribute to the Gremlins films. Jimmy Neutron finds round aliens from a comet and change into round toad-like animals that parody the Gremlins when hearing music (a homage to eating after midnight).
In the Psych episode "Who Ya Gonna Call?", Shawn mentions "Gremlins" when trying to remember where he stole the 'haunted Indian burial ground' gimmick from.
In the Phineas and Ferb special "Terrifying Tri-State Trilogy of Terror", a story claims that getting a platypus wet with grape juice will result in evil clones spawning from it. This happens to Perry, and the resulting clones are hideous platypus monsters that behave much like the Gremlins. They are ultimately killed off by soap.
In Homestarrunner.com: Everything Else Volume 3, The Cheat's Halloween costume is of Gizmo in the episode "Happy Hallow-day".
In the Lost episode "The Economist", Sawyer calls Ben "Gizmo".
In 20 to 1: Adults Only 20 to 1 episode "Movie Monsters", clips are shown in a segment on its title characters.
In week 3 of "Million Dollar Movie" of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire a contestant mentions having named his dog after a gremlin
In the "Monsters vs Aliens/The Haunting in Connecticut/12 Rounds" episode of the Rotten Tomatoes Show, Brett said on the top 5 Monsters/Aliens Gremlins is excluded because it's a group of films. The film is mentioned again in "17 Again/State of Play/Crank High Voltage".
In the White Collar episode "All In", Neal recites the rules for the caring of Mogwais to an elderly oriental man.
The My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode "Swarm of the Century" features the Parasprites, insect-like creatures that were inspired by the Tribbles from the Star Trek franchise and the Gremlins from the movies. At one point, Spike says he fed his parasprite after midnight, which is a reference to the most important rule of the Mogwai. The way they reproduce and cause destruction is very similar to how the Gremlins act in the movies. The writer M.A. Larson had Gremlins in mind while doing the episode. In the season three episode "Magic Duel", Trixie buys the Alicorn Amulet from a shop that looks a lot like Mr. Wing's shop, and the pony attending it wears an Asian attire. To make the parody much more evident, the pony's name has been revealed to be Uncle Wing.
In the Big Bang Theory episode "The Pirate Solution", the cast mentions watching the movie to celebrate Columbus Day since it is a Chris Columbus film.
In the Spanish language series Muchachada nui, Gremlins are referenced by character in the segment "Celebrities".
In the Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Deal", when left unsupervised for too long, Gumball, Darwin, and Anais enter a rowdy, feral state that mimics the design of the Gremlins from the film. Gumball's "gremlin" form also features a white mohawk strip like Stripe's.
The second season of the Netflix series Stranger Things was inspired by Gremlins, with the storyline of Dustin bonding to a pet that eventually grows into a vicious creature echoing the film's plot. Band-aids with Gizmo's face also appear in "The Mall Rats" and "The Bite". A poster for the film later appears in the episode "Vecna's Curse".
In the Brooklyn 99 episode "Adrian Pimento Rosa Diaz", Rosa reveals that when she was younger, she had a crush on Stripe from Gremlins, while Jake remarks that he would love Gizmo.
The adverts for Wattie's Spaghetti in New Zealand feature a puppet named Ghetti, a creature who bears a resemblance to the Mogwai.
Video games[]
Parody World: Monster Party, an unreleased Japanese prototype of the NES game Monster Party, featured a mogwai/gremlin-like creature as a boss. In the released version of the game, this creature was replaced by a Giant Cat.
Minions in video game Overlord and Overlord II are a race of small Gremlin (Imp or Goblin) creatures. [1]
In the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Old World Blues, when players are exploring the Big MT, they will be confronted by a miniature, yet highly powerful deathclaw named Stripe, who is a complete reference to the lead antagonist in the first movie. He is a reptilian creature and bears certain resemblance to the Gremlins, plus, there is a chicken leg near his doghouse, and in the original film, Stripe and his fellow mogwais changed from mogwai to gremlin by eating chicken after midnight. There is also a fountain in the center of the village to which Stripe refuses to go, echoing the original Stripe's demise at the climax of the film.
Killer Rabbid
Killer Freak
The game ZombiU was originally going to be a fps game staring the Raving Rabbids called Attack of the Killer Rabbids from Outer Space. The game would have had the evil cousins of the Rabbids invading earth and killing humans. They would later change the designs of the creatures and renamed the game Killer Freaks From Outer Space as they thought it would damage the Rabbids brand showing them killing people in cold blood. Later on the developers changed the game into ZombiU as they were not satisfied about the gameplay. Looking at the designs for the Killer Rabbids and Freaks they are heavily inspired by Gremlins.
The 2002 PC game Monster Hunter features gremlins as a common enemy. Instead of matching the traditional depiction, these creatures resemble the ones of the film, even sharing the same weakness to light exposure.
The film franchise is one of the series represented in LEGO Dimensions, a toys-to-life system game. Both films can be played in a shortened version, if you bought the set 71256 Team Pack Gremlins. Once you unlocked the characters Gizmo and Stripe such as their vehicles, the R.C. Racer and the Flash 'n' Finish, you'll be able to visit an open world based on Kingston Falls with many locations shown in the films.
Literature[]
Stripe,the miniature deathclaw
The cover of the 249th issue of the American MAD magazine such as the 188th of the German journal parodies the first Gremlins film.[2]
The cover of the 298th issue parodies the second Gremlins film. Also the cover of the 258th issue in Germany is a parody to the film.[3]
Lawsuits[]
A Furby
The gizmo furby
The controversial toy Furby has a striking resemblance to Mogwai and Gizmo. This caused some anger with fans of the Gremlins movies, and Warner Brothers Studios even planned to make a lawsuit in 1998 at Furby for plagarizing Gizmo's appearance. Later,a Gizmo Furby was made.
Videos[]
Robot Chicken George W. Gremlin
MTN DEW ZERO SUGAR GREMLINS - RULE -4 - MUST BE REFRESHING AFTER MIDNIGHT
