Referenced By / Mortal Kombat

As a long running franchise with over 30 years of gruesome violence, Mortal Kombat became such a staple of pop culture that it's bound to be referenced quite a lot in other works:

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Advertising

• A commercial for Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition has Bianca's hand emerge from the game's box and crush the box for Mortal Kombat next to it.

Anime and Manga

• Despite the fact Mortal Kombat had a small following in Japan, it got referenced by High Score Girl, of all things, where Haruo and Hidaka try to guess what Raiden's saying in his torpedo attack.

Comic Books

• Adventures of Supergirl: Back in high school, Supergirl used to play an arcade game called Street Kombat Six.

Films - Animated

• In Wreck-It Ralph, Kano (albeit as Cyborg in this case) is one of the video game villains at Bad-Anon. Whereupon he performs his Heart Rip fatality on a zombie.

Films - Live Action

• In Barbie (2023) after Ken takes over Barbie Land and creates his Mojo Dojo Casa House, one of the decorations is the Mortal Kombat II arcade game.
• In Billy Madison, the title character and a classmate have a brief argument over whether Mortal Kombat or Donkey Kong is better (presumably Donkey Kong Country given the film's production taking place during DKC's rabid success and the Sega vs. Nintendo arguments that were a part of mid-90's schoolyard culture).
• In The Cable Guy, when Chip is telling Robin about the main satellite dish in the city, one of the features he mentions is how you can play Mortal Kombat with a friend overseas.
• In SHAZAM! (2019), Billy Batson and Freddy Freeman are playing Mortal Kombat X on an Xbox One. Billy is naturally playing as Raiden. Eugene also quips "Fatality!" during a fight.

Literature

• In Queens of Geek, Charlie beats Alyssa at Mortal Kombat.

Live Action TV

• In The Good Doctor episode "Pain," Kenny brings a video game console to Shaun's apartment so they can play Mortal Kombat.
  Shaun: I gave you a pneumothorax.
• In Family Matters, the "Scammed" episode has Grandma Winslow playing a parody called Grandma Ninja. The Stinger even includes Steve as a Secret Character who wins against his opponent, Cranky Ninja.
• Legends of Tomorrow, shows the titular band of heroes being fans of the series and playing the games on occasion while killing time on the Waverider time ship.
• In the Married... with Children episode "The Hood, The Bud, and the Kelly" second part, the mob enforcer sent to make sure the exercise video Bud funded with mafia money is made on time brags to the backup dancers that his score for Mortal Kombat is the highest in the mob.

Music

• The Fighting Game segment of Iron Maiden's video for "Speed of Light" is made entirely in the style of Mortal Kombat II, with both Eddie and the Devil being digitized sprites, the background being a static reversion of the background of the cover for The Number of the Beast and a Finishing Move where Eddie removes the head of the Devil.

Professional Wrestling

• MK fan A.J. Lee cosplayed as Kitana during a Halloween Battle Royale and even tried to Fan Lift an opponent (it didn't work).
• Xavier Woods said "Your soul is mine" to Sheamus in one promo and "Your brother's soul is mine, you will be next!" and "Finish him!" to The Usos during a match.

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: One achievement is titled "Deadly Kombationem", earned by spectating the combatants at the fighting arena.
• ClayFighter 63 1/3 had "CLAYTALITY!" as a Finishing Move announcement.
• Escape from Monkey Island has the minigame "Monkey Kombat".
• Jitsu Squad: The villain, Lord Origami, executes a failed minion by inflating his body until it explodes, with both eyes popping out, a move practically lifted from older Mortal Kombat games. With an announcer saying, "CARTOONALITY!!!" for good measure.
• Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Spencer's grapple grabs have him yelling "GET OVER HERE!"
• Meatgrinder have you letting out this quote if you kill enemies with the grappling-hook boot: "Get over here!"
• Midnight Fight Express: In Level 29, "Suburbs", Babyface gets access to a rope dart gun and Droney suggests Babyface to scream Get Over Here when using the rope dart.
• Nexuiz and Xonotic: Whenever the player gets the Strength powerup, the announcer yells "TEST YOUR MIGHT!"
• Poker Night 2: In a conversation, Sam asks Brock if he has ever been in a video game. Brock responds by saying he unintentionally ended up in a Mortal Kombat rip-off, which Claptrap realizes to be Immoral Bobcat. Brock's character was known as Tutu Blondie. When Sam asked what happened afterward, Brock says the company went bankrupt under extreme prejudice.
• Stay Tooned! features a mini-game called "Kartoon Kombat" where you can play as Pixel, Chisel, Frank, or Scoops (who are respectively dubbed Tai Chi Chisel, Peking Pixel, Kung Fu Frank, and Xaiolin Scoops) and fight each other in an arena. The Kartoon Kombat logo bears a striking resemblance to the Mortal Kombat logo (with Scoops in place of the dragon), and Pixel, Chisel, Frank, and Scoops are respectively dressed like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Raiden, and Johnny Cage.
• Them's Fightin' Herds: Velvet has a color palette based on Sub-Zero called "Below Zero". Also, when Arizona pulls in an opponent with her lasso, she'll sometimes shout "Come 'ere!", in reference to Scorpion.
• Toonstruck: Fingers mentions "Mortal Wombat" is one of the most popular Cutopian games.
• Unreal Tournament 2004: The award for winning a match without being fragged or letting the enemy team score is "Flawless Victory".
• Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict: In addition to Shao Kahn being made an announcer option and Raiden being made a playable character, the latter's ladder mentions that he despises "Using the dark powers of the Netherrealm" (the match itself using Vampire rules, referencing Nitara from the then-recently released Deadly Alliance).

Web Video

• The Angry Video Game Nerd has reviewed the ports of the first game for the SNES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear, and Tiger Electronic handhelds.
• Bum Reviews: In the review of Muppets Most Wanted, Chester A. Bum describes Nadya's affinity for Kermit as "Amphibianality", which sounds like a Mortal Kombat finishing move.
• Danganronpa Abridged Thing: At the end of Episode 6, Celestia is sent back to Hell where she's greeted by Scorpion/Hanzo Hasashi, who also made a passing mention to Bi-Han/Sub-Zero and Quan Chi.
• Honest Trailers, when doing an episode on Mortal Engines, rendered the movie's title in a recreation of the Mortal Kombat: The Movie opening only with the Title Scream being "MORTAL ENGINES!"
• JonTron: In "Dr. Ho: License to Practice", Jon tried comparing Dr. Ho's medical methods to removing a spine like Sub-Zero. His friend corrects him that it was the Predator. Jon was talking about Mortal Kombat and wished Predator would be in an MK game. As of Mortal Kombat X, Jon's wish was granted.
• The Nostalgia Critic: In his review of The Room when Johnny and Lisa get drunk and the latter is wearing a Necktie Headband, Critic imitates Johnny by saying "Ha-ha-ha, let's roleplay: you'll be Sonya Blade and I'll be a terrible actor!"
• Phelous is a big fan who reviewed just about every MK adaptation and created a show called Mortal Komedy.
• In Wrestle Wrestle Spoony sometimes calls The Miz Johnny Cage.

Western Animation

• Cow and Chicken: In "Squirt the Daisies", Chicken plays an arcade fighting game called Immoral Wombat. He loses when his character is stuffed into the opposing wombat's pouch.
• Dexter's Laboratory: One episode is named "Maternal Kombat".
• Drawn Together: Scorpion makes a cameo when the cast were interviewing for a new house guest, making Xander gush since he's also a video game character. When asked what his special move is, Scorpion then proceeds to yank Xander closer while shouting his famous catchphrase and rip his head off with the spine still attached.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: In "Affair Weather Friends", Bloo starts spending time with Barry Bling behind Mac's back. One of the things that Bloo and Barry play with is a video game called Immortal Wombat.
• An episode of Looney Tunes Cartoons is titled "Portal Kombat".
• The Looney Tunes Show: In the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner short, "Silent But Deadly" (part of "The Foghorn Leghorn Story"), both Road Runner and Wile E. are in a direct confrontation with each other. Wile E.'s costume is akin to Scorpion's outfit, there are destructive weapons, a dark moonlit night, and a fatality to frost the cake.
• In the ReBoot episode "Game Over", the User inserts a game that is styled after Mortal Kombat, though he uses a Big Red Devil for his avatar, which doesn't fit with any character from the games. During his fight with him, Enzo adopts an outfit similar to Scorpion. Notably, this game is portrayed more seriously than the others, as a matter of fact, Enzo loses and is presumed dead by the end of the episode- good thing he wasn't.
• Robot Chicken has its fair share of references:
  • One clip has two unnamed characters (most likely Sub-Zero and Smoke) in a fight where the former loses and the latter performs a protracted fatality on him which included removing his heart and using a hockey stick to bat it away.
  • Another skit has Johnny Cage and Kano in a fight where the former has his heart ripped out by the latter and he undergoes subsequent open-heart surgery and a long recovery process only for him to get his heart ripped out again after he returns to the tournament!
  • The follow-up to this features Kano taking care of Johnny's widow and children to make up for what he did. It eventually comes out that Cage faked his death just to get away from his family.
  • Another skit is called "Office Kombat" where an office worker fights his coworkers like in the popular game to hedge responsibility for an important memo he was supposed to forward. However, the skit ends with Ryu showing up and ordering him to do the work.
• Runaway Brain: The short opens with Mickey Mouse playing a Mortal Kombat-esque fighting game featuring characters from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
• The Simpsons:
  • In the episode "Marge Be Not Proud", Bart want the trending video game between highschoolers: Bonestorm, an ultraviolent fighting game that parodies Mortal Kombat and has a lot of Gorn and finishing moves that all kids wanted for Christmas. The characters in the game even resemble Liu Kang and Goro, and the former is even referenced by name.
  • Another episode showcases a Mortal Kombat copycat named Hockey Dads, in which angry dads in a Hockey Fight pummel each other to death. The characters' children even point out that "it's already assault! Don't make it murder!", with a specialized button to ignore said childrens' pleas.
• Sonic Boom: In "Eggman: The Video Game: Part 1", when Dr. Eggman tries to advertise his new Stache Smash video game, he asks Tails, Knuckles, and Mark to guess what the newest, coolest video game is. Knuckles guesses Mortal Bloodsport VII.

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