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Referenced By / The Birds

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Comic Books

  • Wonder Woman (1987): When the shattered god took possession of a flock of birds to attack Diana she made a quip about the Hitchcock film.

Films — Live-Action

  • In High Anxiety, Thorndyke is attacked by a flock of pigeons, which poop on him.
  • The Core. The scene where flocks of pigeons starts smashing into vehicles and buildings in London's Trafalgar Square, breaking windows and causing chaos, is a homage.

Live-Action TV

  • Arrow: Thea Queen needs an excuse why her window is broken after the Arrow does a Super Window Jump, so claims that a bird went "...totally Hitchcock on it."
  • Sports Night: In the first season episode "Intellectual Property", Casey claims a fly keeps buzzing him in the studio (even though no one else can see it, and complains, "I'm like Tippi Hedren over here."

Video Games

Western Animation

  • The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: In "When Pants Attack", Judy mentions the film when she sees a horde of living pants perched on telephone lines.
  • Arthur: In the episode "The Squirrels", Arthur and Buster watch the titular movie, which is a squirrel-themed parody of The Birds. They both become terrified of squirrels as a result, though they later realize that their fears are unfounded after they tend to an injured squirrel.
  • Mickey Mouse (2013): In "Feed the Birds", a flock of pigeons invade Mickey's house by flying into the chimney.
  • The Rocko's Modern Life episode, "Bye Bye Birdie" begins with a flock of birds sitting on a telephone wire and the roof of Rocko's house.
  • The Simpsons:
    • In "A Streetcar Named Marge", after Maggie gives the daycare babies their confiscated pacifiers, Homer arrives and sees the dead-eyed babies eerily sucking away, spoofing the "birds on the wires" scene.
    • In "Itchy & Scratchy Land", Marge says the family should have had their vacation at the bird sanctuary, only to cut to the birds there attacking the guests, with Moleman taking shelter in a phone booth.
      Moleman: I need the biggest seed bell you have. (beat) No, that's too big.
    • In "Treehouse of Horror XI", in the segment Night of the Dolphin, the townspeople walk out of a town meeting to see the invading dolphins staring them down from everywhere (even on the phone lines).
  • Bob's Burgers did a subplot in House Of A Thousand Bounces about Bob having a phobia of pigeons when one somehow gets inside the restaurant. When finally pressed, Bob suddenly recalls a supposedly traumatic childhood memory of entering a dark room and being attacked by a swarm of pigeons. Linda and Teddy both recognize that Bob is recalling the bedroom scene from The Birds, and finally convince him he's remembering a movie by showing him the scene in question.
    Linda: That didn't happen to you!
    Bob: Yes it did.
    Linda: No, it happened to Tippi Hedren in The Birds.
    Bob: What?!
    Teddy: Bob you're describing an exact scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. They call it "Shot for shot."
    Linda: Bob, you think you're Tippi Hedren, honey.
    Bob: I don't think I'm Tippi Hedren I'm describing an event from my life!
    (Smash Cut to Bob, Linda and Teddy watching The Birds on a laptop)
    Bob: Oh my God I'm Tippi Hedren.
    Teddy: Yeah you wish.
    Bob: I guess I must've seen that movie when I was young.
    Linda: Oh, you poor thing. You poor, dumb thing.
    • Dawn Of The Peck also takes some cues from the film. The Fischoeders organize a Thanksgiving Day “Turkey Trot” that goes almost immediately wrong when hundreds of poultry (chickens, ducks and geese had to fill in due to a shortage of turkeys) overtake both the participants and Wonder Wharf.
  • French anime Code Lyoko Season 3, episode 6 The Pretender has the evil AI X.A.N.A take possession of a flock of crows which it uses to attack the Lyoko Warriors, using the tales and legends of the murders inspired directly by this film. Odd outright lampshades this and says the film wasn't scary, only to take it back moments later. To make the references fully stand out, two iconic scenes are recreated:
    • The first scene (which is also the same scene where Odd outright references the film) is a direct remake of the iconic scene of the flock of ravens waiting on the jungle gym sets watching the schoolyard and waiting for kids to come out, only this time it's on the path towards the factory with the Lyoko Warriors in place of the schoolyard kids (bonus points for the Lyoko Warriors also being kids as well, slightly older than the kids from the 1963 film) with the frames being a near shot-for-shot recreation.
    • The second scene recreates the iconic phone booth scene but with a garden shed replacing the phone booth and Yumi replacing Melanie with the shots nearly similar. Unlike Melanie who's able to escape the booth and survive, Yumi's not as lucky and nearly dies to her injuries as she's left in a bloody heap and is taken to the hospital had a Return-to-the-Past not been activated at the right time, Yumi would have died to her injuries.

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