History Creator / MCEscher

Often works through PerspectiveMagic. A lot of AlienGeometries are based on his work. For more information on his techniques, see UsefulNotes/GraphicalPerspective.

A long list of Escher in popular culture can be found in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher_in_popular_culture this page]].

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!References to his works:

[[foldercontrol]]

!!To ''Relativity''

[[folder:Advertising]]
* A commercial promo for Creator/{{Syfy}} has a lot of weird stuff going on inside a house, with one of them being a football pass among three people in a setting based on that painting.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* An episode of ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'' concludes with a fake show-within-a-show involving the character Kaere as a HotTeacher. Since she's teaching geometry, she's shown strolling through several famous Escher works.
* The first time we meet the Godhand in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', they're in a ''Relativity''-esque dimension filled with multidirectional staircases and a shot that resembles ''Another World''.
* ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' has the Maze card being able to make this case real.
* There's a scene in ''[[LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}} Owarimonogatari]]'' where the visuals show Ougi and Koyomi SuperDeformed in cat-filled cartoony versions of ''Another World'', ''Print Gallery'', ''Relativity'', and some sort of Tessellation.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* A strip in an early issue of Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}}'s ''Epic Illustrated'' is about a demonic architect boasting to a lady friend about the new house he's designed, which is finally revealed to be based on a mixture of ''Relativity'' and other works. The strip concludes with a dedication "to MCE" in the shape of Escher's own logo.
* Mount Olympus in George Perez' run of the ComicBook/PostCrisis ComicBook/WonderWoman is based on this.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'': The [[Music/DavidBowie Goblin King's]] final chamber was clearly based on this, and Sarah has a print of Relativity in her room.
* During a fight/chase scene, several characters in ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum: Secret of the Tomb'' fall into a ''Relativity'' PortalPicture, causing the action to become more confusing with the inconsistent gravity of the place.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Protector'' by Larry Niven: Jack Brennan uses gravity generators to build Relativity inside his mad scientist-style castle.
* In ''Literature/HalfWorld'', by Hiromi Goto, Melanie's mother keeps Escher prints on the wall. Later, when Melanie goes DownTheRabbitHole, to the magical realm Half World, the staircases go both up and down like Relativity.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' has the "Escher Vault," which is a room constructed like ''Relativity'', which is constantly changing at high speed. You need special equipment of [[SuperSpeed one kind]] or [[GogglesDoSomethingUnusual another]] to get through it. According to Mrs. Frederic, at least one Warehouse Agent has gotten lost in the room because they forgot to wear safety goggles when venturing inside and hasn't been seen since. It's called the Escher Vault because the man himself was an architect on that iteration of the Warehouse. His initial design involved it folding up like a tesseract and the model of it is artifact.
* The staircases in ''Series/SquidGame'' are actually inspired from Relativity.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* Ride/TheHauntedMansion at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disney World]] now includes a "Relativity" room, complete with ghostly footprints appearing on the steps, usually at extreme angles to the direction of gravity.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Ipsen's Castle in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' seems to be based on this. Described as an architectural marvel, many rooms are upside down and in one room the visitor has to slide ''up'' a pole. While in Ipsen's Castle, weapons will do more damage the lower their attack power is.
* A choice adventure in the ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' — more specifically, the Haunted Art Gallery — starts here, and all directions seem to be as if this work was providing directions (up, down, or sideways).
* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVII'', you have to get through a room shaped like this in Archduke Fifi's manor.
* ''VideoGame/{{Echochrome}}'' is a puzzle game based on the works of M. C. Escher. The [[AlienGeometries geometries]] are as weird as you might expect. To elaborate, in the game, you are allowed to "cheat" the laws of perspective because only the camera angle's perspective counts as "real". If there is a beam covering up a hole, the hole [[LogicBomb then ceases to exist.]] This is a necessary skill to guide the main character[[note]]You control the camera, not the player character[[/note]] to safety.
* ''VideoGame/{{Dusk}}'': [=E2M5=] is named "The Escher Labs". The level starts unconspicuous enough, but soon degenerates in a MindScrew of epic proportions.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor'', one part of the Castle of Tir Na Nog in the [[TheFairFolk Fae]] realm resembles Escher's [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} famous stairway room]]. It becomes hilarious when a human boy [[http://www.rhjunior.com/tales-of-the-questor-0514/ subjected to it]] promptly loses his lunch.
* The cover of volume 1 of ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge''. It's titled "This Campus is a Friggin' Escher Print".
* ''Webcomic/ExterminatusNow'': After a ScoobyDoobyDoors scene, [[http://exterminatusnow.co.uk/2014-07-13/comic/tangled-web/time-and-relative-dimensions/ this page]] features a textbook example of Escher's {{Bizarrchitecture}} room.
* ''Webcomic/QuantumVibe'' has [[Creator/AEVanVogt The Weapon Shop]] of [[{{Pun}} Escher]]. [[http://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=573 See it here]]. Justified in that it's on a low-gravity asteroid so the local gravity can be manipulated easily.
* ''Flipside University'' [[http://flapjackstudios.com/flipside-u-54.shtml here]]. The page is actually called M. C. Escher.
** It's [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowed]] [[http://flapjackstudios.com/flipside-u-41.shtml here]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebOriginal/ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum HQ'' has Escher Rooms where gravity is weird.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* One of the apartments Fry and Bender look at in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "I, Roommate". Bender fell down, up, and across the stairs. Fry decides they don't want to pay for a dimension they won't be using.
* Briefly seen in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' during Homer's dream quest, with the stairs shaped like the inside of Homer's head. One of the show's {{Couch Gag}}s uses it too.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' referenced it twice. Once Stewie obtained a copy while posing as Brian's college roommate; on another occasion Peter referenced "that rap video by [[IncrediblyLamePun MC]] Escher", prompting a cut to Escher dressed as Music/MCHammer doing an [[HollywoodToneDeaf incredibly bad rap song]] and dancing on the stairs.
-->'''Stewie:''' I think it's called... Crazy Stairs...
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
** In "The Doof Side of the Moon", the same coaster goes through such a room on four different tracks at the same time, as Phineas explains that it's 'the M.C. Escher Floor!'
** Even earlier, in "Gaming the System", they made a section of their video game based on Relativity.
* A version appears in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'', in the Lotus Temple.
* In the second episode of ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'', Toots convinces Clara she's pregnant after her LesYay kiss with Foxxy, just so she can push her down a flight of stairs for laughs. When Clara "still smells pregnant," they next try the "M.C. Escher room," where Clara falls down the iconic set of circling stairs for like three minutes to kill her non-existent baby. Yes, it was [[BlackComedy that kind of show]].
* In one of the last episodes of ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'', one of Winslow's rooms hidden in [=CatDog=]'s house is directly based on ''Relativity''.
[[/folder]]

!!To other works

[[folder:Advertising]]
* Look out for an animated version of ''Waterfall'' in [[http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pno6aYn3Eyo this Smarties commercial]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''Secret Origins'' #10 (the famous issue containing multiple irreconcilable origins for ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger) had a cover based on ''Another World''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Bizarro}}'' has featured [[http://bizarrocomics.com/2013/02/23/gulch-guffaw-gag/ several]] [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xjZ0HGc9hVw/USkZ4Aj-HcI/AAAAAAAAJXo/7I8q_-6xd0I/s1600/EScher+Sunday+WEB.jpg M.C. Escher-]][[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wqo9IVCWV5E/SmHqXRkm4RI/AAAAAAAACqY/c9VaxIfaXSU/s1600-h/bz+Rapunzel+07-12-09+WB.jpg based]] [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Is2wHY0Hu8E/USkZyE6Q2hI/AAAAAAAAJXg/kRZ3lUtKU6Y/s1600/bz+ESCHER+01-31-97+WEB.jpg comics]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Creator/ChristopherNolan [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B7ifky4QQU was inspired]] by Escher in ''Film/{{Inception}}'', which has two sets of ''Ascending and Descending'' (and hence [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_stairs Penrose stairs]])-inspired stairs: Arthur shows a fairly large one to Ariadne during her training and later makes good with an ass-kicking use of a second one in the second dream level's hotel.
* Escher's work ''Eye'' is seen in ''Film/DonnieDarko'', as a poster on Donnie's wall.
* Patterns created or noticeably inspired by Escher appear on the walls of various rooms in ''Film/{{Suspiria}}'', and the road the dance academy itself stands on is called Escherstrasse.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** In the novel ''Literature/MovingPictures'', the layout of the Library of Unseen University is described as "a topographical nightmare, [...] that would make M.C. Escher go for a good lie down, or possibly sideways."
** In ''Literature/GuardsGuards'', old-fashioned bookshops are said to be looking like "as though they were designed by M.C. Escher on a bad day".
* ''Literature/GodelEscherBachAnEternalGoldenBraid'' includes (along with many other references to Escher, as one might infer from the title) a dialogue in which the characters find themselves inside "Convex and Concave" and "Reptiles".
* In the Young Adult novel ''Literature/BeforeIFall'', it's revealed that the school bike Anna Cartullo likes M.C. Escher. Sam gives her a book of his drawings [[spoiler: on her final day.]]
* James Gurney's ''Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara'' features a university structure with an impossible staircase based on Escher's work known as the [[http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.ca/2007/09/credit-to-mr-penrose.html Scholar's Stairway]]; the "Pen and Rose Fraternity" that Gurney invents as the scholars associated with the stairway is a further homage to Roger Penrose and his son.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E1Castrovalva Castrovalva]]'', involving a world of Escher-like recursion, is titled in homage to one of his earlier (non-paradoxical) works.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* The video for "Drive" by Music/{{Incubus}} is largely a ShoutOut to ''Drawing Hands''.
* Much of the graphics in the video for "Otherside" by Music/RedHotChiliPeppers.
* In Music/WeirdAlYankovic's ''White And Nerdy'', the titular white nerd raps that M.C. Escher is his favorite MC.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/TheBridge'' is the game that resulted when M.C. Escher met UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton and learned programming.
* ''VideoGame/{{Illusions}}'' was based on elements of several Escher prints.
* ''VideoGame/DantesInferno'' has a room evocative of "Other World".
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' features the Oocca, which resemble the human-bird... things in ''Another World''. They can walk on walls, furthering the allusion when seen doing so in their city in the sky.
* In ''VideoGame/AdventureQuestWorlds'', the town of Mobius is the victim of the First Lord of Chaos: ''Escher''ion. The entire quest chain to confront him is filled with M.C. Escher references, fitting of a Lord of ''Chaos''.
* In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', a sojourn through a place that appears to be outside reality, [[MindScrew or something]], features a tower with an endless staircase like that in ''Ascending and Descending''.
* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryI'', when you navigate the Brigand warlock's maze, one of the comments you make is that M.C. Escher would love this place. The maze in question is somewhat reminiscent of ''Relativity'', but also of other Escher drawings.
* The 78th level of ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}'' is titled "Tribute to M.C. Escher". The main solution to the level involves building a confusing zigzag stairway.
* ''VideoGame/MonumentValley'' has perspective and impossible paths as a major element of game play. One of the levels in the "Forgotten Shores" expansion pack is a recreation of ''Waterfall''.
* Atari Games' ''Crystal Castles'' has one level with a looped staircase based on ''Ascending And Descending''.
* ''[[VideoGame/HyperRogue HyperRogue]]'' has graphics inspired by the hyperbolic tilings in the ''Circle Limit'' series.
* ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'': Appropriately for the master of Space magic, Kylin's domain is full of AlienGeometries, [[http://lparchive.org/SaGa-Frontier/Update%2020/Apr%2013%202007%2009-54-24PM.jpg one room in particular]] that is extremely evocative of Escher's art style.
* The Tain in ''{{VideoGame/Myth}}'' resembles M.C. Escher's "Double Planetoid".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* The animated short ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhfhgbmZe9s Hallucii]]'' features Penrose stairs in an urban environment.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''The Wiki/SCPFoundation'' references the Penrose staircase of ''Ascending and Descending'' when a [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-085 living drawing]] is asked to walk it. She thinks it's neat, and asks why more stairways aren't like this.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Furcadia}}'' contest dream "Puzzle Mansion", the stairway works like this.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In 2002 ''[[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2002 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'', part of Castle Grayskull's internal architecture appears to be based on ''Belvedere''.
[[/folder]]

!General references
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast'', the title character tells Chuck D of Music/PublicEnemy that M.C. Escher is [[CriticalResearchFailure his favourite rapper]].
[[/folder]]

* In Creator/WeirdAlYankovic's ''White And Nerdy'', the titular white nerd raps that M.C.Escher is his favorite MC.

** In the novel ''Literature/MovingPictures'', the layout of the Library of Unseen University is described as "a topographical nightmare, [...] that would make M. C. Escher go for a good lie down, or possibly sideways."

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

** In the novel ''Discworld/MovingPictures'', the layout of the Library of Unseen University is described as "a topographical nightmare, [...] that would make M. C. Escher go for a good lie down, or possibly sideways."
** In ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', old-fashioned bookshops are said to be looking like "as though they were designed by M.C. Escher on a bad day".

* The Tain in VideoGame/''{{Myth}}'' resembles M.C. Escher's "Double Planetoid".

* The Haunted Mansion at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disney World]] now includes a "Relativity" room, complete with ghostly footprints appearing on the steps, usually at extreme angles to the direction of gravity.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast'', the title character tells Chuck D of Creator/PublicEnemy that M.C. Escher is [[CriticalResearchFailure his favourite rapper]].

Contrary to the name, he [[IThoughtItMeant was not, in fact, a rapper]] (though he is Music/WeirdAlYankovic's favorite [[PunnyName MC]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' referenced it twice. Once Stewie obtained a copy while posing as Brian's college roommate; on another occasion Peter referenced "that rap video by [[IncrediblyLamePun MC]] Escher", prompting a cut to Escher dressed as MCHammer doing an [[HollywoodToneDeaf incredibly bad rap song]] and dancing on the stairs.

* ''VideoGame/Dusk'': [=E2M5=] is named "The Escher Labs". The level starts unconspicuous enough, but soon degenerates in a MindScrew of epic proportions.