As one of the most translated and popular European comic strips across the world, Asterix has had its fair share of shout-outs, parodies, spoofs, homages and references over the years.
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Comic Books
- In Action Comics #579 (1986) Superman and Jimmy Olsen appear back in time to a small village of indomitable Gauls
. Aside from the Asterix stand-in, who's a redhead with a unique enough design, they're all obscured in some way. The face of Getafix's stand-in has his face constantly shadowed In the Hood, and "Columnix" only ever has either his body or his head in clear view on panel but never both at the same time. - Alcibiade Didascauxnote has an issue about Ancient Rome, which features Julius Caesar as a perfect look-alike of the character from Asterix.note The same book contains a cameo of Fulliautomatix, as well as a cameo of Asterix and Obelix themselves (Obelix is seen carrying a menhir on which is written "tribute to Uderzo").
- The Boys: A Japanese scientist working on a reverse-engineered version of the V Super Serum, only to find that a baby has fallen in the batch and eaten it all (The Female). The man's name? Dr. Uderzo.
- In Bruchbach Serenade, Rick and Mike find a pile of outdated schoolbooks. One of them is a history book starring Asterix and Obelix — or rather, "Siggi & Babarras" from Rolf Kauka's version.
- In The Cartoon History of the Universe, the Gauls who sack Rome in 390 BC are Asterix, Obelix and Vitalstatistix.
- In Doctor Fate vol 4 #11, Khalid faces the ghost of Julius Caesar and his legions. The art has a more cartoony style, making the Romans look like the ones in Asterix. In addition, when Dr Fate sinks through the floor, we see the buried skeletons of Asterix, Getafix, Cacofonix and Vitalstatistix (with shield bearers), all in the poses from the "Meet the Gauls" page at the front of the albums, as seen here◊.
- One Twelfth Doctor storyline in Doctor Who (Titan), climaxes with a battle in which the Doctor's comic creator allies summon pop culture characters to help them, including recognizable versions of Asterix and Obelix.
- In issue #50 of Dylan Dog Lord Wells has grown long beard, is dressed up like a druid and has a servant that strikingly resembles Obelix, who is forbidden from drinking his "potion" that Wells is preparing in a large cauldron, and moves large stones on his back (which he places around to form a Stonehenge structure in Wells' garden).
- Futurama: In one of the comic strip adaptations of Futurama, issue #25, the characters crashland their ship on a planet that resembles the Middle Ages. The banquet they have in the end is a direct homage to the Every Episode Ending in Asterix, complete with a robot resembling Asterix and Zoidberg tied up to a tree like Cacofonix.
- Gaston Lagaffe: In one of the gags a drawing of Asterix taking off his helmet can be seen hanging on the wall.
- Gilles de Geus: The story Willem de Zwijger starts off with a parody of the opening of every Asterix album. We see a large magnifying glass appear and the narrator saying: "In the 16th century all of the Netherlands are occupied by the Spanish. All of the Netherlands? YES, All of the Netherlands!!" Then the magnifying glass burns a hole through the map. In the next shot we see Willem van Oranje in a burning city shouting: "I saw it! I swear! A giant magnifying glass appeared and set the entire town on fire!", before he wakes up and it turns out it was All Just a Dream.
- Asterix and Obelix appear as 19th century Parisians in Grandville: Noel, demanding equal rights for humans in Funny Animal-dominated France.
- The Polish comic Kayko & Kokosh is said to be that country's counterpart to Asterix, featuring a medieval Polish village that is defended by two heroes, a short cunning warrior and a large strong but thick-headed warrior, from Teutonic knights.
- De Kiekeboes:
- In De Schat van Mata Hari the family visits Carnac where several menhirs are standing on a field. Konstantinopel remarks: "Is this where Obelix gets his menhirs?"
- In Geeeeef Acht Kiekeboe is in the army against his will. He tries to desert by camouflaging himself as a tree, snickering: "I read it once in "Asterix" note . When a kissing couple starts carving their names in his branch he runs away in pain saying: "That's something they didn't mention in "Asterix"!
- In De Snor van Kiekeboe several comic book characters with a moustache protest against Kiekeboe's election as Moustache of the Year by the Antwerp Moustache Club, among them Asterix and Obelix.
- In Afgelast Wegens Ziekte Asterix and Obelix are among the comic book characters from other franchises who attend Kiekeboe's funeral. In the same album Kiekeboe and Konstantinopel go shopping at Plagiarismland where they can buy old comic book backgrounds for cheap prices. Among the backgrounds we see are menhirs and a huge cauldron.
- An Italian Mickey Mouse Comic Universe story was a giant homage to Asterix, featuring Mickey and Pete as two Gauls who happen to resemble them... Something that is actually a plot point, as this story is actually set in the same universe without ever showing or naming the canon characters and the two get mistaken for Asterix and Obelix multiple times while they're going to a certain Undefeatable Little Village to try and obtain a certain super strength potion to resist the Romans...
- Monica's Gang had their parody of Return of the Jedi end with a banquet in which Smudge, the Luke Skywalker analogue, is hung above Bound and Gagged, with the fake Yoda noting "Hrm, where did I see this before?"
- Oggy and the Cockroaches: A segment in the first comic book features Oggy as various historical characters and one fictional character: Oggy Sterix! Oddly, there's also an Oggy Caesar...
- Oktoknopie: In of the gags Jopie and Oktoknopie are traveling by sea when they suddenly see a group of pirates. Jopie is scared, but Oktoknopie dresses himself and Jopie up as Asterix and Obelix, causing the pirates to sail off in fear.
- The Smurfs: One of the 1990s comic strip gags of the Smurfs ends with them having a banquet in the same style as Asterix and the villagers. Trumpet Smurf is seen tied up to a tree in the same way as Cacofonix always is.
- Tintin: In Tintin and the Picaros one of the background characters during the carnival is wearing an Asterix costume.
- In an issue of Top 10 where characters visit an alternate universe where the Roman Empire never fell, Asterix and Obelix are among the crowd in an arena.
- The titular Trolls in Trolls of Troy are essentially more violent Expies of the Gauls: they are much stronger than humans, love to brawl and eat, live in a village hidden in the forest, terrorising anybody that comes nearby, sometimes end a story with a banquet, and the leader of the mages is always trying to get back at them (and failing). The main differences are that the Trolls definitely don't inflict Amusing Injuries and show a marked taste for human flesh.
- Urbanus: In Nabuko Donosor Loopt Voor De Voeten César takes his dog Nabuko Donosor to the forest to tie him to a tree and get rid of him. When he arrives at the spot several famous comic book and cartoon dogs have also been left behind there, one of them Dogmatix.
- Van Nul tot Nu: In this Dutch comic book series about the history of the Netherlands Asterix and Obelix' silhouettes are seen when the narrator talks about the Celtic period.
Films — Animation
- Eetu ja Konna: When Eetu tells Konna that government agents would cut him up if they found him, Konna remarks "Those Romans are crazy", like Obelix. He says that he read that from one of Eetu's books.
Films — Live-Action
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022): One of bootlegged characters who can be seen being freed at the docks is Obelix crossed with a dragon.
- In the 1980 screen adaptation of The Miser, when Harpagon (Louis de Funès) is discussing feeding the horses with Maître Jacques (Michel Galabru), they are not figured by real horses but by a life-sized drawing from Albert Uderzo himself, as if coming straight out of Asterix.
- 2018 French movie Return of the Hero (with Jean Dujardin) features an inn called "Le Rieur Sanglier", as in Asterix in Britain.
Live-Action TV
- In 2018, Belgian Sketch Comedy series Le Grand Cactus featured an Affectionate Parody "interview" with Asterix and Obelix and their thoughts on the then-recent swine flu epidemic that left them unable to hunt boar. Asterix is played by regular Kody Kim in this sketch, while Obelix is played by guest comedian Sum.
- Mr. Bean: Mr. Bean and his teddy bear read an Asterix comic in the episode "Goodnight Mr. Bean".
- Radio Enfer:
- In one episode, Laplante tells a 'true story' about how the daughter of an Eskimo chief was madly in love with him. Jean-Lou then points out it's similar to the plot of the then-latest Asterix movie, which was Asterix Conquers America. Laplante tries to save face by saying that Albert Uderzo was inspired by Laplante's story to make that movie.
- After Vincent wrote a children's book, he gets interviewed by Jean-Lou who claims that Vincent, by talking about trees on page 63, plagiarized other works such as Asterix and Lucky Luke simply because those other works also featured trees, much to the young writer's annoyance.
- Camille becomes obsessed with a pretty boy named Éric during an episode. At the end, she gets over it and apologizes to him for using a perfume he was allergic to while also explaining "When I see a perfume bottle, I'm like Asterix, I have to fall into it." In this case, she made a mistake given that it was Obelix who fell into the magic potion.
- Another episode focuses on Galgouri thinking he managed to invent a potion that makes anyone invisible. At the end of said episode, Jocelyne sarcastically comments that it's time to make a big banquet and for everyone to eat boars.
- MTV Brazil had a football tournament between musicians, Rockgol. One of the commentators, who is a big Asterix fan, used to describe one of the "athletes" as "having fallen on a beer barrel when he was a baby".
- Sketch Comedy series Vaya semanita from the regional television of the Basque Country had an Affectionate Parody called Antxonix & Boronix, starring a village of indomitable "Vascon-Gauls" in constant fighting against the Roman legion led by Cayus Malayus.note
Music
- The King Blues' single "My Boulder" (2008) has the line: "If I'm Obelix, you are my boulder."
- The Flemish socially conscious rock band Vuile Mong en Zijn Vieze Gasten spoofed Asterix on the album cover of Bommerskonten, with Belgian politicians in the role of the characters.
Video Games
- Baldur's Gate III: One of the inspirational events for the Guild Artisan background, obtained while brewing a particularly virulent poison, is "Special Iced Arsenic... Brew?", a reference to the Special Iced Arsenic Cake in Asterix and Cleopatra.
- Expeditions: Rome: A side mission in the game is to defeat a small band of Gauls who believe they have discovered a magic potion granting them Super-Strength. A related quest requires purchasing a menhir off a giant Gaulish trader who wishes to be paid in boars, and who has a tiny friend. You have the option to find the boars or challenge these two to a fight; the latter option leads to getting trounced.
- Pharaoh: The remake adds an achievement for allowing an architect's post to collapse named Edifis, after the incompetent architect of the same name.
- Teenagent: Mark Hopper mentions even Obelix has friends besides being fat.
- Total War: Pharaoh: The flavor text for the "Obelisk" building states that "A rather plump man from a faraway land taught you how to make these."
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015): In the Expansion Pack Blood and Wine, there is a quest to get Permit A38, in reference to the famous Place That Sends You Mad scene in The Twelve Tasks of Asterix.
- Yoshi's Island: The recurring enemy Burt is known by the Significant Anagram Belixo in French and the Sdrawkcab Name Xilebo in German, due to his rotund body and blue-and-white vertically striped pants.
Web Animation
- Parody series Les Kassos has, among its many caricatures, the recurring characters of Aspégix and Grodébilix. Based on the French National Stereotypes for Britons, the problem they're consulting the social worker for is alcoholism, thanks to their "magic potion".
Webcomics
- Bandette: A carnival scene has panels on the same page featuring stalls called "Goscinny's Paper Banners" and "Uderzo's Candies". The stallholders are caricatures of Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo,
- A whole strip of League of Super Redundant Heroes is a pastiche of Asterix.
- Sandra and Woo:
- The last panel of the 1000th strip is a deliberate homage to the last panel of just about every Asterix book in existence, with the cast feasting around a huge table while a boar roasts on a spit and an annoying character dangles trussed up and gagged from a tree.
- As is the final panel of #290 (though it doesn't have a banquet).
- Larisa responds to Sandra asking if she likes Mark Rothko with "By Toutatis, no!!"
- In #1146, Sandra's dad is putting up posters of various comics, including one of Asterix where the centurion is sobbing over his men's stupidity.
- The last panel of the 1000th strip
Web Videos
- The first episode of the edutainment Youtube web series Confessions d'Histoire concerns the Gallic Wars. Vercingetorix points out the Artistic License – History the people of the Gauls are usually subjected to in modern media, including their helmets. He mentions that they didn't have wings, obviously pointing to Asterix.
Western Animation
- Miraculous Ladybug: The titular villain from the episode "Bakerix" is basically what would happen if Asterix was evil and made of bread.
- The Simpsons:
- In "Husbands and Knives", Lisa is delighted to see a shelf with Tintin and Asterix comics in the store.
- In another episode she is seen reading an Asterix comic book.
- In "I, Carambus" (which features Simpsons characters in Ancient Rome), Roman Emperor Bartigula blames the empire's problems on foreigners. Pictures of Asterix and Obelix are used to represent said foreigners, alongside a picture of Hägar the Horrible.
- South Park: Obelix is seen among the good fictional characters in the "Imaginationland" episode, blowing the horn as the battle begins.
- Space Goofs: In an episode, the alien protagonists transforms into classic Franco-Belgian Comics heroes to counter the Manga-based intruders of the week. Gorgious ends up dressed as Obelix.
Real Life
- Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny once heard that President Charles de Gaulle had named all the members of his cabinet after Asterix characters during a meeting. They had heard this first-hand from one of the politicians. Later however, the minister in question denied the story in the strongest possible terms.
- The first French satellite, launched in 1965, was named "Astérix-1".
- During the 1998 French presidential campaign, right-wing party RPR tried to use a poster featuring a Big Ball of Violence inspired by Asterix. They got sued by Uderzo over this.
- The French expression for someone being a natural at something is to say that they fell into it when young, a reference to young Obelix's accident with the potion.
