Friends, Tropers, countrymen, lend me your ears — no, not literally, that's gross — while we tell thee of these references to Julius Caesar.
open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
- In a form of Shout-Out Theme Naming, the dub-name of the main character's father from Kimba the White Lion is named Caesar, while a villain who had a bitter past with him is named Cassius.
Comic Books
- A Running Gag in Asterix is that Caesar is always saying "Et tu, Brute?", and it's getting on Brutus's nerves. "One of these days, I'll..."
- A Patsy Walker comic has Hellcat quoting mostly right a Brutus soliquoy from Act 4 while being swept by a wave:There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the something something is uh, tied to shallows and in miseries. [...] On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves or lose our ventures.
Comic Strips
- In Pearls Before Swine, Rat gets a job writing horoscopes and writes, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in ourselves." When Goat tells him that Shakespeare already wrote that, he responds, "Good literature is not a race."
Film — Animated
- Mrs. Henscher, the local drama teacher in ParaNorman, yells the famous "dogs of war" line at one point, only to discover her compatriots aren't familiar with the reference.Mrs. Henscher: [Beat] Let's tear 'em apart!
Film — Live Action
- In All About Eve, Margo remembers the first part of the "evil that men do" quote, but can't quite remember the second part.
- Carry On Cleo has a few send-ups of the play, such as Caesar constantly trying to do the "friends, Romans" speech, but his pauses for emphasis keep leading everyone to assume he's forgotten how it goes and correcting him.
- The title of 1984 Charles Bronson action movie The Evil That Men Do.
- Mean Girls: "We should totally just stab Caesar!"
- In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Caesar the chimp is named by the father of the human protagonist starting to quote Julius Caesar once he sees the baby ape. (Unlike the original Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, where Caesar is given that name after he picks out of a dictionary, making that version a direct reference to the man himself.)
- Robin Hood: Men in Tights:Robin: Lend me your ears!
(popping sounds, followed by ears being thrown at him)
Robin: ... That's disgusting. - Warren in Roman Scandals quotes "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!"
- Without Warning (1994) ends with newsman Sander Vanocur quoting Cassius' "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."
Literature
- The title of the Frederick Forsyth novel The Dogs of War is taken from the line "Cry 'havoc', and let slip the dogs of war." (3.1 273)
- The Fault in Our Stars' title comes from a line in Act I, Scene II.
- Pyramids: When discussing the life and accomplishments of the decidedly late pharoah, the narration notes that the people making the tomb had a bit of difficulty depicting them since he never in his life did bestride the world like a mighty colossus (or, in fact, anything impressive at all).
- Major Hogan in Sharpe's Eagle quotes "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!"
- Title of Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who: When Romana departs in "Warriors' Gate", the Doctor pays tribute by describing her as "the noblest Romana of them all".
- Enemy at the Door: The episode "Treason" revolves around a German officer who is secretly part of a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler before he brings ruin down on Germany. Officially, Major Richter and Major Freidel know nothing of this, but at the end of the episode Richter, speaking of the officer and one of his co-conspirators, paraphrases Marc Antony's description of Caesar's assassins as "honorable men" before sharing a meaningful look with Freidel.
- M*A*S*H: In the season nine episode "Oh How We Danced", Charles gives a poor rating to a combat medical unit, and Major Finch, the unit commander, responds by slugging him. When Hawkeye asks him why he doesn't press charges, Charles admits he doesn't want to admit he was afraid, and says Shakespeare was right in that "cowards die many times before their deaths."
- In an episode of The Odd Couple the Trigger Phrase for Oscar's post hypnotic suggestion to be neat is "The fault lies not in our stars but in ourselves."
- Done interestingly in Rome. The scene of Caesar's death is an incredibly tense, violent and brilliantly acted scuffle, almost free of dialogue — Caesar doesn't say "Et tu, Brute?" or anything else while he's dying, since he's too busy spasming and bleeding to death all over the marble senate floor. Instead they went with Plutarch's version of events, where he pulls his toga over his face (or tries to). However, once he's twitched his last and the conspirators are standing around shaking and silent, Cassius raises Brutus' arm and declaims, "Thus ever for tyrants!" Brutus doesn't take it well.
- It gets better. Instead of seeing Brutus and Antony give the legendary speeches to the plebeians, we see the aftermath, where a smug Antony sarcastically consoles Brutus for giving a good speech but perhaps "a bit too cerebral" for the crowd to appreciate. Later, a pleb describes the speeches to his friends, showing yet another perspective of these famous monologues without showing us exactly what happened.
- In the next episode when Brutus goes home — thoroughly regretting his part in the whole thing — and realizes his co-conspirators are considering killing Antony too, his mother encourages him to do it, and he responds, "You too, Mother?"
- The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Improbable Cause" opens with Garak and Bashir having one of their literature discussions over lunch. Garak, hailing from a society where everyone really is out to get you, views Caesar's blind spot regarding Brutus as farcical instead of tragic. In the following episode "The Die is Cast", however, Garak's former boss Enabran Tain makes a similar mistake. (The latter title, interestingly, is a quote from Julius Caesar, but the person rather than the play.)
- The Twilight Zone: In the final scene of "The Passersby", Abraham Lincoln quotes the following line from Act II, Scene II: "Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come."
- Wayne and Shuster, "Rinse the Blood Off My Toga":Mark Antony: I'm Mark Antony.
Flavius: Mark Antony?
Mark Antony: Yes. I just made a speech over the body of Caesar. I said, "Friends, Romans and countrymen, lend me your ears!"
Flavius: Yeah... What have you got in that sack?
Mark Antony: Ears.
Music
- Iron Maiden has a song called "The Evil That Men Do". Bruce Dickinson sometimes uses the quote "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones" (3.2 77-8) with the two lines reversed.
- One of Ray Stevens' albums is titled Lend Me Your Ears.
Theatre
- The Fantasticks: when Henry boasts of his acting ability El Gallo asks him to do "Friends, Romans, Countrymen." Henry fucks it up.
- Harry in Half A Sixpence quotes "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!"
Video Games
Web Comics
- Hark! A Vagrant: Caesar isn't able to get clarity on what Beware the Ides of March means, so asks for fashion advice for the time instead. He gets assassinated in pajamas.
- Elan in The Order of the Stick quotes "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!"
Western Animation
- "Et tu, Humanite?" from Justice League episode "Injustice For All".
- In an early episode of Milo Murphy's Law, Sara delivers a Rousing Speech to quell a fan war between longtime and more recent fans of The Doctor Zone Files:Sara: Oldbies, newbies, lend me your ears! (A cosplayer hands her the prosthetic ears from his costume) No, not literally.
- The Mr. Bogus episode "Et Tu, Brattus?" is a reference to the line from Act III Scene I, "Et tu, brute!"
- "Et tu, Gabby Gums?" from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Ponyville Confidential".
- Phineas in Phineas and Ferb: "Friends, bullies, Irving..."
- The Simpsons: In "Homer the Great", Lisa tries to warn Homer about the fleeting nature of power with "beware the ides of March." Homer immediately ignores her.
- SpongeBob in Spongebob Squarepants: "Friends, students, juvenile delinquents..."
