Some films and TV episodes, etc. have include references to Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, and later, Richard Roeper.
Films - Animated
- In the 1997 Disney animated film Hercules, Hades (played by James Woods) gives Hermes "two thumbs way, way up" to another character. Disney used the clip in the film's advertising, implying that the film really did get the coveted "two thumbs up" from the critics. However, when it was revealed that Siskel gave the film a "thumbs down", Disney pulled the clip from the ads.
- The 1987 Robert Townsend comedy Hollywood Shuffle contained a spoof segment called "Sneaking Into Movies". The segment features two purposefully stereotypical African-American hoodlums reviewing movies with a "thumbs up, thumbs down" system. Their final film review was a cop movie spoof entitled "Dirty Larry", but instead of giving thumb ratings, the two reviewers gave the movie the finger.
- The two-headed monster in the 1988 film Willow is named Eborsisk, according to supplemental materials, in their "honor".
- A reference to the duo can be heard in the 1989 film Police Academy 6: City Under Siege during a high speed chase in which Captain Harris shouts, "Look out for Gene and Roger's fruit stand.", in reference to them both hating the cliche of fruit stands being destroyed in movie car chases and the Police Academy film series in general.
- In the 1995 Amy Heckerling film Clueless, a dopey high school student announces "Two thumbs up! Holiday fun for the whole family!" in response to protagonist Cher's English speech.
- The 1998 film Godzilla (1998), featured characters based on the duo, with the Mayor of New York City, Mayor Ebert, being portrayed by Michael Lerner, and Gene, his aide, being played by Lorry Goldman. In the film, Gene resigns from working for Mayor Ebert by giving him a "thumbs down" gesture. Of the characters, Ebert pointed out in his one-and-a-half stars out of four review
that the characters were producer Dean Devlin and director Roland Emmerich's jabs at his and Gene Siskel's negative reviews of their previous work Stargate and Independence Day stating, "Now that I've inspired a character in a Godzilla movie, all I really still desire is for several Ingmar Bergman characters to sit in a circle and read my reviews to one another in hushed tones". Siskel particularly singled out this aspect, saying, "If you're going to go through the trouble of putting us in a monster movie, why don't you take the advantage of having the monster either eat or squash us?", later placing the film on the list of the worst films of 1998 (the last "worst of" list he would do before passing away). - In Kevin Smith's 1999 film Dogma, Jay refers to Silent Bob as "Ebert here" in one scene while discussing his taste in movies. Quite fittingly, as Smith would make a few guest appearances on the show (then titled Ebert & Roeper) in place of Ebert after thyroid cancer surgery in 2006-07.
- In the 2002 film Big Fat Liar, when a producer named Marty Wolf responds to a child's criticism about his movies, he says, "Well everybody has a dry spell, Ebert."
- SCTV parodied Siskel (Joe Flaherty) and Ebert (Dave Thomas) three times. In their third appearance, in a 1989 HBO special, Martin Short's Ed Grimley dreams of Siskel accidentally shooting Ebert during an argument.
- In an episode of Bizarre, a 1980s Showtime series, comedian John Byner played Ebert with another series regular (usually Don Lake) playing Siskel, who argue enough over a movie that it comes to blows, with Siskel sending Ebert over the back of the theater seats.
- In the early-to-mid 1980s to the early 1990s, the children's television program Sesame Street had a recurring parody sketch of Siskel & Ebert's first series, "Sneak Previews", as "Sneak Peak Previews", which illustrated differences of opinion. In a run-down theater, Oscar the Grouch and Telly Monster watched a short video segment together, usually from the show's archives. After the video, Oscar invariably dislikes it, and Telly enjoyed it, and each told why. The duo themselves would appear in one sketch in 1991 in which they instruct the hosts on how their "thumbs up/thumbs down" system works. At the end of the sketch, Oscar asks if there could be a "thumbs sideways" rating (the film rated in question being the 1950 Walt Disney animated feature Cinderella), and goads the two men whether or not that would be acceptable, as Ebert likes the idea, but Siskel does not.
- In an episode of Full House, while Stephanie and D. J. are arguing, Danny comes in and says, "Siskel, Ebert! Stop yelling at each other's throats!"
- The Canadian TV series Royal Canadian Air Farce had a segment with Roger Abbott playing Ebert and Don Ferguson as Siskel. Abbott's Ebert mocked the real Ebert's weight, often eating fried chicken during the reviews. The catchphrase was, "The balcony is closed, but the snack bar is always open." Also, a long running skit on the show involved Roger Abbott playing a character named Gilbert Smythe Bite-Me who judges movies and always hates them.
- Ebert publicly criticized Siskel for appearing on an episode of The Larry Sanders Show without him. In the 1993 episode "Off Camera", Siskel, playing himself, gets into an argument with John Ritter. Ebert was also offered a part in the episode, but was unable to film it due to a scheduling conflict.
- In the 1997 episode of The X-Files entitled "Leonard Betts", when Mulder and Scully discovered a severed thumb among some medical waste, Mulder quips, "Siskel or Ebert?"
- In the 1997 Season 3 episode of NewsRadio entitled "Sleeping", Dave (Dave Foley) imagines a comatose Jimmy (Stephen Root) telling him that if wanted to have a conversation about movies, he'd have "hired that guy Siskel Ebert to do your job".
- In the 1997 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer entitled "Some Assembly Required", Buffy says, "Then if you wouldn't mind a little Gene and Roger..." before offering unsolicited criticism on Gile's pick-up lines.
- In a 1998 episode of Sports Night entitled "Shoe Money Tonight", when Natalie is upset at Jeremy for spending the one night they both had off from work with an actress friend of his, Chris mentions he's heard how good she is in her new work, in which Natalie grouses, "Thank you, Siskel & Ebert!"
- In a 2002 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm entitled "The Grand Opening", it features a food critic who gives Larry David's restaurant a poor rating. Larry then retaliates with a heated game of kickball in which he broke both of the critic's thumbs. David used this episode as retaliation for Ebert (in his newspaper column) for rating his 1998 movie Sour Grapes with zero stars. Ebert, when he was asked to respond to this in his Movie Answer Man column, said he was a big fan of the show.
Music
- "Weird Al" Yankovic's MC Hammer parody "I Can't Watch This" from 1992 includes the line "Those Siskel & Ebert bums oughta go home and just sit on their thumbs." This was a very personal Take That! for Yankovic, since Siskel & Ebert had given his 1989 film UHF two thumbs down a few years earlier.
- The Bloodhound Gang's 1999 song "The Bad Touch" includes the line "Yes I'm Siskel, yes I'm Ebert, and you're getting two thumbs up."
Websites
- The SCP Foundation: SCP-1756 is a DVD player, when any optical disc is inserted (DVD, CD, Blu-ray, etc.), plays a segment of At The Movies about whatever is on the disc, even if it's not a movie: either the actual segment, if it appeared on the show, or a believable fake, it not.
- In Will Vinton's 1987 Christmas television special, A Claymation Christmas Celebration, dinosaur hosts Rex and Herb (anthropomorphic versions of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert) introduce several segments featuring clay animation and Christmas music.
- Although Rex and Herb first appeared on Vinton's short Dinosaurs, their first appearance as critics was on Festival of Claymation, a compilation video of Claymation shorts. The pair play hosts in linking segments, but with each one their arguments escalate, and by the end they come to blows. Siskel and Ebert were particularly fond of Rex and Herb and featured clips in some of their retrospective shows.
- The Simpsons
- In the opening of the 1991 episode, "The Way We Was", the Simpsons family watches a parody of the duo whose reviewers argue over the latest McBain movie in which Homer muses aloud, "I love watching the bald guy argue with the fat tub of lard", as he unwittingly parodies himself.
- The 1994 episode "Burns' Heir" has a brief shot of a theater marquee advertising Siskel & Ebert: The Movie, and the "Two Thumbs Up" quote below.
- In the 1992 episode of Rugrats entitled "The Dog Broomer", when the adults are watching a science fiction space movie. Stu mentions, "The bald guy (Siskel) gave it two thumbs up", while Lou replies, "Yeah, well I bet the fat guy (Ebert) hated it".
- Siskel and Ebert were satirized in the 1993 episode of the popular Nickelodeon series Doug entitled "Doug's Monster Movie" in which they appear in a dream sequence and vote two thumbs down on Doug's home movie.
- In a 1993 episode of Animaniacs titled "Critical Condition", a parody of the duo is shown, being renamed as Lean Hisskill & Codger Eggbert and being voiced by Maurice LaMarche and Chuck McCann (later Billy West), respectively. They commonly use the "toes up/toes down" system to rate movies.
- Siskel and Ebert play themselves in a 1995 episode of The Critic, in which the duo break up their partnership and audition for replacements. Jay at first auditions for both, then convinces the two of them to reconcile.
- Caricatures of Siskel and Ebert appear on the sequel to the 1955 short film "One Froggy Evening", entitled "Another Froggy Evening" (released in 1995) in which they are part of a crowd in Ancient Rome giving Michigan J. Frog thumbs down.
- In a 1998 episode of Celebrity Deathmatch entitled "Celebrity Deathmatch Goes to the Movies" features a fight between Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. Siskel was the winner.
- Ebert appears as a constellation during a tour of the planetarium in the 1998 episode South Park entitled "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods" by giving a thumbs down in which the other characters (obscured by speaking over it) compare the hot gas that composes stars to "what comes out of Roger Ebert's mouth when he speaks." Despite the fact that he has no other bearing on the plot,note the episode was referring to Ebert's weight issue.
- In an episode of Pani Poni Dash!, Ichijo complains that Ebert and Roeper should have given every movie that stars Anna Faris "two thumbs up".
