Referenced By / The Giving Tree

Literature

• In Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Greg says that his dad used to read the book to him as a bedtime story, and he thought it was great. However, in order to keep him from walking out at night, his dad shows him the infamous portrait of Shel Silverstein on the back and tells him that if he walks out the door at night, he'll see Shel Silverstein.
• In Save the Enemy, Zoey's libertarian dad read The Giving Tree to her when she was four. He called it "evil" because it "promotes the immoral destruction of the self."

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Live-Action TV

• In Friday Night Lights, Landry feels Tyra is taking advantage of him and not considering his feelings, and gives a rant comparing himself to the Giving Tree and her to the boy.
• In "The Savior", the first episode of the sixth season of Once Upon a Time, when Jafar taunts Aladdin with the fate of Saviors, his words are a paraphrase of the fate of the Giving Tree: "...you give, and give, and give, and for what? They pick the fruit, they cut the branches...and in the end all that's left is this shaky stump."

Web Comics

• Sheldon: This strip has Arthur reading the book... and being outraged by it.

Web Original

• The Nostalgia Critic: The review of The Lorax begins with a parody of the story. A very, very dark parody.

Western Animation

• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: The episode "The Taking Tree" is a parody of the story.
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• Robot Chicken: A sketch from "But Not in That Way" has the tree (voiced by Hulk Hogan) getting back at his friend by directing him to another tree, who turns out to be a raping tree.
• The Simpsons: The chalkboard gag for "The Bart Wants What It Wants" has Bart writing "The Giving Tree is not a chump."