Referenced By / The Godfather

The Godfather is one of the most iconic and quotable films of all time, and a lot of other works have referenced the film, mostly with either Marlon Brando's performance as Vito Corleone, or the "horse head" and baptism scenes.

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• The label for the Bones Coffee flavor "Holy Cannoli" is based off of the iconic opening of the first film.

Anime & Manga

• Gokusen: As the story is about a yakuza heiress, the Western release saw it appropriate to use the same typeface and style for its English language logo.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind: As a work centered on the Mafia, there are naturally a few shout outs to Mario Puzo's crime novel The Godfather:
  • The plot thread of Narancia contracting an eye infection after losing his mother and wandering the streets, only to have it healed after being "adopted" into Bucciarati's gang and then being angrily told to continue his education is note-for-note identical to that of Tom Hagen, the informally-adopted Irish on and lawyer of the Corleone Family.
  • Gelato choking to death swallowing the towel stuffed in his mouth as he watched his lover Sorbet hacked to pieces alive by Cioccolata is identical to how a victim of a double-murder committed by Luca Brasi, the Corleone Head Enforcer and hitman, died watching his friend dismembered limb-by-limb with a fire-axe.
  • The final scene with the hand-kissing in a sign of loyalty to the new Don, Giorno Giovanna while Mista observes in the distance, much like the iconic final scene of the first movie with Don Michael Corleone having a hand-kissing and Kay observes.

Comic Books

• The Long Halloween makes many references. The main Mafia guy Carmine Falcone is an Expy of Vito Corleone, his daughter Sofia is a Gender Flip of Sonny, and his son Alberto is (sort of) an Expy of Fredo and (to a lesser, or more subtle degree) of Michael, and Mario is an Expy of Michael. The first scene in the first issue is similar to the first scene in the movie, with Bruce Wayne saying "I believe in Gotham City". The assassination of the one victims Luigi Maroni is framed to look like the death (by heart attack) of Vito Corleone. Vincent Falcone bringing his son Carmine to Thomas Wayne to operate on him invokes Vito bringing Sonny to the coroner.

Comic Strips

• A The Far Side comic showed a two-legged horse walking out of a theater showing The Godfather with a frozen expression of horror while his annoyed human companion says, "Get a hold of yourself!... it was only a movie, for crying out loud!"

Fan Works

• Past Sins: The Road Home: "Filly Scout Cookies", Discord makes a reference to the "you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married, and you ask me to do murder for money." line, while using Family Guy's rephrasing "to be married" as "[X]'s wedding", "Peter, my good friend. How good of you to come and show your respect, on this, the day of my daughter's wedding.":
  Discord was now wearing a sleek, pinstripe suit. He flipped a coin over and over in his claw while holding a toothpick dainty in his teeth.
  “You come to me on this, the day of somepony’s daughter’s wedding, with such a request."

• Star-Crossed Crusaders: Fredo Zeppeli, one of Caesar's siblings, and Hitomi's grandfather, is named after Fredo. Notably, he's the one who would later become a vicious gangster later into his life.
  • Unbreakable Diamond, Protean Rain:
    • In a flashback, this story reveals the names of the other Zeppeli siblings. Fredo's twin brother is named Francesco.
    • After this story's version of the bank scene in the Harvest arc (in which it ends differently thanks to Fubuki scaring the bank employee shitless), Josuke and Okuyasu are freaked out by his Tranquil Fury moments before. Okuyasu compares it to a member of the mafia who'd leave "a dead horse's head in someone's bed if they don't give in to their demands".
  • Lacrime D'oro del Vento Aureo: A given considering the source material already had references to The Godfather. One particular nod is when Olivia looks at Leaky-Eye Luca's dead body at the morgue and notices the wound that killed him, she starts her remark with "Look how they massacred this poor bastard."

Films — Animated

• Rugrats in Paris: The film opens Angelica playing the "Bob-father", which is lampshaded by her parents.
  Drew: I can't believe Angelica saw that movie last night.
  Charlotte: I can't mother and merger at the same time. Besides, she only saw a scene or two. It couldn't have made an impression.
• Shark Tale: There are several references to the film, including Robert De Niro voicing Don Lino, Oscar indirectly calling him "the Godfather", and having a character named Luca.
• Zootopia: Mister Big is a parody of Don Corleone, having almost all of his appearance and mannerisms (well, aside from being a tiny anthropomorphic shrew).

Films — Live-Action

• In Airplane!, when Captain Oveur's wife is woken up by a phone call, there's a horse in her bed. It isn't dead, though.
  • This isn't the last time Jim Abrahams would reference the film; in Hot Shots!, Lloyd Bridges character, while at a funeral, quotes Michael's speech about meeting the heads of "all the Five Families", and Jane Austen's Mafia!, while a spoof of gangster movies in general, spoofs The Godfather in particular.
• Annie Hall: While waiting for Annie outside a movie theater, Alvy gets approached by two stereotypical New York Italian-Americans who recognize him and ask for his autograph. When Annie finally shows up, Alvy complains about her being late, and grouses, "I'm standing here with the cast of The Godfather!"
• In A Better Tomorrow II, the taxi manager tosses oranges to the main characters and they act uneasy. This was a Shout-Out to the fact that oranges foreshadow death in the trilogy.
  • Speaking of John Woo, the library hit in Hard Boiled is a direct lift of the restaurant hit.
  • There's also an informant from Once a Thief who gets killed from the backseat via garotte, similar to the first Godfather movie. Right up to the victim's shoe hitting the windscreen.
• Cannonball Run 2 features a scene where the gangsters meet to discuss their plans. The Don is played by Dom De Luise who imitates Brando's performance, even spoofing the Right-Hand Cat trope popularized by the film.
• Early in Crazy Rich Asians, Rachel is on the receiving end of a threat similar to the horse-head scene, but with a bloodied sailfish head in the middle of her room instead of a horse's. Rachel's reaction - at first stunned, and then slowly breaking down in panic - even resembles Woltz's.
• In Fletch, one of the aliases the title character (an investigative reporter) uses is Moe Greene.
• The Freshman (1990) basically has Marlon Brando playing an Expy of Don Corleone, and the film class the main character is taking is studying Part II.
• F/X: Murder by Illusion: When Mason asks Rollie not only to arrange DeMarco's (a mobster who's ratting out others and going into witness protection) phony murder, but also be the one to commit it, Rollie complains, "Michael Corleone went to Sicily - what am I supposed to do?"
• In the Name of the Father: the prisoners are watching the first movie when one of them sets the head guard on fire.
• Inside Man: Detective Mitchell tells Detective Frasier the latter should go all "Michael Corleone" on those who accused him of being a Dirty Cop.
• In La Grande Bouffe, Ugo Tognazzi puts on a very convincing disguise and imitation of Don Corleone at one point, both physically and in acting.
• In Robin Hood: Men in Tights, the Sheriff of Rottingham hires Don Giovanni (played by Dom DeLuise reprising his above role) to assassinate Robin Hood.
• Star Wars:
  • Jabba the Hutt's death scene in Return of the Jedi was inspired by Luca Brasi's death.
  • Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious giving a speech in the Galactic Senate proclaiming the formation of the Empire is intercut with Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader murdering the Separatist leaders in Revenge of the Sith which was inspired by the baptism/murder montage.
• In Tell No One, Bruno has a tattoo of the film's title on his right shoulder.
• In White Men Can't Jump, when Sidney asks a friend of his to help Billy's girlfriend Gloria, he imitates Don Corleone.
• In You've Got Mail, Joe is a big fan of the movie. One moment includes him answering Kathleen on chat regarding why men love The Godfather so much in that the film is the "sum of all wisdom", and uses quotes from the movie to demonstrate how it can be used to answer all of life's questions.

Live-Action TV

• On an episode of Sports Night, Jeremy gets even with Dan for pranking him when he first started working at CSC, and says, "Today, I take care of all family business."
• On an episode of The Wire, when Stringer sees Avon preparing for all-out war with Marlo, he says, "Straight to the mattresses, huh?"
• In Everybody Hates Chris, teenage Chris Rock's middle school is called Corleone Junior High School. In later seasons, he starts attending Tattaglia High School.
• There are enough references in The Sopranos to fill an entire page (along with Goodfellas). The mobsters themselves often discuss the movies, to the point where anyone can say "Part One", "Part Two", or "Part Three" and any mobster worth his salt will know what is being referred to. On request, Silvio also impersonates Al Pacino (as Michael): "Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in."
• "Fulgencio", season 4 episode 13 of Modern Family, Phil becoming Jay and Gloria's son's godfather is intercut with scenes of Luke carrying out retaliation on Phil's orders, a reference to the end of the first film. The episode ends with Luke closing the door of Phil's office on Claire after Phil states "don't ask me about my business".
• In My Family, Ben fears that his patients might be a gangster:
  Ben: You could wake up next to a horse's head.
  Susan: Funny, I've been waking up next to a horse's arse for years.
• In the Season 2 premiere episode of Veronica Mars, "Normal is the Watchword", Veronica agrees to find out why Wallace flunked his drug test when he shouldn't have (after refusing a classmate of Wallace's earlier because she claimed she didn't do that type of work anymore), but mock grouses, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"
• CSI: NY's "To What End?" has a baker shot to death in his establishment. When asked what the investigators should do next, Jo Danville responds, "Take the gun, leave the cannoli."
• In a Seinfeld episode, friends of the gang select Kramer as their son's godfather. They go across the hall to his apartment and shut the door on the other three just as Kay had the door shut on her at the conclusion of the first movie. Jerry also spends much of the episode doing a terrible imitation of Don Corleone.
• The West Wing: In the first season episode "Mandatory Minimums", at the end of the day, Sam, with Toby in tow, tells Josh he had lunch with a Republican staffer, and Josh and Toby realize it's about the fact the Republicans know Sam is friends with a call girl. When Sam finds out about this, he's upset, and Josh compares it to the scene in The Godfather when Michael tells Sonny he wants to kill Al Lettieri and Captain McClusky, comparing himself to Sonny, Sam to Michael, and Toby to Clemenza.
  • Earlier that season, in the episode "The Crackpots and These Women", Toby doesn't want President Barlet to go to a Hollywood fundraiser hosted by a producer named Larry Posner because he thinks Posner's movies are too violent. Sam points out The Godfather is also violent, and what Toby really is objecting to is the fact Posner's movies are bad.
• Breaking Bad: Sleazeball attorney Saul Goodman wants in on Walt's meth business. He pitches himself as being Tom Hagen to Walt's Vito Corleone.
  Walt: Wha— I'm no Vito Corleone!
  Saul: No shit. Right now, you're Fredo. But with some sound advice and some introductions, who knows...?
• Pushing Daisies: In the first season episode "Bitter Sweets", when Olive realizes she loves Alfredo, the homeopathic drug salesman, she imagines him coming back to the diner, saying to him, "Fredo. I knew it was you," and kissing him.
• The Norm Show: Abe Vigoda guest stars in Season 1's "Norm, Crusading Social Worker" as Sal, a senior that framed his daughter for elder abuse when she wanted to put him in a retirement home and tries to do the same to Norm when this is found out. The end credit scene parodies Salvatore Tessio's fate, as this Sal learns last-minute he's leaving Norm's apartment in a separate car and says his actions against his daughter were Nothing Personal.
  Sal: Norm, can you get me off the hook? Y'know, for old time's sake?
  Norm: Can't do it, Sally.
• The Muppet Show: When Joan Baez was a guest star on a fifth season episode, she did an imitation of Don Corleone.
• Luke Cage (2016): the last episode of season 2 has a homage to the ending with a door closing on a concerned Misty.
• In an episode of The Hogan Family, Mark and Willie decide to prank Dave by making him think he's losing his hair. To that end, they sneak into his room at night and sprinkle hair from a wig (identical in color to his) all over him. David wakes up screaming in horror exactly as Jack Woltz did (with Jason Bateman sounding almost exactly as he did) and with a cut to the outside of the house as the screaming continues. If you listen carefully, you can hear the theme music being played throughout.
• An episode of Married... with Children saw Kelly dating a councilman, with Al exploiting the situation by using the politician's influence to get things done in the community, with his neighbors owing him favors, much like Don Corleone. He even goes full regalia, donning a tuxedo resembling that Vito has on at the beginning of Part I, and coercing Marcy and Jefferson Darcy to kneel and kiss his hand (their interaction a parody of Vito and Bonasera's conversation), all with the theme from the film playing in the background. And when Peg asks him if he doesn't think things are going a bit too far, Al warns her "Never ask me about my business, Peg." Oh, and the episode is titled "The Godfather".
  • Another episode saw Al establish a phony psychic organization. When Al calls for a conclave of Chicago's "Five Psychic Families", Jefferson states that Al's gone mad with power, causing Bud to slap him upside the head.
  Bud: You don't discuss family business in front of strangers!
• In an episode of A Different World, some of the girls participate in the annual homecoming prank of stealing a rival school's mascot. After Rich Bitch Whitley Gilbert denounces the prank as "nonsense", sure enough, the episode ends with her waking up just like Jack Woltz, screaming hysterically as she discovers the bear's head under her sheets, complete with a cut to the outside of the dormitory.
• Mike Hammer. A Mafia boss finds it Actually Pretty Funny when Mike refers to his organisation as "the people who leave horse's heads in people's beds".
• In the 9-1-1: Lone Star episode, "Control Freaks," T.K. and Carols ask Carlos' mother to try and help them stop Owen from choosing everything for their upcoming wedding. The whole scene is a direct Shout-Out to the opening scene from the first movie, even with the mother saying "Now you come to me about the day of my son's wedding." Also, the background music playing is a Hispanic version of the film's theme.
• In the Birds of a Feather episode "Reservoir Birds", Davey makes Ray give him his VHS copy of the film.
• The fifth episode of No Appointment Necessary (1977) is titled "An Offer You Can't Refuse", after the iconic line from the film.

Podcast

• On Escape from Vault Disney!, Tony jokes about how Kevin's overzealous fans tried to get him onto Muppet Month by throwing bricks through his window and leaving a bloody Kermit head in his bed.

Video Games

• Don Weaso and the Weasel Mafia in Conker's Bad Fur Day are very much inspired by the Corleone crime family. Weaso himself is an Expy of Corleone right down to being a Mafia don, having a similar musical motif, and speaking with a similar accent.
• Jitsu Squad have the gang entering an urban stage inspired by the real-life Shinjuku district, and being informed of the sheer amount of gang activity present. The heroine, Baby then remarks she'll make the gang an offer they can't refuse.
• In Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, the movie that gave Muggshot the idea to start his gambling operation was titled "The Dogfather".
• The main antagonist of Yo-kai Watch 3 is an Expy of The Godfather called "The Ghoulfather".

Web Animation

• Helluva Boss: In "Murder Family", Moxxie is at first reluctant to kill a family, unless it's a Mafia family, at which point he does an impression of Vito Corleone.

Web Comics

• Whomp!: In this strip, Ronnie finds ants in his bed attracted to the chocolate bunny head on his other pillow.

Western Animation

• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: In "Sonically Ever After", Cinderella gets her wishes granted by her Fairy Godfather, who is a parody of Vito Corleone.
• Animaniacs (1993): the Goodfeathers shorts have the Godpigeon, who's pretty obviously a parody of Don Vito Corleone.
• Bob's Burgers: In "Mission Impos-slug-ble", Linda scolds Tina for telling on Louise, saying that "You never go against the family!", to which Bob responds "Easy, Don Corleone."
• In the third episode of Clerks: The Animated Series Jay beats up Charles Barkley the exact same way Sonny beats up Carlo, right down to the Fight Scene Failure.
• The Cleveland Show: The La Famiglia Brown segment of "Wide World of Cleveland Show" parodies the film's wedding scene.
• Eek! The Cat: In the Halloween Episode, Eek-related chaos causes a guy in the front end of a two-person horse costume to crash into a mobster's bed. Screaming from both ensues, as the camera pulls back from the mansion.
• The Fairly OddParents!: In "Big Wanda", Big Daddy wakes up to find a horse head in his bed, which turns out to be a stuffed doll named "Mr. Neigh-Neigh".
• Family Guy:
  • In "There's Something About Paulie", Peter runs afoul of a mobster who's a Don Corleone expy who grants favours on his daughter's wedding day.
  • In "The Griffin Family History", Peter, thinking he's going to die, admits to his family that he did not care for the film, causing them to rant about how good it is. Peter is unimpressed by their remarks, admitting that he prefers The Money Pit.
  • The episode "La Famiglia Guy", in which Peter becomes a mob boss, has a Running Gag of the Griffins taking Brian on a trip and killing him for eating their food; the first two deaths spoof the murders of Gatto and Fredo.
  Brian: You know what? This is kinda nice. I thought you were gonna do some kind of Godfather murder on me.
  Lois: Oh, Brian, I don't watch mafia movies... But I did see Fargo. (pushes him into a woodchipper)
• The Freakazoid! episode "The Freakazoid" opens with a send-off of The Godfather title card◊, followed by a parody of the film's opening sequence set during Freakazoid's birthday, starting with a Shriner who "believes in superheroes" asking Freakazoid to do something with his daughter's boyfriend who mocked his car.
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law: In "The Dabba Don", in which Fred Flintstone is accused of racketeering, Harvey wakes up to find the head of Quick Draw McGraw in his bed; this kicked off a Running Gag, where Harvey found the heads of Jabberjaw and Gloop (or Gleep) the next two consecutive mornings. Later, the film's ending montage is parodied, and features a scene of Judge Mightor getting gunned down by The Ant Hill Mob a la Sonny's death.
  Harvey: AAAAA! AAAAAAA....eww, Gleep juice! Or is this Gloop?
• Hey Arnold!: In "Big Gino", Gino gets back at Sid for not giving Arnold a swirlie by leaving the head of his rocking horse in his bed.
• The Loud House: In "Sound of Silence", Lynn tells of how she slighted Lola and woke up to find her soccer ball deflated. Funny enough, her voice actress Jessica DiCicco appeared in the third film as a little girl.
• Metalocalypse: Word of God says that Dethklok manager Charles Foster Offdensen is an Expy of Tom Hagen, one who's a much more effective wartime consigliere.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • Isabella and her Fireside Girl Troop earn their puppetry patches with their production of The Denmother. Isabella even does an imitation of Marlon Brando's voice.
  • Doofenshnirtz parodies the iconic "Take the gun, leave the cannoli" line in this exchange: "Take the dollar, leave the platypus."
• Rick and Morty: In "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion", the various mafia Ricks are based on Don Corleone and his children Sonny and Fredo.
• The Simpsons
  • In "Lisa's Pony", Homer surprises Lisa with the titular pony by having her wake up and see its head resting in her bed.
  • In "Mr. Plow", after Homer plows the snow front of the school and keeps it open, Bart's vengeful classmates pelt him with snowballs in a manner similar to Sonny's death.
  • In "Last Exit to Springfield", Homer, after becoming president of the power plant union, thinks about contributing to organized crime and has an Imagine Spot where he plays Don Fanucci.
  • In the climax of "Homie the Clown", Homer hits his head on hanging wine glasses, and the dings play the melody of the film's love theme.
  • In "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner", Luigi left Homer a horse's head in his bed to scare him away from any more bad reviews— which Homer then ate and still gave it a bad review.
  • In "HOMR", Homer does impression of Don Corleone while testing out the Ani-Motion suit.
  • In "Worst Episode Ever", one of the bootleg tapes in Comic Book Guy's private collection is Godfather III, Good Version.
  • In "The Sweetest Apu", a flashback to Apu and Manjula's wedding shows Homer getting the Indian band to perform the wedding song from the film, with Homer singing in Italian.
  • In "Strong Arms of the Ma", Marge beats up a mugger in a way similar to how Sonny beat up Carlo.
  • In "Moe Baby Blues", Moe entertains Maggie by recounting the movie's story like a fairytale and imitating Don Corleone with an orange wedge in his mouth. This becomes a plot point later in the episode.
  • At the end of "All's Fair in Oven War", Cletus gets revenge on James Caan by having the Spuckler clan gun him down at a tollbooth, which Caan hates for obvious reasons.
    Caan: That's it. Next time, I fly.
  • The ending to "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer" parodies the ending to the film. In addition, Fat Tony's son is named Michael.
  • In "Tis the 30th Season", the Simpsons get revenge on the manager of a crummy resort by filling her bed with animatronic heads from the "Hall of Vice Presidents" attraction.
• Trolls: The Beat Goes On!: In "Neighbor War", as part of a war between him and Branch, Sky Toronto wakes up to find Cooper in his bed in a parody of the horse head scene.

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