In Eye Contact, Adam comes to Cara holding their old video copy of The Magic Flute. When Cara puts it in, Adam faces away from the screen, as if he wanted to hear the music but can't stand the video.
In Elliott & Win, Elliott takes Win to see The Magic Flute, despite his lack of interest in opera. He enjoys it more than he expected.
According to an announcer on classical music radio station WQXR, the Viennese government, upset at the Masonic and Enlightenment elements of the piece and urged-on by the Church considered banning it, but frightened of the reaction that might provoke, instead published a pamphlet given to theatre-goers detailing how 'properly' to watch and interpret the piece, much as in the 1960s Miloš Forman for awhile on Czechoslovakian television explained the 'real' Marxist-Leninist meanings of foreign films shown.
Ludwig Tieck's 1797CE „Der gestiefelte Kater“ contains a few satiric references to the original, including a trial by fire and water and Papageno's magic bells.
