Covers and Media References
In October 1994, the song was featured prominently in the opening scene of "Tasha", an early episode of the FOX police drama television series New York Undercover.
In the 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the character Carlton Banks, played by Alfonso Ribeiro, says to Will that he had borrowed his Public Enemy tape when he went for a run and he sings the lines 'Get up, get, get, get down, 911 is a joke in yo town' in his own style. In 1995, English pop rock band Duran Duran covered "911 Is a Joke" on their Thank You album.
In 2009, The Washington Post ran a story discussing Public Enemy members' visit to a center for homeless and displaced youth. The article referred to the song "911 is a Joke", but due to a copy-editing error, "911" was printed as "9/11", which some readers took to be a reference to the September 11 attacks. A week later, the Post printed a correction.
In 2010, the TV show Community referenced the song in a throwaway line ("Flava Flav was right" after attempting to dial 911 and not getting a hold of anybody).
The song was used for commercials for the Comedy Central series Reno 911!, itself a parody of law enforcement shows such as Cops.
The song is played briefly in the American Dad! episode "Finances with Wolves".
Read more about this topic: 911 Is A Joke
Famous quotes containing the words covers and/or media:
“Boys finding for the first time their loins filled with heart’s
blood
Widowed farmers whose hands float under light covers to find
themselves
Arisen at sunrise”
—James Dickey (b. 1923)
“Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of an intolerable world, words appear to change very little. State power has become congenitally deaf, which is why—but the editorialists forget it—terrorists are reduced to bombs and hijacking.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)