Dick Dastardly - Cultural References

Cultural References

• One of the Achievements/Trophies for the game Red Dead Redemption is called Dastardly, however, the icon itself has a top hat and curled mustache, resembling another infamous villain, Snidely Whiplash.
• In an episode of Canadian CGI television series ReBoot, characters Cyrus and Frisket (a dog) "reboot" in a racing game into homages of Dastardly and Mutley, complete with a Mean Machine; when Cyrus is horrified to find Frisket with him, Frisket does a dead-on impression of Mutley's snicker. Later, Cyrus would pilot a gyroscopic flying machine.
• Universal Studios Florida formerly had a motion simulator ride titled The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera which was a tribute to Hanna-Barbara cartoons; Dastardly (voiced by Michael Bell) kidnaps Elroy Jetson, so Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo have to travel across the various worlds to rescue him.
• In 1994, British men's magazine Loaded nominated Dick Dastardly as one of the "Greatest Living Englishmen," despite the fact that the character's nationality was never mentioned.
• An episode of the anime Digimon Frontier, entitled "The Great Trailmon Race" (a homage to Wacky Races), a ShadowWereGarurumon and his Dogmon sidekick attempted to undermine the other racers, as a reference to Dastardly and Muttley, and, at one point in the original Japanese version, ShadowWereGarurumon gives Doggymon a Dick Dastardly-style knock to the head after Doggymon laughs. On a related note, Dogmon's voice actor Michael Sorich made his laughter sound like Muttley's.
• In the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Dexter's Wacky Races", Mandark replaces Dick Dastardly and his car as the villain with his car "The Dark Man Special".
• The Nintendo character Waluigi bears a strong resemblance to Dick Dastardly.
• Formula1 champion Michael Schumacher is sometimes referred to by journalists and fans as Dick Dastardly, in part due to the striking resemblance, but mostly because of several incidents involving Schumacher, such as stopping his car in the middle of the track to prevent an opponent from qualifying faster than he, using illegal software and cars outside specifications, gaining victories from his teammate by means of team orders, and intentionally crashing into opponents twice
• Dastardly was portrayed as David Irving in the Viz strip Wacky Racists.
• Philip Reeve's 2005 children's novel Infernal Devices refers briefly to a fictional organization called "Richard D'Astardley's Flying Circus". This group is supposedly a rival to the Flying Ferrets, led by Orla Twombley, which is a team of daredevil aviators that flies a variety of strange flying machines in Reeve's 'retro-futuristic' world.
• A Super Deformed Gundam short parodying the Wacky Races featured villain Yazan Gable as the stand-in for Dastardly. Gemon Bajack, his partner-in-crime from Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, was Muttley, complete with dog costume and wheezing laugh. True to the source material, Gable and Bajack spend most of the race trying to foil the other competitors. But they actually win when their last-ditch attempt turns out to be a rocket engine. Unfortunately, they are unable to stop in the winner's circle when the rocket malfunctions and will not shut off, sending the pair into orbit.
• In a curious decision by Spanish language translators, Dick Dastardly was renamed Pierre Nodoyuna and given a French accent. The Spanish name can be roughly translated as "Pierre I-always-fail".
• In the underground hip-hop song "Accordion" by Madvillain, in which MF Doom mentions the duo in the opening line: "Livin' off borrowed time, the clock tick faster, that'd be the hour they knock the slick blaster Dick Dastardly and Muttley with sick laughter, a gun fight and they come to cut the mixmaster."
• In one of the "1936" animated shorts on the Homestar Runner website, the character of Old-Timey Strong Bad uses Dastardly's catchphrase: "Drat, and double drat!"
• The 2008 series Headcases featured a series of sketches involving a caricature of The Duke of Edinburgh dressed as Dick Dastardly and a Muttley-like Corgi named Poochwater. In a manner similar to Dastardly's attempts to catch the pidgeon, each sketch sees the Duke trying to destroy Catherine Middleton, Prince William's girlfriend at the time, so as to prevent a 'commoner' from entering the Royal Family. These slapstick attempts usually fail, and usually cause a series of events which ultimately sees the Duke placed in embarrassing situations right in front of the paparazzi, serving to damage his own image rather than Kate's.
• A UK radio ad for Heinz Salad Cream ran the "Stop the Pigeon" theme song before ending with "Any food tastes supreme with Heinz Salad Cream!", implying Dastardly was intending to eat Yankee Doodle Pigeon.
• In the song "Welcome 2 Hell" by Bad Meets Evil, Eminem refers to himself as the Dick Dastardly of audacity.