References To The Wombles
Barrington Womble MBE (played by John Halsey) is the drummer of the fictional band The Rutles. A spoof of The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.
Various allusions and puns are made in reference to the Wombles in the Warhammer 40,000 book series Ciaphas Cain by author Sandy Mitchell, being referenced in the form of the "Reclaimers" chapter of the Space Marines. In addition, Space Marines models with a particular type of cone-like faceplate are referred to by hobbyists as Womble Marines.
The 2005 film Breakfast on Pluto features the Wombles.
In the Bottom episode "'s Out", the main characters Eddie and Richie camp out on Wimbledon common and try hunting Wombles (Eddie mistakes a hedgehog for a womble) to get a meal. They fail.
The British comedy The Vicar of Dibley references the Wombles repeatedly. According to Dawn French's character Geraldine Granger: "I once tried to go on Mastermind, but they didn't like my special subject. Apparently there just aren't enough questions about the Wombles."
The Wombles are vitriolically parodied in The Borrible Trilogy by Michael de Larrabeiti as the Rumbles, the upper-class, rodent-like enemies of the working-class scavenger main characters.
The term "womble" is sometimes used in British slang to describe a person who is well-meaning but absent-minded or ineffectual. For example, Jeremy Clarkson often refers to Highways Agency Traffic Officers, who exasperate him as a matter of principle, as "traffic wombles" on Top Gear.
In the fifth season of The Ricky Gervais Show, Stephen Merchant compared Ricky Gervais to a Womble while discussing Ricky's experiences as an unemployed artist in the 1980s.
During the London Riots of 2011 people started to use the Twitter Hashtag #riotwombles to gather people over social media to help clean up the streets affected by the riots.
On 19 December 2011, the Wombles were featured on an episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
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