Village People - Cultural References

Cultural References

Due to their easily recognizable characters, the group have frequently been imitated or parodied in films, television series, video games and music. Numerous covers and homages of their songs have been recorded. The stereotypical masculine characters, particularly the leather-clad biker character with a horseshoe moustache, have also become a widespread pop culture icons associated with male gay culture and YMCA has become something of an anthem of the LGBT community.

In Grand Theft Auto III there are many pedestrians dressed like the Village People and bumping into them would cause them to say phrases that are references to their songs such as "In the Navy" and "YMCA". Additionally in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the Malibu Club featured a group dancing onstage, parodying the Village People, although the members' personas are instead modelled after the in game firefighter, police officer, soldier, biker and construction worker.

The song "In the Navy" was featured in an episode of The Muppet Show and The Simpsons, the latter featuring several members' likenesses dancing in a short scene as the song is played.

In the film Wayne's World 2, Wayne and his friends disguise themselves in order to spy on Wayne's girlfriend; Wayne dresses as a construction worker, Garth as a cop, Neil as a leather-clad biker and Terry as a sailor. They are then chased and end up on the stage of a men's club where their coincidental resemblance to the Village People becomes apparent to the DJ, who immediately puts on YMCA.

A 1993 episode of Married with Children had Peg disguising herself as the Indian, along with Kelly as the sailor, Bud as the construction worker and Jefferson as the biker in order to appease angry Halloween party guests of Marcy's, and a joke being they could only lip synch to one song, YMCA, as that was the sole Village People album Marcy owned. When the real Village People appear at the party, they start their concert with YMCA, causing the enraged women who were sick of the song to pelt them with toilet paper.

In 1995, a parody of the Village People was seen on the CGI show ReBoot with the group the Small Town Binomes singing "BSnP", a parody of YMCA They were seen in the ReBoot episode "Talent Night" and each individual was modeled after a singer from the Village People using the show's common Binome characters. Their song "BSnP" was a jab at ABC network's Broadcast Standards and Practices organization, which frequently edited content from the show which they deemed not suitable for its younger viewers (lyrics included "Oh, it's fun to play in a non-violent way").

In 2006, Village People were featured in That 70's Show episode titled "We Will Rock You." When Jackie and Fez declared their love of the group, Steven Hyde was going to burn all the disco music discs they had at a "Disco Sucks" party.