Animal Farm in popular culture

Animal Farm: A Fairy Story is a satirical novella by George Orwell, ostensibly about a group of animals who oust the humans from the farm on which they live. The book was written during World War II and published in 1945.

As with Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four ("1984") references to this novella are frequent in other works, particularly popular music and television series.


 * Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals was partially inspired by Animal Farm. It categorises people as pigs, dogs, or sheep. The songs are all deeply linked with Orwell's Animal Farm. The album cover has an image of Battersea Power Station which is also an image used in the film of 1984.
 * Radiohead's song, "Optimistic," on their 2000 album, Kid A, contains the lyrics, "This one dropped a payload/Fodder for the animals/Living on Animal Farm."
 * In an episode of Johnny Bravo ("Aunt Katie's Farm"), Johnny, while dressed in a pig costume, goes crazy and yells, "Four legs good! Two legs bad!" over and over.
 * The online game NationStates contains an imaginary pro-bicycle environmental group known as Two Wheels Good, Four Wheels Bad.
 * In Moxy Früvous's live performances of their cover of the Spider-Man TV theme song, singer Mike Ford often led the chant, "Eight legs good, two legs bad!"
 * Rappers Dead Prez released a song called "Animal in Man" off their debut LP, Let's Get Free, re-telling the story.
 * A song on Canadian band Protest the Hero's debut CD A Calculated Use of Sound, called "Red Stars Over the Battle of the Cowshed" is presumably a reference to Animal Farm.
 * Canadian rapper Buck 65 also used "Four legs good, two legs bad" in a remixed version of his song "The Centaur," found on the ZeD compilation CD Live Off The Floor
 * Metal band Clutch has a song "Animal Farm" on their self titled album Clutch.
 * The band Oingo Boingo's song "No Spill Blood" from their Good For Your Soul album (later reprised on Boingo Alive and Farewell) is a reference to the story.
 * In the comic book series Fables, the second edition (issues 6 to 10) is titled Animal Farm.
 * In an episode of Sealab 2021, the captain starts a Communistic reign over the station and even buys a large pig named Napoleon.
 * In an episode of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Animal Farm is parodied as a book called Piggy Goes Oink.
 * The Who's song "Won't Get Fooled Again" tells the tale of a nation that has a revolution only to find out the new leaders are just like the old. The song ends with the line, "Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss."
 * In the first episode of Moral Orel, there is a book in the pile "to burn" clearly labeled "Animal Farm" in all caps.
 * In the NOFX song 'Wolves in Wolves' Clothing', there is a line stating "We are Animal Farm pigs."