Buffy the Vampire Slayer in popular culture

Buffy the Vampire Slayer has had a tremendous influence on popular culture that has attracted serious scholarly attention. The television series served as the focus of a course at the University of California, San Diego (Popular Culture in Critical Perspective: Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and in an academic study (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale (Popular Culture and Philosophy)). Many aspects of the show, from necrophilia to female heroism and family relations to S&M, have attracted scholarly attention as covered in the Journal of Popular Culture and the Journal of American & Comparative Culture. Even the language used on the show has effected modern colloquial expressions.

References in other works of fiction
Buffy and its spinoff, Angel which employed pop culture references as a frequent humorous device, have themselves also become a frequent pop culture reference in video games, comics and television shows, and has been frequently parodied and spoofed. Even Sarah Michelle Gellar has participated in several parody sketches, including a Saturday Night Live sketch in which the Slayer is relocated to the Seinfeld universe, and adding her voice to an episode of Robot Chicken that parodied a would-be eighth season of Buffy. There are also several adult parodies of Buffy, web comics, and music.

Sketch shows
There have been a number of spoofs of Buffy on notable TV comedy sketch shows. In chronological order:


 * "MADtv" (1997) - "Buffy the Umpire Slayer" sketch in which Nicole Sullivan starred as 'Buffy'. The clip features Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles attempting to control the threat from blood-sucking baseball umpires.


 * "Saturday Night Live" - Sarah Michelle Gellar starred in a sketch first aired on 1999, in which the Slayer was relocated to the Seinfeld universe, starring as an Elaine Benes version of Buffy.


 * "MADtv"(2001) - Michelle Trachtenberg appeared in a sketch that has been entitled "Bunny the Vampire Slayer" by MadTV, and features the MadTV recurring character, Bunny Swan, (more commonly known as "Ms Swan)". The five minute clip includes Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers coming face to face with Bunny Swan in a graveyard. Bunny tells Dawn that she is her aunt, and also the slayer. It also includes castmembers Andrew Daly as Spike, Mo Collins as Willow and Stephnie Weir as Tara.


 * "V Graham Norton" - When Anthony Stewart Head appeared on Norton's show he spoofed "Buffy" in a "Poofy the Vampire Slayer" sketch. Graham Norton portrayed 'Poofy', whilst Head portrayed 'Rupert Giles'.


 * "Robot Chicken" - Series co-created by Seth Green (who portrayed Oz on Buffy). Sarah Michelle Gellar lent her voice to the episode "Plastic Buffet", which included a parodied would-be eighth season of Buffy. The story featured soulless Cabbage Patch Kids terrorising America.

Series television
The Friends episode titled The One Where Chandler Can't Cry, included a scene in which Phoebe's sister, Ursula Buffay starred as Buffay the Vampire Layer (parodying Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and perhaps alluding to real life Buffy adult parodies). Ursula Buffay uses her twin sister Phoebe's name for the credits.

The Simpsons episode, "Treehouse of Horror XVI" originally aired in the US six days after Halloween. The last of four segments was entitled, "I've Grown a Costume on Your Face" and had similarities with the Buffy episode "Halloween" (which had aired eight years earlier).

In another Simpsons episode, citizens of Springfield dress in their Halloween costumes for a costume contest, which parodies an episode of Buffy where a sorcerer transforms many of the residents into their Halloween costumes. In one scene Principal Skinner in army clothes stands next to his mother dressed in a big, poofy pink Victorian dress in a shot reminiscent of Buffy characters Xander and Buffy wearing said clothes in "Halloween":

In the Xena: Warrior Princess episode "The Play's the Thing", a theater critic remarks, "I hear "Buffus the Bacchae Slayer" is playing next door."

On the Disney Channel Series "Hannah Montana" Miley's foil/rival/crush, Jake Ryan (played by Cody Linley), is the star of a fictional television series "Zombie Slayer at Zombie High," with obvious Buffy parallels.

In an episode of Smallville ("Thirst"), Lana Lang is changed into a vampire by a blonde sorority girl by the name of "Buffy Sanders".

A season-one episode of the show "Big Wolf on Campus" was called "Muffy the Werewolf Slayer."

In the House of Mouse episode "Gone Goofy", when Donald Duck is watching TV, there is a show on called "Goofy the Vampire Slayer".

Film
In the international release of the 2004 Russian film Night Watch, a major character is seen watching television which is airing a scene from the show where Buffy meets Dracula in the cemetery - dubbed into Russian.

Fan films
Fan films parodying or paying tribute to Buffy have become more common, as computer and digital technology has advanced and become affordable, and distribution over the internet has become easier.

Comics
DC Comics' "Young Justice" title made numerous references to a show called "Wendy the Werewolf Stalker", including a two-part story, during #33-34 where several of the book's heroines actually go to Hollywood to take part in an episode. "WtWS" is a pretty straight-forward "homage" to "BtVS", with the twist that show creator "Joe Westin" is revealed to himself be a vampire.

Archie Comics character, Betty Cooper, dresses up as Bunny the Vampire Slayer for a Halloween costume party.

Video games
Anarchy Online (June 27 2001) features a decorative statue called the "Marble Statue of the Goddess Buffy Summers".

In the video games The X-Files: Resist or Serve (March 14 2004) and Max Payne (July 25 2001), a secret room contains a staked corpse with "Buffy" smeared on the wall in blood.

The English version of Secret of Mana, a video game for the SNES which appeared shortly after the original movie came out, contains a boss named Buffy the Vampire. It can be most easily defeated with light magic.

Other
In 2005, a Trans-Neptunian object 2004 XR190 was unofficially named "Buffy", after the main character of the series.

See also (other articles on women warriors in popular culture)

 * Joan of Arc in popular culture
 * List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture
 * Xena: Warrior Princess in popular culture