Loch Ness Monster and popular culture

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Loch Ness Monster (Oil painting) by Heikenwaelder Hugo

The Loch Ness Monster is well known throughout Scotland, the rest of the United Kingdom and the rest of the world.

1 Literature
2 Music
3 Movies
4 Television
5 Media
6 Games
7 Other
8 References

[edit] Literature

The novel series The Saint includes the story "The Convenient Monster", by Leslie Charteris, which featured the Loch Ness Monster. The story appeared in the 1962 collection Trust the Saint and was included in The Fantastic Saint (1982). The story was also made into an episode that first aired November 4, 1966, in the fifth season of the BBC television series starring Roger Moore as the Saint.

The 1981 Robert Anton Wilson novel Masks of the Illuminati has segments that take place in Inverness where the monster is mentioned prominently. His earlier novel, The Eye In The Pyramid featured a brief appearance by a creature identified as Nessie.

In the comic Sherman's Lagoon the Loch Ness Monster comes to the lagoon occasionally, usually to play golf. This depiction of the monster is as a plesiosaur wearing a Tam o'shanter.

Steve Alten wrote a book in 2005 called The Loch. The book proposes the theory that Nessie is a species of eel that has mutated.

In the book The Boggart and the Monster, Nessie is described as being a boggart, taking the form of a plesiosaur.

In Dick King Smith's book The Water Horse, a pair of young children in Scotland find an egg which hatches an animal resembling Nessie. Eventually, the large size of the monster forces them to free the creature into Loch Ness.

In Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novels, a series in which the main character travels back and forth through time via a stone circle, the Nessie is supposed to be a prehistoric creature that makes such journeys itself through a similar portal in the bottom of the loch.

In Richard Stilgoe's book Brilliant the Dinosaur Brilliant decides to swim to Loch Ness at the end of the story, thinking the monster may be one of her relatives.

Loch Ness Monster is Monster in My Pocket #56.

In Chronicles of Narnia: the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a nessie-like monster attacks the Dawn Treader ship.

In the Harry Potter series, the Loch Ness Monster is referred to as "the world's largest kelpie". It is said to have avoided detection by transforming into an otter when investigators approached^[1]

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/215.html

[edit] Music

The Loch Ness Monster is featured in Judas Priest's song "Lochness", from their Angel of Retribution album.

The Police mention the Loch Ness Monster in the song "Synchronicity II" on their album Synchronicity.

The Real McKenzies' 2001 album Loch'd and Loaded features a song titled "Nessie," which protests the capture and search for Nessie.

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band wrote a song based on the Loch Ness Monster called Water Beastie, which can be heard on their last ever studio album "Rock Drill".

Reggie and the Full Effect made a music video for their song "Get Well Soon," which shows the Loch Ness Monster walking around an unidentified city going to shows and drinking alcohol, after being kicked out of her home.

American progressive-metal band Mastodon have a song entitled Ol'e Nessie (named after the Loch Ness Monster) on their full length debut album, Remission

[edit] Movies

In the 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes the monster is revealed to be a miniature submarine in disguise.

In the 1987 film Amazon Women on the Moon it was revealed that Jack the Ripper was none other than the monster itself.

In the 1992 animated movie Freddie as F.R.O.7 Nessie befriends an enchanted frog prince called Frederick who uses powers of telekenesis to free her tail trapped under a fallen boulder. It is later revealed she has a family, who later helps Freddie defeat an enemy invasion of Britain.

Ted Danson starred in the 1996 film Loch Ness in which he plays an American scientist trying to prove the existence of the Loch Ness monster.

In the Disney-Pixar movie Monsters, Inc. (2001), the Loch Ness Monster was banished from Monstropolis as punishment for an unnamed crime.

The cult-favourite film Napoleon Dynamite (2004) features a current events presentation given by Napoleon in which he tells the story of how "Last week, Japanese scientists explaced... placed explosive detonators at the bottom of Loch Ness to blow Nessie out of the water. Sir Godfrey of the Nessie Alliance summoned the help of Scotland's local wizards to cast a protective spell over the lake and its local residents and all those who seek for the peaceful existence of our underwater ally."

A film starring Director Werner Herzog entitled Incident at Loch Ness (2004) shows the director filming scenes around Loch Ness in an attempt to disprove the theories of the monster. His writer/producer continually tries to make a "blockbuster" film that Werner does not want. They eventually run afoul of the real Nessie with eerie results.

The 2005 film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit featured a character reading through a book of mythological monsters. In the book, the monster is given the Latin name Tourist Trappus.

[edit] Television

In the 1975 Doctor Who story Terror of the Zygons, the Loch Ness Monster is revealed to be an alien cyborg controlled by the extraterrestrial race known as the Zygons and is used in a bid for world conquest. When that scheme is foiled by the Doctor and its masters killed, the creature returns to its watery home. In the 1985 story Timelash (and somewhat contradictory to the previous adventure), the Loch Ness monster was revealed to be the Borad, a tyrant whose DNA got mixed with a dinosaur type monster. In the 2006 episode "School Reunion", Sarah Jane Smith trumps new companion Rose Tyler, who believes she has met far more interesting beings in her travels with the Doctor, by mentioning the time she encountered the Loch Ness Monster (in Terror of the Zygons), causing Rose to respond, "Seriously?!"

The BBC television series The Family-Ness showed the adventures of a family of "Loch Ness Monsters" and their human friends, Elspeth and Angus McTout.

The British science fiction show The Tomorrow People stated that the Loch Ness monster was a preserved dinosaur, placed in the water in neolithic time to scare away locals from an alien mine. The mine extracted an extremely rare mineral and was abandoned after the aliens left Earth, but the dinosaur in Loch Ness was forgotten and remained.

Another animated series, Happy Ness: The Secret of the Loch, featured two groups of the creatures. The friendly Nessies included Happy Ness, Brave Ness, Forgetful Ness, Silly Ness and Bright Ness (representing intelligence), while the villains included Pompous Ness (their leader), Mean Ness and Dark Ness. A trio of human characters befriended the good Nessies, assisting them in occasional conflicts with the bad Nessies. Both groups wore Loch-ets, each capable of performing a "Ness Bless", making its target feel the same, temporarily, as the caster. For example, in one episode Forgetful Ness cast a Ness Bless on Pompous Ness, and she forgot all about who she was and what she was trying to do. The Ness Bless wears off after a time. Smaller (and less potent) Ness Bless-ettes can also be created and carried to another location to use, rather than being used directly from the Loch-ets. In addition, the Loch-ets protect the wearer from prying eyes, rendering them invisible to all but other Nessies and their trusted human friends. Pompous Ness tries on many occasions to steal the other Loch-ets from their owners, but always fails.

In the television series, The X-Files, Mulder and Scully investigate the sightings of a similar creature, named Big Blue, inhabiting Heuvelmans Lake in rural Georgia. The fictitious lake was named after the father of cryptozoology, Bernard Heuvelmans. The cuprit was revealed to be a giant alligator; however, as the two agents left the lake, the real "Big Blue" rose out of the water.

The television series The Simpsons included an episode (#224, 'Monty Can't Buy Me Love') on the Loch Ness Monster. Mr. Burns takes Homer, Groundskeeper Willie, and Professor Frink to Scotland to capture the creature. After failing to find the monster by manually searching the loch, Burns orders the loch drained (by hand pump). Sure enough, they find the monster and bring it back to Springfield. After a disastrous unveiling reminiscent of Kong's rampage in King Kong, Burns gives Nessie a job at a casino.

The television series Scooby Doo inspired a movie Scooby Doo and the Loch Ness Monster. The gang went to Scotland to solve the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster. It turned out that the monster was just a machine, though the existence of an actual one is hinted at in the ending. As a bonus feature, National Geographic Inside Scoop, Scooby and Shaggy are hiding in the Mystery Machine, because they are afraid to go out, because there's the Loch Ness Monster. Shaggy and Scooby called Kid Y for the inside scoop on the Loch Ness Monster. In the end, Shaggy and Scooby ask Kid Y if the Loch Ness Monster is real or not, and the answer is: maybe or maybe not, and Shaggy and Scooby decide that they will run away from the "Loch Ness Monster or not".

In an episode of Johnny Bravo, Johnny is constantly chasing the monster in attemps to get his haggas back. After realizing he doesn't want it, Johnny decides to take the monster in as a pet.

In the Lupin the 3rd second TV series, episode 004 "I Can Hear Nessie's Song", Lupin and Fujiko "meets" Nessie. At Loch Ness, Scotland, the mysterious monster Nessie shows itself charmed by Fujiko's singing. Doctor Oz, seeing this, decides to use Fujiko to draw out Nessie so that he can capture it and show it all over the world. There is also revenge involved. It's a fight to the death between Nessie and Oz's dinosaur robot. Will Lupin let Oz get away with his scheme?

The Goodies also went to Scotland and captured the Loch Ness Monster. "A bid to trap the Loch Ness Monster to pacify a suicidal zoo keeper sees the Goodies travel to Scotland, where they have a close brush with the deadly Bagpipes spider among other trials." SEASON 2 1971-72 "LOCH NESS MONSTER"

Dojo the dragon from Xiaolin Showdown is related to Nessie, and hid the Shen-Gon-Wu called the Tangle Web Comb in the loch during one of his visits.

In episode #303 of South Park, Chef's father constantly complains that he is being harassed by the Loch Ness Monster trying to borrow three dollars and fifty cents (pronounced "Tree Fiddy") from him.

In episode #302 of Drawn Together, Toot Braunstein names the Wienermobile, the Loch Ness Monster, and God's mercy as examples of legendary things she is sure really exist; the scene then cuts to a little boy praying for God's protection and then being eaten by the Loch Ness Monster.

On the Shelley Duvall series Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories (1992), an animated series for kids, there was an episode titled "Little Toot and the Loch Ness Monster", which featured the character Little Toot, a steamboat who is circulating around Loch Ness where he befriends the creature himself. The monster appears to be friendly and needs Little Toot's help to avoid capture from poachers. Comic actor Rick Moranis narrated the episode.

In an episode of the MTV series Celebrity Deathmatch, Nessie appears in a match against Bigfoot. After cutting Bigfoot in half with its tail it kidnaps Fran Drescher. Later it is revealed that Fran's laugh sounds exactly like the mating call of the Loch Ness Monster and they get married.

In the 1994 animated series Gargoyles, Goliath, Elisa Maza, and Goliath's daughter, Angela, encounter the Loch Ness Monster while traveling the world. Angela befriends the creature's child.

There was a British spoof of the documentary style titled "Loch Ness: Real or Pretend?". One of the scenes had tourists standing by the castle looking at the lake. When the monster did not appear, the film crew handed out 'special glasses' which had silhouettes of the monster on the lenses. The tourists immediately "saw" the monster, pointing at it in whatever direction they were looking, including one tourist looking at the sky shouting "It's flying! It's flying!"

In the Godzilla: The Series episode "Deadloch", Godzilla fought the Loch Ness Monster as it attacked a research station where its offspring was being kept. Once this was revealed, Godzilla aided Nessie in the rescue of its offspring.

In a 1964 episode of the supermarionated TV series Stingray the characters travel to Loch Ness to solve the mystery of the monster.

In the samurai jack series created by genndy tartokovsky a creature resembling nessie appears in the background of the highlands episode.

In Kong:the animated series; an alantis like city at the bottom of Lock Ness has Nessie(whom the call Nessia) as its protecter.

In the TV series How I Met Your Mother one of the main characters Marshall has a continuing obsession with the Loch Ness monster. He in fact believes that Nessie is a 'gentle creature' and derides the fact that the it is referred to as a 'monster'. He also plans to go to Scotland for his honeymoon so that he could search for Nessie.

In The Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central The Loch Ness Monster appears in Sarah dream after she drinks too much cough syrup in the pilot Officer Jay.

[edit] Media

The tabloid Weekly World News often reports on the creature, claiming that it has been captured, pregnant, sold, or even that it is dead.

[edit] Games

In the SNES game EarthBound a long-necked, purple Loch Ness inspired character named "Tessie" is used to cross a lake ("Lake Tess") by Jeff. There is also a group of local people who have dedicated their lives to studying Tessie.

The SNES game Top Gear has a Loch Ness track featuring the image of the Loch Ness Monster in the background.

In the first Pokémon series of games on Gameboy, Lapras is inspired by Loch Ness.

A Nessie-inspired creature called "Dorrie" appears in Super Mario 64 in an underground lake. Mario can ride it as well. It also appears in a few other Mario games.

In Mario Party 2 on a board called mystery land, The Loch Ness monster apears in the backround.

The "Issue 5" expansion to the game City of Heroes has a Nessie tribute in form of a plesiosaur named "Sally" in the "Croatoa" area of the game.

In Monster Truck Madness, Nessie can be seen in a lake in Highland Rally.

In a few versions of Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Nessie can be seen and heard on the 'Highlands' course.

A lake monster named "Nessie" appears in the computer game SimCity 2000, in which it randomly surfaces to eat sailboats.

In Katamari Damacy, Nessie circles the lake in the town level after growing to a certain size.

In the game Dark Age of Camelot, there is a homage to the Loch Ness monster in the Kingdom of Midgaard. In the forest of Myrkwood there is a lake with a creature similar in appearance to a plesiosaur who is humorously named Njessi who swims in circles around the lake.

In the World of Warcraft game by Blizzard, a Loch Ness Monster type creature named Nessie swims around in the Deeprun Tram zone between the cities of Ironforge and Stormwind.

In the game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for the Nintendo DS, the fourth episode includes a lake monster named Gourdy, an obvious reference to Nessie. A newspaper article in the game mentions this connection.

In the game The Sims for the PC, usage of the cheat box (press shift + ctrl + c) with the code "nessie" shows Nessie swimming by.

In the game SimCity 2000, a creature called Nessie occasionally swims from time to time in bodies of water in the city consuming boats.

In the game Metal Gear Solid 2, there is a special mission where the character must take a picture of a soldier monster (genetically modified soldier) which jumps in and out of the water and is about the (alleged) size and movement of the loch ness monster.

In the game Tomb Raider III, in one of the expansion packs' levels set in Scotland, Nessie can be spotted in the beginning of the level. Later, it is realized to be a machine, and the player, controlling Lara Croft, is able to enter the robot to explore.

In the game Zoo Tycoon, the Loch Ness Monster is an exhibit animal. It is portrayed as long necked, rather small, and a purple color.

In Wild Animals, there is a level where scientists drain Loch Ness and use the Loch Ness monster's DNA to bring back plesiosaurs.

In Lemmings, there is a level called "Hunt the Nessie", whose terrain is a long series of islands resembling a sea serpent with a smiling "Lemming" head.

In Splashdown (video game), a jet-ski racing game published by Atari, the Nessie can be seen occasionally rising out of the water in the Loch Ness course.