In popular culture

This page documents appearances that The Smashing Pumpkins and related acts had in popular culture, apart from direct musical contributions.

Clarissa Explains It All
Clarissa Explains It All is a teenage sitcom that ran on Nickelodeon from 1991-1994. Noted Smashing Pumpkins fan, Melissa Joan Hart played the title character. She reportedly wore an SP shirt on the show on occasion.

Flipper
Flipper is a 1996 remake of the 1963 film of the same title, starring Paul Hogan and Elijah Wood. During the film, Sandy (played by Wood) is seen wearing a classic SP heart shirt. This is significant as Elijah Wood is a big SP fan and was even spotted by fans at Zwan concerts in the early 2000s.

Jeopardy!
According to the J-Archive, the following clues involved The Smashing Pumpkins or Billy Corgan:

Late Night With Conan O'Brien
On the heels of the Infinite Sadness tour, the Pumpkins appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on February 25, 1997. The band performed "Muzzle" and were interviewed, discussing everything from the upcoming Grammy's to how Andy Richter forgot he had met Billy before. SP was joined on the couch by fellow guest, Melissa Joan Hart. A fan of the band, Hart appeared elated while SP was interviewed.

During a subsequent episode, Conan claims that his drummer, Max Weinberg was competitive with the band, which Max denies. Conan shows ‘footage’ of the band’s performance as proof. It was in fact a parody version recorded during SP’s appearance, involving Max’s attempts to ‘sabotage’ them.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch
Following the Pumpkins appearance on Conan with Melissa Joan Hart in 1997, they were referenced on her show, Sabrina the Teenage Witch. In "The Great Mistake" (Season 1, Episode 22), Sabrina (played by Hart) tries to sneak out of the house to see a Smashing Pumpkins concert on a flying vacuum cleaner.

Saturday Night Live
The band has appeared a total of three times on the long-running sketchy comedy show. Their first appearance was a Halloween episode in 1993 with host Christian Slater, performing "Cherub Rock" and "Today". The Pumpkins next appearance was in 1995 with host Quentin Tarantino. They performed "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and Zero". The episode is notable because it is SP's first live television appearance with Billy Corgan sporting his now trademark shaved head.

SP's most recent appearance on SNL was in 1998 for the Season 24 premiere with host, Cameron Diaz. In addition to performing "Perfect", the band appeared in a sketch for the first time. During the sketch, Corgan, Iha and Wretzky are seen as fictionalized versions of themselves in the Moomba Club. A character played by Diaz, Celeste enters the club and notes the band’s presence. Corgan asks Celeste if she got his messages and asks for a dance. She gets distracted by the Butabi Brothers (Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan), who she leaves with. When Celeste returns to the club later, Corgan tries again to ask for a dance.

On April 12, 2003, Zwan made their only appearance on SNL, hosted by Ray Romano. They performed "Lyric" and "Settle Down".

Scott Pilgrim
Scott Pilgrim is a series of graphic novels written by Bryan Lee O’Malley. The third volume is called Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness, a reference to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Chapter 16 specifically is called "Frail and Bedazzled". At times in the graphic novels, Scott Pilgrim is seen wearing Smashing Pumpkins ‘SP Heart’ and ‘Zero’ t-shirts. The Smashing Pumpkins was one of O'Malley’s favorite bands in high school and college, hence all the references.

A feature film directed by Edgar Wright, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was released on August 13, 2010. Much like the graphic novels, Scott wears unique versions of the ‘SP Heart’ and ‘Zero’ shirts.

While no Smashing Pumpkins music plays in the film, the soundtrack does have an eventual SP connection. “Black Sheep”, by popular Canadian band, Metric, is featured prominently. Metric would go on to open for The Smashing Pumpkins during the Shiny and Oh So Bright Tour in 2018.

The Simpsons
In the "Homerpalooza" episode of The Simpsons (season 7, episode 24), The Smashing Pumpkins guest star as themselves. The premise is that Homer tries to earn "street cred" with young people by joining Hullabalooza – a comedic take on the Lollapalooza music festival which the Pumpkins headlined in 1994. In the episode, the band is seen performing "Zero". Backstage, Billy Corgan compliments Homer on his cannonball catcher performance, and the two befriend each other. In a later scene, the entire band is conversing with Homer backstage in regards to their next stop on the tour in Homer's hometown of Springfield.

Reportedly Billy Corgan impressed The Simpsons production staff by doing strong impersonations of Homer and Marge, though it was decided to not have him use them in the episode. In 2007, Simon Crerar of The Times listed The Smashing Pumpkins' (and Cypress Hill's) performances among the 33 funniest cameos in the history of the show.

The events of “Homerpalooza” are later referenced in “Homer’s Enemy” (Season 8, Episode 23). In the episode, Homer tries to befriend his new co-worker, Frank Grimes, who dislikes him. After inviting Frank to his home, Homer tries to ingratiate himself to Frank by showing him pictures of some fond memories/accomplishments. Homer points to a picture of him and the band from the earlier episode, saying “...And this is when I was on tour with The Smashing Pumpkins.”

Star Trek
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Masks” (Season 7, Episode 17) features a number of references to The Smashing Pumpkins. Writer Joe Menosky explained that he was a huge fan of the band when he wrote the episode. The episode involves an alien archive from an extinct civilization, D’Arsay, that transforms the Enterprise and transfers personalities from their mythology into the character of Data. One of the personalities, Ihat (originally Iha in the first draft of the script) was named after James Iha. Korgano, a moon god from D’Arsay mythology was named for Billy Corgan. While not explicitly stated by Menosky, it’s not a stretch to think that the D’Arsay civilization’s namesake was D’arcy.