In popular culture

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

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.

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) 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.

Scott Pilgrim
Scott Pilgrim is a series of graphic novels. 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. SP was one of writer Bryan O’Malley’s favorite bands in high school and college, hence all the references. Although, it seems he has a low opinion of Zwan and newer Billy Corgan material (as of 2010).

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 the ‘SP Heart’ and ‘Zero’ shirts.