Frank Zappa in popular culture

As an icon of

• In 1995 a cast of Zappa was installed in the center of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Zappa was immortalized by Konstantinas Bogdanas, the Lithuanian sculptor who had previously cast portraits of Vladimir Lenin.^[1][2]
• In 2002, a bronze bust was installed in a square in Bad Doberan, a small town in the north of Germany, where, since 1990, there has been an annual international festival celebrating the music of Frank Zappa, the "Zappanale".
• In 2008 a cast of Zappa was installed in Baltimore created by Konstantinas Bogdanas, the Lithuanian sculptor.^[3]
• The Tokyo Tower Wax Museum, which closed down in 2013, featured a permanent exhibition about rock music and had a wax statue of Zappa.^[4][5][6][7]
• Actor Billy Bob Thornton made illustrated portraits of Zappa.^[8]

Comics and cartoons

• Zappa's official illustrator Cal Schenkel made various advertising comics to promote Zappa's latest records.^[9]
• In
  Marcel Gotlib's comics series Hamster Jovial the title character listen to 200 Motels and questions the lyrics of the song Penis Dimension.^[10] The cartoonist frequently referenced Zappa in other comics too.^[11]
• A September 1970 issue of National Lampoon featured a parody of Archie Comics in which teenagers go to a Zappa concert. The artwork was provided by Michael Choquett, Sean Kelly, Joe Orlando, Henry Scarpelli and Peter Bramley.^[12]
• A 1972 interview with
  Punch Magazine featured a caricature of the musician by Quentin Blake.^[13][14]
• Belgian cartoonist
  Humo.^[15][16]
• Kees Kousemaker's Stripleksikon (1980).^[17]
• Zappa has a cameo in Hector Leemans's Bakelandt comic book album Het Verraad van de Repensnijder (1979).^[18]
• One of Luc Cromheecke's earliest comics featured Zap, a motorcyclist who looked like Zappa.^[19][20]
• In the satirical comic book Pest In 't Paleis (1983) by Guido van Meir and
  We're Only In It For The Money.^[21]
• Valley Girl.^[22]
• Zappa was referenced in Bill Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead.^[23]
• Frank Zappa had cameos in the Belgian comics series The Adventures of Nero by Marc Sleen,^[24] namely the albums De Zwarte Toren (1983), Het Beest Zonder Naam (1985) and Doe De Petoe (1994).^[25]
• After Zappa's passing Matt Groening created a tribute in his comic strip Life in Hell.^[26]
• Robert Crumb created a caricature of Zappa for The New Yorker.^[27]
• In 1994 German cartoonist Wittek made a comic book album based on Zappa's Joe's Garage.^[28]
• Dutch comics artist Peter Pontiac illustrated bootleg copies of book with Zappa's lyrics.^[29][30]
• Belgian cartoonist Wegé often adds cameos of Zappa in his cartoons.^[31][32]
• British cartoonist Chuck Death invented crazy stories about Zappa in his Great Pop Things comics series.^[33]
• Jean Solé created a 1975 comic strip about Zappa's song
  Stinkfoot, which was published in Fluide Glacial^[34] and later used as the cover of Zappa's bootleg album ' 'Tis The Season To Be Jelly.^[35]
• In 2012 a compilation album was released, Frank Zappa Comics Tribute, featured comics starring Zappa.[36]
• Belgian cartoonist Karl Meersman drew two caricatures of Zappa.^[37]

Food and drink

There are now hops named after Frank Zappa: Zappa Hops Guide: Yes, They’re Named After That Zappa

Film

• Zappa wrote the soundtrack for the B-movies The World's Greatest Sinner (1961)^[38] and the western Run Home Slow (1963).^[39]
• Frank Zappa appeared in the 1968 film
  Monkees. He is in the presence of a talking cow and tells Davy Jones to focus more on the band's music, because the youth of America depends on you to show the way.^[40][41][42]
• Joel and Ethan Coen's first amateur movie, The Banana Film, featured a man eating a banana, set to music from Zappa's Hot Rats.^[43]
• Music from
  We're Only In It For The Money appears on the soundtrack of Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool (1969).^[44]
• Frank Zappa made a satirical film, 200 Motels (1971), which is about him and his band The Mothers of Invention, but nevertheless only features him in minor footage.
• A photographic cut-out of Zappa appears in the sky in Down and Dirty Duck (1973), an animated film which features the voices of Howard Kaylan, Mark Volman, Aynsley Dunbar and Janet Ferguson, who all appeared in 200 Motels too, as part of Zappa's entourage.^[45]
• Frank Zappa is prominently featured in the concert film Baby Snakes (1979).^[46]
• Zappa's compositions Chunga's Revenge and I Have Been In You are featured on the soundtrack of Happy Together.^[47]
• Zappa's song "Dirty Love" is featured on the soundtrack of the film The Ice Storm.^[48] and Le Péril jeune.
• Zappa's
  Y Tu Mamá También (2001).^[49]
• In the film The Banger Sisters (2002) the title characters claim to have gained their nickname from Frank Zappa.^[50]
• Frank Zappa is portrayed by Adam Tomei in My Dinner with Jimi (2003) by Bill Fishman.

• Paul McCartney claimed that Zappa's debut Freak Out! was an important influence on the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).^[61][62][63]
• The Czech underground rock band The Plastic People of the Universe were named after Zappa's song Plastic People.^[64]
• The Japanese rock band Zunou Keisatsu took their name from the Zappa song Who Are the Brain Police?, which literally translates to brain police.^[65]
• Kurt Cobain used musical pieces by Zappa in his experimental collage tape recording Montage of Heck.^[66]
• "Frank Zappa and the Mothers" are mentioned in the lyrics of the well known Deep Purple track "Smoke on the Water", which is about the 1971 Montreux, Switzerland fire at a Zappa concert.^[67][68]
• John Mayall's song 2401 deals with a visit he once paid to Zappa in his log cabin in Laurel Canyon Boulevard.^[68]
• We're Only In It For The Money
  .
• Just Another Band From L.A..^[69]
• Wild Man Fischer, who once recorded in Frank Zappa's studio, later had a falling-out with him. He recorded two songs about him afterwards, one named "Frank", the other "I'm Sorry, Frank Zappa".^[70]
• On their album
  PMRC hearings.^[68]
• The cover of Spanish musician Caballero Reynaldo's record Clásico Con Twist (1995) is a shout-out to Zappa's Joe's Garage.^[71][72]
• George Thorogood & The Destroyers
  covered The Mothers' song "Trouble Every Day" on their 1997 album Rockin' My Life Away. The song is dedicated to Zappa in the liner notes.
• Weird Al Yankovic's song Genius In France from Poodle Hat
  (2003) is a tribute to Zappa and features Zappa's son Dweezil on guitar and vocals.
• Gov't Mule recorded a song entitled "Left Coast Groovies (For FZ)", included on their debut album released in 1995. The introductory riff is followed by a voice in the background saying "what the fuck", a frequent expression of Zappa's. The song was often introduced in concert with a monologue about Zappa, concluding with the band telling audience members "If you don't like Frank Zappa, get the fuck out".^[73][74]
• On the album cover of Madlib's The Further Adventures of Lord Quas (2005) references are made to Freak Out! and An Evening with Wild Man Fischer.^[75]
• The song Orbz a.k.a. Some Wise Quote Drake Never Said by Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire samples a quote by Zappa about the American educational system.^[76]

Other species named after Zappa include a fossil snail named Amaurotoma zappa and the Cameroonese spider Pachygnatha zappa, so named because a marking on the female's ventral surface resembles the Zappa mustache.^[112] A gene of the bacterium Proteus mirabilis that causes urinary tract infection is named zapA (others are named zapB through zapE).^[113]

Geography

• Between 1997 and 1999 animator
  Gabor Csupo owned a restaurant in L.A., named after Lumpy Gravy.^{[114][115][116]}
• In late July, 2007, the city of Berlin, at the urging of the MUSIKFABRIK ORWOhaus (musicians community), renamed Street 13 in the Marzahn district (part of the former East Berlin) the "Frank-Zappa-Straße."^[117]
• The street of Partinico, Sicily, where Zappa's father lived at number 13, Via Zammatà, has been renamed to Via Frank Zappa.^[118]

Festivities

• In 2007 Baltimore declared the 9th of August Frank Zappa Day.^[119][120]

Politics

• In 1989–1990 Zappa became Cultural Ambassador of Czechoslovakia, where he met president
  Vaclav Havel, who was a big fan of his music.^[121]