These days, it seems like people want to get really upset about things like Olympics opening ceremonies and 15th century paintings. Since Da Vinci’s work, The Last Supper, is the most well-known depiction of this important story from the Bible, it’s commonly parodied in pop culture (thought it explicitly wasn’t the inspiration for the bizarrely polarizing 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony). Here are ten examples of intentional parodies of Da Vinci’s painting from pop culture that didn’t spawn bad faith outrage campaigns on social media.
Rebel Moon: Part 2
Zack Snyder is well-known for his use of hamfisted and unsubtle Christian imagery, which is often inexplicably employed to make non-religious characters like Superman into Christ analogies. In the awful 2024 sci-fi snoozefest Rebel Moon: Part 2, the central characters have a meal before a climactic battle and are framed like Jesus and the Disciples in the famous da Vinci painting. There was no outrage around this overt use of Christian imagery, but that’s perhaps because no one watched this dumb movie.
Legion of Super-Heroes
In Legion of Super-Heroes #2 (September 1984), several DC heroes are briefly posed around a table in a clear homage to the da Vinci painting. Legion of Super-Heroes, consisting of C-listers like Bouncing Boy, Saturn Girl, Timber Wolf, and Phantom Girl, is now a mainly forgotten relic of the 80s.
That 70s Show
In the Season 1 episode “Streaking,” Eric and his friends are briefly framed on one side of a table in an obvious reference to The Last Supper. The scene even briefly converts the shot into a fresco. This aired on primetime TV in 1998 and no one batted an eye at the humorous homage.
The Simpsons
The Simpsons has done basically everything by this point, so it should come as no surprise that they’ve done a Last Supper parody. In season 16, episode 19, “Thank God It’s Doomsday,” the show takes several jabs at doomsday prophecies and overtly references the famous da Vinci composition. Fox aired this episode in 2005 and wasn’t met with a chorus of outrage.
The Sopranos
The Last Supper: A Sopranos Session was a series retrospective that aired in 2020 and brought many of the surviving cast members from the iconic HBO show to the Little Italy restaurant they once visited after filming pivotal scenes. It contains no overt homage to the painting, aside from the name of the special, but is noteworthy for not sparking bad faith accusations.
South Park
South Park is no stranger to openly mocking every religion under the sun. In the season 13 episode “Margaritaville,” Kyle is portrayed as a messianic figure who is capable of ending the 2008 financial crisis. In one hilarious sequence, the kids are all framed like the apostles and Jesus during the Last Supper.
Justice League
Comic books are no strangers to homages to famous paintings. The strictly-visual nature of the medium lends itself very well to this type of tribute. In Countdown #36 (August 22, 2007), the Justice League is presented in a framing similar to the Last Supper, complete with Batman at the head of the table.
Lost
The Lost Supper, a promotional image for the sixth season of the hit ABC show, was released online to little fanfare in 2009. Lost was extremely influential when it was released, so it’s hard to picture anyone becoming overtly outraged about the show using its marketing materials to parody a specific painting.
M*A*S*H (film)
The 1970 film M*A*S*H includes a sequence that might be considered a bit extreme by today’s standards. Hawkeye Pierce goes out of his way to set up a “last supper” for Walt before the latter’s plan to end his own life. The doctors all pose in ways that are directly reminiscent of the painting.
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The X-Files
“Requiem,” the season seven finale of the hit conspiracy show The X-Files, has a famous scene in which the characters line up in Skinner’s office in an obvious homage to the da Vinci painting. This also marks Mulder’s last appearance as a series regular.
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History of the World, Part I
In Mel Brooks’ hilarious 1981 film The History of the World, Part I, Leonardo da Vinci is presented as a contemporary of Jesus. This is, of course, ridiculous and played for laughs—the Renaissance era was over a thousand years after the time of Jesus, but the modern concept of the appearance of Christian art is heavily influenced by Renaissance painters.
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