MINUTIAE MONDAY - TOOBWORLD "FREAKS"

"FREAKS"

A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.

[IMDb]

I'm too chicken-bleep to actually watch this movie, yet I've been fascinated by it for decades.  

It exists in Earth Prime-Time as a movie and has been seen by several TV characters.  (We even saw Cassie Feder watching it on TV back in 1974 in an episode of 'I'm Dying Up Here'.)

I'm surprised it hasn't been a cultural touchstone in more TV shows set in Earth Prime-Time.  (I did ignore a few references to be found in 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' just on the general principle that show is a Zonk quagmire.  And 'The Simpsons' are only in the Tooniverse.)

So as we count down to Halloween, I thought I'd list some of the TV shows which acknowledge this horror classic as having a counterpart in Toobworld.....

'The Sopranos': 

"University" (2001)
Caitlin says she saw Tod Browning's "Freaks" and that it disturbed her.

'American Horror Story' 

"Show Stoppers" (2015) 

The film that was going to be watched by the freaks.

'I'm Dying Up Here'
"Girls Are Funny Too" (2017)
Cassie watches the movie at the end of the episode.

'The Big Bang Theory' 

"The Panty Piñata Polarization" (2008)
Wolowitz quotes the "One Of Us" song to Penny.

'Cougar Town'

"Keeping Me Alive" (2010)
"One of us, one of us"

'Blue Mountain State' 

"Vision Quest" (2010)
"One of us! One of us!"

'Orange Is the New Black' 

"Lesbian Request Denied" (2013)
"Gooble gobble, one of us!" scene is imitated by prison inmates

'Jekyll & Hyde' 

"The Calyx" (2015)
Fedora and Dance initiate Silas saying "Gooba, gobble, we accept you (one of us)".

BCnU!