RWS in popular culture

rwcarter

The Chariot and Devil cards are icons in the bonus round of the Mystery Fortune slot machine game of the Slot City app on the iOS. (Don't know if there are versions for other PDAs.)
 

prudence

Not sure if it is still available to purchase, but many years ago, I bought my husband a Tenacious D tee shirt that featured the RWS Devil card, with the slaves having been replaced by Jack Black and Kyle Gass (the members of Tenacious D). He still has the tee shirt, it's really a good chuckle.

eta~just had a look around the web, and while there are loads of Tenacious D tee shirts available, that one no longer exists. I wonder if they ran into some kind of copyright issues.
 

karlwb

Hanged Man

Just so happened to watch "The Ninth Gate" with Johnny Depp, directed by Roman Polanski. It's about a set of books one would be able to hook up with the Devil. Kind of aimless and disappointing however. One of the hapless victims along the way was hung upside down with one crossed leg. I didn't catch anything else. No Tarot connection otherwise per se.
 

Vetch

the Happy Squirrel card is a notable example since, unless the broad public has a basic grasp of what tarot is and does, the joke wouldn't work at all.

One needs more than knowledge of the Tarot to get this joke working.
Me, I watch no TV any more. I had no idea what that squirrel might be. I searched for it, found a pic and remembered that there have been times when I could stand, yea, actually loved The Simpsons and that I once saw a midly amusing movie called Ice Age.
(And heck, it's a really funny, clever card, imo. N° 23, btw. Would that be a reference to "Illuminatus!"?
Probably not. I am getting old... argh.)


I think the Tarot-reference will last longer in public knowledge than the other two. Yea, I actually believe that... X)


:)
 

Nemia

Things you can tell by just looking at her

I saw the movie some years ago and remember one scene.

Calista Flockhart reads the cards for Glenn Close. If I remember well, the reading is intense and spot-on. The readee listens in silence until the reader touches the one topic that really interests the readee. As soon as she understands that she won't hear what she wants to hear, she more or less kicks the reader out.

It's a reading without the trappings of cliche, no gypsy earrings or candle light. The reader is not a charlatan, there is nothing suspicious about her, she is just a sensitive young woman. I'd love to see that scene again.
 

Aravagedsomething

A few years ago, Fox had a show called "Mental". Basically "House" but instead of medical mysteries it was psychiatric (never renewed and oh how my heart broke!).
Anyways, in the last scene our lead character leaves the states and is somewhere in Europe starting a new adventure. He has a dog, a backpack, and I believe there was a rose somewhere (?) plus some more imagery. Either way, it was so obvious it was a reference to the Fool card I got super excited. My brother didn't believe me and when I showed him the card from one of my decks his eyes opened in amazement. XD

Man that was a good show and I loved how they added that. <3
 

Aeric

The musical episode "The Bitter Suite" of Xena: Warrior Princess has Xena and Gabrielle travelling to the world of Illusia where almost all of the inhabitants are Major Arcana archetypes, and Xena and Gab are turned into several of them. Costumes are lifted directly from RWS.

Some examples: http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/kyodai/BitterSuite.jpg

Callisto as The Fool and Justice, Xena as the Priestess and Death, Gab as the Empress, etc.
 

Zephyros

Not sure if it is still available to purchase, but many years ago, I bought my husband a Tenacious D tee shirt that featured the RWS Devil card, with the slaves having been replaced by Jack Black and Kyle Gass (the members of Tenacious D). He still has the tee shirt, it's really a good chuckle.

eta~just had a look around the web, and while there are loads of Tenacious D tee shirts available, that one no longer exists. I wonder if they ran into some kind of copyright issues.

That sounded really familiar, so I had to check, here is how it looks.

http://tshirtslayer.com/files-tshirt/styles/shirtview/public/user-832/DSCF2197.JPG?itok=eX7gBvUR

Found it on Google Images, and I think it might be available from other sources as a bootleg
 

ravenest

For me the biggest pop demo of RW is when one person mentions A card (non deck specific) and virtually automatically, nearly everyone starts talking about it as if it is the RW deck version of that card. I think though, with the proliferation of decks with different themes, this may be starting to pass ?