With Presidents Day upon us, we're taking a log cabin look at some of Abraham Lincoln's wildest and craziest movie and TV show appearances - from The Twilight Zone to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure to Rick and Morty!
As perhaps our most lauded and esteemed former president, Honest Abe's unique attire, amazing accomplishments, and tragic fate make him an ideal candidate for pop-culture adaptations and/or parodies. There are countless dramatic re-tellings of his life, like Spielberg's Lincoln in 2012, along with some inspired zaniness. Here are 12 of Abe's best, and looniest, screen cameos!
The Twilight Zone: "The Passerby" (1961)
In this classic Twilight Zone chapter, a wounded Civil War solider and a war widow realize that the road they're on is one leading to the afterlife - and that they've already been killed in the bloody conflict ravaging the nation. One of the final casualties of the war, and wanderers on the path, is Lincoln, arriving just as he's killed in Ford's Theater.
Star Trek: "The Savage Curtain" (1969)
Captain Kirk rolled out the red carpet for his personal hero, Abraham Lincoln, after the centuries-dead president appeared before the Enterprise, mysteriously floating in space. Lincoln, who was really a manifestation of "good" created by an alien race called the Excalbians, then gave his life aiding Kirk and Spock in a clash between good and evil.
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
Sure, Bill and Ted can say "Be excellent to each other!" all day long, but when Abe Lincoln proudly and loudly proclaims it to the students at San Dimas High, it's a full-on happening. Yes, Abe Lincoln's polite kidnapping, orchestrated by the time-traveling teens who one day unite humanity, brought him hilariously into 20th Century food court culture.
MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch: "4th of July Celebration" (1999)
As part of MTV's late-'90s claymation carnage, Abe Lincoln and George Washington were pitted against one another on Celebrity Deathmatch in a battle to determine the best president of all time. Though Lincoln wins, everyone's eventually eviscerated by fireworks in the end, leaving no one standing triumphant.
Clone High (2002-2003)
MTV's criminally underrated Clone High, from LEGO Movie's Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and Scrubs' Bill Lawrence, featured a high school comprised of military-financed clones of historical figures. Teen Abe (voiced by Will Forte) spends his days in love with Cleopatra, idolizing the real Abe Lincoln, and struggling every day to live up to the former president's ideals.
Futurama: "Insane in the Mainframe" (2001)
Ol' Abe appeared a few times on Futurama: As a sentient head in a jar, as part of the Head Museum, and also as Linctron - an animatronic with multiple personalities (all of them Lincoln) and a key feature in the Hal Institute for Criminally Insane Robots.
Robot Chicken: "Massage Chair" (2006)
Adult Swim's Robot Chicken wasn't about to leave the Great Emancipator out of the mix. Especially when he can be voiced by Hulk Hogan.
When George W. Bush discovers his midi-chlorian count is off the charts, he uses his Jedi powers to bully all of D.C. It all comes down to a showdown between G.W. and Lincoln, with lightsabers, for the glory of ultimate supremacy.
Batman, The Brave and the Bold: "Mitefall!" (2011)
Captain Kirk wasn't the only pop-culture icon that Honest Abe backed up in heated battle. On Batman: The Brave and the Bold, a parallel universe Lincoln teamed with the Caped Crusader to stop a steampunk-armored John Wilkes Booth. Yes, you read all of that correctly.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
American history got a gruesome, ghastly tweaking in Seth Grahame-Smith's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - a movie that presumed that the 16th President of the United States was also, in secret, a hunter of bloodsucking friends that were plotting to infest the country. "Whatever you are, be a good one,” Lincoln once said. And that included the beheading of vamps.
Adventure Time: "Sons of Mars" (2012)
Accused of crimes he did not commit, Finn is brought to stand before the King of Mars - which in the gloriously nightmarish dystopia of Adventure Time means...Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln, being very Lincoln, then gives into guilt and sacrifices his immortality to Death in order to bring Jake back to life.
Rick and Morty: "Ricksy Business" (2014)
Leave it to Rick and Morty to combine one of history's most beloved figures with its absolute worst, as Rick's humanoid experiment, Abradolf Lincler, was a warped mashup of Lincoln and Adolph Hitler that he made in an attempt to create a morally-neutral super leader. Naturally, the project winds up being a catastrophic abomination.
The LEGO Movie (2014)
For The LEGO Movie, Clone High creators Lord and Miller brought back Will Forte to voice the LEGO version of Lincoln - a stalwart Master Builder of Cloud Cuckoo Land, complete with an axe and a flying Lincoln Memorial chair. "A house divided against itself... would be better than this!"
America: The Motion Picture (2021)
From Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and Archer's Adam Reed comes a raunchy and riotous retelling of the Revolutionary War that feels like Drunk History had a one night stand with The Naked Gun and then gave birth to a history report by Bill and Ted if they never had a time machine. Out of the gate, it's just a bonkers chronicle of 1776 that features a werewolf Benedict Arnold blowing up most of the founding fathers and then killing Abe Lincoln (once again voiced by Will Forte) in front of Abe's BFF George Washington (Channing Tatum). Just about every aspect of American political history, including quotes from presidents 200 years later, is jammed into a blender and minced up into a deranged action movie.
What are your favorite Lincoln moments in pop culture? Let's discuss in the comments!
[Editor's note: This article was originally published for Presidents Day 2020.]
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
