The novel has been parodied or used as source material in a variety of media, such as films, television, stage works, literature, and games: • It was
parodied as a 1950
Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short film featuring
Daffy Duck,
The Scarlet Pumpernickel. An action figure of the Scarlet Pumpernickel was released by
DC Direct in 2006, making it one of the few—if not the only—toys produced based on the Pimpernel. • In 1953, following
Jack Kyle's performance for the
Ireland national rugby union team against
France in
that year's Five Nations Championship, sportswriter Paul MacWeeney adapted lines from the work to salute Kyle. • The Scarlet Pimpernel was parodied extensively in the
Carry On film ''
Don't Lose Your Head'', which featured
Sid James as the Black Fingernail, who helps French aristocrats escape the guillotine while hiding behind the foppish exterior of British aristocrat Sir Rodney Ffing. It also features
Jim Dale as his assistant, Lord Darcy. They must rescue preposterously effete aristocrat
Charles Hawtrey from the clutches of
Kenneth Williams' fiendish Citizen Camembert and his sidekick Citizen Bidet (
Peter Butterworth). •
The Kinks 1966 song "
Dedicated Follower of Fashion" contains an allusion ("they seek him here, they seek him there") to a line from the book; these lyrics also appear in the 1993 film
In the Name of the Father when Gerry Conlon (played by
Daniel Day-Lewis) returns home to Belfast in
hippie-style clothing that he got from London's Carnaby Street. • In the third series of
Blackadder,
Blackadder the Third, the episode "
Nob and Nobility" revolves around Blackadder's disgust with the English nobility's fascination for the Pimpernel.
Tim McInnerny reprises a version of his "Sir Percy" character from the previous two series, who is the alter ego of the Pimpernel, who acts a bit like
James Bond. • In
The Desert Song, the heroic "Red Shadow" has a milquetoast alter ego modelled after Sir Percy. • The character was parodied in a lengthy comedy sketch on
The Benny Hill Show (series 11, episode 1, 1980). Portrayed by Hill himself, the "Scarlet Pimple" spends just as much of his time unsuccessfully pursuing women as he does rescuing people. When one woman repeatedly shuns his advances, he leaves in a huff and refuses to rescue the next woman being sent to the guillotine. • The Canadian comedy team of
Wayne and Shuster created a comedy sketch in 1957 based on the Scarlet Pimpernel called "The Brown Pumpernickel", in which, instead of a red flower as his
calling card, the hero would leave behind a loaf of
pumpernickel. • In
The Huckleberry Hound Show episode "The Unmasked Avenger",
Huckleberry Hound dons a masked avenger identity called the "Purple Pumpernickel", an obvious spoof of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Coincidentally during the episode's opening narration, the Scarlet Pimpernel was seen among the different masked avengers like the Green Gadfly and the White Crusader. After Huckleberry Hound as the Purple Pumpernickel defeated the evil lord (voiced by
Don Messick) that oppressed the land, he revealed his identity to the people where he will bring about changes upon the lords defeat even though it may cause some taxes to handle the new roads, free schools, and old age pension. He is then confronted by a masked avenger known as the Blue Bouncer (voiced by
Don Messick) who rights wrongs and is chased by him as Huck quotes that taxes get folks all riled up as the episode ends. • In 1972,
Burt Reynolds portrayed the "Lavender Pimpernel" in a season 5 episode of
The Carol Burnett Show. • Sir Percy and Marguerite are mentioned as members of an 18th-century incarnation of
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in the
graphic novels of that title by
Alan Moore and
Kevin O'Neill and make a more significant appearance in
The Black Dossier, in the accounts of both Orlando and
Fanny Hill, with whom Percy and Marguerite are revealed to have been romantically involved. • A series of novels by
Lauren Willig, beginning with
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (2005), chronicle the adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel's associates, including the Purple Gentian (alias of Lord Richard Selwick), spies in the Napoleonic era. •
Steve Jackson Games published
GURPS Scarlet Pimpernel, by Robert Traynor and Lisa Evans in 1991, a supplement for playing the milieu using the
GURPS roleplaying game system. • In "
E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)", a 1999 episode of
The Simpsons, the Scarlet Pimpernel appears as the antagonist in the fictional film
The Poke of Zorro. • The 2003 film
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is set in 1805 and features a boy named Blakeney, whose father is named Sir Percy Blakeney, suggesting he is the son of the Scarlet Pimpernel. • Writer
Geoffrey Trease wrote his
adventure novel Thunder of Valmy (1960; US title
Victory at Valmy) partly as a response to Orczy's Pimpernel novels, which he argued were giving children a misleading image of the French Revolution.
Thunder of Valmy revolves around the adventures of a peasant boy, Pierre Mercier, during the start of the Revolution, and his persecution by a tyrannical Marquis. • Writer
Diana Peterfreund took inspiration from the Scarlet Pimpernel for her book
Across the Star Swept Sea. The main character, Persis Blake, pretends to be a shallow aristocrat while actually being the notorious spy "The Wild Poppy". • In the 2014 videogame ''
Assassin's Creed: Unity'', protagonist
Arno Dorian may encounter a man known as the "Crimson Rose", the leader of the "Crimson League", a royalist organization which saves aristocrats from the guillotine. However, it is later discovered that Crimson Rose is a Templar, and he and the League are wiped out by Arno. •
Dewey Lambdin includes an homage to the Scarlet Pimpernel in his book
King, Ship, and Sword, in the character of a foppish Sir Pulteney Plumb who was known as "The Yellow Tansy". •
Philip José Farmer's
Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke includes the Scarlet Pimpernel as a member of the
Wold Newton family. Farmer suggests that Sir Percy was present when the
Wold Cottage meteorite fell near
Wold Newton,
Yorkshire, England, on 13 December 1795.
Win Scott Eckert wrote two Wold Newton short stories featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel, both taking place in 1795: "Is He in Hell?" and "The Wild Huntsman." Eckert also constructed a "fictional genealogy" for the Pimpernel in his essay "The Blakeney Family Tree." • In the
Phineas and Ferb episode "Druselsteinoween", multiple characters dress as the Scarlet Pimpernel for a Halloween party in a castle. This is used for comedic effect as one of the Pimpernels uses the others as decoys to avoid his father, who disapproves of his son's girlfriend because she is the daughter of his sworn enemy. • In the
DuckTales episode "Friendship Hates Magic," the Scarlet Pimpernel is parodied as the Scarlet Pimperbill, whom
Launchpad McQuack mistakes for
Darkwing Duck due to the very similar design of the two characters. • In the comic strip
Doonesbury, the character called "the Red Rascal" has a story line which parodies the original. • In the
Babar episode "The Scarlet Pachyderm", the title character is a parody of the Scarlet Pimpernel. • In the book
Scarlet by
Genevieve Cogman, the characters of the Scarlet Pimpernel make appearances as both protagonists and antagonists, with the Blakeneys being connected to some of the vampiric aristocrats of the book's plot. ==Possible inspiration for the character==