Pop Culture

• The Karate Kid movies, a trilogy of John G. Avildsen films released in 1984-1989 starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita, popularized bonsai in the West.
• Mambonsai, miniature plant scenes are supplemented with fanciful or kitschy art.
• Popbonsai, a technique pioneered by Lisa Tajima involving colorful pots with animal-shaped feet.
• Bonsly, a character in the Pokemon franchise, resembles a bonsai.
• In an episode of the TV series Saved by the Bell, Screech Powers kills Mr. Belding's bonsai tree.
• The character Jet Black from the animated show Cowboy Bebop is often rendered pruning his bonsai collection during stressful moments.
• In the Japanese dub of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Knights Who Say Ni demand bonsai (rather than a shrubbery).
• Slash, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lived with a bonsai tree before he was mutated and was obsessed with them there after.