Princeton in pop culture

<p>So far I have seen Princeton mentioned in more than a couple books and movies, and to tell you the truth, it really gives me the warm fuzzies. So, post yer princeton references in pop culture. </p>

<p>So far I have:</p>

<p>Movies- </p>

<p>A beautiful mind (partially set in princeton)
Burn after reading (the CIA guys are singing 'old nassau' at a party)
Not another teen movie (the dad wants his son to attend)</p>

<p>Books- </p>

<p>Freakonomics - Mentions a study done by Princeton, nothing major.</p>

<p>Catcher in the Rye- Holden’s dad wants him to go to Princeton.</p>

<p>Toy Story 3- Andy is going to Princeton and has to leave his toys behind.</p>

<p>The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)- Jennifer Connelly’s character is an astrobiologist at Princeton.</p>

<p>Toy Story 3-Andy isn’t going to Princeton. He’s going to “college”. Plus, Princeton? Really? What’s his hook?</p>

<p>^
It’s really subtle, but you can see the logo on his monitor and the PU banner.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/947735-toy-story-3-what-college-andy-going-5.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/947735-toy-story-3-what-college-andy-going-5.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I’m assuming his hook is having living toys. Although seeing as he never actually talked to them, I don’t know how he knew that they were alive. Doesn’t really seem like a very bright kid otherwise.</p>

<p>Andy is not going to any particular school. While Princeton is suggested, I don’t think you will get the animators to say he is going to Princeton.</p>

<p>Ah, this is fun!</p>

<p>Books -
This Side of Paradise - Francis Scott Fitzgerald
The quote I’m referring to: “I want to go to Princeton,” said Amory. “I don’t know why, but I think of all Harvard men as sissies, like I used to be, and all Yale men as wearing big blue sweaters and smoking pipes. … I think of Princeton as being lazy and good-looking and aristocratic—you know, like a spring day. Harvard seems sort of indoors—”
Monsignor finishes his thought: “And Yale is November, crisp and energetic.”</p>

<p>This novel also has other phenomenal descriptions of Princeton - it’s no accident either, as Fitzgerald himself went there.</p>

<p>Ah!~ How could I leave off Paradise. I read it earlier this year. Fitzgerald also partook in the triangle club. Shame he wasn’t too much a fan of the school – judging by his descriptions of the eating clubs and students. Then again, this was a hundred years ago.</p>

<p>Andy went to Princeton and I didn’t know about it?! Gosh, and to think I couldn’t envy him more for having Woody :(</p>

<p>I read it earlier this year too!
Don’t know why it took me so long to read that and The Beautiful and the Damned, since I absolutely love Fitzgerald… but better late than never?</p>

<p>The Prince of Bel-Air</p>

<p>Mr. Banks, the father, when to Princeton</p>

<p>^^^^ +1. You have to look up Will Smith’s ad hoc interview with a stuffy Pton alum who, magically, offers him admissions on the spot!</p>

<p>Hilarious!</p>

<p>Risky Business–after Joel fails his Princeton interview, my favorite quote, “Looks like University of Illinois!”</p>

<p>Holy cow. You guys are missing Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle (and party at Princeton on the way). It is almost certainly the most screen-time Princeton has gotten other than A Beautiful Mind.</p>

<p>Also, there’s a dumb 1990s period rom-com with Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins called I.Q., where Albert Einstein and Kurt Godel try to get Einstein’s cute-as-a-button niece (guess who?) to drop her full-professor fiance for an auto mechanic. It all takes place you-know-where, with Ms. Ryan playing that rare 1940s female math PhD student with naturally curly hair and big-big eyes.</p>

<p>Can’t leave Bruce Wayne out, can we?</p>

<p>Or Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin, on 30 Rock) – lots of references to his Princeton-ness.</p>

<p>The talented Matt Damon steals the identity of a Princeton grad in one of his most amazing roles in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Creepy as heck, but well worth watching.</p>

<p>Two more: </p>

<p>I think the protagonist of the musical Avenue Q is supposed to be a recent Princeton grad who was an English major.</p>

<p>Joyce Carol Oates wrote about teaching at Princeton some in her recent memoir, A Widow’s Story. Princeton may show up in other books of hers – after all, she has lived and worked there for over 30 years – but I don’t know because I’ve only read a few of them (she publishes about one a year, maybe more than that).</p>

<p>Ahh, somebody already mentioned it, but I am hearing about it constantly from Jack Donaghy on NBC’s “30 Rock” :)</p>

<p>Kal Penn’s character, who briefly dates and momentarily gets engaged to a main character Robin, plays a psychiatrist who graduated from Princeton for about 10 episodes on the show How I Met Your Mother.</p>

<p>A-a-a-and Lt. Joe Cable, one of the short story characters in James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific, was a recent Princeton grad (and a callous racist, too). He became one of the two central male characters in the musical, South Pacific, but I don’t remember whether the musical identifies him with Princeton.</p>