Representations of the shark are common in popular culture in the Western world, with a range of media generally portraying them of eating machines and threats. In some media, however, comedy is drawn from portrayals of sharks running counter to their popular image, with shark characters being portrayed as unexpectedly friendly or otherwise comical. The lists below give an approximate sample of the many forms of representation of the shark in popular culture.
Cartoons
Sharks are sometimes seen in Tom and Jerry
Jabberjaw is a cartoon shark and the lead character in the eponymous cartoon series
Kenny the Shark is an anthropomorphic tiger shark
Sharky the sharkdog from Eek! The Cat
Sharky & George
Rin Matsuoka, Free!
Kisame Hoshigaki, Naruto
The DIC Entertainment series, Street Sharks, featured crime-fighting man-shark hybrids
In a season two episode of Captain Planet, sharks are the main focus[1]
In a season one episode of ThunderCats, a cross between a shark and a black widow is featured
Sharks appear in several episodes of the animated series Aquaman
King Shark, a humanoid shark supervillain created by DC Comics
Tiger Shark, an enemy of Namor the Sub-Mariner
Warren White, an enemy of Batman
Tiger Shark, an identity assumed by two separate DC Comics characters
The Shark, an identity assumed by three different DC Comics characters
Sharks are sometimes seen swimming in Aquaman comics
Film
The Jaws franchise follows a series of man-eating shark attacks. The first film Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg, stars Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss, three men who set out to kill a bloodthirsty great white shark. The film's sequel, Jaws 2 which in turn made enough profit for more sequels without Scheider, Jaws 3-D and Jaws 4: The Revenge.
Various James Bond films depict sharks as man-eating predators, e.g. Thunderball, Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only and Licence to Kill, used as violent forms of execution for traitors or alleged traitors to Bond's enemies. In the Austin Powers film series, which parodies many elements of the Bond films, the villain Dr. Evil is quite displeased when he is unable to acquire sharks with laser beams attached to their heads. His wish is granted in the third film.
A shark makes an appearance in Batman: The Movie, attacking Batman as he ascends up a helicopter ladder, and explodes after being sprayed with Bat-shark repellent.
Maccus from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End had his scarred head the appearance of that of a hammerhead shark and also had sharp, fang-like teeth much like those of a shark.
A shark briefly appears in Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa.
The Sharknado franchise depicts sharks getting sucked into tornadoes and raining down upon people.
Deep Blue, A female great white that is believed to be one of the largest of her species. Deep Blue went viral due to her media exposure from shark week, facebook and video footage of Ocean Ramsey swimming with her.
Hurricane Shark or Street Shark, nicknames for claims of a shark swimming in a flooded urban area, usually after a hurricane. Most such claims have been hoaxes; however, a 2022 video of a shark or other large fish swimming in Hurricane Ian's floodwaters in Fort Myers, Florida, proved to be authentic.[2][3]
Blåhaj, the name of a plush shark sold by IKEA, popularized by the LGBTQ+ (Primarily the Transgender) community.
Magazines and literature
Jaws by Peter Benchley (1975)Jaws, the book by Peter Benchley that the 1975 movie was based on. It tells a tale of a great white shark that terrorizes the small resort town of Amity Island, and three men who set out on a boat to track it down and kill it.
Jaws 2 and Jaws: The Revenge, two film novelizations both written by Hank Searls
A pregnant great white in another Peter Benchley novel, White Shark
"Baby Shark", a children's song featuring a family of sharks. Popular as a campfire song, it has taken off since 2016, when Pinkfong, a South Korean education company, turned it into a viral video which spread through social media, online video, and radio.
Sharks variously appear in video games, arcade games and pinball machines. In video games, they typically appear either as playable characters or threats to the player.[4] Sharks also make cameo appearances in some popular games and game series. The 1975 movie Jaws and its sequels inspired several licensed and unlicensed games.
Pinball machines
Sharks feature prominently in several pinball machines including:
Sea Hunt, a 1972 machine inspired by the 1960s television program, manufactured by Leisure & Allied[5]
Killer Shark by Sega is a 1972 electro-mechanical game where the player points and shoots a mock spear-gun at a projected shark that swims towards him. The game features on-screen in the movie Jaws.
Shark Jaws is a single-player arcade game by Atari, Inc. that was intended to capitalise on the popularity of the film Jaws without being licensed to use the name
Shark is a 1978 game for the Commodore PET in which the player controls a shark and must eat swimmers without being caught by a diver.[10]
Blue Shark is a 1978 arcade game by Midway in which the player shoots sea creatures, including a shark while a timer counts down.[11]
Terror at Selachii Bay is a one-player strategy game wherein the player provisions and skippers a boat hunting a shark using harpoons.[12]
Shark Attack is a 1981 arcade game in which the player controls a shark and must eat scuba divers.[13]
Alive Sharks is a 1990 shareware game for DOS in which the player controls a scuba diver who must collect sea creatures from the ocean floor while avoiding shark bites and jellyfish stings.[15] A sequel called VGA Sharks followed, and was updated between 1990 and 1994.[16]
In the 1998 arcade game The Ocean Hunter, one or two players must fight off sharks and other sea creatures while searching for seven sea monsters, including a megalodon.
3D Shark Hunting is a first-person perspective shark-hunting simulator released in 1999.[17]
21st century video games
Shark! Hunting the Great White is a 2001 first-person shark hunting simulator.[18]
Dreamworks' Shark Tale game was released by Activision in 2004 for several consoles. The player is Oscar the fish, but sharks feature prominently in the game.[19]
Jaws: Ultimate Predator, is a game for the Wii and Nintendo 3DS set 35 years after the events of the original 1975 movie.[20]
The Hungry Shark series of mobile games allows the player to swim, leap and feed as a variety of real and imaginary shark species
Derrick the Death Fin is a 2012 side-scrolling game in which the player controls a paper-craft shark.[21]
Depth is a sharks vs. humans underwater combat simulator where players can choose to be a human or one of several shark species.
Maneater, a video game for the Xbox one featuring a bull shark as the playable animal. While its species is a bull shark, the game features various evolutions and mutations for the shark.
Minor appearances in video games
Sharpedo is a Pokémon from Generation III of the game series that is the evolutionary successor to the Pokémon known as Carvanha.
Sharks are a secondary threat to the player character in the 1984 Taito game, Sea Fighter Poseidon.
Sharks are underwater enemies in a few entries of both the Mario and Donkey Kong franchises.
Sharks are occasional enemies in the Ecco the Dolphin series.
Tiny is the name of a great white shark featured in Batman: Arkham City. Tiny was an attraction at Gotham Museum's "Terrors of the Deep" aquarium before the Penguin bought the building and turned it into his hideout.
Whale sharks can be found in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
Sharks can be seen underwater in Tomb Raider: Underworld.
Sharks are seen as both enemies and hunting opportunities in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.
^"My Top 100 Favorite Cartoon Sharks". Shezcrafti.com. Retrieved 2015-12-15.
^Victor, Daniel (September 30, 2022). "For Once, the Hurricane Shark Was Real". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 30, 2022. Retrieved September 30, 2022.
^Hall, Ellie (2022-09-29). "The Hurricane Shark Is Real". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
^"The Best Video Games Starring Sharks". Kotaku Australia. 2021-01-06. Retrieved 2022-12-12.
^"Derrick the Deathfin (2012)". MobyGames. Retrieved 2022-12-12.
Further reading
Helfman, Gene; Burgess, George H. (2014). "Sharks in Stories, Media, and Literature". Sharks: The Animal Answer Guide. The Animal Answer Guides: Q&A for the Curious Naturalist. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 202–220. ISBN 9781421413099.
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