Yeti in Popular Culture

[Edit: This post has been updated! Check out the new and improved time-line.]



As you can see by this time-line, the Yeti hit it big in the 1960's - but by the 1990's was completely off the radar. In the current decade, he's back and bigger than ever.

These are the Yeti's biggest moments in popular culture in the last fifty years as I see them.

'60s:

The Sixties started it all. After a 1954 expedition brought back a conical piece of fur thought to be a Yeti scalp, Hergé gave his Yeti a pointy head in "Tintin in Tibet" (1960). And he gave the story a twist: "the Yeti is secretly friendly". This same twist of the Misunderstood Lonely Creature has been repeated ever since. A year later, in their cartoon, "Abominable Snow Rabbit", Chuck Jones and co. decided to paint the Yeti white. They also made him friendly, a little too friendly. His whiteness never really went away after that (an exception in the same decade is the brown, faceless blobby creatures from 1967's Doctor Who episodes). But it was the stop-motion holiday special "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1964) that, in my opinion, had the biggest impact on Yeti in the popular culture. Many of the Yetis being visualized today are nostalgic attempts to give a nod to Bumble, that classic, blue-faced, lovable monster from childhood, who goes from angry predator to helpful Christmas friend over the course of the special. Most of the Yetis today share many of his characteristics.

1957 – The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas

1960 – Tintin in Tibet

1961 – Abominable Snow Rabbit

1963 – Marx Yeti toy

1964 – Rudolph Red-Nosed Reindeer, Seven Faces of Dr. Lao

1965 – Jonny Quest: "Monsters in the Monastery"

1967 – Doctor Who: "The Abominable Snowmen"


'70s:

In the Seventies, Yeti mania was still going strong. After his appearance in a Jonny Quest cartoon in the '60s, Yeti showed up in Scooby Doo (1970) and got his first action figures (albeit, rather pathetic attempts) from G.I. Joe (1973) and as part of Mego's Famous Monsters of Legend series (1977). A TV movie called "Snowbeast" (1977) helped inspire a new animatronic Yeti at Disneyland's Matterhorn ride in 1978. And Mad Magazine put Alfred E. Neuman as the Snowman on the cover of one of their books in 1979. You know you've hit it big when Mad Magazine spoofs you.

1970 – Scooby Doo, Where Are You!: "That's Snow Ghost"

1973 – G.I. Joe Search for the Abominable Snowman

1977 – Snowbeast, Famous Monsters of Legend figure

1978 – Disneyland Matterhorn animatronic yeti

1979 – Abominable Snow Mad (book)


'80s:

Yeti popularity started to decline sharply in the Eighties. In 1980, the Star Wars film "Empire Strikes Back" introduced the Wampa, an ice creature very similar to a Yeti but with horns. As Loren Coleman points out, Yeti has been depicted with horns ever since. In 1982, the thirteenth 'Choose Your Own Adventure' book was released, starring the Himalayan hominid. After that, Yeti went on holiday. For the next couple of decades, you could hear crickets chirping and watch a tumbleweed roll by.

1980 – Empire Strikes Back Wampa

1982 – Choose Your Own Adventure: Abominable Snowman


'90s:

The Yeti must have been hibernating in the Nineties. Little shows up on the radar. After exhaustive research, I can confirm he was a boss in the NES video game "Duck Tales" (1989). Then he showed up in a couple of theatrical plays: "On the Verge or The Geography of Yearning" by Eric Overmyer (1990) and "Betty the Yeti" by Jon Klein (1995). The Super Nintendo brought him in for "E.V.O.: Search for Eden" in 1992. Then one of Zod's henchmen from the Superman movie played him in the live-action Flintstones movie in 1994. But by decade's end, he was back to working the video game market: 1997's Tomb Raider II had him playing second tier to Lara Croft. The Nineties were the Dark Ages for all things Yeti.

'00s:

But then the Renaissance! In 2001, Yeti had a memorable cameo in Pixar's "Monsters, Inc.". This heralded his triumphant return to the world of pop culture. Ever since, he's been making it big. Tim Biskup started painting Yeti for the hip Gama-Go line of merchandise (2003). Children started chanting the "Yeti Stomp" song from The Backyardigans (2004). Video games began incorporating him like crazy: World of Warcraft, MapleStory, Urban Yeti, the recent Zelda: Twilight Princess, and many online flash games - the most famous of which is YetiSports (2004). He was brought in to sell snowboards, razors (shavemyyeti.com), PopTarts, and cell phones. In 2005, when a new species was discovered that appeared to have long white-furred arms, it received the nickname "yeti crab". Many of Yeti's old friends from back in the day put him back in the spotlight. There's a new and improved action figure from G.I. Joe - this time he doesn't look like a baby gorilla (2002) and a new Scooby Doo cartoon (2007). The folks at Choose Your Own Adventure books chose his title to be their first in the reprint and put him as the star in their new interactive cartoon dvd series (2006). Disney built the mecca for yeti fans with Expedition Everest, a ride at Walt Disney World. The amount and variety of quality Yeti merchandise they put out for it is astounding.

2001 – Cameos in Monsters, Inc. and Monkeybone

2002 – G.I. Joe Search for the Yeti, Urban Yeti videogame (GBA)

2003 – Tim Biskup Yeti (Gama Go), MapleStory, The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena (Goosebumps) by R.L. Stine, Lego Yeti’s Hide-Out

2004 – Yetisports, PopTarts packaging, World of Warcraft enemy, Backyardigans: "Yeti Stomp"

2006 -- Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable Snowman DVD, Disney’s Expedition Everest

2007 – Chill Out, Scooby Doo!


The Yeti is still going strong. There's no sign of his popularity waning.

And if you need any more evidence of his immense popularity:

I never run out of stuff to post about!