Albert Einstein in popular culture


has been the subject of, or inspiration for, many works of popular culture.
On Einstein's 72nd birthday on March 14, 1951, United Press photographer Arthur Sasse was trying to persuade him to smile for the camera, but having smiled for photographers many times that day, Einstein stuck out his tongue instead. This photograph became one of the most popular ever taken of Einstein, often used in merchandise depicting him in a lighthearted sense. Einstein enjoyed this photo and requested UPI to give him nine copies for personal use, one of which he signed for a reporter. On June 19, 2009, the original signed photograph was sold at auction for $74,324, a record for an Einstein picture.
Einstein is a favorite model for depictions of absent-minded professors; his expressive face and distinctive hairstyles have been widely copied and exaggerated. Time magazine's Frederic Golden wrote that Einstein was "a cartoonist's dream come true."
"Einstein" has become a byword for an extremely intelligent person. It may also be used sarcastically when someone states the obvious or demonstrates a lack of wisdom or intelligence.
Many quotes that have become popular via the Internet have been, including "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result".

Recognition

In 1999, leading physicists voted Einstein the "greatest physicist ever".
His birthday, March 14, is also Pi Day, so called because 3/14 corresponds to 3.14, the first three digits of the number Pi. The town of Princeton, New Jersey, where Einstein lived for more than 20 years, celebrates March 14 every year as "Princeton Pi Day and Einstein Birthday Party."

Usage of his name and image

The children's television show Little Einsteins and the educational toys and videos of the Baby Einstein series both use Einstein's name, though not his image.
Iranian cartoonist and humorist Javad Alizadeh publishes a column titled "4D Humor" in his Persian monthly Humor & Caricature, which features cartoons, caricatures and stories on Einstein-related topics. In 1991 he published in Persian "4D Humor", a comic book on Einstein's life and work, inspired mainly by the Theory of Relativity.

Licensing

Einstein bequeathed his estate, as well as the use of his image, to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which from the mid-1980s has sponsored the Einstein Papers Project with the Princeton University Press. Einstein actively supported the university during his life and this support continues with the royalties received from licensing activities. GreenLight licences the commercial use of the name "Albert Einstein" and associated imagery and likenesses of Einstein, as agent for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As head licensee the corporation can control commercial usage of Einstein's name and theoretically ensure compliance with certain standards.
In 2012 Judge Howard Matz of the United States district court found that although a General Motors advertisement featuring Einstein's image was “tasteless” it was not illegal. Judge Matz wrote “the obviously humorous ad for the 2010 Terrain having been published 55 years or more after Einstein’s death, it is unlikely that any viewer of it could reasonably infer that Einstein, or whoever succeeded to any right of publicity that Einstein may have had, was endorsing the GMC Terrain.”
Hebrew University asked that publicity rights be extended to the 70 years associated with copyright protection. Judge Matz declined, stating “the Ninth Circuit recently noted that Marilyn Monroe considered herself to belong 'to the Public and to the world,’ ” Matz wrote. “There is no evidence that Albert Einstein saw himself that way, but he did become the symbol and embodiment of genius. His persona has become thoroughly ingrained in our cultural heritage. Now, nearly 60 years after his death, that persona should be freely available to those who seek to appropriate it as part of their own expression, even in tasteless ads.”

Handedness

There is a persistent popular belief that Einstein was left-handed, but there is no evidence that he was, and the belief has been called a myth. Einstein wrote with his right hand, and authoritative sources state flatly that he was right-handed. An autopsy on Einstein's brain showed a symmetry between the two hemispheres, rather than a left-sided dominance as is typical of most right-handed people or a right-sided dominance as found in most left-handed people.

Educational institutions

Several schools are named after him.

In media and drama

Stage

Einstein has been the subject of or inspiration for many novels, films and plays, such as Steve Martin's comedic play Picasso at the Lapin Agile. He was the subject of Paul Dessau's 1974 opera Einstein and in 1976 in Philip Glass's opera Einstein on the Beach, and his humorous side is the subject of Ed Metzger's one-man play . He features prominently in Daniel Kehlmann's play about Kurt Gödel, Ghosts in Princeton.

Film

Einstein was portrayed by Ludwig Stössel in the 1947 film The Beginning or the End.
He was the subject of the BBC Two film Einstein and Eddington, featuring David Tennant as Eddington and Andy Serkis as Einstein, and detailing Einstein's development of his theories and Eddington's attempts to prove them and in Yahoo Serious's intentionally inaccurate biography of Einstein as an Australian in the film Young Einstein, although the movie is fictionalized.
An Einstein-like character appears in Nicolas Roeg's 1985 film Insignificance. Set in New York in 1953, the film includes a scene in which "The Professor", the character evidently representing Albert Einstein, discusses Relativity with "The Actress", a Marilyn Monroe-like character.
Einstein was portrayed by Walter Matthau in the 1994 romantic comedy I.Q.
In the 2001 film ', he was portrayed as a holographic personality called Dr. Know.
The 2009 film The Nutcracker in 3D includes a character named Uncle Albert who resembles Einstein, speaks with a German accent, and recites Albert Einstein quotes, but is never explicitly identified as Einstein.
The Star Wars character Yoda's wrinkles were modeled after Einstein's, to give the impression of exceptional intelligence.
In the movie Back to the Future, the character of Dr. Emmett 'Doc' Brown, played by actor Christopher Lloyd and portrayed as a brilliant scientist, time traveler and inventor, has a dog called "Einstein", named after Brown's favorite scientist, as well as bearing a superficial resemblance to him. Lloyd also credited Einstein as being his inspiration for the character.
In the 2011 film, ', the Autobot character known as Que sports an Einstein-inspired head design, including his wild hairstyle, dapper mustache, and eyes. However, his accent is often confused for being German because of these similarities. Like his G1 counterpart and Einstein alike, he is one of the most intelligent members of his team, and is an accomplished scientist and inventor. However, his onscreen name "Que" was derived from Professor Q, a James Bond character, who also inspired Wheeljack/Que's overall character.
Einstein was portrayed by David Shackleton in the 2018 comedy Holmes & Watson.

Television

A holographic representation of Einstein, played by Jim Norton, appeared in two episodes of . He first appears to debate physics with Reginald Barclay in "The Nth Degree". Norton returns in the first part of "Descent |Descent". The episode starts on the Enterprise with a game of poker being played by holodeck representations of Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, and Stephen Hawking. All are programmed by Lt. Commander Data, playing as the fourth person in the game.
In the television series The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Einstein was played by Ed Metzger.
In the television series Eureka, the town of Eureka was established when President Harry S. Truman commissioned development of a top-secret lab, staffed by Albert Einstein, after World War II and it became home to the scientists and their families working there.
In the Rick and Morty episode, "A Rickle in Time", time-traveling monsters beat up Einstein, whom they had mistaken for Rick Sanchez.
Einstein is portrayed in the 2017 National Geographic period drama television series, Genius, by Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Flynn, as the elder and younger Einstein, respectively.
Einstein is portrayed in DC's Legends of Tomorrow by John Rubinstein in the episode "Out of Time" and was mentioned in latter in "The Curse of the Earth Totem" when he trapped in the ice age due to being displaced.
German Netflix series Dark begins a with a quote about the perception of time by Einstein.

Web series

He is one of the main characters in the webseries Super Science Friends.

In literature

Featured in Jean-Claude Carrière's 2005 French novel, Einstein S'il Vous Plaît where Carrière portrays a fictional conversation between Einstein and a student.
Alan Lightman's first book Einstein's Dreams, consists of short stories which are portrayed as being the dreams of Einstein while he was working on the theory of relativity; these stories explain how time would work in imaginary parallel universes.
Novelist Jacob M. Appel's Einstein's Beach House relates a fictional battle over the settlement of Einstein's estate after his death.
David Bodanis's book E=mc2 is a biography of Einsteins famous equation and the other scientists before during and after his time that contributed to the understanding we have about the equation.
In James Dashner's young adult novels, The Maze Runner one of the main characters of the first novel is said to be named after him.
Marie Hermanson's Swedish crime novel Den stora utställningen is set during the 1923 Gothenburg Exhibition where Einstein held his official Nobel Lecture after being awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. In this fictional version of events, Einstein is the intended victim of an antisemitic murder plot and one of the viewpoint characters.

In visual arts

In 1940, Philadelphia artist Louis Hirshman did a using found objects, including a wild mop of hair, an abacus chest and shirt collar scribbled with the equation 2+2 = 2+2. In 1977, the piece was purchased by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

In music

In typography

Albert Einstein's handwriting has been digitised as a font in an art project by typographer Harald Geisler and dancer Elizabeth Waterhouse. The font enables the user to write like Einstein on a computer or smartphone. The project was created in collaboration with the Albert Einstein Archives Jerusalem and presented 2015 on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter where the campaign was supported by 2334 backers. Each letter of the font is based on Einstein's manuscripts, different variations of each letter are stored in the font and exchanged automatically during typing to create a natural look.
The Albert Einstein font was used to reenact the 1932 letter exchange between Einstein and Sigmund Freud. In 2017 at the 85th anniversary of the exchange, which was published in 1933 under the title "Why War", Harald Geisler presented the project on Kickstarter in collaboration with the Sigmund Freud Museum and the Albert Einstein Archives. Supporters of the project could choose to either receive the letters themselves or send them to politicians typeset in the handwriting of Einstein and Freud.

In video games

Einstein is an integral character in the, being responsible in ' for altering the course of history using a time traveling device he created to remove Adolf Hitler from existence in an attempt to prevent the horrors of World War II, inadvertently leading to Soviet Union's rise to power and conflict with Europe. He continues to be featured in the altered timeline in Red Alert and ' developing time travel technology for use by the Allies, and his fictional murder at the hands of the Soviets, also involving a time machine, is a central plot point of .
In Mega Man, released in 1987, Dr. Wily's design is inspired by Albert Einstein, and was initially conceived to appear as a tall, thin scientist with a mustache, glasses, balding hair, and lab coat.
In Half-Life, one of the scientist models is based on Einstein's appearance.