When I watched "Monkees at the Movies" this morning, I noticed a pretty obvious Shakespeare reference. I thought it would be mentioned in the trivia on the DVD, but since it wasn't, I thought I'd make a note of it here. About five minutes into the episode, after the Monkees have discovered how much of a jerk Frankie Catalina is, Micky says, "No longer shall we suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous Catalina." He appears in an older style of clothing and holding a skull:
Both of these are references to
Hamlet. In his famous "To be or not to be..." soliloquy, Hamlet wonders about "suffer[ing] / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" (III.i.65-66). Much later in the play, he picks up the skull of the King's jester (which had been buried for twenty-three years) and says, "Alas, poor Yorick" (V.i.177).
For what it's worth:
in "Monkees Get out More Dirt," two episodes before this one, Mike quotes from Hamlet too.
