The Scorpion and the Frog

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The Scorpion and the Frog is a fable of unknown author, though often mis-attributed to Aesop.[1] The story is about a scorpion asking a frog to carry him across a river. The frog is afraid of being stung, but the scorpion reassures him that if it stung the frog, the frog would sink and the scorpion would drown as well. The frog then agrees; nevertheless, in mid-river, the scorpion stings him, dooming the two of them. When asked why, the scorpion explains, "I'm a scorpion; it's my nature."

Common variations include a turtle, fox, or farmer in place of the frog, or a snake in place of the scorpion.

It is often quoted to illustrate the purportedly insuppressible nature of one's self at its base level.

Contents

[edit] Use in pop culture

[edit] In film

[edit] In television

  • The fable's premise is the basis of the plot of the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Scorpion", in which Chakotay describes the fable to Captain Janeway as a warning not to trust the Borg. A fox is substituted for the frog.
  • It is referenced by James Gandolfini's character during season 2, episode #10, "Bust Out" of The Sopranos.
  • By John Glover's Lionel Luthor character during the season 2 episode "Prodigal" of Smallville
  • By Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) in Gilmore Girls during season 6.
  • Told by Walt Braun in the "Burked" episode of CSI.
  • In the "Bad Blood" episode of The Dresden Files, Bob references the story when talking to Harry Dresden.
  • The scorpion and turtle version is told by Peter Thornton after an encounter with one of MacGyver's girls (Deborah), in an episode of MacGyver (Season 4's "Unfinished Business").
  • It is a pivotal reference in Season 2 of Weeds, a Showtime Original Series. Nancy discovers that Peter is a DEA Agent after she sleeps with him. When he informs her that he knows she is a drug dealer, they wind up discussing their relationship. Nancy refers to their situation as the Scorpion and the Turtle, and Peter jokingly corrects her and says its frog not a turtle. This becomes their joke, and is often referred to when their relationship hits a snag.
  • David Simon, creator of the HBO series The Wire, describes the story as informing a plot line in season 5 of the show, where Marlo Stanfield, a young drug dealer, befriends and then kills a senior dealer: "That whole thing was Aesop's Fable of the turtle and the scorpion and Joe didn't recognize the scorpion. The Greek did." Simon clearly also thinks that Aesop is the source of the tale! [2]
  • In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward episode 23 - DNA is Thicker than Water, the turtles battle dark clones of themselves, and take Dark Leo in after he saved Cody. During Dark Leo's time in a holding cell, Leonardo tells him the fable, as a story that Master Spinter told Leo. He said that he believe that if you offer most people the opportunity to be the best they can be, they take it. The fable was used for Dark Leo to think about a choice that Leo wanted him to make: going into custody of the Peace Keepers, or to stay with the turtles. Dark Leo asked why he had to decide. Leo replied "To find out whether you're a scorpion, or a turtle."
  • Features in Starsky and Hutch, Season 1, Episode 3 as the last words of a dying man who had been shot
  • This fable is a major theme in Eden's Bowy. Interpretation of the story's moral is a source of conflict between Yorn and Spike.
  • The fable is also parodied in the popular Adult Swim show, Robot Chicken. However in this telling of the tale, the frog is carrying a revolver and stops the scorpion from stinging him in the middle of the river by shooting at him. When the two reach the other side the frog then shoots the scorpion again, killing him as well as a gerbil who happens by moments later asking for his own help across the river. The frog justified killing the two under the basic reasoning of the fable that the act of killing was merely in his nature.

[edit] In music

  • The Mars Volta singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala alludes to the fable in the song "Agadez" on their fourth album, "The Bedlam in Goliath".
  • The Oakland, CA rock band The Matches have made reference to this story in their song "To Build A Mountain" from their album A Band In Hope (2008).
  • This fable is also the subject of the song "Scorpion" by the band Megadeth on the album The System has Failed.
  • This story is also the inspiration for the song "Scorpion Frog" by the Israeli band Infected Mushroom.
  • The Italian band 883 published a song inspired by this fable, entitled La rana e lo scorpione, on the album Grazie mille.
  • The jam band WOOKIEFOOT has a song based on the Frog and The Scorpion on the album "Out of the Jar"
  • Scottish Progressive Rocker Fish bases the song "Manchmal" from the album 13th Star on this fable.
  • William Galison retells the story in a song titled 'Shoulda known' on the album "Got you on my mind". Carly Simon cameos on the track delivering the line, "It's my nature; that's what scorpions do." Most of the rest of the album also features singer Madeleine Peyroux.

[edit] In Books

[edit] Other

  • "The Scorpion and the Frog" was used as a strip title in the popular webcomic PvP. The strip explores Scratch Fury's inability to go against his animal instincts.
  • "The Scorpion and the Fox" was used by Monet St. Croix aka. M during a fight with Jubilation Lee aka. Jubilee to illustrate her reasons for treating Jubilee as inferior, in the comic book 'Generation X', a spin-off of the popular X-Men series.
  • An altered version of the fable is told in "Way of the Scorpion", a supplement of the Legend of the Five Rings roleplaying game. In this version, the scorpion replies "I can swim", instead of drowning in the river.
  • "The Scorpion and the Frog" was used by Nakor the Isalani (Stories of Midkemia: by Raymond Feist) when describing the nature of the Mad God and his evil servants. In "Talon of the Silver Hawk", Nakor used this to describe Duke Kaspar's nature to Talwin Hawkins.
  • "The Scorpion and the Fox" was used in the book "For Freedom" by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley when Suzanne describes the Nazis as the scorpion.
  • The fable is alluded to in the graphic novel Pride of Baghdad, in which an antelope is asked to aide the pride in escaping the zoo where both are trapped, and declines, stating "You've heard the one about the scorpion and the frog, right?"
  • The fable has been referenced in an a-mail discussion referring to FIFA referees issuing bogus red cards to the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team in wonder of why they would bother.
  • "The Scorpion and the Turtle" shows up in rhyme on David Rakoff's Act Three: Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace on the Frenemies episode of This American Life

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Aesops Fables (Myth-Folklore Online)". Folklore and Myth. 2008. http://mythfolklore.net/3043mythfolklore/reading/aesop/pages/15.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-26. 
  2. ^ http://blog.nj.com/alltv/2008/03/the_wire_david_simon_q_a.html
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