Isaac Newton was a physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who famously described what would become the law of gravity. Newton often claimed that the revelation came to him after witnessing an apple falling from a tree. Exaggerations of this story have gone on to suggest that the apple hit Newton on his head, thus knocking the idea into his mind.
References
- Kermit the Frog spoofed Newton on the cover of a 1983 notebook titled Jim Henson's Muppets View of History.
- Muppets Tonight episode 206 features a preview for "next week's" Great Moments in Elvis History, "Sir Elvis Newton," where a falling apple gives him the idea to make it into a pie.
- The Sesame Street story plays off the idea of the apple knocking an idea into Newton's head in a story, "The Kingdom That Had No King", where apples hit the townsfolk on the head, giving them ideas on how to live without a king. (EKA: Episode 3040)
- In a Sesame Street film insert about the word "apple", a boy sitting under a tree is hit with a falling apple while doing work, similar to Newton. Template:SSvideo
- The song "Knee Deep" from The Muppets at Walt Disney World features the lyric "But, we don't sink the flagrant stink 'cause we broke ol' Newton's laws!"