In Good Omens, is there any joke involving Pollution and Elvis?

Question

In Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, there are jokes about Elvis Presley that clearly relate to at least three of the four apocalyptic horsepersons.

• The newspaper War works for is described as follows:

  A typical National World Weekly would tell the world how Jesus' face was seen on a Big Mac bun bought by someone from Des Moines, with an artist's impression of the bun; how Elvis Presley was recently sighted working in a Burger Lord in Des Moines; how listening to Elvis records cured a Des Moines housewife's cancer; how the spate of werewolves infesting the Midwest are the offspring of noble pioneer women raped by Bigfoot; and that Elvis was taken by Space Aliens in 1976 because he was too good for this world.^*

  ^*Remarkably, one of these stories is indeed true.

• Famine inspects a Burger Lord in Des Moines, where he finds the cook singing Love Me Tender to himself; since this clashes with the recorded Burger Lord jingle, Famine makes a mental note to have him fired.

• The Horsepersons are gathering for the apocalypse. An arcade trivia game asks for the year when Elvis died, and Death reveals himself by saying:

  I DON'T CARE WHAT IT SAYS, I NEVER LAID A FINGER ON HIM.

Most of the stuff involving the horsepersons happens to each of them in parallel, so it seems strange to have three Elvis jokes but not a fourth. Is there a similar joke involving Pollution that I've missed, or does he get to be the only Horseman of the Apocalypse with no connection to Elvis?

Answer 1

I didn't find any direct joke concerning Elvis and Pollution in Good Omens yet, but the fact that the fourth horseman is described as "a young man dressed all in white. [...] He looked like Victorian Romantic poets looked just before the consumption and drug abuse really started to cut it" can be seen as covert references to Elvis' well known suiting habits and no less well known drug problems.

Since Pollution is also known for its white horse, it may be only a cosmetic choice from Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett to match a color theme, but the romantic poet reference can't be explained easily using only the Pollution theme.

Answer 2

When Pollution entered the biker bar,

the wind blew empty crisp packets and newspapers and ice cream wrappers with him. They danced around his feet like excited children, then fell exhausted to the floor.

He also wears an all-white suit, and has a crown as his totem (ie., the king). Pestilence also retired the year after Elvis was born, and Death swears he never killed Elvis.

Answer 3

Was rereading this book and there actually IS a fourth reference to Elvis, but it’s in the FOOTNOTES!! It’s the second footnote on the page, the next chapter down:

The interview was done in 1983 and went as follows:

Q: You’re the Secretary of the United Nations, then?

A: Si.

Q: Ever sighted Elvis?

I feel like it’s a reference to Death, because it seems shifty and evasive.