Advertising
- A commercial for 7-up from 1984 features Pac-Man drinking the titular soda to power-up and eat the ghosts. In a later scene, the ghosts drink 7-up with Pac-Man.
- A commercial for Pizza Hut's $10.00 Tastemaker Pizza features Craig Robinson playing the tabletop arcade version of Pac-Man while hawking the titular pizza, questioning if Pac-Man got tired of eating the same Pac-Dots every day, and asking who else would eat Pac-Dots.
- A commercial for Reese's features a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup acting like Pac-Man and eating Resse's Pieces the way Pac-Man eats Pac-Dots. Actual music and sound effects from the Pac-Man game are also used in the commercial.
- A commercial for Subway Fresh Fit meals features a kid playing a Pac-Man-like video game called "Snakka", where a boy named Snakka runs through a maze eating junk food, and the more junk food he eats, the fatter he gets. When he unlocks a sundae in what looks like the Ghosts' Nest, his fat gets him stuck in it, causing the kid to get a Game Over.
- Pac-Man appears in a 2023 ad for Wonderful Pistachios, where he eats the titular snack like Pac-Dots. Actual music and sound effects from the Pac-Man game were used in the commercial.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: In Stardust Crusaders, one of Telence T. D'Arby's games in his collection is called Pack-Laudy 2.
- In Bread Barbershop, the arcade has a poster for a game called Panc-Man (a combination of Pac-Man and "pancake") on the wall.
- Happy Heroes:
- In Season 8 episode 22, Huo Haha reminds Big M. that Happy S. is still a candy cracker from Huo's magic, and there's a danger of him being eaten. As he says this, the accompanying visuals show Huo as Pac-Man, consuming Happy S., complete with sound effects from the original Pac-Man.
- In Season 13 episode 1, Doctor H. briefly teleports to an 8-bit environment that features the Pac-Man ghosts in it.
- In the Simple Samosa episode "Khelo Samosa", the townsfolk are trapped in an arcade game and Samosa and friends have to rescue them. The arcade machine they get sucked into is for a game called "Pakwanman" featuring a familiar yellow circular character.
- The title panel of the April 24, 2011 Garfield strip shows Garfield as Pac-Man chasing after a purple ghost.
- In one comic strip of The Muppet Show, Kermit mentions that Robin earned a Frog Scout merit badge for playing Pac-Man.
- Off the Mark:
- OverPac Man
. - In this strip, Pac-Man attends a Halloween party dressed in a Minion costume. Turns out he's not the only one dressed that way.
- Pac-Man hits a pinata stuffed with Pac-dots.
- "Watching Ghost Hunters again?"
- Pac-man is busted.
- The original Pac-Money.
- Pac-Man's lean years.
- In this strip, some cats play a Pac-Man-like game called Eat Around the Pill at an arcade.
- OverPac Man
- In Chapter 14 of Harry Potter and the Yellow Quartet, the first house elves who served humans were named Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde.
- Kung Fu Panda 2. The Furious Five hide in a Chinese dragon costume and proceed to haul wolf minions inside and beat them up, making it look to outsiders like they're being devoured. While this goes on the view switches to a top-down perspective of the maze of streets in an obvious Pac-Man allusion.
- Wreck-It Ralph:
- A Pac-Man machine can be seen right next to the Fix-It Felix Jr. machine, which also provides justification for why Pac-Man and Clyde appear in the movie and why Clyde seems to be the head of the support group (being among the oldest still around).
- In the Surge Protector's first scene, Ralph is seen trying to smuggle cherries back from Pac-Man. Ralph is later seen giving half of the cherry to Q*bert, who has become homeless and down on his luck since his game was unplugged.
- Blinky, Inky, and Pinky make cameos in Game Central Station.
- Pac-Man appears as a guest at Felix's 30th Anniversary party.
- the Disney Vanity Plate at the end of the credits glitches out and becomes a kill screen because of all the characters meshing together, which itself counts as a Shout-Out to the same thing in Pac-Man.
- Ralph Breaks the Internet begins with Ralph and Vanellope playing I Spy. When Ralph tells Vanellope that he sees something yellow and round that eats dots, Vanellope guesses "Pac-Man", telling Ralph the answer is obvious and to name something other than Pac-Man that fits the criteria. Ralph tells her, "I can name two; Ms. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man!".
- In The One And Only Ivan, a Pac-Man arcade machine can be seen in the Big Top Mall and Video Arcade.
- In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Scott attempts to strike up a conversation with Ramona by mentioning that Pac-Man was originally called Puck-Man (as mentioned on the Trivia page).
- In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Peter Quill, upon learning he can control matter immediately says he'll make some "weird shit" and while fighting Ego, makes a giant stone Pac-Man, complete with sound effects.
- In the spoof film Top Secret!, the Travel Montage of the heroes is shown as a set of dots working along a streetmap until they're eaten by Pac-Man.
- In Queens of Geek, Pac-Man is one of the games at the arcade where Alyssa takes Charlie.
- In Elliott & Win, Win plays Pac-Man with Paul's amigo, Vinny Baca. Vinny is much better at it than he is.
- In Post-High School Reality Quest, Buffy sleeps in Pac-Man pajamas.
- Moojag and the Auticode Secret: Adam plays a holographic version of Pac-Man at a festival dedicated to life before the Surge.
- iCarly (2007): In "iStage an Intervention", Spencer finds a Pak-Rat arcade machine in a garbage dump and becomes addicted to the game.
- Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego: Pac-Man appears in "The Unfair Exchange, or Stock Shock'', where he gives out a clue about the National Coin-Op and Video Arcade museum.
Music
- "Weird Al" Yankovic:
- One of Weird Al's songs is "Pac-Man", a parody of The Beatles' "Taxman".
- In "eBay", a Pac-Man Fever lunch box is mentioned as one of the items purchased from the titular website.
- Sesame Street: In the Elmo's World episode about teeth, Elmo plays a computer game very similar to Pac-Man, where he plays as a set of teeth that eats apples in a maze.
- In Bitcoin Billionaire, Winky is a green ghost, occasionally turning blue and dreaming of Pac-Man eating a power pellet in a dark maze.
- Chalk Chase, a flash game based on ChalkZone is essentially a clone of Pac-Man, where you play as Rudy and run through a maze collecting pieces of chalk while avoiding enemies. Collecting magic chalk pieces temporarily makes Rudy invincible and allows him to attack the enemies.
- The Darkside Detective: One of the arcade games at the mall is a zombie-themed parody of Pac-Man.
- In Everybody Edits Flash, the Purple Ghost Digital Avatar appears as a Bedsheet Ghost close in appearance to that of a retro Pac-Man ghost, specifically Pinky.
- Pac-Man and a ghost can make an appearance in Grow Park.
- Jak 3: One mission involves Daxter jumping into a data-grid to collect mini orbs in the style of a Pac-Man minigame.
- Jellystone! has a flash game on the Cartoon Network website called Yogi's Hungry, based on a scene from "Yogi's Tummy Troubles" that parodies Pac-Man. In this game, you play as Yogi and eat various foods while avoiding the citizens of Jellystone. If Yogi collects the Nuclear Stomach, it temporarily allows him to eat the citizens of Jellystone.
- Little Nightmares: Complete Edition features a Pac-Man mask that can be unlocked by using Pac-Man's amiibo from Super Smash Bros.
- In Mario Party: Star Rush, the "House of Boos" mini-game plays very similarly to Pac-Man; your character is in a maze and has to collect coins while avoiding being caught by Boos.
- Mutant Munchies is a flash game based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) that is essentially a clone of Pac-Man. In this game, you play as Michelangelo and run through a sewer maze eating dots and other food which give him bonus points, such as hamburgers and ice cream, while avoiding four droids; Mouser, Droido, Bitey, and Steve. When Mikey eats a pizza slice, it temporarily turns the droids blue, allowing him to eat them.
- Normy's Beach Babe-O-Rama: The fourth stage, "Transylvania 1973" has Normy engage in a Pac-Man-like video game, where he has to collect beach balls while avoiding the heads of Professor Warhol.
- Sonic Superstars: One segment in the announcement trailer indicates that Sonic and his friends can turn into voxel-styled squids and swim through the air in a way that looks very similar to the ghosts from Pac-Man. The fact that Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy's color schemes respectively match Inky, Clyde, Blinky and Pinky's respectively makes the reference clearer.
- In the Game Gear version of Spider-Man vs. the Kingpin, there's a well-hidden mini-game that plays very similarly to Pac-Man, where Spider-Man is in a maze, has to collect webs, and avoid Venom.note
- One of the bonus games in Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! plays very similarly to Pac-Man. In it, Babs Bunny is in a maze and has to rescue her friends, including Fifi La Fume, Little Beeper, and Calamity Coyote, whilst avoiding enemies like Dizzy Devil.
- In the Tom and Jerry: The Movie Licensed Game for the Game Gear, one Bonus Stage plays very similarly to Pac-Man. In it, Tom is in a maze where he has to collect hearts and then Jerry within the time limit.
- Animator vs. Animation: In Animation vs. Arcade Games, Pac-Man is among the many arcade games Yellow creates when he uses his laptop to transfer the games into his arcade cabinet allowing his friends to play, as well as becoming disrupted by Q*bert who's messing with the arcade games. It also has the titular character, Pac-Man, fight against the main protagoinsts when he's being mind controlled by Q*bert.
- Dorkly Bits:
- "Ms. Pacman's Secret Life" - The ghosts chase Ms. Pac-Man around the maze, wanting to make out with her, but it turns out that Ms. Pac-Man was really Pac-Man in drag.
- "Pacman Family Problems" - Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man get in a fight.
- "How Blinky Died" - When Pac-Man asks Blinky how he became a ghost, a flashback shows Blinky as a human, hanging himself on a ceiling fan. However, Blinky says he died by saving orphans from a burning church.
- "Mario Meets With His Agent" - Pac-Man is seen in a framed picture.
- "Pac-Man Plays Skyrim" - Ms. Pac-Man nags Pac-Man for doing nothing but playing Skyrim.
- "Pac-Man's Pac-Wedding" - Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man get married and have a wedding party with a group of other Pac-People.
- "Why Video Game Minions Switching Places Would Be Pure Chaos" - Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde switch places with the Boos. The Boos hide when Pac-Man sees them, which Pac-Man doesn't find challenging. Meanwhile, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde attack Mario when he tries to look at them, hoping they'll leave him alone.
- "Power-Up Mix-Up" - At one point, Mario finds a Power Pellet and uses it to eat Bowser. At another point in the same video, Pac-Man finds the Spread Gun, and the ghosts flee when they see him use it.
- "6 Times You Were The REAL Villain In Video Games" - In the maze, Pinky ran away from Pac-Man (almost been eaten) and hides where Blinky is. Blinky is shocked to see how scared Pinky is and calls Pac-Man a "Pac-monster".
- "If Videogames Had Impossible Mode (Part 2)" - The ghosts go through the walls instead of around them, allowing them to surround Pac-Man, much to the latter's horror.
- "What Happens When Videogames Mix Up Their Power-Ups" - Blinky finds the Phoenix Down and gets revived as a human, only to get eaten by Pac-Man.
- "If Video Games Were 22% More Realistic" - Pac-Man becomes morbidly obese from eating 200 Pac-Dots in one sitting. When Blinky asks Pac-Man if he's eaten enough Pac-Dots today, Pac-Man accuses Blinky of just being jealous of him. Pac-Man then throws up and dies from his obesity, to which Blinky asks Pinky, Inky, and Clyde if this counts as a win for them.
- "Pac-Man Family Trouble" - When Jr. Pac-Man is delivered to Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man's house, Ms. Pac-Man is eager to spend some time with Junior, but Pac-Man sends him to the pellet maze, where Junior ends up getting killed by Blinky. When Ms. Pac-Man is dismayed to find out the bad news, she reveals to Pac-Man that she's been sleeping with Q*bert. Junior later reappears as a ghost who kills Pac-Man when he tries to hug him. Junior also tries to kill Ms. Pac-Man, but decides to spare Q*Bert because he likes how he jumps.
- Stupid Kids: In És mind nekem tapsol (And they all clap for me), Bazsi and Wongie argue about who is the bigger geek. Bazsi says he is so geek he even does overtime in Pacman
- Fazbear and Friends (ZAMination): In "Glamrock Freddy's shredder incident..." the Pac-Man sound effect can be heard when Gregory starts throwing rubber chickens at Glamrock Freddy's shredders and Monty.
- The Angry Video Game Nerd:
- At the beginning of his "Game Glitches" video, the Nerd tries to play the 1993 NES port of Pac-Man, only to find it corrupted by the Glitch Gremlin.
- In his review of Toxic Crusaders games, when the nerd plays the Sega Genesis version, he calls Blobby a "yellow Pac-Man ballsack".
- At the beginning of his review of Tiger Electronic Handheld Games, the Nerd brings up a game called Tax-Man for the Apple ][ computer, which is an exact copy of Pac-Man.
- The Nerd has reviewed Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures for the Sega Genesis.
- Action League NOW!: In "What's Eating The Flesh?", The Flesh catches a body-eating virus from an infected guinea pig. When Bill shows the heroes video feed of what's happening to him, it is revealed to be a game of Pac-Man.
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: In "Operation: Rescue Jet Fusion", a clam chases Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen through a maze as 8-bit music plays.
- Amphibia: In "Anne or Beast", Polly eats candies off the ground in a way that's very reminiscent of Pac-Man.
- Arthur: In "Crime and Consequences", in the fair, one of the arcade machines is a parody of Pac-Man, called "Pac Dog".
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: "RoboCat" begins with Dale playing a Pac-Man-like video game called Dogs and Cats where the player character is a cat trying to get through a maze without being caught by a dog. Sound effects from the Atari 2600 Pac-Man game were used.
- The Cleveland Show: In "How Cleveland Got His Groove Back", Cleveland borrows a stool from a Ms. Pac-Man arcade machine, hoping no one wants to play the game. When he overhears someone saying that he wanted to play Ms. Pac-Man, Cleveland imitates Pac-Man's death animation.
- Dexter's Laboratory: In "Game Over", while in Master Computer's domain, Dexter gets chased by a monster that looks like Pac-Man.
- Drawn Together:
- The Hanna-Barbera cartoon version of Pac-Man appears in "Gay Bash", where he states that Ms. Pac-Man was just him in drag.
- In "Nipple Ring-Ring Goes to Foster Care", Captain Hero's room has a poster of Pac-Man.
- "Spelling Applebees" has a scene where Captain Hero imitates Pac-Man.
- Family Guy:
- In "Stuck Together, Torn Apart", when Peter and Lois split up, Peter tells Lois that it didn't work too well for Pac-Man. What follows is a cutaway where three of the ghosts try to cheer Pac-Man up, but to no avail.
- In "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story", Stewie and Brian are seen playing the tabletop version of Pac-Man.
- In "Meet the Quagmires", Peter plays a game called "Menstrual Ms. Pac-Man".
- In the opening credits for "Road to the Multiverse", Brian is seen playing Pac-Man, showing Stewie as Pac-Man, and the rest of the Griffin family as the ghosts.
- In "Joe's Revenge", Peter mimics the death sound effect from Pac-Man.
- In "Candy Quahog Marshmallow!", Peter describes Quagmire and Sujin as a cute couple, just like Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. A cutaway implies Pac-Man performing oral sex on Ms. Pac-Man, accompanied by his munching sounds.
- In "Cutawayland", Pac-Man follows Wreck-It Ralph into the restroom and is killed by the stench.
- In "A Wife-Changing Experience", Ms. Pac-Man accuses Pac-Man of sexual assault.
- Futurama: In "Anthology of Interest II", Pac-Man appears as the general who leads the Planet Express crew through a Pac-Man-like maze. During the Nintendian invasion of Earth, Lrrr's ship shoots Pac-Man, and he dies by dissolving like in the original game. Ms. Pac-Man cries over her loss, then Fry asks Amy to tend to the "widow Pac-Man".
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: In "House of Bloo's", the Extremeasaur chases Bloo through the junkyard in a parody of Pac-Man.
- In the Gravity Falls episode "Fight Fighters", Soos says that Ghost Maze, a thinly-veiled parody of Pac-Man, taught him how to eat ghosts, which came in handy when his house was haunted.
- Jellystone!: One portion of "Yogi's Tummy Troubles" has Yogi chasing the residents of Jellystone in a Pac-Man-like sequence.
- In the Let's Go Luna! episode "Loco for Cocoa!", Luna sings about Montezuma II, an Aztec king who loved chocolate. He is shown going through a Pac-Man-like maze eating chocolate treats, complete with the sound effects.
- In The Little Rascals episode "Trash Can Treasures", Porky plays on Buckwheat's microcomputer a game similar to Pac-Man, in which he controls a piranha eating pies in a simplified maze.
- MAD:
- "Super 80's" - There is a scene where people are being chased by Pac-Man.
- "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Icarus" - Pac-Man is seen getting chased by the ghosts. Later, Ms. Pac-Man appears as a school teacher.
- "ParaMorgan" - The ghosts appear in this sketch.
- The Owl House: In "Watching and Dreaming", when The Collector begins playing games with Luz, King, and Eda, they are seen chasing Luz through a maze via a massive version of their head which is constantly opening and closing its mouth, mirroring Pac-Man.
- Robot Chicken:
- "Tubba-Bubba's Now Hubba-Hubba" - In a segment that parodies Pac-Man with The Matrix, Pac-Man comes across a Morpheus-like Pac-Man who tells him that the world he is living in is a dream.
- "The Core, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" - Pac-Man eats Sam Wheat from Ghost (1990).
- "Fool's Goldfinger" - Pac-Man and the ghosts are among the video game characters appearing in a musical revolving around gay video game characters (in real life, Pac-Man is not gay).
- "Butchered in Burbank" - The life of Pac-Man's romantic relationship unfolds in three shorts.
- "Stone Cold Steve Cold Stone" - Pac-Man teaches sex ed to some Pac-Kids at a school.
- "Chipotle Miserables" - Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man appear in a parody of Paranormal Activity.
- "Hey I Found Another Sock" - Ms. Pac-Man serves Pac-Man Pac-Dots for dinner.
- Rocko's Modern Life: In "Frog's Best Friend", Earl chases Ed through a maze of dots.
- The Simpsons:
- In "I Married Marge", Mr. Burns is seen playing Ms. Pac-Man.
- In "Lisa's First Word", Marge says Lisa first spoke at a time when Ms. Pac-Man struck a blow for women's rights.
- In "A Tale of Two Springfields", When The Who tell Homer that they don't know the words to Pac-Man Fever, Homer tries to demonstrate by singing a verse of the song.
- "Homer and Ned's Hail Marry Pass" features a fictional scene from Super Bowl XVI, where Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man get married.
- The Couch Gag for "Sorry Not Sorry" depicts Homer as Pac-Man and Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, and Ned as the Ghosts. After the Pac-Man intro song plays, Homer eats Maggie, Bart, Lisa, and Marge in that respective order, but he doesn't succeed in eating Ned, then says, "Oh, Stupid Flanders!" before he mimics Pac-Man's death animation.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Krusty Kleaners", SpongeBob and Patrick are briefly shown in a Pac-Man-like video game while engaging in a maze around the office.
- Tiny Toon Adventures:
- In "Gang Busters", Buster and Plucky pass the time in a dark jail cell by playing Pac-Man with their illuminated eyeballs. Plucky's eye takes on the form of Pac-Man, and Buster's eyes take on the forms of ghosts.
- In "Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian", Montana Max plays a spoof of Pac-Man called "Plane-Man", where Pac-Man is depicted a plane who eats clouds.
