Live Action Films
- In 8 Million Ways to Die, Matthew Scudder tries to discuss a drug deal with Maldonado. Wary of Scudder because he used to be a cop, Maldonado pretends not to understand and asks if "the white stuff" (cocaine) Scudder is talking about has something to do with the movie.
- Armageddon (1998). When the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits do a Team Power Walk, someone jokes: "Talk about The Wrong Stuff!"
- Captain Marvel (2019). When she crashes into the Blockbuster video store, Carol Danvers, a former NASA/USAF test pilot who has been to space, picks up a copy of The Right Stuff. Pancho's Beer appears to be an expy of the bar
owned by pioneer aviatrix Pancho Barnes in the movie as a hangout for Air Force pilots. - A documentary film made in 2000 about the Soviet space program was called The Red Stuff (though they could have plausibly called it The Left Stuff instead).
- Space Cowboys. The elderly astronauts are jokingly christened "The Ripe Stuff" by the media.
Live Action TV
- Community. The episode "Basic Rocket Science" parodied this and other space movies like Apollo 13. The opening scene where the student runs in and tells the dark conference room that City College has a space simulator, is an homage to the opening scene in The Right Stuff, complete with the room's inhabitants acknowledging that they already know the Russians successfully sent a man into space... er, that City College has a simulator.
Music
- Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull apparently is fond of the movie:
- The song Apogee of Jethro Tull's 1984 album Under Wraps drops the line: "The Wrong Stuff's loose in here."
- Anderson's 2014 solo album Homo Erraticus features the narration Per errationes ad astranote , which mentions "the right stuff in a can of spam".
Western Animation
- The Jetsons episode "The Wrong Stuff", another parody.
- The Simpsons. Parodied in "Deep Space Homer", including a scene where the astronauts are humming "Battle Hymn of the Republic" while Homer just whimpers in terror.
