As a cult musical and one of the first rock operas, Tommy has naturally had some impact on pop culture, particularly its movie incarnation.
Examples:
- In Justice League Elite, Vera Lynn Black's "Miss Morphine" persona is very obviously inspired by Tina Turner's "Acid Queen" outfit from the movie.
- In Latter Days, Christian at one point talks about Ann-Margaret's performance in the movie version of Tommy.
- In Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, the character "Captain Walker", the missing pilot and father figure, is a reference to Captain Walker from the play and movie.
- In Backstreet Dreams, Stevie says to the autistic child Shane, "And Tommy doesn't know what day it is. That's you, Shane."
- In Keep the Change (2017), Will asks the hippie Dylan which show tune he wants to sing. He picks "The Acid Queen." Will says, "Great song, but not a show tune."
- In Carl Hiaasen's novel Double Whammy, Recurring Character Skink goes undercover at a televangelist's broadcast as someone the reverend will "heal" by restoring his sight. As the audience cries out, "See! See!", Skink, in spite of himself, gets caught up in the spirit of the thing, and starts yelling out, "See me, feel me!"
- In Eye Contact, Kevin addresses Adam, an autistic boy who loves pinball, as "my small Pinball Wizard."
- In Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, John argues that Face Dances is the lamest sellout album of all time, saying "These people did Tommy. This album blows ass compared to Tommy."
- The song "Pinball Wizard" was performed in one episode of Glee.
- It was also performed on The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.
- And the 1993 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade where it was performed by the cast of the stage version.
- The movie has been referenced several times on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
- In one episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Rebecca, who was supposed to keep an eye on Paula's son, ends up losing him in a club. She repeats, "Tommy, can you hear me?"
- One of the vast number of pop culture nods in Bob Dylan's "Murder Most Foul" is the line "Tommy, can you hear me? I'm the Acid Queen."
- On Doug, one of Doug's Imagine Spots portrays him as the champion of an arcade game, wearing an outfit inspired by Elton John's Local Lad costume from the movie.
- In the Clone High Musical Episode "Raisin The Stakes", most of the songs are inspired by songs from Tommy, most explicitly "You Are My Son" (a thinly-disguised substitute for "It's a Boy".)
- In Bojack Horseman, Todd compares his rock opera to Tommy.
- An episode of Phineas and Ferb is called "Mommy Can You Hear Me?"
