Referenced By / High School Musical

Films - Live-Action

• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: At one point, Grover says, "It's like high school without the musical."
• Step Up 2 the Streets: At one point, someone says, "This ain't High School Musical!"

Literature

• Harmony: Iris admits to singing High School Musical in the shower and pretending she's one of the characters.

Live-Action TV

• Hannah Montana: The season 2 finale, "We're All on This Date Together", guest stars Corbin Bleu.
  • In "Once, Twice, Three Times Afraidy" (S03E15), Ralphie asks, "Would Troy leave Gabriella?"

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• Modern Family: In "The Pilot", Phil says that he knows all the dances. Then he's seen singing "We're All in This Together".
• Saturday Night Live: Two parody sketches during Season 34.
  • One sketch was a trailer for Night School Musical: Senior Year Equivalent.
  • Another sketch featured a scene from High School Musical 4: New Senior Class, in which Troy (played once again by Efron) gives a speech to the new graduates and warns that people don't sing or dance in college.
• Sonny with a Chance: In "High School Miserable" (S02E07), Sonny and the So Random! cast are forced to attend public school. They (sans Sonny) think that high school is just like how it's depicted in HSM. It's not.
• The Suite Life of Zack and Cody: "Lip Synchin' in the Rain" (S03E09) focuses on the characters auditioning for a stage production of the film. Maddie - the character played by Ashley Tisdale - auditions for the role of Sharpay.

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Puppet Shows

• Sesame Street: One episode had a segment that not-so-affectionately parodies the franchise called "Pre-School Musical".

Webcomics

• Sheldon: This strip has Sheldon discussing recent Christmas albums that aren't very good, one of them being the High School Musical Christmas album... which doesn't even try to be a Christmas album.
  "Disneyyy is gonna milk this property for all it's worrrth..."

Western Animation

• Back at the Barnyard: In "A Tale of Two Snottys" (S01E13), when Eugene gets knocked out by the animals, they suddenly worry what would happen if Mrs. Beady found out and called Animal Control on them. What follows is a cutaway where Freddy is strapped to a table and forced to watch a movie about high school kids making a musical.
• DuckTales (2017): In "A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!", the kids end up in Dewey's dreams, which are based around him being a popular and beloved basketball star who also sings and dances, just like Troy.

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• Gravity Falls: In "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future", Mabel gets a glimpse of high school. To her shock, it's not about singing about following your dreams.
  Wendy: TV lied, man.
• MAD: "TwiGH School Musical" (S01E23 combines HSM with Twilight.
• My Gym Partner's a Monkey: The special episode "Animal School Musical" is a whole plot reference.
• The Simpsons: The season 22 premiere "Elementary School Musical" guest stars the cast of spiritual successor Glee.
• South Park: One episode, also titled "Elementary School Musical", spoofs the film.