- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- In Battle Tendency, recurring side character Smokey Brown is partially named after James Brown, as well as Smokey Robinson.
- Hot Pants, a major side character from Steel Ball Run, is named after James Brown's "Hot Pants (She Got to Use What She Got to Get What She Wants)", while her horse is named Gets Up, after another one of Brown's songs with an Overly Long Name.
- In The Blue Iguana, characters dance to "Get On Up" at a party.
- In The Commitments, Jimmy shows members of the band James Brown singing "Please Please Please" in T.A.M.I. Show to show them what they have to measure up tonote - he even quotes Brown's song "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)" to them.
- Face/Off: Castor (disguised as Sean Archer) takes one of Jamie's cigarettes, smokes it, and tells her, "You're gonna see a lot of changes around here - papa's got a brand new bag!" He then dances and sings along to the song, which Jamie has playing on her radio.
- Get On Up is a biopic of the singer starring Chadwick Boseman.
- Good Morning, Vietnam: Adrian plays "I Got You (I Feel Good)" on one of his shows, and dances around in the station to it, to the bemusement of everyone else.
- A Low Down Dirty Shame: The title character, Shame, sings "Get Up (I Feel Like a Sex Machine)" to a group of attack dogs to get them to calm down.
- Mrs. Doubtfire:
- During one montage of Daniel as Mrs. Doubtfire, "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" is heard in the background.
- When at his job at the television studio and playing with the toy dinosaurs on display of one of the shows, he pretends one is named "James Brontosaurus".
- In The Nutty Professor (1996) after Sherman became thin, he goes on a joyful shopping/exercise montage to "I Got You (I Feel Good)".
- At one point in The Tuxedo, Jackie Chan's character sings "Get On Up".
- In Zebrahead (1992), Zack's dad recommends James Brown as music to have sex to.
- In Like No Other Boy, Max the dog is so excited to see Chris that he moves around like a canine James Brown.
- One 2011 Coronation Street episode has Chesney Brown and Katy Armstrong have no idea who James Brown is. Granted, both of them were only teenagers at the time.
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air:
- In "Bang the Drum, Ashley" when Uncle Phil tries to sell Will on being a fan of classical music as a youth, Aunt Vivian immediately calls him out on this, saying how he was such a fan of Brown's when they met, he even wore his hair like his.
- In "Mother's Day", one of the songs that Jazz and Jewel make love to is "I Got You (I Feel Good)".
- The well-known episode with Will's father is titled "Poppa's Got A Brand New Excuse".
- In "The Client", Will mentions to music producer Gordy Berry that Brown has an orthopedic cape.
- In Living Color!: On Lil' Richard's Playhouse, Little Richard (played by Keenan Ivory Wayans) bemoans how various artists, including Brown, stole from his act.
- Married... with Children:
- One episode has Bud trying to teach Kelly basic history to pass the 11th grade, and when being asked who the father of our country is,note she believes it to initially be James Brown.
- Another episode has Al and his fellow NO MA'AM members singing "This is a Man's Man's Man's World" after winning a bowling game.
- New York Undercover: In "Catman Came Back", the Cold Open which shows Danny Cort's release from prison, is set to "The Payback".
- Whose Line Is It Anyway?: On separate occasions, both Phil LaMarr anf Wayne Brady have portrayed Brown during a game of "Weird Newscasters".
Music
- The Police's "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around" mentions Brown's spot in T.A.M.I. Show as one of the things the narrator uses to entertain himself.
- One bridge in "Genius of Love" by Tom Tom Club consists of Chris Franz shouting Brown's name, tying in with the lyrics' repeated acknowledgement of the Black artists that influenced the band. The song's live rendition in Stop Making Sense additionally features Franz ad-libbing "he's still the Godfather of Soul, y'all!"
- "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1986 song "Living With a Hernia" is a parody of Brown's "Living In America".
- The Simpsons:
- James Brown appeared As Himself in "Bart's Inner Child", singing "I Got You (I Feel Good)" at Springfield's "Do What You Feel" festival.
- The season 13 episode, "Jaws Wired Shut", has "I Got You (I Feel Good)" playing in the background of a movie trailer, Soccer Mummy, that the Simpsons see.
- The season 13 finale, "Poppa's Got A Brand New Badge", is a play on James Brown's "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag".
