A list of references to Michael Jackson done by creative works. For a specific example common enough to garner its own trope, see Michael Jackson's Thriller Parody.
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- An anti-drunk driving Public Service Announcement from The '80s has Beat It as the background music while the party-goers are piling into the car. It cuts off suddenly as the driver, who is drunk and insists "What's a few beers?", turns the ignition.
Anime & Manga
- The special features for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within feature a Shot-for-Shot Remake of the "Thriller" dance using the film's cast, namely Dr. Aki Ross as Michael, and including some of the alien Phantoms as background dancers.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has referenced the King of Pop a couple of times.
- Muhammad Avdol from Stardust Crusaders has three pet chickens named Lionel, Prince, and Michael. Similarly, in the dub of Stardust Crusaders, one of the guardians of DIO's mansion, Kenny G, had his name changed to Billie Jean.
- Illuso, a member of La Squadra di Esecuzione from Golden Wind, has a Stand called Man in the Mirror (the English localization renames it "Mirror Man" after songs by Captain Beefheart, Talk Talk, and The Human League).
- Enrico Pucci, the Big Bad of Stone Ocean, mentions a Michael Jackson concert while talking to DIO.
- The last three episodes of Nerima Daikon Brothers have "Yukel Hakushon", an antagonist who's very much an exaggerated parody of MJ who had plastic surgery to the point where his face looks like a Picasso painting, dresses in a Peter Pan costume, and ends his sentences with "Ow!" much like MJ did in his songs. And if that wasn't enough, Hakushon's goal was to take the titular trio's daikon farm and turn it into "Nerima-Land".
- Jango from One Piece is a Captain Ersatz of Jackson. When he walks, it looks like he's moon-walking forwards. In the German dub, he was even named "Jacko".
- Sailor Moon S: In Episode 24, Usagi tricks Rei by thinking that Michael Jackson was in the area so she can steal Chibi-usa from her.
Asian Animation
- An episode of the third season of Happy Heroes' features a robot man dressed as Michael Jackson and doing the moonwalk in one scene as a Funny Background Event.
Fan Works
- In Pretty Cure-based fanfics in The Kedabory Verse, Ellen (Cure Beat)'s online username is "beatitjustbeatit".
Films — Animated
- The LEGO Batman Movie: Tying into the Central Theme of Batman becoming a better person, "Man in the Mirror" is referenced several times throughout the film, from Batman borrowing a quote from the song, to covers of the song being played during Commissioner Gordon's retirement party and the epilogue, to Phyllis quoting the song herself near the end.
Films — Live-Action
- Chris Tucker does an impersonation of Michael Jackson in Rush Hour. The two later became friends, and Tucker appeared in the music video for "You Rock My World".
- In If You Could Say It in Words, Lucy refers to Nelson as Sadie's new boy. Sadie tells her not to call him a boy, because it makes her feel like Michael Jackson.
- Back to the Future:
- Back to the Future Part II: At Cafe '80s, an 80s nostalgia-theme cafe in 2015, Michael Jackson is portrayed as a Max Headroom-esque AI waiter. Later, in 1985-A, when Marty McFly finds that his home in this timeline belongs to another family, the daughter has a Thriller poster in her bedroom, meaning that Michael Jackson's stardom is one of the only things which stayed the same.
- Back to the Future Part III: In 1885, when Marty first faces Buford Tannen, he enrages him by calling him "Mad Dog", which prompts Buford to force Marty into Bullet Dancing. After some shock, Marty starts moonwalking, singing part of "Billie Jean" under his breath, which confuses everybody around him.
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: Matthew Patel, displays Michael Jackson-esque moves from Thriller Night..
- Three Kings: As Said is torturing Troy, he asks Troy, "What is the problem with Michael Jackson?" - specifically, he's asking about Jackson's skin disorder. Said is very anti-American, suggesting that Jackson "wants to be white" because he lives in an "evil, sick fucking country".
- Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, a mock biopic about "Weird Al" Yankovic that makes fun of the prevalence of Artistic License – History in the genre, depicts "Beat It" as an unauthorized parody of the 100% totally original Yankovic song "Eat It", resulting in the film's version of Al bitterly resenting Jackson after people start thinking that "Beat It" is the original version.
Literature
- Like No Other Boy: When Wade bought Cheryl a drink, he did a Michael Jackson moonwalk imitation, which made Cheryl roar with laughter.
- You Look Different in Real Life: Five at Six has a scene of Felix dancing in the kitchen to "Thriller." Justine thinks it's the only scene in the documentary that looks set up. Later, she dreams that Felix goes on tour playing keyboards with Michael Jackson in heaven.
- Dogs Don't Talk:
- Elizabeth says of the markings around Rosie's eyes, "I wish I could have liner like that." Ben says, "You could do what Michael Jackson did and tattoo it on your eyelids."
- In precalc, Ben hears Johnny in the autism classroom down the hall, singing "Billie Jean." Ben's math teacher starts bopping to it until she realizes the class is staring at her.
- Every Shiny Thing: At the Halloween assembly, the dance elective kids do the "Thriller" dance.
- In Twelve Days, one of the objects in Hannibal's Memory Palace is a poster of Michael Jackson.
- In Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, Gabe and Pete watch a Michael Jackson retrospective on VH1. Pete starts moonwalking and Gabe does the circle slide before their mom tells them to quiet down.
Live-Action TV
- Glee has covered several Jackson songs throughout its run. In Season 3, they even devoted an entire episode to his songs, simply titled "Michael".
- In the Family Ties episode "Lady Sings the Blues," Alex and Mallory suggest that Elyse learn to play some modern songs before she sings at a nightclub. When Elyse asks how one of those songs goes, Mallory starts dancing and singing "Beat It." That night, when the audience turns out to be totally uninterested in Elyse's folk songs, she plays a few bars of "Beat It" on her acoustic guitar before fleeing the stage.
Music
- Aqua: The original version of "Back to the 80's" features the line "and Michael Jackson's skin was black" as one of the many bygone elements of the titular decade. Following Jackson's death a month later, the song was modified to change the line to "and Arnie told us I'll be back" out of respect.
- Genesis:
- Jackson is one of many '80s pop culture icons parodied in the music video for "Land of Confusion", appearing in a crowd of other celebrities, all of whom sing along to the song in a riff on "We Are the World".
- The ending of the music video for "I Can't Dance" parodies the infamous ending of the music video for Jackson's "Black or White", having Phil Collins imitate the panther sequence in front of a white background.
- Minutemen: "Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing" names Jackson in its title; as the name implies, it was written with the intent of having Jackson sing it.
- New Order: Following the first wave of child molestation claims, the band altered the second verse of "True Faith" to "When I was a very small boy, Michael Jackson played with me; Now that we've grown up together, he's playing with my willy" when performing it at the 1993 Reading Festival.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic: "Eat It", "Fat", and "Snack All Night" parody "Beat It", "Bad", and "Black or White", respectively. Yankovic only ever performed "Snack All Night" on-stage at Jackson's request, who felt that putting it out as a single would undermine the "Black or White"'s anti-racism message. Additionally, the music video for "Fat" reuses the "Badder" set from Moonwalker, since Jackson was a big enough fan of Yankovic to loan it to him; Yankovic returned the favor by cameoing in the music video for "Liberian Girl".
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: At the Margarita area, two goons from the Factio Pugni suggest playing "Smooth Criminal" at their next meeting to perform in high note.
- Battle Arena Toshinden 3: Kayin Amoh and his foil Ten Count. One is a weathered young man whose life as a bounty hunter has given him nothing but grief and knowing the bitter and sick after-taste of violence, while the other is a fairly insane sharp dressed hitman who delights in his career like a superstar and uses an undercover name based off of one of his methods to delightfully kill people. Both of them are respectively based off of Beat It and Smooth Criminal, even right down to the wardrobe and their clashing character themes.
- Devil May Cry 5: After obtaining Dr. Faust, a Devil Arm in the shape of a hat, Dante puts it on his head and imitates Jackson's dance moves, complete with pyrotechnics.
- Kiratto Pri☆Chan has its Captain Ersatz of The King of Pop in the form of "Michael Kurokawa", who looks very much like how MJ did in the 80's and even has his dance moves and mannerisms.
- La-Mulana: The "Dancer" you have to scan in the Temple of Moonlight uses one of Jackson's poses.
- Papa Louie Arcade: One of Papa Louie's two Halloween outfits is based on Jackson's "Thriller" one, as clarified in an animated GIF that Flipline published for Halloween 2020 wherein he performs a Michael Jackson's Thriller Parody with several other characters who dress as zombies for Halloween.
- In the original release of Plants vs. Zombies, there was a type of zombie known as the "Dancing Zombie", whose appearance was remarkably similar to Jackson's outfit in the "Thriller" music video, with his almanac entry lampshading the reference via Our Lawyers Advised This Trope. Later versions of the game changed his design to that of a generic disco guy, which would become the basis of the "Disco Zombie" prominently featured in later entries of the franchise.
- Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness both feature Miror B., an antagonist who has excellent dancing skills, a glove on his left hand, and an afro in the shape of a Poké Ball (also the same colours as a standard Poké Ball — red and white), who loves using Ludicolo. Ludicolo itself is a reference to Jackson, but Miror B. takes this to 721.
- Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic's shoes were based on the boots that Jackson wore in the music video for "Bad", albeit with the black coloration replaced with a Santa Claus-inspired red and white palette.
- The Where's My Water? crossover with Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf features a famous singer named Jackson Sheep, who is named after and based on Michael Jackson.
- Yakuza 0, which takes place in the 1980s, has a sidequest where the player character, Kazuma Kiryu, can help "Miracle Johnson," the American superstar in a hat and Cool Shades who is prone to spinning and going "oooh!" film his latest music video involving dancing zombies.
Web Animation
- Happy Tree Friends: In "Disco Bear's Halloween Smoochie", Disco Bear dresses up in Jackson's "Thriller" outfit at the beginning of the fittingly named "Thrillah" option.
Web Comics
- Hark! A Vagrant: A fisherman tells off a mermaid for trying to entice him to drown with her "silly music" she does a bit of research and asks him if he likes Michael Jackson.
Web Videos
- "Why Michael Jackson is the worst band ever......" by Magik Mike.
- One episode of Epic Rap Battles of History involves Jackson, both as a kid during his Jackson 5 days and as an adult, rap battling against Elvis Presley.
Western Animation
- The Flintstone Kids Very Special Episode "Just Say No" features a celebrity expy of Jackson named "Michael Jackstone", who performs the titular anti-drug cover of "Beat It".
- The Simpsons:
- "Stark Raving Dad" has Homer meet a mental patient who thinks he's Michael Jackson. He just so happens to be played by the King of Pop himself.
- In "Bart Sells His Soul", aired two years after the first round of child molestation claims, Bart lists Jackson as one of many things that parents make up to scare children.
- In "The Joy Of Sect", when the Movementarians start taking hold of Springfieldians, Mr. Burns tries to start his own religion with himself as god, with a presentation that parodies the music video for "HIStory". It doesn't go well, with Burns catching on fire before falling off the balcony.
- South Park: "The Jeffersons" revolves around Jackson and his family moving to the titular town, disguising themselves as the eponymous family to avoid public scrutiny. The episode was made a year after the second round of child molestation accusations against Jackson and parodies them by depicting the town being disturbed by his manchild behavior and his status as a rich Black man, attempting to throw him in jail as a result. Jackson himself is additionally riffed on as neglectful of his son, naïve to the point of accidentally killing Kenny, and rotting alive due to years of plastic surgery.
- Steven Universe: In "Mirror Gem", Steven briefly emulates Michael Jackson's moonwalks and even throws in a "Hee-hee!" as a bit.
- The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! features Cover Versions of "Bad", "Thriller", and "Beat It" in "King Mario of Cramalot", "Count Koopula", and "The Unzappables", respectively, all during plot-important scenes relevant to the songs' lyrics.
