In A Bug's Life, the character of Heimlich is based on the Very Hungry Caterpillar, being a green caterpillar who spends a lot of his time eating, and by the end of the film, becomes a beautiful butterfly (or so he thinks).
In Like No Other Boy, Chris remembers his father reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Tommy, shortly before he tells Chris that his mother has cancer.
One strip of Pet Foolery has a parody of The Very Hungry Caterpillar called The Very Hungry Genetically-Modified Caterpillar, which reimagines the titular caterpillar as a Genetic Abomination that escapes its testing facility and goes on an unstoppable rampage, consuming everything in its path, growing bigger and more monstrous with everything it eats before eventually growing to near planet-sized proportions, with even seven nuclear strikes proving ineffective in stopping its wrath; the comic ends just as the caterpillar turns its sights on the sun.
In "Stealing First Base", Bart reads a parody called The Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar.
Bart: Damn, that caterpillar can eat. [turns page] Damn! [turns page] DAMN!
In "Todd, Todd, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?", when Ned sends Todd to live with the Simpsons in an attempt to scare him back into God's arms, he tells Marge to read Todd a good bedtime story. When Marge suggests The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Ned rejects it, saying it celebrates gluttony.
Referenced by the title of "The Very Hungry Caterpillars", in which Springfield is on lockdown due to an invasion of caterpillars.
