References, shout-outs, spoofs, parodies, homages to The Who.
- The film version of A Silent Voice opens with a title sequence set to "My Generation".
- K-On! Ritsu Tainaka admits to liking Keith Moon as her idol in an episode of the anime, though she also says that she wouldn't imitate his off-stage behavior. Shortly after, Azusa Nakano asks her if he was also the guy who burned down his house.
- Gotlib: One cartoon by Hamster Jovial has the characters spoof the album cover of Who's Next. In another Hamster has a dream which is basically one big shout-out to the lyrics of Tommy. He feels freed and just as he is about to "smash the mirror" he is awoken by the others.
- 200 Motels: In this bizarre Frank Zappa film Keith Moon plays a nun.
- Austin Powers: "My Generation" is used in the second Austin Powers film.
- Back to the Future: Some of Marty's moves during the "Johnny B. Goode" number were inspired by Pete Townshend.
- In Empire Records, after the gang tells Rex Manning how much he sucks as an artist and a person, he says "Why don't you all just fade away?" before storming off.
- Cameron Crowe has used or referenced the band's music in a couple of films:
- In Jerry Maguire, the live version of "Magic Bus" plays over the first part of the opening credits (as well as when Jerry takes Rod to meet everyone at the draft convention), and "Getting in Tune" plays when Jerry is typing his mission statement.
- In Almost Famous, when Anita leaves home, she leaves William, her younger brother, all of her records. When he gets to Tommy, William sees a note from her telling him to play side 1 in order to see his future. He puts on "Sparks", and that takes us to a Time Skip where we see William four years later.
- Ghostbusters (2016): Upon successfully trapping the Mayhem ghost, Jillian smashes a guitar a la Pete Townshend.
- Goodfellas: "Magic Bus" is played during the montage of Henry running errands.
- Hobbs & Shaw: On of the grifts Shaw and his sister did when they were kids was called "The Keith Moon", because it involved blowing stuff up.
- Lions for Lambs: When Janine is trying to convince her boss that her meeting with Senator Irving was nothing more than the senator retooling strategic thinking from The Vietnam War that didn't work then, she quotes "Won't Get Fooled Again" ("Meet the new boss, same as the old boss").
- Carl Hiaasen: in his novel Double Whammy, Skink (the most frequent recurring character in Hiaasen's novels) appears on a televangelist's show to pretend to be "cured" of being blind. Getting into the show in spite of himself, Skink yells out, "See me, feel me!"
- Dav Pond was very much inspired by the Who, wrote a poem inspired by their song “Guitar And Pen”, and referenced The Who a lot in her poetry, especcially her poems describing herself as a “wholigan” and a “deskface”.
- In Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, Gabe and John debate whether Face Dances or Emotional Rescue is the lamest sellout album. John says of Face Dances, "Maybe it's okay. But these people did Tommy. This album blows ass compared to Tommy."
- What Happened to Lani Garver, Claire wishes she had a boyfriend who cared about music and could argue with her about whether the Who is better than the Stones.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In the fourth season episode "Where The Wild Things Are", when Anya, Tara, Willow and Xander go look for Giles, they find him in a coffee shop performing "Behind Blue Eyes". Anya, Tara and Willow are all turned on, but Xander is grossed out.
- Classic Albums: Tommy and Who's Next were featured in respective episodes.
- Every CSI-verse show features a different Who song as its Real Song Theme Tune: "Who Are You" for the original CSI, "Won't Get Fooled Again" for CSI: Miami, "Baba O'Reilly" for CSI: NY, and "I Can See For Miles" for CSI: Cyber. This was parodied in a Two and a Half Men gag, when a CSI parody used the rather inappropriate-sounding "Squeeze Box".
- Freaks and Geeks: In the episode "Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers", one of the plotlines involves Lindsay wanting to go with Kim and the others to go see The Who. Lindsay's parents decide to listen to one of their records in order to decide. They listen to "Squeeze Box", decide it's dirty, and refuse to let her go.
- The episode also features several songs by the band, and when Nick tries to play a song for Lindsay to win her back, Ken smashes his guitar a la Pete Townshend.
- One memorable moment in Full House has Danny, while trying to prove himself as hip as Jesse to impress D.J., singing "My Generation" with Jesse's band, complete with the exaggerated stuttering.
- Legion: "Happy Jack" is used to Bookend the series because it's included in the first and last scenes.
- "Baba O'Reilly" is used in the first episode of Life on Mars (2006).
- In the Married... with Children "Married...With Prom Queen" two-parter, the class reunion band is named "The Why".
- Legend has it that Animal of The Muppets was based on Keith Moon.
- Spitting Image: Pete Townsend and John Entwistle were made into puppets. One sketch was a parody of "My Generation" where the band talked about "their generation" now that they were older and basically sell-outs. The clip provided an extra shout-out by having Townsend smash his guitar near the end.
- Each episode of season six of That '70s Show was named after a song by The Who.
- One segment of Top Gear (UK) saw Jeremy Clarkson re-enact the famous story about Keith Moon driving a Rolls-Royce into a swimming pool.
- The legendary "Arctic Tern
" back-and-forth during a game of "Greatest Hits" on Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Ryan had intended for his riddle to lead into The Who for the next song, but Colin decided to throw a curve ball just to troll Ryan.
- Frank Zappa referred to them a couple of times:
- Fillmore East, June 1971: In "Do You Like My New Car?"
"Roger Daltrey never laid a hand on me."- Bongo Fury: In "Carolina Hard-Core Esctasy"
"She had a Roger Daltrey cape on."- Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention: "We're Turning Again".
We can laugh at Keith Moon's jokes. Huh-huh-huh. - "Weird Al" Yankovic, from a Black Comedy perspective in "Another One Rides the Bus"."Haven't been in a crowd like this since I went to see The Who!"
- He also included "My Generation" as the final song of his polka medley "Polkas On 45".
- The cover of Be Here Now by Oasis features a Rolls-Royce submerged in a swimming pool, a reference to the legend of Keith Moon doing such a thing. (Except Keith Moon actually drove the Rolls-Royce into a park pond.)
- The band is name-dropped as the band that's played a lot in La Chanchita's bar in Indio Solari's "¿Tomasito podés oirme? ¿Tomasito podés verme?". The name of the song itself also references the album Tommy.
- The Pinball Arcade uses "Pinball Wizard" on the main menu screen.
- Brows Held High: In his review of The Man Who Fell to Earth with David Bowie presenter Oancitizen sings his entire review in parodies of famous Bowie songs. In one scene, however, when Mary-Lou calls "Tommy" Oancitizen starts singing "Tommy, can you hear me?" note , then realizes his mistake and says: "Scratch that!"
- Animaniacs: One episode had Slappy Squirrel ask her nephew Skippy about the bands about to play at the Woodstock Festival. In a variation of Abbott and Costello's classic Who's on First sketch she keeps asking: "What's the name of the band?" to which her nephew keeps telling her directly, which she keeps misinterpreting his answer: "The Who". She: "The band!" He: "No, The Band won't perform until later." Then later in the bit Slappy asks, "Who's on stage." Skippy: "Yes." Slappy: "The name of the band is Yes?" Skippy: "No, Yes isn't even at this festival."
- King of the Hill: In "Tankin' It To The Street", when Bill looks back on when he enlisted in the US Army, he says "I had the body of an all-state offensive lineman, and hair like Roger Daltrey", with "Baba O'Reilly" accompanying the flashback scenes.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- "Finding Mary MacGuffin": The evil jingle is sung in the style of The Who, more specifically, "Won't Get Fooled Again".
- "The Baljeatles": Baljeet raises his guitar to smash it, Townsend-style, before carefully placing it back in the case.
- "Mommy Can You Hear Me?" is named for "Tommy Can You Hear Me?"
- The Simpsons: The Who were special guest voices in the episode "A Tale Of Two Springfields". "Won't Get Fooled Again" is played over the end credits. As a special tribute the drummer was modelled after Keith Moon, despite the real Moon having died decades before the episode aired. At one point Moe also says:"That fat, dumb and bald guy sure plays some real hard ball", note
- "Behind The Laughter" has Krusty, while bitterly talking about the Simpson family's success, namely regarding their various musical albums, complains about his own album tanking, saying that "meanwhile, Krustophenia sits on the shelf!"
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Sweet and Sour Squid", Plankton sings a song about Squidward that is a parody of "Pinball Wizard".
- Kurt Cobain quoted "My Generation" by The Who in his suicide letter:"Hope I die before I turn into Pete Townsend."
