Pac-Man in popular culture

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1 Films and TV
2 Music
3 Sports
4 Videogames
5 References
6 External Links

There are many references to Pac-Man in popular culture.

[edit] Films and TV

A great deal of Pac-Man merchandise was marketed in the 1980s, from t-shirts to toys to hand-held video game imitations to even a pasta. Then, there was the aforementioned Saturday morning TV cartoon also called Pac-Man based on the game was produced by Hanna-Barbera and lasted two years from 1982 to 1984. It was also the basis for a Pac-Man Christmas special titled Christmas Comes to Pac-Land. In the series and the special, the "nicknames" given Pac-Man's enemies in the game—Blinky, Pinky, Inky, Clyde; became their official names, and Sue was a new ghost, colored purple. They were led by the evil Mezmaron, who employed them in his plots to raid the Power Pellet Forest (as called by Mezmaron in the show's opening; it is known as simply the "Power Forest" in the actual episodes). Even though Mezmaron was a new character and not from the game, as the leader of the ghosts, he can be seen as representing the game's "Artificial Intelligence". It certainly did "mezmerize" many kids, which is perhaps what led to the name. Marty Ingels was the voice actor of Pac-Man. Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures released for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, was heavily influenced by the cartoon version.
The comedian Marcus Brigstocke, referring to controversies over the influence of video games on children, famously stated that "If Pacman had affected us as kids we'd be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music".
The PBS children's show Square One often featured a segment called Mathman, a videogame based loosely on Pac-Man. There is only one monster on the Mathman board, a tornado-like creature named "Mr. Glitch", who ordinarily left Mathman alone. Each board had a certain mathematical theme (numbers that are multiples of 4, reduceable fractions, etc.). In order to progress, Mathman would simply move next to one of the problems presented on the board and determine its answer by a count of three. A correct answer/consumption was accompanied by a fanfare similar to that played on many home computers. However, eating an equation which didn't match the theme (a common occurrence used to end the segment) caused Mr. Glitch to endlessly chase Mathman and eventually eat him.
The makers of the 1982 Disney feature-film Tron snuck a tiny Pac-Man into one quick shot when Sark is ordering the tanks to be sent out ^[1], giving the character a movie cameo appearance in effect.
MAD Magazine named Pac-Man "Man of the Year" in September 1982. This cover spoofs Time Magazine's naming of the PC as 1982's "Man of the Year". So great was Pac-Man's appeal in 1982 that it is one of very few MAD covers that does not feature their mascot, Alfred E. Neuman.
In the film National Lampoon's Vacation, "Rusty Griswold" (Anthony Michael Hall) asks his cousin if he has Pac-Man, among other video games popular during the time of the movie's 1983 release (including Space Invaders and Asteroids). The film aslo features a scene in which Clark uses a computer to track his route. Rusty picks up a joystick and causes a Pac-Man character to appear and eat the lines representing the route.
The film Top Secret! features a joke in which dots are used to represent a character's journey through the roads of East Berlin. When the screen is completely covered in dots, Pac-Man appears and begins to eat them.
In an episode of the TV comedy series Friends the character Chandler Bing is given a Ms. Pac-Man machine, and is seen playing it several times.
In the film Man on the Moon, Andy Kaufman (portrayed by Jim Carrey) is seen playing a Ms. Pac-Man machine when George Shapiro (portrayed by Danny DeVito) informs him that he was selected to appear on Taxi. The scene is actually an anachronism, for the machine model being played by Kaufman was not released until the 1980s.
One of the segments of the Futurama episode "Anthology of Interest II" is a parody of various classic video games. Video game aliens attack New New York, and Philip J. Fry works alongside general Colin Pac-Man (a reference to Colin Powell) to defeat them. One scene features the characters running through a Pac-Man maze, complete with roaming ghosts and yelling "Waka-waka-waka...!" (in imitation of the Pac-Man "eating" noise). Ms. Pac-Man also appears in this episode after Pac-Man gets shot by the Invaders (he even dies as he does in the games; by opening all the way up and popping out of existence.)
A known distribution of Linux, Arch, uses a package management system known as pacman.
In the video game-oriented webcomic Penny Arcade, Gabe is almost always seen wearing a yellow shirt with a black outline of Pac-Man. Other strips reveal that his room is decorated with Pac-Man sheets and matching curtains, and his car's license plate reads "PCMNFN" (Pac-Man Fan). Mike Krahulik, the Penny Arcade artist who uses Gabe as an alter-ego actually has a tattoo of Pac-Man eating pellets around his arm.
VG Cats, another video game webcomic, also uses Pac-Man in one of its logos or graphical representations of the comic. The logo is identical to Pac-Man, however it is colored blue instead of yellow, and has a cat-like tail added to it, along with tiny cat-like ears atop it.
In the Family Guy direct-to-video film Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Brian and Stewie are in the Drunken Clam playing Pac-Man. Brian tells Stewie to get the fruit, and Stewie says he can't get it because there's a ghost right there. Additionally, there is a reference in a different episode about a depressed Pac-Man, in which the ghosts arrive at his house to cheer him up, even resorting to blinking in the hope to raise his spirits. Nonetheless, Pac-Man stays depressed. The ghosts leave, mentioning they will seek out Q*Bert. In another episode, when Peter says he never "fits in anywhere", a Pac-Man esque maze is displayed where Peter can't get anything.
In 2004, New York University's Interactive Telecommunications graduate program created a "real-world" version of the game called "Pac-Manhattan" where one player runs around the streets of New York City dressed as Pac-Man and collects "virtual dots" (there are no physical representations of the dots in the streets, but a map on a central computer knows where Pac-Man has been and, therefore, which streets have been "cleared"). Four other players play the part of the monsters. Pac-Man (or the monsters when Pac-Man has eaten a power pill by touching a streetsign at certain intersections) are killed by tagging (touching with the hands). Each player has a controller counterpart in constant cell phone contact and are monitored from a centralized location using Wi-Fi Internet connections, and custom software designed by the Pac-Manhattan team.
The 2004 movie "Club Dread" features a live version of Pac-Man played on "Coconut Pete's" tropical island, in which four bikini clad girls would chase one man through a hedge maze; drinking from a cup of alcohol was the equivalent of a Power Pellet. The full rules of the game were unknown, as it was called off for murder, particularly those dressed in costumes resembling the various fruit pieces of the game.
Pac-Man appears as a character in the Drawn Together episode "Gay Bash". In a comic twist, Ms. Pac-Man is revealed to actually be Pac-Man himself, but in drag.
In the episode Operation: Rescue Jet Fusion of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen are chased by a giant clam and go through a Pac-man like maze, The three being the ghosts and the clam being Pac-man.
A Pac-Man movie has been announced by Crystal Sky. No further details are known.
A fake movie trailer on YouTube about Pac-Man became an internet sensation during the summer of 2006. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWL6j0SvqV0
In the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends pilot, the Extremeasaurus chases Bloo through a maze of junk in a Pac-Man-esque scene, with the Extremeasauraus portraying Pac-Man and Bloo portraying a ghost.
The Flash game The Ultimate Pie Theft, starring most of the characters from the popular Weebl and Bob internet cartoon, is largely based on Pac-Man.
In the Weird Al Yankovic video for White and Nerdy a Pac-Man made out of road flares is seen in the background at various points throughout the video.
An episode of Scrubs features a storyline in which Turk and Dr Kelso come into conflict over a Ms Pacman machine.

[edit] Music

There have been a number of songs inspired by the game:

Buckner and Garcia recorded a 1982 song titled Pac-Man Fever. This song used some sounds from the game.
I-Mockery wrote and performed an extremely shouty song titled "I Will Beat Pac-Man" and created an animated video for it.
Lil' Flip recorded a song called Game Over which incorporated some sounds from the game.
The Bloodhound Gang used Pac Man sound effects and dialog with Pac-Man in the song "Mope", where Pac-Man interrupts the song saying he's on crack and tries to get the band have some. Pac-Man also appeared in the music video.
Aphex Twin, in the guise of Power Pill, recorded Pac-Man which incorporated many sounds from the game along with most of its soundtrack. Pac-Man became synonomous with rave culture with the availability of ecstasy
"Weird Al" Yankovic has an unreleased song entitled "Pacman", paroding the song "Taxman" by The Beatles.
There is a song misattributed to "Weird Al" Yankovic called "I'm a Wigga" that features some Pac-Man sound effects in certain parts of the song.
Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota has a song called Un Pacman en el Savoy (a Pacman in the Savoy).
Rapper Beanie Sigel has a song called "Mac Man", which uses sounds from the game as part of the instrumental beat, and is full of videogame-inspired lyrics.
The UK group Kaiser Chiefs make a reference to Pac Man in the song "Oh My God" with the lyrics "Knock me down I'll get right back up again / I'll come back stronger than a powered up Pac-Man".
The band Barnes & Barnes released a song entitled "I Had Sex With Pac-Man" on its 1982 untitled EP.
Worm Quartet released a song in 2003 entitled "Pac-Man is Naked and So Should You".
Skatterman & Snugg Brim in Urban Legendz has a song called Pakman. Pacman eating dots in the beat for it.

[edit] Sports

Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao is nicknamed "Pacman."
Pacman Jones the name of a Tennessee Titans player."

[edit] Videogames

Pac-Man is one of the first non-Nintendo characters to be playable in a Mario Kart game.

Namco often puts the characters of Pac-man into their other games, as actual opponents or subtle references. Some of the most prominent uses include the Ridge Racer series of games and Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune. In addition, Pac-Man appears as a statue in the Namco games Namco x Capcom and Tales of Symphonia. In another Tales game, Tales of the Abyss, playable character Jade Curtiss' main outfit has a belt with a buckle shaped like Pac-Man. Because of this, the Pac-Man appears to be eating the belt holes, much like an in-game Pac-Man eating dots. Klonoa, the main character in the self-named series also by Namco, wears a hat with Pac-Man and a pellet on it. Video game machines that can be picked up in Katamari Damacy and it's sequels emit sounds from the original Pac-Man game when they are accumulated by the player.

Pac-Man is a playable character in the Mario Kart Arcade GP game; in fact, Pac-Man is one of the first non-Nintendo characters to appear in a Nintendo game. Ms. Pac-Man and the red ghost Blinky are also playable.

Pac-Man made a guest appearance in Kick Man (1981), also once known as Kick. The object of Kickman is to catch falling balloons on the head of a unicycle rider. In some levels of the game, a Pac-Man may descend and, with his familiar sound effects, eat the already-caught balloons for bonus points. Ghosts appear as well in higher levels.

Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis featured Pac-Man as a secret unlockable character. He looks exactly like his 3D render. To unlock him, the player had to complete Times Square court under "Street Tournament" six times.

In Wolfenstein 3D (1992), there is a secret level, which is a remake of one of the mazes in Pac-Man, complete with Pac-Man ghosts which chase the player. They cannot be killed. The dots are replaced with treasure items and the power pills are replaced with extra lives.