References in Pop Culture

Cats is an international hit and has been referenced many times in pop culture.

5 Second Rule: Just Spit It Out
One of the cards says "Name three Cats characters".

ALF
In one episode from this late-80's sitcom about an alien who lives with a "nice, normal family", Willie and Kate (the parents) talk about seeing Cats. ALF (who comes from a planet where cats are considered dinner instead of a house pet), tries to coax them into taking him with them so he can go backstage and eat the actors

Angels in America
In the play and its film adaptation, the lawyer Roy Cohn is first seen recommending tickets for Cats to his client.

Baantjer
In the Dutch crime show Baantjer, character Iris De Graaff mentions having tickets to see Cats. She asks her colleague Vledder to go along with her, who at first declines, but later agrees to come with her. The next scene they are shown arriving at work, and Vledder sings a part of the Rum Tum Tugger while Iris cheers.

BoJack Horseman
Princess Carolyn's ringtone is "Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats".

Caroline in the City
One of the main characters, Annie, works as a dancer in the Broadway production of Cats.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
The season 4 episode "I Need Some Balance" is a parody of Cats.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
In the 2011 movie, Greg's arch-rival Patty sings "Memory" in a talent show, bringing Rodrick to tears.

Ellen
In an October 2019 episode, Andy dressed up as Munkustrap and sang "Memory".

Family Guy
In "Brian Does Hollywood", Lois recalls a previous time when Peter disturbed a performance. During a performance of Cats, Peter crashes through a wall, running over one of the performers. He tries to explain that the "cat" just jumped in front of him and he never meant to hit it.

Friends

 * In one episode, Rachel was trying to throw a pizza box into a chute. She struggles with it, but finally decides to leave it halfway out of the chute. She turns around and sees a janitor (???) who chews her out about it because he spent half and hour unclogging it. He mimics her on how she's a "princess". One of the things he said was, "Daddy, make the cast of Cats sing happy birthday to me!"
 * Rachel lost Ross's monkey named Marcel. They all decide to go and look for him. Joey says, "All right, you're a monkey. You're loose in the city. Where do you go?" Chandler replies, "Okay, it's his first time out so he's probably going to want to do some touristy things. I'll go to Cats and you go to the Russian Tea Room."

Glee

 * In the season 2 finale "New York", Rachel buys Broadway tickets for Cats from a scalper, not knowing that the show had already closed 11 years ago.
 * In the season 5 episode "Old Dog, New Tricks", "Memory" is performed by Kurt Hummel and Maggie Banks.

The Golden Girls
In the "Bang the Drum, Stanley" episode, Blanche and Rose are cast in a community theatre production of Cats.

Henry Danger
In the episode "Henry Danger: The Musical", Ray says that he auditioned for a musical about cats only for Charlotte to say "was it Cats?" Ray replies with "it's not important" and he got rejected. The Line Is Mentioned In Several Later Scenes

Labyrinth

 * In the 1986 film, the protagonist Sarah Williams has a poster of Cats in her bedroom.

Muppet Films And Shows

 * In the Fall 1983 issue of Muppet Magazine, Scooter interviews Candy Carell, the creator of the Broadway makeup design for Cats.


 * Sarah has a poster of Cats in her room in Labyrinth.


 * The marquee for the musical is shown in The Muppets Take Manhattan teaser trailer.


 * In Muppets Tonight episode 108, Gonzo and Jason Alexander revive their college musical, Bats: the Musical, a parody of Cats.


 * In a 2001 episode of Sesame Street, Elizabeth sings a song to Little Murray Sparkles that parodies "Memory."


 * In a 2002 episode of Sesame Street, a duck who performs in one of Prairie Dawn's pageants proudly announces that he's won a role in Cats.


 * In the Muppets' 2002 MasterCard commercial, Kermit and company are shown in front of a theater where The Producers is playing. As they approach the lobby, Rizzo the Rat inquires "No cats in this one, right?"


 * In the Elmo's World episode "Pets," the The Pets Channel tells viewers to stay tuned for Cats starring Eartha Kitten.


 * The Muppets Character Encyclopedia mentions that the Muppet birds like the musical Cats, but not the animals.


 * In the waiting area for the Sesame Place stage show Elmo the Musical, a poster hangs for the show Bats.
 * Lillias White  played the lead singer of The Squirrelles
 * Roger Kachel  played Ernie in the first Sesame Street LIVE show.

The Office
In the season 5 Halloween episode "Employee Transfer", Andy dresses up as a cat from Cats. In one episode, Dwight says "The last time I was at the theater, a man dressed as a cat sat on my lap.

Phineas and Ferb
Cats is one of the musicals parodied in the episode "Rollercoaster: The Musical!".

The Play That Goes Wrong
Cats is mentioned as the fictitious Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society's summer musical production. But because of underfunding, they could only stage Cat instead of Cats.

Rio 2
In The Audition Scene, A Little Animal Sings Memory, Only To Be Eaten By A Panther But Somehow Continues To Sing

Riverdale
The season 3 episode "American Dreams" has a gang member nicknamed Old Deuteronomy.

Robert Heindel paintings
Renown American artist Robert Heindel made several Cats paintings that can be viewed here.

Saturday Night Live

 * In 1986, SNL parodied 1980s Broadway television commercials with a fake ad for the fake show The Amazing Alexander. The ad featured a member of the public saying: "I loved it. It was much better than Cats. I'm going to see it again and again.'"
 * The January 2009 episode had a sketch with Neil Patrick Harris and Taylor Swift called "Save Broadway". The sketch featured Bobby Moynihan as Mr. Mistoffelees.
 * The March 2019 episode had a sketch with John Mulaney called "Bodega Bathroom". In the sketch, Kate McKinnon sings a parody of Memory.
 * In the sketch "Broadway's All- Star Super Bowl Halftime Show, at the end a Mistoffelees costume is shown.
 * In A Sketch Called "Laser Cats The Musical" The Opening Title Is The Cats Logo With A Few Other Words.

School of Rock

 * One of the characters sings "Memory" when auditioning for the band

So You Think You Can Dance

 * The opening group number for the Season 16 finale used a medley from the Cats Movie 2019.

The Simpsons

 * At a comic convention Buddy Hodges said that he played Rum Tum Tugger in Cats and asked the crowed if anybody saw that.


 * While Bart and Milhouse were on their all-syrup Squishee bender, one of the things they did was attend a performance of Cats. Bart blew blobs of the Squishee onto the stage with a straw, which provoked a fight among the actors


 * In an  Itchy & Scratchy cartoon, Scratchy went to see Cats, but became bored with the show and shoots himself.


 * When Marge was decluttering Crazy Cat Lady's house, she bought her tickets for Cats. Eleanor cried throughout the musical, wiping her nose on her cats

Six Degrees of Separation
The 1990 Broadway play and its 1993 film adaptation feature a young con artist who lies to the main couple that his father is directing a movie of Cats. The con man cheats the couple of their money by promising them cameos in the fake movie.

Taylor Swift
During a livestream leading up to her 2019 album release, Lover, Taylor Swift compared her previous albums to Cats characters, citing the debut to be Victoria, Fearless to be Jemima, Speak Now to be Gus, Red to be Bombalurina, 1989 to be Mistoffelees, Reputation to be Grizabella, and Lover to be Munkustrap.

Trivia Murder Party 2
The game has several Cats-related trivia questions, including one that asks "Which of these are not characters from Cats?"

Tokyo Train Station
From 7 March 2019 onwards, the Rinkai Railway Line in Tokyo changed its 13:14 train departure melody at the Oimachi Train Station to jingles of "Memory" (for the train to Osaki Station) and "Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat" (for the train to Shin-Kiba Station). The Oimachi station was chosen because the Cats Theatre is located nearby.

Toy Story 3
In a post-credits scene where the characters are re-enacting Romeo And Juliet, Buttercup suggests to Hammy that "next season, we're doing Cats".

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
In the penultimate episode, Titus gets cast in the Broadway production of Cats, although he is later fired.

United States Postal Service
The USPS issued a Cats stamp in January 2000 as part of its Celebrate the Century series. Of the 15 major events of the 1980s that were commemorated by the USPS, Cats was the only musical. 6 million copies of the Cats stamp were printed.

Wax museums

 * Madame Tussauds New York displays wax figures of Grizabella, Mr. Mistoffelees, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer (since 2019):

The Wiggles

 * In some shots of the special "The Wiggles Big Adventure," Anthony is seen wearing a CATS shirt
 * Simon Pryce is now the Red Wiggle and played Ringo the Ringmaster in early 2010s material (mostly in tours)
 * Sarah Bowden played a pirate in The Wiggles Movie and appeared with The Wiggles on Midday with Kerri-Anne.

World Cup

 * "The Jellicle Ball" was used as the theme music for the BBC's broadcast of the 1982 World Cup