References to the GTA Series

This page is about the references to the Grand Theft Auto series in other works of fiction.

References in Film

 * ', a 2008 parody film of the movie ', has one of its fighting scenes made into GTA gameplay. This scene is also called as "Grand Theft Auto: Hot Gates" in the film. (video)
 * In , L.J. shouts "GTA, motherfucker!" when he runs over a wandering zombie with his car while driving in the . He then shouts "Yeah! 10 points!", a reference to the scoring system in the GTA 2D Universe where players will score some points for running over a pedestrian.
 * In the 2010 movie , when is asked by  how he managed to dodge some bad guys so well, Will replies simply with "Grand Theft Auto". After they escape, one of the bad guys says "someone's been playing Grand Theft Auto". It can be seen here.
 * In , Homer plays a game called Grand Theft Walrus.
 * In the 2010 movie , when tells her boyfriend how she managed to escape some bad agents in "Grand Theft Auto" on the I-93 car. It can be seen in the trailer here.
 * In the 2015 movie ', when Dio Johnson get out of his car, he say "I'll GTA on your ass" and then the screen is changed like the ''Grand Theft Auto Vs screen, and finally when the bad guy has died, the "Wasted" message appear on the screen. It can be seen here.
 * In the 2018 movie , while Amit Shah escaping the bad guys, he say "Vice City, San Andreas, Liberty City Stories, GTA IV" to distract himself.

References in Television

 * In Season 18 Episode 14 of , Bart plays a game called Death Kill City II: Death Kill Stories, Bart refers to the games as DKC2DKS, a reference to how GTA games are abbreviated; the 'stories' part of the title may be a reference to GTA Liberty City Stories and GTA Vice City Stories and the games' boxart features the Pricedown font used on all GTA covers since Grand Theft Auto III.
 * Once again in The Simpsons, The Simpsons Game contains a level called Grand Theft Scratchy. Grand Theft Scratchy is also seen at the E4 (supposed to be E3) convention in season 23's 5th episode, The Food Wife.
 * On the boxart for the "game", there is a picture which looks like the helicopter from GTA San Andreas boxart.
 * In season 13 episode 3 of  "Margaritaville", Cartman does a favor for Kyle and Stan in exchange for a copy of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.
 * In season 17 episode 1, called "Let go, Let Gov", Cartman complaining about the goverment is watching him, he mentions that he went to buy Grand Theft Auto V from Amazon.com.
 * In season 18 episode 7, titled "Grounded Vindaloop", Butters, under the influence that he was wearing VR goggles, compared his rampage through town to the video game series Grand Theft Auto. This included both hijacking the car and trying to beat up a hooker to get her money: both events are actual elements of the gameplay in the GTA series.
 * In an episode of  where Peter crashes his car, Lois makes him play Grand Theft Auto for 8 hours, which follows with him hitting a prostitute with a baseball bat and then stealing a car. Link to it here.
 * There is a reference to it in Season 7 of Scrubs here.
 * In an episode of , Grand Theft Auto III and the Kuruma are referenced by Agent McGee where the car is a and is called a Kuruma as the getaway vehicle in the episode. here.
 * In some episodes of the  series, Johnny and Dukey are sometimes seen playing a game called Grand Theft Zombie.
 * In two episodes of , on The Mystery, when Principal Brown and Miss Simian got run over by the ambulance, it makes the same sound when the player runs over a pedestrian.
 * In the sketch show , there are 2 sketches referencing Grand Theft Auto. One is an advertisement for a board game version of the game, which can be seen here. The other is a game show type format of Grand Theft Auto, which can be seen here.
 * In Season 1 episode 17 of the stop-motion animated sketch comedy show , "Operation Rich In Spirit", there is a sketch entitled "Codename: The Abortionator". The sketch is an advertisement for the titular video game, stated to be developed by the makers of "Grand Larceny: San Diego". "Codename: The Abortionator" is a clear parody of the Grand Theft Auto series, where the player character is seen committing such acts as fatally shooting his own parents, urinating on a homeless man, kicking a puppy, having sex with his cousin, having sex with his cousin's mentally disabled friend, running over pedestrians in motor vehicles, and killing stunt performer Bam Margera. Despite the violent and taboo content of the game, it is rated E for everyone.
 * In Season 2 episode 18, "Lust for Puppets", the sketch "Grand Theft Mario" sees ' game series protagonists and  stumbling into the violent world of Vice City from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Here, they experience such things as crime, murder, prostitution, gun violence, drugs, and their own deaths at the hands of the police. Fellow Mario franchise character  also meets his end when traveling to Raccoon City from the ' game series, where he is mauled to death by zombies.
 * In Season 5 episode 15, "Fool's Goldfinger", there is a sketch entitled "The Ballad of Gay Tony". The sketch is a musical number starring Gay Tony, alongside other video game characters who claim to be gay as well (however, there is no evidence of this being true in canon of their respective video games), including from the ' series,  from the ' series,  from the game of the same name, and  from.
 * In season 3 of , Hector Santiago, a mentally challenged teenager, shoots Mayor Carter Poole in the season finale episode "This Way Out". He mentions Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to detectives after being told by the gang members that the gun was a toy & that this was a funny prank.
 * In season 5 episode 14 of , "The Beta Test Initiation", Leonard says he played Grand Theft Auto so many times, he could handle a gun in real life.
 * There is a reference to Grand Theft Auto series from the Turkish TV Series . It can be seen here.
 * In an episode of , Luke says the game he play before Jessie grounds him was called Grand Theft Carbon.
 * In an episode of , there is a parody of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City where Dave Chapelle says he plays the game so much that it changed his life. This is followed by a skit where he is acting as Tommy Vercetti. The skit can be seen here.
 * There is an episode from the  series titled Grand Theft Arlen, which is an obvious parody of the GTA series.
 * In the Two and a Half Men episode, "I Merely Slept with a Commie", Jake asks a Chinese child whether he "Plays on an Xbox or a Playstation?", to which the Chinese child replies with "A cello". Jake asks "How do you play that", to which the Chinese child replies with several names of musicals. Jake's only dumbfounded reaction is to ask "so wait, no Grand Theft Auto?"
 * On another episode of Two and a Half Men, "Mmm, fish. Yum.", Jake tells Judith that he has been driving for years, on Grand Theft Auto 1 and Grand Theft Auto 2.
 * In Kit Stupid Show, episode 18 of season 6 in sketch What if Celebrities were featured in video games Russian pop-singer Philipp Kirkorov was beating up a whore and said "Get it! Why do I need missions if I can loot money for free".
 * In Season 6 Episode 5 of Criminal Minds, "Safe Haven", a teenage serial killer uses the alias Niko Bellic to check into a children's hospital, which Agent Rossi immediately catches as being the name of the main character from Grand Theft Auto IV.
 * In Season 10 Episode 7 of Doctor Who, "Extremis", a projector showing alternate realities is described as "a computer game, like Grand Theft Auto".
 * In Season 1 Episode 2 of , mentions to  during a joke segment that his "favorite video games are the ones that let you kill prostitutes" to which Tom Green replies "like Grand Theft Auto?" The pair go on to joke about how killing prostitutes is what made the series successful.
 * In Season 1 Episode 1 of Korean drama series , PlayStation 4 games can be seen scattered near Sun-Oh's bed, with Grand Theft Auto V being one of them.

References in Video Games

 * In , officer Wiggum asks the player "What's this, Grand Theft Auto? Get outta there" whenever the player tries to enter their police car.
 * In , a game similar in nature to GTA, there is a character named Timmy Vermicelli which a reference to Tommy Vercetti. The character is a in-game joke and makes fun of Tommy not being able to swim so they gave him.
 * In , the player can find a purple bowling ball with "cousin" written on it. This is a reference to Roman Bellic's infamous "Let's go bowling" quote.
 * In Another Case Solved, there's a criminal named Carl Johnson who is obviously inspired from CJ, the main protagonist of GTA San Andreas.
 * Later in the game, during the mission Museum Menace, Pola Chapelle (one of the main characters in Another Case Solved) describes Carl as a leader of a gang who specializes in car thieves, a clear reference to Grand Theft Auto.
 * In the 2018  video game, during a side mission, the player has to listen to some criminals discussing a heist. One of them, Niko mentions that his brother's son, Roman is the getaway driver.
 * In , players can find a journal that references the mission "Wrong Side of the Tracks" from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The journal features dialogue from JC and Little Smoke, a reference to the characters CJ and Big Smoke.

References in Other Forms of Media

 * In a Dutch commercial from, you see a game similar to Grand Theft Auto IV in which a guy who looks similar to Niko Bellic crashes his car and runs away from the police and then stops to drink his breaker (a yogurt drink). The video can be seen here.
 * The cover design of, an album of re-recordings by the British band , is a homage to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City's artwork. "" by the band features on Wave 103 in the game's soundtrack.
 * The song "Fallin' Apart" by, which is featured on EA Sports' , contains the lyrics "Young Filipe movin' like it's GTA, but not CJ, more like Tommy". This is a direct reference to the characters Carl Johnson and Tommy Vercetti from GTA San Andreas and GTA Vice City respectively.
 * Several posters for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City can be seen in a shop window in the music video for the song ''
 * advertised the using artwork in the style of GTA boxart.
 * used Grand Theft Auto boxart style in one of there posters for advertisement.

Gallery
Anspielungen auf Grand Theft Auto Références à la série GTA