Mike Tyson in Popular Culture - Cameos and Other Appearances

Cameos and Other Appearances

• In 1989, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince scored a #23 R&B and #58 Pop hit with "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson", in which the Fresh Prince envisages himself taking on the heavyweight champion (and taking a beating in the process). Tyson appears as himself in the song's music video.
• Tyson is mentioned in the third verse of Nas' original It Ain't Hard to Tell demo, in the line: "Move like a maniac, Nas is nice son, talk to your conscience and hit like Tyson"
• Tyson made a cameo appearance on 1980s TV sitcom Who's the Boss?, during a scene when Tony Danza is impersonating Tyson's infamous voice. Tyson rings the doorbell as a neighbor and asks who the person is who's been making fun of him.
• Tyson has appeared in a commercial aired in 1990 for Toyota trucks in Japan.
• Tyson appeared in rapper Ice-T's video "New Jack Hustler" in 1991. He can be seen at the beginning of the video talking on a phone and hanging with members of Ice-T's entourage around a car.
• A 1995 Weekend Update sketch, shortly following Tyson's release from prison had Adam Sandler appearing as the self-proclaimed "president of the Mike Tyson fan club" listing the names of all the people who badmouthed Tyson, as well as Sandler for defending him, and talked trash that Tyson was behind bars and there was nothing he could do about it. Sandler read a list of addresses of the hecklers, who are no longer safe now that Tyson is no longer restrained in prison.
• Tyson was good friends with rapper Tupac Shakur, and often came out for a fight with a song Shakur specifically recorded for his ringwalk music. In 1996, Shakur was on his way to a charity event after watching the Tyson-Seldon fight when he was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting.
• Tyson was the special outside enforcer for the World Wrestling Federation match between Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin at the March 29, 1998 WrestleMania XIV pay-per-view. Before the match he seemingly aligned himself with Michaels and his D-Generation X stable, only to turn on them and punch Michaels, after counting the pinfall for Austin and awarding him the WWF Championship.
• In 1998 Tyson featured on an underground rap hit, "Second Round K.O" by Canibus. Tyson gives the rapper advice over how to defeat his lyrical opponent (rapper LL Cool J).
• In 1999 he made another movie cameo appearance, playing himself in James Toback's Black and White, a serious look at race, sex and hip hop music in Manhattan. Tyson appears in When Will I Be Loved, another film by Black and White's director James Issa Toback, in 2004.
• In 2001, Tyson had a cameo on P.Diddy's music video for "Bad Boy For Life".
• Tyson made a special cameo appearance in the 2001 movie Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, where he played an extremely peaceful man meditating in a park. Dundee's character remarked to his son in the film, "He seems like a nice bloke!"
• Tyson appears in Sylvester Stallone's 2006 movie Rocky Balboa and plays himself. He can be seen taunting Mason "The Line" Dixon, the current champion in the movie (who because of his arrogance and ability to end fights early, is based on Tyson's early career) at ringside right before the Balboa / Dixon bout begins.
• Recently Indian Bollywood movie producer Firoz Nadiadwala has approached Mike Tyson to feature in a promotional video for his film Fool and Final. It has been reported that despite his pending legal problems, Tyson has been given clearance to go to India on April 20 to participate in the shoot.
• In 2007, he appeared on the ESPY Awards show with comedian Jimmy Kimmel in a shower scene.
• Tyson appears as himself in the 2009 comedy film The Hangover. He appears in the protagonists' hotel room, demanding the return of his tiger, which they stole from him while drunk. In a 2010 interview, he stated that he appeared in The Hangover in order to fund a drug habit.
• Also in 2009, Tyson guest starred as himself on the Fox sitcom Brothers (in the episode "Lenny"). He attempted to collect a $5,000 debt owed to him by Michael Trainor (Michael Strahan), but Trainor was broke and Tyson instead took the wheelchair of Trainor's paraplegic brother Chill (Daryl Mitchell).
• A successful and long-running manga series, Hajime no Ippo, based on boxing, in the very beginning of the manga, Tyson is mentioned and has several appearances and references. Makunouchi Ippo, the protagonist, also shares many boxing traits with Tyson, such as the Peek-a-Boo stance and his sheer raw punching power.
• In 2011, Tyson made a cameo in the TV series Breaking In where he hired Contra Security to assess his estate's security. He later became involved in a case that involved a cyber teen bully and helped the student become more popular.
• On May 18, 2011 Tyson appeared with his wife on Argentina's version of Dancing with the Stars, Bailando 2011.
• In 2011, Tyson appeared in the movie The Hangover Part II as himself. Near the end of the film, he performs the song One Night in Bangkok at Stu's wedding.
• On August 7, 2011, CBS aired an episode of The Same Name, featuring Mike Tyson.