- Baby Blues pointed out that the game's Luck-Based Mission characteristics make it as hard to deliberately lose (i.e., to let a small child win) as it is to aspire to win yourself.
- A Get Fuzzy comic had Satchel using a "Candyland'' board in conjunction with a Ouija widget; and wondering why a ghost would pass through multiple dimensions to tell him "Gumdrop, Gumdrop, Lolly" when Bucky tells him he needs a Ouija board to make the widget work properly.
Live-Action TV
- Cory from Boy Meets World laments in one episode that he spent his Saturday night playing Candy Land with his sister, "and lost", as if losing a game of pure chance is more pathetic than winning it.
- Full House:
- In "Goodbye, Mr. Bear", Stephanie goes through her old toys, trying to decide which ones she should give to charity. She decides to give her Candy Land game away since there's no actual candy in it.
- In "Sisters in Crime", D.J. takes Stephanie and Michelle to the movie theater to see The Littlest Sea Lion, and has to have Kimmy sneak them in since they spent all the money D.J. gave them on snacks. To keep Danny, Uncle Jesse, and Joey from finding out about this, D.J. has Michelle lie to them by telling them that she won a ding-dong from beating her in a game of Candy Land.
- Shown in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode Parts: The Clonus Horror.
- Nurse Jackie has the main character playing the game with little girls and a boy in "Heading North".
- That '70s Show has Eric Forman stashing away money in a Candy Land box. It is later revealed that the gang hides a different kind of stash in the same box.
- X-Play reviewed the 2000 version of the game once...during a game drought.
Music
- Katy Perry's music video "California Gurls" was heavily based with this. Only Hotter and Sexier.
Toys
- Wacky Packages has parodied the Candy Land board game a couple of times: as "Brandy Land" in Series 12 and as "Cranky Land" in the January Monthly Series.
- The webcomic Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures has Candy-Land Adventures appear in #1453
and #1460. It transforms this game into an RPG like Dungeons & Dragons, complete with rolling dice, fighting monsters, and arguing about the rules. Roles include Peppermint Paladin and Rogue of Red Hots.
- It is a Running Gag in Board James that Bad Luck Bootsy wants to play Candy Land (instead of whatever game the episode is about). He briefly gets his wish in the Season 3 finale, currently the series finale... in rather dark and bloody circumstances.
- Animaniacs: In "Meatballs or Consequences" (a parody of The Seventh Seal), Death challenges the Warner siblings to a game of chess, but they don't know how to play, so he settles for checkers instead. Dot eagerly asks if he has Uncle Wiggily or Candy Land, but being The Grim Reaper, he doesn't.
- The Simpsons:
- In "The President Wore Pearls", Marge tells Homer that she once played Candy Land with Maggie and ended up throwing vodka in her face.
- In "Any Given Sundance", one scene has Marge going into Sundance festival theaters that are showing indie dramas with innocent-sounding titles. One of those movies is Candyland, which she thinks it's based on the game, but it turns out to be about drug addicts.
- In "Boyz N the Highlands" and "Homer and Her Sisters", the Simpson family own a board game called Soda Land.
- VeggieTales: In "Larry-Boy and the Fib From Outer Space", Larry and Alfred (Archibald) play this game. Larry is stuck in the Molasses Swamp for at least 38 turns as Alfred is able to immediately advance all the way to Princess Lolly. Amusingly, this almost certainly means Larry was originally ahead of Alfred.