The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Each verse has several cultural references:^[5]

• "Plug in, turn on, and cop out", a reference to Timothy Leary's pro-LSD phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."^[6]
• "Skag", term for heroin^[7]
• "Pigs", term for police^[8]
• "Process", term for using chemicals to straighten a Black person's hair ^[9]
• Xerox, best-known manufacturer (at the time of the poem's writing) of photocopying machines
• Richard Nixon, 37th president of the United States
• John N. Mitchell, U.S. Attorney General under Nixon
• General Creighton Abrams, one of the commanders of military operations in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War
• Mendel Rivers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee during the period of the Vietnam War (Rivers' name appears in the original 1970 recording, but not in the re-recorded 1971 version, being replaced by Spiro Agnew)
• Spiro Agnew, 39th vice president of the United States under Nixon
• "Hog maws", sometimes misheard as "hog moss", soul food made from the stomach of a pig
• Schaefer Award Theatre, an anthology of theatrical films that aired on several U.S. TV stations
• Natalie Wood, film actress
• Steve McQueen, film actor
• Bullwinkle, cartoon character
• Julia, the lead character on the half-hour television sitcom series Julia starring Diahann Carroll.
• "Give your mouth sex appeal", from Ultra Brite toothpaste advertising^[10]
• "The revolution will not get rid of the nubs", the nubs being beard stubble, from a Gillette Techmatic razor advertisement of the period
• Willie Mays, baseball player
• "NBC will not be able to predict the winner at 8:32", a reference to television networks predicting the winner of presidential elections shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m.
• Whitney Young, civil rights leader
• Roy Wilkins, executive director of the NAACP
• Watts, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, alluding to the Watts Riots of 1965
• "Red, black, and green", the colors of the Pan-African flag
• Green Acres, a U.S. television sitcom
• The Beverly Hillbillies, a U.S. television sitcom
• "Hooterville Junction" (a corruption of Petticoat Junction, a U.S. television sitcom, and its fictitious location)
• "...will no longer be so damned relevant," a statement of approval toward the rural purge that led to the above three shows being canceled
• Dick and Jane, generic white couple derived from white children, a brother and sister, featured in American basal readers
• Search for Tomorrow, a popular U.S. television soap opera
• The Brighter Day, another U.S. television soap opera
• "Hairy-armed women liberationists", participants in second-wave feminism^[11]
• Jackie Onassis, the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy's widow, seen during the period in television broadcasts of Kennedy memorials
• Jim Webb, U.S. composer
• Francis Scott Key, lyricist of "The Star-Spangled Banner"
• Glen Campbell, U.S. pop/country music singer, then hosting The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour
• Tom Jones, Welsh pop music singer, then hosting This Is Tom Jones
• Johnny Cash, U.S. country music singer, then hosting The Johnny Cash Show
• Engelbert Humperdinck, British pop music singer, then hosting The Engelbert Humperdinck Show
• Rare Earth, all-white U.S. rock band signed to Motown Records (this band is only referred to in the 1971 version)
• "White tornado", advertising slogan for Ajax cleanser, "Ajax cleans like a white tornado"
• "White lightning", a term for moonshine, the name of a 1950s country and western song by George Jones, and an American psychedelic rock band.
• "Dove in your bedroom", an advertising image associated with Dove anti-perspirant deodorant
• "Put a tiger in your tank", an Esso (now Exxon) advertising slogan created by Chicago copywriter Emery Smith
• "Giant in your toilet bowl," a reference to Liquid-Plumr commercials saying that it cleared so well it was like "having a giant in your toilet bowl" with an animation of a large arm using a plunger on your toilet.
• "Things go better with Coke", a Coca-Cola advertising slogan
• "Fights germs that may cause bad breath", from Listerine advertising
• "Will put you in the driver's seat", reference to advertising slogan for Hertz car rental

• List of socialist songs

• Scott‐Heron, Gil (2007). Eleveld, Mark (ed.). The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. The Spoken Word Revolution Redux. Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks MediaFusion. pp. 214–215.
• Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised on YouTube