Lyrics of Popeye's theme "I'm Popeye The Sailor Man", composed by Sammy Lerner in 1933 for Fleischer Studios' first Popeye the Sailor cartoon: "I'm Popeye the sailor man / I'm one tough Gazookus / which hates all Palookas".
In On The Waterfront (1954) Marlon Brando's character, Terry Malloy, references Palooka, in the phrase "a one-way ticket to Palookaville".