The South Park episode "Chinpokomon" features a Japanese Pokémon-like phenomenon which brainwashes almost all of the children. Kenny, while playing one of the Chinpokomon games, suffers a seizure and dies. Both episodes were aired in 1999, shortly after the incident. Ling-Ling, a character from Comedy Central's Drawn Together is a clear parody of Pikachu, being able to generate "beam" attacks and having a previous history with a trainer. Again referencing at one point in time he states that his goal in life is to give children seizures. A brief reference was also given in the 2004 novel So Yesterday by science fiction author Scott Westerfeld; one of the characters has a seizure when watching the episode.

http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon:_An_international_cultural_phenomenon

"Dennō Senshi Porygon" (でんのうせんしポリゴン, Dennō Senshi Porigon?, literally "Computer Soldier Porygon", although most commonly translated as "Electric Soldier Porygon") is the thirty-eighth episode of the Pokémon anime's first season. Its only broadcast was in Japan on December 16, 1997. In the episode, Ash and his friends find at the local Pokémon Center that there is something wrong with the Poké Ball transmitting device. To find out what's wrong, they must go inside the machine.

The episode is infamous for using visual effects that caused seizures in a substantial number of Japanese viewers, an incident referred to as the "Pokémon Shock" by the Japanese press. Six hundred and eighty-five viewers were taken to hospitals; two people remained hospitalized for more than two weeks. Due to this, the episode has been banned worldwide. After the shock, the Pokémon anime went into a four month hiatus, and it returned on TV Tokyo in April 1998. Since then, the episode has been parodied and referenced in cultural media, including episodes of South Park and The Simpsons. (Wikipedia)