"Weird Al" Effect: Difference between revisions

== Advertising ==

* The Energizer Bunny, [[Mascot]] for the Energizer brand of batteries for over 20 years, was originally a parody of an ad campaign by rival Duracell, in which a small and cute bunny with a small drum powered by their battery would last longer than one powered by their chief rival - which, back then, was Everlast (Energizer's ad was that its bunny, like its battery, was too large and impressive for Duracell's ad). In part due to its effectiveness as a campaign and in part due to Duracell not keeping up with the trademarks, the original bunny is all but forgotten in North America (although still active in other continents).

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' appears to be headed this way, with more people watching the show having not seen any of the shojo it parodies. The surface humor and well-developed characters serve to attract people who don't get the joke.

* The pirates in ''[[Asterix]]'' comics are close parodies (allowing for the difference in art style) of Captain Barbe-Rouge (Redbeard) and his crew in the comic of the same name. Originally published in the same magazine as ''Asterix'', ''Barbe-Rouge'' is almost unknown outside France. You have a shot at recognizing them if you've seen one of the 90s cartoon shows, but the parody characters have such a distinct look that it's not obvious.

** Furthermore the pirates, on yet another occasion when their ship is smashed by Asterix and Co, end up in a sequence with them parodying the now somewhat obscure painting "The Raft of the Medusa". Said painting is actually pretty famous in France, and a mainstay of school textbooks on French painting. The parody has untranslatable French puns involving the idiomatic meaning of "médusé" (stupefied). The [[Woolseyism|English translation]] has them say "We've been framed, by [[Stealth Pun|Jericho]]!" <ref>The painting is by Théodore Géricault, whose last name is pronounced close to "Jericho" in French.</ref>

* Seeing as ''[[Viz]]'' started as a parody of British children's comics and now the genre it parodies is all but dead with the exception of [[The Beano]] and [[The Dandy (comics)|The Dandy]] and Viz even outsells those two now.

* ''[[My Immortal]]'' achieved much of its infamy for taking ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fanfic clichés to absurd levels. However, ''My Immortal'' long ago transcended the ''Harry Potter'' fandom and will thus likely by many people's first encounter with ''Potter'' fanfiction. Some even [[Watch It for the Meme|Read It For The Meme]] while being unfamiliar with the actual ''Potter'' series. If you're a ''Potter'' fan, you may find it amusing to see [[Draco in Leather Pants]] taken to the point where Draco is an ultra-sensitive wussy. If not, he's just some guy acting stupid. It's also likely many readers, especially outside the United States, will be unfamiliar with the goth/prep sterotypes which the story runs on. For example, Hot Topic is a U.S. retail chain with a [[The Man Is Sticking It to the Man]] reputation, making Tara's view of it as some edgy, non-mainstream place hilarious. But only if you get the reference.