Actor Allusion/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

*** "Hah - [[Billy West]]? What a stupid, phoney, made-up name." Fry's line might be one of the least subtle actor allusions in history.

* One episode of ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]'', titled "Brother From Another Series" starred Sideshow Bob (Grammer) and his brother Cecil, voiced by, you guessed it, David Hyde Pierce. One scene becomes an obvious extended reference to ''[[Frasier]]'', down to the incidental music and sarcastic dialogue. At one point when Bart jumped on his back and yelled "Guess who!" Cecil's first guess was "Maris?" Maris was [[The Ghost|the never seen/never heard]] wife of Niles Crane. A later episode starred Bob, Cecil, and their father Robert, voiced by John Mahoney. One extended [[Couch Gag]] had the Simpsons running through sets from different sitcoms; they sit in the bar from 'Cheers' (the show Frasier was a spin off of) and Sideshow Bob walks in, in homage to his role as Frasier.

** Spoofed in ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]''. Mark Hamill, starring in a dinner-theatre production of ''[[Guys and Dolls]]'', is [[I Am Not Spock|forced to adapt everything to fit his role in]] ''[[Star Wars]]'', climaxing with the "Luke, Be A Jedi Tonight" musical number and a few references like "use the Forks!"

** The episode "Lisa's Substitute", guest starring [[Dustin Hoffman]], features an extended sequence that comes out of nowhere in which Hoffman's character and Mrs. Krabappel do a shot for shot reenactment of the famous seduction scene from ''[[The Graduate]]''. Ironically, Hoffman used a pseudonym in this appearance, so anyone who couldn't recognize his voice was probably completely mystified as to why the episode suddenly stopped dead in its tracks to do such a specific parody.

** On another episode, Señor Senior Sr. speaks of chasing someone "'round perdition's flames", in much the same way his voice actor (Ricardo Montalban) did in ''[[Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]''.

* Will Friedle again invokes ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' by playing Bats' on-again, off-again partner [[Blue Beetle]] in ''[[Batman the Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman: The Brave and the Bold]]''.

** [[Seth Macfarlane]] intentionally avoids allusions to [[Batman (TV)|Batman]] with Adam West because they're too obvious.

*** Though there was the ''Super Griffins'' short where he mentioned having past experiences fighting super-powered beings.

* In an episode of ''The New [[Batman]] Adventures'', the Joker is attempting to kill Commissioner Gordon while he is at the dentist. Batman manages to find out first and stops him, but before he leaves the Joker tosses a grenade in while making the pun "May the floss be with you!" This is an obvious parody of the line "May the Force be with you", and it is a reference to his voice actor Mark Hamill, famous for his role as Luke Skywalker in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy.

** A similar reference appears in the spin-off comic book ''Harley and Ivy'' which stars the Joker's henchgirl Harley Quinn and the villain Poison Ivy; the two are on a movie set beating up what look like Batman and the Joker, but turn out to be actors. Harley laments about some actor trying to impersonate the Joker and takes off his fake nose while the actor mumbles something about "Yoda" and the "Dagobah System". It is safe to say that this is a reference to Hamill again, probably suggesting that the actor is supposed to be him.

* Sentinel from ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' physically resembles [[The Tick]] in both his blue color and huge chin. They have Townsend Coleman as a voice actor. The creators have confirmed that they had this in mind when designing Sentinel once they found out Coleman was cast. It's also been [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] a time or two, like when Sentinel has the line of "Energon-y goodness", referencing the Tick's odd manners of speech.

** When Ratchet says Wreck-Gar wouldn't dare do something really, ''really'' moronic, he replied "I am Wreck-Gar. I ''dare'' to be stupid!", referencing his voice actor Weird Al Yankovic's song "Dare to be Stupid". This also counts as a [[Mythology Gag]] as it was the Junkions' theme (the Junkions being lead by Wreck-Gar) in [[The Movie|the G1 movie]]. Another happens in "Human Error, Part 2", where he briefly tries to fight Soundwave with an accordion, an instrument Weird Al often uses.

** In one episode [[Mark Hamill]] plays a dealer who sells Granddad a strain of marijuana called "Skywalker."

** Rev. Rollo Goodlove messes up while singing "Go-Go Gadget Gospel," a song originally performed by his voice actor Cee-Lo. Extra layers of funny occur when you realize Cee-Lo is purposefully messing up his song when he should be able to sing it perfectly.

* A neat version of this trope occurs in ''[[Odd Job Jack]]'' in which the episode's supposed guest star is none other then the voice actor of the main character who plays himself. Similar to the ''[[Lucky Star]]'' example but instead here the title character expresses his disapproval and criticism of the man and the two fight each other throughout the episode.

* Captain Neweyes's last line in ''[[Were Back a Dinosaurs Story]]'' is "And that's the way it is," referencing how his voice actor Cronkite signed off his newscasts back in the day.

*** And, at one point during the episode, Lawrence watches a horror movie and comments, "where are the musical numbers?" Richard O'Brian, who plays Lawrence, wrote ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'', which combines horror & music.

* In ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'', Silverbolt remarks that Venus reminds him of Blackarachnia. Blackarachnia was voiced by Venus Terzo.

* In one episode of ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]'', Jimmy supposedly forgets Carl's name, calling him Rob - Carl's voice actor being [[Rob Paulsen]].

* Beast Boy of ''[[Teen Titans (Animation)|Teen Titans]]'' talks in [[Totally Radical|stereotypical surfer lingo]] and won't touch meat. His VA, Greg Cipes, is a professional surfer, and has lived on a vegan diet since he was a kid.

* One episode of ''[[King of the Hill]]'' (specifically "Arlen City Bomber") has Bobby state that his dream is to eat a corn chip right off the production line. Lucky tells him "I'm gonna help you run down that dream." [[Tom Petty|Lucky's portrayer]] had a song titled "Runnin' Down A Dream".

* In the animated short film [[Jonah Hex]], attached to ''[[Batman Under the Red Hood]]'', Hex is voiced by Thomas Jane. Jane was desperate for the live-action role that eventually went to Josh Brolin, so much so that he hired a makeup artist to create Hex's scars before he went to screentest. Guess he'll have to make do with the voice of Hex.

{{quote| '''Graviton''': [[Tempting Fate|I am the strongest one there is!]]<br />

* Baron von Ghoulish in ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy|Billy and Mandy Save Christmas]]'' is introduced brushing his fangs and humming "Singing in the Rain". His voice actor is [[Malcolm McDowell]], who infamously sang that same song in ''[[A Clockwork Orange (Film)|A Clockwork Orange]]''.

* ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' had the titular orange cat voiced by Lorenzo Music, who had previously voiced [[The Voice|Carlton the Doorman]] on the CBS sitcom ''Rhoda''. Naturally, one of the [[Couch Gag|Couch Gags]] featured the line, "This is Garfield, your doorman." (Doubles as a [[Parental Bonus]], given that ''Rhoda'' aired during [[The Seventies]].)

** This was later given a [[Shout Out]] in the RubySpears series Fangface, where Fangs (and the title character; both voiced by [[Frank Welker]]) did it.

* Near the beginning of ''[[Atlantis the Lost Empire (Disney)|Atlantis the Lost Empire]]'', Milo complains about why he hated carrots before boarding the submarine. [[Michael J Fox|His voice actor]] also dislikes carrots.

** In the episode "Hurricane Fluttershy", Twilight Sparkle has a squirrel trying to tell her something, and on being questioned, replies, "Do I ''look'' like I speak Squirrel?" Twilight is voiced by Tara Strong, who also voiced Bubbles on [[Powerpuff Girls]], who ''did'' in fact speak Squirrel.

* In ''[[Thundercats 2011 (Western Animation)|ThunderCats (2011)]]'', Claudus (voiced by Larry Kenney, the [[Thundercats (Animation)|original]] Lion-O) announces that he'll show his son Lion-O what the Sword of Omens "is capable of in the proper hands." [[Old Retainer]] Jaga makes [[Lampshade Hanging|reference]] to how much like his son Claudus was in youth. Later, he gets to yell out "[[Battle Cry|Thundercats, HO!]]" one last time.

* The ''[[Dan Vs (Animation)|Dan Vs]].'' episode "The Catburglar" is basicaly Curtis Armstrong (Dan) as his [[Moonlighting|other famous character he played in the 80s]]. <ref> He played Bert Voila for the last three seasons.</ref>

* Minor villain Black Spider from ''[[Young Justice (Animation)|Young Justice]]'' is played by Josh Keaton, who played another wisecracking person with [[The Spectacular Spider Man|arachnid]] themed powers in a [[Greg Weisman]] production.

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[[Category:Western Animation]]