Captain Ersatz: Difference between revisions

Compare [[Alternate Company Equivalent]], [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo]], and [[Brand X]]. The [[Shotoclone]] is a particular application in [[Video Games]]. See also [[Counterpart Comparison]] and [[Expy]], for characters who are similar to earlier characters, but aren't actually carbon copies, and the musical version, [[Suspiciously Similar Song]]. If the character represents a [[Real Life]] celebrity, see [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]].

 

 

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

* Ronald [[McDonald's|McDonald]]: The Washington D.C. version of Bozo The Clown, played by Willard Scott, was so popular public appearances would require police to direct traffic. After the show was cancelled, local franchise owners asked Scott to create a similar character to continue the promotion. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML263lBEVRE Ronald McDonald was born.]

** The original incarnation of McDonaldLand was a blatant copy of the cast and setting of [[Sid and Marty Krofft Productions]]' 70s-era children's show ''[[H.R. Pufnstuf]]''. The Kroffts (who had turned down an earlier request from McDonald's to license the ''Pufnstuf'' characters for advertising) [[wikipedia:McDonald's legal cases#H.R. Pufnstuf .2F McDonaldland|sued and won]], forcing McDonald's to not only pay damages, but to dramatically retool McDonaldLand.

* A top student, bored with the world, comes upon a power of some kind and uses it to control and kill people in order to [[Utopia Justifies the Means|create what he considers a Utopia, where his will is the law]]. He also ends up playing [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] against an opposing [[Chessmaster]] who is leading the effort to catch him. Now, who are we describing: Light Yagami of ''[[Death Note]]'' or Rei Hiyama of ''[[Lost Brain]]''?

* In ''[[Guilty Crown]]'', there is an [[In-Universe]] example. Shu is similar to Gai, he wants to be, and Inori is similar to Mana, {{spoiler|Shu's older sister gone mad. She even looks like her, and is an [[Artificial Human]], and Mana will be reborn in her body.}}

 

== Comic Books ==

* According to some accounts, [[Elongated Man]] was created because there were doubts as to whether [[DC Comics]] owned [[Plastic Man]], despite ostensibly acquiring all of Quality Comics' (Plastic Man's original publisher) assets. Quality Comics characters' legal status was murky, however. Ironically, Plastic Man turned out to be one of the few Quality characters DC Comics actually owned outright. Artist and co-creator Carmine Infantino plausibly [[Word of God|contradicts]] the above theory, however. He started as a one-off rival to ''[[The Flash]]'', one who wasn't expected to be an important ongoing character. Infantino also says he wasn't consciously thinking of Plastic Man at the time, though "It must have been in the back of my mind. I loved Jack Cole's work, so it had to be in my mind, maybe instinctively."<ref>''Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur'' (2010 book)</ref>The alleged influence Plas had on Ralph's creation is lampshaded, with Plas calling Elongated Man a "D-list doppleganger".

** Parodied further on ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold]]'', in which the two of them are incredibly competitive with each other, to the point that an argument over who Batman prefers as a partner causes the criminal they're chasing to almost get away. After cleaning up their mess, Bats settles the matter by saying "[[Take a Third Option|Actually,]] [[I Work Alone|I prefer to work alone.]]"

** The difference ''does'' get pointed out by Ralph that Plas is the jokester ex-con. Elongated Man is the ex-police detective. Also, one's powers are inherent, while Ralph has to drink a special formula to gain his powers.

** Also, DC has a guy named Red Tool in [[Harley Quinn]]'s title who is a parody of Deadpool, making him a DC parody of a Marvel character who parodied a DC character!

** When Liefeld was dismissed from the [[Heroes Reborn]] '[[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]]' series, he decided to use re-use the unpublished art as a reprise of Joe Simon's character [[Captain Patriotic|Fighting American]], but licensing delays lead to the interim creation of ''Agent America''.

** Other Liefeld ersatzes include:

*** New Men -> [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]

** '''TA''' -- The Wasp

** '''Tin Man''' -- Iron Man

*** Later we would see more in the Squadron's own comic:

** '''Amphibian''' -- Aquaman

* The Kindle-based comic book series [[Limekiller At Large]] features a number of these. The Blue Pangolin (The Ted Kord version of Blue Beetle), The Alloy Angel (Iron Man), Commander Dynamic (Superman), The Knoir Knight and Chickadee the Boy Diversion(Batman and Robin), Quantum Phyllis (Dr. Manhattan), and the American Ranger (a mash-up of Captain America and the Lone Ranger).

* Much of the cast of ''[[Jack Staff]]'' is made up of Ersatz versions of either [[Marvel Comics]] heroes, or British pulp comic heroes. This is because the series was originally pitched as a Marvel series. Jack Staff himself is based on Captain Britain and Union Jack; Becky Burdock is partially based on Captain Britain's sister Betsy Braddock/Psylocke. The Hurricane is Captain Hurricane, Tom Tom the Robot Boy is Archie the Robot, and General Tubbs is General Jumbo.

 

== Film ==

* Officially, ''[[The Godfather]]'' isn’t about the Mafia at all. When the real Mafia began making complaints and threats, the filmmakers compromised, removing all references to "the Mafia" and "Cosa Nostra". So the film is actually about a fictitious crime organisation that just happens to be based around five fictitious Italian-American families – it’s usually referred to as "the Five Families" when mentioned on screen.

** Actually, some claim that the filmmakers pretended to compromise to avoid having to argue. In fact, the words "Mafia" and "Cosa Nostra" probably were not in the script to begin with. First of all, both titles refer to specific gangs, and no organized crime family that is not a member of either would use the terms. Secondly, if you *are* in the Mafia, do you really sit around talking about it with other people in it?

**** Averted in ''Part II'', where during the senator hearings, the words Mafia and Cosa Nostra are mentioned multiple times (here by an outsider).

* A series of ''El Látigo'' ("The Whip") films were produced in Mexico. El Latigo is a ''very'' close imitation of the famous ''gringo''-created hero of Old California, [[Zorro]].

** While BBV eventually did get licensing rights to various ''Doctor Who'' monsters, the Big Two remained exceptions. They never attempted fake-Daleks, but the Cyberons are, well, Cybermen.

** BBV eventually self-parodied this, with a video called "Do You Have A Licence To Save This Planet?" in which a swarm of ''Doctor Who'' monsters (and the Cyberons) are fought by Sylvester McCoy as ... the Chiropodist.

 

== Literature ==

* Al Ewing's contributions to the ''Pax Britannia'' [[Shared World]] (set in a [[Steampunk]] [[Dystopia]] 20th century) feature El Sombra, a masked swordsman named Djego, whose main difference from [[Zorro]] is that he's decidedly not a nobleman. ''Gods Of Manhattan'' is a [[Two-Fisted Tales]] pastiche which also includes Doc Thunder ([[Doc Savage]] with a dash of [[Gladiator (novel)|Hugo Danner]]), the Blood Spider ([[The Shadow]] with elements of [[The Spider]]), the Blue Ghost ([[The Spirit]]) and Jack Scorpio, Agent of S.T.E.A.M. ([[Nick Fury]]).

 

* The live-action TV series of ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' replaced Die Fledermaus and American Maid, who were in the animated cartoon but not the original comic book, with Bat Manuel and Captain Liberty.

* ''[[Charmed]]'' had a demon character named Kira who could see the future, [[Actor Allusion|played by]] [[Charisma Carpenter]]. Carpenter played Cordelia on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel]]'', who gained the ability to see when people were or would be in trouble.

* ''The Adventures of Aaron'' once ran a strip with "The Ghost of [[Calvin and Hobbes|Calvin]]". A couple footnotes make it clear: "Any similarities between Ghost of Calvin and ''Calvin and Hobbes'' is purely coincidental." See it [http://www.kerzap.com/calvin/aaron.tribute.html here].

* In the comic strip ''[[For Better or For Worse]]'', it originally seemed as if the artist had intended to pair Liz of with her next door neighbor, Christopher; when he and his family were dropped from the strip, Mrs Johnston altered his serial number and created [[Creator's Pet|Anthony Caine.]]

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

** Renegade wasn't even WCW's first Captain Ersatz for Warrior—that "honor" would go to The Black Scorpion, a masked [[Heel]] who menaced Sting with allusions to the history that they "shared" (that, in reality, he and Warrior shared). While Warrior was still a main-eventer in WWF, no less. After painting themselves into a corner by continually insinuating that the person behind the mask was somebody who couldn't ''possibly'' have really been there, they ended up [[Hand Wave|handwaving]] the whole thing away as [[Hijacked by Ganon|mind games on the part of RicFlair.]]

** Asya was a clone of the WWF's Chyna.

** WCW then Ersatzed J.R. himself as 'Oklahoma', in an incredibly tasteless [[Take That]] (including [[Dude, Not Funny|mocking Ross's Bell's Palsy]]).

** Gillberg! Arguably a combination of this trope and [[Affectionate Parody]].

** Wrestler Jay Lethal's Black Machismo gimmick was so named because, aside from being black, his appearance and mannerisms were virtually identical to those of the famous WWF wrestler [[Randy Savage|Randy "Macho Man" Savage]]. Of course, the gimmick was more of an homage/parody than a straight Captain Ersatz, and Lethal often took the gag a bit further by referring to other wrestlers by the name of some of Macho Man's contemporaries, rather than by their own names. He even had an appropriate hometown, Elizabeth, New Jersey.

** Stone Cold Shark Boy, though more a parody than a true Captain Ersatz.

 

== Radio ==

* BBV's ''Audio Adventures in Time & Space'', starring Sylvester McCoy as "The Professor" and Sophie Aldred as "Alice", Ersatzes of ''[[Doctor Who]]'''s Seventh Doctor and Ace (also played by McCoy and Aldred) actually attracted enough attention from the BBC that they had to hurriedly makes some characterization changes.

** Another line of BBV audios starred Nicholas Briggs (who had previously played the Doctor in non-commercial fanvids) as the Traveler.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* The card game ''Sentinels of the Multiverse'' features homages to several well-known comic book characters, like Legacy (Superman), the Wraith (a female Batman), Tempest (Aquaman with hints of the Martian Manhunter) and Ra (Thor).

 

 

== Video Games ==

** {{spoiler|Ran Ryuzaki/Shadow Thunder}} is a reference to [[Kamen Rider Black|Shadow Moon]] and [[Kikaider|Hakaider]], complete with important connection to main character.

 

* ''[[8-Bit Theater]]'' is home to the Sulk, Arachna-Dude, Alloyed-Guy, and the Mediocre Four.

* Done a number of times in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' when it decides to parody certain stories, such as ''[[Star Trek]]'', ''[[Star Wars]]'', and ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'' characters in "[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=970929 The Sci-Fi Adventure]" or ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' characters [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=020902 in the growing] [https://web.archive.org/web/20030922090613/http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=030915 number of] [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=050822 "Torg Potter"] [http://pics.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=080305 stories].

* ''[[Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger]]'' (itself a [[Spin-Off]] from ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'' IN SPACE!) has recently taken a rusty razor blade to the ''[[Star Trek]]'' franchise. Quentyn meets the crew [https://web.archive.org/web/20130312225649/http://www.rhjunior.com/QQSR/00016.html in this strip].

* The majority of the cast of ''[[Sonichu]]'' consists of ''Sonic'' [[Palette Swap|recolors]]. Firstly, Sonichu is an ersatz that the author made sometime in the 1990s when a teacher wouldn't allow him to use [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] or Pikachu in a class project due to copyright. There's also Simonla Rosechu, who was originally a (male) [[Fan Character]] created by a troll who's a fan of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', but Chris decided to [[Gender Flip|change his gender]] and turn him into a Rosechu before using her in the comic. Add in two characters based off Zelda (Zelina Rosechu, Clawdorf and Darkbind Sonichu), [[Sailor Moon|Sailor Megtune]] and various others. The only characters who seem to be completely original are Kel, a generic Pokémon trainer, and Count Graduon, the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of Chris's high school graduation.

* Mr. Raven from ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' seems a heck of a lot like [[Harry Potter (novel)|Snape]].

* ''[[Attack of the Super Wizards]]'' stars public domain characters, one of whom, Stardust, was created to be an ersatz [[Superman]]. The comic also includes ersatz versions of Krypto, Lois Lane, Batman, Wonder Woman, Cthulhu, Alan Moore, and others.

** Aldran is a magic user like Vaarsuvius and has the [[Deadpan Snarker]] personality of Vaarsuvius and Roy and an [[Evil Twin]] (or possibly Good Twin), just like Elan.

** Kerris and Lana are both pretty much Haley, except the first is a [[Horny Devils|Tiefling]] and the second is a vampire, and Kerris' species also makes her quite similar to the villain Nale's succubus girlfriend, Sabine.

* ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' gives us [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0253.html Larry Gardener].

** And Zzdtri is a spoof of Drizzt, and his status as an [[Overused Copycat Character]]. His first appearance has him dragged away by copyright lawyers, but he later returns having realized that parody is protected under Fair Use.

 

== Western Animation ==

* [[Woody Woodpecker]] is a rather obvious one of the early Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny prototypes. No surprise, since the Bugs Bunny prototypes and [[Woody Woodpecker]] were made by Ben Hardaway, who was a prominent writer in the [[Woody Woodpecker]] cartoons after he left Warner Bros. for Universal Cartoons.

** [[Mel Blanc]] himself voiced Woody for his first few appearances (and invented that famously annoying laugh) before being replaced because of his contract with Warner Brothers.

* ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' included Captain Ersatzes of rival shows and various movies, including [[Dracula]] (referred to by his real name, "Count Tepes"). There were only three things that were referred to by their real names: ''[[Star Wars]]'', ''[[Newhart]]'', and [[Cthulhu Mythos|Cthulhu]].

** The funny thing, Dracula is a [[Public Domain Character]], they didn't needed to "create" a Captain Ersatz.

* ''[[Kappa Mikey]]'', a parody of anime, contains tons of characters who are legal rip-offs of real anime characters, in the same vein as ''[[Drawn Together]]''. The character Gonard gets bonus points, since he is believed by fans to be an expy of [[Dragonball Z|Goku]], thanks in no small part to both of them sharing the [[Sean Schemmel|same English voice actor]]!

* Depending on who you ask, The Dread Baron and Mumbly are either these, or Expys. According to some accounts, Hanna-Barbera was in a legal conflict with Heatter-Quigley (who helped co-create ''[[Wacky Races]]'') over who owned the rights to the Dick Dastardly and Muttley characters, which led to the creation of the new characters for the show [[Laff-A-Lympics]]. Others point out that Mumbly actually pre-dated Muttley (though he originally was a ''good guy''.)

** In "My Two Bobs", there was also a Dragon Ball Z/Pokémon parody.

** Almost all of the games are a Shoutout to various other pieces of popular culture, so if a episode featured a game (which it usually did) you're bound to find a few Captains or so among the cast.

** Hoss Delgado, an Ersatz of [[Escape from New York|Snake Plissken]] and [[Evil Dead|Ash Williams]].

*** Not to mention a splash of [[Mad Max|Max Rockatansky]]

** There is also an entire Ersatz of the ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' universe. Harry Potter (a parseltongued wizard who can talk to snakes) is replaced by Nigel Planter (a partial-tongue "wizard" who can talk to snacks), Lord Voldemort is replaced by Lord Moldybutt (complete with the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named title), and Dean Toadblatts replacing Dumbledore in title and Snape in his attitude toward Nigel. It also featured Ersatzes of [[The Rival|Draco]] and [[The Spock|Hermione]].

* ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'''s animated series had a lot of these. Amongst the most prominent was Die Fledermaus (a [[Batman]] parody), American Maid (a female [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]]), and Big Shot ([[The Punisher]]).

* An episode of ''[[The Mask (animation)|The Mask]]'' dealt with Stanley Ipkiss/The Mask spending time with and causing mischief with his favorite cartoon characters The Goofalototots Stinko, Pinko, and Snot, who are obvious expys of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot from ''[[Animaniacs]]''.

** Also, Karai - who first appeared in a 1993 comic and later in the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 series)| 2003 series]] - may have been at least partially based on Lotus from the 1987 series episode "Lotus Blossom". The characters looked similar, and both had a crush on Leonardo, despite being on the villains' side. The fact that Karai was the [[Final Boss]] of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters]]'' (where character designs are based on the 1987 series) complicates this even more.

* ''[[Rick and Morty]]'' were this, originally. The two protagonists were in a short parody film of ''[[Back to The Future]]'' where they parodied Doc Brown and Marty McFly. However, they were quickly adapted to an original series.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]

[[Category:All the Tropes Superhero Team]]

[[Category:Follow the Leader]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

[[Category:This Index Is Copypasted]]

[[Category:Esoteric Trope Names]]