Celebrity Paradox: Difference between revisions

[[File:Stallone 1562.png|link=Last Action Hero|frame|[[The Nostalgia Critic|Yeah, you know, I'll be back, Hasta La Vista Baby... Eeeeeeeh.]]]]

 

 

 

So, in ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] doesn't exist and is not the governor of California. There's no Gubernator. Or, in the world of ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|Batman Begins]]'', the [[Batman]] comics never existed, and neither did [[Christian Bale]].

To what extent this is done is a subject for discussions amongst fans. Do the actors themselves not exist? Do other works the actors have appeared in exist? If they do, who starred in them? It's probably best not [[Bellisario's Maxim|to overthink]] these, but some impulsive connections are bound to occur. If taken far enough, such speculation can overlap with the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]]. (In fact the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] may be the best way out of the paradox: the Tenth Doctor doesn't ''actually'' look like David Tennant any more than Erin Brockovich really looks like Julia Roberts.)

 

 

Many a show or movie trying to be hyper-realistic does its best to distill this concept to an extent by refusing to cast a [[Celebrity Star]] because he or she is not obscure enough and would be too recognizable, as it strains [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]]. Of course, if the star ''becomes'' famous because of said work, the same issues could still pop up.

 

 

Certain [[Setting Update]]s can face a similar problem: they have to be set in a world where no one will recognize the name of [[Sherlock Holmes]], [[Superman]], or [[Macbeth]], but are otherwise culturally identical, or the tropes that they've since made popular, but is otherwise just like the real world. Again, it's best to just not think about it.

 

 

Playing with this is a form of [[Post Modernism]]. [[Actor Allusion]] can be a form of playing with this. Contrast [[Your Costume Needs Work]] and compare [[Recursive Canon]], see also [[Different World, Different Movies]].

 

Of course, in real life, there are plenty of people who closely resemble celebrities and go about their business without being mistaken for them. [[Truman Show Plot|Maybe we're all in a movie]]!

{{examples|Example paradoxes:}}

== Advertising ==

* The Nespresso ad campaign stars [[George Clooney]] [[As Himself]] and [[John Malkovich]] as God. The former never comments on the resemblance.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* A case in ''[[Detective Conan]]'' once revolved around the eponymous character and his friends meeting singer [[Minami Takayama]]. Minami happens to do the voice of Conan Edogawa, and their similar voices were pointed out by other characters. That story also appeared in the original manga.

** Not so weird, considering mangaka Gosho Aoyama was dating, and then was briefly married to, Minami.

** The series has had crossovers with [[Lupin III]]. Movie 11 establishes that Sato-san is a fan of Lupin III and is therefore upset when a criminal wears a Lupin III mask. Given that she is a police officer and would not be a fan of a real thief, this would only make sense if Lupin III is a fictional character.

* An episode of ''[[Akahori Gedou Hour Lovege]]'' has two of the Hokke sisters meeting their own voice actresses and then proceeding to argue about which one of them is better.

*** On Earth-1, they did reveal that there's "true crime" comics based on the adventures of Earth-1's Superman, Batman, etc. (based on newspaper accounts, etc.), alongside the fictional-to-them comics about the Earth-2 Flash, Green Lantern, etc.'s adventures.

** However, at least in the [[Marvel Universe]], there is [[Canon]] evidence from comics such as ''[[She Hulk]]'' and ''The [[Fantastic Four]]'' that the exploits of the (in-universe) real live heroes are actually recorded in comics and sold to the general public. These comics (in the ''She-Hulk'' comics) are then used as evidence by lawyers defending and prosecuting super heroes and super villains. And, at least once, to save the world when all the characters had forgotten some hugely important fact or [[MacGuffin]] which they found out about by reading the comics. One wonders, though, if the comics published in-universe are the same as the [[Real Life]] ones, and the references to comics are infinitely recursive. But then one's head starts hurting.

*** Marvel actually ''released'' a set of in-universe comics during a [[Fifth Week Event]] in 2000. These were titled "Marvel{{color|red|s}} Comics" and how similar they were to the "real" superheroes varied—the Fantastic Four licensed their comic officially and appeared in their real identities, but since nobody knows who Daredevil or Spider-Man are, the in-universe comic fabricated origins for them.

*** The infinitely recursive references problem would only apply if heroes continued licensing their adventures to comic companies all the way up to the modern era, which they don't seem to do.

** The story "Where the Action Is" details a comic publisher who publishes embellished exploits of "real life" heroes and villains, with increasingly dangerous results. First, the hero Crackerjack shows up to complain about lack of royalty payments (the publisher puts him off with fast talk and [[Hollywood Accounting]]); then, the heroine Nightingale threatens him for insinuating that she and her partner are lesbians. Finally the villain Glowworm corners the publisher at a convention and almost kills him for portraying him as a white supremacist (Glowworm has a radioactive sheen—underneath it, as he puts it, "[[You Know I'm Black, Right?|You know what color]] I ''used'' to be?"). After the last threat, he decides to start a line of "cosmic" (alien/otherworldly) heroes and villains, since they are too [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|above mortal concerns]] to register complaints. {{spoiler|The building gets vaporized one morning several months later.}}

* In his [[Donald Duck]] comic stories, [[Don Rosa]] prefers to think of [[Mickey Mouse]] and other non-Duck cartoon characters as the fictional characters within the fiction, and the Duck characters as the "real" people. This becomes weird when you take into account that Donald was also Mickey's co-star in animation.

* In a case of metafiction meets [[Real Life]], the Disney corporation sued Marvel Comics, stating that the Marvel character [[Howard the Duck (comics)|Howard the Duck]] bore too much of a resemblance to Donald Duck, and violated their trademark. Marvel then redesigned future artwork of Howard, changing his overall appearance. But most importantly, Howard would always be drawn ''wearing pants'', apparently because Donald now owned exclusive rights to all depictions of talking duck nudity! In the Marvel comic, Howard would often complain about being forced to wear pants, because he was personally sued by some undisclosed powerful corporation.

** Though with the Disney/Marvel merger, Howard can presumably go pantsless once again.

* Averted (or arguably lampshaded) in the original ''Worlds Collide'' crossover between the DCU and the [[Milestone Comics|Milestone Universe]]. The Milestone Universe has Superman comics, so when the Milestone heroes get cosmically shunted to the DCU, they know Superman's secret identity (and originally assume he's just some yutz dressed up like Superman). The more recent ''When Worlds Collide'' established that the two universes have since merged, presumably wiping out the Milestone heroes' inappropriate memories.

* Most screen adaptations of Superman's origin—at least those that don't try to incorporate the rest of the DCU as well—act on the assumption that the whole concept of a super-hero does not yet exist in this world, not even in fictional media.

* An issue of [[G.I. Joe]]: Special Missions has a child receiving a toy of the [[Transformers]] Jetfire. Strangely, Transformers and GI Joe shared the same continuity, and Jetfire even appeared in the GI Joe vs The Transformers miniseries.

 

* In ''[[Shinji and Warhammer40K]]'', one of the author's notes points out that it's odd there are still [[Emotionless Girl]] anime in a world without ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' to popularize the trope.

* A popular ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' [[High School AU]] called "Ordinary Story" has Zelda as a boarder in Link's adopted family's house in Florida. The story eventually proceeds {{spoiler|to ditch its AU status when Zelda finds the Ocarina of Time, she and Link start to unwillingly inherit the Triforce, and a man named Ganondorf shows up to take over Zelda's father's company}}. However, there are a few scenes in the story that make reference to Link and his friends playing the [[GameCube]], a console he himself appears on in this universe.

* A hidden bonus in one of the panels of the [[Fan Web Comic|fan comic]] ''[[Halo: A Fistful of Arrows]]'' reveals [[Bungie]] is still around in the 26th century. One wonders what their "killer app" from the Xbox was in this universe.

* In ''[http://norsekink.livejournal.com/3415.html?thread=8659543#t8659543 Kinkmeme made them do it]'', Loki and Darcy find out that they're both writing in a kinkmeme about [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] created by their in-universe fans. And it's awesome.

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[The Seven Year Itch]]'', when Richard Sherman is being questioned about who [[No Name Given|The Girl]] (played by [[Marilyn Monroe]]) is, he says, "Wouldn't you like to know! Maybe it's Marilyn Monroe!"

* Completely and utterly justified in ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' film. In the book, the main character was said to look exactly like Henry Fonda, so guess who played him in the film?

* In ''[[Armageddon]]'', ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'' exists in that universe as told in a small joke. Which is odd since they both have the actors [[Bruce Willis]] and [[Steve Buscemi]] in it.

* As illustrated atop the page, in the [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] flick ''[[Last Action Hero]]'', the real world contains the same actors and movies that we know in reality. In the [[Show Within a Show|Film Within A Film]] ''Jack Slater IV'', there is ''still'' a ''[[Terminator (franchise)|Terminator]]'' movie—but it stars [[Sylvester Stallone]].

** The character of Jonathan is repeatedly said to look a lot like [[Boris Karloff]], due to a recent piece of plastic surgery. In the original stage production, Karloff was, indeed, cast as Jonathan. In fact, the role was written for him.

* ''[[The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension]]'' averts this by treating the movie as a documentary of the real life of Buckaroo Banzai, who also has his life's stories printed in comic book form and uses his fan club as a spy network.

** The remade ''Ocean's Eleven'' flirted with this in one of the earliest scenes, when Danny and Rusty walk out of the club where they've been teaching celebrities to play poker. It's very odd to see Topher Grace and Joshua Jackson get mobbed by squealing fans, while [[George Clooney]] and [[Brad Pitt]] stroll by unnoticed.

* Similar to the Julia Roberts example above: as a running gag in ''[[The Cannonball Run]]'', eccentric competitor Seymour Goldfarb Jr. obsessively impersonates Roger Moore, both to attract women and to justify his use of 007-style gadgets to get an edge in the race. Goldfarb, naturally, is played by Roger Moore ... who sends up both his actual celebrity status ''and'' his past in-character behavior as [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]].

** [[Clint Eastwood]] was also in a short Italian movie in which he played a [[Lazy Husband]], while his frustrated wife attempted to get him to take her out to see ''[[A Fistful of Dollars]]''. Perhaps a legitimate artistic point?

* ''[[Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home|Star Trek IV the Voyage Home]]'' was played largely as a [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]] comedy in which the ''Enterprise'' crew goes back to [[The Present Day]] (1986). You have to wonder why they never meet anyone who has heard of ''Star Trek''.

*** However, ''Enterprise'' was also the name of several very successful and famous US Naval Vessels, so it's not ridiculous to think that a space vessel would get the same name.

*** In the Star Trek universe, the Federation flagship was named after one of the most famous historical space vehicles, the prototype space shuttle. Which makes just as much sense as the way it happened in the real world!

*** A few later ''Trek'' novels indicated that the Eugenics Wars ''was'' all the late twentieth-century conflicts. The real purpose of those wars was [[Plausible Deniability|not quite obvious]].

* In the 2009 film ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'', a very young [[Alternate Universe]] James Kirk listens to "Sabotage" by the [[Beastie Boys]]. In [[Real Life]], other Beastie Boys songs, written long before the film, make reference to the ''Star Trek'' universe; for example, "Intergalactic": ''Your knees'll start shaking and your fingers pop / Like a pinch on the neck from Mr. Spock.'' Presumably the "alternate Beastie Boys" lacked such inspiration.

** DeVito's characters in the movie and ''Taxi'' were visually and dramatically distinct enough that he arguably could have still appeared as himself/Louie. The mustache alone is all the license you need.

* All the remakes of ''[[Miracle on 34th Street|Miracle On Thirty Fourth Street]]'' (there are no less than four of them, five if you count the Broadway musical) are presumably set in a world where the 1947 classic doesn't exist.

* ''[[Adaptation]]'', starring [[Meryl Streep]] and [[Nicolas Cage]], is a cross of this and [[Post Modernism]]: Cage plays screenwriter [[Charlie Kaufman]] (the film's actual playwright), who is struggling to adapt Susan Orlean's book ''The Orchid Thief'' to film (a real book and author; Orlean is played by Streep). Kaufman even visits the set of the previous film he wrote, ''[[Being John Malkovich]]''.

** And then you realize that the screenplay being written by the film's Charlie Kaufman {{spoiler|is ''the screenplay for the actual film you are watching.''}}

* ''[[The Beastmaster|Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time]]'' shows what happens when you [[Averted Trope|avert]] this trope. The eponymous Beastmaster, Dar, winds up in 1990's America, and as the car he's in is driving down a street, he sees a movie theater showing that they're playing ''Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time.'' Dar looks as confused as the audience is. It's ''bizarre.''

* A rather funny nod is made at the beginning of ''[[About a Boy]]'', when its young protagonist Marcus wishes in voiceover that he was “as rich as Haley Joel Osment from ''[[The Sixth Sense]]''” so that he could afford a private tutor and avoid having to go to school where he’s being bullied. Marcus’ mother Fiona in ''About A Boy'' is played by Toni Collette…who also played Haley Joel’s mother three years earlier in ''The Sixth Sense''.

* The character of [[Black and Nerdy|Ronald Wilkes]] in ''[[Cedar Rapids]]'' notes his fanship of "[[Insistent Terminology|the HBO program]], ''[[The Wire]]''." Wilkes' actor, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., played State Senator [[Sleazy Politician|Clay Davis]] on that show.

* An interesting version arises when you note that ''[[The Breakfast Club]]'' and ''[[Sixteen Candles]]'' take place in [[The Verse|the same universe]]—indeed, the same ''school''—and both prominently star [[Molly Ringwald]] as two completely different characters. One wonders how two girls who look exactly the same could run in completely different social circles and never be mistaken for each other.

* In ''[[A Goofy Movie]]'', Max and Goofy play Twenty Questions (well, more like Goofy was playing and Max was ignoring him, but nevermind), and it's revealed that Goofy was thinking of [[Walt Disney]]. So if Mr. Disney existed in this universe, then did he make any [[Goofy]] cartoons?

* [[Being John Malkovich]] plays with this trope a bit. While characters recognize Malkovich (who is playing himself) they can't seem to correctly identify what movies he was in.

 

== Literature ==

** The ''[[Thursday Next]]'' books take this much, much farther than any sane person could go. There are many "meta" levels—for example, there's the real world, the "real world" of the ''[[Thursday Next]]'' novel, fiction that exists in the ''[[Thursday Next]]'' world (which is largely unchanged from ours), how the fictional characters act ''outside'' their novels, etc...

** It gets even ''more'' confusing because the ''[[Thursday Next]]'' novels as shown in the fifth ''[[Thursday Next]]'' book are actually nothing like the real-world novels; the rights were sold and the plot and characterization was thrown out the window. {{spoiler|At the very end of the fifth book, apparently one of the fictionalized Thursdays begins "rewriting" the fictional ''[[Thursday Next]]'' books and it looks like they'll end up identical to the real-world versions. Confused yet?}}

* Arguably, this can occur in literature when characters are based around real people. For example, in [[Anthony Trollope]]'s ''Palliser'' series, there are characters clearly based on real people like Gladstone and Disraeli, but on at least one occasion, the real people were referenced. Another example, is the problem of how to deal with Arthur Conan Doyle in a universe where [[Sherlock Holmes]] is a real person. A common idea is making him a [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|literary agent]], but if that was true, he likely wouldn't be as wealthy and famous in that universe as in reality.

** Another idea is to have one of his other lesser known characters have become incredibly popular.

** It's actually implied in ''[[The Tales of Beedle the Bard]]'' that Rowling is essentially a historian who wrote seven volumes on the life of the famous wizarding hero, Harry Potter.

* In one ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' book (''The Waste Lands'') Eddie Dean compares a haunted house the characters escaped to the one in Kubrick's ''[[The Shining]]''.

** And in a story from [[Atomic Robo]], Lovecraft himself is the vessel through which Cthulhu begins to come into our world.

* In ''3001: The Final Odyssey'', Poole recalls an old sci-fi author who said "[[Clarke's Third Law|Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic]]."

** For years before the [[X-Men (film)|X-Men]] movies were made, it had become [[Memetic Mutation]] among fans that [[Patrick Stewart]] would be the perfect actor to play Professor Xavier.

* The ''Virgil Tibbs'' series by John Ball (which began with ''In the Heat of the Night'') used a variant of the literary agent hypothesis. In ''The Great Detectives'', edited by Otto Penzler, in which various creators of detective series contributed short articles on their creations (e.g. Chester Gould on Dick Tracy, Walter Gibson on the Shadow, etc.), John Ball took the literary agent hypothesis for his article on Virgil Tibbs. He writes "Ms. Diane Stone, secretary to Chief Robert McGowan of the Pasadena Police Department, was on the phone. "The chief has approved the release to you of the details concerning the Morales murder" she told me. He has authorized you to go ahead with it at any time, if you want to." Of course I wanted to: the unraveling of the case via the patient, intelligent investigation work of the department in general, and Virgil Tibbs in particular, would need no embellishment in the telling. As I always do in such instances, I called Virgil and suggested a meeting. Two nights later we sat down to dine together in one of Pasadena's very fine restaurants........By the time that the main course had been put down in front of us we had gone over the Morales case in detail and Virgil had filled me in on several points which had not previously been made public. As always, I agreed to publish nothing until the department had read the manuscript and had given it an official approval. This procedure helped to eliminate possible errors and also made sure that I had not unintentionally included information which was still confidential." Later Tibbs says "I have a letter from Otto Penzler" I said. Virgil nodded recognition. "The co-author with Steinbrunner of The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection? I have a copy." "Otto has asked me for a piece about your background. How much may I tell him?" I should insert a footnote here. Virgil Tibbs is basically a quiet, self-effacing man....He has mentioned to me more than once that my accounts of some of his cases have proved somewhat embarrassing to him. However, Chief McGowan feels that these books help explain the police function to the citizenry at large and to show how modern, enlightened police departments function."

== Live Action TV ==

* One episode of ''[[The A-Team]]'' introduced [[Hulk Hogan]] playing himself as an old friend of B.A. Baracus. No mention was made as to Hogan's [[Mr. T|tag-team partner]] from [[Wrestlemania]] 1.

* ''[[The Catherine Tate Show]]'' did a sketch for [[Comic Relief]] which featured [[David Tennant]] as Lauren Cooper's teacher. She frequently jokes throughout the sketch about how much he resembles [[Doctor Who|the Doctor]] ("Your house...is it [[Bigger on the Inside]]?" "D'you fancy [[Billie Piper]], sir?"). At the end, he zaps her with the Tissue Compression Eliminator, turning her into a Rose Tyler action figure.

** And adding onto the confusion, Catherine had already played Donna Noble, the Doctor's companion in the 2006 Christmas special, who came back fulltime for the 2008 series. Apparently Lauren Cooper missed ''The Runaway Bride'' and {{spoiler|was killed off}} before she could watch series 4 and notice the woman who looks just like her traveling through space with a Time Lord who looks just like her English teacher.

** The [[Stargate Verse]] has yet another circular dependency: with ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. Dr. Lee is a fan of the game (and curiously claimed to have a level 75 character, which was impossible at the time the episode supposedly took place)... while the Champions' Hall in ''WoW'' contains NPCs named after ''SG-1'' characters.

** In another interesting case, Carter tells O'Neill that they can't call the first X-303-class spaceship "Enterprise" in homage to ''[[Star Trek]]''. Given that NASA has ''already named a spaceship after the fictional Enterprise'', were this not a television show—whose creators would certainly be sued by Paramount for their insolence—there would be absolutely no reason not to name the ship Enterprise. Realistically speaking, it would in fact be a virtual ''certainty''.

** Speaking of ''Star Trek'', the penultimate episode of ''[[Stargate Atlantis|Atlantis]]'' has Richard Woolsey mention that [[Star Trek]]: The Experience in Las Vegas had closed. One wonders if ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'' got made in the Stargate verse, and if so, whether anyone's ever told Richard Woolsey that he looks just like the Doctor, who appeared in said ride.

* In the remake of ''[[Fantasy Island]]'', Dean Cain plays a lawyer suspected of murder. The travel agent is called to the witness box and describes the lawyer as resembling 'the guy that played [[Lois and Clark|Superman on TV]]'.

*** Batman was also a very popular character inspired by the above listed characters made by DC before they even owned Superman so it could be that Batman is the inspiration for most modern super heroes and Bruce Wayne has never appeared in ''Smallville''.

**** Actually, prior to [[Batman (TV series)|the Adam West show in the 1960's]], Bruce Wayne did not stand as especially well-known.

*** Odder still, in the Marvel continuity both Marvel Comics ''and'' DC Comics exist. You have to wonder what superheroes they manage to write about without Tony Stark suing the pants off of them.

*** The old 50's B-movies may have still managed to exist in-universe, along with older Golden Age titles; these would provide a basis for the super-powered mutant meme.

** Kaito Nakamura could well also be a fan- his car's number plate reads ''NCC-1701''.

** Hiro must wonder occasionally about Sylar's uncanny resemblance to the new Spock...

** This becomes even ''more'' confusing when you think about how many other actors were in both shows.

** Be glad that the guy who played Josh wasn't in that episode.

** In one episode, Liz and Tracy argue about Wayne Brady. A few episodes later, Wayne Brady appeared on the show as a character.

** In an early episode, Jack mentions watching ''[[Friends]]'' and asks about Ross and Rachel. Both David Schwimmer ("Ross") and [[Jennifer Aniston]] ("Rachel") later guest starred. And in an episode after Aniston's appearance, Jenna mentioned her (the actress, not the character).

** Not to mention the fact that Alec Baldwin once guest starred in an episode of ''[[Friends]]'' as an almost fourth wall breaking character. Constantly commenting on the characters almost as if he watched them on TV...

** [http://www.myspace.com/lizlemonfans This] MySpace page someone created for Liz Lemon lists Tina Fey as one of Liz's heroes.

** Then there was the episode with [[Adam Westing|George Takei...]]

*** In that same episode, Mary sees someone [[Cosplay]] as one of the [[Coneheads]] at a [[Science Fiction|SciFi]] [[Fan Convention|convention]] and gets big smile on her face.

* In a ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch from the 2008 U.S. election with [[Tina Fey]] playing [[Sarah Palin]], [[Hillary Rodham Clinton]] mocks her "Tina Fey glasses."

** Proving that Tina Fey exists in the same universe as Sarah Palin.

** Similarly, Jack says, "Me digs Taye Diggs," in one episode. When Grace later [[Citizenship Marriage|married]] Will's boyfriend James, Jack never noted the resemblance.

** On the other hand, when he meets Cher, he initially assumes she's a drag queen dressed as Cher.

* ''[[Monk]]'': In the season one finale, Tim Daly makes an appearance as himself. Sharona mentions that he was in the show ''[[Wings (TV series)|Wings]]''. So who plays Antonio in ''Monk'' land? If it's [[Tony Shalhoub]], Monk must be pretty sick of people telling him how much he looks like Antonio.

** This same logic could be assumed. If [[Silence of the Lambs]] exists in ''Monk'' land, I wonder how often people tell Captain Stottlemeyer that he sounds and looks like Buffalo Bill.

* ''[[Flight of the Conchords]]'' is set in a world where ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' movies were made and filmed in New Zealand, but nobody mentions the fact that Brett McKenzie looks alarmingly like [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF57D0_VV_k one of the elves].

** Although Bret wasn't in the film for very long, and given the nature of the Conchords characters, it's entirely possible that no-one thinks it worthy of comment.

** An inverted example is John McEnroe playing himself and Jimmy Nelson, who is a McEnroe look-alike.

* Apparently, the American version of ''[[Life On Mars]]'' is {{spoiler|an astronaut going to Mars, thinking of the song "Life on Mars," picturing himself in an American version of ''[[Life On Mars]]''}}. [[Or Was It a Dream?]]? (Yeah.)

* An inversion exists in ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. In the continuity of the show, a series of ''novels'' exists starring the Winchester brothers (the author is a confused {{spoiler|prophet}}). [[Fandom Nod|And yes, there is internet slashfic.]]

** Sam and Dean are taking a movie studio tour at the beginning of season 2's "Hollywood Babylon." When the tour guide mentions that the next stop is the set for ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'', Sam looks uncomfortable and hops off the tram. No one on the tour seems to notice that the guy who just jumped off looks ''exactly'' like Rory Gilmore's first- and second-season boyfriend, Dean Forester (who was also played by Jared Padalecki).

** An even more odd inversion occurs in season six, in an episode where the Winchesters are cast into a parallel universe where the actors who play them do exist, but Supernatural is a TV show and the Winchesters are fictional characters. [[Hilarity Ensues]], at least until {{spoiler|a [[Light Is Not Good|douchebag]] [[Our Angels Are Different|angel]] follows them and proceeds to start killing the cast and crew.}}

*** To further add to the confusion, during the initial airing of this episode, Misha Collins tweeted the exact same things that he tweets in the episode, at the exact same time.

*** On the other hand, anyone watching TV in ''[[Eastenders]]'' always seems to be watching a comedy, a documentary, a movie... anything ''but'' a soap opera.

**** Except in one instance where long-standing character Dot Cotton announced that she never misses rival soap opera [[Coronation Street]]. This was a friendly nod to the fact that Coronation Street was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary.

** The show also had a reference to Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, yet it has a fictional president in the same episode. So the 2008 election was exactly the same but with some random white guy winning instead of Obama?

* Played with in ''[[Sonny With a Chance]]'' where Sonny ([[Demi Lovato]]) meets Selena Gomez, as Selena Gomez, who apparently no longer has a BFF named Demi Lovato, or if she does probably would have mentioned "Hey, my BFF looks so exactly like you it's uncanny." At the end, they tease the idea that Sonny would become Selena's new BFF. It was a very strange episode.

* ''[[Leverage]]'' is full to brimming with ''[[Star Trek]]'', up to and including guest stars: [[Star Trek: Voyager|Jeri Ryan]], [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Brent Spiner]], [[Wil Wheaton]], and [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Armin Shimerman]] have all shown up. Wheaton's character even has the in-universe nickname of The Kobayashi Maru! But hardcore fanboy and Trekkie [[The Smart Guy|Hardison]] [[Irony|notices nothing]].

** In one episode, Tony remarks that he has "a better chance of hooking up with [[Jessica Alba]]" than some criminals have infiltrating someplace. One wonders if Tony is aware of an actor that looks just like him named Michael Weatherly, who was once engaged to Ms. Alba (and was her co-star on ''[[Dark Angel]]'').

** Tony's movie references cause all kinds of Celebrity Paradoxes after the fact. He directly referenced ''[[True Lies]]'' in the season 7 opener, yet [[Jamie Lee Curtis]] has a recurring role as Samantha Ryan starting in season 9.

* Several examples in the ''[[Law and Order]]'' franchise:

** Bobby Flay cameoed in an episode of ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' as a TV chef who's enough like real Bobby Flay that if he wasn't playing himself he might as well have been. He had cheated on his wife—only since Flay is married to Stephanie March (Alex Cabot on SVU) in [[Real Life]], on the show he had no wife to cheat on.

* Larry Miller appeared as himself on ''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'' in 2003. Detective Briscoe never mentioned Miller's resemblance to comedy club owner Michael Dobson, whom Briscoe arrested for murder twice.

* ''[[Chuck]]'' features a very prominent ''[[Tron]]'' poster in the main character's bedroom. It also features Bruce Boxleitner as "Woody" Woodcomb, father of one of the main cast. The poster is the real thing, with Boxleitner listed as the star, but nobody ever brings it up.

** In one episode, Sarah and Chuck are watching Spies Like Us and Chuck specifically mentions [[Dan Aykroyd]] and Chevy Chase, he failed to notice that Chevy Chase looks a lot like season two villain, Ted Roark.

** Chuck mentions ''[[Die Hard]]'' in a season four episode, though a season two episode had previously featured Reginald [[Vel Johnson]] as Sgt. Al Powell. Not a similar character. Sgt. Al Powell.

** Now, if only Rush had called the killer "Asshole"...

** A bit of ''[[The Breakfast Club]]'' confusion. Some kids watch the movie in an early season two episode and a character mentions it by name in season three, yet Paul Gleason appeared as a character in another season three episode.

*** Bialik has since become a series regular, playing Sheldon's [[She Is Not My Girlfriend|friend who is a girl]].

* ''[[Thirtysomething]]'', in its final season, featured a copy of John Updike's ''Rabbit at Rest'' as stage dressing. Guess what show the characters in ''Rabbit at Rest'' watch frequently.

* Most of the cast members of ''[[Growing Pains (TV)|Growing Pains]]'' haven't had much of a career afterwards. Alan Thicke's career consists mostly of playing himself, and Kirk Cameron has gone on to Christian Fundie work. [[Leonardo DiCaprio]], however, has fared much better, which may be why he wasn't in the [[Reunion Show|reunion movie]]. In the movie, the characters make reference to the missing Leonardo.

* In the second season finale of Raising Hope, the characters watch a fictional news show called Inside Probe, detailing the circumstances surrounding Jimmy meeting, impregnating, marrying, and turning in Hope's serial killer mother. During one of the commercial breaks, an ad for the real TV show My Name is Earl is shown. My Name is Earl and Raising Hope were both created by Greg Garcia, and several characters from Earl appear as recurring characters or guest stars on Raising Hope.

* A [[Deleted Scene]] from [[The Thick of It]] reveals Peter Mannion MP's wife's dowdy appearance has been mocked on [[Have I Got News for You]]. A number of actors from [[The Thick of It]] have appeared in episodes of [[Have I Got News for You]], including Rebecca Front (Nicola Murray MP) Chris Addison (Olly Reader) and Miles Jupp (John Duggan). Presumably those episodes in [[The Verse]] feature a different array of comedians cracking jokes about the politicians of [[The Thick of It]].

 

== Magazines ==

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* A [[TNA]] skit involved [[Kevin Nash]] figuring out new nicknames for Jay Lethal. He pitched names like "Vinnie Vegas" and "Oz" which were gimmicks Nash played in [[WCW]] at the start of his career. He openly acknowledged this while trying to figure out a gimmick for Sonjay Dutt. ("I wrestled two matches in that one year and earned six figures!")

* Also, Tiger Woods is apparently an ''[[Literal-Minded|actual tiger]]''.

* [[Adam Sandler]] appeared in the audience at ''WrestleMania 21'' to see [[The Big Show]] wrestle. [[The Waterboy|I wonder if Sandler asked him for a job again afterward....]]

** A radio DJ in ''Vice City Stories'' explicitly mentions New York at one point.

** Lampshaded in a [[Something Awful]] Forum ''[[Let's Play]]'' of ''San Andreas'', when the narrator and his friend note [[Snoop Dogg]]'s rapping about "Compton" is obviously a disguised version of the game's "Ganton." And there's a [[Moral Guardians|Jack Thompson]] [[Expy]] who thinks that rap music encourages people to violence.

* ''[[Rainbow Six]]: Vegas'' had a few ''[[Splinter Cell]]'' arcade machines in it. However, Third Echelon is mentioned as having gathered intelligence for one mission, so ''Splinter Cell'' is probably canon within the R6 universe.

** Maybe Third Echelon or someone else had the games commissioned in that universe so that any reports of the real Third Echelon would be dismissed as made by game obsessed nuts?

* In ''[[Saints Row 2]]'', it is mentioned that the character Benjamin King from the first game has written an autobiography, which will be made into a movie where King will be played by his real-life voice actor.

 

 

****** [http://www.mezzacotta.net/postcard/?comic=121 Postcard] (from ''[[Mezzacotta|Comments on a Postcard]]'')

*** Of course the [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/sandalsandspartans/0050.html 300], [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/avatars/0050.html Avatar] and [http://darthsanddroids.net/heists/0050.html Inception] ones, being based on recent movies, are more forced/less accurate than the previous ones (''Avatar's'' nonexistence led to ''[[Titanic]]'' not existing?).

* [http://dizzy.pestermom.com/?p=thcomic59 This page] of the fancomic ''[[Touhou Nekokayou]]'' describes a world without ''[[Touhou]]'' like ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' did. The author often silently adds more examples to the list ...

* David Willis makes occasional appearances in [[Shortpacked]] and has an ongoing rivalry with Ethan regarding the Transformers Wiki. He even rented out the store to propose to his girlfriend.

* In the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Passion of the Jew," Stan and Kenny want to get their money back from [[Mel Gibson]] just as they did from ''[[Baseketball]]'', starring [[Self-Deprecation|Matt Stone and Trey Parker]].

* The ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' episode "Buster And Babs Go Hawaiian" had a brief visual gag involving [[Robin Williams]] as [[Peter Pan]] in ''[[Hook]]''. The very next episode ("Henny Youngman Day") featured Robin's [[Funny Animal]] [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|counterpart]], Robin Killems. Not that big a paradox, though, considering [[Rule of Funny|the nature of the show]].

* An ''[[Animaniacs]]'' spoof of ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' cast the Tasmanian Devil as Beast. In a gag similar to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scene in ''[[Airplane!]]'', the Warners recognize him and ask him to do "that thing he does," besides Beast vehemently insisting that "me not Taz."

* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'':

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters and Casting]]

[[Category:Metafiction Demanded This Index]]

[[Category:Consistency]]

[[Category:Omnipresent Tropes]]