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.]]]]

Note that, in [[Animated Series]] and [[Anime]], the [[Celebrity Paradox]] wouldn't be as big of an issue. After all, in this type of medium, the characters wouldn't necessarily resemble the actors who do the voices of them. Additionally, the paradox may be avoided if the work is a [[Period Piece]] set before the actors were famous. So, for example, no one in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' can wonder why Indy looks exactly like [[Harrison Ford]] because the film is set before Harrison Ford was even born. Perhaps, the paradox may also be avoided in works that take place in [[The Future|the far future]] -- when the actors are likely to be forgotten. And it's avoided completely in [[Constructed World]] fiction, of course.

Certain [[Setting Update|Setting Updates]] 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.

The answer usually gone with is the simplest one -- things went the same way, but in place of the actor or show that could not exist, it was a ''very similar'' actor or show. This actually appears in ''[[Last Action Hero]]'', as the image above shows. Jeri Ryan probably moved to Hollywood because she got cast in ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Pegasus: The Geminon Years]]''. Nobody in ''[[Fringe]]'' notices that William Bell looks just like Mr. Spock because, in their universe(s), Spock was played by [[Christopher Lee]]. And so on.

*** Aya also appears in the first strip of volume 5 of the manga -- eating a [[Trademark Favorite Food|choco-cornet]], from the pointy end, no less -- and is noticed by Konata (and Hiyori, who calls her "that girl from ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'')".

** In the first episode of the second season, Yuuto and Haruka (who's voiced by Mamiko Noto), go to see the voice actress of a [[Show Within a Show]]. The character she voices heavily resembles Haruka and is also voiced by Noto -- in the show's universe. Essentially resulting in Haruka going to meet her own voice actress.

* Like everything else they do, comic books (particularly those from [[Marvel Comics]] and [[DC Comics]]) tend to be pretty up and down when it comes to this. One storyline will explicitly state that the other version of heroes are simply limited to fictional comics, another will confirm that they all coexist with the same world, and in another, [[Alternate Universe|Alternate Universes]] come into play. All in all, [[Bellisario's Maxim|most writers try not to stress over this too much]], as more often than not, the main objective is to either have [[Let's You and Him Fight|two heroes duke it out in a prize fight]] or simply deliver some cheap shot.

*** 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.

* ''Superman'' # 411 established that the Julius Schwartz of Earth-1 went bankrupt after he unveiled Ultra-Man, Madame Miracle, Night Wizard, and Jet Jordan only to see the emergence of the Earth-1 Superman (as Superboy), the Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash (whether they meant the publication of Jay Garrick's adventures on Earth-1 or the emergence of Barry Allen remains unclear -- also, other stories established that the Shadow actually existed as part of Earth-1's past, so Night Wizard would have already seemed a tad redundant). Possibly, Madame Miracle explains how Wonder Woman seemingly appeared on the copy of ''All-Star Comics'' # 37 that Barry Allen had in ''Flash'' # 137; otherwise people on Earth-1 would have felt astonished when the Earth-1 Wonder Woman left Paradise Island to enter Man's World. (On a related note, no word ever appeared on what the people of Midway City, Michigan felt when someone dressed in a virtually identical costume to Hawkman emerged, and a museum curator named Carter Hall moved into town.) While the Earth-1 Julius Schwartz seemingly appeared as a gainfully employed staff member of the Earth-1 DC Comics in the ''Titans Crisis'' crossover, the ''Teen Titans Index'' # 5 notes that this represented a different bald, glasses wearing-staff member.

** Subverted in ''[[Superman: Secret Identity]]'', where there are no superheroes, but ''Superman'' comics do exist -- they're, in fact, the reason Mr. and Mrs. Kent decided to name their perfectly human boy Clark. Then, after being constantly bullied about his nonexistent superpowers, he actually gets them, and the rest of the plot explores the differences between comics and "reality."

* While maybe not textbook, ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' played with this a little bit. [[DC Comics]], the company that published the book, did once exist, but they stopped publishing after ''real'' superheroes emerged. To fill the publication vacuum, comics starring pirates became popular--hence, nobody notices the similarities between characters like Nite Owl and [[Batman]] or Rorschach and [[The Question]].

** 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.}}

* 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.

* 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]].

* There's a memorable [[Lampshade Hanging]] of this trope in the otherwise forgettable film ''Stakeout'': To pass the time while on stakeout, Emilio Estevez and Richard Dreyfuss's characters are playing a guessing game where they cite memorable lines of dialogue and quiz the other as to what movie it's from. Emilio Estevez's character, in a [[Large Ham|hammish]] way, recounts the line: "''This'' was not a ''boating accident!''" Dreyfuss, after a moment's pause, replies "I don't know." The line is from ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'', spoken by Matt Hooper -- a character played ''by'' Richard Dreyfuss.

* In ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]]'', Huey Lewis makes a cameo appearance as an audition judge -- and Marty has a Huey Lewis and The News poster on his bedroom wall. The Cafe '80s scene in ''Part II'' shows brief clips of ''[[Family Ties]]'' and ''[[Taxi]]'' -- featuring [[Michael J. Fox]] and [[Christopher Lloyd]], respectively. However, whether the actors were featured in the shows of the universe is subject to debate.

** Also, Marty hears the Huey Lewis song "Back in Time" on his clock radio. Though he only hears the chorus, the rest of the song's lyrics make references to Doc, Marty, 88 mph, and time travel.

* The novel ''[[Bridget Jones]]' Diary'' is based in part on the plot of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' -- the love interest is named Mark Darcy, and the title character is obsessed with [[Colin Firth]]'s portrayal of the original Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. In the film, ''Pride & Prejudice'' isn't mentioned, but Mark Darcy is played by... Colin Firth.

* In ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]]'', Aunt May tells Peter "You're not [[Superman]], you know!", and Peter half-jokingly yells out "[[Shazam]]!" and [[Superman|"Up, up, and away!"]] when he's trying to figure out [[How Do I Shot Web?|how to fire his web]]. This seems to imply that [[DC Comics]] exists in the movie's universe--which makes you wonder who their chief rival is, since there's no [[Marvel Comics]].

* The 2006 film of ''[[Casino Royale]]'' faithfully reproduces a scene from the original novel where [[James Bond]] orders a very specific kind of martini -- three parts Gordon's gin, one part vodka, 1/2 part Lillet. In the real world, this drink, called a "Vesper" after Bond's love interest in the novel, has become well-known enough to have an entry on [[Wikipedia|That Other Wiki]], and a bartender presumably wouldn't need to be instructed on how to make one -- of course, in the movieverse, the James Bond novels don't exist and so presumably nobody has ever heard of a Vesper martini.

* In ''[[Gremlins]] 2'' this was done several times -- the Gremlins attack movie critic Leonard Maltin, who is giving a negative review of the first movie. In a later scene, the Gremlins appear to take over the cinema's movie projector room, using it to make shadow puppets and then show old black-and-white "[[Naked People Are Funny|naturist]]" movies. They are only stopped when an usher gets [[Hulk Hogan]], who is in the audience at the time, to threaten to introduce the Gremlins to "The Hulkster." In the video release, the gremlins instead wander into a [[John Wayne]] movie, but then he shoots them all.

* A particularly complex example is in ''[[Man on the Moon]]'', a [[Biopic]] of [[Andy Kaufman]]. Danny DeVito plays Kaufman's agent George Shapiro. DeVito was also a producer of the film, and explained in a making-of short that he had wanted to play Shapiro from the beginning -- not realizing that this paradox would be created because he had played Louie DePalma on ''[[Taxi]]'', which was Kaufman's biggest mainstream success and thus had to be brought up in the film. The solution was to write out Louie (and thus the real DeVito) from the ''Taxi''-related scenes (though, in an early script draft, there was going to be an aside referencing the character and thus the paradox as an in-joke). At least one critic admitted [[Fridge Logic|he hadn't noticed Louie's absence until later]], perhaps in part because most of the other ''Taxi'' cast members appeared as themselves.

* In the 2007 ''[[St Trinian's]]'', Colin Firth plays the Minister for Education -- which means that we get jokes about a dog named "Mr. Darcy" and a reference to ''[[Girl with a Pearl Earring]]''.

* In ''[[How to Marry a Millionaire]]'', main character Schatze Page, played by [[Lauren Bacall]], tries to reassure her older beau, played by William Powell, that young women happily marry older men all the time: "Look at Roosevelt, look at Churchill, look at old fella what's his name in ''The African Queen''." Which raises the question -- what younger woman is the "old fella in ''The African Queen''" married to if it isn't Lauren Bacall?

* 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.

* Averted and played with extensively in the ''[[Thursday Next]]'' series -- almost inevitable, since the series is about the BookWorld and the title character can travel in and out of works of literature. In the most recent installment, Thurs is forced to work with two alternate versions of herself from "fictionalized" ''book'' versions of her adventures.

** 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...

* In the sequel to the novel ''[[Forrest Gump]],'' titled ''Gump and Co.'', Forrest is inserted into events from the 80s and 90s. As such, he gets to meet famous people from that time. One such celebrity whom Forrest gets to meet is Tom Hanks, the actor who played him in the film. In fact, the movie is mentioned several times throughout the book -- the first book exists in that world as Forrest's autobiography, and he's rather upset throughout the second that the film got almost everything wrong. "Don't ever let anybody make a movie out of your life" are practically [[Arc Words]].

** ''[http://www.tthfanfic.org/story.php?no=394 The Eighth Weasley]'' -- a [[Harry Potter]] crossover [[Fanfic]] set after Voldemort's defeat -- explicitly states that the Harry Potter books exist alongside the Wizarding World (to the consternation of the latter), and subtly hints that "JK Rowling" is merely a pen name behind which is hiding Hermione.

** Considering the fact that Stephen King himself appears in later books in the series, and is basically told by the main characters that he has to write their story, it seems a safe bet that Celebrity Paradox isn't strictly at work here. In their universe (which is also our universe, but also not -- the whole thing is crazy metaphysical and twisted), Stephen King exists, and has written every single book we know him to have written -- and the fact that nearly everything he's written relates back to the very real world of the Dark Tower in some way is caused by the fact that it was his destiny to write about those very real events, even if everyone (including him) thought he was writing fiction.

** Caidin also wrote a book, ''[[Mobile Suit Human|Man-Fac]]'', which includes the main character talking about ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' and specifically explaining why it'd be impossible for Steve Austin to run at sixty miles per hour.<ref> Wind resistance against his torso would cause his legs, assuming they '''could''' reach such a speed, to run right out from under his upper body.</ref>

** 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''.

*** Partly justified, since superhero ''comics'' do exist in the ''[[Smallville]]'' universe, since Lex was shown to have been a fan of one such comic (featuring a bald protagonist) growing up, called ''Warrior Angel'' -- ironically a very historically-accurate [[Dork Age|'90s style]] archetype. This leads one to wonder who was the first superhero character to be published in the ''Smallville'' universe, since it obviously wasn't Superman...

** And the season 2 premiere (I believe? Anyway, it happened) showed Jules watching TV--it was ''Scrubs''. That makes Ted Buckland's existence (as well as other shared actors, such as her best friend and creepy neighbor) a little mind-bending.

* The [[Nick Verse]], which includes shows like ''[[iCarly]]'', ''[[Zoey 101]]'', ''[[Drake and Josh]]'', and ''[[Victorious]]'' are all part of the same universe, but [[Celebrity Paradox]] is averted because all the actors still exist. All the copies just get assumed to be different people.

* The title character in ''[[Suddenly Susan]]'' finds herself unable to remember Andre Agassi's first wife -- because it was Brooke Shields herself.

* A complete aversion occurs in the unaired pilot ''Heat Vision and Jack'' -- character actor Ron Silver plays character actor''/assassin'' Ron Silver.

*** In the season 5 episode "Fallen Idols" a shape-shifting god takes the form of Paris Hilton. As Dean rants at the shifter about how shallow idolising Hilton is -- to which Hilton's character seems to agree -- he says he has never seen the recent remake of the horror film ''[[House of Wax]]''. At this news Sam looks startled, and a bit disappointed, as both Jared Padalecki (who plays Sam) and Paris Hilton were in ''House of Wax''.

** Straight example in ''Back in the Red''. The ''Alien'' series is alluded to in a game of charades early in the story. A few minutes later, Mac McDonald -- Commander Simpson in ''Aliens'' -- is reintroduced as Captain Hollister.

* The [[Pilot]] for ''[[Flash Forward 2009]]'' shows a billboard for Oceanic Airlines -- but later on shows a bus ad for ''[[Lost]]'''s final season, implying that ''Lost'' is a show in the ''Flash Forward'' universe. [[Fridge Logic|Who plays Penny and Charlie in]] ''[[Flash Forward 2009]]'''s [[Fridge Logic|version of]] ''[[Lost]]''?

* Played with a bit in ''[[Bones]]''. In real life, Kathy Reichs is a forensic anthropologist, who writes novels about a fictional forensic anthropologist named Temperance Brennan. In [[Bones]], Temperance Brennan is a forensic anthropologist, who writes novels about a fictional forensic anthropologist -- named Kathy Reichs. ([[Word of God]] explains that Bones is really an [[Author Avatar]] more than a direct adaptation of the novels Temperance, and Reichs describes her as more or less a "younger" version) However, in the first episode, Bones mentions that the next closest forensic anthropologist besides herself is in Montreal -- where Temperance Brennan works in the novels. Also played more typically straight in a few episodes:

** 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.

** The possibility of who plays them after the initial run was addressed in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5MgEwRytUU ''the [title of show] show'' episode 6.]. Also, in other behind the scenes material, it can be seen that two standbys had been hired.

* A bonus cutscene in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'', from [[The Verse]]'s [[Show Within a Show|bizarre television]], shows the actress Lee Meriwether (rather creepily) interviewing the screenwriter David Hayter -- Meriwether and [[Fan Nickname|Dayter]] being the voice actors for Big Mama and Solid Snake respectively. In case we didn't get it, Dayter is dressed in a snakeskin jacket and digital eyepatch, and Meriwether talks to him in the somewhat stilted, poetic, dramatic tones of a ''[[Metal Gear]]'' character giving an important speech, only addressing him by his full name. Did we mention the ''Metal Gear Solid'' has [[No Fourth Wall]]?

* [[The Nostalgia Critic]] has interacted with [[Ask That Guy With The Glasses|Ask That Guy]] on a few occasions. He never seems to notice that the two look similar. <ref> [[Fanon]] has explained this by saying they're very close brothers who live in the same house.</ref>

* A variation of this trope is often run into in [[Journal Roleplay]] games that use "fandom" characters. Many games have a "no fourth-walling" rule--i.e., one character can't reveal to another character that they're fictional, or use knowledge of their original canon to their advantage.

* In ''[[Spider-Man: The Animated Series]]'', we at the end have episodes with many realities. In one of those, Spider-Man doesn't exist -- but the comics and films do, and Peter Parker is an actor who plays him.