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{{trope}}
Sometimes, either to promote a product and generate interest in it, or maybe to maintain interest in it, or maybe just for the hell of it, a company will hold a contest in which the winner will get to make a brief appearance in a future work by that company. Sometimes this contest takes the form of a charity auction.
The contest winner's cameo could turn out to be anything from a simple appearance in the background, to playing a role in an important scene in the story. Or, depending on the tone, [[Death
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Anime and Manga ==
* There are at least a couple dozen examples of these in ''[[Digimon]].'' Examples include [[Digimon Adventure|Kabuterimon, Birdramon, Angemon]], and [[Digimon Tamers|Cyberdramon]].
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** The Elegolea from ''[[Crossbone Gundam]]'' was submitted by an amateur designer. That designer was Kanetake Ebikawa, who would go on to design mecha for ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'', ''[[Vandread]]'', ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'' and, of course, ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]''.
* The classmates in the ''[[Prince of Tennis]]'' manga were named by reader submission.
* The creator of the manga [[Zodiac
* The ''Rallis the Star Bird'' card featured in one episode of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' was a fan design.
* A pretty regular feature of [[Kongoh Bancho]]: some of the fan-designed Banchos get to be prominent antagonists (three members of [[Five
* The upcoming anime short film (29 mins) ''Mai no Mahō to Katei no Hi'' is the winning story from a contest to create an anime to promote the Toyama Prefectural Family Day (or 'Katei no Hi') (the third Sunday in each month). The contest winner Moeko Shimizu was in fourth grade when she won the contest in 2005.
* Makoto Hanamatsuura, who appears in a bonus chapter of the ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' manga, was a real person who won a 2 million yen bid at a charity auction benefiting the victims of the Kobe Earthquake in 1995. No word on whether he was happy with his "Tubby Mask" scene.
== Comic Books ==
* Erik Larsen's comic ''[[The Savage Dragon]]'' featured a contest where the winner would appear in a future issue of the comic. The winner (James Quentin Manning, if you must know) had a two-panel appearance, the second of which composed of his feet as Dragon knocked him the fuck out. To be fair, contest announcement was bluntly honest about this, to the point of showing the two panels pre-storyboarded.
** James wasn't really a fan of the comic, he just entered because ''his'' friend had entered.
** A variation appeared in an early issue, where fans were asked to design villains, and the winner's character would fight Dragon in an upcoming issue. The winning character was a mutant dockworker who went by Jimbo da Mighty Lobster.
* ''[[Ultimate Marvel]] Team-Up'' once had a contest winner [[No Fourth Wall|brag about getting a cameo]]... and then get [[Stripped to
* Probably the most extreme form of this, and going far beyond a "cameo": ''[[Kick-Ass]]'' held a contest to name the main character. The winner of the contest, Dave Lizewski, chose to name the character after himself. Hence, every time Kick-Ass's true identity is mentioned by name, remember that you're basically reading a comic whose main character is named after the winner of a contest.
** This includes [[The Movie]].
* In the ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' comic "Masks," charity auction winner Pete Hottelet (covertly renamed Commander [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Telettoh Telettoh]) appears, real-world glasses and all.
* Not personal cameos, but the next best thing: The setup of the second ''[[
== Fan Works ==
* ''Neo Yi,'' of ''[[
== Film ==
* Wondering who that mysterious "catching smoke" kid was in
* The janitor who gets killed when he steps between the [[Terminator|T-1000]] and the T-800 in the back hall of the mall was the winner of an MTV contest.
* In ''[[Rugrats]] in Paris'' in the scene where Kimi is in daycare before the Rugrats pick her up in the robotic Reptar, a couple of kids who point this out to her were voiced by kids who had won a contest.
* Averted in the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' [[The Movie|movie]]: when ''Resident Evil 2'' was released, Capcom held a contest where the winner would get a walk-on role in the upcoming movie. However, after that, the movie underwent a massive retooling, and thus the role was axed.
* In the audio commentary for ''[[UHF (
* Nintendo Power magazine ran a contest for a cameo in the sequel to ''[[The Mask]]''. The film proceeded to languish in [[Development Hell]] for over a decade, so it's unknown what if anything the winner actually got.
== Literature ==
* [[David Weber]] has a standing offer to name a character after whoever is the first to catch and point out a typographical error in a published ''[[
* Andy Mangels, who frequently writes for the Pocket Books Star Trek series, has been known to feature names of real people in his books. Sometimes the names are featured because of a high bid in a charity fundraiser, and other times as a thank-you for doing something helpful.
* The ''[[Thursday Next]]'' series had a competition to ask Thursday any three questions after the ''Eyre Affair'' (book 1). A fan of her work appeared in book 2, at the behest of a public relations agent, and asks three questions, none of which gets answered (she's rather busy at the time), but their presence provides a [[Eureka Moment]] for her. Separate contests were held in the United States and Britain, and the name of the fan and the questions asked were different in both editions.
* Just as much of a "cameo" as Kick-Ass's real name above is, the ''[[
* ''[[
** Marco Soto in ''[[
**
** Dr John "Mossy" Lawn in ''Night Watch'', ''[[
** Professor Ladislav Pelc in ''Going Postal''.
** Dr John Hix in ''[[
*
*
*
*
*
** Ditto Linda Paquette, the protagonist's love interest, from ''The Good Guy''.
* [[Matthew Reilly]] auctions character names, ranging from a [[The Lord of the Rings|Gandalf]] role spanning a trilogy to a spy killed (by jet engine) in his only scene.
* Sean Tourangeau won a contest to design the ''Luna''-class of starships for the ''[[Star Trek: Titan]]'' novel series. The novel with the design in it also established a Dr Tourangeau as one of the design team in-story. Who was [[Death
* Robert Asprin's ''[[Myth Adventures|Myth-Nomers and Im-Pervections]]'' features a Pervect cabbie who at one point casually mentions bidding for a cameo in a book at an art auction, before adding that [[No Fourth Wall|if he hadn't won, Skeeve would be talking to someone else]].
* in the mid-to-late 1990s, Michael Stackpole auctioned off a cameo appearance in his ''[[
* ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' started doing this in later books. [[Loads and Loads of Characters|Not that the story needed any more characters.]]
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Punky Brewster]]'' had a contest where kids could suggest a story to be made into an episode. The winner got to appear in the episode that got based on his story, about Punky having to learn CPR so she can later apply it on her friend Cherie to save her life.
* ''[[
* Two ''[[
** The serial murderer being hunted in the Psi Corps episode "The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father" was also named after the winner of a charity auction at a convention. Amusingly, the winner's name was Jonathan Harris, so most viewers thought it was a [[Shout
** Dr. Lillian Hobbes made a very large charitable donation to have a recurring character named after her.
** Not a competition winner, as such, but the mineral ''Quantium 40'' (vital in Jumpgate construction, was named following a poll held by JMS among members of the old [[
* ''[[
** The DVD Commentaries for the episode usually reveal the identity of the winner. In "Lost City", it's the woman who enters the Oval Office and shakes Hayes' hand after his meeting with Weird. Later, in "Camelot", director Martin Wood specifically made the contest winner John Noble's wife so "she wouldn't get cut," seeming to imply that other contest winners have had their scenes cut.
* ''[[Star Trek
** ''[[Star Trek
** Similarly, the online animated spoof ''[
* In 1977, ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' held a contest for the [[Guest Host]] spot on that year's Christmas episode called the "Anyone Can Host" contest. The winner was Miskel Spillman, an 80-year-old grandmother from New Orleans who happened to be a fan of the show (and still was until she died in the early 1990s). After learning that an old lady won the contest, the ''SNL'' production team tried to get the [[Sex Pistols]] on as the musical guest (as it would drum up more publicity and it would be hilarious to have a controversial punk band as the musical guest for a show hosted by a random old lady), but visa problems caused them to pick [[Elvis Costello]] and the Attractions instead. Costello's infamous performance where he stops his planned performance of "Less than Zero" to play "Radio Radio" (who was considered too "anti-media" to play on mainstream television at the time) instead has become one of the most iconic in the show's history. Barely anyone cares about the old lady whose winning of the contest actually had a (minor at best) [[Overshadowed
* More than a few times, ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' has offered Walk-On roles on various CBS soap operas as part of a prize package. The only one that has been won so far was for ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'', where the winner could be seen in a party scene in the episode shown later in the day.
* ''Rush'd'' is a reality contest on the ''[[Greek]]'' website where the winner gets a walk-on role. The first winner appeared as a judge in the ZBZ "Mr. Purr-fect" competition.
* FOX held a [[King of the Hill
* Spoofed in an episode of ''Yes, Dear'' where the actors talk about how they could not find a place to fit him in, so they just had the winner standing there in the last scene, then asked him to move over into HD.
* ''[[Ghostwriter (TV series)|Ghostwriter]]'' did this. The winner could be seen rollerblading past the camera at the beginning of one episode.
* A while back, around 2003, [[Nickelodeon]] had an "America's Funniest Kid" contest. The winner, Christina Kirkman, remained in the cast of ''[[All That]]'' for the rest of the show's run.
* ''[[Family Matters]]'' held a contest for young Urkel impersonators. The best four impersonators appeared in an episode where Carl dreams that Laura and Steve got married and had children (with another on the way). Some of the runner-up entries were shown as the credits rolled in the same episode.
* ''[[Good Eats]]'' host Alton Brown participated in a Food Network kitchen makeover giveaway. The winner of his design, Nic Sims of Michigan, was also treated to a guest spot as a government agent on the episode "Churn, Baby Churn II".
** Also, the live 10th Anniversary special ''Good Eats Turns Ten'' held a contest for "superfans" of the series to create videos in order to appear as contestants on the [[Game Show]] portion of the special.
* Back when ''Remember WENN'' was [[AMC]]'s only original programming, they ran a contest to win a walk-on role in the following season. AMC ended up futzing with the contest (apparently editing out a scene that was supposed to answer a question), and cancelling the show, thus precluding the prize altogether. [http://www.post-gazette.com/magazine/19980929owen3.asp This article mentions (among others) the walk-on contest.]
** A similar offer for ''[[Mad Men]]'' went by without any problems.
* ''[[
* One of the prizes for winning ''[[Who Wants to Be
* German TV Quiz ''Wer hat's gesehen?'' (''Who watched it?'') has the top price of winning a cameo on a ''Tatort'' (German police procedural) of the candidate's choice.
== Magazines ==
* The [[LEGO]] company had a little comic in ''Disney Adventures'' magazine involving a hero transported to a Lego-themed world and having to fight evil. Seriously. The comic had a contest in which the winner would appear in the comic, and he later did, helping out the hero at a crucial moment.
** ''Disney Adventures'' also featured a short comic in which the magazine's writers and editors fought against a team of four villains designed by readers for a contest.
*** And once they did a Design-a-superhero contest, with the winner having a short comic in the magazine.
**** Said winner's hero being surprisingly awesome, compared to the other kids' entries.
* ''[[Robot Wars (TV series)|Robot Wars]] Magazine'' once ran a competition to be on the Panic Attack team during the 4th season.
** Another competition was to design a robot for the video game ''Arenas of Destruction'', the winner (Thor) was an unlockable robot in the game.
* The short-lived Sega themed magazine ''Sega Visions'' gave a cameo in an entire strip (the size of two pages) of their recurring comic "Niles Nemo in Sega-Land" to a contest winner. The strip involved the winner, Kuanray Huang, and Niles meeting [[Sonic the Hedgehog]]... and then waking up to discover it had all been a pizza-fueled dream.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* Winners of the ''[[Magic:
** Which caused much hilarity recently when Wizards decided to reprint Chris Pikula. With new art. Depicting a woman. With tits. Boy how harsh time's been on old Chris...
* Similar things are a major part of the ''[[
* The awesomest version of this, though, is the prize for high-end ''Universal Fighting System'' tournaments - the winner gets a character card made of themselves, complete with art even more like the winner than the ones for ''[[Magic:
* Donate at least ten bucks to the Comic Book Defense League through Hero Games official website and you'll have one of hte company's official NPCs named after you.
== Toys ==
* [[LEGO]] loves doing this for the ''[[Bionicle]]'' franchise. They've used these sort of contests to establish a variety of [[Call a Rabbit
** And a number of them had a surprisingly prominent presence in the story. Though none were immune to being [[Killed Off for Real]], as Ancient and Guardian can tell you. LEGO was also fond of letting the fans design already official but previously unseen characters, either as MOC-s (fan-made LEGO figures) or as drawn artwork, which then received official status. Certavus, Surel, his Iron Wolves and Toa Nikila are just a few of these. The Agori villager named Kyry is an interesting case, however: a fan-built model of him was declared canon, but when he appeared in a comic, he looked nothing like the model due to the miscommunication between the writers and the comic artist.
* A 1986 contest to design a character for ''[[He
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[
** Unfortunately for Chris Houlihan, the Game Boy Advance port of ''A Link to the Past'' has the room, but doesn't use his name.
** In the Italian version of ''[[
* The ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' [[Bonus Boss]] Kurt Zisa is named after a contest winner.
* The Robot Masters Wind Man and Knight Man from ''[[
** This is actually something of a tradition with the ''Mega Man'' games. Many Robot Masters were designed not by Capcom, but by Japanese contest winners. The ''[[
*** For ''Battle Network'', Mr. Famous is little more than a Fan-navi vehicle in the games - Gateman, Kendouman and Footman, three of the four Navis he's had from games 2 to 5, are all fan-designed. ''Battle Network 3'''s fan navis are Mistman, Bowlman, and Kingman (the last of which, the first-place winner, has a more prominent place in the story, but is operated by a different NPC, not Famous). Circusman, Elementman, and Judgeman of ''BN 6'' are also fan creations. Circusman, particularly, is notable [[Nightmare Fuel]].
*** What's really interesting is that due to the appearances of Elementman and Judgeman, entire chapters of the game revolve around the weather and a trial, respectively. So not only did these contest winners design the bosses, they actually helped shape whole areas of the game along with sections of the story!
*** Laser Man and Video Man from Battle Network 4 are also fan-made, the latter of which also helped create one of the game's scenarios. Wherever Video Man's designer is, [[That One Level|we hope he burns in hell.]]
* [[Nippon Ichi]] had a contest to pick names for the random name generator for ''[[Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories]]''.
* In ''[[Turok (
* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928144234/http://www.dra-mata.com/images/og2/gather_katina.jpg Katina Tarask]. She actually makes her debut in a SRW [[Trading Card Game]] as a former sniper, piloting a hideous [[Humongous Mecha|mecha]] codenamed the ''[[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|"White Devil"]]''.
* Konami held contests for various versions of ''[[
** From the same company, during the popularity peak of the ''[[Tokimeki Memorial]]'' series, Konami organized the "Tokimeki Teens" marketing program. In there, they selected one idol among a bunch of candidates, and this idol would get [[As Himself|her fictionalized version of herself]] in the ''Drama Series'' games of the series, as well as being able to produce various songs. The winner of this contest was Mie Kuribayashi. Let's just say she quickly fell back in the shadows after the ''Drama Series'' were done.
* Several [[NPC
* A few [[NPC
* ''[[Batman
** Strangely, the prisoner isn't even really one-armed; using Detective Mode reveals it's just behind his back.
* ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]: A Crack in Time'':
** The Spiral of Death weapon was the (publicly-voted) winner of a weapon design contest.
** The Bancho Ratchet [[And Your Reward Is Clothes|skin]] was the winning design for a Japanese skin contest.
* The [[
* Lucas and Cameron, two characters in the starting village of Fallout2 are named after Cameron Rapmund and Łukasz Kawarski, the winners of the official Fallout trivia challenge.
* [[Konami]] held a contest for [[Beatmania]] for a fan to get their music into IIDX RED. Fortunately, the [http://vjarmy.com/wiki/index.php/Inside_Jokes#Kyle_Snyder_.2F_Mirror_Force_.2F_Engulfed_Beam_.2F_You_Can.27t_Escape_Me winner's] music didn't get in.
* In [[System Shock|System Shock 2]], the unfortunate Brian Norris was named and designed after the winner of a contest Looking Glass held with the name of ''Get Killed By SHODAN''.
* ''[[King's Quest V Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder]]'' did this with Austin and Amanda, two characters in the pie shop, both of whom were winners of the "Be a Character in King's Quest V" contest in [[Inter Action]] Magazine. Entrants had to submit photos of themselves in outfits that would fit into the King's Quest
* ''[[Quest for Glory V]]'' also did
* Dan Emmerson won a contest for his [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_AexmWZZL4&feature=player_embedded Meat Cello] entry and wound up in the second level of ''[[
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] 2'' has Nikko, a pazaak player who appears on Onderon during the course of the game. His appearance was based off the likeness of a contest winner named Paul Keeler, who also won a trip to the [[
* ''[[
* Irrational Games ''[[
* The winner of a contest at E3 2009, Charlie Malone, was made into a patient in ''[[Trauma Center|Trauma Team]]''.
* Felix the Fish, the mascot of Big Fish Games, was concealed in one of the [[Hidden Object Game]] scenes of ''[[Mystery Case Files]]: Ravenhearst.'' Finding and clicking on him opened a screen which enabled the player to enter a contest, the winner of whom got to have his or her likeness included in a later MCF game. (Humorously, the contest ended in March 2007 - but they never removed the contest from the game. This means that if you buy the game even now, Felix is in there and clicking on him will still bring up that screen.)
*In a mix of this trope and [[Official Fan-Submitted Content]], several monsters in ''[[Undertale]]'' were designed by Kickstarter backers. Specifically, mainliner Muffet and secret bosses Glyde and So Sorry, along with a few NPCs.
== Webcomics ==
* ''[[
* ''[http://www.electric-manga.com/ Kagerou]'' has a contest to be killed on panel. The winner (and explanation) can be seen [https://web.archive.org/web/20131106003248/http://www.electric-manga.com/41/12.html here].
* Every year, ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' auctions off an appearance in their comics for charity. The first time got amusingly [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/02/06/ meta].
** As have [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/12/9/ some] [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/12/9/ other] strips.
** In the first episode of [[Penny Arcade Adventures]], there is a listing in the credits with the title: "That guy who paid us a lot of money to be in the game."
** Most of the auctions have been won by a guy named Wil Shipley, who writes software for Macs, or to put it another way, [http://www.penny-arcade.com/docs/7-2-07b.jpg gets HAND jobs from STEVE Jobs].
* ''[[Dan and
* Toward the end of ''[[Its Walky]]'', many of the die-hard message board fans were made into members of the army, and were, naturally, horribly killed.
* [[The Cyantian Chronicles]]: There's several instances, but the most notable is the fan scripted bonus comic at the end of Akaelae # 5. Although, The Scripting Game only let me cameo as the writer. It didn't get a character included.
* Connecticon '07 auctioned off a guest spot in ''[[Something
* ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' has had a number of these.{{verify}}<!-- Cameos in this strip go to sponsors, not contest winners... unless there's a contest that this mod isn't aware of. -->
* ''[[Least I Could Do]]'' holds a contest every [[
== Web Original ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140422054303/http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/dan/ This] ''[[
* While not strictly speaking ''contests'', [[Rooster Teeth]] awarded cameo appearances in ''[[RWBY]]'' to high-level contributors to their Indiegogo campaign to fund ''[[Lazer Team]]''.
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' episode "Gangland" had a cameo from a school which won a contest to be animated in the series.
* ''[[The Simpsons (
** Much to [[Show Runner]] David Mirkin's chagrin, the terms of the promotion forced him to declare a winner out of a batch of one thousand random samples, all incorrect. As he notes in the season 7 [[DVD Commentary]], they just picked a woman who guessed that Smithers did it, paid her off, and no one even noticed.
** Also the episode "Million Dollar Maybe" was part of The Simpsons "Best. Character. Ever." contest. The winning character "Ricardo Bomba" was shown for less then 30 seconds before crashing his car. Whether or not the character survived the crash and will be seen in future episodes is unconfirmed.
* ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' once had a contest winner appear on the show... only to get murdered by Seth Green.
* [[The Movie]] of ''[[
* ''[[
** Also done for the opening crowd shot for season 14's premiere.
* ''[[Drawn Together]]'' did one of these at the insistence of the network, which the creators were not happy about. The eventual winner was featured in a scene in the episode "Spelling Applebee's" as a waiter who makes out with Captain Hero then later masturbates into his food.
* Though she in no way won a contest, a girl named Katelyn was animated into a ''[[Kim Possible]]'' episode in season 4 as her wish from the Make A Wish foundation: she's tells Kim she's her biggest fan and asks for her autograph.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* An episode of ''[[Codename
* ''[[
* In the ''[[Ren and Stimpy]]'' episode "A Visit To Anthony's" the boy Anthony was a winner of a contest to appear on the show.
* In the ''[[
* On a weekend morning show in the UK, there was a contest where a kid could have a background character in ''[[The Weekenders]]'' based on them. It's not known if they ever went through with this.
* ''[[The Flintstone Kids]]'' had an in-universe example. Fred and Barney won a contest to appear in an episode of Captain Caveman and Son. They just cameoed.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Show Business]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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