Hates the Job, Loves the Limelight: Difference between revisions

Such a character was known in older movies as "The Ole Soft Shoe".

 

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* Billy Mack, the old rock star in ''[[Love Actually]]''.

** [[Truth in Television]]: If you were a horror actor during the first boom, odds were you turned into an example before your career was over.

** Dane was largely based on Leonard Nimoy, as his show-within-a-show character was a [[Captain Ersatz]] of Nimoy's character [[Star Trek|Spock]]. Nimoy went through a period of time where he seriously regretted how people only seemed to recognize him as "Spock", using the confusion as inspiration for his book ''I am not Spock''. He later came to terms with it and wrote another book, ''I Am Spock''.

** However, while Nimoy was bothered by always being called "Spock", he didn't really hold any contempt for the show or the character. Dane's attitude is closer to that of Sir Alec Guinness, a classically trained Shakespearean actor who was outright ''offended'' that people only knew him as [[Star Wars|Obi Wan Kenobi]]. While he was known for being a consummate professional on and off the set, he didn't respect the films and it was just another job for him.

 

* Johnny Fever in ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]'' starts out like this, but he's not as grouchy after Andy, the new program director, lets him play the music he wants to play (and say "booger".)

* [[House MD]] had a character like this in the season 4 episode ''Live the Dream''. The patient of the week was the star on a [[Show Within a Show|daytime medical soap]] but felt ultimately unfulfilled with his job.

* This is Andy's entire character arc on ''[[Extras]]'' (and applies to some of the guest stars/minor characters as well).

== Music ==

 

 

== Video Games ==

== Western Animation ==

 

** Also from ''[[The Simpsons]]'', Reverend Lovejoy after he got [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Flanderized]]. {{spoiler|That is, after Flanders got done inadvertantly beating the love of religion out of him.}}

** This trope is also the ultimate reason for Sideshow Bob's descent from TV sidekick to homicidal maniac. Bob originally accepted Krusty's offer to be his sidekick because he thought he could both entertain and enlighten the children who would be watching, but [[Classically-Trained Extra|his talents were utterly wasted]] by the lowbrow shenanigans Krusty subjected him to, which in Bob's own words "destroyed more young minds than pinball and syphilis combined!" Finally, Bob snapped and framed Krusty for armed robbery, taking over the show after Krusty was arrested. He immediately turned it into the kind of show ''he'' originally wanted to do, one that was educational, entertaining and uplifting all at once...and then Bart Simpson pegged him as the guy who framed Krusty and he went to jail. Suffice to say that [[It Got Worse]] from there.

* Recently in an episode of ''[[South Park]]'', [[Mickey Mouse]] behaved like this.

* Miss Carol from an episode of ''[[Rugrats]]'' behaved like this and Angelica thought her more vulgar version of her TV catch phrase was the real one.

== Real Life ==

 

* Marjoe Gortner, an evangelist preacher in the 60's, explained in his documentary that he didn't believe what he preached but loved the attention and money - going so far as to say if he'd had a different background he'd probably have been a rock star.

* Despite the public perception that anyone in a mascot/animal/robot costume absolutely hates their job, this tropes is mostly averted by character performers. Many actually love their job and take pride in their level of skill. Especially sports mascots.

[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]

[[Category:Show Business]]