Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Difference between revisions

[[File:SonicIssue10Turtles01_2_585SonicIssue10Turtles01 2 585.jpg|link=Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog (Comic Bookcomics)|rightframe|[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Franchise)|Somebody]] is ''very'' lost.]]

You can blur their face a bit or simply not name them. Still, this trope is known enough you can expect any work that featured these frequently will get modified a bit if the adaptation's sponsors are worried about pissing anyone off.

Often used as part of a [[Take That]], but just as often a [[Affectionate Parody|friendly]] [[Shout -Out]]. See also [[Writing Around Trademarks]]. Compare [[Captain Ersatz]] and [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]].

* ''[[Yakitate!! Japan (Manga)|Yakitate!! Japan]]'''s American character Kid is nearly identical to [[Brad Pitt]], for no good reason. Conan from ''[[Detective Conan (Manga)|Detective Conan]]'' also makes a thinly-veiled appearance.

* ''[[Sakigake Cromartie Koukou (Manga)|Sakigake CromartieHigh KoukouSchool]]'''s Freddie was so obviously Freddie Mercury that the character couldn't be used in another adaptation for fear of lawyers. This was lampshaded with obscure references nearly every time Freddie appeared, and lampshaded most overtly with the brief appearance of another character, Mr. Mercury, who was noted by the other characters as looking exactly like Freddie (except for his clothes- although both Freddie's and Mr. Mercury were wearing exact copies of outfits worn by Freddie Mercury on stage) and who made a very loud emphasis on a number of dissimilarities between himself and Freddie (and, as a result, contrasting Freddie Mercury as well) It should also be noted that a number of other Queen references, such as many of the chapter titles, and literally hundreds of inside jokes and subtle references were present, making the manga a constant source of knowing grins from Queen fans everywhere.

* In ''[[Irresponsible Captain Tylor (Anime)|Irresponsible Captain Tylor]]'', a chainsaw-wielding, hockey mask-wearing fellow named "Jason" is a member of the crew of the ''Soyokaze'' (mirroring the common Western misconception Jason ever used a chainsaw).

* In ''[[School Rumble (Manga)|School Rumble]]'' Harima stays home and watches a movie that is pretty much a rip off of ''[[Star Wars (Franchise)|Star Wars]]'' that at first covers the opening of episode 4 with Lego like star ships, and what some lines that seems to be taken from episode 6. Needless to say this is quite funny to watch.

* In ''[[Project A-ko (Anime)|Project A-ko]]'', it's hinted a few times that Eiko's parents are [[Superman (Franchise)|Superman]] and [[Wonder Woman]], though they've never appeared onscreen in costume. (Although they ''have'' appeared ''with'' costume -- Mrscostume—Mrs. Magami is shown sewing or repairing a Superman outfit at one point.) Dad is also shown reading the ''Daily Planet''.

* Colonel Sanders shows up a lot as a figure of menace, thanks to the legend of the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Colonel:Curse of the Colonel|Curse of the Colonel]]. A few examples:

** At one point in ''[[Project A-ko (Anime)|Project A-ko]]'', the main characters watch a horror movie - itself a parody of Rin Taro's scifi/horror anime ''Harmagedon'' - wherein a victim, panicking, yells "The Colonel! The Colonel!" His pursuer is... Colonel Sanders.

** One of the villains in the first series of ''[[Slayers (Light Novel)|Slayers]]'' dresses up as Colonel Sanders, complete with what appears to be a roast (not fried) chicken, in a particular episode.

** ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (Visual Novel)|Higurashi no Naku Koro Nini]]'' starts saccharine-cute but quickly becomes the story of a town under a terrifying curse. The first sign that we're about to experience [[Mood Whiplash]]? A statue of the Colonel.

** Albireo in the later chapters of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima (Manga)|Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' insists on being called "Ku:nel Sanders" (originally just to cover up his identity, later because he liked it). At one point during his insistence, an image of Colonel Sanders appears behind him (eyes blacked out, of course, as though to protect his "anonymity"). (For those interested, "Ku:nel" turns out to be the title of a Japanese leisure magazine, an involved Japanese pun about the purpose of living as well as a play on "Colonel".)

** In a ''[[Doraemon (Anime)|Doraemon]]'' movie about Nobita and friends making a toy land with animated dolls, toys, and statues, one of them is a Colonel Sanders statue.

** The Colonel also appeared in ''[[Super Milk Chan (Anime)-chan|Super Milk Chan]]'' as a selfish, greedy, sexist man who hires assassins to kill a pair of pigs who escaped from one of his meat-packaging plants.

** In ''[[Ranma One Half (Manga)|Ranma One Half½]]'', there is a plotline that involves a man's soul wandering around even though he's not dead yet. In the manga, this was called "the Colonel Sanders Effect".

** The Colonel also appears briefly in ''[[Excel Saga (Mangamanga)|Excel Saga]]'' at least once, where heavy rains flood most of Fukuoka, floating by as debris. Excel even comments on it in the English version.

* In one chapter of ''[[Bobobobo Bobobo-Bo (Manga)|Bobobobo BoboboBo-bobo]]'', Yugi Mutou from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Animeanime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' pops out of Bo-bobo's afro and summons Sky Dragon Osiris (AKA Slifer the Sky Dragon) to help battle Halekulani. (This is even more lawyer-friendly, as the scene in which this happened was drawn by the original creator of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Animeanime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]''.)

* ''[[Doctor Slump (Manga)|Doctor Slump]]'' featured "Suppaman", essentially a short, pudgy version of Superman. He popped up during the Dr. Slump [[Crossover]] in the original ''[[DragonballDragon Ball]]'' series.

** However, ''[[Doctor Slump]]'' also makes [[Shout -Out|explicit references]] to ''[[Astro Boy (Mangamanga)|Astro Boy]]'', ''[[Gamera]]'', ''[[Godzilla]]'', and ''[[Ultraman]]''.

* ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya (Light Novel)|Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' episode 11 had a pixelated version of a [[Gundam (Anime)|Gundam]] launch, and referred to it as the "Gun3** ".

** Also, in episode 1, Haruhi holds up magazines to Kyon and Mikuru, featuring other anime series, one of which is ''[[Shuffle (Visual Novel)|ShuffleSHUFFLE!]]'', with Kaede and Asa on the cover. Note that Yuko Goto voices [[Actor Allusion|both Mikuru and Kaede]].

* As it usually tries to avoid censoring, ''[[Lucky Star (Manga)|Lucky Star]]'' references titles and locations only indirectly, ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya (Light Novel)|Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu]]'' being the major exception. However, in one episode, Konata tells a 'ghost story' about a bus driver singing "[[Anime Theme Song|Danzen!]] [[Futari wa Pretty Cure (Anime)|Futari wa *** cure]]", and in another a thinly-veiled conversation about [[Gundam (Anime)|Gundams]]s between Konata and her father seems to be an exercise in "how far can we go before we get sued?"

** Konata's "fight" with [[Street Fighter|Guile]] actually has ''two'' separate ''[[Street Fighter]]'' references. The first is the obvious Guile clone, but the second shows up in the form of the "VS screen". The background is taken right out of ''[[Street Fighter III (Video Game)|Street Fighter III]]: 3rd Strike''.

*** And the "stage" is Ryu's from ''[[Street Fighter II (Video Game)|Street Fighter II]]''. Finally, she knocks him out with the Tatsumaki Senpyukyaku (Hurricane Kick), one of [[Ryu and Ken]]'s signature moves.

** One episode has ''[[Code Geass (Anime)|Code Geass]]'' and Lelouch's name censored out. Ironically, Bandai Entertainment would later pick up the rights to localize both that and ''Lucky Star''.

** Tsukasa's ''[[Keroro Gunsou (Manga)|Keroro Gunsou]]'' keychain is worth noting here.

** Cousin Yui reading manga with [[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight|Rider]] on the cover. Also, episode 10, when Tsukasa's gentle nature and Kagami's [[Tsundere]] nature become blatantly obvious to Soujirou.

{{quote| '''Soujirou''': (hands in the air) Sakura! Tohsaka... Tohsaka's your sister!}}

** In episode 19 Hiyori draws Apollo Justice and Klavier Gavin from the ''[[Ace Attorney (Visual Novel)|Ace Attorney]]'' series.

* In episode 21 of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'', thinly-disguised versions of [[Lupin III (Anime)|Lupin III]] and Jigen get run off the road by the Hinata family car in an obvious parody of a scene from ''The Castle Of Cagliostro''. In episode 48, there is an inexplicable appearance by a human-sized version of the giant floating [[Rei Ayanami]] from ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|End of Evangelion]]''.

** Lupin and Jigen also appear as characters in a video game in one episode of ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross (Anime)|Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' parodying the car-chase scene from ''[[The Castleof Cagliostro (Anime)|TheCastle Castleofof Cagliostro]]''.

** It's also highly likely that there is a Jigen sighting in an episode of ''[[Animaniacs (Animation)|Animaniacs]]'' (specifically the "Sir Yakksalot" episode) as a wagon driver bearing a very distinctive slouched fedora and pointed beard drives by the screen. Tokyo Movie Shinsha provided animation work for both the ''Lupin III'' franchise and ''Animaniacs.''

* At one point in ''[[Great Teacher Onizuka (Manga)|Great Teacher Onizuka]]'', Onizuka challenges an entire gang to arm wrestling and winds up beating look-alikes of Jason Voorhees (from ''[[Friday the 13 th13th (Filmfilm)|Friday the 13 th]]''), Heihachi Mishima (from ''[[Tekken (Video Game)|Tekken]]''), and ''[[Giant Robo (Manga)|Giant Robo]]''.

** Onizuka himself actually dresses as [[Doraemon (Anime)|Doraemon]] and explicitly calls himself as such when forced to fight a gang with his hands stuck in bowling balls.

** At one point he ''shatters'' the bowling balls and draws a bunch of [[Cross -Popping Veins]] on himself, screaming about a woman named Yuria. Now, he calls himself [[Fist of the North Star (Manga)|Kenshiro]] and even draws Ken's seven scars. To top it all off, in the anime, he beats the gang with Ken's signature [[Spam Attack]], the Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken.

** He also dressed up as Devilman (apropos of ''nothing'', naturally) once, and made Tomoko wear a ''[[Cutey Honey (Anime)|Cutey Honey]]'' outfit.

** The first chapter of ''Shonan 14 Days'' includes Onizuka painting [[Haruhi Suzumiya (Light Novel)|Haruhi Suzumiya]] on the hood of Uchiyamada's car and threatening to write his name into a [[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]].

* An episode of ''[[Full Metal Panic (Light Novel)|Full Metal Panic!]]: Fumoffu'' had a gangster referring to 'Ambassador Mama', a reference to Ambassador Magma from ''[[Astro Boy (Mangamanga)|Astro Boy]]'', with an accompanying pixellated image of his spaceship.

** Also a couple of ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110801025759/deathnote/images/1/17/Death_note_in_full_metal_panic.jpg characters] happened to be at the same place at the same time when Sousuke was getting his haircut

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Animeanime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' often has characters in the background, while not outright named, Vash the Stampede (''[[Trigun (Manga)|Trigun]]''), Ino, Shikamaru, Choji (''[[Naruto (Manga)|Naruto]]'') and Ryoma Echizen (''[[The Prince of Tennis (Manga)|The Prince of Tennis]]'') all have brief appearances (Vash is in the background of the characters walking down the street, the other four in the stands of a duel).

** The cards for the game are no better. In the card game plenty of cards are named/designed after other Konami products (Gradius games, a card explicitly named DDR, Goemon characters). However, in the anime they do one for another Shounen Jump series. The card Illegal Summon in GX features a character scene from ''[[Naruto (Manga)|Naruto]]'' of Naruto's Frog Summoning training. Big Bang Shot has a picture of [[Dragon Ball (Manga)|Vegeta]] [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|performing Big Bang Attack,]] and Giant Ape is a Saiyan in Ozaru form, and Sonic Duck is a member of ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]'''s Supersonic Duck Squadron. There's a card in ''5 D's'' that increases your D-Wheel's speed counter... featuring a thinly-veiled ''[[Eyeshield 21]]''.

* ''[[The Prince of Tennis (Manga)|The Prince of Tennis]]'' anime has Makunouchi Ippo of ''[[Hajime no Ippo]]'' fame appear briefly in the stands at a baseball game during a chibi episode. He is voiced by the same seiyuu as Prince of Tennis's [[Tsundere|Kaidoh]], making this an [[Actor Allusion]] cameo.

* ''[[Gintama (Manga)|Gintama]]'' runs its entire series off of this.

* Ken Akamatsu, being a video game fan, has dropped numerous character cameos into both ''[[Love Hina (Manga)|Love Hina]]'' and ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima (Manga)|Mahou Sensei Negima]]'': the "Mahora Budokai" arc in ''Negima!'' featured crowd cameos from M. Bison, Sakura Kusanago, Akuma, Hugo, and Adon from the ''[[Street Fighter]]'' games as well as Athena, Terry Bogard, Ryo Sakazaki, Chris, Yashiro Nanakase, and the ''Maximum Impact'' version of Kyo Kusanagi, all from ''[[The King of Fighters (Video Game)|The King of Fighters]]'' and related series, and several others.

** Later, when the robot army arrives, one of the characters makes an extraordinarily blatant Lawyer Friendly [[Shout -Out]]:

{{quote| "Wow! Are those Gu_dams? They have to be Gun_ams!"}}

*** [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]-- Gundam—Gundam and Transformers knockoffs have actually been packaged as "Gudams".

** Love Hina also has references to ''[[Star Wars (Franchise)|Star Wars]]'' quite often; in amongst Keitaro/Naru sniping Naru is stabbed with a lightsaber, Motoko wins Su a mini Death Star, and Seta's van has the license plate number R2-D2.

** One chapter of ''Negima'' had a number of people dressed up as different anime and toku heroes, such as ''[[JAKQ]]'', [[Kamen Rider X]], and the main heroines of ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure (Anime)|Futari wa Pretty Cure]]''

* In ''[[Hellsing (Manga)|Hellsing]]'', Alucard's and Seras's main weapons are named ''Jackal'' and ''Harkonnen'' respectively. Though not explained in the anime, their namesakes show up in the manga as the characters' "spirit guides" during dream sequences: the [[Magnificent Bastard|Baron Vladimir Harkonnen]] from ''[[Dune]]'' in the case of Seras, and [[Bruce Willis]] (who starred in the movie ''Jackal'') for Alucard. (The Baron does appear briefly in the anime's [[Omake]]-style "next episode" teasers.)

* In ''[[Rozen Maiden (Manga)|Rozen Maiden]]'', Buu, the doll that attacks Jun early on, is quite clearly [[Winnie the Pooh]]. In the anime, Pooh is replaced with a generic clown doll.

** In turn, Jun makes a brief cameo early in the first episode of ''[[Ultimate Girls (Anime)|Ultimate Girls]]''.

* The anime version of ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' is full of lawyer-friendly mentions, although the ones in dialogue are always bleeped out. Being a fangirl, Nagi rattles them off quickly enough that it's common to have half of her monologue melodically beeped out.

* ''[[Seto no Hanayome]]'' features the [[Terminator (Filmfranchise)|Terminator]] as an important character. With lines like ''{{[[media-|cit_seto_no_hanayome_homage:cit seto no hanayome homage.jpg| "I'll be back"}}]]'' and ''"You must die, human! TERMINATOR!"'', and ''"Who's your daddy? TERMINATOR!"'', it's kinda hard to miss.

* Reversed in ''[[Ray the Animation (Anime)|Ray the Animation]]'': In the manga, Osamu Tezuka's Dr. Black Jack 'cameos', but his face is never shown and he is never referred to by his full name, due to copyright concerns. In the animation, Black Jack doesn't fall under these restrictions anymore, seeing as how it was produced by Tezuka's animation studio, which of course holds the copyright on the character.

* ''[[Amaenaideyo (Anime)|Amaenaideyo!!]]'' had the [[Show Within a Show]] ''[[Kamen Rider|Kamen Ranger]]'', and continued to reference it throughout the show's run. The featured Kamen Ranger, Hayabusa 20, could've easily passed for [[Kamen Rider Faiz|Faiz]].

* ''Miami Guns'' has several of these, such as Bruce Tsuji, the "''[[Die Hard (Film)|Die Hard]]'' detective" from one episode. The most significant example in the series is the father of "[[Sociopathic Hero|heroine]]" Yao Sakurakoji -- whoSakurakoji—who is a bleached-blonde doppleganger of Gendo Ikari, right down to the design of his office. (For some reason, he has a pet dog who's a parody of [[Dastardly and Muttley Inin Their Flying Machines|Muttley]]. Hey, why not?)

* ''[[The Legend of Black Heaven (Anime)|The Legend of Black Heaven]]'' features a scene where Mulder and Scully from ''[[The X-Files (TV)|The X-Files]]'' are investigating a mysterious event at a cemetery in the U.S., where a grave has been dug up in an incredibly precise manner. {{spoiler|Former band member Watanabe's body had been stolen by the enemy in order to create a clone to defeat the remaining member of the band.}} The two agents are unceremoniously pushed into the hole by Layla's sidekicks.

* One chapter of ''[[Yami no Matsuei (Manga)|Yami no Matsuei]]'' had the main characters in a book world. In the background of the wedding scene you can see the figures of Cloud, Aerith, Sephiroth and Rufus Shinra from ''[[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VII]]''.

* In the North #2 arc of Naoki Urasawa's ''[[Pluto (Manga)|Pluto]]'', blind composer Paul Duncan recants a tale in his childhood where he was pulled from the brink of death by a Japanese black market doctor at the cost of his already weak eyesight. Said series is set in the ''[[Astro Boy (Mangamanga)|Astro Boy]]'' universe. Said doctor was dressed in a black cloak and, according to North #2's investigations, charged his mother a ridiculously high fee for the procedure. [[Monster (Mangamanga)/WMG|Wild Mass Guessing aside]], [[Black Jack (Manga)|this doctor's identity should be obvious to any Tezuka fan.]]

** [[Kimba the White Lion (Manga)|Kimba the White Lion]] also made an appearance in a group of escaping zoo animals.

* Episode 27 of ''[[Zettai Karen Children (Manga)|Zettai Karen Children]]'' has [[Lucky Star (Manga)|Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa, Miyuki, Yutaka and Minami]] appearing in the background briefly; the first four had realistic hair colors and all of them have their backs turned to the camera except for Miyuki, whose face is obscured by a leg. In addition, because Gonzo helped produce the episode, it also has ''[[Strike Witches (Anime)|Strike Witches]]'' cameos (but how could they get away with their lack of pants in that world?).

* ''[[Samurai Champloo (Anime)|Samurai Champloo]]'' featured Ogami Ito and Daigoro from Lone Wolf and Cub at the end of the episode "Cosmic Collisions".

* Volume 7 of ''[[Faeries Landing (Manhwa)|Faeries Landing]]'' has a brief one panel cameo of Luffy D. Monkey from ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]''.

* ''[[Sorcerer Hunters (Manga)|Sorcerer Hunters]]'' includes a number of these, exemplified by the chapter "Seaside Days in the Springtime of Youth, one of the series' many [[Beach Episode|Beach Episodes]]s. In it, a magical potion turns the protagonists into cosplaying cameos from other series such as ''[[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sailor Moon]]'', ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'', and ''[[Darkstalkers (Video Game)|Darkstalkers]]''. Also, for a [[Fan Service]] laden [[ShonenShōnen Demographicmanga]] series, the frequent cameos from the decidedly [[Shojo]] and chaste dating sim of ''[[Angelique]]'' were amusing, especially when the game's resident [[Cute Shotaro Boy]] showed up as a slave boy belonging to one of the manga's villains.

* In episode 49 of ''[[Shaman King (Manga)|Shaman King]]'', the members Team LCT/Team Insane Asylum were based off [[Professional Wrestling|Pro Wrestlers]] Mark LoMonaco (Bubba Ray Dudley/Brother Ray), one of the Hardys ([[Matt Hardy]] or [[Jeff Hardy]]) and Adam Copeland ([[Edge]]) who used tables, ladders and chairs respectively as their weapons in the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]].

* ''[[My Balls (Manga)|My Balls]]'' has [[Angelina Jolie|Angel*** Jolie]] in Chapter 28.

* ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei (Manga)-sensei|Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei]]'' has innumerable instances. In speech, one syllable of the word/name in question is either bleeped over or pronounced "maru", in text one letter is replaced by a circle.

** Pretty much anything from [[Studio Shaft]] is guaranteed to be filled with Lawyer Friendly Cameos. [[Pani Poni Dash!]] for example, had a freakin' [[Touhou (Video Game)|Yukkuri]] in the [[OVA]].

* Nobuhiro Watsuki ([[Rurouni Kenshin (Manga)|Rurouni Kenshin]]) did that so many times with Samurai Showdon that the owners of SS asked the author to draw some of the new characters on SS V.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Anime)|Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' has... [[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|Squidward]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WQlo8MiyEs You have to really be watching to find him though.]

* In ''[[Bowling King (Manhua)|Bowling King]]'', a nefarious physician bears an eerie resemblance to ''[[Black Jack (Manga)|Black Jack]]''... and in a [[Lampshade Hanging]], claims to have strived to be like Black Jack his entire life.

* In ''Rescue Me Mave-Chan'', a parody of ''[[Sentou Yousei Yukikaze (Anime)|Sentou Yousei Yukikaze]]'', the villain of the short, For-Getter (which looks like a combination of [[Gunbuster (Anime)|Gunbuster]] and [[Getter Robo (Manga)|Getter Robo]] G), shows off different characters who have been forgotten by fans, including Lum and EVA-01.

* ''Wild and Horned Hermit'', one of the official ''[[Touhou (Video Game)|Touhou]]'' manga adaptations, had a chapter that involved a mythological creature that emits electricity. Cue Sanae wondering if they were talking about an electric rat while her thought bubble showed a picture of [[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pikachu]] with a censor bar placed across its eyes.

* ''[[Tiger and Bunny (Anime)|Tiger and Bunny]]'' has several Lawyer-Friendly Cameos. The mayor of Sternbild, for example, apparently bears a resemblance to President Obama.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]: Season 8'' gives us an utterly pointless panel that has exactly one purpose: A lawyer friendly cameo of [[Doctor Who (TV)|The Tenth Doctor and Rose]]. [http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/besstofthebest/Picture2-4.png See what I mean?] On the bright side, you get to go insane trying to put the conflicting universe together.

* An issue of Angel: After the Fall featured a background cameo by Jay and Silent Bob.

** And the [[Yuppie Couple|recurring]] pirates are [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbeard_:Redbeard (comics)#Asterix_parodyAsterix parody|based on the cast of the Belgian comic ''Barbe-Rouge'']], although [[Weird Al Effect|no one outside France would get that]].

* [[Tintin]] had a number as well. [[War for Fun Andand Profit|War profiteer]] Basil Zaharoff is portrayed in ''The Broken Ear'' [[Paper -Thin Disguise|transparently]] as "Basil Bazarov", right down to his distinctive appearance. In the earliest edition of ''Tintin in America'', a Mary Pickford-looking movie star named "Mary Pikefort" attends a dinner where Tintin is honored. Professor Calculus is also loosely based on scientist Auguste Picard.

* In ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'', in which every character is either a literary character or a literary character's ancestor, [[Fu Manchu]] is never mentioned by name, because he's still under copyright. In [[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Filmfilm)|the movie]], Fu Manchu was replaced with the [[Sherlock Holmes]] villain Prof. Moriarty (who also appears in the comic) disguised as ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]''.

** And the ''Black Dossier'' includes British secret agents named "Jimmy", who is obviously [[James Bond (Literaturenovel)|James Bond]] (He won't stop talking about "some business in Jamaica" and all that, and he's also the grandson of ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' original character Campion Bond), Miss Night, who is clearly [[The Avengers (TV series)|Emma Peel]], and Uncle Hugo, who is [[Bulldog Drummond (Literature)|Bulldog Drummond]].

** To say nothing of the new M, who dislikes being referred to as "Harry" because Harry died a long time ago, [[The Third Man|in the sewers under Vienna]].

* [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[Swamp Thing]]'' had a story "Pog", whose title character was ''[[Pogo (Comiccomic Stripstrip)|Pogo]]'' in a spacesuit. Amusingly, Pog had a brief cameo in a later issue by another writer who didn't seem to recognize the reference.

* A recent ''[[Invincible (Comic Book)|Invincible]]'' storyline had the title character being bounced around alternate universes. While he had a full issue experience with [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]] in ''Marvel Team-Up'', he also encountered [[Batman (Franchise)|Batman]] (though only his arm is seen and his name is implied without having to say it outright thanks to a running joke from the MTU issue), a world similar to ''[[Y: theThe Last Man (Comic Book)|Y the Last Man]]'' and possibly the world of ''[[The Walking Dead (Comic Bookcomics)|The Walking Dead]]'', one of Robert Kirkman's other books.

* If you look closely in crowd scenes during DC and Marvel [[Crisis Crossover|Crisis Crossovers]]s, you can often make out characters that have been [[Exiled From Continuity]] (the hand of Swamp Thing in ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'', for example).

* In one issue of ''[[The Punisher (Comic Book)|The Punisher]]'', the titular [[Anti -Hero]] guns down thinly-disguised counterparts of [[Lupin the ThirdIII]] and his gang.

* Throughout ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'', Jesse Custer has a spirit advisor called The Duke, who is clearly meant to be John Wayne but never explicitly referred to as such and always drawn with face in shadow. However, his father, John Custer, is shown and referred to as meeting the flesh-and-blood John Wayne while serving in Vietnam. Also, in issue #53, Jesse gives a lift to a fat, aging Elvis (this one's a lot harder to identify, but it's definitely him). Plus there's the sequence where Herr Starr meets (and insults) a number of unnamed world leaders - we only see Starr's face, but can identify who he's addressing by the insult (e.g. "You've got a girl's haircut, Colonel.")

* Alien groups scenes in ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (Comic Bookcomics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' like to slip in famous aliens or other odd looking characters. Recently, an alien resembling Dr. Zoidberg of ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' was seen being arrested by the Science Police. Another comic had a pair that looks suspiciously like [[The Muppets|Kermit and Miss Piggy.]]

* In ''[[Action Comics]]'' #579, [[Superman (Franchise)|Superman]] is sent back in time to 253 AD, where he finds himself in a Gaulish village that has been fighting off the Romans thanks to a magic potion - so successfully, in fact, that they're unaware the Empire has fallen. [[Jimmy Olsen]] puts on the outfit of their unnamed "[[Asterix|greatest warrior]]", while a mind-controlled Superman fights "Columnix", an overweight Gaul with a white dog, who fell in the potion as a baby.

*** Not quite. They were referring to the fact that at that time, Gaul was not under Rome's control but under the breakaway [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallic_empire:Gallic empire|Gallic Empire]]. Rome took it back a few years later, though.

* An early ''[[Usagi Yojimbo (Comic Book)|Usagi Yojimbo]]'' comic features a Lawyer Friendly Cameo from a young [[Godzilla]], who ends up saving Miyamoto Usagi's life in return for rice cakes. Just in case you somehow missed it, Usagi actually asks "Are you a god, Zylla?" to which the creature responds "Godzylla?"

** In a backup story in an issue of ''X-Men Classics'' (earlier issues has a secondary story featuring "before they were X-Men" or "between the issues" tales), a story is recounted of an inadvertent meeting between Logan (while he was a roughneck on the run from Weapon X) and Banshee (while he was just a humble Interpol agent). Banshee is hot on the trail of three jewel thieves, one of whom is named [[Lupin III (Anime)|Arsene]], and who look like the Lupin Gang with a few cosmetic alterations. Guess who that makes Banshee, of course...

** [[Chris Claremont]] has put Lawyer-Friendly Cameos of anime in quite a few of his stories. Both the [[Dirty Pair (Light Novel)|Dirty Pair]] and [[Speed Racer (Anime)|Speed Racer]], for instance show up in an issue of ''[[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Excalibur]]'', and yes, the lawyer friendly Dirty Pair are as destructive as the genuine article.

** The Ghostbusters made a rather extensive appearance during the ''[[Inferno (Comic Book)|Inferno]]'' storyline during Claremont's run of Uncanny X-Men, then appeared again when Jubilee was introduced. One notable change is that the Ghostbusters' secretary, Janine, was a member of the group.

* The ''Howard and Nester'' comic strip in issue #9 of ''[[Nintendo Power (Magazine)|Nintendo Power]]'' has Howard accompanying a duck on an expedition to the moon (with Nester stowing away). The duck in question is never addressed by name and doesn't look like it, but the reader can probably guess, judging from the fact that this particular installment was based on the ''[[Duck TalesDuckTales (Videovideo Gamegame)|Duck Tales]]'' [[Nintendo Entertainment System|NES]] game, that he is supposed to be Scrooge McDuck.

* One Marvel comics from the 80's involved many of the Marvel speedsters, who were getting some help from an amnesiac speedster from another dimension... [[The Flash|Wearing a torn red suit (with a few yellow elements), saying his name was "Buried Alien, or something like that", and who quickly disappeared in some Speed Dimension afterwards as all he could remember was that he had to keep running]]. Oh, and he was much, MUCH faster than all the other Marvel speedsters. As this story took place not so long after [[Crisis Onon Infinite Earths|an important cross-over from the Distinguished Competition]], this can be seen as a [[Homage]] to a certain character who died during this event.

* In ''[[Black Summer]]'' by [[Warren Ellis]], you never actually see The President or any pictures of the President, and his name is never given, but, he was in office in July 2006, made a lot of [[HanlonsHanlon's Razor|questionable]] decisions during the events of September 1st1, 2001, he's implied to be something of a Warmonger, and the Liberals weren't happy with him.

* In ''[[Superman (Franchise)|Superman]]/[[Batman (Franchise)|Batman]] Annual #1'', as a reference to [[Deadpool]]'s origins as a Deathstroke [[Captain Ersatz]], had an [[Alternate Universe]] Deathstroke who looked like Deadpool, acted like Deadpool, and had powers like Deadpool, but was always interrupted whenever he attempted to reveal his name (including one panel where he screams "DEADPOOOOooooo~") since Deadpool is the property of [[Marvel Comics]].

** [[I'm a Marvel And ImI'm ADCa (Web Video)DC|And for T-Shirts of this Trope, you can call 1-300-DEADPOO]].

* Also in ''[[Superman (Franchise)|Superman]]/[[Batman (Franchise)|Batman]]'' the story arc, ''With A Vengeance'' features the "Maximums" who are thinly veiled analogues of [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] from the [[Marvel Comics|other guys]]..

* [[Star Wars (Franchise)|Darth Vader]] once fought the [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rebel_Four Rebel Four].

** This occurs several times in ''[[Star Wars Tales (Comic Book)|Star Wars Tales]]'', there are minor appearances of characters from outside the franchisee who appear in the background. Such as [[Toy Story (Animationfranchise)|Buzz Lightyear]], [[Futurama (Animation)|Bender]], a [[Predator]]...among the few characters who sometimes pop up.

* The [[Batman (Franchise)|Batman]] [[Elseworld]] ''Detective #27'' features Bruce Wayne being inducted into the Secret Society of Detectives. Apart from Alfred and the Crimson Avenger, none of the other members are named, but from the way they're drawn, they're clearly intended to include [[Sam Spade]] (or maybe [[Philip Marlowe]]), [[Hercule Poirot]], [[The Thin Man (Filmfilm)|Nick and Nora Charles]], and [[Nero Wolfe]], amongst others.

* ''[[Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog (Comic Bookcomics)|Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' had tons of Lawyer-Friendly Cameos, especially in its early days, like the picture above shows. This even continued on when Knuckles got his own short-lived series. This was actually done by turning them into the various races that live on Mobius or one of Robotnik's robots. Amongst more recognizable ones were a recurring set of Mobians that resembled Mihoshi, Ayeka and Sasami of ''[[Tenchi Muyo (Anime)!|Tenchi Muyo]]'', the infamous [[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sally Moon, Chibi Rose and Tuxedo Knux]], [[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (Anime)|Sonicaman]], [[Spawn|Spawnmower]]mower, and a group of robots resembling [[Mystery Science Theater 3000 (TV)|Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo, and Cambot]] ([http://tohaveacurse.blogspot.com/2011/07/sonic-hedgehog-52-review.html fourth image from the top here]).

* [[Johnny Turbo (Comic Book)|Johnny Turbo]], being a "spokesman" for NEC and the [[Turbo Grafx TurboGrafx-16]], led his personal crusade for the console's superiority not against real-world rival [[Sega (Creator)|Sega]], but against their robot-run counterpart ''Feka''. It's probably pronounced similarly, too, as in [[Take That/Video Games|"Fake-uh"]].

* In ''[[All Fall Down (Comic Book)|All Fall Down]]'', appearances are made by [[Incredible Hulk (Comic Book)|Bruce Banner]], Alfred, [[Iron Man (Comic Book)|Tony Stark]], [[The Powerpuff Girls (Animation)|The Powerpuff Girls]], and others.

* [[The Rocketeer (Comic Bookcomics)|The Rocketeer]] has appearances by several unnamed pulp characters including [[The Shadow (Radio)|The Shadow]] and [[Doc Savage]].

* Aside from color and extra limbs, the dragon form of the emperor from the third film in ''[[The Mummy Trilogy (Film)|The Mummy Trilogy]]'' is virtually identical to the [[Godzilla]] villain King Ghidorah.

* A reporter named Clark, who knows a reporter named Lois, and, uh, might be able to fly, shows up in ''[[Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (Film)|Attack of the Killer Tomatoes]]''.

* A rather strange version occurs in ''[[Spider-Man (Filmfilm)|Spider-Man 2]]''; as Mary Jane [[Runaway Bride|runs away from her wedding]], she passes by a man in a long black trenchcoat. The audio commentary reveals that this man is Thomas Jane's stunt double from ''[[The Punisher (Filmfilm)|The Punisher]]'', and that the character is in fact meant to be Frank Castle; however, as the rights to the two films are owned by different studios, they couldn't have Jane appear as the character.

* Action movie parody ''[[Loaded Weapon 1]]'' includes a cameo by [[Bruce Willis]]. The funniest part is that he is still in costume from ''[[Die Hard (Film)|Die Hard]]''.

* ''[[Murder By Death]]'' was little more than a showcase for such cameos, referencing famed literary/movie detectives:

*** There was also apparently, going to be a [[Lawyer -Friendly Cameo]] for [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]], in the form of "Dame Abigail Christian." The character was dropped when Katherine Hepburn pulled out (due to Myrna Loy refusing appear as Dora Charleston -- sheCharleston—she had originated the character "Nora Charles" in the ''Thin Man'' movies)

* In [[The Teaser]] of ''[[For Your Eyes Only (Filmfilm)|For Your Eyes Only]]'', [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]] kills off a bald man in a wheelchair who looks a lot like Ernst Blofeld. Blofeld and SPECTRE had been [[Exiled From Continuity]] when the film was made.

{{quote| '''[[Hey, ItsIt's That Guy!|Man #1]]''': ''Run! It's Godzilla!''<br />

'''[[Hey, ItsIt's That Guy!|Man #2]]''': ''It looks like Godzilla, but due to international copyright laws, it's not!''<br />

'''[[The Fast and Thethe Furious (Film)|Man #1]]''': ''Still, we should run like it IS Godzilla!''<br />

'''[[Heroes (TV series)|Man #2]]''': ''Though it isn't!'' }}

* [[Bob Hope]]'s Western comedy ''Alias Jesse James'' has a series of famous Western stars making unnamed cameos ([[Maverick (TV series)|James Garner]], [[Gunsmoke (Radio)|James Arness]], [[Davy Crockett|Fess Parker]], [[Roy Rogers]], and many more -- allmore—all in their trademark characters' [[Memetic Outfit|memetic outfits]]) to help Hope's character hold off Jesse James and his family.

* Played with in ''[[Wreck It Ralph (Disney)|Wreck -It Ralph]]''. The title character is basically a human version of Donkey Kong from the 8-bit days, but plenty of other videogame characters cameo as themselves - Bowser, Robotnik, M. Bison, Qberts, Pac-man ghosts, etc. Ralph even goes to an [[Animated Actors]]-style therapy group for depressed villains.

* ''[[House of Leaves]]'': Features appearances by Steve Wozniak, [[Stephen King]], Walter Mosley, [[Anne Rice]], and Camille Paglia, among others, all of whom have quite a bit to say about both the house and the film that it's the subject of.

** Another - ''[[Care Bears|Nice Mice]] Vs The [[Transformers (Franchise)|Garganuabots]]'' - features two races of aliens selling toys of themselves on Earth. [[It Makes Sense in Context]].

** And talking of white dogs - the Red Baron has [[Peanuts (Comic Strip)|an unexplained hatred for one]] in the [[Anno Dracula]] novel ''The Bloody Red Baron''.

* The [[Bernice Summerfield]] novel ''Ship Of Fools'' by Dave Stone features a 25th century space-liner filled with [[Great Detective|Great Detectives]]s [[In Space]], including Emil Dupont ([[Hercule Poirot]]) and Khaarli of Czhanos ([[Charlie Chan]]).

* The ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Film)?|Roger Rabbit]]'' short story "[https://web.archive.org/web/20121003145308/http://mysite.verizon.net/garykwolf/Staytoonedfolks/Staytoonedfolks.pdf Stay Tooned Folks]" features such toons as Sir Lanced Alot (an [[Prince Valiant (Comic Strip)|Arthurian knight with a bowl haircut]]), Poopdeck the Pirate (a [[Popeye (Comiccomic Stripstrip)|bulging-armed, spinach eating sailor]]) and (in a sort of double-whammy) [[Krazy Kat (Comic Strip)|Dr Ignatz Cats]], [[Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist|Head Shrinker to the Muckety Mucks]].

* [[Michael Chabon (Creator)|Michael Chabon]]'s novella ''The Final Solution'' is about a retired detective who, while never named, is clearly [[Sherlock Holmes]].

* In ''[[Good Omens (Literature)|Good Omens]]'' there is the [[Doctor Who (TV)|alien that looked like a pepper pot]], described as ''beeping,'' so... the shout out/lawyer friendly cameo becomes [[Star Wars (Franchise)|a bit of a twofer.]]

* ''[[The Dresden Files (Literature)|The Dresden Files]]'' is [[Reference Overdosed]] enough as it is, but in ''Proven Guilty'', the [[Monster of the Week|Monsters of the Book]] happen to be taking on the forms of horror movie monsters. Most of them just have the names changed a tiny bit ([[ChildsChild's Play (Filmfilm)|Chucky]] becomes Bucky, for instance), but the obviously-a-[[Alien (Filmfranchise)|xenomorph]] is just described. And Harry quotes the movie at it.

* The ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novel ''Camera Obscura'' had an appearance of William the Bloody Awful Poet, which was the nickname Spike from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' had as a human. Also, the ''[[Past Doctor Adventures]]'' novel ''The King of Terror'' has a character from Southern California mention Dingoes Ate my Baby as one of his favorite bands.

* Perhaps the biggest example of "Pushing it" with this trope would be an ''[[Ultraman]]'' episode where the hero fights a monster that looks a lot like [[Godzilla]] with a neck frill attached (And in fact it ''was'' an old Godzilla suit with a collar attached). Said frill is then torn off by Ultraman about halfway through the fight.

* In the 1983 reunion TV-movie ''[[The Man Fromfrom UNCLEU.N.C.L.E.|The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.]]'', Robert Vaughn is helped by a British agent driving a heavily-modified Aston-Martin played by George Lazenby. His license plates have only two letters: "JB". [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WIXI4AfbwA Who could it possibly be]?

* ''[[Goodness Gracious Me (Radio)|Goodness Gracious Me]]'' did a parody of ''[[The Sooty Show]]'' with Sweep's face pixelated to hide his resemblance to the original puppet.

* The [[Canon Dis ContinuityDiscontinuity|disowned]] joke module ''Castle Greyhawk'' for ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' does this a LOT. Some levels in the dungeon are nothing but Lawyer-Friendly Cameos to '80s pop culture icons including ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'', [[Michael Jackson (Music)|Michael Jackson]], [[Marvel Comics]], [[The Blues Brothers]], and even Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken!

* Gary Gygax's own seemingly aborted version of the castle (of which only the top levels have been published due to [[Author Existence Failure|his untimely death]]) were a [[Lawyer -Friendly Cameo]] storm of their own -- manyown—many names and locations had to be changed since they were [[Wizards of the Coast]] IP, even though Gygax tried to keep as much of the Greyhawk feel so that canny DMs could fill in the blanks if they wanted to. In one section, he takes a brief [[Take That]] against TSR, talking of the corrupt city of Dunfalcon...

* A ''Pyramid Magazine'' article about the possibilities of giving superheroes a connection to the [[Cthulhu Mythos]] had several examples, all Lawyer-Friendly Cameos of [[Marvel Comics]] and [[DC Comics]] characters. For instance there was a [[Batman (Franchise)|millionaire vigilante]] who had been possessed by the Great Race of Yith, and was reluctantly considering asking "[[Martian Manhunter|the Martian]]" to scan his mind; a note from industrialist "[[Lex Luthor|L.L.]]" to his research teams about how the alien fungus samples seem to have the ability to take human form, possibly with [[Superman (Franchise)|powers and abilities far beyond mortal men]]; a powerful telepath unable to prevent his mutant-detecting machine from broadcasting the chant of "[[At the Mountains of Madness (Literature)|Tekeli-li]]!" to [[X-Men (Comic Book)|his students]]; and a chant to Nyarlathotep which reveals his [[I Have Many Names|many names]] include [[Silver Surfer|the Surfer in Silver]] and [[New Gods|the Blackened Racer]].

* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (Franchise)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' features the [[Star Wars (Franchise)|Death Egg]] as Eggman's ultimate weapon to destroy Sonic.

* ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (Video Game)|Pokémon Platinum]]'' features a detective [[Doctor Who (TV)|who talks weird, shows up in a lot of places, wears a long, brown coat and gives the player futuristic equipment]].

** Actually, Pokémon makes quite a few references. For starters, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130502040603/http://www.pokefarm.com/wp-content/rotom.jpg Rotom] is based off of [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/Pulseman_box_art.jpg Pulseman] and Volt Tackle is based off of Voltman's signature move. It helps that the creator of Pokémon also made Pulseman, however. Anything outside of that is rare.

* In ''[[Romancing Sa gaSaGa 3 (Video Game)|Romancing Sa ga 3]]'', there is a Zorro-esque character called Robin, and in the credits, said character pulls off Zorro's infamous Z cut (Strongest Foil technique)

* The first print versions of ''[[Shinobi|The Revenge of Shinobi]]'' for the [[Sega Genesis]] featured [[Spider-Man]], [[Batman (Franchise)|Batman]], The [[Terminator (Filmfranchise)|Terminator]], and [[Godzilla]] as some of Joe Musashi's adversaries. To avoid any potential lawsuits, Sega released a revision of the game which replaces Godzilla with a metal skeletal dinosaur and Batman with a winged bat-like creature. Spider-Man was kept as an official cameo (with a new copyrights screen acknowledging Marvel Comics' ownership of the character), since Sega had the Spider-Man license for a couple of other games (namely the ''Spider-Man'' arcade game and the Genesis game ''Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin''). In the Virtual Console rerelease, Spider-Man is now colored pink (Due to Sega losing the rights to use Spider-Man to Activision). Ironically, The Terminator has appeared in all versions of ''The Revenge of Shinobi''.

** ''Shinobi III'', on the other hand, was able to get away with Mechagodzilla.

* In the VGA remake of ''[[Space Quest (Video Game)|Space Quest]] I'', the Droids-B-Us shop (which itself features an android Geoffrey the Giraffe as its logo!) has a "Dalick" for sale, which bears a striking resemblance to a certain creature from ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]''. There's also the robot from ''[[Lost in Space (TV)|Lost in Space]]'', as well as another droid, HA-Y-AO, which clearly was inspired by [[Hayao Miyazaki]]'s ''[[Laputa: Castle in Thethe Sky (Anime)|Castle in The Sky]]''. The Blues Brothers also have a cameo as bar singers.

** There was a robot called the "Def-Tech" resembled a Rifleman [[Battle TechBattleTech|'Mech]]

** ''SQ II'' had a [[Alien (Filmfranchise)|Xenomorph-like]] alien and an ersatz of ED-209 from ''[[Robocop (Film)|RobocopRoboCop]]'', and [[Big Bad|Vohaul]] resembles [[Star Wars (Franchise)|Darth Vader unmasked]].

** ''Space Quest 3'' has Arnoid, a killer robot ([[Terminator (Filmfranchise)|Terminator]]).

*** The garbage ship is full of these, including a "[[Star Wars (Franchise)|bow tie fighter from the Cologne Wars]]" and an expy of [[Transformers (Franchise)|Optimus Prime's head]].

** ''Space Quest V'' featured the rear end of the [[Star Trek (Franchise)|USS Enterprise]] in the Starcon hangar bay. Captain Picard also appears in the conference room on the station. There's also [[Alien (Filmfranchise)|Spike]]. No lawsuits, somehow. Of course, the entire series is filled with this sort of stuff.

*** It wasn't in ''[[Quest for Glory (Video Game)|Quest for Glory]] 2'', though. That was the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|USS Exitprise]].

* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]] 2'' featured lawyer-friendly cameos from Mr. Thriller, Audrey Jr. and Betelgeuse. Yes, '''''that''''' [[Beetlejuice (Film)|Betelgeuse]].

* ''[[Starcraft (Video Game)|StarcraftStarCraft]]'' has a few hero units with oddly familiar names hidden away in the map editor. Examples include the flamethrower-wielding [[Fahrenheit 451|Gui Montag]].

** And Mech pilot [[The Vision of Escaflowne (Anime)|Allen Shezar]].

*** Wraith fighter ace pilot Tom [[Top Gun (Film)|Kazansky]], anyone?

* While ''[[Burnout]]'' normally uses [[Bland -Name Product|Bland Name Cars]], one can download in ''Burnout Paradise'' what are called the Legendary Cars which in no particular order are the [[The Dukes of Hazzard|Cavalry Bootlegger]] (complete with Dixie Horn), the [[Knight Rider (TV)|Carson GT Nighthawk]], the [[Ghostbusters (Film)|Manhattan Spirit]], and the [[Back to Thethe Future (Filmfilm)|88 Special]].

** ''Burnout 3'' also had [[The A-Team (TV)|The B-Team]] van, and the first lorry you get in crash mode [[Transformers (Franchise)|has a particular disguise to it.]]

* ''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'' has the recurring characters Wedge and Biggs, named for the pair in ''[[Star Wars (Franchise)|Star Wars]]''.

** Who also cameo in ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]''.

** ''[[Final Fantasy I (Video Game)|Final Fantasy I]]'' basically used the original ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' bestiary (complete with their original names) in its original Japanese release. To prevent a lawsuit, many of the monsters were renamed (not always sensibly) when the game was first ported, turning many of the monsters into this. This has slowly been reversed as remakes have been made with names more closely matching the originals.

* An early conversation in ''[[Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]'' has Emil and Marta discussing whether the mask that Lloyd dropped reminded them of the one from "[[The Phantom of the Opera|Phantom of the Operetta]]", "[[V for Vendetta|F for Foe]]", or "[[The Man in Thethe Iron Mask (1998 film)|The Man in the Aluminum Mask]]".

* Every ''[[Quest for Glory (Video Game)|Quest for Glory]]'' game features a cameo by at least one famous comedian. The list includes [[The Three Stooges (TV)|The Three Stooges]] in the first game, the [[Marx Brothers]] in the second, Redd Foxx as [[Sanford and Son|Fred Sanford]] ''and'' [[Abbott and Costello (Creator)|Abbott and Costello]] in the third, and a sound-alike of Rodney Dangerfield in the fourth.

** In ''[[Quest for Glory: IVShadows (Videoof Game)Darkness|Quest for Glory IV]]'', one of the farmers at the inn is a Lawyer-Friendly [[All in The Family (TV)|Archie Bunker]].

* ''[[Disgaea Hour of Darkness (Video Game)|Disgaea: Hour of Darkness]]'' does this quite obviously with the infamous ''[[All Your Colors Combined|Prism Rangers]]''.

** The second game also features a conversation with a member of monster-type demon race that's usually considered [[One -Gender Race|female]] for pretty much the rest of the game. At the end of the conversation the monster reveals that it is, in fact, [[Dropped a Bridget On Him|a boy]]. At this point, you realize/remember that the monster in question is named ''[[Guilty Gear|Bridget]].''

** And then there's the third game with not one, but two of the Diez Gentlemen. One is Bo Tie (flip his name around). Then there's [[Yu-Gi-Oh (Animeanime)|Se-To-Oh]], who ironically, [[Yu-Gi-Oh!: theThe Abridged Series (Web Video)|summons a bunch of monsters in one turn]].

* Classic H-game ''Season of the Sakura'' features characters from ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth (Manga)|Magic Knight Rayearth]]'', ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', ''[[Tenchi Muyo (Anime)!|Tenchi Muyo]]'', ''[[Saint Tail]]'', and ''[[Pia Carrot]]'', but given how blatant the references were, this may simply be a [[Shout -Out]] (or an excuse to let fanboys pursue anime girls popular in the mid-90s, when the game was made).

* In ''[[Prototype (Videovideo Gamegame)|Prototype]]'', a fellow who looks suspiciously like Chinese superstar Andy Lau is one of the random civilians. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVK2YRqfah4 For reals].

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'' features a CIA director who is clearly meant to be a stand-in for John McCone (the real DCI at the time), but is never addressed by his name. This was likely done to avoid defaming McCone's person postmortem (since it wouldn't have sat well with McCone's family to depict him as a solicitor for murder), while at the same time maintaining the game's historical setting.

* The Masters in ''[[Mad World (Video Game)|Mad WorldMadWorld]]'' are explicitly said to [[Star Wars (Franchise)|use the For]]---- Magnets! (With that exact wording.) And other reminiscent things.

* ''[[World of Warcraft (Video Game)|World of Warcraft]]'' isn't exempt from this either. In Un'Goro Crater, a gnome [[The Legend of Zelda (Franchise)|wearing a green tunic and cap, named Linken]], sets you on a long quest line that references everything from "Eastern peninsula is the secret", to tossing a sword into a spring and receiving it tempered, to receiving a magical boomerang that deals ranged damage and stuns or disarms. And not too far away you'll find Dadanga, and the hammer-wielding dwarves [[Super Mario Bros (Franchise).|Larion and Muigin]]. The list goes on. The zone is basically one long shoutout to Nintendo, but there are plenty of other examples of this trope in the rest of the game.

* ''[[Gunbird 2]]'' is full of [[Expy|expies]] and [[Shout -Out|Shout Outs]], but the one that takes the cake is the end boss, who attacks with pills, and above all is a [[Lawyer -Friendly Cameo]] of Sato Pharmaceutical's mascot.

* Ownership of Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa from Capcom's ''[[Alien vs. Predator]]'' game is apparently tied up with Twentieth Century Fox, so while Capcom usually uses any [[Crossover|excuse]] to revisit its own obscure characters, Linn's cameos have been limited to hanging out far in the background of stages in ''[[Street Fighter Alpha (Video Game)|Street Fighter Alpha]] 2'' and ''[[Street Fighter III (Video Game)|Street Fighter III]]'' and an unrelated character [[Cosplay|Cosplaying]]ing as her for a split-second during a super attack in ''[[Namco X Capcom (Video Game)|Namco X Capcom]]''.

* ''[[Three D3D Dot Game Heroes (Video Game)|Three D Dot Game Heroes]]'' has direct appearances by Minwu, Josef, Guy, Firion, and Maria from ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'', "Pizarro," Rosy, Alena, Brey, Cristo, Mina, Mary, and Healie the slime from ''[[Dragon Quest IV (Video Game)|Dragon Quest IV]], and the Hero, Bianca, and Flora (and their kids) from ''[[Dragon Quest V (Video Game)|Dragon Quest V]]'', among others.

* The ''[[Super Smash Bros (Video Game)|Super Smash Bros.]]''. series has "Lightsabers" and "Blasters" as usable weapons, even going so far as to using the original sound effects (or at least something similar) for when the items are used.

* And of course we have ''[[Champions Online (Video Game)|Champions Online]]'', with player created wonders such as ''[[Incredible Hulk (Comic Book)|The Incredible Haulk]]'', ''[[Iron Man (Comic Book)|Iron Dude]]'', and ''[[Deadpool|Deadsea]]''. These characters of course look almost the same with maybe a slight color change.

* The 5 to 2 Cafe in ''[[Silent Hill 1 (Video Game)|Silent Hill 1]]'' is lifted from ''[[Natural Born Killers]]''.

* The title cards for the PARANOIA songs in ''[[Dance Dance Revolution (Video Game)|Dance Dance Revolution]]'' display expies of [[Kraftwerk (Music)|Kraftwerk]]'s robot alter egos.

* ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' features the Pyro hat [http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Triboniophorus_Tyrannus Triboniophorus Tyrannus] as a nod to the brain slugs of ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]''.

* ''Mystery Trackers: The Void'' centered on the mysterious disappearance of three fairly famous people, one of whom was horror novelist "Kevin Sting." It also featured a teddy bear in a mailbox that when clicked on, sang the nursery rhyme from ''[[A Nightmare On Elm Street (Film)|A Nightmare Onon Elm Street]]'' in a low, growly voice.

* Each story in ''[[Devil Bear (Webcomic)|Devil Bear]]'' features a "special guest" character that represents a more famous character such as "Winnie the Pimp" instead of Pooh or "Pandatchoo" instead of Pikachu...

* Sonoda Meimi from ''[[Megatokyo (Webcomic)|Megatokyo]]'' is suspected to be Haneoka Meimi from ''[[Kaitou Saint Tail]]''. At one point a character even starts to refer to her as "Myster..."(ious Thief Saint Tail), but gets cut off. (On two other occasions, he only gets as far as "Mys".)

* A supporting character in ''[[Walkyverse|It's Walky!]]'' was a short, quiet girl with coke-bottle glasses named [[Peanuts (Comic Strip)|Marcie]]. No mention is made of what she was like as a child, but it's safe to take a guess. (For bonus reference points, she's [[Ho Yay|openly bisexual]].)

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]'' Rich drops an entire lamp, never mind the shade, on the subject with the Mind Flayer.

* In ''[[The Non -Adventures of Wonderella (Webcomic)|The Non Adventures of Wonderella]]'': "[http://nonadventures.com/2007/12/22/a-christmas-peril/ Mace Windu is a Lucasfilm character. I'm Samuel L. Jackson in a bathrobe.]"

* Meet ''[[Weapon Brown]]''. The comic that is literally constructed wholesale out of this trope. Whether it be the main characters [[Peanuts (Comic Strip)|Chuck 'Weapon' Brown and his dog Snoop]], the [[Dilbert (Comic Strip)|pointy-heared CEO of 'The Syndicate']], [[Calvin and Hobbes (Comic Strip)|CALv1.n and HOBS]], or the currently unknown-in-name alliance of characters including [[Popeye (Comiccomic Stripstrip)|Pops]], [[Prince Valiant (Comic Strip)|Val]], and [[Little Orphan Annie (Comic Strip)|the blind Annie]], you can be sure that you can easily recognise everybody, provided you're learned enough in your newspaper comics.

* [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|Derpy Hooves]] makes a random appearance in [http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/08/29 this] ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' strip.

* Averted in [http://sooniwillrule.blogspot.com/ Soon, I Will Rule The World!], which makes no real bones about the fact that [[Our Liches Are Different|the main character]] comes from a D&D based world with a bit of [[Warhammer (TabletopFantasy Game)Battle|Warhammer Fantasy]] thrown in, with all creatures and gods referred to by their in-game names.

* In ''[[Codename Kids Next Door (Animation)|Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' a kid dressed exactly like Ash Ketchum (wearing Ash's outfit in the original series) from ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]]'' can be seen often in the stands. They were seen together in a couple episodes with large crowds of KND operatives. There was also an expy of [[Kingdom Hearts (Videovideo Gamegame)|Kairi]] in the [[Lotus Eater Machine]].

* Done quite often on ''[[Drawn Together]]''. In "Gay Bash", Elmer Fudd and Snagglepuss (their faces covered by [[Pixellation]]) show up at Xandir's "coming-out-of-the-closet" party. In "Requiem for a Reality Show", a masked Charlie Brown and Natasha Fatale (from ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'') with a black bar over her eyes show up as the new BDSM partners for Foxxy Love and Captain Hero, respectively. In another episode, a down-and-out Wooldoor Sockbat is lying on the street when two characters, one fat wearing a white shirt and green pants, and one slender wearing a blue blouse and off-white pants (whose heads are cut off by the screen) walk by and give him some change. The skinny one, in a voice a little more than very reminiscent of Lois from ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'' (because it was done by the very same actress as Lois), chastizes her pudgy counterpart for it.

** In another episode when Toot, Xandir, and Wooldoor get high off Ling-Ling's sweat, the next day following their hangovers, [[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|Homer Simpson]] can be seen lying next to them.

* One episode of ''[[Megas XLR]]'' featured a villain who was a dead ringer for [[Captain Harlock (Anime)|Captain Harlock]].

** May not exactly fit this trope, but a [[Ghost in Thethe Shell (Franchise)|Motoko Kusanagi-lookalike]] can be spotted in one episode

** In general, Megas is swimming in lawyer-friendly-cameos. Even the titular 'bot has one - before having it replaced, his head looks ''exactly'' like [[Transformers (Franchise)|Soundwave]]'s.

** And then you have the fact that the second time you see Mag Nanimous, his robot has [[Evil Dead (Film)|a shotgun and a chainsaw for arms]] and [[Bubba Ho -Tep (Film)|dresses like Elvis]]. (Of course, considering who VOICED that particular villain, [[Actor Allusion|it's not all that surprising]].)

* An episode of ''[[Phantom 2040 (Animation)|Phantom 2040]]'' features a guest appearance by an "old family friend" who strikingly resembles, but is not named as, [[Mandrake the Magician (Comic Strip)|Mandrake the Magician]], the other famous character created by Lee Falk, the writer who created [[The Phantom (Comiccomic Stripstrip)|The Phantom]].

* In the ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'' episode "Cartoon Wars Part II", Cartman is joined in his quest to get ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'' taken off the air by a kid who's obviously supposed to be Bart Simpson from ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'', but is never referred to by name.

** And in a turnaround, an episode of ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' has Bart and Milhouse watching an unnamed version of ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]''.

*** Which was in turn a reference to the ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'' episode "Simpsons Did It".

* In the ''[[FostersFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends (Animation)|Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends]]'' episode "Eddie Monster", the title characters of ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' and a character looking quite similar to [[DextersDexter's Laboratory|Dexter]] appear briefly in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ93oI8C8xE one scene] near the end of the episode.

* One of the episodes of ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'' has [[Naruto (Manga)|Konohamaru's team]] appear in the background. In another, an orange-haired girl dressed like Sakura is on screen briefly.

* In an interesting case, one episode of ''[[Arthur (Animationanimation)|Arthur]]'' had Arthur and friends writing pilot scripts for a contest. These were all obvious parodies of other popular cartoons. The thing is, most of these parodies were of shows aimed at a- to put it lightly- [[Parental Bonus|more mature audience]], like ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'', ''[[Beavis and Butthead (Animation)|Beavis and Butthead]]'', and ''[[Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist]]''.

** There was also [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] and ''[[DextersDexter's Laboratory (Animation)|Dexters Laboratory]]''. What makes this more disturbing is that each of the stories were actual submissions by kids for a contest to generate ideas for the show. So... yeah.

{{quote| '''Francartman?''': Hey, you squished Buster!}}

** One episode had a Domo plush in the background, another referenced a show called "Judo Kittens" whose characters [[The Powerpuff Girls (Animation)|looked pretty familiar]]...

* ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode where Lisa becomes the school president, which is a spoof of ''[[Evita (Music)|Evita]]'' and ends with a note from the directors that says, "[[Suspiciously Specific Denial|based on the advice of our lawyers, we must say that we have never heard of a musical based on the life of Eva Perón]]".

** In a Treehouse of Horror episode, Groundskeeper Willie refers to Bart's newfound psychic power as "[[The Shining|the Shinning]]" [[You Wanna Get Sued?|for fear of copyright infringement]].

* Possibly due to its anime influence, ''[[Kappa Mikey (Animation)|Kappa Mikey]]'' has a few of these. A few of the guest appearances include a fat, middle-aged [[Speed Racer (Anime)|Speed Racer]], a palette-swapped version of Puchiko from ''[[Di Gi Charat (Anime)|Di Gi Charat]]'', and [[Yu-Gi-Oh (Animeanime)|Yugi Muto]] with ridiculously exaggerated hair.

* In ''[[Beetlejuice (Animationanimation)|Beetlejuice]]'', an episode spoofing ''[[The Wizard of Oz]]'' has the Munchkins (here, giant beetles) greet Lydia (as Dorothy) with "Welcome to the Land of [[Public Domain]]!"

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' has a lawyer friendly version of [[Street Fighter|Ryu]] seen losing to June at arm wrestling at a bar (he's still there the next time they visit and is part of [[Bar Brawl]]).

* [[Our Presidents Are Different|The President]] on ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents (Animation)|The Fairly Odd ParentsOddParents]]'' always appears [[Historical Hilarity|dressed up as]] [[George Washington]] [[Historical Hilarity|or]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] and has [[No Name Given]], but once you hear his voice you can tell he's a parody of [[George W. Bush]].

* The [[Jackie Chan Adventures (Animation)|Shadowkhan]] show up in the antepenultimate episode of ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'', fighting Bushido.

* The opening of one episode of ''[[Justice League (Animationanimation)|Justice League]]'' has a [[Humongous Mecha]] that looks a hell of a lot like a turquoise [[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|EVA Unit 02]].

* In one episode of ''[[Captain Planet and The Planeteers (Animation)|Captain Planet and Thethe Planeteers]]'', Shaggy and Velma from ''[[Scooby -Doo (Animationanimation)|Scooby Doo]]'' can be clearly seen in the backdrop of a school hallway.

* ''[[Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi]]'': One word. [[Yu-Gi-Oh (Animeanime)|Stu-Pi-Doh]].

* ''[[The Venture Brothers (Animation)|The Venture Brothers]]'' plays with this A LOT. Many of the characters on the show are parodies, which doesn't stop them from interacting, or existing alongside, the things they're making fun of. For instance, Dr. Rusty Venture is a parody of ''[[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]]'' - a boy adventurer with a genius scientist for a father - which doesn't stop his bodyguard/Race Bannon parody Brock Samson from being old friends with the actual Bannon, or Rusty from being in a therapy group with "Action Jonny" himself. Not to mention the time that the [[Fantastic Four|Impossible Family]] won a costume contest by dressing as the ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]''.

* The ''[[Duck Dodgers]]'' short "Attack of the Drones" was written by Eric Kaplan and directed by Rich Moore, both of whom worked regularly on ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]''; thus, Zoidberg is clearly visible at the council early on.

** Same scene had a Klingon and The Great Gazoo in the council. Not to mention the Langoliers.

* An early episode of ''[[The Boondocks (Comic Strip)|The Boondocks]]'' contains a background character who, despite modern attire, is clearly modeled after Jin, from ''[[Samurai Champloo (Anime)|Samurai Champloo]]''. [[One of Us|Cowen's a fan. It shows]].

** In another episode, "Guess Ho's Coming To Dinner", there's a girl in the beginning who looks remarkably like ''[[WITCH (Animationanimation)|WITCH]]'''s Will Vandom.

* ''[[Freakazoid (Animation)|Freakazoid!]]!'' loves "The guy who hits stuff with mallets". He's obviously talking about 80s comedian Gallagher, who's main schtick was to hit watermelons with giant mallets. But he's referred to as "Gulliver".

* ''[[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sailor Moon]]'''s Usagi Tsukino appears in the school lunch line in an episode of ''[[WITCH (Animationanimation)|WITCH]]''.

* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls (Animation)|The Powerpuff Girls]]'' episode "Knock It Off", has the villain of the episode sell Powerpuff Girls knockoffs to Japan and when he does, the camera pans to find expies of [[Great Mazinger (Anime)|Great Mazinger]], [[Getter Robo (Manga)|Getter Robo]], and [[Ultraman]] bowing their heads in defeat, along with a giant, face always obscured somehow, Wally Gator.

* In ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show (Animation)|The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'' pilot "Big House Blues" dog versions of Fred Flintstone and George Jetson can be seen at the pound.

** The episode "I Was a Teenage Stimpy" features Stimpy inviting a few friends over; although not named they are obvious parodies of Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones. Jughead can be seen tattooing Archie's back with their high school graduation years which date back to the 1950's to the 90's referring to the fact that [[NotComic AllowedBook to Grow UpTime|the characters never age]].

* Nearly every episode of ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'' has this with characters appearing in a [[Cutaway Gag]].

* Hilariously lampshaded in ''[[Yin Yang Yo (Animation)!|Yin Yang Yo]]'' when referring to a [[Batman (Franchise)|Batman]] villain-like villain.

{{quote| '''Yin''': Is that a [[Batman (Franchise)/Characters/Rogues Gallery/Characters|peng..]]<br />

* An episode of the 70s [[Spider -Man]] cartoon had Peter Parker out of good places to change into costume, so he tried ducking into a phone booth, only to find someone already in it: [[Superman (Franchise)|a mild-mannered gentleman with an unlikely build and glasses.]]

* In the episode "Living Legends" from ''[[The Avengers: EarthsEarth's Mightiest Heroes (Animation)|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'', [[Kim Possible (Animation)|Kim Possible]] and Ron make a cameo.

* After his fallout with [[Marvel Comics]], [[Steve Gerber]] wrote the [[Man-Thing]] character into an episode of the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Animationanimation)|Dungeons & Dragons]]'' television series, for which he was a head writer.

* A slight subversion of this occurs in ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]''; Jetfire was based upon ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross (Anime)|Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]''' VF-1 fighter. While this proved no issue for Hasbro (who licensed it from Bandai themselves), it did for Takara and the character wound up being redesigned (and renamed) so that he could be shown on the show. And even then, [[Bowdlerise|Takara did whatever they could to prevent him from appearing in the Japanese version of the show]]. Hasbro and [[Toei Animation]] on the other hand, were able to use a robot similar to the VF-1 in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OEEncGeu8s Jetfire's first appearance.]

* In [[Fantastic Four: WorldsWorld's Greatest Heroes]] Johnny hires a freelance photographer to take pictures of him and make him look good to the media. The photographer is cut off right before he introduces himself, but he resembles another [[Spider -Man|freelance photographer of superheroes Marvel was not allowed to use do a contract with]] [[Sony]] [[Spider -Man|at the time]].

* When a movie remake of [[The Lone Ranger (Radio)|The Lone Ranger]] was in production, former TV Lone Ranger Clayton Moore was [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_MooreClayton Moore#Lawsuit_over_public_appearancesLawsuit over public appearances|legally prevented]] from appearing in public as the Lone Ranger . . . so Moore varied his costume slightly and exchanged the mask for similar-looking wraparound sunglasses until he won his countersuit.

[[Category:TheMedia CourtroomLaw IndexTropes]]

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