Logo Joke

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
FOX shoots down yet another promising pilot.

Some studios have Vanity Plates that are recognized everywhere. The moment you see a ring of stars swirling into place above a serene-looking mountain, for example, you know you're looking at a Paramount production. That little kid who tosses a fishing line into the water while sitting in the crook of the moon is instantly recognizable as DreamWorks. Such logos, once they climb to a certain point of universal recognition (no pun intended for those people who are watching a globe spin on their movie screens), are a sure fire form of brand name recognition.

Every once in a while, though, a creator will have fun with it. The Vanity Plate will be changed in some way, just enough to put a new spin on it. Match Cuts are also a common form of this.

A very specific type of inside joke. A subtrope of Special Edition Title. More examples in the IMDb's Crazy Credits section, or at the Closing Logos Group Wiki

Examples of Logo Joke include:

Twentieth Century Fox

  • The 75th Anniversary logo ends with a giant "75" lit up in the sky by searchlights while the camera pans up to highlight it.
  • The second to last note of the Alien 3 ident is held for several seconds, rising in crescendo, before cutting off abruptly. (This variation can be heard on the soundtrack album for Predator.)
  • Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel: Alvin appears on one of the searchlights singing along to the fanfare. Simon and Theodore stand nearby singing along as well. Alvin dashes over to join them for the last notes, nearly knocking Theodore off the platform in the process. After they finish singing, Theodore worriedly glances down at the ground as he is still hanging off the edge of the platform.
  • The Cannonball Run ident starts with the familiar theme being "derailed" by sounds of crashing cars and a car chase (between a vehicle and a cop car) that happens in and around the logo.
  • Daredevil DVD: The 20th Century Fox logo turns into something seen though Matt Murdock's enhanced senses. The movie itself has the regular logo.
  • The Day After Tomorrow: The 20th Century Fox logo turns blue and storm starts to appear in the background.
  • The Diary of a Wimpy Kid ident transitions into a paper sheet drawing of the "75"/main logo, which then segues into the opening shot of the film.
  • Die Hard 2: Die Harder DVD menu: Snow is falling during this film's title card.
    • Live Free or Die Hard: The searchlights on the 20th Century Fox logo go out!
  • Edward Scissorhands features an ident that replaces the theme music with orchestral chanting, and the typical yellow colour scheme with snow and a blue background.
  • Futurama: The logo reads 30th Century Fox Television. The logo even appears in-universe, as seen above.
    • They even call it 30th Century Fox Home Entertainment on the DVDs.
  • At the end of the 2006 film Krabat's ident, the background suddenly turns dark and stormy as a crow flies by squawking.
  • Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: A stone-age version of the logo appears, with the searchlights replaced by smoking fumaroles.
  • A TV spot for Independence Day had the logo be progressively darkened by an alien ship's shadow.
  • Replaced in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie by a more decrepit and dark sign.
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus: The "Twentieth Century Frog" logo combined this with the MGM lion, with three hand-drawn frogs replacing the lion. "Twentieth Century Vole" is also mentioned on the show.
  • Moulin Rouge: A conductor in a concert hall with draped red curtains walks to the center. The curtains open up, and footage of the Fox logo plays on screen framed by the curtains as the conductor leads the symphony playing the fanfare, seen below the stage.
  • The trailer for Revenge of the Nerds has the logo crumbling and being replaced by the film's one. Also the searchlights are bright and wave wildly (including the searchlights with never normally move),
  • Robin Hood: Men in Tights has a 12th Century Fox logo. On an actual fox.
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show: The 20th Century Fox fanfare played on a piano rather than by a full orchestra.
  • The Silence of the Hams had a 20th Century Wolf logo (which, confusingly, was also a parody of the MGM logo, with the wolf howling in lieu of the lion growling).
  • The Simpsons: In one Couch Gag, Homer notices the Fox logo on the screen, rips it off furiously, and his family joins him in stomping on it.
  • Speed 2 Cruise Control has the logo being washed by the ocean.
  • The searchlights going out also occurs in FOX Searchlight's Sunshine and 28 Days Later.
  • In the X-Men trilogy and X-Men: Days of Future Past, the "X" in the Fox logo remains visible to the end although the rest of the logo has already faded out.
  • In the 1964 comedy What a Way to Go!, the logo is pink (because Gene Kelly's character in said movie loves the color).
  • In Silent Movie, instead of opening usually, the logo appears a few minutes in, in a billboard.

Columbia Pictures

  • Cat Ballou: The Torch Lady transforms into an animated version of Jane Fonda as a cowgirl who is holding two guns and firing them.
  • Men in Black series: The Torch Lady's torch flashes like a neuralizer. Happens in-universe at the end of the second movie.
    • Trailers also had her wearing sunglasses.
  • The Mouse That Roared: The Torch Lady looks down, sees a mouse at her feet on the pedestal, and runs off-screen, leaving her torch behind.
    • At the end of the film is a title-card sequence where she runs back up the stairs of the pedestal and grabs her torch, via running this opening sequence backward.
  • Thank God It's Friday: The Torch Lady's toga transforms into a disco-themed outfit and she does a dance.
  • Charlie's Angels: The movie begins with the usual Colombia Torch Lady logo. Then the logo pans to the right, as the movie starts off in the sky on a plane.
  • Strait-Jacket: At the end, the Torch Lady's head has been chopped off and is sitting at her feet.
  • Zotz!: As the Torch Lady opens the film, in the bottom right-hand corner is the familiar William Castle director chair. In close-up, Castle points to her and says, "Zotz!" Back in wide shot, the Lady looks down at Castle and speaks, "Zotz? What's Zotz?"
    • At the end, the Torch Lady smiles and speaks, "Zotz all!."
  • The Man Called Flintstone: The Torch Lady is replaced with Wilma Flintstone (who is dressed as the Torch Lady).
  • The Grudge 2: The logo starts as usual, but the torch flickers, briefly causing the Torch Lady to turn into Kayako and the word "COLUMBIA" to turn into "GRUDGE 2."
  • What Planet Are You From?: Annette Bening, co-star of the film, takes her long-rumored place as the face of the post-1994 Torch Lady (a composite is actually used for every other Columbia film of this era).
  • Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: A giant banana falls on the Torch Lady.
  • Eight Crazy Nights: Eleanor (Whitey's sister) is the Torch Lady.
  • Beakman's World: A toy rocket flies around the Torch Lady.
  • The Green Hornet: The torch has a green glow instead of a yellow glow.
    • 2012 has a bright orange glow - though a review said it'd be better if the statue was in ruins, to fit the movie.
  • Superbad: The 70's variant of the logo is shown, but with new text inserted at the bottom of the screen reading "A Sony Pictures Entertainment Company". When the Torch Burst symbol appears, the background becomes yellow instead of black, and then colorful silhouettes of Evan flash across the screen.
  • Wolf has dark clouds in the background, and then another cloud covers the logo.

Disney/Pixar

  • Lilo and Stitch: The Walt Disney Pictures logo gets abducted by a Tractor Beam.
  • One extended-version trailer for and the ending credits of the home video version of WALL-E has the bulb on Luxo Jr. burning out and then being replaced by WALL-E; on his way out he knocks over the R in Pixar and stands in its place.
    • Although the joke isn't necessarily with the Disney/Pixar logos themselves, if you stick around to the very end of the credits, the Disney and Pixar logos are followed by a BnL logo and jingle.
  • The Haunted Mansion has the castle set against the foyer organ, before fading into the roof of the mansion.
  • Enchanted: The camera zooms in on a tower of the Disney castle to show the book on a stand inside, effectively integrating the logo into the animated prologue.
  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire: The logo looks as if it's been hammered onto brass, and the "arch" looks like an electric spark going over the castle.
  • Inspector Gadget: The castle has alarm clocks, waldo arms, and other paraphernalia inside it. The "arch" is a large gear, or half a gear. Done in the first two. Also, at the end of the first film, the Caravan Pictures Guy walks down the road, pauses, and puts his briefcase down. The Gadget Copter emerges from his hat and he flies off.
  • Holes: The castle is rendered in a desert-sand tan, and the arch is formed by a signal flare.
    • The same logo is used for Sky High. The logo itself fades away and leaves a silhouette of the castle as part of a comic-book-style animated city skyline.
  • Teachers Pet: The castle is drawn in the style of the series it is based on, and thus series creator Gary Baseman.
  • Recess: School's Out: After the flash of light, we see the gang standing on the castle and they play out the jingle with their kazoos.
  • Race to Witch Mountain: Darker and Edgier music is used for the Disney castle logo, and at the very end, the castle morphs into a silhouette of the titular mountain.
  • The Wild: The orange light spot rises over the castle (as it usually does), as Samson the lion tells one of his famous stories, only to go back to its place, when his son, Ryan, interrupts him, commenting how he heard that story 'like a billion times.' This happens thrice before it goes over normally.
  • Return To Neverland: A slightly different version of the usual theme played with the spot flying over the castle with a lot more sparkle. A small spot of light is then seen behind the logo as it is projected onto the side of a cloud. The little spot of light (revealed to be Tinkerbell at the end of the opening credits) then moves, causing the logo to vanish.
  • Piglet's Big Movie: The spot and the trail it leaves are pink instead of white. Also, the start of the rendition of the "Winnie the Pooh" theme song for that movie plays over the logo instead of the usual theme.
  • Tron: Legacy: The castle is rendered as a black angular shape covered in Tron Lines.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides featured the Jolly Roger atop the Disney castle and mermaids in the moat.
  • Tangled: 50th Disney Animated Canon film disclaimer in the Walt Disney Animation Studios logo.
  • Sleeping Beauty: The trailer for the 1995 re-release included a clip of the Walt Disney Pictures castle transforming into the castle where Aurora's parents live.
  • John Carter: The opening animation is tinted red.

DreamWorks/DreamworksAnimation

  • Shark Tale: The boy casts his line and the action switches to the worm at the end, which segues into the movie proper.
  • Bee Movie: A bee scares away the boy and takes his place on the moon.
  • Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa: The penguins knock out the boy and take his place.
  • Monsters vs. Aliens: A UFO abducts the boy. Furthermore, the logo appears in grainy black-and-white and in the 3D version appears flat.
  • Kung Fu Panda: A leopard in a coolie hat in a Ninja Run, skips across a body of water, fishing pole in hand, leaping up onto the crescent moon to take the boy's place.
    • Kung Fu Panda 2 picks up on Master Oogway's death in the first film by having him go to the moon and take the boy's place.
  • Medal of Honor: The boy throws away the fishing rod, pulls his rifle and puts on his helmet, jumps on a parachute, and gets stuck in the crescent moon. All of that, while the piano theme tune changes to military fanfare.
  • The Ring: The moon becomes the Ring for a split second.
  • Shrek: The S in both "DreamWorks" and "SKG" grow ogre ears.
  • The Lost World: Jurassic Park for PlayStation and Sega Saturn: The boy's line gets a tug, he exclaims, "Caught something!", and the boy is violently yanked off the moon as a raptor squeal is heard.
  • Small Soldiers for PlayStation, the Commando Elite climb up the line and tie the kid up.
  • How to Train Your Dragon: a Night Fury flies around in the background. This otherwise introduces the new vanity plate for Dreamworks Animation (which exploits the 3D with a more elaborate fishline-swinging).
  • Halloween Special Scared Shrekless: The boy is scared by a wolf howl and hides behind the crescent moon.

LucasArts

Doing the "normal" logo is usually the exception rather than the rule for LucasArts:

  • Jedi Knight series and The Force Unleashed: multiple variations on drawing a lightsaber / using force powers etc.
  • Afterlife, where the Gold Man first falls into a flaming-red lava pit ... and then flies out with a halo and wings into a heavenly white light off the screen.
  • Rogue Squadron: Logo is blown up by duelling starfighters.
    • In the sequel, the shape of the Gold Man is formed by hundreds of tap-dancing stormtroopers.
  • Armed and Dangerous: features three versions of the 'Gold Man' based on the game characters drinking tea.
  • The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition: 80's era Guybrush walks on screen with a treasure map and digs up the logo, which changes to its modern form.
    • Given that the original was released under Lucasfilm Games, there wasn't technically an original logo to dig up...
    • Escape from Monkey Island also had the logo change to a monkey holding a banana.
    • In The Curse of Monkey Island the game starts with the letters C M I done in the style of the THX sound preface, complete with the THX noise, with their slogan replaced with "The monkeys are listening."
  • The end credits of Day of the Tentacle featured Purple Tentacle scaring the Gold Guy away and taking his place.
  • Big Sky Trooper: The Slug leader and a lackey descend on the Gold Man, discuss how it has bones and appears to be an ad, then destroy it - as the Slug leader declares, the two things he hates are bones and advertising.
  • Star Wars: Starfighter: The Gold Man ducks under a starfighter as it flies above him.
  • Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: The Gold Man falls over to reveal a battle droid hiding behind him, who then shoots the camera.
  • Star Wars Episode I Racer: A podracer breaks the Gold Man, who is then repaired by some pit droids.
  • Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles features the Gold Man leaping off of his base and the design above him becoming a lightsaber. Promptly then attacking the screen.
  • Rogue Squadron III: The Star Wars characters dance to a disco version of the main theme, including the Gold Man.
  • Bounty Hunter: Jango ties up the Gold Man and yanks him off the logo, then flies onto it with his jetpack and uses his flamethrower to produce his own golden arc to hold. That gold guy just can't keep his job, can he?
  • In Grim Fandango we see the Gold Man turn into a skeleton, with the ray above also skeletonized.
  • Star Wars: Republic Commando features the Gold man rendered in monochrome and static, in keeping with the Darker and Edgier theme of the game.

Metro Goldwyn Mayer

MTM Productions/Enterprises

Mary Tyler Moore's film company, MTM, uses a logo that is a parody of the MGM logo, using a meowing kitten (owned by Moore and named "Mimsie") instead of a roaring lion. (Sometimes Mimsie is shown as a still image, as seen on Lou Grant, Paris, the theatrical release Just Between Friends and the pilot for Three For The Road). MTM has used variations of its own logo for various shows produced by them over the years.

  • For Christmas Episodes, such as those on The Bob Newhart Show, Mimsie was shown encircled by a Christmas wreath in place of the usual gold ribbon.
    • BUT, the original ribbon appears for a split-second, possibly due to an editing error.
  • At the end of the "Put on a Happy Face" episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary Tyler Moore herself appeared in place of Mimsie and mouthed the words "Th-th-th-that's all folks!"
  • At the end of the 1991 Mary Tyler Moore Reunion Show, Mimsie does not meow, she says "Bye!" in Mary Tyler Moore's voice.
  • On videos produced by MTM Home Video, the kitten holds a remote control. After meowing, the kitten hits "rewind". The picture winds backwards (and loses color), and the kitten meows again.
  • The Duck Factory: Before the logo starts, a voiceover says "And now, where's the cat!" The cat then quacks.
  • Eisenhower and Lutz: Mimsie's "meow" is sung by a group.
  • The Graham Kerr Show: As befits a Cooking Show, the kitten wore a chef's hat.
  • Similarly, on Hill Street Blues, the kitten wore a policeman's hat.
  • Newhart: Bob Newhart's voice says "Meow"—except for the first episode, where she meows normally, and the last episode, where Darryl and Darryl scream "QUIET!".
  • The New WKRP in Cincinnati: Instead of a meow, you hear Les Nessman saying "Ooooh!". There is no sight of a YouTube video with this variant, yet.
  • For Remington Steele the cat wears a Sherlock Holmes deerstalker cap and has a meerschaum pipe in its mouth; when it meows, the pipe falls and lands in front of the word "Productions".
    • Also, there is a mockup on YouTube, but the letters move slowly, and Mimsie drops a gun, firing a hole into an "M".
  • St. Elsewhere: The kitten is dressed for surgery in mask and smock. In the final episode, the kitten appeared beneath the closing credits, hooked up to life support machinery, and flatlined at the end of the credits.
    • By a sad coincidence, Mimsie (the MTM cat) died for real that year, in 1988.
  • The Steve Allen Show: The kitten wears heavy black eyeglasses and declares "Schmock!" in the voice of Steve Allen.
  • The White Shadow: A different kitten from the usual Mimsie bounces a basketball off the MTM logo.
  • Xuxa: The kitten uses the voice of Xuxa saying "Ciao!"
  • The feature film A Little Sex has an animated cartoon version of Mimsie crying, followed by a second kitten appearing; the two then rub heads affectionately and purr.
  • The most startling variation appears at the end of the TV movie/Poorly-Disguised Pilot Vampire, which has "AN MTM ENTERPRISES INC. PRODUCTION" in blood-red against a black background - and no kitten at all!


Mutant Enemy Productions

Note that the variants are all exclusive to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and so the entries refer to episodes of that show.

  • "Becoming, Part 2": The zombie says "Ohhh, I need a hug." (This was the episode where Buffy killed Angel and left Sunnydale.)
  • "Amends" puts the zombie in a Santa Claus hat.
  • "Graduation Day, Part 2" puts the zombie in a graduation cap.
  • At the end of "Storyteller", the zombie sings, "We are as gods!"
  • "Once More With Feeling": the zombie sings "Grrr... argh."
  • "Bargaining, Part 1": the signoff is actually included in the episode itself, with Tara putting on a zombie finger puppet and going "grrr... argh."
  • "Chosen", the final episode of the series: the zombie looks at the camera, growls, then keeps walking.
  • Parodied in an episode of Robot Chicken, with the zombie doing the normal "Grrr... argh." before going on a rampage & killing people. The scene then cuts to show that it's Joss Whedon messing around, as an executive walks in and says, "Come on, Joss. That's why you got kicked off Wonder Woman."

Paramount

Hope: Hey, get a load of that bread and butter!
(Cut to a shot of a snow-covered mountain)
Crosby: Bread and butter? That's a mountain!
(The "Paramount Pictures" logo suddenly appears in front of said mountain)
Hope: Maybe a mountain to you, but it's bread and butter to me!


Universal Studios

  • Serenity: The Universal spinning-planet logo becomes Earth-That-Was, with the colony ships blasting off for space.
  • Waterworld: The Universal Studios spinning-planet logo shows the ocean levels rising up and flooding the continents. The camera zooms into the globe down to sea level, and the Mariner's boat, starting the movie.
  • Xanadu: A recreation of the 1929 Universal globe with biplane flying around opens the film. As the opening credits appear, the globe remains on screen and a succession of increasingly modern flying machines (four-engine airliner, Concorde, flying saucer) emerge from behind the Earth. The music changes in different styles of music as the objects appear.
  • The 'Burbs: The normal Universal Globe appears. The text fades out, leaving only the globe, into which the camera then zooms until it turns into a flyover shot of the town the film takes place in.
  • Casper: The globe turns into the moon.
  • Battlestar Galactica: The Plan: The planet behind the Universal text isn't Earth, but Caprica.
  • The Mummy Trilogy: The text "UNIVERSAL" disappears and the logo turns into the sun.
    • In the third one, it turns around to zoom on China.
  • The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (as well as the first Flintstones film): the Universal logo is made of bones, named "Univershell", and hovers over Pangaea (prehistoric Earth).
    • In the first film it doesn't appear until the Flintstones go to the drive-in (accompanied by the Revue/Universal Television logo music of the 1960s!), whereas the sequel begins with this variation - actually noticed in the movie by the Great Gazoo ("Did anyone else see those big letters circling the planet?").
  • Changeling: A 1920s version of the logo is used - appropriate for a 1920s period film.
  • An ad for Universal Studios Theme Park featured the camera zooming in on the Universal Earth until arriving at the park itself.
  • Jurassic Park 3: The Universal Earth as well as the Amblin Entertainment logo ripple like water from the accompanying T-Rex footfalls.
  • Van Helsing: The Universal Earth is in black and white, and transforms into the flaming end of a torch carried by a member of a Torches and Pitchforks mob.
  • The Remake of The Wolf Man features multiple versions. In one, the Universal Earth moves to reveal a full moon. Another kept the Art-Deco Globe logo featured in the original 1941 version, albeit a darker version.
  • Bruno: to fit with "Brüno", "Üniversal".
  • Doom: Mars is used instead of Earth.
  • Two Fast Two Furious: Earth cuts into a hubcap.
  • Land of the Lost: Uses the 1970s version of the Universal logo.
  • The secret probation edition of National Lampoon's Animal House DVD tile has the universal earth get bigger and bigger until it explodes...with John Belushi's character Bluto exclaiming "I'm a zit, get it?".
  • Inglourious Basterds: The 70s/80s version of the Universal logo.
  • Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band: The 1929 Byplane logo is used since the first scene is a flashback to World War I.
  • Smokey and the Bandit Part 2: Animated versions of Bandit's TransAm and Sheriff Justice's police car chase around the globe.
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. the World displays the logo and fanfare in glorious 8-bit.
    • Actually, the logo looks more 16-bit.
    • Also inverted or something when Lucas Lee makes his entrance to the tune of the original fanfare.
  • According to its DVD trivia track, an early version of Shaun of the Dead scored the Universal logo with sound effects from the fruit machine game Ed plays in the pub.
  • The 2010 documentary Catfish, about social media, replicates the Universal logo by using a computer cursor to spin a mildly pixelized Brand X version of Google Earth. Production companies Relativity Media and Rogue Pictures are pixelized and represented as a desktop icon, respectively.
  • The international release of Josie and The Pussycats had the Universal logo turn into a tongue ring shown on a screaming girl's tongue. Although the film opens with both logos, this variation is not on the US release (which got the MGM logo joke seen above; the joke appears on the logo of the company that didn't release it in that territory).
  • The Last Remake Of Beau Geste had the 1936 “Art Deco Globe” fall apart with breaking glass sounds. Pull back to reveal star Marty Feldman destroying it.
  • Land of the Dead uses the 1929 logo.
  • Hop has an egg-shaped globe.
  • The game Wanted: Weapons of Fate had "UNIVERSAL" in keyboard keys flying over a globe model.
  • Man on the Moon uses "Fanfare for Andy", a whimsical acappella piece associated with Andy Kaufman's wrestling career, instead of the standard vanity plate music.
  • Cape Fear: the logo is underwater.

Warner Brothers

  • Since it's just the unveiling of a shield and a snippet of "As Time Goes By", the WB logo often receives a different tint and audio (generally one that starts the movie).
  • Mars Attacks! starts with the usual "sky-borne" WB Shield, from behind which a Martian saucer emerges and wobbles sinisterly off-screen to the strains of a Theremin.
  • The Matrix trilogy: A special version of the WB and Village Roadshow Pictures logos, made of the running green code of the Matrix itself, appear at the start of the film.
  • Sherlock Holmes: The WB shield, Village Roadshow W, and Silver Pictures square, appear as metal-worked sewer covers on a cobblestone street; the camera pulls back to reveal the street as part of the movie's opening chase.
  • Constantine: The Warner Bros. logo starts out in front of the traditional blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Then the sky and clouds turn red and the logo crumbles and blows away, which is a reference to events later in the movie when Constantine goes to Hell. Again.
  • You've Got Mail: The background changes into a computer screen and the Warner Brothers logo moves to up-left corner.
  • Osmosis Jones: The logo appears as a one-celled organism floating in a dark background.
  • Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird: an animated Big Bird blows up a balloon in the shape of the WB shield and says "Sesame Street is brought to you today by the letters W and B."
  • 300: Not only are the WB and Legendary Pictures logos rendered to look like unearthed ancient gold, but the "As Time Goes By" jingle is also done in a Greek-sounding style.
  • Where the Wild Things Are: Each of the logos are static, and have apparently been drawn on by Max. The WB logo has a "wild thing" sort of shape drawn around it, with Max scribbling over the Time Warner byline and replacing it with his name. The Legendary Pictures logo has Max drawing a monster eating it. The Village Roadshow logo has Max turning the logo into his own name, with the "V" becoming an upside down "A", and a crude sword along the bottom of the logo.
  • RocknRolla: The WB and Dark Castle Entertainment logos are spray-painted onto the side of a brick wall.
  • Unaccompanied Minors: The Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow logos get covered in an avalanche of snow.
  • Batman: The Animated Series: The WB Logo fades into a police zepplin.
  • Batman Forever and Batman and Robin: The Warner Brothers logo morphs into the shapes of the Bat Emblem. The latter has the logo freezing.
  • Superman Returns and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace: The opening logo isn't changed, but the accompanying music has a few notes added at the end, effectively playing the Superman fanfare.
  • Gremlins 2: This movie's 1990 release coincided with the 50th anniversary of the first Bugs Bunny cartoon, so Bugs is lounging on top of the WB shield when it zooms into view. Daffy Duck immediately appears and attempts to usurp his place. The characters reappear during the closing credits.
  • The trailer for Batman Begins had the WB shield dissolving into hundreds of bats.
  • The classic Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodies cartoons traditionally began with the WB shield surrounded by brightly colored concentric rings. Some twists: Many of the classic Bugs Bunny cartoons start with Bugs reclining on the shield, and in some cases pulling down the card reading "Looney Tunes" or "Merrie Melodies".
    • One Road Runner cartoon ended with the Coyote essentially quitting, and placing a sign in view advertising for "one gullible coyote" to speak to the movie theater manager, then pulling the closing "Th-Th-That's All Folks" card onto the screen.
    • "Lumberjack-Rabbit", the only Bugs Bunny cartoon in 3-D, started with the WB shield bouncing toward the audience, nearly filling the screen before settling to its normal size, in an effort to play with the 3-D effects.
    • In "Porky in Wackyland", the Do-Do rides the WB shield as it emerges from the vanishing point, bops Porky on the head and rides it back out of sight.
      • This was also reused for the 2003 Looney Tunes shorts WB made in a short-lived revival attempt (for tying in with Looney Tunes: Back in Action), but the effect was not as convincing.
  • A variation: For many of their TV cartoons and animated movies, WB would use an intro with Bugs Bunny leaning on the shield and eating a carrot while the last few notes of the Merrie Melodies theme plays. Animaniacs replaced it with the last four notes of their theme ("Those are the facts!"), and that was used until 2008 (at which point, a remade intro returned the Merrie Melodies tune).
  • In Tiny Toon Adventures, Wackyland's first appearances showed a WB shield and the 1970s WB "Big W" chasing each other around in the background.
    • Later, "The Making of Kon Ducki" showed the Warner lot's water tower with the caption "AFTER WE BOOTED OUT COLUMBIA." [1]
  • In Green Lantern, the logo as a power ring construct, as well as the DC logo.
  • Yogi Bear has the Warner Bros. logo in green and wood-paneled. The sky in the background is also done in a more realistic style than the animated sky usually seen.
  • The WB shield at the beginning of each Harry Potter movie becomes Darker and Edgier Rustier as the series progresses. The accompanying music is the Harry Potter theme, becoming each time more sinister too.
  • The normally bright sky for the background of the logo is replaced with grim, overcast conditions for Twister; the clouds part briefly to reveal the WB shield and then cover it again. The movie was released outside North America by Universal, however (it was a co-production between the two studios), and it's their logo which is revealed internationally... leaving the impression that the solar system is in the middle of a storm.
  • Mortal Kombat 9 has the camera go around from one side of the WB water tower (with the WB logo on the tower and the normally bright sky background) to the other side (with the WB Games logo and, uhhh, a Mortal Kombat dragon logo skyline).
    • The trailers for Lollipop Chainsaw do a similar gag, starting with the tower having a sparkly rainbow background, then turning around to a darker background with zombies being slaughtered.

Multiple Companies

  • In Zodiac, co-produced by Warner and Paramount, both companies' logos are presented in period-appropriate (i.e., 1970s) versions.
  • Gladiator: The DreamWorks and Universal logos are sepia-toned.
  • In the film adaptation of Watchmen, all of the logos (Warner Brothers, Paramount, Legendary Pictures, DC Comics) are rendered in static, monotone black on a yellow background with the "Futura Condensed" font when applicable, mimicking the cover of the comic book.
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus parodied the 20th Century-Fox and MGM logos in the same sequence.
  • For The Powerpuff Girls Movie, Cartoon Network had every single character that the studio created sitting in a movie theater, continuously blinking their eyes as the projector in that theater started to roll and the camera started to pan out. As the lights in the theater dimmed and the camera had each seat in full view, the eyes, still visible in the dark, continued to blink until they slowly formed the then-current Cartoon Network logo.
  • The Cat in the Hat: The Universal and Dreamworks logos, plus that of Imagine Entertainment, are all drawn and colored Dr. Seuss style. Plus, the Dreamworks logo's kid is wearing the titular hat, and you can see Fish-In-a-Dish swim away in the ripples of the Imagine logo. By far, the only good thing about this atrocity of a movie.
  • Get Smart: The WB logo is a CONTROL-like door, and the Village Roadshow logo is a billboard.
  • Cartoon Network's old "Cartoon Theater" had parodies of the MGM, Paramount and Columbia logos.
    • The third and current "Cartoon Network Studios" logo is a grungy, 1992 version of the network logo that stops blinking when a green scanner runs over it. However, most series/movies have it open up to some rough, animatic-like animation of the main characters (for example, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy has Grim trying to chop off Billy and Mandy's heads).
      • The second version of the logo only had one variation: Dee Dee dances by it, causing some of the letters to spin. Dexter, shortly after, crashes through the logo in a giant robot.
  • Michael Bay Transformers films: While the visuals are unchanged, the logos are accompanied by the transformation sound effect.
    • Though in one fan-made trailer, two of the stars are replaced with the Autobot and Decepticon logos, then the spaceship from the 80's cartoon crashes into the Paramount mountain in a homage to that respective scene from the cartoon.
      • Also, in said fan-made trailer's Dreamworks segment, Cybertron is reflected in the water instead of the crescent moon.
  • Minority Report: Fox and Dreamworks are black and white and look like they're underwater, to fit in the Precog tank opening scene.
  • The final shot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? combines the closing logo-gimmicks of Warner Brothers and Disney, with Porky Pig stammering his "That's All Folks!" and Tinkerbell giving him a parting tap with a magic wand.
  • In The Last Airbender, the Paramount stars are accompanied with splashes of water. The Nickelodeon Movies logo afterwards is on fire, and gets covered by earth.
  • The Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow logos in Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole appear after the film starts and are shown in the sky with Soren flying around them, followed by the film's title.
  • In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the Paramount and Warner logos appear in a pile of buttons.
  • The logos in The Losers are printed on a comic book page.
  • In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, both the Dreamworks and Warner Bros. logos have desaturated colors to match the look of the film proper.
  • In The Avengers, the Marvel Studios and Paramount logos (Paramount sporting a 100th anniversary banner[2]) disappear into a glowing swirling mist, which turns out to be the interior of the Tessaract.

Video Games

  • A large number of games released on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Gear, and 32X had customised versions of the Sega logo at the start. This sometimes extended to the Sega / Mega CD and the Master System, even though their BIOSs displayed a Sega logo of their own anyway.
    • Note that the site says that the logo used for Sonic the Hedgehog was also used in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which is not true:
      • Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 actually had Sonic run to the right of the screen to make half of the logo appear, and then run back to the left to complete the logo. Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 trailers have a black background, with Sonic (In the form of a blue streaking blur) coming towards the viewer three times, the third time in the middle of the screen & leaving the Sega logo in his wake.
      • Sonic 3 and Sonic 3 and Knuckles displayed the Sega logo, then the background turns black and Sonic jumps out from behind the logo. And then the screen flashes white for a second before cutting to the Sonic 3 title screen.
      • Sonic & Knuckles starts out just like the Sonic 3 version, but the background behind the logo fades into Sonic and the Death Egg falling through the sky, with the Death Egg landing in the volcano and causing the Sega logo to shake itself out of existence.
    • Vectorman easily gets the best, where you can play a minigame that might get your game started on later levels if you do well enough and, using an off-screen power-up, you can blow up the Sega logo.
    • Panic!! for the Sega CD opens with the letters in the logo all mixed up so that they read "GASE", accompanied by an edited version of the clip used for the Sonic games: "Gaaa-Seee". Then Slap and Stick (the game's protagonists) fall from above and land on the logo, which snaps back to normal and is accompanied by the standard "Seee-Gaaa!"
    • For K-On! Houkago Live on the PSP, the "Seee-Gaaa!" yell is done by Aki Toyosaki in-character as Yui.
      • Similarly, the Hatsune Miku: Project Diva series of Vocaloid PSP games (done by the same staff as the K-On! game) opens with Miku singing the SEGA sound.
  • The SNES version of Mortal Kombat 2 has a hidden alternative intro: Shao Kahn walks next to the Acclaim logo and taunts it while Kintaro walks in from the right, roars and uses his teleport stomp attack to bend it downwards. Shao Kahn then taunts it again.
    • Another Acclaim example in Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion. The lizard is lounging on top of the Acclaim logo as usual, when lightning strikes it and turns it into a skeleton, which promptly falls apart.
  • Holding the Z-button down on the Gamecube controller while turning on the system would play different music. Gives different results if you hold the button down on 2 controllers, or all four.
  • Rare seemed to like these in the Nintendo 64 era:
    • Banjo-Kazooie has the N64 logo walk into the frame and stop to watch a dragonfly whiz by. After a brief consideration on what it just saw, it shrugs and continues on its way. The Rareware logo then pops up, which is promptly crashed into by the dragonfly.
    • Donkey Kong 64 has the N64 logo dancing to the beats of the opening drums.
    • Conker's Bad Fur Day opens with Conker cutting the N64 logo with a chainsaw. He then replaces it with the Rareware logo, a huge Take That at Nintendo's policy of replacing Rare's logo with their own (cf.: Dixie Kong's hat).
    • Perfect Dark opens with the typical Nintendo and Rare logos looming out of the dark at first, then you are treated to the typical spinning N64 logo... and watch as it slowly changes into a spinning model of the PD logo instead.
  • Neversoft really likes this trope, as seen by the Tony Hawks Pro Skater games.
  • Ogre Battle: Person of Lordly Caliber had a group of soldiers stab a fallen block until they carved out the Nintendo 64 logo.
  • nVidia sponsorship sometimes plays with this. Call of Juarez has you shooting down the logo so that it falls on an opposing gunfighter. Unreal Tournament 2003 had a player punching through the logo, and UT2004 followed that up with a Skarrj pounding him through it.
    • Borderlands has the logo appear without the nVidia voice. Claptrap comes up, pounds on it, sighs, and then the Nvidia voice plays, making Claptrap go "Ta-da!"
  • A Boy and His Blob (Wii): The Boy and the Blob appear on the Majesco Entertainment logo, then the Boy throws a jellybean over to the nearby Wayfoward Technologies logo, which is strangely missing the "O"; the Blob moves over, eats the bean, and turns into the "O".
  • The Homestar Runner faux video game company Videlectrix has a logo with a white man running onscreen, tripping and falling, and then getting up in time with the music. In Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People: 8-Bit Is Enough, Strong Bad himself takes the white man's place when he first enters the Videlectrix mainframe.
    • The Awexome Cross '98 game has The Cheat, inside a tire, run over the Videlectrix guy.
    • Peasant's Quest has the Videlectrix guy, carrying a sword and shield, trip and fall on his sword. He doesn't get up.
  • The early 90's Konami logo featured on their Mega Drive/Genesis, Super NES, and PC Engine games varied a little depending on the system (see them here). For SNES, the laser that shoots out at the beginning of the logo is purple, while the Genesis version is green, and the PCE version blue, and of course, the jingle sounds a little different on all three systems due to their differing sound-chips.
    • Actually, they are even more variations of the standard Konami logo. Playstation games had two major ones : the "Logo coming out of earth" one for Western-released games, and the "Walking Logo" one for Japan-released games ; most of the Tokimeki Memorial games had the games' heroines cheerfully shouting "Konami!" as the logo appears ; and who could forget the legendary Metal Gear Solid Konami logo, which was a Shout-Out to Hideo Kojima's previous game Policenauts?
  • No two Nitrome game will ever show the developer's logo forming in the exact same way. Test Subject Blue has the logo as blobs of Blue Enzyme, in Steamlands it's made out of two steam-tanks blasting away at each other, Fault Line has it formed from the nodes when two screens get joined together, etc...
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles in Time Reshelled featured the four tutles falling into the Ubisoft logo in the same manner they fall into time holes in the game. This was later recycled for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash Up (despite the two games' different art styles).
  • The Star Trek games done by Activision always feature the Activision logo de-cloaking in space, and then getting torpedoed by either the Enterprise-E or the Voyager as they fly by.
  • The Flash game Color My World opens with the Armor Games logo as a billboard in Black And White City.
  • A few Electronic Arts games have the EA Games logo done in the style of the game in question, especially in the Command & Conquer series (for example, where one grows out of Tiberium).
    • Bulletstorm has the main character lasso the EA logo and kick it away, turning it into the Epic Games logo.
  • Another of Ubisoft's includes the Raving Rabbids series. Most notably in Rabbids Go Home, where after the logo appears, the 2-D rabbids seen during level intros run in and swipe the logo in their cart.
  • In Grand Theft Auto Vice City, the opening credits depict the Rockstar Games logo as a Commodore 64-style loading screen.
  • Volition Inc. is fond enough of this trope that they did an official video showcasing all of their Logo Jokes up to Red Faction: Guerilla.
  • Terminal Reality's logo normally depicts a frightening, ghostlike face against a black background with the company's name below it. In Ghostbusters the Video Game, it gets an appropriate sendoff: the name fades out after a second, and a Ghost Trap flies from offscreen left. The ghostly face is satisfyingly pulled into the trap's cone of light, which gives off a puff of smoke and beeps to confirm a successful capture. Fittingly, the game itself uses Columbia Pictures' 1980s-era logo.

Other

  • Lords of Dogtown: The words "locals only" is spray-painted over the TriStar logo.
    • Look Who's Talking Too: The pegasus from the TriStar logo speaks (in a Mister Ed voice, of course of course).
  • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: The United Artists logo is written in a messy Roman font, making it look like "VNITED ARTISTS".
  • The 'Gracie Films' logo at the end of The Simpsons has been altered for comedy a few times specific to the episode. At the end of every Halloween episode, the accompanying bit of music is played on a pipe organ, along with a woman's shrieking in lieu of the logo's usual "SHHHHH!" sound effect.
  • The little boy picking the flower in the Gaumont Films logo gets roundhouse-kicked in JCVD, the Jean Claude Van Damme self-parody film..
  • In the second season of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet the opening Central logo (a white globe) shrinks down and dissolves into a live action shot of a white roulette ball at the start of the opening credits.
  • One episode of Thames Television's The Kenny Everett Video Show had Kenny bursting through the opening logo. The shot was repeated in reverse for the closing logo.
    • Another of Cuddly Ken's programmes replaced the London buildings that made up the Thames logo with women's breasts...
    • One edition of the Morecambe and Wise Christmas shows produced by Thames used a re-recorded version of the Thames logo jingle: "Here they are now, Morecambe and Wi-i-i-i-i-ise!"
    • For the Des O'Connor show, the Thames jingle was played with different instruments. It would then swoop off into the stars, starting off the credits for the show.
    • Armchair Thriller used a nighttime version of the normal logo.
    • For Storyboard, the last note would be reverbed as white streaks would fly in.
  • In the Lakeshore Entertainment title card for Underworld, the normally sunlit sky turns dark, and a full moon comes out.
  • National Treasure, The Jerry Bruckheimer production company had lightning striking a tree as its logo. The thunder sounds accompanying the logo faded into the thunder sounds of the storm in the first scene.
    • Even the "single bolt of lightning" is a reference in itself. The original logo was two lightning bolts striking in the same place from different parts of the screen—being the logo for Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer's company. After Don Simpson's death, Bruckheimer altered the logo to the single bolt of lightning it presently is.
    • Two other Bruckheimer Productions logo jokes: Hurely from G-Force runs on the road and flees offscreen when the lighting strikes, and before The Sorcerer's Apprentice the lighting bolts make the same sound that the Tesla coil lighting makes in the film.
    • For Gone in Sixty Seconds, after the logo frames the lightning tree road, it zooms through the frame and resumes running up the road.
    • Deja Vu has the normal strike, then it rewinds and strikes again.
  • Another ITV company who went along with the Logo Joke idea was Yorkshire Television - perhaps the best remembered example was their chevron logo zooming off like a firework in the titles to game show 3-2-1.
  • Early editions of Tiswas featured the ATV logo running backward. It was eventually stopped.
  • LWT's adaptation of Just William featured the titular character smashing the logo with a catpult after it had formed up. The endboard after the credits rolled showed it being held together with duct tape.
  • The THX logo has quite a few variations, but the funniest is probably the one with the cows.
  • In Tenacious D And the Pick of Destiny, THX: The Audience Is Now Listening is replaced with THC: The Audience Is Now Baking.
  • Doctor Who, "The Five Doctors" 1995 VHS release: The '90's BBC Video logo gets sucked up by the Time Scoop at the end. It was kept on the 2008 DVD release of the story as an Easter Egg.
  • Be Kind Rewind: For British distribution by Pathé, its logo got sweded. (Compare with the real deal.)
  • The logo for Shadow Projects, involved in the production of a number of puppet shows, featured a dog. It would normally be heard barking at the end of one of these shows, but on Bear in the Big Blue House, sometimes it would make a different noise, such as meowing or quacking.
  • Taxi: For the Christmas Episode, the off-screen female voice in the John Charles Walters Productions logo says "Merry Christmas, Mr. Walters!" instead of "Good night, Mr. Walters!"
  • When The Beatles' black-and-white movie A Hard Day's Night premiered on NBC in 1967, the network's "In Living Color" peacock intro was replaced with an animated penguin.
  • Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, The Movie: The Toei logo takes place on a beach. Here, the logo quickly pans to the left, for the first scene is on a beach too.
  • The third part of the Kamen Rider Decade and Double Movie Wars begins on a split screen, representing how Double's chasing of the Dummy Dopant will involuntarily converge with Decade's final battle against Super Shocker. Of course, both screens show the Toei logo twice.
  • At the start of the 2nd series of the original Life On Mars, BBC1 replaced its usual idents with a recreation of the mirror-globe ident used in the early '70s (the show's setting). BBC Wales opted out of this, choosing instead to use their actual model, replete with bilingual Cymru/Wales branding, and an original BBC Wales announcer.
    • Promos for the American Life On Mars featured a 1970s ABC logo and an Ernie Anderson soundalike.
  • The Marvel Comics "Flipping Pages" logo changes with each film, with the pages shown being altered to the series the film is based on—So the Spider-Man films featured images from the Spider-Man comics, and so on. Some films, such as Fantastic Four also alter the color of the Marvel logo from the traditional red to a color more suited to the series.
  • In a movie-oriented skit, Monty Python did a Terry Gilliam animated logo for "20th Century Vole" pictures, with a small furry rodent rising into the MGM crest with a squeak.
    • In And Now For Something Completely Different, it got changed to "20th Century Frog" along with a croaking frog in the crest. Either done because it sounded better or because it was assumed international moviegoers wouldn't know what a vole is.
    • A later episode opens with the actual Thames logo, followed by a Thames announcer stating, “We’ve got an action-packed evening for you tonight on Thames but right now, here’s a rotten old BBC programme!”
  • An example at the end of an episode: the A.K.A. Cartoon logo at the end of every Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy episode is remarkably different in every season, episode and even The Movie.
  • The indie film Undertow used the early 1980's version of the United Artists logo rather than the current United Artists logo as the film's director wanted the logo to tie in with the film's setting.
  • There was a parody of the NBC peacock on "Laugh-In" where the peacock sneezes her feathers off.
  • Attack the Block has an all-black version of the Studio Canal logo, to match the colors of the film's aliens.
  • Community is "A Dan Harmon/Russo Brothers...
    • "...Tantrum."
    • "...Blood Pact."
    • "...Native American History Exhibit."
    • "...Spectacle." And so on...
  • The Knights Of Prosperity had the B, & and B of the B&B animated logo perform a different magic act on every episode, such as the ampersand ("The Amazing Ando" - get it?) sawing the two B's apart.
  • The South Park first person shooter game had the iguana from Iguana Entertainment's logo bite Kenny's head off.
  • When The Nostalgia Critic reviewed Moulin Rouge (see above), he parodied said film's variation of the Fox logo, except with Chester A. Bum conducting the Channel Awesome fanfare.
  • Google does this frequently, to celebrate an event, whether minor or major. They're called Google Doodles.
  • The otherwise forgettable 1971 film The Christian Licorice Store doesn't have the Cinema Center Films logo (or indeed the title of the film) until about 15 minutes in when a character starts running a film on a home projector and the logo (and title) come up on screen. On the screen in the film, that is.
  1. ↑ Columbia Pictures had been renting half of the Warner lot from WB since 1972, and WB's purchase of Lorimar also got them the old Metro Goldwyn Mayer lot -- which they promptly sold to Columbia not long after Sony bought them.
  2. ↑ though the logo is only there due to Executive Meddling, Marvel's parent company Disney is distributing the movie
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