39,327
edits
Fictional Counterpart: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (→Web Comics: fixed broken external link in quote markup) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 14:
== Anime and Manga ==
* "Bif Standard" and his "Standard OS" in ''[[Pretty Sammy|Magical Girl Pretty Sammy]].''
* WcDonalds in just about any [[Anime]] that needs a McDonald's stand-in. Except in ''[[
** Or "''M''cdoness burger" in ''[[Darker Than Black]]''. About as subtle.
** Or ''[[Parasyte]]'' where it is literally actually called McDonald's
Line 20:
* Shows about ''[[Otaku]]'' will sometimes have fictional versions of the Comic Marker/Comiket convention in Tokyo. In ''[[Genshiken]]'' this is Comic Festival/Comifes, and in ''[[Comic Party]]'' this is Comic Party/Comipa.
** ''[[Genshiken]]'' also occasionally makes thinly veiled references to real anime series: "''Gungal''" for ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', for example. Most of the time, however, when they want to talk about an anime they'll just use ''[[Kujibiki Unbalance]]'', the [[Show Within a Show]].
* In the ''[[
* Similarly, ''[[Ghost in
* ''[[Toradora
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' uses "Starbooks".
* ''[[Melody of Oblivion]]'', meanwhile, features "Starducks".
** In ''[[The World God Only Knows]]'' it's "Starbox".
* ''[[
* [[Hayate the Combat Butler
* ''[[Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu]]'' has "Pachimon", a game that seems to be similar to ''Pokémon''.
* ''[[Japan Inc]]'' had several - the car firms Toyosan, Mitsutomo, Chrysky; the US TV station CBN...
Line 54:
* ''[[Shrek]]'' is packed with [[Fictional Counterpart|Fictional Counterparts]], with most of the parodies being a twist on the name to match the medieval feel. Examples include Friar's Fat Boy (Bob's Big Boy aka Frisch's Big Boy in some parts of the country) and Farbucks (Starbucks).
* Similar in ''[[Shark Tale]]'', with billboards for Coral Cola and Gup, among others. Some are so close that they actually required permission from the real companies, turning parody into product placement.
* In ''[[
* When Zack Snyder started his screenplay for the 2004 ''[[
** On the other hand, Hallowed Grounds is a great name for a coffee shop.
* In the ''[[
* ''[[Michael Clayton]]'': U-North clearly resembles Monsanto, who obviously wouldn't have given permission to be portrayed so unambiguously evilly.
* Mooby's in ''[[Dogma]]'' is a stand-in for both McDonald's (Egg-a-Mooby-Muffin) and Disney (bi-coastal theme parks).
Line 65:
** Brawndo was created because they couldn't get permission to use the Gatorade brand. Fortunately for us, it's now a [[De Fictionalisation|real]] [http://www.brawndo.com product]. It's an energy drink now, but it's still got what plants crave.
** This was basically a recasting of the "Powerthirst" commercials on [[YouTube]] (with that group's permission) which themselves were parodies of energy drinks (most closely resembling ''Monster'' in their packaging.)
* The 1994 remake of ''[[Miracle
* Quentin Tarantino is quite fond of stand-ins, such as Big Kahuna Burger and Apple brand cigarettes in ''[[Pulp Fiction]]''.
* The "McDowells restaurant in ''[[Coming to America]]'' is essentially McDonald's with a few minor cosmetic changes. This is hilariously parodied and lampshaded, in that the owner, Mr. McDowell, is very defensive about these cosmetic changes and lives in perpetual terror of McDonald's's lawyers calling him out about this.
* Based on the similarity of the logos, Lobster Shack in ''[[
== Literature ==
* ''[[
* In ''Pendennis'', William Makepeace Thackeray had the hero attend [[Oxbridge]] University, whose counterpart was called Camford. Also, in ''[[Vanity Fair]]'', several of the male characters attended the public school called Slaughter House- this is a reference to Charterhouse which Thackeray himself attended- it alludes both to the real school being situated near a slaughter house and to the sadistic corporal punishment there.
** Relatedly on the sadism issue, Samuel Butler's ''The Way of All Flesh'' has a Roughborough standing in for Rugby.
* The [[Sherlock Holmes]] story "The Adventure of the Creeping Man" is set in the British university town of "Camford", very obviously a [[Fictional Counterpart]] for one of the renowned university towns of Oxford or Cambridge. This makes this one [[Older Than Radio]].
* ''[[
* Greg Bear's book ''[[
* In ''[[The Confidence Man]]'', [[Herman Melville]] satirizes writers of the time by giving them expies in the story; Charlie Noble is based on Nathaniel Hawthorne; Mark Winsome is Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the beggar is Edgar Allan Poe.
* [[Neal Stephenson]]'s ''[[Cryptonomicon]]'' includes a Linux analogue called "Finux", specifically so he could do what he wanted with it without being constrained by its real-life attributes.
Line 84:
== Live Action TV ==
* [[Donald P. Bellisario]] series ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[So Weird]]'', the "Star Dot Star" company is a fictionalized version of Microsoft.
* Most espionage series feature fictionalized counterparts of the CIA and KGB: U.N.C.L.E. in ''[[The Man
** In the 2008 movie version of ''[[Get Smart (
*** Happened in the original, too. There was an episode where CONTROL found out that the CIA, the FBI and Naval Intelligence all had agents on the same case.
* Angel Grove, the setting of the first five seasons of ''[[Power Rangers]]'', is generally considered to be the fictional counterpart of Los Angeles. More elaborate theories speculate that the name shift is the result of the show being set in an alternate history where England, rather than Spain, colonized California.
** Also, "NASADA" is a fictional counterpart to NASA in ''Power Rangers in Space'', though NASA seems to also exist at other times in the franchise.
*** One of Japan's space agencies is NASDA, so couldn't "NASADA" be NASA + NASDA?
* In the original ''[[Doctor Who]]'' series, UNIT, the British paramilitary division that investigated alien phenomena, was indisputably stated to be a branch of the United Nations (the acronym standing for United Nations Intelligence Taskforce). The UN, however, complained about having its name associated with the 2005 series, when the Ninth Doctor referred it by the former acronym in "Aliens of London". By series 4 of ''Doctor Who'' and series 2 of the spinoff ''[[
** In series 1 of the 2005 revival, Rose is shown as working in a department store called Henriks (alternately spelled Hendriks in other shots), another fictionalised variant of Harrods. The logos for the two companies are extremely similar.
* CTU in ''[[24
** Not to mention Starkwood, which is a shameless copy of Blackwater (the private military company).
* Similarly, Blackthorne in ''[[The Unit]]'' is also an obvious stand-in for Blackwater.
Line 103:
* ''[[Slings and Arrows]]'' is set around the New Burbage Festival, a [[Shakespeare]]-oriented theater festival which is thinly veiled version of the Stratford Festival of Canada.
* "Calsci", the fictional university in ''[[Numb3rs]]'', is basically [[wikipedia:Caltech|Caltech]] in everything but name--right down to the full names (California Institute of Science vs. California Institute of Technology), and the location (somewhere in Pasadena.) Not surprising, considering several of the show's consultants are Caltech faculty, and some of the show has been filmed there.
** "Pacific Tech" plays the same role in the movie ''[[
** "Pacific Tech" also appears in the 1953 ''[[War of the Worlds]]'' film and the television series based on it.
* Averted in ''Jake2.0'', where most of the cast are NSA agents. Of course, it's a highly glamorized NSA, but hey.
* In the original miniseries of ''The 4400'', the lead characters worked for an organization that was called the Department of Homeland Security, but which functioned more like the FBI with its own agents and field offices (the real DHS is a cabinet department that coordinates the efforts of such domestic security agencies as the Customs Service, Coast Guard, Border Patrol, Secret Service, Transportation Security, etc.). Essentially this DHS was itself a [[Fictional Counterpart]] of the FBI, and a case of [[Did Not Do the Research]]. In subsequent seasons, it was renamed NTAC (National Threat Assessment Command) to correct this.
* ''[[Smallville]]'' has occasionally featured the Department of Domestic Security (or DDS, which makes it sound like it consists of dentists).
* Ben Browder's character in ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Drake and Josh]]'', ''[[Zoey 101]]'', ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[Zoey 101]]'' : The jPhone instead of the iPhone, as well as more of those Pear computers common to all Dan Schneider Nickelodeon shows.
* ''[[Reaper]]'': "Work Bench" is Home Depot, or maybe Lowes.
* ''[[Chuck]]'' : "Buy More" is Best Buy (though they actually originally filmed at a [[Comp USA]]), and "Orange Orange" is Orange Julius.
** Orange Orange is more likely a representation of frozen yogurt places like [http://www.redmangousa.com/default.html Red Mango] or [http://www.pinkberry.com/ Pinkberry], with its [[Useful Notes/Fonts|typeface]] and minimalist decor, as well as the color associations.
* Cancer Man/CSM from ''[[
** Morley cigarettes first appeared in an episode of [[The Twilight Zone]] in 1963, [[William Shatner]]'s character in 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet', has a pack.
** Morley's have since been used in a couple of dozen shows, movies and comics according to [[wikipedia:Morley chr(28)cigarettechr(29)|this page]] at [[The Other Wiki]].
* ''[[Spooks]]'' does this a lot. One episode featured Not Robert Kilroy Silk joining Not The BNP.
* Oceanic Airlines on ''[[
** Oceanic Airlines deserves its own trope listing, being the go-to airline for any movie where you want something bad to happen to an airliner, but don't want to name any real airlines. Due to the use of [[Stock Footage]], and presumably due to the limited availability of airlines painted in fictional livery for filming movies, Oceanic Airlines has appeared in over 20 different movies and TV shows. It could be considered a Metafictional [[Running Gag]] for the film and television industries.
** Also, American Pride is an airline in the TV miniseries ''[[Stephen King|The Langoliers]]''.
Line 140:
*** A similar situation occurs with players who are not members of the Major Baseball Players Association. Any player who played during the 1994 work-stoppage is barred from membership in the MLBPA and hence is not a part of any licensing agreement for player names. So these players, who may still be playing baseball (at least up until a few years ago, maybe of them have since retired) are often replaced with a "Joe Everyman" name in the games.
*** He's hardly the first. Michael Jordan and Pele were treated similarly when they asserted control over their image.
* In ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War
** Which is actually rather a subtle [[Shout-Out]], as Queequeg's and Pequod's seem to engage in fierce competition {{spoiler|although they are just two brands owned by the same corporation}}.
* ''[[Escape
* [[
** [[
* Throughout the ''Nancy Drew'' series of PC games, a brand of chocolate bar called 'Koko Kringle' is enjoyed by various suspects and background characters. When Nancy finally gets to eat one in game #17, the unwrapped bar has its name embossed on its surface, closely mimicking the brand names on Hershey bars.
** Koko Kringles could also be considered a [[Shout-Out|shout out]] or [[Easter Egg
** Danger by Design, at least, has a tin of "Pricsy Colors", whose tin closely resembles that of some Prisma color boxes.
* The ''[[Space Quest]]'' series of games tends to require a trip to "Monolith Burger" (the SQ universe's McDonald's) in order to complete the game.
Line 158:
== [[Web Animation]] ==
* The PriceCo Supermart in ''[[Banana
* In ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', distinctly Apple-inspired computers are branded as Tandy, which, ironically, was an actual real-world computer brand.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[
* [[Candi]] has "Moonbucks" where some characters work.
* ''[[
{{quote| '''[http://egscomics.com/?date{{=}}2010-03-12 Mr. Dunkel]''': You will have to brave the labyrinth that is ''SWEDEKEA''.}}
* ''[http://deadmetaphor.comicdish.com Dead Metaphor]'' features mock brand names and logos on nearly every page, with often dirty jokes.
* ''[[Think Before You Think]]'' shows ''Barn & Stable'' as a book store in the background of [http://thinkbeforeyouthink.net/?comic=20090627-indecision this comic].
* In [[
== Western Animation ==
Line 193:
* In ''[[The Berenstain Bears]]'' cartoon series, little Sister Bear and her pals are routinely seen playing with 'Bearbie' dolls, whose inspiration is obvious (to the point of gentle parody, as in the Golden-Furred Bearbie).
** In the books Mama gets exasperated at the way that Sister keeps begging for the newest accessories, in a subtle [[Take That]] to Mattel.
* ''[[Dan Vs.]]'' "The Salvation Armed Forces" has both the eponymous organization and Greatwill.
* In the ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' episode "A Fistful Of Energon", Sari and Bumblebee are said to be off visitng, sorry, on a [[Blatant Lies|"fact-finding mission"]] at [[wikipedia:Six Flags|'Five Banners]] Rollercoater Kingdom'.
| |||