Celebrity Survivor: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''[[The Soup|Mankini]]:''' We're all that's left of ''[[The Soup]]''... Everyone in [[E!|this building]] was infected except for us. You know what that means?<br />

'''Mankini:''' Infected.<br />

'''Glenn:''' Kendra?<br />

'''Mankini:''' Infected.<br />

'''Mankini:''' Eh, it's hard to tell.|''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vAvmyTvFJ4 Soup of the Walking Dead]''}}

 

 

This is when, in a work set in a post-apocalyptic world, a [[Disaster Movie]], or a similar survival situation, the main characters meet a person who was a rich and famous celebrity before everything went to hell -- an actor, director, athlete, model, musician, or even a [[Reality TV]] star. Expect them to be asked about their work in better times -- or, if they're not recognized at first, "have I seen you before?". Often used to make a point about [[Celebrity Is Overrated|the fleeting nature of stardom]] or about our society's obsession with celebrities -- we'll have much more important things to care about when the world comes to an end, at which point we'll all be knocked down to the same level. There is, of course, a more obvious use for this trope, and that is to fulfill the audience's desire to see [[Break the Haughty|rich and haughty celebrities getting put through hell]]. Just because you're famous doesn't mean you're immune from disasters and apocalyptic scenarios. Indeed, if karma's feeling like you've been a bad role model or a plain old [[Jerkass]], it's likely to [[Sorting Algorithm of Mortality|come down harder on you]] for being the snooty celebrity.

* Something of a subversion in ''[[The Walking Dead]]'' -- Tyreese used to be a pro football player, but he was already washed-up by the time the [[Zombie Apocalypse]] started. It's also stated that he was a pretty crappy player, and retired after just a few years. Played straight with Douglas, a former congressman.

* Not so much an [[After the End]] scenario as a [[Day of the Jackboot]] one, but Valerie in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', an acclaimed actress who was sent to a concentration camp for being a lesbian, possibly qualifies. She wasn't much of a survivor, though (although [[V for Vendetta/WMG|one fan theory]] holds that she became V).

** Epiphany is a Canadian [[Idol Singer]] who found herself stuck in Japan during the [[Gendercide]]. She uses her wealth, charisma and [[Teen Idol|popularity with teenage girls]] to rebuild the [[Yakuza]].

** Waverly is a former supermodel who found that her job is now obsolete, with no men left to ogle her and with women no longer caring about dolling themselves up to impress said men. She now works as, essentially, a garbage lady, collecting and disposing of all the dead men left behind.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[The Player]]'' has this as the plot of a proposed [[Show Within a Show|Film Within A Film]]. Producer Griffin Mill hears a movie pitch from two writers with a story about a TV actress who is found and worshipped by an African tribe; the story is described in a nutshell as both "''[[The Gods Must Be Crazy]]'', but the Coke bottle is replaced with a TV actress" and "''[[Out of Africa]]'' [[X Meets Y|meets]] ''[[Pretty Woman]]''." The drama would boil down to the actress having to choose between staying on the TV show or with the African tribe.

* The [[Kevin Costner]] film ''The Postman'' ([[Inspired By]] the [[David Brin]] novel) had [[Tom Petty]] playing himself as the mayor of Bridge City.

* ''[[The Poseidon Adventure|Poseidon]]'' (the 2006 remake of ''[[The Poseidon Adventure]]'') gives us former [[New York City]] Mayor [[Kurt Russell|Robert Ramsey]] as the leader of the survivors, and the ship's star singer Gloria as a disposable early victim.

* ''[[Piranha 3D]]'' has, among its cast of characters, a sleazy producer of ''Girls Gone Wild''-esque videos, as well as a pair of porn stars who are shooting his latest video. [[Red Shirt|None of them make it to the end of the film.]]

** The sequel has [[David Hasselhoff]] as a [[Jerkass]] [[Adam Westing|version of himself]] at the opening of a waterpark. When someone asks him for help during the piranha attack, he remarks that "that's what natural selection's all about".

* Two of the survivors at the end of ''[[Mars Attacks (Film)|Mars Attacks!]]'' are a former World Heavyweight Champion boxer... and Tom Jones. The latter case is particularly ironic, since up to that point the film had [[Kill'Em All|gruesomely killed off]] its entire [[All-Star Cast]].

* In ''[[Scary Movie]] 4'', rapper Chingy is one of the many people abducted by the aliens. Since this is ''[[Rule of Funny|Scary Movie 4]]'', naturally he gets his own VIP section in the holding area, complete with alcohol and women.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In the beginning of Stephen King's ''[[The Stand]]'', Larry Underwood is a musician who's just had his first big hit with the song "Baby, Can You Dig Your Man?". And then the Superflu hits before he can release his second single. Since he's such a new name, he's easily forgotten about in the ensuing chaos, and by the time he meets other people he doesn't care much about fame anyway and decides to return to obscurity (so much so that when someone starts singing a snatch of his song later in the book and asks him, "....say, wait, who was the guy who wrote this song? I can't remember," he claims he doesn't know).

* In one short story, a woman and a man find each other in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The woman pulls out a fashion magazine, points at one of the models and tearfully tells him "that's me." The man nods, pulls out a newspaper, points to the headline and says proudly "That's me." The headline says {{spoiler|"HATCHET KILLER STRIKES AGAIN."}}

* This is essentially the premise of the [[Reality Show]] ''[[I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here (TV)|I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here]]''.

* Charlie and Nikki on ''[[Lost]]'' were, respectively, a drugged-out rock star and an actress who got stranded on a desert island after a plane crash.

* Referenced in an episode of ''[[Jericho]]''. As Skyler is flipping through some of the old tabloids at Dale's general store, she wonders aloud if [[Lindsay Lohan]] survived. Her friend chastises her for this, asking why she still cares about celebrities in a time like this.

* Invoked in the ''[[Smallville]]'' episode "Apocalypse", where Clark goes to an alternate future where he never arrived on Earth and Lex Luthor became President. [[President Evil|President Luthor]] plans to provoke a nuclear war, but before he does, he has the military secretly shuttle the country's best and brightest (which presumably includes a fair number of famous scientists and businessmen) to bunkers so that they will be the largest group of survivors, this planting the seeds for Lex's idea of a "perfect" world... led by Lex of course.

* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica]]'' has Starbuck run into a band of survivors who used to be a professional sports team before the nuking of Caprica, who only escaped the initial blast because they were [[Slept Through the Apocalypse|training up in the mountains]].

** Before the Cylon attacks, Gaius Baltar was also a well-known scientist and proponent of re-developing advanced computer technology.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Reed and Roger, two stage magicians who are equal parts [[Penn & Teller]] and Siegfried & Roy.

** Angel Lust, a rock band that throws a concert right in the middle of the zombie-infested Fortune City Strip, and wipes out a whole crowd of zombies with [[The Power of Rock]].

* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'', Vault 92 was populated with famous musicians, ostensibly to preserve artistic talent in the wake of [[World War III]]. In reality, the Vault's intention was far more sinister -- the people inside were being [[Brainwashed]] through [[Subliminal Seduction]] as an experiment in creating [[Super Soldier|super soldiers]]. Naturally, it [[Gone Horribly Wrong|went horribly wrong]], with about a third of the occupants being driven insane and killing everyone inside.

* The zombie game ''[[Dead Island]]'' has a rap star named Sam B and a former football player named Logan as two of the playable characters.

* Zombie-infested [[Vehicular Combat]] game ''[[Blood Drive]]'' has [[Punk Rock]] frontman Bedlam and [[Professional Wrestling|wrestler]] Superstar, who've both found new careers in zombie-splattering TV entertainment.

* Augustus Cole from ''[[Gears of War]]'' was a famous Thrashball<ref> which looks like Arena Football</ref> player before Emergence Day. Dom and Marcus gush about him a bit when they first meet.

 

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

** The main group also runs into one Monte St. Clair, a [[Roger Corman]]-esque horror movie producer who {{spoiler|turns out to be responsible for the [[Zombie Apocalypse]]. In order to give his new zombie movie ''Evilution'' a killer gimmick to draw in crowds, he hired someone to develop [[The Virus]] so that he could put real zombies into the movie.}}