Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Difference between revisions

For ''very'' suspiciously similar substitutes, see [[Backup Twin]]. Compare [[Discard and Draw]], which does the same sort of thing with superpowers instead of characters. The [[Inverted Trope|inversion]], where the ''same'' character fills a ''different'' role, is [[Same Character but Different]].

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Patlabor]]'', Takeo Kumagami replaces Kanuka Clancy after Clancy returns to America. They have very similar skills and fulfill the same police positions, although Kumagami is given a few quirks to distinguish her.

* Scattorshot in ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'' is an [[Expy]] of Ironhide from ''[[Transformers Energon]]''. Likewise, the Jones family in ''Energon'' is this to the Witwickys from ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]''.

== Comic Books ==

** As a long-running tradition in ''X-Men'', the team roster ''always'' has to include one plucky, [[Badass Adorable]] teenage girl who adopts [[Wolverine]] as a [[Big Brother Mentor]]. When the character grows out of the role, she's always replaced by another one. Kitty Pryde started the tradition, and her replacements have included Jubilee, Marrow, Armor, Pixie, and [[X-23]]. Marrow shook up the tradition a bit by having Gambit as her mentor instead, but the writers cut out the middleman with X-23 by making her Wolverine's [[Distaff Counterpart|female clone]] (the closest thing to an actual little sister Wolvie's ever going to get).

* Parodied in ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]: The Black Dossier'', where we're told the British Government, in assembling the 1950s League, tried to find substitutes of the ''entire'' 1890s League. It didn't work.

* Lana Lang started her existence blatantly filling the role of [[Lois Lane]] when they started telling stories about Superman's childhood as [[Superboy]]. Unlike her modern incarnation, she was both the love interest and the nosy inquisitive girl always trying to prove Clark was Superboy.

* The early 1960s ''[[Doctor Who]]'' comics had the Trods, who were a suspiciously similar substitute for the Daleks, who were unusable at the time due to the rights to publish Dalek comics being in the hands of a different company.

== Film ==

** This is changed in the [[Animated Adaptation]], where Mauser becomes a good guy, whereas Harris remains an antagonist.

** Also, when Steve Guttenberg refused to reprise his role as Sgt. Mahoney for the 5th and 6th movies, Commandant Lassard's nephew Nick was brought in to fill Mahoney's shoes, while the 7th movie had a cadet named Kyle Connors also fill the very same spot.

* Roman in ''[[Two Fast Two Furious]]'' replaced Dominic from ''[[The Fast and the Furious]]'' as the [[Anti-Hero]] with a criminal past. Though it's worth noting that Brian is now the main character with Roman as his sidekick, instead of co-lead with Dom.

** Both Roman and Dom are back in ''[[Fast Five]]''.

* [[The Three Stooges|The Third Stooge]]. While Shemp was not Suspiciously Similar, Curly Joe was trying to copy the more popular (than Shemp) original Curly.

** Curly had ''two'' Suspiciously Similar Substitutes: Joe Besser and (Curly) Joe DeRita.

== Literature ==

* ''[[In Death]]'' series: ''Eternity In Death'' has Eve and Peabody questioning the housekeeper who worked for the murder victim. Then they go to see the murder victim's friend, whose housekeeper might have been a clone of the previous one. The story states that the two housekeepers are sisters.

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''. Jonas Quinn was sort of like Daniel Jackson... but from another planet! However, after Michael Shanks decided to return as a regular, Jonas Quinn was abruptly and permanently written out of the series at the beginning of the seventh season.

** Quinn sometimes had knowledge that made very little sense for an alien. Daniel, of course, was a linguist and archaeologist who had spent his career studying Earth languages and cultures. How Quinn, an alien, was able to spontaneously recognize markings on an alien ship as similar to ancient Celtic is unclear.

* Current [[Yes]] vocalist Benoït David sounds quite a lot like erstwhile Yes vocalist Jon Anderson. This probably isn't surprising since they plucked him out of a [[Ascended Fanboy|Yes tribute band]]. Trevor Horn, who handled lead vocals on the band's 1980 album ''Drama'', also sounds rather similar to Anderson.

* Country music group Shenandoah had a hard time holding a lead singer after Marty Raybon left. However, one of the replacements was Jimmy Yeary, who sounded uncannily like Raybon.

== Newspaper Comics ==

* ''[[Robotman and Monty|Monty]]'' was once called ''Robotman'', but the syndicate wanted the creator Jim Meddick to [[Long Bus Trip|remove]] the Robotman character.<ref>The syndicate was tired of receiving complaints that ''this'' Robotman was far from the friendly cartoon character of * ''Robotman And Friends'', of which the comic was ''technically'' a [[Spin-Off]]</ref> That done, fast-forward several years, and Monty is befriended by the mysterious eccentric scientist Doc-and his robot sidekick E. B. So far there's no sign that the syndicate wants to dump this new robotic character.

== Radio ==

* In ''[[The Navy Lark]]'', Troutbridge's Number One in the first season, Dennis Price, was replaced by Stephen Murray in all the following seasons. They were different characters, but shared some of the same knowledge and responses.

* In ''[[The Jack Benny Program]]'', there were several cast changes over the years: Bob Crosby for Phil Harris; Dennis Day for Kenny Baker.

== Theater ==

* Not exactly an apt trope for plays, but there's a very similar feeling in ''Othello'': Brabantio, father of Desdemona, has a role in the first act, then does not follow when the action moves to Cyprus; then in the last act Gratiano, his brother, shows up to announce Brabantio is dead and generally stand in for him as a Venetian authority figure. Heightened in some small productions where the two characters are played by the same actor.

== Video Games ==

* In [[Super Mario Bros.]], Pewee Piranha and Digga Legg from [[Super Mario Galaxy 2]] are pretty much suspiciously similar substitutes to Dino Piranha and Megaleg from the original [[Super Mario Galaxy]]. The former is even found in the same general point in the game as the latter, and defeated in nearly the same way. Also, the Topmen from Galaxy are basically the same thing as the Bullies from [[Super Mario 64]], both being enemies defeated by being pushed off the edge of the platform. They even both have nearly the same boss battles in the [[Mario Kart]] series!

* In [[Yoshi's Island]] DS, about half the bosses and a good few of the levels are nearly the same thing as their equivalents from the first game. The Big Burt Bros are the most obvious, they're literally just two smaller versions of Burt the Bashful, killed the exact same way and found in a level with roughly the same layout. Others include Bungee Piranha (which is very much like Naval Piranha, complete with a castle designed like a sewer system) and Bowser himself, who pretty much acts as a near identical replacement to both Hookbill the Koopa and the giant version of his baby self.

== Web Animation ==

* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' made fun of this trope when, on an episode of the [[Show Within a Show]] ''Cheat Commandos'', Gunhaver [[Put on a Bus|has to go on a secret mission to the moon for an undisclosed period of time]] (and if he ever comes back [[The Other Darrin|his voice might be different]]), and is replaced by Agent Chimendez, who is [[Sarcasm Mode|certainly not]] [[Author Avatar|writer A. Chimendez implementing himself in the show]].

** There's also "Onion Bubs," and the various other versions used to replace "Original Bubs."

== Web Comics ==

* Lampshaded in ''[[William Bazillion|The Chronicles of William Bazillion]]'' [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/andrew/bazillion/series.php?view=archive&chapter=25371&mpe=1&fromwhich=1&direction=f here].

* L.D., the ruthless wolf CEO of HerdThinners in ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'', only seen as a pair of slavering jaws, died in the first year and was immediately replaced by R.L., a ruthless wolf only seen as a pair of slavering jaws.

== Web Original ==

{{quote|'''Beauregard''':[[Lampshade Hanging|Hey, didn't you used to be Swedish?]]

'''Angelo''': That's-a the other guy! }}

== Western Animation ==

* An episode of ''[[Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm]]'' had an OC named Ruby, a female assassin dressed in red. Ruby was a scantily clad [[Badass Princess]], a seducer, and an old childhood friend of Kitana, you know, kind of like the one in the game with the name of a ''green'' precious stone. To be blunt, the likely reason Ruby was used in place of Jade was because the writers wanted her to have a background with Ermac too, and it seemed designing a new character was preferable to them than messing up the core character's background.

* In the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short ''The Crackpot Quail'' (directed by [[Tex Avery]] himself) the eponymous quail has a sense of humor and personality very similar to that of [[Bugs Bunny]], going so far as to refer to Willoughby the Dog as "Doc" while trolling him.

== Real Life ==

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[[Category:Characters and Casting]]

[[Category:Acting for Two]]

[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]