Trope Workshop:Duplicated Genie

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Never had a dad like him!

"The ever-impressive, the LONG CONTAINED, the often imitated, but never, but never duplicated (duplicated duplicated duplicated) GENIE OF THE LAMP!" —Genie, Aladdin

Some pieces of work have a character that feels very familiar for people who grew up in the 1990s. He or she is a Large Ham, often making pop culture references that seem anachronistic or too meta even for the time period, and perhaps they even inspire huge crowds to go along with them. Sometimes they make the crowds out of thin air.

It's the Genie of the Lamp! Except... it isn't. He or she may not even be a good guy!

The Duplicated Genie is a character that pays homage to the Genie from the 1992 Disney film Aladdin. They may be a crowd pleaser, and Break the Fourth Wall constantly. Audiences may not always like them, but they are entertaining.

Criteria include the following:

1. Large Ham personality that threatens to steal the show from other characters.
2. Making references that are anachronistic or meta to the setting.
3. Breaking or Leaning on the Fourth Wall.
4. They enjoy duplicating themselves, or in a villainous sense, inspiring/brainwashing people to go along with their show.

Musical numbers are optional but welcome. Wishes may or not be granted, and as Genie himself put it, "Ix-nay on the wishing for more wishes!"

Examples of Duplicated Genie include:

Trope Namer

• The Trope Namer is the Genie of the Lamp from Aladdin, Genie for short. In the original film, sequels and spinoff TV series, Genie is a Large Ham and an anachronistic show-stealer who references being in a movie at one point (reading the script to Aladdin). His only serious moments in the first film are related to his desires to be free. The series and Aladdin and the King of Thieves go into more Character Development, where we learn about the source of his powers and when he chooses to stay in Agrabah after seeing the world, helping "Al" as a friend and not as a master. By the time of King of Thieves, most people, including Aladdin, just respond to Genie's pop culture references with either nonchalance or rubbing their foreheads, as seen in the "Code Red" scene.
• In the 2019 Guy Ritchie Aladdin remake, Will Smith's take on the genie is more cynical and down-to-Earth. He is still is a ham, as shown in "Friend Like Me" and "Prince Ali", and outright breaks the fourth wall by rewinding the movie to see how Aladdin tricked him out of a wish. Genie says that he and Aladdin aren't friends, but still protects him from being brainwashed by Jafar, and saves his life by using a backdated wish contract while Aladdin is tied to a chair and drowning in the ocean. While he apologizes to Aladdin for using one of his wishes as soon as "Prince Ali" is out of danger, Aladdin doesn't care; he thanks the Genie for saving him. And later, when Aladdin is hesitating about using his last wish to free the Genie, Genie tells him that Jasmine loves Aladdin for who he is, not because he's a prince, and no magic can replicate that. The Genie loses all of his powers when he gets his freedom, becoming an ordinary human, and he couldn't be happier.
• Unsurprisingly, Aladdin both in its Broadway and California Adventures theatre incarnations would have Genie in full ham mode. Like the movie version, he breaks the fourth wall, makes anachronistic jokes, and duplicates himself. He can also summon backup dancers on a dime.
• Aladdin: The Series didn't just have Genie continue this trope. His Distaff Counterpart and Love Interest Eden is also as hammy and anachronistic. The difference between Eden and Genie is that she'll bend the rules to make sure that her charge Dhandi doesn't just get a sandwich for her first wish, but food that will last a lifetime. (It helps that Dhandi is a Heartwarming Orphan who saves the day with her second wish.) When Dhandi accidentally wishes they could stay together forever while intending to free Eden, Eden doesn't mind. She says that Dhandi needs someone to care for her, and it's not going to be forever.

Anime and Manga

• One Piece. When Luffy's Devil Fruit powers are truly awakened, he becomes the avatar of the trickster god Nika. While his powers have yet to be fully analyzed, they seem typical of this Trope his fighting style almost cartoonish in nature. For example, when the Five Elders launch venom balls at the heroes, Luffy pulls a huge baseball bat out of nowhere, knocking them back at them. It seems he's become a Reality Warper powered by his own - incredibly potent - imagination.

Comic Books

• The graphic novel Three Little Wishes shows Oberon as this. Despite being the same King of Fairies from A Midsummer Night's Dream, he also enjoys being a Jackass Genie to grant wishes and mess with humanity. The local bartender thinks he's just a friendly Big Fun guy who is good in bed, while Kelly Castleton, the latest person to get the wishes, thinks Oberon is kinder than he lets on. He makes meta references about how he will outlive society, so mortal affairs are all fun and games to him.

Film

• Stan Lee is revealed to be a deadpan but hammy version of this in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. He's a Watcher Informant in The Stinger, and it's implied that virtually every Stan Lee cameo we saw in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and maybe in the three Sony Spider-Man franchises if we take that as canon) was the Watcher Informant visiting the timeline to report adventures to the Watchers. His last line in the film is, "I've got so many more stories to tell!" Sadly, these cameos would end with Stan Lee's death, though Marvel paid homage to him with a "Thank You Stan" logo for Captain Marvel.

Live-Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer had Sweet, the singing demon from "Once More With Feeling". Sweet doesn't duplicate himself but he does motivate people to sing and dance, to the point where they spontaneously combust if they run out of secrets to belt. While performing for Dawn, he reveals that he gave Emperor Nero a fiddle centuries before the violin was invented, showing an anachronistic side. He does a lot of Leaning on the Fourth Wall when asking Buffy to sing about how life is beautiful and happy, which she proceeds to do and reveal that Willow resurrected her from Heaven, not hell, in front of her horrified friends. And in the end, he sarcastically tells them that they "won" and beat the bad guy since Xander reveals he summoned Sweet, not Dawn, and while Sweet is tempted, he decides not to take his "Queen" to the Underworld.

Theatre

• Showing that this trope predated the Genie and is Older Than Steam, Robin Goodfellow, the fae creature who goes by the nickname "Puck", demonstrates these qualities minus the duplication in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He goes around commenting on the humans' and fairies' situations, sometimes messing with them on orders of King Oberon. While he didn't intend to turn Lysander and Hermia against each other, he can't help but snicker at the fireworks. The play famously ends with him addressing the audience saying that if they did not like the play, to pretend that it was all a dream. Sadly, he doesn't sing.
• Beetlejuice emulates the genie in his titular show. He breaks the fourth wall in his first lines by commenting how Lydia's emotional ballad is "Such a bold departure from the original source material!" He also duplicates himself in the second act to liven up things.
• Though the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot doesn't duplicate herself, she does have a Girl Posse of Laker Girls that follow her lead where she goes. She makes references to Britney Spears and Betty Fords in "Diva's Lament" while breaking the fourth wall to help Arthur and Patsy on their quest to put on a Broadway musical.
• In Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier, the Djinn is a parody of this trope in a raunchy Perspective Flip of Disney's Aladdin where Jafar is the actual hero and Aladdin is the villain. He speaks purely in pop culture references that make the side characters laugh, while demonstrating powerful feats. Ja'far gets annoyed with the Djinn and tells him to "stop being an asshole" while using his wishes to save the Magic Kingdom and the Princess.

Video Games

• Flowey is a villainous example in Undertale. He doesn't just break the fourth wall, he smashes it right before his boss battle, literally! And yes, he makes references to things outside the game that wouldn't make sense to people trapped in the Underground, especially in the No Mercy Route, but even in Pacifist he talks about how if the player "wins", the game is over and he doesn't want that. During his Boss Battle, he sends many bullets with his face on it to try and kill you, over and over again.

Web Animation

• Helluva Boss has both Robo-Fizzarolli and the real Fizzarolli demonstrate these qualities. Fizzarolli became famous because he can inspire crowds to follow his performances and sing along, as we see in his song "Two Minutes' Notice". He also has hundreds of duplicates that his boss Mammon makes, that people tend to use as sex toys.
  • Robo-Fizzarolli entertains the kiddies in "Loo Loo Land"; while he has seen better years, he recognizes Blitzo and taunts him while Leaning on the Fourth Wall about their unknown backstory. At one point during their subsequent melee, a burning Robo-Fizz walks towards Blitzo and stares directly at the viewer.
  • "Oops!" has the real Fizzarolli sing a distracting song so that Blitzo can bust them out of Crimson's mob hideout that includes promises of the secrets of bitcoin, with a real-life stock photo. At one point he grabs the camera so the audience isn't looking at Blitzo making an exit though the mobsters are on the ground.

Western Animation

• Paranormal Park reveals that Temeluchus the Demon King of all characters is this in the musical episode. He has a musical spell that Pugsley uses to turn the whole park into a musical as a distraction, and literally steals the show from Pauline Parker when it's his turn to sing. And yes, he loves Leaning on the Fourth Wall during this duet with Pugsley.
• Gravity Falls shows with Bill Cipher that if you make a character like the Genie into the Big Bad, he will be a crowd-pleaser. Bill shows repeatedly that The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You, that he knows Time Baby from a Bad Future for humanity, and that people love his hammy nature. Also, he will possess your body and use it to fall down a flight of stairs, For the Evulz, if you make a deal with him.
• Discord from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. As the God of Chaos, he not only has complete Medium Awareness, but his potent Reality Warping abilities extend to the fourth wall, meaning he can manipulate the fourth wall itself. Not only can he address the viewers as easily as he does the Mane Cast, he can change the art style (to say, anime or CG-animation), change the genre, rewind or fast-forward the story, or (in comic book adaptations) rewrite captions. Thank goodness he was only a Villain of the Week in Season 2, and Fluttershy succeeded in reforming him. And much like Genie himself does, he tends to make jokes with pop culture references that, by all logic, should be unknown in Equestria, like to Bob Ross and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. But hey, such are the ways of Chaos.
• Drawn Together had a Genie parody (while also making references to Robin Williams' past roles) in "Gay Bash", where Xandir tries to wish to not be gay. The Genie is insulted by this, which leads him to run off while telling Xandir he is better off accepting his gay feelings. After talking it out, the Genie reveals himself to be gay as well, and they fall in love, becoming boyfriends. However, Lord Slashstab (Xandir's Arch Enemy), takes his lamp and leads him into a neverending quest to save his boyfriend.
• Hazbin Hotel
  • Alastor and Vox in seem to be battling for this role when Vox roasts Alastor for being away for a long time, only for Alastor to turn the tables and knock him off the air. Alastor also addresses the audience that the status quo is changing.
  • Then Alastor faces off Lucifer, showing jealousy about the latter's relationship with Charlie. Both of them mess with the fourth wall, with Lucifer summoning puppet duplicates, but it ends in a draw. The season finale shows that Lucifer could have thrashed Alastor more thoroughly if he had been vexed enough, considering what he does to Adam. Voice actor Jeremy Jordan has even stated that he was inspired by the Trope Namer when portraying the character.