Tuckerization: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}

 

It isn't always a famous person, either: sometimes a writer will use the names of friends (or enemies). Famous writers, including [[Stephen King]] and [[Terry Pratchett]], have been known to offer their readers a chance to be tuckerized, either as [[Contest Winner Cameo|the prize in a competition]] or as part of a charity auction. Characters created under these circumstances have a tendency to suffer a form of [[Death by Cameo]]. Sometimes falls into [[Theme Naming]].

 

{{examples}}

* Reportedly, Sky Dragon of Osiris was renamed "Slifer the Sky Dragon" in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' dub, as a nod to [[4Kids! Entertainment|4Kids]] director Roger Slifer. Yes, it's stupid, and yes, it gets many an account of [[Gannon Banned]].

* Shigeru Kanmuri in ''[[Yakitate!! Japan]]''. The author's editor's name? Shigeru Kanmuri.

* The team dubbing ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' reportedly had a hard time translating the name of a [[Digimon]] originally known as Plotmon. Instead of making an educated guess, the producer, Terri-Lei O'Malley, decided to rename it after her pet cat, and the digimon thus became known as Salamon. Hilariously, the digimon turned out to be a dog, not a kitten as the producer had assumed based on its evolved form, Tailmon.

* Dr. Mashirito, Sembei Norimaki's nemesis in ''[[Doctor Slump|Dr. Slump]]'', is named after Toriyama's editor Kazuhiko Torishima ("Mashirito" is "Torishima" [[Sdrawkcab Name|spelled backwards]]).

* ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' has Erica Simmons, named after Mark Simmons, a [[Big Name Fan]] turned [[Promoted Fanboy]] when Bandai America hired him to help with the localization of the ''[[Gundam]]'' franchise. Erica is a mobile suit engineer, likely a nod to Mark's old website Gundam Project, which featured detailed mobile suit profiles and hand-drawn lineart.

 

* Ray Palmer, the ''Atom'', is a reference to the Golden Age science fiction writer.

* [[Marvel Comics]] frequently uses names like "Marv" (Wolfman) and "Stan" ([[Stan Lee|Lee]]) for extras in various comics.

* [[DC Comics]] is particularly fond of this - in [[Batman|Gotham City]], nearly every street, building, park, subway stop, land mark, topographical feature, bridge, shanty, lean-to, or other edifice will be named after previous Batman artists, in the instances where they're not named after Gotham City itself.

* John Byrne named Kitty Pryde for an art-school classmate, though it was because he thought the name was cool rather than as an inside joke. The actual Kitty Pryde reportedly hates the attention she gets for her name.

* Courtney "Stargirl" Whitmore is named after Geoff Johns's deceased sister.

* Paul Gambi, the underworld tailor who designs costumes for [[The Flash]]'s [[Rogues Gallery]] is named after DJ and comics fan Paul Gambaccini.

* Brazilian artist Maurício de Sousa did this to many characters in ''[[Monica's Gang]]'' (due to them [[Write Who You Know|being based on people he met]] - one of his daughters became the title character).

* A few members of the Sinestro Corps in ''[[Green Lantern]]'' were named after DC staff members: Bur'Gunza (Eddie Berganza), Schlagg-Man (Adam Schlagman), Scivor (Ethan Van Sciver), and Duel Eknham (Doug Mahnke). Another member, [[Sdrawkcab Name|Imecsub]], was based off of actor Steve Buscemi.

 

* Fans of ''[[Touhou]]'' often put the nickname of the series' creator, ZUN, into their derivative works—most often as an [[Unsound Effect]]. Strangely enough, ZUN's real name, Oota Jun'ya, is rarely if ever used.

* In L-Dog Z's ''Spider-Man Evolution'' series all minor mooks that are not pre-existing comic book characters are named after comic book writers, basically combining this trope with [[Take That]] (although they're also (fan) [[Canon Immigrant]]s from the [[Daredevil]] film adaption).

* The author of the ''[[Drunkard's Walk]]'' fanfic series has admitted in [[All There in the Manual|his concordances]] that some of the minor original characters bear the names of current or former coworkers.

 

** Mostly because they were hoping to get him for the movie.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'' is littered with examples. See [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tuckerization this Wookieepedia article]. A particularly interesting example is the planet Stewjon, the homeworld of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which [[George Lucas]] named after [[Jon Stewart]] in response to Stewart asking him about Obi-Wan's homeworld at Celebration V.

* Janis Ian in ''[[Mean Girls]]'' is straight but the real Janis Ian is not.

* Parody: One of the main characters in ''[[Office Space]]'' is named Michael Bolton... and his major character trait is constantly complaining about people bringing up the ''other'' Michael Bolton. When someone asks him why he doesn't go by "Mike", his reply is "No way! Why should I change? [[Take That|''He's'' the one who sucks!"]]

** ''[[Film/Fido|Fido]]'' is set in the fictional town of Stanley, named after the setting of ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]''.

** Captain Spaulding, Otis Driftwood, and the Firefly clan in ''[[House of 1000 Corpses]]'' and ''[[The Devil's Rejects]]'' are named after [[Marx Brothers|Groucho Marx]] characters.

* A young Wes Craven was bullied by a kid named [[A Nightmare on Elm Street|Fred Krueger]]. This is probably also the origin of the character "Krug" from ''Last House on the Left''.

* In ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'', Captain Willard is given an assignment by Lt. Gen. Corman and Col. Lucas, named for director Francis Ford Coppola's mentor Roger Corman and his protege George Lucas.

** Double bonus points that Willard's given name is Benjamin; Benjamin and Willard being the names of Harrison Ford's sons.

*** Which, in an incredibly strange coincidence, are the names of [[Willard|a 70's horror film]] and its sequel. Both kids were born before the movies, but still a bit weird.

* In the movie adaptation of ''[[Fight Club]]'', the three detectives interviewing the Narrator as he spills the beans on Project Mayhem are Detective Andrew, Detective Kevin and Detective Walker. Andrew Kevin Walker wrote the script for the David Fincher movie [[Se7en]] as well as doing some uncredited rewrites on the [[Fight Club]] script.

* In the ''[[Doom (film)|Doom]]'' movie, the chief scientist in such is named Todd Carmack, after [[wikipedia:John Carmack|the lead programmer]] of id Software. They could've named the same character after the company's CEO Todd Hollenshead, though.

* In ''[[Serenity]]'', Jayne's minigun ('Lux') is named after Lux Lucre, a huge fan of ''[[Firefly]]'' who died before the film was released.

* Narrowly averted in ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'': Keyser Söze was originally going to be named "Keyser Sume," after the former boss of screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie. Mr. Sume, however, was not too keen on having his name attached to a [[Diabolical Mastermind]] who murdered his own family, so they changed it.

 

* [[H.P. Lovecraft]] and his friend [[Robert Bloch]] both wrote stories in which they had a character supposed to be the other being horribly killed as an affectionate [[Take That]].

*** And to repay the kindness, Smith wrote about Egyptian priest Luveh-Keraph. Or the other way round.

* In one of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''Black Widower'' mysteries, the name of the guest was the name of a reader who had won a competition; the prize was to be included in the story.

** And let's not forget Hodgesaargh, the Lancre castle falconer, based on Dave Hodges, who really does keep birds of prey. Lady Jane, the vicious gyrfalcon who keeps attacking him, is real too.

* In [[Elizabeth Moon]]'s novel ''[[Vatta's War|Victory Conditions]]'', the section in which the villains attack the Moray shipyards features heroic deaths for a group of the author's friends.

* As Piers Anthony's ''[[Xanth]]'' series now consists almost entirely of [[Running the Asylum|material suggested by fans]], the series now includes many references to actual readers. A major character, Jenny Elf, is named in honor of a real girl and Xanth reader who was paralyzed in a car accident.

** Interestingly, ''How Much For Just The Planet?'' was used in Duane's ''[[Young Wizards]]'' Series as the title of an alien TV show.

* [[Peter David]] has a book out called ''Mascot To the Rescue!'' which tells the story of a boy named Josh [[Frank Miller|Miller]] trying to save a comic book character from death (you see, everything that happens to Mascot, the character, also happens to Josh). Who writes the comic that Mascot is in? Why, a man named [[Stan Lee|Stan]] [[Jack Kirby|Kirby]].

*** Also, Roger Tang, the Starfleet ground-pounder with the [[Catch Phrase]] "All part of the service" in ''Imzadi''? Named after an enthusiastic fan.

* A very unpleasant example by [[Michael Crichton]]: the journalist Michael Crowley, who criticised Crichton's position on global warming, was written into ''Next'' under the name "Mick Crowley". Several other details (Washington journalist, went to Yale) are given just to make sure nobody misses who it's supposed to be. The fictional Mick Crowley is a homosexual baby rapist with a very small penis.

** The critic in question [https://web.archive.org/web/20121209111545/http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/002156.php responded in an appropriately wry manner.] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|To the point of heroism.]]

* In the fourth ''[[Harry Potter]]'' book, a girl named Natalie MacDonald briefly appears and is put in Gryffindor. This was the name of a cancer patient who sent J.K. Rowling a very nice fan letter. Sadly, Natalie had died by the time the book was released.

** Rowling also stated that "Potter" comes from her childhood neighbours.

* Science fiction publisher [[Baen Books]] is probably the king of tuckerizations. [[David Weber]], [[John Ringo]], and [[Eric Flint]] have been doing it for years with forum members whose names are chosen to be characters. Joe Buckley is infamous as a member who appears and gets brutally killed in nearly every work of fiction at Baen after a contest started between the different authors. When the ''Baen Universe'' online magazine launched, they added Tuckerizations as a perk of the higher levels of the club.

** Occasionally, Ringo puts out a call for [[Red Shirt|fans wanting to be killed]], usually in a brutal manner. Given that he writes a good bit of military fiction, [[Military Science Fiction|science]] or otherwise, there are ''plenty'' of opportunities for becoming a literary corpse.

* The "Gameras" of John Scalzi's ''[[Old Man's War]]'' series are named after classic sci-fi authors. Since the series takes place in the far future, one of them is named after [[Charles Stross|a contemporary writer who has not yet been judged "classic"]].

* In [[Esther Friesner]]'s ''Majyk by...'' series, the three village idiots are named Lorrenz, Wot, and Evvon, a shout-out to author [[Lawrence Watt-Evans]].

* [[Charles Dickens]] named the ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' villain Fagin after a man he worked with in a factory in his childhood. The real Fagin was actually a kindly man, but Dickens' memories of that period scarred him for life.

* In his acknowledgments of ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians|The Lightning Thief]]'', Rick Riordan includes thanks to his "cadre of middle-school beta testers," the first of whom is "Travis Stoll, clever and quick as Hermes." The Stoll brothers, Connor and Travis, appear from the next book on as the new head counselors of the Hermes cabin.

* In [[Brandon Sanderson]]'s ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' books, a number of minor characters [https://web.archive.org/web/20130418161056/http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/831/Alcatraz-3-Maze-Runner-Names are named after people who donated to charity at a particular event].

* The ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' series has done this several times. The author has admitted to using screennames from fansites (notably [[Wands and Worlds]] and [[Warrior's Wish]]), where the screennames follow the pattern of the characters' naming system. There are also three characters based on a ten-year-old fan and her parents, who all died in a tornado in 2008 - the author told an online community about it so they could show support for the girl's family, and the members gave the girl and her parents warrior names to honor them. The author used these names in the next book she was planning, and that same book is dedicated to them. One of the recent main characters, Ivypaw, is named after a baby named Ivy whose family has gone to see the author on every one of her tours.

* There are far too many of these references to list here in ''[[The Flying Sorcerors]]'' by David Gerrold and Larry Niven - [[The Other Wiki]] has [[w:The Flying Sorcerers#Names|a long and incomplete list]].

 

* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'', Psi Corps agent Alfred Bester is named after the science fiction writer, whose work often dealt with [[Psychic Powers]]. In particular, his novel ''The Demolished Man'' is about a set of psychics that bear a marked resemblance to the Psi Corps.

** The [[Expanded Universe]] reveals that Bester was named after the author in-universe as well, since the man who took him to be raised by Psi-Corps after his parents' deaths was a big fan and entered him under the name.

** [[Neil Gaiman]] has an entire ''race'' named after him; the Gaim, whose heads resemble [[The Sandman]]'s helmet.

* [[Gene Roddenberry]] allegedly named [[Star Trek|Khan Noonien Singh]] after an old friend with whom he'd lost touch, in the hopes that the friend would see it and contact him. Though it's a bit odd, in that case, that he gave the name to a villain...

** The Klingon race was named after Lieutenant Wilbur Clingan, who served with Roddenberry in the Los Angeles Police Department.

** The Bolians are named after Cliff Bole, the director of the first episode a Bolian appeared in. Also, the [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Cliffs of Bole]] are named after him.

** Samantha Wildman of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' was named after a young girl who died in an accident, and whose organs were donated to the ailing wife of one of the screenwriters.

** "Jefferies Tubes" (the maintenance area of the ships) in the ''[[Star Trek]]'' universe were named after [[Star Trek: The Original Series|Original Series]] art director Matt Jefferies, as an in-joke.

* Bill Lawrence admits on a ''[[Scrubs]]'' DVD commentary that he's terrible at naming characters, so he named a bunch of character after real people. Included are JD, Todd Quinlan (The Todd), Molly Clock, Randall Winston, and Turk. Not too mention a lot of patients, including Will Forte, Jill Tracy, Mr. Burski, and many others. Interestingly, Jill Tracy the patient was named after the real Jill Tracy, who later played a heart transplant patient named Elaine. Randall Winston was named after the real Randall Winston, who plays the security guard with the giant afro. It can get confusing.

* A number of characters from ''[[The Thick of It]]'' were named after players from one writer Jesse Armstrong's five-a-side football team. They include Malcolm Tucker, a particularly neat example of this trope.

* ''[[Celebrity Deathmatch]]'' held a contest with the prize being the honor of appearing on the show. The winner got to see his Claymation self right in the center of the Deathmatch ring—where his liver was promptly ripped out by John Tesh.

* In the episode "Breaking and Entering" from the second season of ''[[Burn Notice]]'', Michael's cover ID for infiltrating a [[Private Military Contractor|mercenary company]] is Terry Miller, which is the name of the show's unit production supervisor.

* Collective example: A written list of murder victims seen on ''[[Forever Knight]]'' consisted entirely of the names of [[Real Life]] fans, from a newsgroup dedicated to the show.

* Roger Last was a production assistant on ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''. His last name was appropriated by Michael Palin in the "Fish License" sketch, and his full name was appropriated by John Cleese for "Is There?"

** The 'buying the mattress' sketch features a Mr. Verity and a Mr. Lambert, named after BBC producer [[Verity Lambert]].

* The surnames of all the ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' crewmembers (prior to the accident) were taken from people Rob Grant and Doug Naylor went to school with. Rimmer was named after a snobby prefect and Kochanski was named after the school bully.

* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': Tommy Oliver, the Green/White Ranger is named after producer Tony Oliver. Tommy's White Ranger weapon, Saba, is likely named after Haim Saban. Billy Cranston, the Blue Ranger, is named after Saban voice actor Bryan Cranston.

* Peter Kay and Paddy McGuinness named a one-off character in ''[[Max & Paddy's Road To Nowhere]]'' Alison Graham, after a journalist who had championed their previous series ''[[Phoenix Nights]]''.

 

* [[Lynyrd Skynyrd]] named itself after a rather authoritarian teacher at their former high school, with [[Captain Obvious|slightly different spelling]]

* [[Edguy]] is an affectionate epitaph for a Mr. Edgar Siedschlag, who was their math teacher from when they were young.

* Miike Snow took their name from their friend Mike Snow, then added an extra "i" as a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Takashi Miike]].

 

* ''[[Peanuts]]'' - Charles "Sparky" Schulz named his two characters, Charlie Brown and Linus Van Pelt, after his two co-workers at the correspondence art school he worked at, although Charlie Brown quickly became semi-autobiographical, including references to his (illiterate) father the barber. The unnamed Little Red Haired Girl, whom Charlie Brown could never get the courage to meet, is based on a young woman who rejected Sparky's affection.

* [[Garfield]] is named after Jim Davis' grandfather.

* Mary Jane from ''[[Buster Brown]]'' was named after Richard F. Outcault's daughter and is inspired by her. Miss Outcault would eventually lend her name to a style of strap shoes worn by girls and women.

 

* In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' radio drama (and early versions of the novel as well), author Douglas Adams mentions a classmate named Paul Neil Milne Johnstone whom he considers the worst poet in the universe. ([[Beyond the Impossible|He's worse than Vogons!]]) The named was eventually changed to Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings in the later editions of the novel, the [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy (TV series)|TV series]] and the [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy (film)|movie]].

 

* Practically half the names of people and places in the World of Greyhawk setting for ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' are named after people E. Gary Gygax knew, and then there's Xagyg himself.

** There's also Mons's Goblin Raiders for Mons Johnson and Jayemdae Tome for '''J'''. '''M'''ichael '''Davis'''. Also there are a number of Arabian Nights cards containing anagrams of Richard Garfield's friends' names when he ran out of [[Gratuitous Foreign Language|Gratuitous Arabic]]. Oh, and [[Significant Anagram|Pheldagrif/Garfield PhD]].

** [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Maro Maro] is named after lead designer '''Ma'''rk '''Ro'''sewater.

* The adventure scenario "...And I Feel Fine" for ''[[Unknown Armies]]'' (in the supplement ''One Shots'') includes two ready-to-play characters named after RPG designers: Rebecca Borgstrom and Rich Dansky.

 

* ''The Most Happy Fella'' does this in the prelude to the title song, when the postman calls out the townspeople's names: "Johnson" and "Sullivan" were named after the original production's featured actresses Susan Johnson (as Cleo) and Jo Sullivan (as Rosabella), and "Herbie Greene" after the conductor, Herbert Greene.

 

* At ''[[The Haunted Mansion]]'' from [[Disney Theme Parks]], Master Gracey, the Ghost Host ([[Multiple Choice Past|maybe]]), is named after Yale Gracey, who designed a lot of the ride's special effects.

** Also, Madame Leota is named after Leota Toombs, a ride designer and the face of Madame Leota.

 

* ''[[Bionicle]]'': Kiina is named after writer Greg Farshtey's wife, Jackina, and a trio of Order of Mata Nui agents (Jerbraz, Johmak, Tobduk) is named after the three artists who worked on the ''BIONICLE Atlas'' book.

* [[Mattel]] co-founder Ruth Handler named the [[Barbie]] and Ken dolls after her children Barbara and Kenneth respectively.

 

* In the ''[[Armored Core]]'' series, the obscenely powerful Karasawa laser rifle is named after one of the series' producers. It's always one of the strongest weapons in the game, if not ''the'' strongest.

* Quite a few [[NPC]]s and items in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' are named after real people, often in their memory. One of the more recent is [http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=30562#comments Crusader Bridenbrad], named for '''Brad'''ley '''Briden'''becker, the brother of one the Blizzard Employees, who had died of cancer.

* Ozzy, Slash and Flea in ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' were [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to Ozzy Ozborne, Slash from Guns N Roses, and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers. (Their Japanese names were references to food sauces.) This caused some problems in the sequel, where there was a new character named Slash, whose name had to be changed to Nikki, after Nikki Sixx of ''[[Motley Crue]]''.

* [[Shigeru Miyamoto]] originally intended to name Link from ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' "Chris" or "Christo" after his godfather. [[Executive Meddling]] stopped his plans.

* Depending on who at Nintendo you ask, [[Kirby]] was either named after a lawyer who helped Nintendo in their legal battle against Universal over ''[[Donkey Kong]]'', ''or'' Kirby vacuum cleaners.

* Practically every street name in the town of ''[[Silent Hill]]'' is the name of a horror, fantasy/SF, mystery or true-crime author—or director. [[Invasion of the Body Snatchers|Finney Street]], [[Richard Matheson|Matheson Street]], [[Robert Bloch|Bloch Street]], [[Dean Koontz|Koontz Street]], [[Ray Bradbury|Bradbury Street]], Levin Street, [[Stephen King|Bachman Road]], [[Michael Crichton|Crichton Street]]... and let's not forget [[Village of the Damned|Midwich Elementary School]], [[The Shining|Overlook Penitentiary]] or [[Dario Argento|DiArgento Cemetery]].

* Online flash-based game ''[[Dragon Fable]]'''s developers, Artix Entertainment, awarded about 10 players cameos as {{spoiler|brainwashed heroes that the player must fight}} in one of the late quests of the Fire War.

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind]]'' contains the ashes of two members of the official forums who died before the game shipped.

* Almost every single randomly-generated [[Red Shirt]] soldier in the ''[[Call of Duty]]'' series is named after members of their respective game's development team. The most prominent is Staff Sergeant Griggs from ''[[Modern Warfare]]'', who is named after, [[Ink Suit Actor|looks like]], and voiced by Infinity Ward's lead animator at the time.

** "The Unwashed Villagers hunting a spammer" - From the Fallout wiki, "A reference to a real life flamewar between a Fallout internet community and a forum 'troll'." The villagers are named with the handles of the people involved.

 

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160623225123/http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=070301 This] is what happens to people who win a cameo appearance in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''.

* Similar to the ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' example above, ''[[Knights of the Old Coding]]'' had a couple contests where the victor got to be killed by the cast member of their choice.

* Similarly once more, the only character in ''[[Earthsong]]'' to be Tuckerized in was [[Sacrificial Lamb|killed...ish]] within the first 25 pages.

** Before the reboot, the character of Alyss had the name "Tehmel", which was an explicit reference to a close friend of the author. The name was altered when the character was reintroduced during the Redux because the author didn't particularly like how akward the name sounded. Alyss is apparently still a reference to the same person.

'''Howard Tayler''': It was not my intention to give @jdiddyesquire an 11' tall uplifted carnivorous spirit animal with a sapient weapon, but [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/0308-wallpapers here we are]... }}

 

* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' has a character named for hockey player Sidney Crosby. A slight variation in that the character is based off the real person rather than simply sharing his name.

* ''[[Darwin's Soldiers]]'' has three notable instances.

** The scientist Dr. Rudyard Oscar Shelton takes his first two names from the authors [[Rudyard Kipling]] and [[Oscar Wilde]].

* Many stories on [[AlternateHistory.com]] have this. Taken to ridiculous levels in Doctor What's novels. Snake Oil has no less than 24 cameos.

 

* In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' series, there's a human supervillain called the Angry Archer, named after [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Aaron_Archer Aaron Archer], design-work Grand Poobah for the toyline.

** And the villainess Slo-Mo is named after and resembles Samantha Lomow, Hasbro's VP of marketing.

* In the ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force]]'' episode "Pet Project" Gwen mentions that a store called McDuffie's, named after [[Dwayne McDuffie]], one of the writers, is closing down.

** [[Heartwarming in Hindsight]], given McDuffie's untimely death in February 2011.

{{quote|'''Frank:''' Yep. Told you he'd come.}}

* Two gargoyles from Disney's ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' are named Victor and Hugo (after the author of the book in which the film was based off of), respectively.