No Celebrities Were Harmed

"Dude, I shot this guy yesterday, and I swear to god he looked just like Jimmy Fallon!"

— [PROTOTYPE 2]

Sometimes a character's entire shtick will be that they are a thinly disguised imitation of some celebrity somewhere. The more blatant examples will often have a parody of that celebrity's name. This can be done for various reasons, such as to serve as a homage and/or parody, to make a point using the character, or simply because the writers think that it would be cool. Though some consider it done because the writers are out of ideas. Many creators and viewers alike do not like it because it tends to smack of unoriginality and destroys the conceit that the work's universe is entirely fictional (though, of course, if the work is outright going for realism, it's quite appropriate). However, this does have the side effect of making the work an Unintentional Period Piece for the period of the work's creation, as later audiences, to varying degrees of success, can see through the "thinly disguised" part of the parody and clearly determine that the work was made during the height of the target's popularity — or infamy.

The most common impressions used in cartoons are Humphrey Bogart, Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Sylvester Stallone for tough-guy characters; Peter Lorre or Vincent Price for creepy characters; R. Lee Ermey for Drill Sergeant Nasties; Maurice Chevalier for French song-and-dance men or Funny Foreigner characters; Paul Lynde for Camp Gay characters; Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee for vampires; Boris Karloff for mad scientists or their creatures; Sean Connery or Don Adams for secret agents; Donald Pleasence or Alan Rickman for action-film villains; John Wayne or Clint Eastwood for cowboys; Paul Hogan or Steve Irwin for Australians; Howard Cosell or John Madden for sports announcers; Edward G. Robinson or James Cagney for old-school mobsters, or Joe Pesci or Ray Liotta for more modern-day ones; Ed Wynn for assorted silly characters; and Mae West for vamps. And as for more general examples, heavy-metal rock star characters will be given a Metal Scream of the sort perfected by the likes of Robert Plant, Steven Tyler, and Rob Halford. "Stoner" characters will likely be based on either Sean Penn's Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dennis Hopper's unnamed photojournalist in Apocalypse Now. Anybody doing a pirate character ("Ahrrr, matey!") will be paying tribute to Robert Newton's performance as Long John Silver in Disney's Treasure Island (1950). The witch stereotype is based on The Wicked Witch of the West.

May double as a Parental Bonus, when it is mostly aimed at kids.

If it's a fictional character that's being imitated, then it's an Expy or Captain Ersatz. The trope does not apply in the case of adaptations of live-action source materials, where the character designs are obliged to be based on the real actors. When the creators actively deny that the character was meant to be caricature of the person, see Denied Parody.

Compare Ink-Suit Actor, where a celebrity voices an animated caricature of themself. Comic-Book Fantasy Casting is a much milder version of this, where a real actor or other celebrity is used as a guide for a character's appearance but with no attempt to caricature their persona. Write Who You Know is for where a character is based on somebody who the creator personally knows, but not necessarily a celebrity.

If the famous personality is an historical character who's already dead when the work is created (e.g. someone who lived centuries ago), then it's No Historical Figures Were Harmed. If the whole work is based on real events, but without using real names, it's a Roman à Clef.

Note that some character voices, most notably those reminiscent of Peter Lorre or John Wayne, are by now fourth-generation copies that have more to do with earlier impressions than with the original actors' voices. There may also be some overlap with Parody Displacement if the caricature is more familiar to younger audiences than the actual celebrity.

See also Celebrity Resemblance, Lawyer-Friendly Cameo, No Communities Were Harmed, and Adam Westing. See Bland-Name Product for the equivalent treatment of a product (or possibly a business entity) rather than a person, potentially applying just as much detail to the parody. Contrast Invisible Celebrity Guest and Invisible President, where it's made clear that they're a real person, they're just never seen on-screen.

Tuckerization is the inverse.

Sub-tropes:

Examples:

Other examples:

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Advertising

The 1986 Crispy Critters cereal had a mascot named Crispy, whose voice was a caricature of Jimmy Durante, right down to his catchphrase, "Ah-cha-cha-cha!" To push the reference even further, in a book given away with the cereal, "Crispy in No Place Like Home", Crispy says "Ah-cha-cha-cha! You've got to start each day with a song and a good breakfast", a reference to Jimmy Durante's song "You've Got to Start Each Day with a Song".
An advertising campaign by Virgin Mobile France comes in two flavors, a chihuahua with a strong resemblance to Michael Jackson, saying, "A ce prix-là, I'm back" ("At this price, I'm back"), and a bulldog with an equally strong resemblance to Gérard Depardieu, saying, "A ce prix-là, je rentre en France" ("At this price, I'm going back to France", alluding to his fiscal exile in Russia). See for yourself.
Toucan Sam, the spokes-character for the cereal Froot Loops, has a voice modeled on the standard impression of Ronald Colman. This was averted with Mel Blanc's, Matthew Curtis' and Colin Cassidy's portrayals however, with Blanc's portrayal having Toucan Sam speak with an normal American accent with Pig Latin, while the latter two (while still giving Toucan Sam an British accent) don't have voices modeled on the standard impression of Ronald Colman unlike Paul Frees' and Maurice LaMarche's portrayals of the character, it was also averted for his Australian voice actors as well as neither of whom emulated Ronald Colman's voice.
Likewise, Sugar Bear, mascot for Sugar/Golden Crisp cereal, is a composite of Bing Crosby and Dean Martin, right down to the accent in his earlier appearances.
The voice of McDonaldland character Mayor McCheese was an imitation of Ed Wynn. (The character was also legally determined to be copyright-violatingly derivative of H.R. Pufnstuf.)
The mascot for Vlasic pickles is a stork clearly based on Groucho Marx, even to the point of substituting holding a pickle for Groucho's trademark cigar.
The monster cereal mascots take cues from classic horror icons for their voices. Bela Lugosi for Count Chocula, Boris Karloff for Frankenberry and Peter Lorre for Boo Berry.
Goofy Grape, one of the mascots for the defunct Funny Face drink mix has a voice based on Ed Wynn's. He loses this impression in the animated reboot, however.
Burger King attempted this in The '80s with Mr. Rodney, a very obvious takeoff of Mr. Rogers. Despite Fred Rogers being a seemingly-chill guy, he had a few Berserk Buttons, and the Mr. Rodney commercials unwittingly pushed all of them: using his likeness without permission, commercialism, and consumption of meat (since he was a steadfast vegetarian). Burger King pulled the ads after Rogers politely asked them to stop.
Claude the Cat: Though possibly unintentional, Claude sounds very similar to Stephen Fry.
During the early days of the Wario franchise, a series of commercials depicted the character with a voice strongly reminiscent of Paul Winchell, particularly as Dick Dastardly and Gargamel.
Cryptoland's main character, Connie, takes many cues from Robin Williams, especially his performance as Genie.

Animation

Film, Film, Film: The director in the short looks suspiciously like Sergei Eisenstein (even if Fyodor Khitruk himself says that the director was modeled after another person), and the movie they're filming looks too much like a certain historical flick set in medieval Russia.

Art

The Sistine Chapel's altar painting, The Last Judgement:
- Saint Peter is drawn to resemble Pope Pius III, who commissioned the painting. This is in line with the Catholic idea that Peter was the first Pope, making Pope Pius III his direct successor.
- King Minos, the demonic judge of Hell, is based on one of the Pope's officials who vocally complained about Michelangelo's use of nudity in his portraits.

Asian Animation

Simple Samosa features a few one-off characters who are thinly-veiled references to real-life celebrities.
- Melon Musk, a musk melon who loves space travel and electric cars. (Elon Musk.)
- A rapper named Toast Malone. (Post Malone.)
- A sugar cube named Suga who performs with his band Ghee-TS at the Bhelboard Awards. (Suga from BTS.)

Audio Play

Cecilia Pollard, who appears in the Big Finish Gallifrey audio drama A Blind Eye, is pretty clearly Unity Mitford. (Which possibly makes her sister Charley from the Eighth Doctor series Jessica.)
Big Finish Doctor Who:
- The episode "Max Warp" unapologetically gives the finger to Top Gear, including space caricatures of Clarkson, Hammond and May.
- "Storm Warning" has a character named Lord Tamworth, who is shown to be the Air Minister under Ramsay MacDonald and the motive force behind the creation of R-101. He is an obvious stand in for Christopher Thompson, First Baron Thompson, who was the actual Air Minister under MacDonald and was the chief advocate for creating the Imperial Airship System, which included R-101. He also died in R-101's crash during her maiden voyage.
- Invoked in "Fanfare for the Common Men"; the titular Common Men, Mark Carvill, James O'Meara and Corky Goldsmith are very blatantly based on John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr respectively. The twist is that the Doctor notices this, and realises someone is trying to replace The Beatles' place in history.

Comedy

Robin Williams on his stand-up comedy album Reality, What A Concept plays a character named Reverend Earnest Angry (a parody of real-life televangelist Ernest Angley) who in his routine promotes the religion of Comedy.

Comic Strips

Pogo: Visitors to the swamp included a number of obvious caricatures of politicians, of whom the most long-lasting was probably Simple J. Malarkey (a wildcat) for Senator Joseph McCarthy; others include an unnamed pig, goat and hyena representing respectively Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel Castro, and Spiro Agnew. (This was heavily Lampshaded in the MAD parody "Gopo Gossum.")
Doonesbury loves this:
- Particularly Uncle Duke, who is just Hunter S. Thompson. Lampshaded when Duke reads that Hunter S. Thompson has committed suicide and his head explodes, repeatedly. He's got no idea why.
- Another Doonesbury example is the late Lacey Davenport, a sweetly aristocratic liberal Republican who was modeled on real life New Jersey representative Millicent Fenwick.
Bloom County had a story arc about the cast hosting a concert. While most of the musicians were real-life people and bands (Van Halen, The Police, Culture Club, etc.), there was also "Tess Turbo and the Blackheads", an obvious take on "Joan Jett and the Blackhearts"
Brenda Starr: A 1984 storyline featured "Boy Brenda," an androgynous pop singer (an obvious take on Boy George) who idolized Brenda Starr so much that he based his stage name on her.
Jerk Simpkins from the Hsu and Chan comic, Under Fire, is an obvious parody of anti-video game lawyer Jack Thompson.
In Francesco Marchilano's first Judge Parker story, a trucker is on the phone to Dahlia After Dark, a radio advice show. On his blog, Ces goes into further detail about Dahlia, including that she's the author of a series of self-help books and has a spin-off show called Ladies' Night. Asked in the comments if this was anything like Love Songs with Delilah (which has a series of self-help books and a spin-off called Friday Nite Girls), Ces replied "Oh, no, no, no. (Wink. Wink wink. Wink wink wink wink wink wink eye spasm.)"
Averted hard in Madam & Eve — prominent politicians and celebrities (from South Africa and elsewhere) are named and shown very frequently.

Fan Works

Codex Equus:
- Colton Marentino, the brutish movie director who abused famed actress Helga Greywing and essentially kept her prisoner in her own trailer, is a nastier version of Quentin Tarantino. He eventually gets his comeuppance when Polistes "kidnaps" Helga and Helga eventually "escapes" (after doing rehearsals for it) to expose his crimes.
- A canonized Codexverse quote made by the Fourth-Age Shadow Sentinel/Captain Umbra Wing takes a potshot at one Gilded Screen, who's based on Zack Snyder, known for both making Darker and Edgier films and his own cynical views on superheroes in general (such as Batman using guns).
- Blue Suede Heartstrings, the Alicorn god of Music, Humility, Performance, and Love, is based on Elvis Presley, who's often called "The King of Rock and Roll", and is one of the most recognized musicians and cultural icons in history. He even has many of Elvis' traits and mannerisms, such as his humility, his Big Eater tendencies, his preference for pompadours, and his religious beliefs... except here, he's definitely alive and healthy, not to mention that he's an Alicorn god.
- Black Domino, a famous Zebra musician from the early parts of the Second Age, is based on Fats Domino, being that like him, he's mentioned as being one of the first pioneers of the Rock and Roll genre, and has "Fats Domino" as his stage name. And like his character inspiration, Black Domino was also idolized by Blue Suede Heartstrings, who is based on Elvis Presley, with Blue himself believing that Black Domino sings "better" than him and hates how much of the praise Black Domino deserved went to him instead.
- A canonized Codexverse drabble mentions a Second-Age Bitish musician, Colton John, who is based on Elton John. In one incident, Blue Suede Heartstrings played a well-received live piano cover of Colton John's "Tiny Dancer" for a concert, with an accompanying ballet performance by his godson, Prince Shamrock. According to one of the Codex writers, she wrote the drabble because she loved "Tiny Dancer" (as well as its cover by Florence + the Machine).
- Another canonized Codexverse drabble mentions a tailor and store owner named Measured Sleeve, who was responsible for dressing Blue Suede Heartstrings in his iconic outfits throughout the latter's entire music career. Measured Sleeve is based on Bernard Lansky, who served as Elvis Presley's tailor up until the latter's death. However, since the circumstances have changed in the Codexverse, it is Blue Suede Heartstrings who eventually outlives his tailor after he Ascends to godhood, not the other way around.
- Prince Healing Song, the Alicorn god of Music, Potential, Teaching, and Psionics, is based on blind Canadian jazz/blues musician Jeff Healey. Like Healey, he was born in Caneighda (the Second-Age equivalent of Canada), adopted by loving parents, and blinded during infancy when doctors surgically removed his eyes to prevent further infection by a rare ocular cancer. And like Healey, he proved himself to be a musical prodigy by developing a rather unorthodox way of playing the guitar from an early age (though he has played the trumpet at one point), and has played both blues and jazz music. He even has "Healey" as a nickname. However, the difference here is he's friends with Blue Suede Heartstrings (who is essentially the divine equivalent of Elvis Presley in the Codexverse) and he himself managed to Ascend to godhood on his deathbed, saving him from being taken by cancer like Healey was.
  - On a related note, one of Healing Song's bands, the Healing String Groove Band, is based on the Jeff Healey Band, while his bandmates Steel String and Tempo Groove are based on Jeff Healey's bandmates, bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen, respectively.
- Prince Healing Song's entry mentions a Hoofstep Sways, whom he filmed with for a movie called Road House (1989). Hoofstep Sways is based on Patrick Swayze, who filmed Road House together with the Jeff Healey Band, whose members provided a huge portion of the movie's soundtrack.
- Moon Ray Vaughoof of the Trimortidae is essentially a ponified version of Stevie Ray Vaughan, with Moon Ray's life and accomplishments being more or less a parallel to the latter. Unlike Stevie Ray, however, Moon Ray would become a Angel of Death after dying in a helicopter crash, then later Ascended as the Alicorn god of Death, Temperance, Water, and Forgiveness after forgiving everyone who harmed him in life. He also went through a very long process of Character Development that saw him letting go of his past and overcoming all his other flaws and traumas, which leads to him manifesting his long-repressed domain of Prophecy and becoming a Prince. A few of his songs, both original and covered (like "Look at Little Sister" and "Life Without You"), were adapted in to the Codexverse.
  - Moon Ray's band, Double Trouble, is based on... Stevie Ray's band Double Trouble. Specifically, Double Trouble's band members Fret Pick (bassist), Whipper Snare (drummer), and Key Tap (keyboardist) are based on Tommy Shannon (bassist), Chris Layton (drummer), and Reese Wynans (keyboardist).
  - Moon Ray's entry also mentions several other individuals based on real-life celebrities - Zebra musicians Smooth Neck, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, River Rush, and Double Helix are based on Albert King, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, and Jimi Hendrix, respectively, the latter whom Stevie Ray Vaughan idolized. Ham Hock is based on Bill Ham, ZZ Top's manager, Sunny Field Vaughoof is based on Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie Ray's older brother, and Sunshine Cream is based on Eric Clapton.
- Rhiannon's entry mentions a Fourth-Age Grittish band named "Fleethoof Mac". For bonus points, one of their songs is named "Rhiannon", which in the Codexverse is an In-Universe Alternative Character Interpretation of Rhiannon as a mysterious, seductive, elusive, and mystical female figure. Rhiannon herself found it "pretty amusing".
- "Colonel" Hollow Note is based on "Colonel" Tom Parker, the manager of Elvis Presley who ruthlessly exploited his client throughout the latter's entire career. Blue Suede Heartstrings, who is based on Elvis, managed to break free of his manager's control partially thanks to the manipulations of his older twin brother, Bossa Nova, but it's noted in both entries and drabbles/quotes that the consequences of his manager's behavior has led to Blue Suede suffering from lingering trauma long after Hollow Note's death.
- Venerable Grace Heartstrings is based on Priscilla Ann Presley, Elvis Presley's wife who is both an actress and business magnate who turned her husband's estate, Graceland, into a tourist attraction. Though here in the Codexverse, due to things turning out differently, she's portrayed as Blue Suede's first wife, as Blue Suede would end up courting both male and female partners after becoming an Alicorn god.
- Stellar Dreamer is based on Steven Spielberg, a renowned American film director.
- Heroic Island, the Alicorn god of Gaming, Misdirection, and World-Building, and is based on Living Legend and talented game developer Hideo Kojima, known for creating the Metal Gear franchise and trolling his fans. What furthers the connection is Heroic Island's name being a translation of Hideo Kojima's name, his clashes with the video-game company that psychologically abused him and sabotaged his career, and his founding of his own video-game company, Heroic Island Productions (based on Kojima Productions).
- Spiraling Yarn is based on Junji Ito, a horror mangaka who is one of Hideo Kojima's close friends. Like Junji Ito, he is a horror manegaka who is friends with Heroic Island, and once collaborated with him on the creation of Silent Hills before it was cancelled. Spiraling Yarn's name is also an onomatopoeia - 'Spiraling' was taken from Junji Ito's manga, Uzumaki (whose title translates to 'swirl'), and 'Yarn' is a transliteration of Ito.
- Protecting Bull is based on Guillermo del Toro, a renowned movie director and author. Like Spiraling Yarn, he also collaborated with Heroic Island on the creation of Silent Hills before it was cancelled. Protecting Bull's name is based on a translation of Del Toro's name - 'Guillermo' means "protection", while 'Del Toro" means "the bull".
- Film Trivia is based on Quentin Tarantino, being a famous director/writer just like him. And like Quentin, he worked for a powerful movie company CEO who turned out to be a serial sex predator/abuser in private. According to one of the Codex writers, Film Trivia was created because she wanted to have a benevolent version of Quentin in the Codexverse, since the only Expy of him at the time was the brutish, abusive Colton Marentino.
Ghosts of the Past has the President of Russia, Volodya, who is clearly based on Vladimir Putin — he's a former KGB officer and anti-West hardliner, and even his name is based on one of Putin's own nicknames. Surprisingly, he's not portrayed as an arc villain, but as a reasonable enough guy who dislikes the Avengers and despises SHIELD, but doesn't want a fight with them - he is accordingly infuriated by Lukin's antics because they've set his own, far more patient and sensible plans back by decades. Then Lukin kills him.
- A few years later, Putin would follow much the same course as that arc villain, in Ukraine, for many of the same reasons. Whether, as some suspect, he shares the Sanity Slippage is up for debate. Word of God, meanwhile, has mused on the irony.
The Discworld of A.A. Pessimal has seen several Expies of real people, or at least, OC's who draw their inspiration from real people in the Roundworld.
- The principal teacher of Percussion at the Assassins' Guild's School of Music, a woman who doesn't let the fact she is profoundly deaf affect her musical ability, is an energetic and enthusiastic former orchestral performer called Miss Ethylene Glynnie.
- A Witch with a classical music education, and a versatile violin player with a pinball smile and a sharp sense of humour, is based explicitly on Otava Yo's violinist Yulia Usova.
- An obnoxious would-be politician in the Discworld's Smith-Rhodesia is absolutely explicitly an expy of one of the most notorious ^noteand now deceased white supremacist politicians in the former Rhodesia, even right down to sharing the same name, Van der Byl.
Most of the characters in The Great Meta Fic and Meta-Fic Alt: Rising War are based on real people from the RWBY Subreddit, or rather highly dramatized versions of their Reddit personas.
In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, the Music Meister, who is voiced by Neil Patrick Harris in the cartoon, actually is Neil Patrick Harris. “Music Meister” is merely a stage name.
The Jem comic Not So Glamorous Life follows canon and uses this for musicians. For example, Vanilla White is currently popular and Mini Panini (Milli Vanilli) recently caused a scandal when they were revealed to be lip-syncing.
Ponyville, USA: President of the United States Ryan White is an Expy of Barack Obama, and Colorado Governor Kyle Looper is an Expy of John Hickenlooper.
In the DC Comics Mirror Universe fic The Secret Society of Super-Heroes, Earth-3's Joker counterpart is a rubber-faced comedian called Tim Barry, who Luthor meets when he's playing both Snow Miser and Heat Miser in a Live-Action Adaptation of The Year Without a Santa Claus. A clear pastiche of Jim Carrey and his two Christmas movies; the one (partly) based on an animated special, and the one where he plays multiple characters.
As Hameln doesn't allow Real-Person Fic much like its American counterpart, Japanese Umamusume: Pretty Derby fanfics that incorporate elements of the real world race horses the characters are based on end up giving any real human being that makes an appearance this treatment. Examples include Kore wa Attouteki Bibou de Gaisenmonsho-ba ni naru Ore no Hanashi^note and Nanka shiran no daga Heya ni Uma-mimi Uma-shippo no Bishojo ga Arawaretanyaga^note, just to name a few.
The Bolt Chronicles: Judge Trudy, the jurist who appears on the TV courtroom show Penny and Bolt appear on, is clearly based on the titular on-air persona of Judge Judy. This includes her use of that individual's outspoken demeanor and numerous idiosyncratic catchphrases.
The TV Tropes Character Crossover War: Makima, although still her canon self, largely draws inspiration from Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu. In particular, the former is most obvious in that, after she kills Palpatine and takes over the Empire, she runs it far more pragmatically and focuses on actually running it rather than simply holding power for the sake of it, in addition to the strong implication she personally had a hand in electing Trump (in reference to the accusations that Putin did the same thing). The latter’s influence stems from her near attempted genocide of Sesame Street, itself subconsciously inspired by the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Music

Beatallica (a satirical band performing mashups of The Beatles and Metallica) already has a singer who does a dead-on James Hetfield... and they fall straight on this in "And I'm Evil", featuring a Glenn Danzig soundalike. ("Am I Evil" was not by one of Danzig's bands, but...)
A likeness of Joakim Brodén appears as a random Viking in the Music Video illustrations for Clamavi de Profundis' "Strong".
The Animated Music Video to Disturbed's Cover Version of Genesis' "Land of Confusion" features a (possible) Zakk Wylde look-alike, amongst others. Could be a reference to the original video, which featured multiple celebrity puppets. There's also the Sniper on the back of the album it's from, Ten Thousand Fists. The original version, meanwhile, completely averts this trope. Tying in with its status as a spinoff of Spitting Image, the Genesis video flaunts satirical caricatures of scores of celebrities of the day. Most famously, American President Ronald Reagan himself.
The France Joli song “Girl in the ‘80s” (1983) depicts a girl wearing “clean white shirts and tight blue jeans” who engages in “money deals and [her] career,” closely resembling a fictional equivalent of Brooke Shields.
Jon Lajoie's WTF Collective 1 and 2 have this. MC Fatigue is Sean Paul, MC Final Verse is 50 Cent, MC Confusing is probably Lil Wayne (or Relapse-era Eminem with the nasal voice and random celebrity namedrops), MC Inappropriate Rhymes chains together several of Eminem's favourite sick jokes of the time (Michael J. Fox, Christopher Reeve, Heath Ledger) but has Kanye West's mannerisms, and the Chorus Guy is supposed to represent how Pop Rap songs will have some random non-rapper sing the chorus.
Pet Shop Boys alluded to the controversy of the time about Eminem's homophobic lyrics with "The Night I Fell In Love", by writing a song in which a young gay man has an affair with a closeted hip-hop star who has pretty clear parallels to him. (Eminem responded with a song in which he ran the Pet Shop Boys over with a car, though he doesn't seem to be taking it very seriously.)
The classic 1962 novelty hit "Monster Mash" was performed by Bobby Pickett in an obvious Boris Karloff imitation. Subverted when Karloff himself performed it in the 1965 Halloween episode of "Shindig!" That particular performance was lost; a recreation was posted on YouTube.
Pulp had numerous celebrity impersonators in the video for "Bad Cover Version" in a parody of We Are the World/Do They Know It's Christmas-style charity videos. The impersonators range from Liam Gallagher, Robbie Williams, Rod Stewart and Tom Jones among a dozen others.
Tony Tammaro:
- "Tengo una Varca a Salierno"'s fictional author, Antonello Venduto, is a parody of italian singer-songwriter Antonello Venditti. The song is also made to resemble a typical song from Venditti..
- "Il tricheco" has Tammaro making a couple of imitations of journalist and TV presenter Maurizio Costanzo.
- In the Tamarradio music video of "Chiatta", Tammaro and his partners are part of an a cappella band named Neri per Fame, a cheap copy of the a cappella band Neri Per Caso.
- "Restituiscimi il mio cuore" is sung by Amedeo Minchia ^note Minchia means penis , a parody of Amedeo Minghi. The style also resembles the one of Minghi.
The video for Frank Zappa's "You Are What You Is" features a pretty blatant spoof of then president Ronald Reagan. The fact that said parody is put in an electric chair was a factor in MTV's decision to ban the video from airplay.

Pinballs

Done on all three of Williams Electronics' "rollercoaster" pinballs, with unnamed (but clearly identifiable) celebrities:
- The backglass for Comet include lookalikes of John Belushi and Jane Curtin from Saturday Night Live riding the rollercoaster.
- Cyclone has President Ronald Reagan, his wife Nancy, and Rex the family dog on the ride. The playfield itself includes the Coneheads and Mr. T among the park-goers.
- One of the rollercoaster riders on the backglass of Hurricane is the Energizer Bunny.

Podcasts

Numerous examples in Roleplay Retcon, such as "Ethan Hawkman", a bird-person version of Ethan Hawke in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and "Grrrth Brooks/Grrris Gaines", a country-music-singing bear version of Garth Brooks and his alter ego Chris Gaines.

Professional Wrestling

During the 1970s, a couple Cuban wrestlers, Fidel and Raúl Castillo, made rounds through the Caribbean (especially the Puerto Rican World Wrestling Council), Canada (Maple Leaf Wrestling, Stampede) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Physically, they actually did not resemble a famous pair of Cubans with those same first names (Only Fidel was Cuban, Raúl grew up in the Dominican Republic. Raúl also had an Afro) but it was obvious to everyone what they were going for.
Hated "outlaw promoter" Jack Pfefer liked booking guys with names clearly ripped off from other wrestlers that actually drew money at the time, like "Hobo Brazil" or "Bruno Sandmartino", in the hopes of conning people into buying tickets. A few No Budget indie companies still use this tactic today (though usually for parody), if you see something like "Ice Cold" Cleve Boston vs. "The Faker Boy" Nick Blair on a card you know you've officially reached the bottom rung of the wrestling ladder.
Michael Saxon◊
The WWF's "Billionaire Ted's Wrasslin' Warroom" sketches from the mid-90's, featuring "The Huckster" and the "Nacho Man".
Kevin Nash, known as "Diesel" from 1993-1996, and Scott Hall, known as "Razor Ramon" from 1992-1996, left WWE for WCW in May 1996. In September, announcer Jim Ross started talking about "Razor" and "Diesel" returning, which sparked online speculation about the status of their contracts with WCW^note, where they, along with the heel-turned "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan, were at the forefront of the red-hot nWo storyline. On the September 23, 1996 Raw, Ross cut a shoot promo, essentially turning heel on the company due to how he had been treated a few years earlier after developing Bell's Palsy, and the fans loved it. Then They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot, as Ross brought out "Razor Ramon." Instead of Hall, it was Canadian wrestler Rick Bogner, best known for his work in FMW in Japan as Big Titan, doing a BAD imitation. "Razor" was followed by "Diesel," real name Glen Jacobs, who had last been seen five months earlier as Jerry Lawler's evil dentist Dr. Isaac Yankem, DDS. The gimmick — inspired after McMahon invoked his rights to retain the characters due to them being trademarked — was unpopular and was dropped quickly, but not until after wrestling fans expressed how unamused they were by it. "Diesel" and "Razor" disappeared from television after the Royal Rumble in January 1997 and were shipped down to Lawler's USWA (United States Wrestling Association) in Memphis, TN for repackaging. Bogner cut a promo where he buried the gimmick and renamed himself "The Free Spirit" Ric Titan. Jacobs went back to his previous Memphis gimmick of Doomsday, even winning the USWA Heavyweight Title under that name. Jacobs returned to WWE on October 5th at In Your House: Badd Blood as Kane, The Undertaker's evil "brother," costing Taker the win in his Hell in a Cell match against Shawn Michaels. Bogner likely would have been repackaged as well, but he chose to jump to New Japan Pro-Wrestling instead to join NWO Japan.
WCW had Oklahoma, which was a cruel imitation of Jim Ross after his Bell's Palsy attack. Naturally, everyone found it in bad taste and it was quickly scrapped. This was Vince Russo's fault, if you were wondering.
As a heel, CM Punk is (appearance-wise, anyway) clearly supposed to be a knock-off of notorious serial killer Charles Manson because of his oversized beard. Many fans started speculating that the CM stood for Charles Manson. And when he was a commentator, he actually wore a Charles Manson t-shirt. However, some of his facial expressions are closer to those of the late great comedian George Carlin. And even without the facial hair, Punk bore an uncanny resemblance to Che Guevara, which made his "Cult of Personality" gimmick from 2011 to 2014 all the more fitting.
NWA Wildside had a send up to the notorious attorney F. Lee Bailey, an evil lawyer known as Jeff G. Bailey.
Los Compadres, Dominican heels of the Puerto Rican World Wrestling Council had a valet named Destiny, a light skinned black woman with long blonde hair. Basically an evil version of Destiny's Child singer Beyoncé.
CM Punk's gimmick has been parodied by the wrestling federation CHIKARA, who used a mascot character CP Munk, the Straight Edge chipmunk. The gimmick includes references to Punk, such as X-marked wrist tape, a Pepsi logo on the costume's left shoulder, and a high-pitch version of Punk's best-known independent circuit theme song "Miseria Cantare – The Beginning", by the band AFI. Whereas Punk, particularly in his Heel days in the independents, used the Catchphrase "Drug free, alcohol free and better than you," CP Munk is billed as "He's almond free, he's acorn free, and he's better than you." At times, CP Munk, real name Dylan Keith Summers, better known as the hardcore wrestler Necro Butcher of CZW and The Wrestler infamy, has teamed with "Colt Cabunny," a rabbit parody of Punk's longtime friend and tag team partner Colt Cabana, played by another CZW regular Joker, real name William Posada.
- On his website, Punk has said about the CP Munk gimmick, and the people behind it (Punk had apparently no-showed a CHIKARA event, it was their response):
"I'm split 50/50 on it. Some days I get real pissed about it, because it's disrespectful. I'm sure it's no secret that the dorks that run Chikara and I don't get along, so they're [sic] judgement on trying to "mock" me is a little off. Most other days I just laugh it off because nobody from Chikara will ever be over enough anywhere for anybody else to parody them."
NWA Cyberspace and later, On Fire had a Luda Kash from the "All Money Is Legal" group. What, you think he supposed to resemble some rapper? That's Ludacris!
Jillian Hall's last gimmick was a Britney Spears-esque singer (complete with headset mic, outfit, and monotone "sexy" singing voice, although done to new levels of horrible). It's now more seen as a Take That! against Brooke Hogan, the daughter of Hulk Hogan, who the WWE had another falling out with after promoting her music on Raw around the time of SummerSlam in August 2005 (Hogan's last appearance in the company, which was a condition of his return), esp. since the fans did not really care about the musical talents of a Hogan. In a hilarious twist, Jillian Hall's Christmas album outsold Brooke Hogan's latest album, despite the fact Jillian's was not only a joke album, but was also only available through iTunes. Jillian would later go on record that her gimmick was not meant to be an insult to Brooke but Hulk Hogan took it that way and went to TNA.
John Morrison (really "John Hennigan," and the former "Johnny Nitro") is a pretty blatant clone of the Doors' Jim Morrison. When he first appeared as a heel in the summer of 2007, he even quoted Doors lyrics ("Some are born to sweet delight / And some are born to endless night") and at one point outright scream-sang: "I set the night on fire!" The character mellowed quite a bit after Hennigan turned face, and became more of a knowing tribute to Jim Morrison instead of essentially his long-lost relative. The only weird thing about the gimmick was that his theme song was inspired by Jimi Hendrix more than The Doors.
Mexican Lucha Libre Promotion King Bulls Wrestling hosted an event in 2010 where Fake Undertaker defeated Fake John Cena and Fake Rey Mysterio in the opening match. Fake Rey Mysterio is better known as 5to(sic) Rey Misterio, as a riff on the original Misterio (though he's actually 5'5, the point is he's still obviously shorter). Fake Mysterio and Fake John Cena have also worked as a tag team in Lucha Libre Unida against their rivals, Fake Umaga and Fake Big Show.
Sting's then new makeup design and mannerisms during the summer of 2011 (when he was feuding with Hulk Hogan's "Immortal" stable) were pretty blatantly swiped from Heath Ledger's portrayal of in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', with Wrestling/RicFlair outright noting the resemblance and Sting riffing on the Joker's "Why so serious?" catchphrase with "Why so nervous, Hogan?" It might have been more effective if this hadn't been nearly three whole years after the ''Batman'' sequel had come out - and after [[MemeticMutation just about everyone else had already done a Ledger tribute. What probably saved the gimmick from being a complete fiasco was that the voice and manic manner of the new Sting were clearly inspired by Jim Carrey, who never played the Joker anyway (but he did play the Riddler).
Booker T's classic gimmick of bellowing "Can you dig that, suckaaaaa?!" just might be a tip of the hat to Roger Hill's performance as Cyrus in The Warriors, since Cyrus also said "dig" and "sucka" quite frequently. If not, it's just a standard Jive Turkey rip-off.
The fitness freak character of Simon Dean (portrayed by Mike Bucci, better known as Nova in ECW) was quite obviously Richard Simmons without an Afro.
Paul Heyman was known as "Paul E. Dangerously" at the beginning of his career because it was thought that he facially (if not quite physically) resembled Michael Keaton, who played the title character in Johnny Dangerously.
Ohio Valley was visited by a pudgy but ruthless foreign gangster from Italy named Al Barone...no points if it took more than one guess.
JBL's gimmick is heavily inspired by George W. Bush, being a Texas conservative businessman turned politician. It was introduced during the middle of Bush's presidency, so timing was perfect.
Carmella is very much WWE's version of Iggy Azalea, right down to the blatant "Fancy" knockoff theme.

Radio

Adam Armstrong, the Prime Minister in the first three seasons of The BBC Afternoon Play strand Number Ten, was a New Labourite with elements of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. After stepping down, he is replaced in the 2010 season by Simon Laitey, the Eton-educated leader of a Conservative Party in coalition with the Lib Dems.
In Goodness Gracious Me, the Indian film director Ranjit Say, whose films are all about two people playing draughts, is a parody of Sandip Ray, whose first film was The Chess Players.
Comedy duo Hudson & Landry had a few skits with impressions of celebrities, like Groucho Marx and W.C. Fields.
Several of Phil Hendrie's radio characters are admittedly based on celebrities; the borderline-pedophile James McQuarters, for instance, is based on Anthony Hopkins' performance in The Bounty, and Pastor William Rennick is quite obviously Al Sharpton.
Two Radio 4 comedy series by Sue Limb are about No Celebrities Were Harmed versions of famous writer's groups: the Lake Poets in The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere and the Bloomsbury Set in Gloomsbury.
Two characters in Don Joyce's The Firesign Theatre - type presentations on Negativland's avant-garde weekly KPFA radio happening Over the Edge were Doug Piddle and Peter Diddle, presenters of the American Broadcasting System's "The Piddle Diddle Report", based on NBC's ''The Huntley-Brinkley Report." Joyce's growly Doug Piddle voice is a fairly good take on Huntley's. Over at the rival network Universal Media Netweb, news anchor Leland Googleburger (also Joyce) sounded a lot like Walter Leland Cronkite ^note.
Usually The Goon Show didn't bother to disguise Peter Sellers' vocal imitations under fictional identities. One exception is in "The Starlings", where the Duchess Boil de Spudswell sounds suspiciously like the Queen.
The TV Lark:
- "The Prestige Show" has the T-tv production team working with aggressive interviewer Bernard Yeast — a clear riff on Bernard Levin, who was notorious for his own aggression when interviewing politicians.
- "On Safari" features Maggie and Arnold Crump, a send-up of Armand and Michaela Denis, who were known for making wildlife documentaries around the world. Unlike the Denises, the Crumps are more focused on getting themselves on camera instead of the animals.

Roleplay

NoPixel:
- Douglas James' screechy voice, which he developed after one too many electric shocks, is a perfect imitation of Police Academy-era Bobcat Goldthwait.
- Gordo Ramsay is a caricature of Gordon Ramsay.

Tabletop Games

Duke Rollo of Aberrant is basically Hunter S. Thompson, with his name being a riff on Thompson's alter-ego Raoul Duke.
If they were notable figures of the mid-Seventies, odds are they appear in Damnation Decade under an outrageous name and with an equally outrageous twist on their role in history.
The Banishers sourcebook for Mage: The Awakening includes John Maverick, an obscenely wealthy, boyishly handsome, self-loathingly closeted bisexual actor who has become an earnest spokesperson of a cult. Any resemblance to Tom Cruise and the Church of Happyology is, of course, coincidental.
Psionics: The Next Stage in Human Evolution features a character named Lucky Wacker. If you are a fan of The World/Inferno Friendship Society, you'll probably notice that Lucky Wacker is basically psionic Jack Terricloth. He even looks like him.
Scion April Fools' Day supplement Scion: Extras features Sci, a Scion of the Japanese pantheon, best known for internet meme "Scion Style", riffing on PSY and Gangnam Style. Lyrics for "Scion Style" are provided. Meanwhile, Irish Scion Jack Caricature, a game developer who herds cats, is a good-natured spoof of then-current Scion 2e developer Joe Carriker.
Warhammer 40,000 has Sly Marbo, a One-Man Army for the Catachan Devils, who is at his best fighting in jungles and is of course in no way shape or form related to John Rambo or Sylvester Stallone◊. His "feats" also come from the list of Chuck Norris facts.
In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, White Wolf spoof themselves with Pentex subsidiary Black Dog Game Factory. In "Subsidiaries: A Guide to Pentex", they extended the parody to the rest of the tabletop RPG industry at the time.
- In Freak Legions there is a mention of "a fallen movie director. Once flavor of the month and talk of the town, this former video rental clerk turned mega-celebrity grew fat on success sucked from the soured tit of civilization's underbelly. He made the decomposition of the human society entertaining. The violent PULP of his bent FICTION reveled in Gaia's passing. When someone more disgusting came down Hollywood's garbage chute, everyone forgot him - except RAW. The Wyrm made that fomor into a leader, trained to deal death to Garou and well armed with immensely potent Eyes of the Wyrm. He possesses the director's viewfinder to oblivion." An obvious jab at Quentin Tarantino.

Theatre

In Arthur Miller's play After the Fall, Maggie has a highly suspicious resemblance to the author's late ex-wife, Marilyn Monroe.
Alison's House: The posthumous character of Alison Stanhope is a very thinly veiled Emily Dickinson. Playwright Susan Glaspell actually sought to write a play about Dickinson, for the centenary of her birth in 1930. But Dickinson's works and the rights to her story were still under control of the estate at the time, and the surviving Dickinsons refused Glaspell permission to use Emily Dickinson's name or her poetry. Alison and her Real Life counterpart were both shut-ins for years. Both had an easy rapport with the children of the family despite being socially reclusive. Both wrote reams of poetry that weren't published until after they died. Both had sisters that also never married (Dickinson's sister was named Lavinia) and both asked that sister to destroy her unpublished works after her death. And while it is unknown if Emily Dickinson had a forbidden love of the sort that Alison Stanhope had in the backstory, the "Master letters" have often been interpreted in that way.
The 1950 musical Call Me Madam starred Ethel Merman as Mrs. Sally Adams, America's ambassador to the small Ruritanian country of Lichtenburg (famous for its cheese); this was roughly based on Perle Mesta, Harry Truman's ambassador to Luxembourg. The original program disclaimed that "neither the character of Mrs. Sally Adams nor Miss Ethel Merman resemble[s] any person living or dead," and also played with No Communities Were Harmed by referring to Lichtenburg and the United States of America as "two mythical countries."
In Cats, the Rum Tum Tugger is styled after Mick Jagger.
Freddie Trumper, the Jerkass American chess player in Chess, is supposed to be a Bobby Fischer expy, with some characteristics of John McEnroe (whom Freddie refers to as "that tennis player—what's his name"). The Russian player, Anatoly Sergievsky, was initially based on Boris Spassky but the resemblance decreased every time the musical was rewritten.
Critic's Choice has a drama critic married to a playwright, like Walter and Jean Kerr were in Real Life. The title of the caustic magazine article Parker is composing, "Don't Write That Play," is similar to that of Walter Kerr's book How Not to Write a Play, a facetious paragraph from which is this play's acknowledged inspiration.
In The Doughgirls by Joseph Fields, Sergeant Natalia Chodorov is based on Lyudmila Pavlichenko, though her last name is obviously that of Fields's frequent co-writer, Jerome Chodorov.
Fangirls: An insanely popular boy band called True Connection whose lead singer is named Harry? Nope, not ringing any bells.
Finian's Rainbow: It's probably not a coincidence that Woody Mahoney, union organizer, folk singer (whose shame it is that he can't play the guitar he's carrying), and enemy of finance men, has the same first name as Woody Guthrie. (At one point, Woody is supposed to speak "in a 'Talking Union Blues' rhythm.")
The 2014-2015 British play Great Britain is based around the rise and fall of the News of the World, the British tabloid paper. As such, most of the characters, in particular those working for the Free Press, are very heavily based off the various real-life paper, with a Rupert Murdoch substitute (though his nationality is changed from Australian to Irish with implied links to the NRA), an older version of David Cameron with a different name and various officers in the Metropolitan Police. Notably, however, the knockoff version of Rebekah Brooks is treated in a much more sympathetic light, in no small part due to the fact that she was legally declared innocent by the British courts in real life.
The musical adaptation of The Great British Bake Off (yes, really) names its two judges as "Pam Lee" and "Phil Hollinghurst", rather than Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood.
In H.M.S. Pinafore, Sir Joseph Porter, First Lord of the Admiralty,^note describes his rise in a song emphasizing his complete lack of nautical experience or knowledge.^note Audiences quickly made the connection to W.H. Smith,^notenow best known for the chain of stores who was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time and had a background similar to Porter's. As a result, Smith was known for the rest of his life as "Pinafore Smith".
I Just Stopped By To See The Man by Stephen Jeffreys consists of a meeting between No Celebrities Were Harmed versions of Robert Johnson (if he'd lived until the sixties), Angela Davis, and Jimmy Page.
In Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the Pharaoh of Egypt is a parody of Elvis Presley.
Another fictionalized version of Noel Coward is Eric Dare from the little-known Cole Porter musical Jubilee. In the same show, Eva Standing could practically have been a pseudonym for Elsa Maxwell; Charles "Mowgli" Rausmiller, however, is more a parody of Tarzan than of Johnny Weissmuller.
In The Man Who Came to Dinner, the (speaking) character of Banjo is based on Harpo Marx (his Hollywood co-stars are named as Wacko and Sloppo). Sheridan Whiteside was largely modeled on the Alter-Ego Acting persona of Alexander Woollcott (to whom the play was dedicated by its authors "for reasons that are nobody's business") Lorraine Sheldon represents English actress Gertrude Lawrence, and Beverly Carlton is a thinly veiled pastiche of playwright and wit Noël Coward.
Of Thee I Sing: Apparently, some reviews of the original production noticed a resemblance between John P. Wintergreen (as played by William Gaxton) and Jimmy Walker, then mayor of New York City (and part-time songwriter), which may have been denied. All but openly acknowledged, though, was that all nine Supreme Court Judges were made up like Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Although Patience's "fleshly poet", Reginald Bunthorne, is widely thought to represent Oscar Wilde, the actor playing Bunthorne is usually made up to resemble Wilde's fellow wit, the American painter, James Abbott McNeill Whistler of Whistler's Mother fame.^note Bunthorne's rival, the "idyllic poet" Archibald Grosvenor, is based on and made up to resemble the English poet, Algernon Charles Swinburne, who was born on a street called Grosvenor Place.
In The Pirates of Penzance, Major-General Stanley was apparently at least in part based on Lieutenant-General (later Field Marshal) Sir Garnet Wolseley. Unlike his fictional counterpart, Sir Garnet was an excellent administrator, good field commander, something of a Renaissance Man, the author of several important works on military history and one of the main driving forces behind the Cardwell Reforms (the least of which was the abolition of flogging as punishment within the Army). Apparently Sir Garnet found the whole thing Actually Pretty Funny and used to sing the associated song to amuse his friends at parties.
Ethan Kane in Sex with Strangers, who runs the eponymous blog about picking up women in bars, is a thinly veiled version of Tucker Max.
Stereophonic: The megafamous, bohemian rockers coming to blows over the course of a record's creation brings to mind Fleetwood Mac and their acclaimed album Rumours. Like Fleetwood Mac, the band comprises two couples (one British and one American, the former married, the latter coming in from another prior band) that implode, rounded out by a drummer trying to keep the band together. Some details also track closely to that of the band members's lives (for example: like David, Lindsey Buckingham's brother was an Olympic swimmer; Holly has a flirtatious scene with the sound engineer Grover that evokes Christine McVie's affair with Martin Birch).

Toys

American Girl: Tenney Grant is a guitar-playing singer-songwriter from Nashville with curly blonde hair whose story follows her pursuing a music career when she is discovered by a talent scout at the Bluebird Café. She was very likely inspired by Taylor Swift from the earlier part of her career.
Just Play's Puppy In My Pocket spinoff line Kitty in My Pocket has Elizabeth, a cat who has white fur, light blue eyes, and a pearl collar. She resembles Queen Elizabeth II, as the latter had silver-to-white hair, blue eyes, and often wears a pearl necklace. It doesn't help that she's a British shorthair cat.
Jakks Pacific's SLUG Zombies featured characters based on Neal Armstrong, Mr. T, Michael Jordan, Andre Agassi, Colonel Sanders, Chuck Norris, Elvis, Bruce Lee, Bob Marley, and Larry, Moe and Curly. Plus, future releases were planned to include Axl Rose, Shaun White, Ben Franklin, Charles Bronson, Amelia Earhart, and Donald Trump.
American releases of the original Tamagotchi virtual pets feature a blonde Waddling Head Tamagotchi named Bill who is meant to be a reference to Bill Clinton, the president of the United States at the time the American toys released (1997). In the videotape Tamagotchi Video Adventures, Bill's part of the "What's a Tamagotchi?" song shows him in front of the American flag and describes him as "the one to run for office"; he also plays the saxophone like the real-life Clinton.

Web Animation

Bowser's Kingdom: The Shy Guys are imitations of Christopher Walken.
Dayum: The “Critic” in “Types of People at Restaurants Portrayed by Minecraft”, who complains about the chicken being “frozen and raw”, is named Gordon, in reference to Gordon Ramsay.
The Debbie and Carrie Show:
- Diana Kalli once married a wealthy oil company owner and got access to his fortune after he died, something that Anna Nicole Smith had attempted to do in real life.
- Roosh Scumbaugh and Annie Revoulter were parodies of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.
- Ted Anderson and Leonard Wilson were both references to Donald Trump.
- Also, Ted Wilson and Ted Anderson were both named in reference to rock star Ted Nugent.
Homestar Runner:
- Crack Stuntman, the in-universe voice of Gunhaver on Cheat Commandos, is physically based on veteran voice actor Frank Welker.
- A minor character who appears as The Voice in some latter-day cartoons is Tucker Donaldson, a stuffy spokesman for fake websites about Halloween safety and campus safety who accuses the Brothers Chaps of making fun of the former organization and Marzipan's band Cool Tapes of starting a riot at a student union. His stuttering vocal cadence seems to be a parody of conservative pundit Tucker Carlson.
Inanimate Insanity has Steve Cobs, the founder and CEO of Meeple Inc.
The Reality Project: Reality Resort hostess Victoria Moore is based off of Julie Chen Moonves, the hostess of Big Brother.
Shaggy Dog Stories: A "Justinian Beaver" is featured in one episode, and mention is made to a cheesy romance TV series called "Breaking Wind".

Webcomics

The various comics of the Bobbinsverse is quite highly prone to not-actually-that-real-celebrity appearances. Just a couple of examples:
- Scary Go Round introduces Ben Bishop, founder of Zambian Computing. His and his company's history seems an awful lot like that of Steve Jobs and Apple. (His company — with rainbow logo — is revolutionary in the 80s; in the 90s he leaves the company for unspecified reasons, but returns to roll out an all-in-one computer; in the present day, his company — now with a pure-silver logo — has computers, tablets, phones, and "more money than any company on earth".)
- Solver features The Waterman, a pop impresario who isn't actually stated to be pop impresario Pete Waterman.
Vance Petrol of Chugworth Academy is a thinly veiled Vin Diesel.
Sora from Consolers is pretty much company founder Masahiro Sakurai.
Curse Quest The Owl Hunter looks eerily similar to Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter, right down to the accent that's implied and his shorts. The Owl Hunter tracks down ulvorn instead of crocodiles and acts like a parody of the original.
Educomix has Stephen the Hawk King, Justin Beaver, President X, and Rick Motney.
El Goonish Shive,
- This line "Now Now, Mr. Raven, I know you just think of me as a ''lowly'' intern with a '''remarkable''' resemblance to Zach Braff..."
- The guy who loaned Elliot a lighter sure looks a lot like Silent Bob.
Erfworld is a Parody World; this isn't just an artistic choice, it's an integral part of the world because people from the 'regular worlds' who, in fact, might be famous fictional characters from specific parallel universes where they are real can use their Genre Savvy and knowledge of pop culture to predict how units and leaders act and think based on how they look and the history of their 'regular world' counterparts. As such, a good quarter of the Erfworld is celebrity. Another quarter involves famous historical figures, and the rest come from various media.
- Examples: Sammy, Prince of Haggar, Michael Jackson (played by Wanda, go figure).
In Everyday Heroes, Lee Free Sr. bears more than a passing resemblance in both looks and personality to George Carlin. In fact the strip he's introduced in has him using a line by Carlin.
In Fafnir the Dragon, this trope only comes into play for fictional characters. Everyone else is presented as-is.
Heroine Chic has famous fashion designer Arpaya Servachi and her murdered brother, Geno Servachi: thinly-veiled references to Donatella and Gianni Versace.
Homestuck, amidst mentions of actual celebrities:
- Colonel Sassacre is clearly just Mark Twain wearing a wizard hat. A semi-hidden backstory draft that was on the Skaianet Systems website later revealed that they are, in fact, the same person, with Sassacre being one of Twain's aliases.
- Rufioh's speech is patterned quite closely after that of Dante Basco's Tumblr account following Homestuck, and the character is both based on and named after a character Dante Basco played in Hook. Andrew Hussie's Author Avatar confesses the former in an Easter Egg on the flash where Rufioh is introduced.
Steve in Irregular Webcomic! seems to be Steve Irwin from Crocodile Hunter, but Word of God insists that these are not the same person. The annotation under #1288 says that the comic Steve 'might perhaps be somewhat loosely based on' Steve Irwin, 'if you believe the unrestrained hearsay and rampant speculation of some readers.' The rerun commentary for #7 provides a Suspiciously Specific Denial: 'Steve and Terry are of course not even slightly based on the real life Steve and Terri Irwin... The fact that "Terry" is spelt differently to "Terri" should absolutely and beyond a doubt confirm that in the minds of any lingering doubters, as it's clearly not a case of me making a mistake in a badly botched attempt to copy her name. '
One Keiki comic had Beefer join a website populated by such comedic reviewers as Nostalgia Nerd, Blinkara, Snoopy, and Mercury Gal.
The titular character of King of the Unknown is clearly Elvis, though he is never named as such. Ever since a supernatural mishap transformed him (into a fat slob) and forced him to fake his death, "the King" dedicated his new secret life to kicking supernatural ass for a The Men in Black-like Government Agency of Fiction known as the IRSU. Agent H, King's Mission Control at IRSU, is a similarly veiled and still-living Jimi Hendrix. Aside from the broad strokes, many small details are culled from the rock stars' lives to create these just-barely veiled versions.
Jedi Springar◊ of Le avventure del grande Darth Vader is a lightsaber-wielding Jerry Springer.
Leif & Thorn features an author of a popular children's fantasy series, who bears more than a little resemblance to J. K. Rowling.
Looking for Group: Possibly unintentional on the artist's part but Commander Kickass looks like Jack Kirby.
Monsterful has two celebrity posters, a parody of Lady Gaga as a vampire named Lady BatBat, and a possible parody of Shakira as a werewolf named Wolfira.
Queen Mab, Oberon and David Weddell in Realmwalker are obviously supposed to respectively be Bjork, David Bowie/Prince, and David Tennant.
Elan in The Order of the Stick makes a reference to Special Encounters Unit, whose actors resemble Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni, and Ice-T.
In Our Little Adventure, a group that Julie needs to talk to in order to get the item she needs are fantasy counterparts to the original judges of American Idol
Sam & Fuzzy has a slew of these introduced in the "Return of the King" arc, where it turns out the music industry has been faking the deaths of successful artists on the verge of a Career Killer, and shipping them to a remote island where they can be kept to produce 'unreleased singles' still unfinished at time of their 'deaths' instead. Of the ones visible are "Elton Priestly" (Elvis Presley) "Curtis Cutter" (Kurt Cobain), "Christy Spelling" (Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears) and "Big Pimping G Moneydogg" (The Notorious B.I.G. or Tupac Shakur).

Websites

Squeaks from Scrub Club likes a celebrity named Dan Lather, a pun on Dan Rather.

Web Videos

Voice-wise, Grandpa Lemon from The Annoying Orange appears to be based on Jimmy Stewart.
- The series itself loves to parody real life people (and recent events such as E3) which works with a combination with Punny Names and Animate Inanimate Objects.
In The Autobiography of Jane Eyre, a setting update of Jane Eyre, Blanche Ingram was based on a real life personality, model and successful businesswoman Xenia Tchoumitcheva. Vlog Blanche Ingram is actually very sophisticated and quite nice. She's nothing like the unpleasant Alpha Bitch that was Miss Ingram from the original novel. Here's a link to Ms Ingram's in-universe website.
Bern Grill - uomo contronatura: Bern Grill is an obvious parody of Bear Grylls, starting with the similar names. Contrary to the real one though, his survival skills are lacking.
"Borderlands is for Real Gamers" by IGN, about Borderlands 1, features a guy playing as a developer of the game, Randy Pitchford. While he does get the hairstyle, he otherwise doesn't look like Randy Pitchford at all. He also technically doesn't act like him either — the man is more being used to a way of parodying the game's marketing campaign.
Dream Machine: A lot of Ryan Dresden’s backstory is inspired by the life of Robert Downey, Jr. They even have the same initials, RD.
El Bananero, a very famous Uruguayan youtuber in Latin America, made a mockumentary about a music band called MegaPanza, which is basically a mixture between Metallica and Guns N' Roses. The joke went so far that actually the "band" has their own website (in Spanish.)
Halloweenie:
- Halloweenie's voice sounds a lot like Peter Lorre.
- Pumpkinweenie to Gilbert Gottfried.
Kamp Kraven:
- The J. Jonah Jameson podcast, also called the "Jonah Jameson Journey," has Jameson act as a stand-in for Joe Rogan.
- Kraven's own marketing stunts and brand is modeled after MrBeast, having a similar turquoise logo shaped like a jungle cat.
Lifewasters portrays Sparky, who is heavily inspired by Chris-Chan, complete with striped shirt, cartoon character medallion, and a belief similar to Chris-Chan's belief in the "merge" (in this case, that a cartoon monkey will enter the real world via a portal). Sparky is potrayed sympathetically, and Sparky's harassment at the hands of "documentarian" Marla is portrayed as a bad thing, leading to Marla having a Heel–Face Turn.
Several gags in LoadingReadyRun's recurrent Rapidfire segment Elect Andrew Shepard cast Shepard as a depraved version of Bill Clinton, such as his claim that "I did not have sexual relations with that woman. I did, however, have sex with that woman, that woman, those two women, and possibly that guy.", or "I did not inhale. I took it rectally, and I did not enjoy it as much as I had hoped."
The Nostalgia Chick: The Chick does a dead-on parody of Sarah Palin when she is the vice president to The Nostalgia Critic's president of Kickassia. She also tries to kill him to get his job.
Uncle Al: In "Donkey Kong Country Abridged", Cranky's voice is modeled after Gilbert Gottfried's.
Voice-wise, Cameo/Judgement from Vaguely Recalling JoJo appears to be a parody of Norio Wakamoto. He's even a Large Ham villain.
Welcome Back, Potter: While being an alternate version of Harry Potter, Jarry Potter has more in common with Hunter S. Thompson, his look based off of his Raoul Duke persona in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

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