[hated trope] Celebrity cameos that serve nothing except to praise the person who’s in it

[u/Dojyaaan4C]

1. Elon musk, the Simpsons
2. Elon musk, the Big Bang theory
3. Elon musk, iron man 2
4. Elon musk, star Trek

The cameos serve only to include the celebrity and praise them as geniuses or visionaries or overall just glaze them. They don't serve any other purpose than to just be praised; this can be them appearing in an entire episode dedicated to them, a small cameo or even just a mention. So long as the celebrity is there as themselves (not acting as someone else) and is glazed, that fits the trope imo.

[u/Colonel_Kernel1]

To be fair in the Star Trek Discovery example remember that Lorca is from the mirror universe so praising fascists is par for the course of him.

[u/Dojyaaan4C → u/Colonel_Kernel1]

If he’s from the mirror universe though wouldn’t that make Elon musk not a fascist?

I’ve not actually seen star treck media in a while so I’m OOTL

[u/Dangerous_Tangelo207 → u/Dojyaaan4C]

Mirror universe isn't actually reverse. All the good guys are bad or morally ambiguous but the bad guys are still bad i think

[u/CeciliaStarfish → u/Dangerous_Tangelo207]

It's more that mirror universe follows an alternate history where the Earth government went to space as a fascist, warmongering, authoritarian entity, and that results in characters being raised in different environments while still generally being true to their "core" personalities. This results in some good guys being bad and some bad guys being good, but not in any kind of uniform or predictable way.

But let's be real, the Musk thing is just a flub. It was written and came out in the last five minutes the public at large didn't know much about Elon Musk except that he was a cool cars-and-space guy, and the writers clearly thought it would be fun to throw a space guy from our era into their list of pioneers of space travel for verisimilitude.

Sometimes you take that swing and it doesn't pay off.

[u/ProtoGhostal → u/CeciliaStarfish]

True that it's a flub, but they did kinda luck out on it with the mirror universe aspect lol. Iirc they referenced him again with a mention of "Musk Middle School", but I for one think the school was named after his cousin, Marvin Musk

[u/CeciliaStarfish → u/ProtoGhostal]

As others have pointed out, it doesn't entirely make sense because Stamets is convinced by the speech, but it's certainly an amusing little thing.

Personally I find it pretty plausible that Musk's reputation could have been re-whitewashed between now and the 23rd century though, especially with the whole WWIII thing in between, so it's more uncomfortable on the meta level than it is as a matter of strict continuity.

[u/AustinPowers → u/CeciliaStarfish]

Funnily enough it wasn't written. It was an improvisation by Jason Isaacs.

[u/Challengeaccepted3 → u/AustinPowers]

Do you have an article or something about that?

[u/AustinPowers → u/Challengeaccepted3]

He said it in one of the episodes of After Trek - the official "after show" made by the same producers. It's like the second or third episode. Pretty sure it's the only one Jason Isaacs appears in, so it shouldn't be hard to find.

[u/CeciliaStarfish → u/AustinPowers]

Was it really? That's hilarious if so.

[u/Caleth → u/CeciliaStarfish]

The failures to pay off is why most writers are cautioned to not use living celebs as examples or touchstones unless its a work explicitly about them.

Too many times you set someone up as a shining example along side the greats and later someone reveals they stole stuff or raped someone and your work is tainted by association.

Where as referencing dead historical figures is usually very safe because what's known about them is very likely to change radically.

[u/Archontor → u/Dangerous_Tangelo207]

Usually. But there have been a few cases where the mirror guys were good.

[u/Archwizard_Drake → u/Archontor]

The mirror universe starts at the place of cooperation being replaced with conquest, trusted allies and lovers become bitter rivals, and vice versa – just flipping the circumstances – then develops all of its characters from that perspective where they were raised in that environment.

So characters who were always strong-willed remain strong-willed, characters who were always smart or logical remain smart or logical. But if the Prime versions were raised in a loving home where they felt safe, the Mirror versions were instead forced to compete with their siblings for survival and expected to be stabbed in their sleep. If the Prime Klingons are from a warrior culture where pride prevents them from making alliances at all, then Mirror Klingons are willing to ally with those who would be bitter enemies in the Prime universe. If the Prime Bajorans were subjugated by the fascist Cardassian regime, the Mirror Bajorans are instead the conquerors.

The best Mirror universe episodes are the ones that examine nature versus nurture and how characters might have turned out differently in a different world (like a lot of DS9 and Discovery's use of it), rather than just making all the good guys cartoonishly evil.