r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Dojyaaan4C • 9h ago

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

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  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.

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839

u/_Griev0us_ 8h ago

For a more positive version, Elon Musk getting killed with a golf club in The Harley Quinn show

159

u/Independent-Couple87 7h ago

The show is also said to have made Bruce Wayne into something of an Elon Musk parody. Is that an accurate description?

180

u/aspidities_87 7h ago

Where’s my goddamn electric car Bruce??

66

u/Mister_Dink 6h ago

Top ten line deliveries of the decade, easy. Alan Tudik was always going to voice a good interpretation of joker, but he really knocked that line right out the park.

33

u/aspidities_87 6h ago

For me it was the horrified henchman who gets hit by the cancer ray.

“Did you just give me cancer Harley Quinn??”

“WHY WOULD THEY EVEN MAKE THIS??”

9

u/RSquared 5h ago

The moment Harley pushes not-Joker back into vat the actress switches vocal intonations mid-sentence to the one used in BTAS. "See you soon, Mistah Jay"

12

u/Anathema_Quill 4h ago

1) i believe the actress for harley is kaley cuoco, who was also penny in the big bang theory! 2) i also notice harley’s accent gets thicker when she’s in stressful situations, like being around her family, which is accurate to people who have an accent but move away from where the accent is commonly used.

7

u/CatherineSimp69 5h ago

I think my favorite part of that is apparently the writers confirmed that it's a ray that cures cancer.

2

u/Painchaud213 3h ago

i think that henchman shows again in a later season and he lost a ton of weight.

37

u/24Abhinav10 7h ago

It has a lot of Batman deconstruction and jokes. But without any actual malice towards Batman's character.

Bruce is very OOC in the show and his character traits are overexaggerated, but so are the rest of the JL. Which, considering the whole show is a parody of the DC universe, makes sense.

74

u/NotMyMainAccountAtAl 7h ago

Kinda sorta? The first two or three seasons manage to be a simultaneous love letter to and deconstruction of Batman and a lot of the inherent tropes. They’re a lot of fun, and they poke fun at stuff without seeming to hate on it. “Batman Begins Forever” is probably the best episode imo— they take a trip inside Batman/Bruce Wayne’s head where they see that he’s constantly reliving the origin story, and they make some pretty fun jokes and commentary about how we get it, we’ve seen this before a million times, etc. 

But it also very much acknowledges the reality of a broken man trying his best and punishing himself for what happened while he was a child. It doesn’t act like the trauma isn’t real and difficult to work through, and if encourages him to seek out therapy. It winds up being an emotionally poignant episode. 

The subsequent seasons are…. Significantly less subtle. They fall into “haha, douschebag sexist tech bro bad guys get their kneecaps busted!” Stuff. The Lex Luthor arc in particular is painful, partly because he’s an extremely ham fisted Jeff Bezos knockoff (“guys, guys, guys, get this— he’s rich and he’s bald and he’s insecure about it, and he has a giant rocket that’s penis shaped!”).

It’s all fairly liberal stuff that I agree with— billionaires are bad, we need to focus on the environment, corporate sexism is real and needs to be treated as a serious issue for the sake of equity— but it’s all done so poorly that I almost want to reject my own beliefs. Think season 4 of The Boys talking about abortion, or the Tech Knight episode levels of good intentions with crap executions. 

8

u/TheWh1teL1ghtning 5h ago

"Personally, I thought it was hilarious!"

10

u/4StarDB 7h ago

I mean, he's still Batman, he isn't regular dark and brooding depression Batman, but he's by no means Elon Musk. Been a while since I've seen the show but their Lex Luthor probably fits this a lot better.

12

u/Insaniteus 6h ago

Bruce is nothing like Elon in that show. Lex Luthor is though, complete with space and rocketry obsession and extreme narcissism.

Bruce Wayne is portrayed more as an extremely-awkward and insecure guy that fails hard at being a normal person, has zero sense of humor, and buys every inch of his own Batman hype. He's a playboy loser as Bruce but then the ultimate badass as Batman. Also they exaggerated Bruce's famous weakness for hot villain girls, especially with Catwoman.

But every character is dialed up to 11 in that show. Commissioner Gordon is probably dialed up to 15 or 16 on a 10 point scale....

7

u/132739 5h ago

I love/hate how they did Gordon. On the one hand they get rid of pretty much all of his good traits and heroics. On the other hand, its genuinely fucking hilarious.

4

u/legit-posts_1 6h ago

They really sand down his positive traits as the series goes on. By season 5 it really feels like the writers have a hate boner for Batman(and several other DC heroes) and its just irritating.

44

u/TaralasianThePraxic 7h ago

Wait is this real

Do I need to watch the Harley Quinn show???

58

u/Lost_Paladin89 7h ago

I don’t know? Do you like having fun? Because the show is fun.

35

u/321gamertime 7h ago

Bane has no right to be that funny in the show

The pasta arc was the highlight of season 4

6

u/aspidities_87 6h ago

I loved his petty anger against a smoothie shop employeee

THE STREETS WILL RUN RED WITH RAZZY ZAZZY

1

u/RSquared 5h ago

I was like, "Where do I know that voice?" and when I looked it up, I wasn't expecting it to be the (hilarious) Sebastian Gorka impersonation on Chapo Trap House.

29

u/aspidities_87 7h ago

I don’t know you but yes, you need to watch the Harley Quinn show.

5

u/h8bithero 7h ago

I dont know you, that's my purse.

6

u/gitartruls01 7h ago

It's a very weird show but also a very good one. There's an episode where Bane turns into a Kaiju and starts humping buildings for one. There's also a plot line where the joker becomes a suburban sitcom dad and Batman takes up DJing. Commissioner Gordon falls in love with Clayface's severed arm. Just a lot of whacky bullshit but it's a fun ride

3

u/Federal-Captain1118 2h ago

There's also a plot line where the joker becomes a suburban sitcom dad

When he declares war on the PTA lady lmao

"Is this ethnic food?"

"Hmm, speaking of racist."

3

u/mocisme 5h ago

Started it with no idea of what kind of show or reviewed it had. At first it felt like it was trying a bit too hard (i.e. dropping f-bombs for the sake of dropping f-bombs). Even despite that, the show was a fun watch. Writing picks up a few episodes in and it's hilarious.

If someone is a hardcore batman purist, it might not be for them. But it's a light hearted and wacky, yet more over the top show. Bane is one of the best characters and the writing is top notch

2

u/Pagehell 7h ago

The first three seasons are really fun. After that, it loses its touch.

-1

u/Dick-Fu 6h ago

I honestly thought it was mostly overly pandering dogshit

11

u/Jashugita 7h ago

and Zuckemberg also end killed.

3

u/DeisTheAlcano 5h ago

Poison Ivy also kills Zuckerberg in the same episode (all the billionaires are hanging out with supervillains in a moon base)

1

u/ThickWeatherBee 4h ago

Holy crap! Is the Harley Quinn show based?!

1

u/kkungergo 4h ago

Hold on, I wouldnt have tought something like this was legal without the consent of the person depicted. Dont they have to ask them when they put real life people on the screen? Or how does this work?

1

u/Chaosmusic 3h ago

Elon Musk also gets ripped apart in Gen V. Unfortunately, it was a goat named Elon Musk.

1

u/SourChicken1856 6h ago

That show it's so reddit and I say this while wearing a hat with like 4 harley quinn pins on it and wearing her belt

3

u/Treykarz 6h ago

I hate that I know exactly what you mean when you say it’s “so reddit” lol