History Main / ExpyCoexistence

*** Ling-Ling says he's not the real FanonPokedex/{{Pikachu}}.

** In "The Homer They Fall", Homer {{lampshades}} the trope with the page quote, pointing out the similarities between fictional boxing manager Lucius Sweet and real boxing manager Don King. To confuse the issue further, Lucius Sweet is played by Paul Winfield, who played Don King in the TV movie ''Tyson''.

** One issue has a character discussing an in-universe comic book featuring expies of Superman and Bizarro, who are presented as wholly fictional. In the first StoryArc, however, Dream visited Supes' Franchise/JusticeLeague teammates Scott Free and Martian Manhunter. While this could be chalked up to EarlyInstallmentWeirdness (later stories would present itself as more or less its own continuity), Superman himself shows up at the end of the series [[spoiler:as a guest at Dream's funeral]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'': Zig-zagged due to company rivalry. Captain Marvel (later known as "Shazam"), was created by Fawcett Comics as a very blatant expy of Franchise/{{Superman}}. However, he proved to be more popular than the hero that inspired him, and also introduced the first DistaffCounterpart and Child Counterparts: Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. To compete, DC Comics then introduced ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and ComicBook/{{Superboy}}. In the meantime, DC Comics had a long-standing lawsuit against Fawcett and won, allowing them to purchase the Marvel franchise. After ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' rebooted Franchise/{{The DCU}}, both hero families have appeared side-by-side ever since.

* While not a CLEAR Expy of a certain cartoon character (although close to Bugs Bunny), Roger Rabbit in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' is treated as a typical cartoon character in the ranks of other real-life ones. But almost every cartoon character from Disney and Warner Brothers makes a cameo.

* The main character of ''Film/TheLifeAquaticWithSteveZissou'' is a MockCousteau who has a lot in common with JacquesCousteau (although according to WordOfGod, he's also based on some other famous explorers from his youth, like Thor Heyerdahl), but at one point, Zissou refers to "Cousteau and his cronies" as rivals.
* ''Film/BladesOfGlory'' heavily involves the World Winter Sports Games, a lawyer-friendly parody of the Winter OlympicGames, but a coach mentions having trained other skaters who did compete at the Olympics.

** Captain Hero, while an obvious knock-off of Franchise/{{Superman}}, is clearly established to exist alongside Superman, as well as the entire DC gang, and characters from Marvel also exist.
** Princess Clara is a Franchise/DisneyPrincess, and is seen hanging out with other real Disney Princesses, such as Snow White, Ariel, Cinderella, and Princess Aurora.

** Ironically, this trope is averted in the movie as well: because the movie is clearly taking a jab at ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' (which makes the comment about adult animation even more odd), and the creator's rant that South Park gets away with crude humor because of its social commentary, which Drawn Together did not have. But South Park is never mentioned once in the movie, despite being mentioned in the TV show. Instead, we get the Expy "The Suck My Taint Show", which has the same animation style as South Park, as well as an alternate line for its lessons (South Park says, "I learned something today...", and Suck My Taint uses, "Don't you see?").
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' had Slappy Squirrel, who was said to be one of the original 'WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' characters. One episode shows a cover of a cartoon collection of such characters, and she is shown to be on it. However, she never appeared in any media unrelated to Animaniacs.

*** Cosmic Wars was created to make fun of the backlash against ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''...even through the aforementioned episode [[WereStillRelevantDammit aired five years later in 2004]], after ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' came out. Cosmic Wars was almost identical to ''Franchise/StarWars'' in every way, with only minor tweaks to the names and characters (e.g. Jar Jar Binks became Jim Jam Bonks, and "May The Force Be With You" became "May The Power Be On Your Side"), and is shown to be the exact same kind of phenomenon. The creator Randall Curtis is essentially a CaptainErsatz of George Lucas, except for shorter stature. However, Star Wars had already been established to exist in their universe several times. In fact, the franchise plays a role in some of the show's most famous moments, and with a few arbitrary exceptions, Star Wars was directly mentioned after this episode aired as well.
*** Angelica Button was created to make fun of ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', which at the time was at its peak of popularity. While not identical to Harry Potter in every way unlike the previous example, it was presented as the same kind of phenomenon, with an episode that mimics the craze at bookstores whenever a new book in the series came out. However, Creator/JKRowling had appeared in an earlier episode, with direct references to her books being made. To add to that, Harry Potter had been mentioned (or even appeared) in several episodes beforehand and since.

** In "The Homer They Fall", Homer says that boxing manager Lucius Sweet reminds him of Don King. To further make things confusing, Lucius Sweet is played by Paul Winfield, who played Don King in the TV movie ''Tyson''.
** In "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples, Teens and Gays", Maggie becomes addicted to Roofi, a parody of children's singer Raffi. Later, a news ticker covering a disastrous concert reads "Raffi denounces Roofi".

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' started out as a very obvious spoof of ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'', (except the setting is updated, the tone is less optimistic, and the characters are flipped on their heads; the doctor is amoral and has at least a touch of MadScientist, the badass bodyguard is a [[AxCrazy bloodthirsty psycho]], and the pair of kids are naive and delusional to the point of being TooDumbToLive) but as early as the seventh episode, Race Bannon from ''Jonny Quest'' appears and interacts with his expy Brock. Later an adult version of Jonny and other characters would also show up. This later became more complicated as copyright and legal issues meant that the showrunners for ''The Venture Brothers'' had to turn the characters from ''Jonny Quest'' into expies of themselves, so Race Bannon became "Red" Bannon, for example. This has happened to a few other characters, too, including cases where the original is treated as a fictional character (Hank, a fan of Batman, briefly mentored under Captain Sunshine, who is a BatmanParody) and ones where the original is treated a real person (the Groovy Gang plays a major role in one episode, but Jonny implies he got an STD from Velma).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' started out as a very obvious spoof of ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'', (except the setting is updated, the tone is less optimistic, and the characters are flipped on their heads; the doctor is amoral and has at least a touch of MadScientist, the badass bodyguard is a [[AxCrazy bloodthirsty psycho]], and the pair of kids are naive and delusional to the point of being TooDumbToLive) but as early as the seventh episode, Race Bannon from ''Jonny Quest'' appears and interacts with his expy Brock. Later an adult version of Jonny and other characters would also show up. This later became more complicated as copyright and legal issues meant that the showrunners for ''The Venture Brothers'' had to turn the characters from ''Jonny Quest'' into expies of themselves, so Race Bannon became "Red" Bannon, for example.

** Zig-zagged with Lar Gand (aka "Mon-El"), a relative of the aforementioned Laurel, who was originally introduced alongside Superman as a "Daxamite" (a race of aliens with identical powers to Kryptonians, but opposite weaknesses). After ComicBook/{{Superboy}} was retconned out like Supergirl, most of Superboy's roles in the Legion came to be filled by Mon-El. However, he also shared his position with ''Kon''-El, the clone version of Superboy who sometimes joined the team on adventures, along with the original Kal-El after that version was reintroduced to continuity.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', Roderick Burgess is clearly intended to be an expy of real-life Occultist Aleister Crowley, but later issues establish that Crowley himself exists in the Sandman universe. Burgess himself has an offhand line that implies he and Crowley are rivals and competing Occultists.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' featured characters based off of Golden Age superheroes. They were [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally]] the actual characters, but DC didn't like them being portrayed so negatively. One of them was a thinly veiled ComicBook/BlackCanary, Black Siren (real name given as "Donna Nance"). In ''Unlimited'', Black Canary is an actual member of the Justice League. This is a zig-zagged example as the expy is based on the original Black Canary, Dinah Drake, while the Black Canary in ''Unlimited'' is her daughter Dinah Drake-Lance.

* An attempt that backfired big-time: at the every beginning of ''Film/CitizenKane'', a throwaway line compares Charles Foster Kane to the RealLife media magnate William Randolph Hearst, acknowledging that Kane is a completely different (to not mention fictional) person. Hearst still felt incredibly insulted at what the movie supposedly implied of him and used all of the power of his media empire to try to censor the film and make Creator/OrsonWelles' life a living hell.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' featured characters based off of Golden Age superheroes. They were [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally]] the actual characters, but DC didn't like them being portrayed so negatively. One of them was a thinly veiled ComicBook/BlackCanary. In ''Unlimited'', Black Canary is an actual member of the Justice League. This is a zig-zagged example as the expy is based on the original Black Canary, Dinah Drake, while the Black Canary in ''Unlimited'' is her daughter Dinah Drake-Lance.

** Dawn has a {{Childhood Friend|s}} named Kenny who has a similar role and design to the rival from ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl''. Later in that same arc, the rival ''did'' appear as Barry. As the result of this, Barry isn't Dawn's childhood friend [[AdaptationalRelationshipChange unlike in the games]].

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' featured characters based off of Golden Age superheroes. They were [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally]] the actual characters, but DC didn't like them being portrayed so negatively. One of them was a thinly veiled ComicBook/BlackCanary. In ''Unlimited'', Black Canary is an actual member of the Justice League. This is a zig-zagged example as the expy is based on the original Black Canary, Dinah Drake, while the Black Canary in ''Unlimited'' is her daughter Dinah Drake-Lance.

-->-- '''Homer Simpson''', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "The Homer They Fall"

->''Wow, you know Lucius Sweet? He's exactly as rich and as famous as Don King, and he looks just like him too!''
-->-- '''Homer Simpson''', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' was originally supposed to star Charleston Comics characters such as ComicBook/TheQuestion, ComicBook/BlueBeetle, ComicBook/CaptainAtom and ComicBook/PhantomLady, but DC Comics (who had acquired the characters) reneged on that, thus allowing Creator/AlanMoore to create an entirely new story based on expies of those characters. The two stories existed in completely different continuities all the way up until 2016's ''Comicbook/DCRebirth'', which hinted that the CosmicRetcon that had merged the Wildstorm and DC Universes was done by Dr. Manhattan, the aforementioned expy of Captain Atom, meaning that the characters of Watchmen were now part of the same overarching continuity as their originals. They also made matters even ''more'' complicated by introducing Earth-4, which is an AlternateUniverse that almost point-for-point recreates the characters and setting of ''Watchmen''.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* The ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' skit "Neurotology" is a fake music video produced by a ChurchOfHappyology, but one of the captions mentions that one of the cultists shown later "Switched to Scientology".

--> '''Homer Simpson''', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', Roderick Burgess is clearly intended to be an expy of real-life Satanist Aleister Crowley, but later issues establish that Crowley himself exists in the Sandman universe. Burgess himself has an offhand line that implies he and Crowley are rivals and competing magicians[=/=]Satanists.

* In TheSandman, Roderick Burgess is clearly intended to be an expy of real-life Satanist Aleister Crowley, but later issues establish that Crowley himself exists in the Sandman universe. Burgess himself has an offhand line that implies he and Crowley are rivals and competing magicians[=/=]Satanists.

* ''Creator/{{Wildstorm}}'': Many Wildstorm characters were created as {{Exp|y}}ies of regular Creator/{{DC Comics}} characters. Apollo and Mr. Majestic are expies of Franchise/{{Superman}}, and Midnighter is an expy of Franchise/{{Batman}}, along with several others. These characters were all later brought into Franchise/{{The DCU}} when DC Comics acquired Wildstorm, meaning that said expies now appeared along side the originals.

* ''Disney/WreckItRalph'': Two of the main characters, Fix-It Felix Jr. and Wreck-It Ralph are from a video game known as ''Fix-It Felix Jr.'', an old arcade game from TheEighties that is modeled after ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' and ''VideoGame/WreckingCrew''. While Fix-It Felix is an expy of [[SuperMarioBros Mario]], he also offhandedly mentions that Mario himself was supposed to come to their 30th anniversary party but is "fashionably late, as per the norm".

* In ''Film/TheIdentical'', one of the separated twins grows up to be Creator/ElvisPresley in all but name. He has the same basic backstory as Elvis, with the same music style. However, one scene reveals that Elvis already exists in this universe. It makes you wonder what Elvis himself would have to say about someone EXACTLY like him.
* The main character of ''TheLifeAquaticWithSteveZissou'' is a MockCousteau who has a lot in common with JacquesCousteau (although according to WordOfGod, he's also based on some other famous explorers from his youth, like Thor Heyerdahl), but at one point, Zissou refers to "Cousteau and his cronies" as rivals.
* ''BladesOfGlory'' heavily involves the World Winter Sports Games, a lawyer-friendly parody of the Winter OlympicGames, but a coach mentions having trained other skaters who did compete at the Olympics.
* Gary Winston, the BigBad of ''{{Film/Antitrust}}'', is transparently based on Bill Gates, but Gates is also acknowledged as existing in the movie, apparently as a rival. At one point Winston turns his nose up when a piece of technology he owns is compared to a similar one that Gates has in real life, and replies that Gates' version of the technology is primitive.

* The SaturdayNightLive skit "Neurotology" is a fake music video produced by a ChurchOfHappyology, but one of the captions mentions that one of the cultists shown later "Switched to Scientology".

** Captain Hero, while an obvious knock-off of ComicBook/{{Superman}}, is clearly established to exist alongside Superman, as well as the entire DC gang, and characters from Marvel also exist.

** Wooldoor Sockbat, an obvious yet strange take on ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', with a bit of [[RenAndStimpy Stimpy]] and ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' thrown in, was once referred to as a "poorly conceived Spongebob parody".

*** Toot says she acts nothing like Characters/BettyBoop.

** In "The Homer They Fall", Homer says that boxing manager Lucius Sweet reminds him of Don King. To further make things confusing, Lucius Sweet is played by Paul Winfield, who played Don King in the TV movie Tyson.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' started out as a very obvious spoof of ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'', (except the setting is updated, the tone is less optimistic, and the characters are flipped on their heads; the doctor is amoral and has at least a touch of MadScientist, the badass bodyguard is a [[AxCrazy bloodthirsty psycho]], and the pair of kids are naive and delusional to the point of being TooDumbToLive) but as early as the seventh episode Race Bannon from ''Jonny Quest'' appears and interacts with his expy Brock. Later an adult version of Jonny and other other characters would also show up. This later became more complicated as copyright and legal issues meant that the showrunners for ''The Venture Brothers'' had to turn the characters from ''Jonny Quest'' into expies of themselves, so Race Bannon became "Red" Bannon, for example.

* ''ComicBook/TheWatchmen'' were originally supposed to star Charleston Comics characters such as ComicBook/TheQuestion, ComicBook/BlueBeetle, ComicBook/CaptainAtom and ComicBook/PhantomLady, but DC Comics (who had acquired the characters) reneged on that, thus allowing Creator/AlanMoore to create an entirely new story based on expies of those characters. The two stories existed in completely different continuities all the way up until 2016's ''Comicbook/DCRebirth'', which hinted that the CosmicRetcon that had merged the Wildstorm and DC Universes was done by Dr. Manhattan, the aforementioned expy of Captain Atom, meaning that the characters of Watchmen were now part of the same overarching continuity as their originals. They also made matters even ''more'' complicated by introducing Earth-4, which is an AlternateUniverse that almost point-for-point recreates the characters and setting of ''Watchmen''.

--> '''Homer Simpson'''

Note: this trope does not apply when the character is NOT an Expy of a famous character, but hangs out with famous characters or people. For example, in ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'', Jay Sherman is a famous TV film critic who is friends with other famous real-life critics, like Creator/GeneSiskel, Creator/RogerEbert, Gene Shalit, Rex Reed, etc. But because Jay is not intended to be a direct take on any of them, this trope does not apply.

[[AC:{{Film}} - Live Action]]

* Gary Winston, the BigBad of ''{{Film/Antitrust}}'', is transparently based on Bill Gates, but Gates is also acknowledged as existing in the movie, apparently as a rival. At one point Winston turns his nose up when a piece of technology he owns is compared to a similar one that Gates has in real life, and replies that Gates' system is primitive.
* ''Disney/WreckItRalph'': Two of the main characters, Fix-It Felix Jr. and Wreck-It Ralph are from a video game known as ''Fix-It Felix Jr.'', an old arcade game from TheEighties that is modeled after ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' and ''VideoGame/WreckingCrew''. While Fix-It Felix is an expy of [[SuperMarioBros Mario]], he also offhandedly mentions that Mario himself was supposed to come to their 30th anniversary party but is "fashionably late, as per the norm".

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* In TheSandman, Roderick Burgess is clearly intended to be an expy of real-life Occultist Aleister Crowley, but later issues establish that Crowley himself exists in the Sandman universe.
* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'':
** After ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' retconned Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} out of existence, Laurel Gand (aka Andromeda) was created to fulfill the same role on the team, with the same powers and almost exactly the same look. She continued to do so even after Supergirl was reintroduced to continuity.
** Zig-zagged with Lar Gand (aka "Mon-El"), a relative of the aforementioned Laurel, who was originally introduced alongside Superman as a "Daxamite" (a race of aliens with identical powers to Kryptonians, but opposite weaknesses). After ComicBook/{{Superboy}} was retconned out like Supergirl, most of Superboy's roles in the Legion came to be filled by Mon-El. However, he also shared his position with ''Kon''-El, the clone version of Superboy who sometimes joined the team on adventures, along with the original Kal-El after that version was reintroduced to continuity.
* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'': Zig-zagged due to company rivalry. Captain Marvel (later known as "Shazam"), was created by Fawcett Comics as a very blatant expy of Franchise/{{Superman}}. However, he proved to be more popular than the hero that inspired him, and also introduced the first DistaffCounterpart and Child Counterparts: Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. To compete, DC Comics then introduced ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and ComicBook/{{Superboy}}. In the meantime, DC Comics had a long-standing lawsuit against Fawcett and won, allowing them to purchase the Marvel franchise. After ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' rebooted Franchise/{{The DCU}}, both hero families have appeared side-by-side ever since.
* ''Creator/{{Wildstorm}}'': Many Wildstorm characters were created as {{Exp|y}}ies of regular Creator/{{DC Comics}} characters. Apollo and Mr. Majestic are expies of Franchise/{{Superman}}, and Midnighter is an expy of Franchise/{{Batman}}, along with several others. These characters were all later brought into Franchise/{{The DCU}} when DC Comics acquired Wildstorm, meaning that said expies now appeared along side the originals.
* ''ComicBook/TheWatchmen'' were originally supposed to star Charleston Comics characters such as ComicBook/TheQuestion, ComicBook/BlueBeetle, ComicBook/CaptainAtom and ComicBook/PhantomLady, but DC Comics (who had acquired the characters) reneged on that, thus allowing Creator/AlanMoore to create an entirely new story based on expies of those characters. The two stories existed in completely different continuities all the way up until 2016's ''Comicbook/DCRebirth'', which hinted that the CosmicRetcon that had merged the Wildstorm and DC Universes was done by Dr. Manhattan, the aforementioned expy of Captain Atom, meaning that the characters of Watchmen were now part of the same overarching continuity as their originals. They also made matters even ''more'' complicated by introducing Earth-4, which is an AlternateUniverse that almost point-for-point recreates the characters and setting of ''Watchmen''.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* In TheSandman, Roderick Burgess is clearly intended to be an expy of real-life Satanist Aleister Crowley, but later issues establish that Crowley himself exists in the Sandman universe.