History Main / MemeticBystander

* Most of the music in ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' is credited in-universe to one of several fictional bands, most of which don't even appear in-game. Nonetheless, the vocalist of the band Chirpy Chips ([[https://splatoonwiki.org/wiki/File:S_Band_Chirpy_Chips.jpg seen here, second from the right]]) became very popular with the community, inspiring quite a lot of fan art and being given the temporary FanNickname Glenna Nalira. Possibly owing to her popularity, Chirpy Chips was one of the few bands from the first game to return in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'', and promotional material eventually gave her the official name Paruko.

The fandom may latch onto these characters because they are either a RecurringExtra or a OneSceneWonder. If the creators of the work get wind of this phenomenon, the character may become an AscendedExtra. Compare the EnsembleDarkhorse, who is a popular minor character instead of a background character. Can overlap with MemeticBadass, but not all the time.

* In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', as Rossiu [[spoiler:announces Simon's execution]], a man can be seen in the crowd giving a BicepPolishingGesture. However, due to cultural differences the Western audience interpreted it as the man giving an "up-yours" gesture. Dubbed Bruce Ironstaunch, this man became a vent for viewers' hatred toward [[TheScrappy Rossiu]].

* Several of the Outsiders in ''Disney/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'' have caught the eyes of ''Disney/TheLionKing'' fandom. They've been given {{Fan Nickname}}s like Spotty, Dotty, and Digger.

** The Cabbage Merchant ("My cabbages!") got so popular he ended up with multiple appearances, and his ''descendant'' makes an appearance in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' fans spotted a handsome, dark-haired elf as an extra in the Council of Elrond scene, said "Frodo Is Gre— WHO IS THAT?!", and dubbed the nameless elf "Figwit". So popular was Figwit (played by Bret [=MacKenzie=] of Music/FlightOfTheConchords fame--although when the movie came out, Flight of the Conchords were not yet famous) that he was brought back with a couple of lines in "Return of the King", and finally canonized completely when he appeared in ''Film/TheHobbitAnUnexpectedJourney'' and was officially named Lindir.

** A brown pony with hair resembling [[Series/DoctorWho the Tenth Doctor]] and an hourglass cutie mark was swiftly branded Doctor Whooves. Cue hundreds of crossovers. This intensified when other Earth stallion ponies appeared in the background with hourglass cutie marks, seemingly representing [[TheNthDoctor some of the previous incarnations of the Doctor]]. He also got canonized in a trading card, which includes a "{{timey|WimeyBall}}-wimey" reference. He also has appeared in licensed merchandise and as a small Hasbro-made figure, where he has a unique mold [[note]]which is ''very'' unusual, given that they rarely make new molds for the "blind bag" style figures, and if they do it's normally for more important characters or ones with unusual body types, ''and'' they already had another "Earth Pony stallion" mold by that point[[/note]] and is actually referred to as Doctor Whooves on the packaging.

* In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', as Rossiu [[spoiler:announces Simon's execution]], a man can be seen in the crowd giving a BicepPolishingGesture. However, due to cultural differences the Western audience interpreted as the man giving an "up-yours" gesture. Dubbed Bruce Ironstaunch, this man became the vent of viewer's hate to [[TheScrappy Rossiu]].

* A random farmer in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', who appeared trying to fight Raditz and horribly failed (and later a lookalike whose job is a hunter, trashed by Dr. Gero/Android no. 20). This person became so phenomenal this character is later known as "Farmer With Shotgun" and is sometimes considered a MemeticBadass.

* If you pick up a comic book, you might notice two recurring characters in the form of a ginger man with glasses and a goatee and his stockier, black-haired friend. They’re usually cops, but they’ve also be seen as everything from civilians, party-goers and common crooks), and are always seen together. The kicker? They’re found in Marvel, DC ''and'' Transformers comics, completely transcending companies, writers, and artists. No one knows where they come from or who created them. They are known to fans simply as the “Mystery Hipster Cops”.

** The entire devaronian race was based on a single guy in a devil costume, who appeared in two shots.

* The guy drinking wine in ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'', [[NoMoreForMe then stops]] when the Lotus-sub surfaces at a public beach. So much so that he appears in ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'' and ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'' in doing the same thing.
* The man in the Leaky Cauldron reading Stephen Hawking's ''A History Of Time'' [[MundaneUtility while moving his tea stirrer]] without using his wand seen for a few seconds in ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' has gained much popularity with the online community.

* Several of Outsiders in ''Disney/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'' have caught the eyes of ''Disney/TheLionKing'' fandom. They've been given {{Fan Nickname}}s like Spotty, Dotty, and Digger.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' has a number of reoccurring background characters that are popular amongst fans, one of the more easily recognizable ones is the "tattooed pilot".
* In ''{{Series/Highlander}}'', the two part "Comes a Horseman/Revelation 6:8" ep had a flashback scene with the Horsemen pillaging a Bronze Age village. The fans quickly started liking a character seen running from the horses with a bundle of sticks in his arms. They called him "Stickboy".

* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' eventually gained one of these, in the form of Wes Weston. He's a background character with next to no screen time and no lines who people turned to as an explanation for why nobody figures out that Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom - said background character had enough similarities to Danny's ghost form that one could assume the resemblance really isn't enough of a clue by itself. Then somehow the character gained the name Wes (in reference to a scene in which someone reads Sam's name upside down and wonders who "Wes" is) and became one of the only ones to know Danny's SecretIdentity, who tries to tell people that Danny is a ghost but [[CassandraTruth is never believed]], and is often teased by Danny and/or assumed to be Phantom himself.

** A retroactive example: Ken's stage (a yacht docked at what is believed to be the San Francisco Bay), [[http://www.fightersgeneration.com/characters3/q-screenshot.jpg features a mysterious man on the boat]] who ''heavily'' resembles Q from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII: Third Strike''. [[EpilepticTrees Cue speculations and rumors.]] Notably, the guy thought to be Q is absent in ''[[VideoGameRemake HD Remix]]'', which raised more than a few eyebrows from fans.

** A retroactive example: Ken's stage from ''II'' (a yacht docked at what is believed to be the San Francisco Bay), [[http://www.fightersgeneration.com/characters3/q-screenshot.jpg features a mysterious man on the boat]] who ''heavily'' resembles Q from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII: Third Strike''. [[EpilepticTrees Cue fan rumors.]] Notably, the guy thought to be Q is absent in ''[[VideoGameRemake HD Remix]]'', which raised more than a few eyebrows from fans.

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Radiant Dawn]]'' has the [[MemeticBadass 3-13 Archer]], a random generic allied Sniper who appears in Chapter 3-13. If left to his own devices, he will singlehandedly kill three enemy Laguz before dying in a HeroicSacrifice on the final turn. In a game where the allied units are [[SuicidalOverconfidence infamously useless]], this has earned him a great deal of love from players.

** In Ken's stage from ''II'' (a yacht docked at what is believed to be the San Francisco Bay), [[http://www.fightersgeneration.com/characters3/q-screenshot.jpg there's a mysterious man on the boat]] who ''heavily'' resembles Q from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII: Third Strike''. [[EpilepticTrees Cue fan rumors.]] Notably, the guy thought to be Q is absent in ''[[VideoGameRemake HD Remix]]'', which raised more than a few eyebrows from fans.

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Radiant Dawn]]'' has the [[MemeticBadass 3-13 Archer]], a random generic allied Sniper who appears in chapter 3-13. If left to his own devices, he will singlehandedly kill three enemy Laguz before dying in a HeroicSacrifice on the final turn. In a game where the allied units are [[SuicidalOverconfidence infamously useless]], this has earned him a great deal of love from players.
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' has [[MemeticBadass the Rallyman]] in ''Conquest'' Chapter 23 (in [[HarderThanHard Lunatic mode]]). The fans latched onto him after realizing how useful he is [[MookFaceTurn if captured]].

-->[[MemeticMutation "Hi! I like shorts! They're comfy and easy to wear!"]]

* The first Pidget in level 1-2 of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' was dubbed "Bill the Extra Guy" by ''Webcomic/NeglectedMarioCharacters'' and given his own bio and backstory. It seems to have caught on within some parts of the ''Mario'' fandom.

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' features the "Lady in Purple", a random slave girl in a purple skirt who appears in a story mode cutscene briefly and never comes up again. She was raised to this status after a topic sprung up on a fansite message board written by someone who wanted her to be playable because they liked her design. To a lesser extent, there's also "Steam", a grey PaletteSwap of the ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'' female ninja model who appears in a lineup of fighters entering the tournament who fans have declared to be the DistaffCounterpart of Smoke, and the "Lady in Green", a mysterious goddess who possesses Jade in her ending.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' has a number of reoccurring background characters that are popular amongst fans, one of the more easily recognizable ones is the "tattooed pilot".

** A brown pony with hair resembling [[Series/DoctorWho the Tenth Doctor]] and an hourglass cutie mark was swiftly branded Doctor Whooves. Cue hundreds of crossovers. This intensified when other Earth stallion ponies appeared in the background with hourglass cutie marks, seemingly representing [[TheNthDoctor some of the previous incarnations of the Doctor]]. He also got canonized in a trading card, which includes a "[[TimeyWimeyBall timey-wimey]]" reference. He also has appeared in licensed merchandise and as a small Hasbro-made figure, where he has a unique mold [[note]]which is ''very'' unusual, given that they rarely make new molds for the "blind bag" style figures, and if they do it's normally for more important characters or ones with unusual body types, ''and'' they already had another "Earth Pony stallion" mold by that point[[/note]] and is actually referred to as Doctor Whooves on the packaging.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "The Answer" a pearl appeared for a few seconds. She doesn't speak or really even do much but she is the first pearl shown aside from "our" Pearl. Her design really stood out and within minutes of the episode airing fanworks started popping up. She was dubbed [[FanNickname "Blue Pearl"]] by fans.

* In ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'', a number of the background characters from Hisao's overview of the class have gone on to become very popular, particularly [[FanNickname Molly]], an AmbiguouslyBrown girl with dark brown plaits. One of them, Miki, [[MauveShirt went on to become an actual, if minor, character]].

* [[http://www.geekosystem.com/reddit-suspicious-onlooker/ Suspicious Onlooker]] from Film/JackReacher. He's listed ''before the title character'' on the IMDB page.

** Known as Moustache Guy or [[http://webalia.com/uploads/contenidos_usrs/originales/391576_mourinho_dedo_ojo_tito_vilanova_20110818090919.jpg The Observer]], some random guy between two football club coaches who got in a fight]] became famous overnight, for some reason. A common meme is photoshoped photos of historical moments with him standing in the background.

* ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' has Masaru Gojou, midfielder for Teikoku, who has never gotten a single line, never even referred to by name (the only reason his name is even known is because the games [[CastOfSnowflakes have individual data for each and every one of the 1000+ characters, including a name and short bio]]), looks like he's in his 30s despite being a high schooler, and [[https://i.imgur.com/ImlJzID.png his face seems to be permanently frozen in one facial expression]] best described as "you might wanna draw your curtains." He won a popularity contest thanks to the meddling of [=2ch=]; it's a long story really. The The creators noticed this and gave him an appearance in the GO movie (the only member from Teikoku sans the ones who joined Inazuma Japan to appear in GO at all) and a cameo in VideoGame/DanballSenki.

* ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' has Masaru Gojou, midfielder for Teikoku, who has never gotten a single line, never even referred to by name (the only reason his name is even known is because the games [[CastOfSnowflakes have individual data for each and every one of the 1000+ characters, including a name and short bio]]), and his face seems to be permanently frozen in one facial expression best described as "you might wanna draw your curtains." He won a popularity contest thanks to the meddling of [=2ch=]; it's a long story really.

** Before him, there was [[WhoWearsShortShorts the shorts kid.]] He gets a DistaffCounterpart in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', a Lass who talks about the comfort of dresses.

* [[https://twitter.com/Cajuntagious FursuiterCajun Spice]] became this at Furry Weekend Atlanta when he passed by a couple of people engaged in pup-play.