Characters from other works or franchises making brief appearances in a work. This is similar to a Crossover or Transplant in that it involves a character from one work or franchise appearing in an otherwise separate work, but it differs from those by being a one-off appearance instead of a permanent one. It also differs from a Continuity Cameo by involving a character from a separate work or franchise instead of another part of the same franchise. A Crossover Cameo can be accented with the leitmotif of the character who's making the cameo.
Subtrope of The Cameo. See also Continuity Cameo, for when the cameo is from a separate part of the franchise instead of a separate work or franchise. If the other franchise is The Muppets, see Muppet Cameo. May be a One-Scene Wonder and/or a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment. See also Special Guest, Stunt Casting, and Tuckerization.
Examples
- Star Wars: Visions: "I Am Your Mother": The Cooker robot and a miniature rocket from the Wallace & Gromit short A Grand Day Out make an appearance in the background of some scenes.
- Once & Future: In Chapter 10, the cops from Hot Fuzz show up, only to get immediately killed by Grendel.
- Madam & Eve:
- One Sunday strip has the cast visited by Doonesbury's Sid Kibbitz, who tries to become their manager and take Madam & Eve worldwide. Zonker Harris shows up at the end and starts asking about the local "dagga".
- This comic◊ has Homer Simpson called to testify in the corruption trial of Jackie Selebi.
"D'OH! Go ahead! Play the race card! It's because I'm yellow, isn't it?"
- Samwise, Frodo, and Gollum end up at the Andersons◊.
- Ace In The Hole (Persona 5):
- This is mainly a Persona 3 and Persona 5 crossover, but there's a chapter dedicated to the Phantom Thieves visiting Inaba and meeting most of the Investigation Team.
- Shiho also makes a couple appearances throughout the story.
- Kei Nanjo (from the first two Persona games, three if you count Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment as two seperate games) makes a quick appearance as an ally and benefactor of the Shadow Operatives.
- There's a scene where the entire Investigation Team/Seekers of Truth discuss the plan to help save Ren's life and get Shido off of the Phantom Thieves' backs over a video chat.
- Across The Kaleidoscope: Shirou Emiya is mentioned in Agito's world as the journalist who wrote an article about the Akatsuki Mountain Resort.
- AWE Arcadia Bay (Rogue_Demon): Apparently, Colin Robinson from What We Do in the Shadows (2019), works at the New York Times.
- Comes a Crossover:
- The Daleks and Cybermen literally appear out of nowhere while the group of heroes are getting to know each other, just long enough to shout their respected catchphrases and fire at each other before disappearing.
- The first Interlude chapter opens with Deadpool narrating his thoughts on the events happening so far and the franchises that have appeared before deciding to go home to his own dimension.
- A Crown of Stars: In chapter 8, the main characters of "The Way Out is Through" make a short appearance.
- The Dysfunctional Pirates:
- Grell from Black Butler makes a cameo in "Why we Can't Celebrate Spring Break".
- Sealand, Wendy, and Talho make cameos in "Law and Bepo at KFC".
- It's implied that the authoress makes a cameo in "Where's Mansopp?"
- In "The Abuse of Girl Scouts and Cookies", Austria, Lenalee, and Fai D. Flourite all make cameos.
- Fantastic Foxes of Zootopia:
- A lion and a tiger with a more than familiar resemblance to Scar and Shere Kahn are seen in "Acting Out".
- Buster Moon and Eddie the sheep from [Western Animation/Sing]], and their chameleon secretary, appear in "Acting Out".
- In "Aggretopia", the gang briefly meet the Jaguar actuary from the Carrot Days play.
- Fenneko also mentions she follows Interpol’s Chief Inspector (a vixen — aka. Carmelita Fox) on Twitter. Her actions (censored to remove those of a certain raccoon) are mentioned again in "Savage Skye Haid Suko Wilde Hopps".
- Bojack Horseman (on a Horsin' Around cut-out) appears in "Spanners and Stripes".
- Tigger, Taz, the white rabbit and a Zootopia version of Chidi Anagonye appear in "The Bin and the Badge". As a bonus to fans of The Good Place, the therapist at the end is suspiciously like Michael/Ted Danson.
- "The Bin and the Badge" also includes a certain horse with tragic origins (Boxer from Animal Farm).
- "So We're Inters Now" includes a whole roster of reference characters (e.g. Angus and Gregg from Night in the Woods), as well as different people's OCs and even 'sona's.
- A reindeer called Sven appears in "Target Practice".
- Daz (CreweFox's ) appears in "Skye's Fall", along with a few of the OCs from the Take a Stand series.
- Legoshi from Beastars makes a cameo in "Savage Skye Haid Suko Wilde Hopps".
- A Growing Affection: Although mentioned only in name, it seems Thomas Arashikage, Recca Hanabishi, Yanagi Sakoshita, and Cameron Watanabe are all Leaf ninjas.
- Heroes Never Die It's Hero Time:
- Many aliens from other series appear in the background of Mr. Baumann's shop, one of the most notable being Zim and Gir.
- Several of Kouhei Horikoshi's other Characters from Oumagadoki Doubutsuen appear as Gang Orca's sidekicks.
- Many evil aliens from multiple franchises appear as Vilgax's prisoners.
- A Horrible World of Plot Holes and Spelling Errors:
- Harry Potter makes a brief appearance while escaping a Sue of his own.
- Mike, Crow, and Servo make an appearance in the last chapter.
- A New Jedi in an Old Republic: The Unnamed Barber makes an appearance as an anti-militarist demagogue in Coruscant's Undercity.
- A New World, A New Way: Master Hand and Crazy Hand appear during the Nightmare Sequence.
- Oh Alice, There's no Reflection in the Looking Glass: From Persona 4, Margaret makes a return as Akechi's attendant and Yu appears in a memory of Akira's past before later showing up in person to give Akira a pep talk that will motivate him to finally move forward.
- A Possible Encounter for a Phantom: The Huntsman, Eli Pandarus, Wizard Kelly and Dr. Hämsterviel make appearances in an auction for Terakons.
- Shadowchasers: Into Darkness: A strange duelist uses cards based on the animatronics in Five Nights at Freddy's.
- A Shadow of the Titans:
- Zatanna shows up in the Tournament of Villainesses chapter when Robin asks for her help in finding Raven.
- Georgia, the daughter of Shazam!'s Arch-Enemy, is another contestant of that same event.
- Green Lantern Jon Stewart (of Justice League fame) shows up to deal with Jade after she ages herself up and is considered too dangerous for the Titans.
- A Song of Ice, Fire and Heart:
- Aeon from Castlevania makes an appearance in Twilight Town.
- Edna Mode from The Incredibles has her own clothing store in Radiant Garden.
- A Song of Silk and Saplings:
- In Chapter 10, Hornet briefly comes across a fire ant and a mud dauber wasp who are very clearly Chandra Nalaar and Jace Beleren from Magic: The Gathering who have been transformed into setting-appropriate forms when planeswalking into the story's world, potentially as a reference to one of the author's other stories.
- Later, the protagonists briefly encounter a rosy maple moth and blue dasher dragonfly that are very clearly based on Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.
- Steven Universe: Alternate Future:
- Uncle Grandpa appears as one of the many universes Lord Steven plots to conquer, and he even recognizes Steven from the events of "Say Uncle", even though he declared that episode to be non-canon. Although with Uncle Grandpa, you can never guess what he'll do.
- There are multiple other cameos from other Cartoon Network shows in the final chapter like Ben 10, Teen Titans (2003), Samurai Jack, The Powerpuff Girls, OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes, Dexter's Laboratory, SWAT Kats, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Adventure Time, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and Villainous. The first chapter also includes references to the author's other works like Marvel Gems Universe and Fooly Falls, along with cameos from Rick and Morty and the Doctor.
- A Tale of Two Tricksters:
- Liz, who is heavily implied to be Elizabeth from Persona 3, appears and is Ren's Chariot Confidant instead of Ryuji.
- Philemon, who hasn't been seen since the first two Persona games, appears and gives aid to Ren.
- A Wild Badfic Appeared! Commentaries: Pikachu, also known as "Yellow", shows up in Epiosde 16. This ends up being an Early-Bird Cameo, as Yellow himself becomes a guest commentator alongside his trainer, Red, and Leaf and Blue, four episodes later.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Thousand Year Door:
- In Redux, Cloaker, Domino, Smithy, King Boo, and Petey Piranha. Red Brief J and Captain Skull also appear, but as cards.
- Ryo's deck also has the Green Goblin.
- Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget: In the final shot of the film, Feathers McGraw from Wallace & Gromit is shown with the rest of the chickens, complete with his chicken disguise.
- The Muppets:
- The Great Muppet Caper: After being tossed out of his truck, Peter Ustinov lands next to Oscar the Grouch. The two briefly comment on how they're playing very minor cameos in the movie before the scene transitions.
Ustinov: What are you doing here?
Oscar: A very brief cameo.
Ustinov: (looks at camera, sadly) Me too. - The Muppet Movie: The final shot features many of the puppets used in Henson's previous projects.
- The Great Muppet Caper: After being tossed out of his truck, Peter Ustinov lands next to Oscar the Grouch. The two briefly comment on how they're playing very minor cameos in the movie before the scene transitions.
- The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi: Khayzur the peri, from The Daevabad Trilogy by the same author, makes a brief appearance to rescue Amina and Raksh from hostile peri.
- Homicide: Life on the Street: In "Law and Disorder", Mike Logan from Law & Order makes a cameo in The Teaser extraditing a prisoner (played by John Waters) back to Baltimore and bantering with Pembleton.
- Alice: Madness Returns: It's possible to find Razputin Aquato's skeleton, complete with battered aviator's helmet, in the Queen's Castle, apparently having drawn a memory back out into the open. Apparently Alice's mind is just that rough.
- Baten Kaitos series:
- Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean has a bizarre dungeon modelled after The Tower of Druaga, where you can meet the "Golden Hero", in other words, the protagonist of said game, Gil.
- Baten Kaitos Origins has a major sidequest that centers around feeding things to Pac-Man.
- Blooming Panic: Nightowl's route has a brief cameo from Ace and Lord Kelso (characters who originated in Deliver Us From Evil, another otome game). They quickly get kicked out by Quest.
- Brutal Orchestra: The player comes across metal corpses. The one they end up putting together is the Dollmaster, a monster from Video Horror Society, created by the game's publisher.
- Coffee Talk: In Episode 2, on Day 10, Jorji's old police friends show up to help him on a ghost case. Said friends just so happen to be Detective Francis McQueen and Officer Patrick Dooley from The Darkside Detective games.
- Detectives United: Elf, the player character's Canine Companion from the Mystery Trackers games, has a brief appearance in this game.
- Epic Battle Fantasy 1: Natalie's summons are all cameos from other game franchises — Pichu and Registeel from Pokémon, Canti from FLCL and Catastrophe from Golden Sun. Regice and Regirock also appear as a pair of bosses. All of themnote are replaced by Expies in the EBF Collection version of the game.
- Mitsumete Knight: Sparkster of the Rocket Knight Adventures series appears as a one-on-one random opponent. If you manage to meet and defeat him, not only you can gain his Special Attack and the Title "Rocket Knight", but also, once your file is complete, you'll gain access to the Secret Shop held by him.
- Shrek the Third: On the pirate ship, there is a hideout underneath the ladder filled with breakable crates. Breaking the last one reveals Skipper from Madagascar.
Skipper: We're going to the wide open spaces of Antarctica. To the wild.
- Sol Forge: Tyco and Gabe shows up in the alternate art for Alloyin Strategist. This probably ties in with Penny Arcade's blog post promoting Solforge some time before its Open Beta launch.
- Super Mario Bros.: Several enemies cameo in other Nintendo games:
- Cheep Cheeps, Eep Cheeps and Cheep Chomps could be caught in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp's fishing tourney during Mario Day 2019.
- A Chain Chomp appears as an unlockable weapon in Bayonetta 2, where Bayonetta and Jeanne can attach it to their ankles and use it like a flail.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- Spinies appear in multiple 2D Zelda titles, usually under the name of Spiked Beetles.
- Chain Chomps appear in a number of early games, either as indestructible enemies tethered to a single spot or as doglike allies that Link can carry around and that will eat other monsters. Relatedly, a Red Chomp is Link's Level 4 upgrade for the Ball and Chain weapon in Hyrule Warriors.
- Cheep Cheeps appear in a number of early games, where they inhabit flooded sidescrolling portions of certain dungeons and will jump up at Link when he passes above them.
- Lava Bubbles appear in a number of early games, inhabiting lava-filled areas and acting much as they do in their home games.
- Thwomps can be found in a couple of early games, where they're encountered in sidescrolling passages and behave exactly like their Mario counterparts.
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening:
- Goombas appear as enemies in the side-scrolling areas that represent certain underground passages. They can be defeated in any which way, but if Link follows tradition by jumping on them from above they will drop a heart.
- Shy Guys appear under the name of Mask-Mimics, where they mirror Link's movements and their masks protect them from attacks from the front.
- Bloopers appear in a single part of a water-based dungeon, and in the Switch remake as possible catches on the Fishing Minigame.
- Boos also appear in the game, where they can only be defeated by lighting the torches in the room they wait in.
- Piranha Plants also show up, and inhabit pipes in side-scrolling areas in their usual manner.
- Pokeys can be found in desert areas in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons.
- Bob-ombs appear in The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, where they can be used as makeshift bombs to clear obstructions in dungeons.
- Lakitus appear as enemies in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, where they attack Link by throwing lightning bolts at him.
- Secret of Evermore: You can meet Cecil Harvey from Final Fantasy IV as a shopkeeper in Ebon Keep. When you talk to him, he references events from his home game and may give you a discount depending on how you answer his questions.
- Tales Series:
- Tales of Zestiria features an optional battle against a horde of Aragami from God Eater.
- Tales of Arise has a DLC that includes a cameo battle against Kirito and Asuna from Sword Art Online.
- Undertale Yellow: In the Dunes, Red from another fangame, Undertale Red, can be met, having apparently been wrongly arrested by Martlet prior to the events of the story. Though she's willing to bury the hatchet once things are explained. Later, in the Wild East, Cooper, a character from Undertale Green, can be interacted with, where he talks about his dislike for puzzles.
- UNKNOWN: The Observer was first seen in another one of Claude's fangames, Clueless. Also from that game is Shitai, as seen in the battle that takes place in the Falses' room. He’s the only moving enemy in the cluster.
- Zanki Zero: Monokuma makes some appearances on posters (and even does his trademark laugh). Inspecting the posters gives a chance to have him spawn as an enemy on garage island. Having save data from a DanganRonpa game greatly improves the chance.
- Extra Credits: In Extra History, "The Mass-Murdering Mongoose", which is sponsored by Rovio Entertainment, has Red, Chuck, and Bomb make several cameo appearances through-out the episode, which is about how the introduction of mongooses to Hawaii drove many native bird species to extinction.
- Karekore the Half Blood: Flag-chan and Mobuo from Grim Reaper Flag-chan! appear in one episode as part of the festival crowd.
- generic purple protogen: Near the end of "Macro March with a Protogen", Falco Lombardi from Star Fox makes a brief macro appearance.
- Red vs. Blue: Boomstick calls in the first episode of Red vs. Blue: QvsA to complain about Sarge leaving him.
- Super Mario 64 Bloopers: Many machinists made apparitions as themselves (sort-of) in others' videos. MaxofS2D's The Mushroom Kingdom Chronicles (not to be confused with MATTHEWGU4's series) featured a lot of these (who were introduced like Super Smash Bros. Brawl characters), as major or minor roles depending on the episode.
- The Vampair: In "When You're Evil", there's a Freeze-Frame Bonus of the Duke hosting a dinner-party at the 2:02 mark. Attending are Angel Dust and Alastor from Hazbin Hotel and Airad, Nim, Alister, and Brier from Threnody.
- Adventurers!: Hero and Cherry from RPG World appear in the background when Maxima Termis calls for 'a spiky-headed hero and his sidekick'. The later when Eternion announces in a newspaper that he's making a bid for Final Boss, another article in the newspaper is titled "Galgarion to gardners: Prune or Die." In turn, Khrima made a cameo in RPG World, appearing in the hallway at Eviltown U.
- Dungeons & Doodles: Tales from the Tables: Adventurers from other D&D-themed Webcomics, as well as a few Original Characters, have made their appearances as background characters in some episodes.
- Before they were replaced with Eriawynn on Tapas and Webtoons, Episode 5 featured Bethaniel, Velatha and Tobias, characters from The Best Available Actual Play who are played by the creator's fellow players in real life.
- Episode 9 has Sir Becket, Tovard and Shad sitting in the tavern background. Link, Trevor Belmont and Alucard also appear during the Bar Brawl that ensues.
- The constable questioning the party in Episode 17 looks like Natalia, a police detective drawn from Polish comic artist Robert Adler (a.k.a. "Au" or "Boli-blog"). A pair of City Watch guards who arrest the party early on also look like Górsky & Butch from the eponymous comic made by the same artist.
- Episode 20 has Alice and Obi from 1 HP Club walking past the party, the latter donating a few gold coins to the party.
- Yuuka Bear, a Virtual YouTuber who voices Angela in the comic dub hosted by Solus Astorias, appears in a portrait on episode 30.
- EQG Crossover: The background of the comic is thickly populated by characters taken from dozens of other works.
- As shown here, the Soldier is the gym teacher and Lapis and Peridot are students.
- The school nurse is Dr. Ziegler, and Tracer is the assistant coach.
- Dipper, as seen here, is a member of the "Shady and most likely Dangerous Books Club". Crydius also regularly casts spells using Journal 2.
- Crydius calls Marceline at one point during the Love Advice arc.
- The Author Avatar of one of Crydius' real-life friends, MustLoveFrogs, along with one of her Original Characters, makes an appearance during the Love Advice arc.
- Artoria and Mordred show up a few times, the former as a teacher and the latter as their child and a student, and a few books are seen mentioning the Holy Grail Wars.
- Luna Loud is among the girls who want advice from Crydius at the end of the Love Advice arc.
- Luz, Amity, and the Collector are also students, the latter being the "Court Wizard" of the "Knights of the Kids Table".
- Poison Ivy Gulch: Fran of Litterbox Comics appears on 7/9/2023 for a high noon showdown where she draws her gun before Lotta.
- Sleepless Domain: Alternate versions of Steffi, Ben, 42, and Chandra, characters from Kiwi Blitz, another one of Mary's comics, make a guest appearance as the Magical Girl group Team Blitz.
- S.S.D.D.: Anne chats online with Sam from Newshounds, which got referenced in his home comic.
- Simon And Freddy: Characters from other series have shown up in two of the strips:
- Woo from Sandra and Woo makes an appearance in the 50th strip, in which he helps Freddy scavenge the supply cabinet.
- The main cast of Savestate makes an appearance in the 88th strip.
- 30-Something Wolf: In the AnthroExpo 2023 strip, Nyan Cat and Charlie the Unicorn get cameo appearances in the last panel.
- Father of the Pride: Donkey makes a guest appearance in one of the episodes as a sort of Animated Actor.
- Megas XLR: Several characters from MTV's Downtown show up throughout the show. Goat is an obvious one that he becomes a transplanted recurring character. Alex makes an appearance in two separate episodes (and even appears twice in the second episode, on both sides of two teams competing against each other in a robot battle *somehow*). The nerd Wedge appears at least once. Serena is in the pilot episode "Lowbrow". The girl Jamie gets a date with by borrowing Coop's car appears to be the same girl Fruity was flirting with on the subway.
- When Lisa Met Billie: An image in the end credits features Homer, Marge, Bart, Selma, and Patty dancing with Ursula, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Cinderella, Gaston, and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.