Quotes / One-Steve Limit

Vogel: Dr. Jones…
Henry and Indy: Yes?

— Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

"There are twenty-four characters in this book named Max. Let there be an end to this silly business of authors never giving their own names to characters in their novels. False modesty, faugh!"

— Max Shulman, author's note to The Zebra Derby

"Eew, geez, his brains leaked right onto the new rug. That'll take forever to get out. Okay, people, We're gonna need another Steve."

— Marik Ishtar, during a flashback regarding the counterfeit Winged Dragon of Ra/Mega-Ultra Chicken, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, episode 42- So Long and Thanks for All The Trading Cards

Yugi: Look, why don't you just cut the crap and tell us who you really are, Bakura. Or should I call you "the spirit of the Millennium Ring who has no official name as of yet!?"
Bakura: Actually, we're both called Bakura.
Yugi: What?! But that's just confusing! Not to mention highly unlikely.
Bakura: Oh, just wait until season five when there's three of me running around. Even the fans have trouble keeping up with that one.
Tea: Oh no! It's the other Bakura, the one we don't like.
Joey: You're gonna have to be way more specific, Tea.

— Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, episode 40- Final Deathstination

Boy: Hey Billy! Hey Joey! Come on in. There's plenty of room. Sorry, not you, Homer.
Homer: Why not!?
[boy points to sign, "No Homers Club"]
Homer: But you let in Homer Glumplich!
Homer Glumplich: [pops head out window] Hyuck hyuck!
Boy: It says "No Homers". We're allowed to have one.
Homer: Oh.

— The Simpsons, episode "Homer the Great"

Mordecai: Dude, I need you to do me a huge favor and babysit Thomas tonight.
Rigby: Isn't he like, in college?
Mordecai: Not that Thomas, Death's Thomas.

— Regular Show, episode "Playdate"

Blues: Red was emo as fuck.
Samus: ...
Riding Hood: Red the sarcastic but well-meaning teenager, or Red Satoshi the man who once jokingly offered me a "private show" while giggling at my look of incredulity?
Blues: Satoshi.

—We Are Our Avatars

Igor Karkaroff: I know for a fact this person took part in the capture and, by means of the Cruciatus Curse, torture of the Auror Frank Longbottom and his wife...
Barty Crouch, Sr.: The name! Give me the wretched name!
Igor Karkaroff: Barty Crouch! [The entire courtroom gasps.]...Junior!

—Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

"If everybody in class A is called Tom, Thomas or Tommy, and every second boy in class B is called Tim, Timothy or Timmy, what the fuck is going on?"

— Frankie Boyle, Mock the Week "Questions that were rejected from this year's exams"

(Mochizuki) Rokuro:^* Thereafter renamed "Benmaru" I don't care how you address me. The name Rokuro is lame anyway.
(Unno) Rokuro: [bristles]
Yukimura: Leaving aside whether the name is lame or not, there's only one Rokuro for me.

—Brave10

"Lois Kent had never spoken to any Amazons except Wonder Woman and Fury, and it was even odder to know that the one she spoke to had the same name as the Kryptonian criminal who looked like her late husband."

— A Force of Four

"Then, we met in the Crisis, in that big bash in the anti-matter world. We didn't have much time to talk beforehand. You know, ‘Oh, you must be Supergirl. I'm Power Girl... Kara on my Earth. Glad to meet you.' ‘Oh, hi. I'm Kara on my Earth. Really glad to meet you, cousin Kal's told me about meeting you... we'll have to talk after we get finished here.' Of course, after we got finished, I didn't feel much like talking."

— A Force of Four

Morton: Word is, [Kangaroo]'s gone to Vlad!
Horton: Vlad... Vlad... I know two Vlads. Is it the bad Vlad, or the bunny Vlad that makes the cookies?
Morton: Yeah, Horton. She's sending you a bunny with cookies. I think we can assume it's the bad Vlad!
Horton: ...Yeah, that's a good call.

—Horton Hears a Who! (2008)

"My name is Wally West. And Kid Flash's real name is also Wally West. It's confusing, I know. We're working on it."

— Wally West/The Flash II, Flash War

"I told you I have two rules, Uncle G. No more than 40 or 50 vans, and only ONE Steve allowed!"

— Pizza Steve when Uncle Grandpa brings Steven Universe in his RV, "Say Uncle" crossover

"So here's the deal 'Gus Johnson'. I, the real Gus Johnson, am challenging you to a game of Horse. [...] But it's not going to be a game of Horse, it's going to be a game of Johnson, J-O-H-N-S-O-N. You think you're man enough to face the challenge? You choose the court, I'll let you take the court, I don't care, I'll kick your ass all over the country. Winner of the game Johnson, sudden death, gets to keep the name Gus Johnson. Loser has to change their name to Bus Jackson, non-negotiable."

Gus Johnson, "Gus Johnson calls out Gus Johnson"

The Penguin: I want Victor to freeze him again.
Victor Zsasz: Huh?
The Penguin: Not you. The other Victor.

— Gotham, "The Demon's Head"

"And the Steves are there!"

—Tom Servo, Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode "Night of the Blood Beast"

"But I tell you a cat needs a name that's particular
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo or Coricopat
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum
Names that never belong to more than one cat"

— The Naming of the Cats, Cats

"The main character is a guy named... Paul! What else? It's always Paul! Hammer named their movie characters the same way George Foreman named all his sons."

— James Rolfe on Scars of Dracula

"I just want to commend Fire Emblem for having 596 playable characters and only repeating three names"^note Arthur, Cain & Lorenz

— Brian David Gilbert on Unraveled

Naoto Shirogane: That turned out even better than I expected. I can always count on you, Naoto-san.
Naoto Kurogane: Aww, c'mon. It was all because of your great strategy, Naoto! Huh. Ever think about switching to last names?

— BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle

"Not to drag my beloved audience, but based on people's reactions I can only assume that in their day-to-day life the average Magnus fan is reduced to confused screams if they ever meet a second Greg."

—Jonathan Sims, in response to complaints that his podcast uses this trope liberally

"The oddest thing about that dinner was the number of children. Eudes of Bourgogne, having demanded that little Jeanne of Navarre be present to compensate the outrage done to her during the assembly, the count of Poitiers had brought his three daughters, and so too the count of Valois his youngest children, the count of Evreux his son and daughter, the dauphin of Viennois his 'dauphinet' Guigues, Louis of Bourbon those of his children old enough to walk... No one could make sense of the names: there were Blanches, Isabelles, Charles and Philippes everywhere; when someone called 'Jeanne!', six heads turned all at once."

—The Accursed Kings on the naming practices of medieval French nobility

Billy Beane: Get Steve on the phone.
Peter Brand: Schott or Phillips?

—Moneyball

[Knocking]
Sean McDermott: Who is it?
Linebacker Josh Allen: Josh Allen.
Sean McDermott: Phew
[opens door]
Linebacker Josh Allen: The other Josh Allen!

—Gridiron Heights

"So I decided to take Luka Jovic under my wing. I even let him into my elite society: [points at a wall behind him that has portraits of Modric himself, Jovic and former Real Madrid Basketball player Luka Doncic] Lukas of Real Madrid."

—Luka Modric, The Champions

Big Johnson: I'm Agent Johnson, this is my partner, Agent Johnson.
Robinson: Uh... [looks between the two, one of whom is white and the other black]
Big Johnson: No relation.
[...]
Big Johnson: [on the phone] This is Agent Johnson. [beat] No, the other one.

— Die Hard

Jameson: What are we gonna call this guy?
Hoffman: Oh, uh, Doctor Octopus!
Jameson: Eh, that's crap.
Hoffman: Uh, Science Squid?
Jameson: Crap!
Hoffman: Doctor Strange.
Jameson: That's pretty good, but it's taken!

— Spider-Man 2

"It's not just the district that's cursed, it's his own name. Five other boys named Chevy have already gone into the Games, including the monster voted into the Quell. He got his throat slashed open by Cora Shutter. The Twenty-First Chevy was bathing in a sparkling pool when it turned to acid, stripping the bones from his flesh. The Chevy in the Seventeenth tried to run from Boudicca. She caught him. The Thirteenth froze to death and the Fifth was torn to pieces by aquatic mutts in the live arena."

— Chevy Anderson, narration in The Victors Project

"Puny man not 'Phoenix'. Phoenix a bird lady. Hulk confused."

—Hulk, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Cristiano Ronaldo: Rafael, the worst ever manager of Real Madrid, why should we appoint you?
Rafael Benitez: One, because of my lack of loyalty to Liverpool FC. And two, because Mr. Ferguson has recommended me for the job. Fact!
Sir Alex Ferguson: WHAT?! That's absolute bollocks!
[Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford all buzz in their rejections, getting Benitez stuck in the rejection trap door]
Rafael Benitez: Ach, I meant Mr. Duncan Ferguson.
Duncan Ferguson: Anything to get him out of my club!

—442oons, "The Man-Utd Factor!"

"The Captain was Agent 3 before you were Agent 3, Agent 3. Nothing complicated about it."

—Craig Cuttlefish, Splatoon 3

Batman: Please end this, Victor.
Mr. Freeze (Victor Fries): Good scientists gain knowledge at any cost.
Batman: The wise ones have limits.

Batman: Please end this, Victor.
Cyborg (Victor Stone): I don't have a choice.
Batman: There's ALWAYS a choice.

—Injustice 2, the trope in question playing with the name "Victor"

"An M1 towing an M1 is ambushed by a unit of German infantry and as a result the escorting American infantry move to engage. The Sergeant's life is saved when shrapnel pings off his M1 so he yells at his squad to fix M1's to their M1's while they fire on the Germans using M1's, M1's, and M1's. They are confident taking the engagement because if the Germans turn out to have a tank the squad has an M1 standing by and if any enemy aircraft appear well there is a known battery of M1's nearby. The engagement finally ends when they call over the radio for fire support from nearby M1's.
As you can probably imagine, parts are seldom interchangable between M1's."

—Perun, on how the American military during World War II defied this trope with their naming of their materiel, Infantry Fighting Vehicles in Ukraine - losses, lessons & will Western IFVs matter?.

"Now I go into this place when I'm eleven with my best friend John. Now I should say that his name is also John, I'm not calling myself my own best friend, it's a separate human being."

—John Mulaney, "Comedy Central Stand-Up"

Gayle: [about a couple being named Jesse and Jessie] They cannot have the same name. There's got to be an ordinance in place that prohibits that.
Terry: Not yet, write to your local representative about it, Mom.

—Gayle

"Not much to say here other than my instinct was to name Dave Steve, but we've got a Steve. We're not limited to one Steve, certainly, but I didn't want to raise the question of whether THIS Steve was relevant to THAT Steve, so... Dave."

—Dan Shive, in The Rant for El Goonish Shive, [1]

This is Dan
And that's Dan
And there's Marty on the drums to complete the band
And I'm John and he is also John

—They Might Be Giants, "When Will You Die?"

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