"The one in back, the way he acts
Is he reminding you of anyone we know? Isn't he so like certain people I could name?"
Is he reminding you of anyone we know? Isn't he so like certain people I could name?"
An expy (short for "exported character") is a character from one series who is unambiguously and deliberately based on a character in another, older series. A few minor traits, such as age or hair color, may change, but there's no doubt that they are almost one and the same. They often turn up in different works by the same writer(s) or production team.
This can simply be the tendency of writers to prefer certain characterizations for important characters (or knowing which ones are most marketable/popular), or the influence of the design process. On the other hand, it may just be a bad attempt to try to revive a character who the writer liked, but nobody else did and had to get rid of it. When by a different author, it may be a homage to the original creator and/or character or because the author did not have the rights to use the work and wanted to avoid copyright or trademark infringement issues. In the negative sense, an expy can be seen as just a bloated, gimmicky version of a perfectly serviceable past character. In a positive sense, it can refer to an "upgrade" of a two-dimensional or otherwise limited character to one more appreciably complex.
Remember that Tropes Are Tools; an expy can give an old character concept a new lease on life, take it in a different direction, adapt it to a new medium, or simply do something with it that's as good or better than the original. Iconic characters like Yogi Bear and Mickey Mouse are obvious clones of Art Carney and Felix the Cat, respectively, but that hasn't stopped them from being among the most acclaimed cartoon characters of all time.
Theory: any Characters as Device trope, if taken to the extreme, can result in the character appearing to be a mere expy of the Trope Codifiers for that trope. Especially if the character is Flanderized to the point of having few defining characteristics outside of the trope they represent. See Fountain of Expies.
Most often seen in animation and video games, where it's much easier to make a newer character resemble an older one. Occasionally happens when characters from different stories end up sharing voice actors, making or even forcing their personalities to look even more similar, which often leads to jokes based on the voice actor's former role.
When the character appears in the same series as the previous character, they're often a Suspiciously Similar Substitute. Contrast this with Mirror Character.
The key difference between this and Captain Ersatz is that an Expy uses the other character as a starting point before going in their own direction, while Captain Ersatz is obviously the same character but with the Serial Numbers Filed Off. Please keep this distinction in mind before adding an example here. Also note that a fictional counterpart to a real-life person would be either No Celebrities Were Harmed, No Historical Figures Were Harmed, or a Shout-Out, depending on the intent. A quick glance around TV Tropes will reveal just how often these mistakes are made on this very wiki.
Remember that an Expy must be a clearly deliberate reference on the part of the author; superficial or random coincidental similarities (even very striking ones) do not qualify, so if you aren't certain, they probably are not an Expy. Because many character archetypes and tropes that compose characters are universal, it is easy for readers to fall into thinking that a particular character in the same general archetype resembles someone from their favorite show or novel, especially when Small Reference Pools lead readers to overestimate the cultural impact of their favorite characters.
Also, note the insistent use of singular pronouns when referring to the Expy's inspiration in this page's description. This is because an Expy is based on one character. If a character borrows traits from multiple other characters, then the influence of each source of inspiration is diluted to the point where it doesn't count as this trope anymore. See Composite Character for such cases, and Decomposite Character for the opposite case where bits and pieces of a single character inform multiple future characters.
The Spiritual Successor is this trope scaled up to an entire work, and thus as a result often features a Cast of Expies of characters from the original work.
A Sub-Trope of Shout-Out, and Super-Trope of Alternate Company Equivalent, Corrupted Character Copy, Expy Coexistence, Fountain of Expies and Virtuous Character Copy.
Compare to Roman à Clef, Similar Squad, Same Story, Different Names, Suspiciously Similar Song, Distaff Counterpart, Evil Counterpart, Alternate Species Counterpart, Whole-Plot Reference, Surprisingly Similar Stories, Writing Around Trademarks and Product Displacement.
Compare Fantastic Fauna Counterpart, which is sort of the animal equivalent: a fictional (or extinct) species of animal is clearly meant to be the counterpart of a real-life species, but at the same time is clearly not the same species.
Contrast In Name Only, Transplanted Character Fic.
Perhaps you would like to Write an Expy yourself?
For specific characters that tend to inspire expies, see Fountain of Expies. For a series with numerous different expies in its cast, see Cast of Expies. When an expy and the character they are based on are both found in the same universe, then you have Expy Coexistence.
Not to be confused with the similarly named and adorable creatures in CasualtiesUnknown.
Examples Subpages:
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Fan Works
- Films — Live-Action
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Pro Wrestling
- Tabletop Games
- Video Games
- Western Animation
Other Examples:
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Arts
- Statue of Liberty:
- The statue itself is likened by Emma Lazarus (who was indirectly involved in Lady Liberty's creation) to a modern version of the Colossus of Rhodes. Although with one major difference: the Greek Colossus commemorates defense against conquest, while Lady Liberty is depicted as a guardian standing by the Golden Door welcoming people to the New World. Incidentally, the Statue of Liberty has outlasted the original Colossus, which stood for only 54 years.
- During The French Revolution, there were Dechristianization efforts that led to putting a statue of the Roman Goddess of Liberty on the altar of the Notre Dame Cathedral. The ideals it embodied would eventually crystallize in what we know today as the American Statue of Liberty.
Asian Animation
- Can (2015): Can is an expy of Caillou, down to wearing the same blue-and-yellow overalls. Both are excitable and inquisitive children with a desire to learn more about their surroundings.
Comic Strips
- In Deflocked, Tucker is a Expy of Calvin.
- Iggy the chronically nervous germophobic chihuahua from Dogs of C-Kennel is essentially an Expy of Killer from All Dogs Go to Heaven.
- Frazz has been described as a grown-up Calvin.
- Now-extinct British newspaper strip The Perishers features expies of multiple Peanuts characters — Old Boot is very similar to Snoopy, and Maisie is virtually a clone of Lucy van Pelt, with her younger brother Baby Grumpling having several of Linus's traits.
- In PreTeena, the central character of Teena Keene is, visually and in temperament, a slightly older eleven-year-old Expy of Peppermint Patty, from the Peanuts series. Creator Allison Barrows has said in interviews that "Peanuts" has been a great influence on her writing.note
- Swedish comic Rocky featured a strip in which the title character's comic is rejected because the publisher claims that its protagonist is an Expy of Fritz the Cat. Another strip suggested that the title character in a similar comic, Elvis
, was an Expy of Rocky.
Films — Animation
- The Book of Life:
- Manolo is the humanized version of Ferdinand. Both don't want to follow their family careers (both involving bullfighting), opting for a more peaceful pursuit.
- Chakal is basically a more human version of the giant green ogre bandito El Malverde from El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera. The fact that they live in the same universe certainly helps.
- Victor from Corpse Bride looks like the grown-up version of Vincent◊, the child protagonist of one of Burton's earliest stop-motion works. Lampshaded In-Universe.
Mr Everglot: We shall continue as planned, with or without Vincent.
Mrs Everglot: Victor.
Mr Everglot: Whatever. - In Hercules (1997), the five Muses, as a group of black female singers who omnisciently narrate the story by singing pop and gospel music, occasionally interacting with the characters, resemble the three "urchins," Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon, from another Alan Menken musical, Little Shop of Horrors.
- The Incredibles:
- Edna is based on real-life Paramount costume designer Edith Head, though that's more of a case of Comic-Book Fantasy Casting. Many say she was based on Linda Hunt's character Regina Krumm in Robert Altman's 1994 film Pret-a-Porter. There is a serious resemblance, down to her size, her hairstyle, her black dress and her circular glasses!
- The middle school that Violet attends is one for Corvallis High School in Corvallis, Oregon, where Brad Bird went to high school. This is down to them having the same mascot (the Spartans). However, since the high school building was torn down in 2005 and rebuilt, it's a little hard to see it now.
- The Jungle King: The Hyena Chancellor and Ricardo are based off Jafar and his parrot Iago. The Hyena is an Evil Chancellor who also pretends to be loyal to the King and his relationship with Ricardo is similar to Jafar and Iago's.
- Minions & Monsters:
- The various monsters appearing in the film (Goomi, Howard, Phillip, Irene) are somewhat "expies squared" in that they not only are clearly referencing creatures from the Cthulhu Mythos, but they are also inspired by the comical expies of said beings appearing in the Lovecraft parody webcomic The Unspeakable Vault (of Doom) (featuring Cthulhoo, Shoggy, Nyarly and so on). You can see most of them here. Turns out that the webcomic's author has been working in the animation industry since the 1990s and was the one to introduce the Lovecraft mythos to Pierre Coffin, so he was asked to collaborate in the Minion movie's making. In turn, the Cthulhu expy from the film was nicknamed Goomi after his pen name.
- Dort the alien robot is obviously an expy of Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).
- The various monsters appearing in the film (Goomi, Howard, Phillip, Irene) are somewhat "expies squared" in that they not only are clearly referencing creatures from the Cthulhu Mythos, but they are also inspired by the comical expies of said beings appearing in the Lovecraft parody webcomic The Unspeakable Vault (of Doom) (featuring Cthulhoo, Shoggy, Nyarly and so on). You can see most of them here
- Quest for Camelot: As pointed out by The Agony Booth, the Nostalgia Critic and Lauren Faust (who worked on the film as an animator) Kayley is, both looks and personality-wise, Belle. Faust, commenting on the similarity, goes even further and points out that Garret looks like the human form of the Beast.
- Nickelodeon's film Rango has two examples:
- Tortoise John is based on Noah Cross, John Huston's character in the 1974 film Chinatown.
- Rattlesnake Jake was based on Angel Eyes from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, though his sociopathic behavior is very reminiscent of Frank from Once Upon a Time in the West, too.
- Wilbur and Orville from The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under are basically the same albatross, down to the design and character, though this was a conscious decision on behalf of the animators. By the time the sequel was made the original voice of the bird in the first film had died and out of respect for the actor they created the same kind of character, but presented him as his brother. Though even Wilbur & Orville have much in common with Launchpad McQuack, also a feather brained bird pilot who crash lands more than he flies and is involved in the rescue of young kids.
- The early drafts for The Rescuers used Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians as this movie's Big Bad. While this plan was eventually dropped as the studio wasn't fond of the idea of doing sequelsnote , it's not hard to see the influence with the actual villainess, Madame Medusa, in both appearance and mannerism.
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie, a Cult Classic film adaptation of the classic song, has Arrow. He's a buck Rudolph's age that bullies him and his overall rival. He bares more than a passing resemblance to minor character "Fireball" from the stop-motion special, a yearling with blond fur that was friends with Rudolph for all of five minutes until he learned about Rudolph's nose. There's also Zoey, Rudolph's love interest, who doesn't mind his red nose and is clearly inspired by Clarice from the stop-motion special.
- Hank Scorpio was originally going to be the villain of The Simpsons Movie, but instead, the film has a different character, Russ Cargill. The two have the same voice actor (Albert Brooks), some of Cargill's lines sound similar to something Scorpio might say, and both are pretty Bond-villain-ish.
- The Snow Queen (1995):
- The three trolls are not too distant in role and characterization from the Urpneys in Martin Gates Productions' previous cartoon, The Dreamstone. Similarly, most of the changes made to the Snow Queen essentially make her their Zordrak. Ellie's personality and role isn't too distant from Amberley either.
- The old woman in the garden is based on the Evil Queen's old peddler form, just dressed in purple instead of black. She even has the same hairstyle, and wants to become more beautiful by killing a young girl (albeit due to her heart being a key ingredient to the elixir of life, rather than out of jealousy).
- Whizzer from the third movie of The Swan Princess is this to Iago from Aladdin. Both are birds who serve as minions to an evil sorcerer (Zelda to Whizzer and Jafar to Iago), can mimic voices and later pull a Heel–Face Turn (Whizzer later in the his film and Iago in the first sequel). However, unlike Iago, Whizzer is only serving the villain out of fear rather than initial malice.
- In Turning Red, Mei Lee's favorite band 4*Town is essentially a pastiche of various boy bands, including but not limited to the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, b4-4, and Big Bang.
- At the end of Trolls Band Together is revealed that Branch was in another band aside from Bro Zone which according to associated media is called Kismet, and their members' names (aside from Branch) are Trickee (the orange Pop Troll with a ponytail hairstyle), Ablaze (the purple Pop Troll with a Hard Rock-esque fashion sense), Hype (the blue Glitter Troll) and Boom (the yellow Glitter Troll with rainbow hair, who's confirmed to be "out" (be on the LGBT spectrum)), they are not only an expy of N'sync, but they are also voiced by them (Trickee is voiced by Chris Kirkpatrick, Ablaze is voiced by Joey Fatone, Hype is voiced by JC Chasez and Boom is voiced by Lance Bass]].
- Wreck-It Ralph:
- Ralph himself is basically a human Donkey Kong, with nearly identical proportions to the ape (albeit with a human design) and a similar gruff attitude (at least in his game).
- Felix is an imitation of Mario (or, as he was called back in Donkey Kong, Jumpman). He's a short, cheery guy with a bulbous nose who likes to help people, and he's sometimes seen jumping with his fist in the air◊, similar to one of Mario's signature poses◊. At one point, he even does the animation when Mario loses a life in Donkey Kong.
- Zootopia: Mr. Big is essentially Don Vito Corleone as portrayed by Academy Award Winner Marlon Brando as a shrew, and the sheer lack of subtlety about it is Played for Laughs.
Manhwa
- The manhwa Witch Hunter is quite an expy of D.Gray-Man. The main protagonists both have white hair, wear black uniform which are the same color as their respective comrades', show sympathy towards their enemies' race, and have hilarious financial problems.
Music
- Clamavi de Profundis: The demon who temporarily takes over Hammerdeep in "Boic Bravesoul" before he's driven away is clearly inspired by the Balrog from The Lord of the Rings, being an ancient, fiery, horned monster who lives deep beneath the earth and brings ruin to the dwarves when their mining breaches its lair.
- Nicki Minaj's Roman Zolanski alter-ego is clearly very similar to Eminem's alter-ego Slim Shady, but given more of a fairytale feel with a fantasy high-class British background (highlighted in [[Expy Coexistence Eminem's guest verse]] on "Roman's Revenge" — "high class meets white trash"). In particular, both alter egos have an overbearing abusive mother who tries to control their child through sinister means, but where Shady's mother is a villain (and a frequent victim of his violence), Martha is a more sympathetic and campy character who can't cure her son's monstrousness, but is usually able to placate him. (In fact, Martha's so strong she's even able to subdue Slim and get him sent to a boarding school in Russia!)
- The Vocaloid song "The Tomboy Princess' Song" by Toraboruta has the titular princess clearly based on of Alena from Dragon Quest IV. She hates studying and wishing to sneak out the castle for an adventure. In the music video, Rin is shown portraying the princess with a blue cape and a pointed hat just like Alena, and also breaks the castle's wall by kicking it down.
Myths & Religion
- In religion, the blending of two or more religions is known as Religious Syncretism, and frequently results in an apparent religious expy, especially when two different deities become identified with each other and merged into one entity; nearly every example below stems from this effect.
- Aeneas to Achilles, very deliberately and almost to the point of a Whole-Plot Reference. A few of the more blantant examples: Achilles had an unbreakable shield made by Hephaestus with images of the world on it, Aeneas had an unbreakable shield made by Vulcan with images of Rome on it. Achilles best friend is killed by the leader of the opposing side in a war, and he responds by not just defeating the man in single combat with a spear, but humiliating and ultimately killing him. Guess what?
- The Hijacked by Jesus variant is the same reason the gods of Egyptian Mythology have so many names—they absorbed the qualities of less popular gods and worshipers later said that these lesser gods were merely "aspects" of them.
- Ereshkigal of Mesopotamian Mythology. She is the underworld equivalent of the fertility goddess Inanna (Ishtar), said to be her younger twin. In fact, they may have at one point been two aspects of the same goddess before becoming separate entities.
- Many Catholic festivals were adapted from local ones to make Christianity more welcoming. Some Saints were contemporaries of the pagans that they converted. Others were adapted deities.
- Quite a bit Older Than They Think - due to the ancestral speakers of Indo-European languages expanding across Europe and Asia, the languages (and Gods) of a whole lot of cultures have the same origins. Looking at the Norse, Greek and Hindu pantheons, it's possible to find quite a few parallels among the old gods and their myths. (For example, an ancient Hindu sky god named Dyaus, the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter are essentially the same god, with a few changes along the way and over the years)
- Classical Mythology:
- Roman gods and goddesses were Expies of Greek gods and goddesses (such as Jupiter and Zeus, Venus and Aphrodite, Juno and Hera, Vulcan and Hephaestus, etc.)
Pinballs
- In 3-D Ultra Pinball: Creep Night, the "Beast" from the Tower table is a stand-in for Frankenstein's Monster.
- Cirqus Voltaire is an organizational expy of Cirque du Soleil.
- In Gottlieb's Cue Ball Wizard, the player's opponent is a Clint Eastwood-wannabe.
Shooter: "Make my day."
- In the pinball conversion kit Gamatron, the rampaging Humongous Mecha of the game is an Expy for Rom: Spaceknight.
- Hollywood Heat, being a Mockbuster of Miami Vice, feature expies of Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs.
- The green spaceships in Stellar Wars are angular copies of the Cylon Raiders from Battlestar Galactica.
Podcasts
- Several characters across multiple Cool Kids Table games are stated to be expies.
- Jed Wilson in All I Want for Christmas is based on Al the Toy Collector from Toy Story 2.
- In a game based on stereotypes, several of the characters from Creepy Town fall into this. The Kennedy twins are each expies of nineties teen characters; Oliver of Randy from Scream and Olivia of Laney from She's All That (or rather, the parody of her from Not Another Teen Movie). Also, Will is Gordon from Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills, who everyone knows.
- Jake bases his Bloody Mooney character Jessica off of Mac from Paper Girls. Josh bases JT on Zack from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
- Tuatha from The Fallen Gods has a little bit of Stacey from Creepy Town in her characterization, namely the sexual openness and beauty.
- Fallout Is Dragons has Blinkie, an expy and possible descendant of Maud Pie.
- Hero Club features at least two across its seasons.
- It Never Sleeps features Doctor Rudolph Heisenberg, an expy of Josef Mengele. He was a Nazi, and amoral chief medical officer under Hitler. Unlike Mengele, the Doctor was conducting experiments involving actual eldritch rituals, and he's the one who killed Hitler over disagreements and made it look like a suicide.
- The City of Mirrors features Detective Caltabiano, an expy of Hercule Piorot. He's got the unusual accent, tough to pronounce name, and is an ace detective on a train who's there to solve a murder. Except none of this is true, he's actually the murderer and a thief. His cover's absurd to throw people off his scent.
Puppet Shows
- The Muppet Show: Beauregard the Janitor is virtually the exact same character as Wendell the Porcupine from Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas down to the same personality, fur color, performer, and voice. Beauregard even looks a bit like a porcupine.
- Sesame Street:
- Biff the construction worker is based on the overly-talkative taxi cab passenger that Jack Burns played in his recurring comedy sketches with Avery Schreiber (who played the driver).note
- Lefty the Salesman was apparently inspired by "The Tout", a shady character from The Jack Benny Program.
- Sinister Sam. From his voice and facial features (and even name), it's clear that he is based on Yosemite Sam.
- Terrahawks: Windsor Davies is more or less reprising his role of Battery Sergeant Williams from It Ain't Half Hot, Mum in his performance as Sergeant Major Zero. The official Gerry Anderson YouTube channel flat out acknowledges Davies is channeling Battery Sergeant Williams.
Roleplay
- On the Bay12 Forums, certain players are infamous for using these. Some examples:
- Bay 12 Sword Art Online RP: Shiina and Tzoushi are expies of Sachi and Klein respectively. The Irony in Shiina is that she has almost the opposite personality to her base, despite sharing her appearance.
- Bay 12 RWBY Roleplay: Maeve, of Tharja.
- Darwin's Soldiers:
- Dr. James Zanasiu, main character of the RPs is an expy of James Miardian, the scientist from the first RP that James's creator ever played: The Spreading Hazard.
- Dr. Bailey, who first appeared in the rebooted Furtopia RP, was an expy of Dr. Shelton from the Gang of Five RPs, after the latter showed how useful it was to have a non-action tech guy around.
- Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues:
- The high school teachers all have their names and appearances taken from real-life comic book creators, such as Principal Shooter, Mr. Claremont, Mr. Lieber, etc.
- Finn's appearance and overall Chess Motif is taken from Battler Ushiromiya. His personality, not so much.
- Everything about Daigo, including his name, abusive father, tacky fashion sense, and vampiric powerset were inspired by Dio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Increasingly downplayed once the GM took over the character and started to tone down the similarities.
- In The Gungan Council, several characters use avatars from the Star Wars films, including C'oringath and Ceel. Others use avatars from the Expanded Universe. Usually, these characters even match their avatar's in personality.
- A fair amount of characters from Survival of the Fittest. Occasionally, you will see one of a character from a previous version or the original canon (for example, Melina Frost was clearly at least to some extent inspired by Mariavel Varella of v2, and possibly by extension, Mitsuko from Battle Royale). Other times, you will see ones of characters from other works, based on people the handler knows, or are imported from other roleplays the handler has participated in.
- In We Are All Pokémon Trainers, Milagros is mentioned to be based off several characters from Total Drama. Though he is mainly based off Alejandro and Tyler.
Theatre
- Cyrano de Bergerac:
- The Duenna is an expy from The Nurse from Romeo and Juliet.
- Raguenau is an expy of M. Jourdain, protagonist of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (a play by Molière.) M. Jourdain is a Burgher who dreams to be an Aristocrat, even when he really doesn’t understand exactly what an Aristocrat is All he knows is that Aristocrats are cool, and his naiveté makes him everyone's Butt-Monkey. Ragueneau is a baker who dreams to be a poet…
- Cyrano is an expy of Grisóstomo, a fair, intelligent, rich and easygoing guy who is a talented physic and poet so in love with the shepherdess beautiful, intelligent, easygoing and rich Marcela that he decides to become a shepherd himself just to court her. After a long chain of rejections, he decides to kill himself and blames Marcela in his poems.
- Le Bret is an expy of Ambrosio, best friend of Grisóstomo, who talks in his burial and explains that Grisóstomo was a Love Martyr Driven to Suicide because Marcela's cruelty, and became another shepherd to follow Grisóstomo’s wishes and is adamant in his resolution that his friend last will be respected: to burn all his poems and bury him when he first saw Marcela.
- Roxane is an expy of Marcela, the beautiful, intelligent, easygoing, and rich woman who has become a shepherdess to escape the constant courtship of a lot of suitors. She is a friendly person, but is not interested in love. She is present at Grisóstomo's burial and claims that she never leaded Grisóstomo on, she was sincere with him when she said she didn’t love him and if Grisóstomo took his own life it was not because he was a Love Martyr, but because he was a Martyr Without a Cause.
- In Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hoffmannsthal's opera Der Rosenkavalier, the Marschallin and Octavian are versions of the Countess and Cherubino from The Marriage of Figaro.
- Wait? A man with questionable morals falls in love with a considerably more wholesome woman and much singing is involved? Are we talking about Sky Masterson and Sarah Brown or Professor Harold Hill and Marian the Librarian?
- Every character in Miss Saigon corresponds to one in Madame Butterfly, which it's based on:
- Kim=Cio-Cio San (Madame Butterfly).
- Chris=B. F. Pinkerton.
- The Engineer=Goro.
- John=Sharpless.
- Ellen=Kate Pinkerton
- Thuy=The Bonze and Prince Yamadori.
- Tam=Dolore ("Sorrow").
- Also, the scene in Butterfly where Cio-Cio San's uncle shows up at her wedding to denounce her for her actions is echoed in Saigon when Thuy shows up at Chris and Kim's apartment to do precisely the same thing, along with threatening the happy couple.
- Similarly, every character in RENT is based off of one in La Bohème:
- Mark is Marcello
- Roger is Rodolfo
- Mimi is, well, Mimi
- Tom is Colline
- Angel is Schaunard
- Maureen is Musetta
- Joanne is Alcindoro/partially Marcello
- Benny is Benoît
- Speaking of Shakespeare, not only does nearly every character in Romeo and Juliet correspond to one in West Side Story, so do many of the scenes:
- Characters:
- Tony=Romeo
- Maria=Juliet
- Jets=Montagues
- Sharks=Capulets
- Bernado=Tybalt,
- Anita=Nurse/Lady Capulet
- Riff=Mercutio
- Chino=Paris
- Baby John=Benvolio
- Anybodys=Balthazar
- Doc=Friar Laurence
- Lieutenant Shrank & Officer Krupke=Prince Escalus.
- Scenes:
- The opening fight
- Juliet's betrothal to Paris=Maria's engagement to Chino
- Juliet's debut party=Maria's first dance
- The balcony scene=the fire escape scene
- Romeo & Juliet's elopement= Tony and Maria acting out a wedding
- Tybalt killing Mercutio=Bernardo killing Riff
- Romeo killing Tybalt= Tony killing Bernado
- The Nurse being taunted and insulted by the Montagues. =Anita being assaulted by the Jets and thus lying about Maria's death, resulting in Tony screaming for Chino to "come and kill me too"!
- Jerome Robbins explicitly set out to produce a musical version of Romeo and Juliet set in contemporary times, so it's hardly surprising that there are such parallels.
- Characters:
- The Ace Attorney musical by the Takarazuka Revue is an adaptation of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney bonus case, "Rise from the Ashes" from the original game, but with certain changes made to make the plot more personal to Phoenix. As a result, Lana Skye and her little sister Ema are replaced by Leona Clyde and her little sister Monica. They both serve the same role as their respective game counterparts, but with the added twist of Leona being Phoenix's former lover.
- Part of the reason for the many examples in the plays of William Shakespeare may be that he wrote most of his plays for the same actors, leading to plenty of Actor Allusion.
- An Epileptic Trees theory has argued that the Antonio of Twelfth Night is the same as the Antonio of The Merchant of Venice. Both seem to be homosexual and it's argued that the character of the former, who is a sea captain, was able to become a wealthy merchant thanks to help from Sebastian and Viola.
- Iachimo from Cymbeline has a name essentially meaning "little Iago" and has a similar role in manipulating a character to wrongly suspect his love interest of cheating. The difference (fitting the names) is that while Iago is a really evil Diabolical Mastermind, Iachimo is an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain.
- Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of Shakespeare's earliest plays, is full of characters who would later be Expied:
- The Merchant of Venice has Launcelot (technically Launcelet, "little Launce"), an obvious copy of Launce. Both characters are oddball servants who go off into comedic monologues, and their dialogues and jokes are eerily similar. Nerissa could also be seen as the new and improved Lucetta—both are maidservants who act as straight men in practically the same dialogue about suitors, and both assist their mistresses in disguising themselves as boys.
- Plot outline: Guy A and Girl A are in love. Girl A's father doesn't want them to be together. Meanwhile, Guy B tries to catch Girl A but is continually rebuffed. Girl B, who Guy B dumped in favor of Girl A, lurks in the wings, feeling sorry for herself. In the end, Guy B changes his mind, he and Girl B get back together, and everyone's happy. Now decide for yourself whether you want these four to be called Valentine, Sylvia, Proteus and Julia or Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena. It doesn't really matter.
- As an added bonus, each of the two couples informed one of Shakespeare's other famous couples. Sylvia sneaks off to marry her man in a friar's cell, after which he is "banished" and believes it's a fate worse than death because be can't be with his new wife. note Julia, disguised as a boy, ends up delivering love letters for the guy she herself in love with, while ambiguously trying to convince him that sending the letters is a bad idea. Just to make it more obvious, her alias is "Sebastian", which was used as the name of Viola' Half Identical Twin who complicates the situation further.
- The basic "Friar Laurence" type appears a third time as "Friar Francis" in Much Ado About Nothing, once again convincing people that the best solution to any romantic difficulty is for the girl to fake her own death. Since Much Ado is a comedy, it actually works out this time.
Visual Novel
- Ace Attorney:
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies seemed to, after the long time director, Shu Takumi, was no longer involved in the project, take several ideas from his other detective murder mystery game Ghost Trick:
- Athena Cykes appears to be based off Lynne from Ghost Trick. Both are bubbly young women with orange hair who are used in a support role for the main protagonist. They also have mentors who were falsely accused and imprisoned for crimes that they didn't commit.
- Knowing the simularities between Athena and Lynne, it should be no surprise that their mentors, Detective Jowd and Simon Blackquill appear to be based off each other. This, however, apart from them both being eccentrics, seems to be limited only to the backstories of the characters.
- The main antagonists of both games, Yomiel and The Phantom also have multiple simularities. Known for impersonating other people (although through very different methods), they slowly manipulate everything in the background and work on accomplishing their goals. They also appear to be someone else (Sissel and Bobby Fullbright) before The Reveal, although this is due to a misunderstanding on Sissel's part.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice has Inga Karkhuul Khura'in, who bears striking similarities to Ace from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (Zero Escape being one of Ace Attorney's contemporaries when it comes to visual novel series). Both are powerful men who suffer from prosopagnosia, and both get Out-Gambitted by their story's respective female mastermind (though Inga is more of a Big Bad Wannabe in comparison to Ace).
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies seemed to, after the long time director, Shu Takumi, was no longer involved in the project, take several ideas from his other detective murder mystery game Ghost Trick:
- Speaking of Ace Attorney, Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane is heavily inspired by it. With very similar characters, as well. Tyrion being an equivalent to Pheonix, Ruby Tymora being the equivalent to Mia Fey, Celeste McCoy being the equivalent to Maya Fey and Aria Steelwind being an equivalent to Miles Edgeworth.
Web Animation
- The Amazing Digital Circus
- Voice-wise, Jax's mannerisms and way of speaking are heavily based on Raggedy Andy, with one of his lines in "Fast Food Masquerade" ("This is really weird...") being spoken in the exact same manner as Andy does in the film.
- Gooseworx has stated that Caine is heavily based on AM from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, as they both are egotistical, rogue A.I.s who make humans go through downright torturous scenarios for their own entertainment. Unlike AM, though, Caine is portrayed as being Obliviously Evil, who actually likes the humans in his realm; he just doesn't really know how to fit their needs (his frequent malfunctioning not helping things).
- Apukunapa Kutimuyñin:
- Sisa's hairdo is identical to Higan's, the fire hero protagonist of Tengai Makyō Zero. Both of them are black haired people with a red streak in the front who wear their hair in a spiky ponytail. Another bonus is that Sisa, while not a fire-wielder herself, is indeed associated with a goddess of fire, Nina.
- Illapa's design greatly resembles that of Cú Chulainn's (from Fate Series), what with his buzzed blue hair worn in rat-tail and his rectangular drop earrings—although, Illapa wears two golden ones on each ear, while Lancer has one silver drop per ear. Both also share playful attitudes, although Illapa, god of thunder that he is, has a wilder, crueler devil-may-care side than Cú Chulainn, who is more balanced and honorable.
- Broken Saints has two villainous blond lieutenants named Charles and Bravado. Between the names and the haircuts, there is something very, very familiar about them...
- Dreamscape: Visually, Izane resembles Kiyoya.
- DSBT InsaniT: Boo is an Expy of the Box Ghost. He is an Evil Is Hammy Harmless Villain with a similar voice.
- Breeze Rider from Dusk's Dawn is this to Rainbow Dash, both being able to fly, cracking jokes and having a strong sense of adventure.
- He is also definitely trying to be a lot like Pinkie Pie by providing goofy (attempted) comic relief at random times, like popping his head out of a cloud and impossible areas.
- Foxy's Family: Plushtrap is one to Lorca from Dragon Tales since both are bound to a wheelchair and are both extremely talented.
- Happy Tree Friends:
- Lumpy is an expy of Bullwinkle. Both being dimwitted moose, Lumpy's antlers were inverted to prevent him from looking too similar.
- To that end, Splendid the flying squirrel essentially the Failure Hero equivalent of Rocky.
- Sniffles is based off of Arthur Read, both ant-eating mammals that wear similar large round glasses. Not only that, but both characters originally had long snouts that eventually got shorter due to Art Evolution.
- Mystery Skulls Animated features a cast that is a homage to Scooby-Doo with their own twists.
- Lord Zet and Nekoneko of the flash series Super Freakin' Parody Rangers are deliberately obvious Expies of Zetto and Ruri from the creator's earlier work TOME.
- The Most Epic Story Ever Told in All of Human History: Captain Epic is more or less the voice actor's Yoda impression used on a different character.
- Due to the many contestants on the show, a lot of characters from NJT Elimination are prone to this trope in terms of appearance and/or personality. For instance:
- Mount Arlington and Plauderville have a similar color scheme. However, don't call him a Plauderville rip-off, or else!
- Metropark has the same personality as Fairbanks from AK Elimination.
- Rahway shares a similar color scheme with Lyons, although the latter's hair and shirt are lighter and the former's eyes are smaller.
- Raritan looks almost exactly like Peapack and Gladstone, although this was averted in the later seasons of Waldwick Elimination.
- Nothing, Forever: In the Seinfeld-inspired first season, Larry Feinberg, Fred Kastopolous, Yvonne Torres and Zoltan Kakler are directly based off of Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza, Elaine Benes, and Cosmo Kramer respectively.
- Object Oppose: and boy does this show run on this trope. Most of the characters are expys of other popular Object Shows such as Taoism and Baseball being ones to Yin-Yang and Baseball and Leaf being one to Leafy. Even some of the episode plots are parallel to other object shows like "The Puzzled Path" being similar to "Mazed and Confused".In spite of all that, Object Oppose still manages to stand out as its own show.
- Ollie & Scoops:
- Merle, one of the many stray cats in the show, looks a lot like Stimpy, if he were leaner. And meaner. And not stupid.
- Old Crumplecranks, from the episode of the same name, physically resembles the Devil from Cuphead, has a voice like Oogie Boogie, and plays the same role as the titular villain of The Old Man of the Mountain, one of the cartoons that inspired Cuphead, Oogie Boogie, and this episode.
- Race to the Mansion of Tomorrow: Soskoa is intentionally looks similar to Parappa in Chicken Tech Inc.
- Rainimator:
- Several characters from the Production Teams' own work appear in the series (albeit some with design and/or name changes):
- XEliteXCrafterX's characters, including his Self-Insert, Maya, and Skylor, all originate from a seperate, in-development project known as "Curse of the Fallen".
- Sven Hardiker, a thief who is partially responsible for Herobrine's rise in power, is confirmed by his creator Old Chad Roman to be based on the character of the same name from his game "Echoes of Continuity".
- Many of Baryonyxdude's characters, be it before or after his appointment to the Production Team, are taken from his own series "Imperialism of Illagers". This is most notable with Chantria Clan leader Charice bearing the same design as Eva Chandtria from his series.
- Other examples not involving the export of a production team member character include:
- Void Lord Lance, the Big Bad of Fractures' prequel, "War of the Ender Kingdoms", has been mentioned by his designer Dexter Kronos to be heavily based off of Stolas' Lust Ring design from Helluva Boss.
- Flint's design was found to have used an edited Minecraft skin depicting Hawkeye as seen in The Avengers as a major basis.
- Several characters from the Production Teams' own work appear in the series (albeit some with design and/or name changes):
- RWBY: When Li Ren was being modelled for Volume 4's flashback episode, the creative team realised he looked liked Hanzo. They decided to embrace the similarities and made him a full expy, down to bow and arrows and similar facial features.
Webcomics
- Bizarre Uprising: Pink hair, green eyes, and a Girly Girl? Mitsu's crush draws a lot of inspiration from Sakura Haruno, even if it's mostly just her looks.
- It was explained by the author that N4-T3 (Nate) of Bob and George, the Yellow Demon that was converted into a good guy, was an Expy of a guy named Nate with similar glass that was going to be in the hand-drawn comic that was originally planned.
- Miranda, Timothy, and Reseda from But I'm a Cat Person are AU versions of original characters from the author's earlier fancomic, And Shine Heaven Now. Ann Walker is a derivative of that comic's AU version of Little Orphan Annie. Several readers have identified Stuart Cohen as resembling (a sinister AU version of) Jon Stewart.
- One of Jolene's coworkers in Clover & Cutlass is a dual-knife-wielding ranger with monomaniacal bloodlust, and who ardently believes that Murder Is the Best Solution. All of this makes him a dead ringer for Belkar.
- Creative Release gives us Etoile, who is a very explicit expy of Ikari Shinji (he's a pilot who protects his planet from alien attacks and has doubts about his motivations).
- Natasha Wing from Electric Wonderland became introduced after Peter Paltridge's disgust with Chuck character Anna Wu playing a progressively smaller role compelled him to make his own Asian Action Girl.
- DARK MOON: THE BLOOD ALTAR:
- Sooha has a lot in common with Bella Swan of The Twilight Saga. Like Bella, Sooha is a Cute Bookworm with low self-esteem who moves to a new town and meets two groups: one are vampires and the other are werewolves, later ending up in a Love Triangle with one from each group, plus tend to be a Damsel in Distress with both groups always coming to her aid. For bonus points, Sooha has long and straight brown hair like Bella has in the books. The very few differences is that Sooha is more cheery and actually wants friends and was badass with Super-Strength from the start even though she's not a vampire, unlike Bella who was a reserved loner that was passive and useless for most of the story. Fans of the series often compare Sooha to Bella in either a loving or derisive way.
- Princess Selen is one to Princess Serenity from Sailor Moon. They're both the reincarnation of a high school student, had a secret romance with a Tall, Dark, and Handsome black-haired man twice, have a lunar-themed name and the typical Silk Hiding Steel personality of a Princess Classic. Even appearance-wise, both characters have Innocent Blue Eyes and their Iconic Outfit is a white ballgown with golden accessories. Also like the version in the 2003 live-action series, she appears out of nowhere with seemingly malicious intent.
- Grace, of El Goonish Shive, definitely has nothing in common with Squirrel Girl... oops. On the other hand, "cat girl"-to-"squirrel girl" substitution doesn't leave many options anyway.
- The Fan: Masked vigilante Maelstrom is not completely unlike a certain mascot of a certain band.
- Grrl Power:
- Zephan Zoeng is an older Wang Chi from Big Trouble in Little China, per DaveB's comments for strip #1074.
- The author readily admits that Gadgeteer Genius Digit is heavily inspired by Gadget Hackwrench of Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers. Lampshaded in "Mouse Averse", where Maxima is shown to reject Digit's first choice of a glowbod which would have made her look like Gadget.
- Goose is acknowledged by the writer to bear an unfortunate resemblance to a certain video game character.
- Zephan Zoeng is an older Wang Chi from Big Trouble in Little China, per DaveB's comments for strip #1074
- Bro's rapping ventriloquist dummy Lil' Cal in Homestuck shares a large number of traits with Franklin from Arrested Development, one of Hussie's favourite shows.
- In Act 6, we meet the Alpha kids, aka alternate universe counterparts of the original kid's guardians, who share some similarities to the dead trolls. Jane Crocker shares many similarities to Feferi and is related to her by adoption, Jake English has mirrors Eridan in many ways, Roxy seems to be based on Nepeta, and Dirk is Equius. Their aspect and even their relationships tie into this.
- This isn't completely done without a callback to the fact that the session of the Alpha kids is a doomed session, and mirrors the fact that the trolls the Alpha kids are based off, are all dead. The session of the Beta kids is the scratched one, and the fact that the patron trolls of the Beta kids (Vriska, Kanaya, Terezi and Karkat) are still alive.
- Given that Lord English, in both name and properties, is (at first unintentionally, but later canonically) similar to Lord British of Ultima, it seems that his servant Gamzee's miraculous inability to die in all timelines, despite such extreme injuries as taking dozens of Caliborn's bullets in the chest, makes him an expy of Chuckles.
- In Act 6, we meet the Alpha kids, aka alternate universe counterparts of the original kid's guardians, who share some similarities to the dead trolls. Jane Crocker shares many similarities to Feferi and is related to her by adoption, Jake English has mirrors Eridan in many ways, Roxy seems to be based on Nepeta, and Dirk is Equius. Their aspect and even their relationships tie into this.
- Lindesfarne from Kevin & Kell fulfills a very similar role to that of Samantha from Safe Havens: a kind, witty and intelligent scientist. Both were created by Bill Holbrook.
- Klunscomic:
- Jesse the Killer is an obvious riff on Jeff the Killer, complete with the similar name, hoodie and Slasher Smile.
- Jolly Jack's design and name is based off of Creepypasta character Laughing Jack.
- In-Universe, Toona Cassirole is based off of Miss B, complete with godlike powers. It should be worth noting that Linnie Bygone, Toona's creator, was given permission by Miss B to create a character based on her.
- The Law of Purple has several characters who are explicitly expies of Yu-Gi-Oh! characters: Lette, who is Seto Kaiba with boobs and a sense of humor, Juni, who is based on Alister, and Carli/y/eigh, who is Zigfried von Schroeder.
- Magick Chicks has several among its cast, most notably human renditions of "the Bronies".
- Rain and AJ are Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack respectively and have similar personality traits. The same is true of Chastity, who stands in for Rarity, Fluttershy is Skye, and Rosie is Pinkie Pie.
- There's also Tiffany Winters, who is a parody of Buffy Summers. While Tandy is based on Rin Tohsaka, right down to being a mega twin-tailed tsundere and a Class S Zettai Ryouiki (when she's in uniform).
- Rain and AJ
- Meawbin the creepy cat: In "TV", a Sadoko lookalike climbs out of a TV and is immediately harassed by Meawbin. "Meawbin Ch.9 for Howl Magazine" shows a different one who comes in just to pet a dog and leaves.
- In-universe case in MegaTokyo. Kotone, the Delicate and Sickly girl Kimiko is voicing in a game, is an expy of Tohya Miho, just like all other such girls in-universe. Miho's story touched the world so much that it became more real than she ever was. One of the side effects of this is that she created the Delicate and Sickly trope as writers tried to capture the emotion of her story. The other is that it brought her back to life to relive her sickness and die again. And again and again and again...
- The characters of Mike: Bookseller all work at a stand in for Barnes & Noble called Booksellers. Another bookstore (standing in for the now extinct Borders chain) appeared in the comic by the name of Booktraders.
- Muted: Raum, the demon Avaline summoned in her ritual, is said In-Universe to have a resemblance to Howl from Howl's Moving Castle, although neither cousin can remember the titular character's name.
- Momo from NEXT!!! Sound of the Future is one of Princess Peach. Her bangs, eye shape, and full lips are very similar, and her hair is the exact same colour as Peach's earrings. On her character profile, she wears peach shaped earrings, and peaches are listed as one of her likes, meaning the similarities were almost certainly intentional.
- A lot of characters in Nixvir, particularly the gods, are intentionally similar to the gods of Classical Mythology. Zdios, the de facto leader of the pantheon, is similar to Zeus (albeit without all the infamous shapeshifting love-making stuff while still retaining the fierce temper); Choschech, his brother, is the World Oak's counterpart to Hades; his permamate Kori, the Queen of the Dead, is obviously intended to represent Persephone (her name being a pun on Persephone's original name "Kore"); Wallas-Darzea is similar to Pallas Athena, with her name being a pun on both "Pallas" and "Wallace" (puns on the name "Wallace" are common in Aeneas1's works); Varya-Aphrodisias is similar to Aphrodite, and even gets a scene reminiscent of Diomedes' wounding of Aphrodite; Arcuray, Zdios' son and the messenger of the gods, is obviously based on Hermes, and, of course, Iriya, the Goddess of the Rainbows and Eax the Goddess of the Dawn are based on both Iris and Eos respectively. That's just to name but a few. On the mortal side of things, we have Zeta Toad, who was loosely based on Toad of Toad Hall, albeit a much more foul-mouthed and dangerous variation; the Faerie Redmane, who is similar to a combination of the Faerie Godmother from the Shrek franchise and the Faerie Blackstick from William Makepeace Thackeray's The Rose and the Ring; Randalf del Rey, who is, ironically enough, closer to Merlin than the wizards that we're familiar with, and Old Harry Flowerpot is based on the Demon Headmaster from the novel series of the same name.
- Pepper&Carrot: The author has confirmed that Pepper's three witch mentors are intentionally similar to Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg from the Discworld novels. Cayenne looks similar to Paul Kidby's depictions of Granny Weatherwax in his Discworld artwork, and has a similar personality as well. Pepper's other mentors, Thyme and Cumin, both have some similarities to Nanny Ogg; basically, Thyme is more similar personality-wise, whereas Cumin has a closer physical resemblance. The non-canon Intercontinuity Crossover comic Superflu vs Pepper&Carrot has a brief nod to this when Cayenne is initially mistaken for Granny Weatherwax by one of the characters.
- Pills That Make You Green: As stated in the image description for his debut, Immortal Jeff is "a crudely drawn rendition of the character Immortan Joe from the movie Mad Max: Fury Road".
- In-universe example in Record Wisdom Bonus Yield: Yang apparently based her player character off 'Princess Panzer', a childhood PC of hers.
- Every major character in Sire shares the basic story and abilities of their relevant Sire/Dam, though they are unique characters to themselves. So far characters descended from The Invisible Man, Jeeves and Wooster, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The String of Pearls have appeared.
- Survivor: Fan Characters, being based on the reality TV show, sometimes bases its characters on real-life Survivor contestants. Some of the most obvious examples are Season 3's Baxter having a dynamic patterned after the "Manipulative Bastard angers the jury too much to win" one like Boston Rob from All-Stars, and Season 7's Ventious having the leadership and charisma of Tom of Palau or J.T. from Tocantins (but not the Flawless Victory) and Ker from the same season being a lovable eccentric who ended up immunitying her way to the win much like Fabio's in Nicaragua.
- Phobia and Philia of Waterworks are parodies of Mario and Luigi, with Phobia being a tall scaredy-cat plumber with green lipstick, and her sister Philia being a stout, fearless plumber with red lipstick.
- Olivia, Tate, and Zoey from Weesh are rather obviously modeled on Alex, Riley, and Tristan from the author's earlier Angel Moxie. (Zoey is a teenager and Tate is a boy, but other than that...)
- Zebra Girl: Harold Duvase is one of Harry Potter. ("Du Vase" is French for "of the Vase", or "potter".)
- In Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal (2022), Doomfish is this to Doctor Doom. He's a goldfish wearing a Doom mask.
- Subverted with Doctor Octopus Octopus, who's just an octopus wearing an eight-armed lab coat and a bad wig.
Web Original
- Bosun's Journal: The desert ravers are directly inspired by the Satyriacs of All Tomorrows, another posthuman species with whom they share theropod-like body plans and a hedonistic, celebration-filled and somewhat myopic culture.
- Expy: Eisenhower, a NatCorps general, is one of Erwin Rommel. Not of the kind of general that Erwin Rommel is- Rommel was a daring, frontline tank commander and Eisenhower is a cautious planner with a head for logistics- but of the myth of Rommel. Both were considered to be honorable soldiers fighting an honorable war. Like the myth of Rommel, Eisenhower was better than most of his comrades, avoiding open genocide and trying to tamp down on corruption. Like Rommel, he still commits massacres and is knowingly complicit in the crimes of his comrades. At best, he still prolongs the life of a murderous, authoritarian regime.
- Goodbye Strangers: Given that the module is heavily inspired by Pokémon, many of the strangers in Zeroworld are influenced by 'mon archetypes in the series.
- The covecroni, satsumon, and maribel serve as the starters, being a set of three lines whose type strengths and weaknesses form a "rock-paper-scissors" arrangement.
- The eon-strains are a parallel to Eevee and it's evolutions, being a vaguely mammalian stranger with multiple evolutions each centered around a different type.
- The taroformi is polygonal in shape and suggested to be artificially created, akin to Porygon.
- The allo-strain line is akin to what are known as "psuedo-legendaries" in the Pokémon games, being a three-stage line that starts out weak but ends much larger and stronger.
- The Drone Engine is an artificial creation made from other strains, similar to Mewtwo.
- The dronimi is hidden (only being accessible by clicking a link on the Drone Engine's page) and is some sort of small, primal strain, similar to Mew's status in the first generation.
- The Lay of Paul Twister: Inverted. Word of God says that Paul was originally conceived as "essentially the Anti-Harry Dresden.
- NationStates: Astholm appears to be an expy of Scotland; or at least, Nottinghamshire, but it's all Depending on the Author, what with it being a House Pseudonym and all.
- The Saga of Pretzel Bob features as its villain a silver-haired man in a black cloak who sets the main character's hometown ablaze and wants to destroy the world... named Seraphoth.
- Many of the characters from Welcome Home (Clown Illustrations) are clearly inspired by characters from Sesame Street and/or The Muppets—the fictional production company behind the show is even called "The Playfellow Workshop".
- Frank is strongly reminiscent of Bert due to being a somewhat more grumpy character, having an intense interest in a small flying animal species (butterflies as opposed to pigeons), and being part of an Odd Couple duo with the cheerier and more childish Julie. Where he differs from Bert is how he's much more willing to engage with his neighbors in various activities, be they preparing food, dressing up, or approaching him for information (even if, according to his blurb, his answers tend to be dismissed).
- Poppy is Welcome Home's answer to Big Bird, being a large walk-around bird puppet with a kind soul. However, whereas Big Bird is very childlike, Poppy is explicitly an adult with a baking business—the centerpiece of most of her skits in her show. She's also far more pessimistic, always prepared to deal with the worst outcome of any given situation.
- Julie is quite reminiscent of Prairie Dawn with her pink skin and blonde hair.
- Barnaby shares physical similarities with both Fozzie Bear and Rolf, though his personality more befits Fozzie's.
- The Whateley Universe is full of these, particularly since it's a superhero universe with a Superhero School. A few examples: Champion is an expy of Superman, down to the freezing breath and the heat vision; Fantastico is an expy of Superboy, complete with the super-strength and the heat vision; and Aquerna has squirrel powers, including being able to talk to squirrels and command them, like Squirrel Girl.
Web Videos
- Doctor Linksano from Atop the Fourth Wall is one for Doctor Insano from The Spoony Experiment. Justified in that Linkara created Linksano, because he felt bad about asking Spoony to play Insano for him over and over. And of course it's also lampshaded because he is Insano's counterpart from alternate reality.
- Given the premise of the show, Coyle Command takes a lot of its characters from G.I. Joe. There is Coyle Commander (Cobra Commander), Anni (Destro), Countess Crossland (The Baroness), and COMMANDO (G.I. Joe itself)
- According to Takahata101, the Dragon Ball Z Abridged version of Goku is a combination of his canon counterpart and Homer Simpson, with Homer's relationship with Lisa in particular being used as a model for Goku's dynamic with Gohan. He also stated that the various version of Cell do something similar, with Imperfect Cell is mixing in Zorak and the Djinn from Wishmaster, while Perfect Cell adds Sideshow Bob.
- Legends of Avantris: Kremy Lecroux of Once Upon a Witchlight is an expy of Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog. He takes a lot of inspiration from the Shadow Man himself: he has a New Orleans-esque background that came from poverty and seeks financial comfort, an animated shadow, and has skeletal neon highlights when using his powers often accompanied by "ominous jazz." The other players often reference him being "the Shadow Man" (and will often start doing the thumping beat from "Friends on the Other Side" and chanting "Are you ready?" when Kremy uses his powers). At one point, Kremy directly said "I got voodoo, I got hoodoo, I got things I haven't even tried!"
- Lonely and Horny, Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld's Spiritual Successor to popular CollegeHumor series Jake and Amir, has two main characters that bear a clear resemblance to the fictional versions of Jake and Amir from the latter series. Blumenfeld's character, Ruby Jade, has a similar personality to the fictional Amir and is similarly a Hero-Worshipper of Hurwitz's character, Josh Rice (Jade's dating "guru" rather than his coworker). It's probably worth noting that the real Jake and Amir didn't have the rights to the Jake and Amir characters when Lonely and Horny was made, meaning that they could essentially use the names or the character traits, but not both (conversely, their Adam Westing in various sketches for their podcast network Headgum's YouTube channel uses different characterizations from those seen in Jake and Amir).
- Some of ML Lanzillotta's characters count. She often refers to Tallulah the Flapper as a cross between Tallulah Bankhead and Agatha Runcible from Waugh's Vile Bodies.
- She's still a three-dimensional character and takes inspirations from others too, but The Nostalgia Chick is fundamentally an older, more broken Daria.
- In the early days of The Nostalgia Critic and The Angry Video Game Nerd, each was accused of copying the other — a rage-filled video reviewer who critiques media. They had a crossover feud, each did a review in the other's style and have remained friends in real life, and each has evolved their character over the years so they are more distinct from each other.
- Save The Supers has as its main cast basically a set off Expies of the Justice League: Merman is Aquaman, Elementra is Wonder Woman, World Man is Superman, Morph Man is Plastic Man, Fleet Foot is The Flash, and Night Knight is a (very strange) version of Batman mostly based around his nickname "The Dark Knight". The first episode features a Joker Expy and episode 3 features a Catwoman expy.
- SMPLive:
- Jschlatt's SMPLive character is heavily based on Sips from the Yogscast, with Schlatt & Co. being clearly modeled after SipsCo. Both are businessmen in Minecraft series who co-own a company with their loyal Number Two. When Sips is brought up as a comparison by a commenter on one SMPLive video, Schlatt replies with "you have no idea how happy this comment makes me".
- According to Cooper, it was apparently his idea for Travis's character to be similar to BMO, who Travis's skin for much of SMPLive resembles. Cooper says that Travis and BMO act very similarly, and that's why he proposed that Travis's character should resemble the robot.
- Welcome Back, Potter:
- Harry Potter in this version basically became a Raoul Duke if he could talk to snakes and had a stash of gold he couldn't spend.
- According to Jarry, Ron based his new "Don" persona after the cast of Jersey Shore.