Think Ripped from the Headlines meets X Meets Y.
You've heard of this sensational story. But, as you're watching, there is an additional element. It may appear in the case of a Halfway Plot Switch, or it may have been there from the very beginning. The key element is, rather than being merely Very Loosely Based on a True Story, you also recognize this from the headlines, just a separate one. It also need not be another particular crime, but a sensationalist topic that has gained a lot of press coverage. Very likely to involve No Celebrities Were Harmed and Composite Character.
Please note that this is not inherently negative. It can be a clever way of connecting multiple social problems in the same story, or simply a case of getting inspiration from more than one place. At its worst, though, it can be evidence of If It Bleeds, It Leads happening twice.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- Kouya's Backstory in Overtake! borrows from two separate real life disasters. While the photo that made him (in)famous was of a dying child in the 2011 tsunami, he's more closely inspired by Kevin Carter, the journalist who photographed a starving child being stalked by a vulture during the Sudanese famine in 1993, particularly in the harsh criticism he faced from the public for taking the time to take pictures rather than try to help.
Comics
- The French comic Carthago
is an amalgamation of various news stories and urban legends related to sea monsters— for example, Major Bertrand seeing something so shocking underwater that he can’t share it with the world is based on an urban legend about Jacques Cousteau, while the megalodon attack on the trimaran Crazy Horse is based on a real giant squid encounter by the crew of the trimaran Geronimo, and we have an adaptation of the story of the “U-28 Monster” as well.
- Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed takes inspiration from the refugee crisis around the Mediterranean, youth activism and human trafficking of children in the United States. Laurie Halse Anderson was very candid about her inspiration, saying that when she was offered the book she knew instantly that she wanted to do something that let her write in reaction to a haunting image of a life preserver belonging to a deceased refugee child she'd seen in an article and to write something uplifting about how active teenagers have been recently as human rights activists.
Film - Live Action
- Arlington Road: The protagonist's wife dies in a misguided bust on a compound that is essentially Ruby Ridge, which is just the inciting incident that places her husband and son as next-door neighbors to a family who commit crimes loosely based on Timothy McVeigh's.
- The Holy Office: The story is based on multiple inquisitorial records from the time.
- Vox Lux begins with Columbine, and concludes with a beach-set shooting much like the 2015 Sousse attacks, while there's also a more than passing resemblance between washed up teen sensation turned dark and edgy adult singer Celeste and Britney Spears.
Literature
- The Handmaid's Tale essentially imagines that the Iranian revolution took place in Reagan-era America, and features expys of Phyllis Schafly and the religious right during that period, including gay conversion camps and the anti-abortion movement. Atwood has said that every draconian element of Gilead was inspired by a real-life totalitarian regime or ideology somewhere in world history.
- Emma Donoghue has credited Elisabeth Fritzl as the inspiration for Room, but the story also bears a resemblance to the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard, in that Ma's kidnapper is a total stranger who abducted her on the way to school, but like Elisabeth Fritzl, she lived in total captivity for years, and her child's whole life.
- Jame Gumb/Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs is a composite of Ted Bundy's Wounded Gazelle Gambit tactics to abduct women; like Gary Heidnik he keeps his victims imprisoned in a pit in his basement, and like Ed Gein, he uses their body parts for furniture and a skin suit.
- Uncle Tom's Cabin basically consisted of Harriet Beecher Stowe gathering together a whole bunch of stories of actual people who were actually enslaved, then changing the names and adding in a plot to tie it together.
- Unwind, a dystopian YA series about a distant future in which unwanted teenagers are signed over to the government for full-body organ donation, takes most of its concepts from contemporary news articles. Neal Schusterman quotes and cites them at the start of the chapter in which the concept appears or is explored in the narrative. In addition, Schusterman frequently allegorizes historical events, recontextualized for his narrative; for instance, in Unwind, Risa, a pianist, is forced to join the Harvest Camp's orchestra, playing music on the roof of the "chop shop" when a teen is led into it be unwound—not unlike accounts of concentration camp inmates forced to do the same for victims of gas chambers during the Holocaust.
Live-Action TV
- American Horror Story has a habit of doing this:
- American Horror Story: Murder House has all of the following take place in the same house: a Columbine school shooting, which at least had something to do with the ghost of Nora, who was involved in a baby's kidnapping that closely resembles the Lindbergh kidnapping, and whose husband explicitly committed the Black Dahlia murder. Separate from all of this, a man also committed crimes that closely resemble Richard Speck's although with two nurses rather than eight.
- American Horror Story: Cult combines the 2016 clown sightings with a lot of other cult stories: notably the life of Valerie Solanas and her attempted murder of Andy Warhol, the Zodiac Killer in this universe, Valerie Solanas was one of the Zodiac killers, and Charles Manson.
- American Horror Story: Murder House has all of the following take place in the same house: a Columbine school shooting, which at least had something to do with the ghost of Nora, who was involved in a baby's kidnapping that closely resembles the Lindbergh kidnapping
- Cold Case:
- "Lovers Lane" combines the Zodiac Killer (a serial killer who targeted couples, though here only one murder happens) with the Murder of Krystal Dawn Steadman, where a son brought his father women to rape, and in one case kill, though the victim in this episode was the same age as the son.
- "Revenge" drew inspiration from at least three cases:
- Rudy's grooming of Kyle and Archie have shades of the case of Steven Stayner, where a child molester kidnapped and groomed two children (though here, Archie is Rudy's son, and worse yet, is the killer—he murdered Kyle out of jealousy over his father's displaced "affection", unlike Stayner, who rescued the second boy his abductor took to prevent him from suffering the way he had.)
- Kyle's disappearance also shares similarities with the case of Adam Walsh, who was also abducted from a department store and later found dead.
- Finally, Ken's killing of Rudy might also be based on Gary Plauché, known for killing a child molester who kidnapped and raped his son (though the real case was actually a Vigilante Execution caught live on camera, and here the police had to connect the dots to find Ken guilty).
- Rudy's grooming of Kyle and Archie have shades of the case of Steven Stayner
- "Blood on the Tracks" is composed of the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion (an explosion at a leftist militant hideout initially believed to be a gas explosion, but was later discovered to be caused by a poorly assembled dynamite, although accidentally rather than deliberate, unlike with McBride's death in the episode) and the Sarah Jane Olson case (a former leftist militant on the run with a new identity, though here with Johanna it's also with her taking over specifically her dead friend Sara's identity).
- "Wednesday's Women" has the Miriam's death based on the murder of Viola Liuzzo, but her activism with the titular Wednesday's Women is also a reference to the activist group Wednesdays in Mississippi, where Northern women traveled to Mississippi to help the transition to racial integration.
- "Lovers Lane" combines the Zodiac Killer
- Criminal Minds: Basing the Monster of the Week on two different real life criminals is pretty much part of the formula.
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: One episode started as a Setting Update of the Lindbergh Kidnapping before The Reveal that it was an accidental killing by his brother, and a coverup by the parents who wanted to protect him. In essence, the popular "Burke did it" theory of the unsolved JonBenet Ramsey case.
- Law & Order named Ripped from the Headlines, so this should be expected.
- The Enfant Terrible murderer of "Killerz" is a composite of Mary Bell, a young English girl who strangled two male toddlers as the killer herself did, and the murder of James Bulger, in that there were revealed to be two child killers, one "dominant" and one passive (although this belief has been disputed in recent years).
- "Bottomless" starts off with a murder that draws on the Pearson v. Chung "$54 million for misplaced pants" lawsuit before the murderer's crime is actually tied to tainted toothpaste sourced from China for a big box store in a spin on the 2008 Chinese milk scandal.
- "Gunshow" imagines if the Ecole Polytechnique murders had taken place in the US, with a US-specific gun culture.
- "Human Flesh Search Engine" managed the bizarre feat of being based both on the death of David Carradine and criticisms levelled against 4chan.
- "Fed" begins with the bizarre suicide based on Bill Sparkman's before dovetailing into the undercover videotaping scandal of ACORN in 2009.
- The Enfant Terrible murderer of "Killerz" is a composite of Mary Bell
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent:
- "Monster" is an amalgamation of the "preppie" murder (a teen boy murdered a classmate and was viewed as having gotten off lightly due to his perceived class status) before it turns out to also be based on the Trisha Melli/Central Park Five case, where the brutal rape and near death of a woman in central New York led to the false convictions of several others, resulting in a repeat offender going uncaught for years.
- "Gemini" borrows a lot of features from the Unabomber case, such as a popular police sketch that went viral before being ID'd by his own brother, and a schizophrenia defence that he refused, set against the actual story of Jonathan Preston Haynes, a white supremacist who killed a plastic surgeon and hairdresser to uphold Aryan ideals of beauty.
- "Sound Bodies" is the Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church arsenic poisonings meets Charles Manson, as the crimes turn out to be perpetrated by a group of teenage girls acting for The Svengali. Plus, the Cold Open is based off a tragic January 2003 story of 4 Bronx teenagers who inexplicably decided to take a rowboat out to a remote island on a dark, frigid night, only to drown in the equally frigid waters of Long Island Sound, though unlike in the episode, there was no sabotage involved.
- "Monster" is an amalgamation of the "preppie" murder
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has many:
- For most of "Pure", it's an adaptation of The Karla Homolka/Paul Bernardo case, as well as that of Serial Killer Michel Fourniret and his wife Monique before its Twist Ending reveals that it was also ripped from the headlines of the Bobbie Jo Stinnett murder, who was murdered and had her baby cut out. The baby survived.
- ''Selfish" starts off being an episode about an irresponsible young mother who is reported for a "trunk that smells like death" by her own mother after her daughter goes missing, like the 2008 death of Caylee Anthony. It then ends up being about whether or not people have the right to refuse to vaccinate their children.
- "Alternate" begins as a Gender Flip of the Billy Milligan rapes before it's revealed that it's also ripped from the headlines of the Menendez brother murders, in which two brothers killed their allegedly violent and sexually abusive parents.
- "Babes" begins as a take on the 2014 "pregnancy pact" before it's revealed to actually be based on the suicide of Megan Meier.
- "Intimidation Game" has a plot drawn from both the "GamerGate" controversy and the ISIS kidnappings and their viral videos; the KOBS fans were dressed like ISIS terrorists. . The episode title is also a play on The Imitation Game, despite that film having nothing to do with the episode.
- 'American Tragedy' combines the racism scandal of Paula Deen in 2013 with the 2012 Trayvon Martin shooting.
- "American Disgrace" is a blend of Solange Knowles beating on Jay-Z in an elevator, Ray Rice's domestic abuse caught on tape, and Donald Sterling's racist outbursts.
- For most of "Pure", it's an adaptation of The Karla Homolka/Paul Bernardo case
- Line of Duty:
- Series 6 has the past racially motivated murder, contributed to by police corruption, of Lawrence Christopher, whose name and situation is highly reminiscent of the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993.
- It also has the the gangland murder of journalist Gail Vella in a manner reminiscent of Jill Dando (shot in the back of the head by an unknown man). All of this takes place against the backdrop of historic sex crimes perpetuated against kids in local authority care homes.
- Series 6 has the past racially motivated murder, contributed to by police corruption, of Lawrence Christopher, whose name and situation is highly reminiscent of the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993.
- Perry Mason: The first season arc — Charlie Dodson's kidnapping and murder — is partially based on multiple crimes of the era.
- The kidnapping and exchange of a child for profit, who turns out to be dead while the kidnappers disappear with the money, is taken from the 1927 abduction of Marion Parker and, to a lesser extent, Charles Lindbergh Jr. in 1932. Like Marion, who was tossed from a moving car, Charlie's body is exchanged in a way (streetcar transfer) that helps aid their escape; similarly, like multiple theories about the Lindbergh baby's death, his abductors killed him by accident and panicked.
- Law enforcement's handling of the case is similar to the 1928 disappearance of Walter Collins Jr. The LAPD, searching for five months, failed to produce the boy (who was most likely killed); facing intense public scrutiny, they attempted to gaslight the mother into accepting a similar-looking child who said he was Walter, and then had her briefly committed to a mental institution when she wouldn't cooperate.note Here, they go even further, slut-shaming Sarah and accusing Matthew of masterminding the abduction himself in lieu of any evidence. The "changeling" aspect comes with Sister Alice "resurrecting" Charlie; even though the second baby looks little like him, Emily accepts it because of how desperately she wants her son to be alive again.
- Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, like Sister Alice, was also implicated in an abduction — her own, which was alleged by the L.A. district attorney to be a publicity stunt, and was sensationalized by the press as a cover-up for a possible love affair or abortion. Though the charges were dropped due to lack of reliable witnesses for the prosecution, the scandal would permanently damage McPherson's public reputation.
- The kidnapping and exchange of a child for profit, who turns out to be dead while the kidnappers disappear with the money, is taken from the 1927 abduction of Marion Parker
- Succession: The warring family are an amalgamation of the Murdochs (as they run a huge media and newspaper empire) and the Trumps (one member has designs on being president, Shiv resembles Ivanka Trump), but they also run theme parks and cruises that are heavily reminiscent of Disney Theme Parks and several high-profile controversies and speculations, such as the possibilities of cover-ups occurring within, especially in Season 2 when similar controversies become a major plot point.
Music
- Depeche Mode did a song in 1986 called "New Dress", where nearly every line was taken from an actual headline.
- "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel is made entirely of this, referencing headline events all the way from 1949, the year of Joel's birth, to 1989, the year of the song's release.
- Prince: The Title Track to Sign o' the Times lists off a number of real news stories that Prince saw in the Los Angeles Times and Minneapolis Star Tribune while flying from California to Minnesota in the aftermath of a 1986 earthquake in Oceanside. These stories included the worsening AIDS crisis, Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiativenote , and a murder by a street gang known as the Disciples.
- The verse in Rush's song "Nobody's Hero" from Counterparts starts "I didn't know the girl, but I knew her family, all their lives were shattered in a nightmare of brutality" refers to the family of one of the girls murdered by Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo. Meanwhile, the line "Hero — lands a crippled airplane..." refers to the pilot who landed the United Flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa using only the engines to control it after the flight controls failed, saving 185 of the 296 people on board.
- Savatage based a Rock Opera, The Wake of Magellan, on such events. One being the murder of reporter Veronica Guerin by drug lords. The second being the Maersk Dubai incident, were the captain of a freighter ordered discovered stowaways to be thrown overboard.
- The "Weird Al" Yankovic song "Headline News", a parody of Crash Test Dummies' "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm", contains verses relating to an American being caned in Singapore, the Nancy Kerrigan incident, and John Wayne and Lorena Bobbitt.
Video Games
- In L.A. Noire, every single case is based on or loosely inspired by a real-life Los Angeles case in the 1940s.