Cameo Cluster - TV Tropes
- ️Mon Aug 22 2022
Sometimes having a single Cameo by a star or other famous person just isn't enough, so creators will have multiple stars make cameos. After all, if one cameo is good, a bunch of them should be even better!
Often, they will be heavily advertised to attract as many audience members as possible. Conversely, they may be kept secret to surprise the audience and generate buzz after. When done well, it can be awesome to see so many stars popping up in a favorite work. Done poorly, however, they can overshadow it.
Tropes Are Flexible, but a good rule to follow is that the work in question should have at least three cameos in the same segment or episode to qualify.
Sub-trope of The Cameo and may cross over with any of the other sub-tropes there. Compare Special Guest and Celebrity Star which may also apply. Similar to, but not to be confused with Continuity Cavalcade, which is instead a series of Continuity Nods in quick succession. Compare Crossover and Massive Multiplayer Crossover.
Naturally, this trope is ubiquitous in Fan Works, particularly Crossovers. Since these (typically) don't involve the real person/character (or their voice, or any official representation of them), they should not be listed here.
Examples subpages:
Other examples:
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Comic Books
- In X-Men # 30, featuring the marriage of Cyclops and Jean Grey, various characters throughout the X-Books showed up for the ceremony, including many who rarely if ever showed up in a title specifically labeled X-Men.
Films — Animation
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) features plenty of cameos, including the below mentioned Roger Rabbit, with Charles Fleischer even reprising the role!.
- Non-Disney cameos include the original scrapped design of Sonic the Hedgehog from his live-action film, Randy Marsh, Butt-Head, McGruff the Crime Dog, Blaster, Detective Florez, several characters from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and two of the Jellicle cats.
- At one point, a character voiced by Seth Rogen runs into Pumbaa, Mantis, and B.O.B., all three of whom are also voiced by Rogen.
- Space Jam: In the original, the town meeting and big game scenes feature many of the more obscure Looney Tunes characters in the audience.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit features many cartoon characters from The Golden Age of Animation. Two notable scenes include the piano duel between Disney's Donald Duck and Warner Bros.' Daffy Duck, as well as the scene where Disney's Mickey Mouse and Warner Bros.' Bugs Bunny appear onscreen at the same time. To date, this film is the only official crossover featuring characters from Disney, Warner Bros., and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, among other studios.
Films — Live-Action
- The Anchorman movies:
- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy features a massive brawl between the various rival news station crews. Included among the other newscaster groups are Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson, Tim Robbins, and Ben Stiller.
- Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues has another massive newscaster brawl, with even more cameos. Included are Sacha Baron Cohen as part of The BBC World Service news team, Kanye West leading MTV, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler from the Entertainment Tonight news team, Jim Carrey and Marion Cotillard from the apologetic Canadian team, Liam Neeson leading The History Channel team with John C. Reilly as Stonewall Jackson's ghost, and Will Smith from the ESPN news team, ending with Kirsten Dunst as a Greek goddess giving them the okay to start the brawl. Danny Trejo, Drake, Jack Black, and Harrison Ford also appear in the movie, as well as the newscaster brawlers from the first film.
- Around The World in 80 Days: Peter Lorre! Buster Keaton! Frank Sinatra? And Noël Coward, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, Charles Boyer, Cesar Romero, Cedric Hardwicke, Ronald Colman, Charles Coburn, George Raft, Marlene Dietrich, Red Skelton, John Carradine, Andy Devine, and the list just keeps going from there. Part of the film's gimmick was its long parade of brief cameo appearances by familiar faces, keeping audiences wondering who would show up next.
- Austin Powers in Goldmember opens with a sequence set behind the scenes of the fictional Austin Powers movie Austinpussy, featuring cameos from Tom Cruise (playing Austin), Kevin Spacey (Dr. Evil), Gwyneth Paltrow (Girl of the Week Dixie Normous), Danny DeVito (Mini-Me), Steven Spielberg (the director), and Britney Spears (making a music video).
- In Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, the song "Child Stars on Your Television" that plays in the end credits is a parody of "We Are the World" featuring Dickie and a long list of former child stars, several of whom make their sole appearance in the film as part of the group singing the song.
- The Founding of a Republic and it's sequel, Beginning of the Great Revival, a duology of Chinese-made movies released to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, and an anvilicious, borderline propaganda film which crams dozens upon dozens of actors either from the mainland, Hong Kong or Taiwan, mostly in minutes-long cameos - including Jet Li as a military colonel, Jackie Chan as a reporter, Andy Lau and Chow Yun-fat as a random politicians, Zhao Wei, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Eva Huang as CPPCC members, and even big-name directors like Stephen Chow, Jiang Wen, Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang have walk-on cameos. The Other Wiki
lists 21 cameos in the first movie alone.
- The Greatest Story Ever Told is known for having so many cameos by so many stars that critics said the cameos distracted viewers from the story. Donald Pleasence, Sidney Poitier, Angela Lansbury, John Wayne (as the Centurion at the crucifixion)...
- In History of the World Part I, the "Ancient Rome" segment features a large number of cameos, including Bea Arthur as an unemployment office clerk, Hugh Hefner as a Roman citizen (who recently invented the centerfold), and John Hurt as Jesus Christ himself.
- Hook: Captain Hook's introduction has Jimmy Buffett, David Crosby and Glenn Close appearing as pirates, with Close having her cameo in drag.
- In Little Giants, NFL coaches and players including Hall of Famers John Madden, Emmitt Smith, Bruce Smith, and Tim Brown arrive on a bus to teach the eponymous underdog team about football and inspire them to believe they can win.
- It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, already a vehicle for an All-Star Cast of comedians, includes cameos from numerous other comedic actors of the day including Buster Keaton, Jerry Lewis, The Three Stooges, Jack Benny, Don Knotts, and Stan Freberg.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, "The Illuminati", another universe's equivalent of the Avengers, includes John Krasinski as Reed Richards, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, and Anson Mount as Black Bolt, the latter two also being an Intercontinuity Crossover with the X-Men Film Series and Inhumans, respectively. They get about 15 minutes of screentime before getting killed off brutally.
- In Thor: Ragnarok, Matt Damon, Sam Neill, and Luke Hemsworth are the Asgardian actors portraying Loki, Odin, and Thor, respectively, in a dramatisation of Loki's life. Ironically, all three were runners-up for the roles in the MCU that they are portraying in the play.
- In the sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder, the same trio return as Asgardian actors in a play detailing the events of Ragnarok. They are joined by Melissa McCarthy playing Hela.
- Deadpool & Wolverine features numerous side villains from throughout the X-Men Film Series as a part of Cassandra Nova's army in the Void. In addition, the heroic resistance against her includes Chris Evans as the Human Torch, Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Wesley Snipes as Blade, Channing Tatum from the unmade Gambit movie, and Dafne Keen as X-23 from Logan.
- The ending musical number of Muppets Most Wanted has the various celebrities that have cameoed throughout the film come back to join in for one more song, including Chloë Grace Moretz, Tom Hiddleston, Tony Bennett, Salma Hayek, and plenty more.
- Pinocchio (2022, Disney)}: Geppetto's cuckoo clock collection is a series of Disney references ranging from classic fairy tale adaptations like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty to more anachronistic choices like The Lion King, Dumbo, Toy Story and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the last two serving as nods to Geppetto actor Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis.
- Om Shanti Om: The "Deewangi Deewangi" dance number, diegetically set at a Bollywood party, features dozens of India's hottest stars at the time dancing with Shah Rukh Khan.
- The 2012 film Run for Your Wife is notable for having a lot of stars appear in cameos, including Rolf Harris as a busker, Bernard Cribbins as a hospital patient, and Judi Dench as a bag lady. The cameos are so numerous that they even served as the final roles for the big-name actors Rona Anderson, Francis Matthews, Bill Pertwee, Donald Sinden, and Frank Thornton.
- Spider-Man has Bruce Campbell as the ring announcer (who introduces Peter as Spider-Man instead of "The Human Spider" as Peter originally wanted) just before his match with "Bone Saw", played by Randy Savage. A short while later, Lucy Lawless is interviewed about Spider-Man by the news as "Punk Rock Girl".
- Spies Like Us has several stars appearing at different points in the movie. When Austin Millbarge and Emmett Fitz-Hume arrive in Tajikstan posing as doctors, they meet doctors played by the likes of Terry Gilliam, Ray Harryhausen, and Derek Meddings, with Bob Hope also appearing As Himself, as a nod to his Road To... films which inspired Spies Like Us. Later, when Ruby and Keys arrive at the abandoned drive-in theater acting as the front for the military's SDI, they see security guards who are played by Joel Coen, Sam Raimi, Michael Apted, Martin Brest, Larry Cohen, and B.B. King.
- A scene in tick, tick... BOOM! has Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) working at the Moondance Diner in Soho, where he sings a version of "Sunday" from Sunday in the Park with George along with cameos from various Broadway icons, including Bernadette Peters, Joel Grey, Andre De Shields, Bebe Neuwirth, Adam Pascal, Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and Phylicia Rashad to name a few. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the movie's director, appears as a cook.
- Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is already crammed with celebrity cameos, but the pool party scene easily takes the cake. It features Jack Black, David Dastmalchian, Conan O'Brien, Emo Philips, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, and Nina West, just to name a few.
Live-Action TV
- Beyond Paradise (2023): The season one finale ends with Humphrey returning to the Caribbean island of Saint Marie, setting of his original series Death in Paradise, to clear his head and make some decisions. While there, he meets up with the current cast of that show - Commissioner Selwyn Patterson, Catherine Bordey, Marlon Price, Naomi Thomas and his own replacement, DI Neville Parker. Harry the lizard, who lives around Humphrey's old beach house, also makes an appearance. Notably, it's the first time Humphrey has met Marlon, Naomi and Neville.
- The Big Bang Theory: "The D&D Vortex" has the boys trying to get a spot on one of Wil Wheaton's secret Dungeons & Dragons sessions. Along with Wheaton, the other players are Kevin Smith, Joe Manganiello, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and William Shatner.
- Cougar Town has Ted from Scrubs make several apperances after taking a new job. The episode "A One Story Town" has Ted note the similarities between people from the two shows (several other Scrubs regulars appear on Cougar Town) as Scrubs actors (including Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, and Ken Jenkins) appear throughout the episode, freaking Ted out.
- Curb Your Enthusiasm's season seven finale, Seinfeld, has the main cast of the eponymous show reunite for a reunion show.
- On The Office (US) episodes Search Committee Part I and Part 2, the eponymous committee is interviewing Regional Manager candidates to replace Michael Scott. Among those interviewed are Will Arnett, Ray Romano, Jim Carrey, and Warren Buffett. Ricky Gervais, creator and star of The Office (UK), makes his second appearance on the show doing a video interview for the position. In Carrey's case, this also makes for a Celebrity Paradox as several episodes include references to Carrey's films such as Ace Ventura.
- Frasier: In the season 9 opener "Don Juan In Hell", Frasier is fresh from messing up two relationships and is on a drive to figure out how he became so bad at relationships. This makes his mind dredge up visions Lilith (his most recent ex-wife), Diane (who played a long term relationship on the previous show Cheers) and at one moment when Frasier is fleeing to avoid them, he opens a door and nine women he previously dated are crowding the door and each one is played by her original actress.
- In Raising Hope, over the course of the show, various actors from Greg Garcia's other show, My Name Is Earl, would show up. The episode "Making The Band" has the entire main cast of My Name Is Earl showing up and forming a band.
- What We Do in the Shadows (2019): The Vampiric Council in "The Trial" is made up of well-known actors who played vampires in other works:
- Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, and Jonny Brugh created and starred in the original film the series is based on.
- Tilda Swinton from Only Lovers Left Alive.
- Evan Rachel Wood from True Blood.
- Wesley Snipes from Blade.
- Danny Trejo from From Dusk Till Dawn.
- Paul Reubens from the original film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- 30 Rock had a couple live episodes which were packed with cameos including Sheri Sheppard, Matt Damon, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Donald Glover, Rachel Dratch, Will Forte. For good measure, Kim Khardashian and Paul McCartney were added in for gratuitous purposes.
- Inside No. 9: A huge number of actors make cameo appearances in the Grand Finale "Plodding On" — Katherine Parkinson, Tim Key, Anne Reid, Ben Willbond, and Julian Rhind-Tutt from the first ever episode, "Sardines", Amanda Abbington ("Paraskevidekatriaphobia"), Mark Gatiss ("Merrily Merrily"), Kenneth Cranham and Zoë Wanamaker ("And The Winner Is"), Rula Lenska ("The Devil of Christmas"), Alison Steadman ("Seance Time"), Michele Dotrice ("The Twelve Days of Christine"), Phil Daniels ("Mother's Ruin"), Julie Hesmondhalgh, Mark Benton, and Jessica Gunning ("La Couchette"), David Morrissey and Ralf Little ("The Referee's A W***er"), Bill Paterson and Kevin Eldon ("Zanzibar"), Tamzin Outhwaite and Emily Howlett ("Empty Orchestra"), Tasmin Greig, Sophie Thompson, and Adam Deacon ("Last Gasp"), Jim Howick ("The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge"), Gemma Whelan, Kevin Bishop, and Paterson Joseph ("Wuthering Heist"), Debbie Rush and Gaby French ("Love's Great Adventure"), Alexandra Roach (""The Riddle of the Sphinx"), Gemma Page and Saskia Wakefield ("3x3"), Monica Dolan ("Once Removed"), Sheila Reid "The Last Weekend"), Mark Bonnar and Susan Wokoma ("Boo to a Goose"), Jack Wolfe ("Last Night At The Proms"), Noah Valentine ("A Random Act of Kindness"), Jason Watkins ("The Bill"), Nick Mohammed ("Simon Says"), Claire Skinner and Elsie Kelly ("Nana's Party"), Asim Chaudhry ("Love Is A Stranger"), and Rosie Cavaliero and Lyndsey Marshal "(The Understudy)".
Music Videos
- The official animated music video for the Corpse Husband song "fuk u lol" is absolutely loaded with shoutouts and references, mostly to his friends, fellow YouTubers, and past works. Virtually every shot in the video has multiple shout-outs and/or references to, or cameos by animated versions of Corpse's friends.
- The video for E40's "Choices (Yup)" is less a music video and more a showcase for just how many people he can reach out to for a quick cameo. For a list of only the people who have pages here, you can spot Big Sean, The Game, Kendrick Lamar, Ice Cube, TechN9ne, Busta Rhymes, G-Eazy, B.O.B, T.I., Nicki Minaj, Meek Mill, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Big Boi, Killer Mike, Cedric the Entertainer, Nelly, Snoop Dogg, 2 Chainz, Flavor Flav, T-Pain, B-Real, Macklemore, Bun B, ScHoolboy Q, Scarface, MC Hammer, Waka Flocka Flame, and Too $hort.
Video Games
- In Doki Doki Takeover!, In addition to the girls, the title screen will occasionally show characters from other mods interacting with them, such as Natsuki and Sunday singing together or Yuri admiring Tabi's knife.
- In Friday Night Funkin': B-Side Remixes, in addition to a handful of cameos originating from the vanilla game, multiple creators and characters from the modded universe make their appearance in the Classic Week 5 second floor. Including, but not limited to: Tricky, Hex, Carol, and Whitty.
- In HoloFunk, like the vanilla version, Week 5 features a large cast of characters watching over the holiday-themed rap battle with Takamori. The upper level includes Pico, A-Chan, YAGOO, ENMa-Chan, Oga, Arurandeisu, Blantad, Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Camellia, Koefficient, Cr1TiKaL, Destiny, Nyanners, Towa, Roboco, Risu, Haachama in disguise and Pikamee. The Holo-members watching on the same floor include Shiranui Flare, Shirogane Noel, IRyS, Houshou Marine, Minato Aqua and Hoshimachi Suisei.
- In the good ending of Hydorah, a series of monuments to heroes of classic shoot'em up games such as Gradius, R-Type, Darius, and XEXEX are shown. In Super Hydorah, they're replaced with characters from Locomalito's other games they've made since then.
Webcomics
- In addition to various original incarnations, the establishing shot of the alternative Jennies in Chapter 2 of Jenny and the Multiverse includes several established versions of Jenny from other media, including the "Parallax Universe" Jenny from Scott Sanford's short stories, the nudist version seen in The Bare Pit and Tales to Behold, and the 38167th Universe's Jenny from The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids. There's also a version who looks distinctly like a genderbent, goggles-wearing Tintin.
- The Order of the Stick's strip in the final issue of Dragon featured cameos from other comics that had appeard in the magazine, including Knights of the Dinner Table, SnarfQuest, What's New? with Phil and Dixie, Wormy, and Yamara.
Web Videos
- Ironmouse is one of the longest-running (if not THE longest running) English-speaking VTubers and has inspired countless people to go into VTubing themselves. It's only fitting then that her lore video is filled to the brim with cameos not only from fellow VShojo members Nyanners and Amemiya Nazuna, but also Nina Kosaka and Vox Akuma from Nijisanji EN (at the 2:40 mark) and Hololive's very own Calliope Mori (at the 9:16 mark). Even Corpse Husband makes an appearance during The Stinger.
Western Animation
- Animaniacs (2020) has a segment where Dot sings about Woman's Suffrage. After learning that cartoons don't have the right to vote, she recruits a large number of Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera characters to march on the capital for their rights.
- Face's Music Party: The episode "Mega Party" features cameo appearances from Dora the Explorer, Josh, Blue and their friends, the Bubble Guppies, and Baby Shark.
- Futurama:
- The last segment of "Anthology of Interest" features Stephen Hawking, Al Gore, Nichelle Nichols, and Gary Gygax as a team investigating Fry in this alternate version of events when Fry doesn't end up getting frozen.
- "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", the show's tribute to Star Trek: The Original Series, features what was then most of the show's surviving cast — William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, and Walter Koenig — as well as a one-line cameo by Jonathan Frakes. The audio commentary for the episode notes that Nichols served as an "ambassador" of sorts after her previous cameo, allowing them to get most of the original cast on board.
- King of the Hill:
- In "Peggy's Fan Fair", the Hills attend a country music festival with their church group where numerous artists make cameos while Adam Westing. Peggy confronts Randy Travis about stealing lyrics from a song she wrote. Wynonna Judd, Brooks & Dunn, Clint Black, and Charlie Daniels appear as well. Vince Gill, a recurring voice actor on the show, provides the voice of the group's assistant pastor.
- In "Ho Yeah!", Renée Zellweger voices the prostitute Tammi who befriends the Hill family. She starts plying her trade to customers on Hank's propane route, including one voiced by David Herman. Finally, her pimp Alabaster, voiced by Snoop Dogg, shows up and mistakes Hank for a rival pimp.
- OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: In "Crossover Nexus", KO is transported to another dimension and must team up up with Raven, Ben Tennyson and Garnet to escape and defeat the villain who stranded them there; in addition; dozens of characters from across Cartoon Network's history, from the familiar to the obscure, make cameos.
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: In "Mystery Solvers Club State Finals", Scooby dreams he's at said state finals, where he meets Jabberjaw, Speed Buggy, The Funky Phantom, and Captain Caveman, all sidekicks from other Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
- The Simpsons is famous for its celebrity cameos, and some episodes take it further.
- The earliest such episode was "Homer at the Bat", in which Mr. Burns "hires" several top baseball players as ringers for the plant's baseball team, including Wade Boggs, José Canseco, Darryl Strawberry, and Ken Griffey, Jr.
- "Krusty Gets Kancelled" has Bart and Lisa organize a comeback special for Krusty the Klown featuring Krusty's celebrity friends Johnny Carson, Bette Midler, Hugh Hefner, Elizabeth Taylor (whose managers rejected the invitation), and Luke Perry (Krusty's estranged brother), with musical guest stars Red Hot Chili Peppers.
- "Homerpalooza" features Smashing Pumpkins, Cypress Hill, Sonic Youth, and Peter Frampton as performers on the Hullabalooza music festival.
- "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" has Homer go to a rock music camp where the counselors include The Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, and Lenny Kravitz.
- "Fear of Flying", along with having Anne Bancroft as Marge's therapist, has a brief scene where Homer visits Cheers and most of the cast (Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger and George Wendt) reprise their roles.note
- "Tennis the Menace" ends with the Simpsons' tennis court taken over by Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Venus and Serena Williams.
- In The Venture Bros. episode "Self Medication", Rusty attends group therapy for former "boy adventurers". The other members include Wonderboy (an Expy of Robin from the Batman TV series) voiced by Patton Oswalt and the Hale Brothers (expies of The Hardy Boys) voiced by Seth Green and John Hodgman. All those making cameos are avowed fans of the show.