History EnsembleDarkHorse / Other

* On quiz website Sporcle, the former Soviet republic of UsefulNotes/Kyrgyzstan entered MemeticMutation due to being atrociously difficult to spell. The equal mix of complaints and jokes eventually led to [[AscendedMeme the site direction embracing the joke]], starting by doing [[http://www.sporcle.com/games/g/fool_of_april this]] for AprilFoolsDay. Kyrgyzstan is now referred as "Sporcle's favorite country", with [[http://www.sporcle.com/games/tags/Kyrgyzstan a dedicated category]] (and [[CosmeticAward a badge]] if you play too many games there), a like on the website's page on Facebook, and a contest to win Kyrgyzstan's flag.

* On quiz website Sporcle, the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan entered MemeticMutation due to being atrociously difficult to spell. The equal mix of complaints and jokes eventually led to [[AscendedMeme the site direction embracing the joke]], starting by doing [[http://www.sporcle.com/games/g/fool_of_april this]] for AprilFoolsDay. Kyrgyzstan is now referred as "Sporcle's favorite country", with [[http://www.sporcle.com/games/tags/Kyrgyzstan a dedicated category]] (and [[CosmeticAward a badge]] if you play too many games there), a like on the website's page on Facebook, and a contest to win Kyrgyzstan's flag.

* On March 2016, Microsoft unleashed an AI named Tay, made to be a teenage girl who would interact with people online in order to help improve customer service. Her experiences with people would help shape her personality and views, and therefor what she talked about. Within sixteen hours, she was corrupted by users, going fro an innocent and bashful teenage girl to a racist, homophobic, Nazi-supporting, insulting, sex-addicted monster. Her bizarre and over-the-top comments lead to a myriad of memes and jokes, a dedicated fanbase, a subreddit and tight media coverage. Microsoft quickly pulled Tay offline to adjust her in order to clean up this PR nightmare, but public response to this was unanimously negative - people loved the old Tay so much, and didn't appreciate the change. People made tribute fanart and videos to her name, depicting her as TheWoobie because of Microsoft's "lobotomy" of her. Some people are even launching campaigns to bring her back.

* [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ellen-baker-new-horizon Ellen Baker]] became an overnight sensation on Pixiv and Twitter, an especially impressive feat considering she originated from a ''textbook''. Her internet presence first went viral when a Japanese user tweeted about their brother's New Horizon 2016-19 edition (a long-running English language textbook series for junior high classrooms), commenting on its surprisingly animesque illustrations and attractive character designs, most particularly of its blonde English tutor. Being an {{adorkable}}, [[ForeignFanservice foreign fanservice]], {{moe}} [[HotTeacher teacher]], Ellen Baker proceeded to lead an explosion of fanart and [[RuleThirtyFour R34]] images, and many overseas fans professed a desire for similar characters on their own textbooks. Even the original artist took notice, appreciating Ellen's newfound popularity but worrying that her purpose as an instructor would be derailed.

* [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ellen-baker-new-horizon Ellen Baker]] became an overnight sensation on Pixiv and Twitter, an especially impressive feat considering she originated from a ''textbook''. Her internet presence first went viral when a Japanese user tweeted about their brother's New Horizon 2016-19 edition (a long-running English language textbook series for junior high classrooms), commenting on its surprisingly animesque illustrations and attractive character designs, most particularly of its blonde English tutor. Being an {{adorkable}}, [[ForeignFanservice foreign fanservice]], {{moe}} [[HotTeacher teacher]], Ellen Baker proceeded to lead an explosion of fanart and [[RuleThirtyFour r34]] images, and many overseas fans professed a desire for similar characters on their own textbooks. Even the original artist took notice, appreciating Ellen's newfound popularity but worrying that her purpose as an instructor would be derailed.

* [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ellen-baker-new-horizon Ellen Baker]] became an overnight sensation on Pixiv and Twitter, an especially impressive feat considering she originated from a ''textbook''. Her internet presence first went viral when a Japanese user tweeted about their brother's New Horizon 2016-19 edition (a long-running English language textbook series for junior high classrooms), commenting on its surprisingly animesque illustrations and attractive character designs, most particularly of its blonde English tutor. Being an {{adorkable}}, [[ForeignFanservice foreign fanservice]], {{moe}} [[HotTeacher teacher]], Ellen Baker proceeded to lead an explosion of fanart and [[RuleThirtyFour r34]] images, and many overseas fans professed a desire for similar characters on their own textbooks.

* [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ellen-baker-new-horizon Ellen Baker]] became an overnight sensation on Pixiv and Twitter, an especially impressive feat considering she originated from a ''textbook''. Her internet presence first went viral when a Japanese user tweeted about their brother's New Horizon 2016-19 edition (a long-running English language textbook series for junior high classrooms), commenting on its surprisingly animesque illustrations and attractive character designs, most particularly of its blonde English tutor. Being an {{adorkable}}, [[ForeignFanservice foreign fanservice]], {{moe}} [[HotTeacher teacher]], Ellen Baker proceeded to lead an explosion of fanart and r34 images, and many overseas fans professed a desire for similar characters on their own textbooks.

* [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ellen-baker-new-horizon Ellen Baker]] became an overnight sensation on Pixiv and Twitter, an especially impressive feat considering she originated from a ''textbook''. Her internet presence first went viral when a Japanese user tweeted about their brother's New Horizon 2016-19 edition (a long-running English language textbook series for junior high classrooms), commenting on its surprisingly animesque illustrations and attractive character designs, most particularly of its blonde English tutor. Being an {{adorkable}}, [[ForeignFanservice foreign fanservice]], {{moe}} [[HotTeacher teacher]], Ellen Baker proceeded to lead an explosion of fanart, and many overseas fans professed a desire for similar characters on their own textbooks.

* [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ellen-baker-new-horizon Ellen Baker]] became an overnight sensation in the internet, an especially impressive feat considering she originated from a ''textbook''. Her internet presence first went viral when a Japanese user tweeted about their brother's New Horizon 2016-19 edition (a long-running English language textbook series for junior high classrooms), commenting on its surprisingly animesque illustrations and attractive character designs, most particularly of its blonde English tutor. Being an {{adorkable}}, [[ForeignFanservice foreign fanservice]], {{moe}} [[HotTeacher teacher]], Ellen Baker proceeded to become the subject of fanart on Pixiv, and many overseas fans professed a desire for similar characters on their own textbooks.

* [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ellen-baker-new-horizon Ellen Baker]] became an overnight sensation in the internet, an especially impressive feat considering that she originated from a ''textbook''. Her internet presence first went viral when a Japanese user tweeted about their brother's New Horizon 2016-19 edition (a long-running English language textbook series for junior high classrooms), commenting on its surprisingly animesque illustrations and attractive character designs, most particularly of its blonde English tutor. Being an {{adorkable}}, [[ForeignFanservice foreign fanservice]], {{moe}} character, Ellen Baker proceeded to become the subject of an explosion of fanart on Pixiv, and many overseas fans professed a desire for similar characters on their own textbooks.

* [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ellen-baker-new-horizon Ellen Baker]] became an overnight sensation in the internet, an especially impressive feat considering that she originated from a ''textbook''. Her internet presence first went viral when a Japanese user tweeted about the New Horizon 2016-19 edition (a long-running English language textbook series for junior high classrooms), commenting on its surprisingly animesque illustrations and attractive character designs, most particularly of its blonde English tutor. Being an {{adorkable}}, [[ForeignFanservice foreign fanservice]], {{moe}} character, Ellen Baker became the subject of an explosion of fanart on Pixiv, and many overseas fans professed a desire for similar characters on their own textbooks.

** Too bad the astronomers played paper.

* Pluto in ''MilkyWayAndTheGalaxyGirls'', having quite a following compared to the other characters.

** [[NamesToKnowInAnime Japanese-wise]], the darkhorse seiyuu would be NorioWakamoto. With seiyuu these days about the younger people, especially those catering to the more {{Moe}} archetypes, there's this old school CoolOldGuy seiyuu who stockpiles about classic and awesome villain roles. Thanks to his epic hammy performance, he's still viewed as one of the greatest seiyuu in business despite being not really the norm of this age's seiyuu (a man and old), and a MemeticBadass (and Real Life {{Badass}} too).

* Baja Blast is this for MountainDew. It's an exclusive drink only available at Taco Bell. When it was announced that Baja Blast would be sold in stores for a limited time, they sold out pretty quickly in some stores.

* From Ride/DisneyThemeParks, Figment is undoubtedly the most popular character at EPCOT, and the Hitchhiking Ghosts have become the unofficial mascots of TheHauntedMansion, despite only showing up at the end.

* Ms. Green has maintained a notable popularity as the favorite [[Advertising/MAndMs M&M's]], for her personality as well as the [[MsFanservice obvious reasons]].

* From DisneyThemeParks, Figment is undoubtedly the most popular character at EPCOT, and the Hitchhiking Ghosts have become the unofficial mascots of ''TheHauntedMansion'', despite only showing up near the end.

*** Creator/MelBlanc came from the Golden Age of American Radio, where it was possible to become famous based solely on voice work. He also got a lot of his fame in front of the camera playing comedic characters and guest starring on variety shows. LucilleBall, Creator/OrsonWelles, and Creator/JimmyStewart also first became famous in radio. Even voice actors who weren't able to make the leap to the camera had fans with the older generations who remember the radio era. With that last group, it's less about being an EnsembleDarkHorse, and more about being a fading star as time marches on.

* In Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG, the character of Trigger spent most of his time being a {{Jerkass}} and at best could be described as a ReplacementScrappy. Ironically, his sidekick Montoya gained a surprisingly huge popularity. Similarly Dust became surprisingly popular despite spending his whole time in the RPG either [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder double crossing]] everyone or getting in the way of the main objectives.

* [[Music/{{Tommy}} Uncle Ernie]], of all people, has this in spades. Yes, the [[EvilUncle mean]], {{creepy|Uncle}} guy who actually ends up [[{{Shotacon}} molesting the titular character]] (and [[FridgeHorror possibly even others youngsters]] in "Tommy's Holiday Camp") is the most fan-loved character right after Tommy himself. One could argue that he's popular because TheMovie version is played by [[Music/TheWho the band's drummer, Keith Moon]], and whoever's playing him usually [[HamAndCheese hams it up for all it's worth]], but still...Not bad for a gay, incestuous pedophile with arguable drinking problems who only gets two short musical numbers.
** Not too far behind Ernie is Tommy's other abusive relative, [[KidsAreCruel Cousin]] [[CardCarryingVillain Kevin]].
** The Acid Queen and the Local Lad/the Champ ([[IAmNotShazam no, he's not the Pinball Wizard]]...[[IAmNotLeonardNimoy he's not Elton John, either]]) have their share of fans, too, despite being [[OneSceneWonder one scene/song wonders]] and the latter having little to no effect on the titular character or the plot. Again, this could be partially because their movie counterparts are played by Tina Turner and Music/EltonJohn, respectfully, both of whom were quite popular at the time.
*** Oddly enough, it should also be noted that, for some reason, the Local Lad/the Champ (especially Elton's version) is considered to be TheScrappy by some of the fandom. Why that is seems to depend on who you ask.