History Main / SelfPlagiarism

-->-- ''WebVideo/HonestTrailers'' on ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''

* Creator/AlexRoss was part of the creative teams of ''Comicbook/AstroCity'' and ''Comicbook/KingdomCome''. As a result, at least two KC characters share striking similarities with AC characters:
** Comicbook/WonderWoman's winged, golden eagle-like armor made her look a lot like Winged Victory, herself an {{Expy}} of Wonder Woman.

* The history of Creator/HannaBarbera cartoon studio is ''rife'' with this. To put it in short: After ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' was a huge hit, they made an ''enormous'' number of in-house copycats, each following the 'team of teens plus one wacky animal(ish) sidekick solve mysteries/fight evil' mold. Examples include ''WesternAnimation/{{Jabberjaw}}'', ''WesternAnimation/SpeedBuggy'', ''WesternAnimation/TheFunkyPhantom'', ''WesternAnimation/CaptainCavemanAndTheTeenAngels'', ''WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingChanAndTheChanClan''. This actually got so bad that Boomerang once had a block called "Those Meddling Kids", which showcased ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' and its many, many rip-offs.

* When ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' became an unexpected success, Hasbro followed that up with ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Littlest Pet Shop|2012}}''. Also animated using Flash by the same studio and using the same group of voice actors, it also shares some writers (but not all of them). In both shows, the central character is an intellectual young woman, fashion is a major theme, one of her friends is a pink energetic goofball, there are a lot of musical sequences (sharing Daniel Ingram as a composer), and seasons end in a two-parter. It was not able to match ''Friendship Is Magic'' in popularity, but it still lasted until the network changed from The Hub to Discovery Family. That being said, the different writers and their opposite directions in its fantasy elements (''Friendship Is Magic'' has magic permeating the whole setting, but ''Littlest Pet Shop'' is limited to one character [[spoiler:and her mother]] being able to talk to animals) resulted in the two shows feeling very different from each other.

* Creator/LaurellKHamilton: Both ''Literature/AnitaBlakeVampireHunter'' and ''Literature/MerryGentry'' feature a female protragonist who's short, {{bu|xomIsBetter}}sty, and mixed-race who has an ex-husband who hates her for not being tall and blonde. Both feel "inferior" due to not being tall and blonde. Both get NewPowersAsThePlotDemands, most of which are {{sex|Magic}}-based and make them [[SexGoddess supernaturally skilled lovers]]. Both gain harems of impossibly sexy, [[BiggerIsBetterInBed impossibly endowed men]] with supernatural powers and [[BattleHarem inhuman combat prowess]] who are [[UndyingLoyalty completely devoted to them]] and wish to cater to their every whim. And both of them eventually find that they've got a destiny as the saviors of the supernatural.

* Creator/JohannesBrahms adapted the theme from the song "Wie Melodien zieht es mir" as the second theme from the Violin Sonata in A, Op. 100.

There are many reasons for this. It may be because of the executive's belief that [[RecycledINSPACE lazily changing the setting will in itself attract more viewers]], milking a {{cash cow|Franchise}} without making it seem too obvious or simply an author being unable to shake off his SignatureStyle.

A lot of what's on RecycledInSPACE is an example of this. Compare and contrast {{Expy}} (which is when an author recycles one or more characters but not the rest of the story), FollowTheLeader, BetterByADifferentName, and RecycledScript.

* Creator/ShinyaMurata works on several concurrent manga with recurring themes, AnimalMotifs in fights and reused character designs. Peharps the most notable case of this is ''Manga/{{Himenospia}}'' being published alongside ''Manga/{{Blattodea}}'' as of 2020. ''Himenospia'' is a [[RecycledInSpace reimagining of plot elements]] from ''Manga/{{Arachnid}}'' and ''Blattodea'' is the ''Arachnid'' sequel. It got to the point both stories did a throwback to a particular BigDamnHeroes scene from ''Arachnid'' within a short time of each other.

* Creator/ScottSnyder and Greg Capullo's ''ComicBook/BatmanEndgame'' is basically a redo of ''ComicBook/DeathOfTheFamily'', right down to having [[spoiler:the Joker as the main villain. Among the few differences are the Justice League replacing the Batfamily as the allies that the Joker jokerizes and turns against Batman and instead of the League disbanding like the Batfamily did in ''[=DotF=]'', ''Endgame'' ends with Batman presumed dead.]]
* In [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks the Golden Age]], the illustrious Simon & Kirby perpetrated a textbook example by slapping together The Defender for ''USA Comics'' not six months after creating [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Captain America]]. Where Captain America was the patriotically-attired spy-hunting alter ego of humble soldier Steve Rogers featuring a pre-teen sidekick named Bucky, who for some reason went by that name in both of his identities, and occasionally a government agent named Betsy Ross, the Defender was the patriotically-attired spy-hunting alter ego of humble Marine Don Stevens featuring a pre-teen sidekick named Rusty, who for some reason went by that name in both of his identities, and in the first story a government agent named Sally Kean. Had some bonus ValuesDissonance too, as the one place where the Defender innovated over Cap was in being casually, appallingly racist towards the Japanese. A few issues in, they dropped the Defender and brought Cap himself in.

** Pixar, 1995: What if [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory1 toys]] had feelings

** Pixar, 2001: What if [[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc monsters]] had feelings
** Pixar, 2003: What if [[WesternAnimation/FindingNemo fish]] had feelings

** Pixar, 2006: What if [[WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} cars]] had feelings
** Pixar, 2007: What if [[WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}} rats]] had feelings

* Creator/DavidEddings has this happen in at least ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' and ''Literature/TheMallorean''. Indeed, the ''characters'' [[GenreSavvy recognize]] and [[DiscussedTrope discuss]] the repetitions of stories in their own lives, even noting the [[JustifiedTrope reason]] for it happening. At one point, a character even ''exploits'' this, noticing how similar the current situation is to a previous one and choosing to handle it differently.

* Creator/LaurellKHamilton: Both ''Literature/AnitaBlakeVampireHunter'' and ''Literature/MerryGentry'' feature a female protragonist who's short, [[BuxomIsBetter busty]], and mixed-race who has an ex-husband who hates her for not being tall and blonde. Both feel "inferior" due to not being tall and blonde. Both get NewPowersAsThePlotDemands, most of which are [[SexMagic sex-based]] and make them [[SexGoddess supernaturally skilled lovers]]. Both gain harems of impossibly sexy, [[BiggerIsBetterInBed impossibly endowed men]] with supernatural powers and [[BattleHarem inhuman combat prowess]] who are [[UndyingLoyalty completely devoted to them]] and wish to cater to their every whim. And both of them eventually find that they've got a destiny as the saviors of the supernatural.

* After having extreme success with ''Series/TheHollywoodSquares'' (1966-80), creator Creator/MerrillHeatter designed two later game shows that shared the motif of trivia questions being asked of a celebrity panel: ''Series/{{Battlestars}}'' (1981-82) and ''Series/AllStarBlitz'' (1985). The former was almost literally RecycledInSpace, and the latter combined the general idea with a word game.

* Brazilian rock band Engenheiros do Hawaii did this in ''the same album'': In ''O Papa É Pop'' (which translates as "The pope is pop", the pope in question being John Paul II), the song "Perfeita Simetria" ("Perfect symmetry") has the same music of the title song "O Papa É Pop", but a completely different lyrics. The symmetry in the song's title has a [[DoubleMeaningTitle double meaning]]: it refers to the harmonic relationship the coulpe in the lyrics used to have, and, in a meta sense, it's [[LampshadeHanging a nod to]] the identical melody of both songs.

* [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] with "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBgHqG2ZHM8 Carnival]]" and "[[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uVLK77m4WOM The Monster They Made You]]" by Rachel Rose Mitchell. From 4:10 to 4:25 of the latter, it has the exact same melody as the chorus of the former.

* ''Franchise/MegaMan'' creator Creator/KeijiInafune got so fed up with Capcom that he broke away and tried to create what was essentially a new version of Mega Man, called ''VideoGame/MightyNumber9''. Of course, since ''Mighty Number 9'' flopped and was followed shortly thereafter by ''VideoGame/MegaMan11'' (which was more successful and actually released by Capcom) this was all for nothing.[[note]]While technically Inafune did not design Mega Man himself, he was more or less the creative director of his games[[/note]]

** Also, ''VideoGame/{{Doom 3}}'', ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'', and the 2009 version of ''[[VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein 2009}} Wolfenstein]]'' all use the same engine.

* In 1995, Atari Games released ''VideoGame/{{Area 51}}'' which is a LightGunGame that uses digitalized actors for the characters and 3D for everything else. Two years later, they released another light-gun shooter named ''Maximum Force'' which had a different theme but was pretty much identical otherwise. Both games used the [=COJag=] (Coin Operated [[UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar Jaguar]]) system board, and many of the machines ended up converted into 2-in-1 machines with both ''Area 51'' and ''Maximum Force''.

* Harmonix created ''Karaoke Revolution'' for {{Creator/Konami}} and the first two ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' games. After Creator/{{Activision}} purchased Red Octane, Harmonix were left with the rights to those games' source code, but not their brand names. Their next project was ''VideoGame/RockBand'', which used a tweaked version of ''Guitar Hero''[='=]s gameplay for guitar, and a tweaked version of ''Karaoke Revolution''[='=]s for vocals.
** ''VideoGame/RockBand Unplugged'' and the DS version of ''[[VideoGame/LegoAdaptationGame Lego]] Rock Band'' in turn cribbed from ''Amplitude'', a rhythm game they developed for Sony prior to ''Guitar Hero''. Just so you know, [[http://kotaku.com/226215/harmonix-denied-frequency-sequel-on-psp Sony vetoed a direct sequel to that game even after Harmonix became a major developer,]] so...

* ''Viper Phase 1'' is this towards ''VideoGame/{{Raiden}}'', except [[RecycledInSpace set in space]]. Both were made by Seibu Kaihatsu, and it shows. How so? It got an UpdatedRerelease to make it more in line with the ''Raiden'' games, not to mention the UsefulNotes/PlayStation port of the first game getting the former's soundtrack as an unlockable.

-->In my Digital Homicide Library review I covered a game of theirs called ''Krogwars'', a shitty ''Videogame/SpaceInvaders'' clone with a glitch that often failed to load the next level, leaving you stuck on a blank screen. The game was literally unplayable. After ''Krogwars'' got onto Steam, they released ''Wyatt Derp'' (which was the exact same game as ''Krogwars'' only with the spaceships replaced with cowboys), ''Wyatt Derp 2'' (Which was the exact same game as ''Wyatt Derp 1'' only with the camera rotated a bit), and ''Withering Kingdoms: Arcane War'' (which was the same game as ''Krogwars'' and ''Wyatt Derp'' only this time it was wizards). All three of these games passed through Steam Greenlight because it’s easy to make a Space Invaders clone look playable in a 30 second trailer, and so Digital Homicide began absolutely spamming ''Krogwars'' clones onto Greenlight feeling they had struck a gold mine of easy revenue.

* He-Man's DistaffCounterpart [[WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower She-Ra]], since virtually every main character on ''She-Ra'' was an {{Expy}} of a character on ''He-Man''.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats''. ''WesternAnimation/SilverHawks''. ''[[WesternAnimation/TheComicStrip TigerSharks]]''. [[RecycledINSPACE Recycling]] was big in TheEighties.
* When ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' became an unexpected success, Hasbro followed that up with ''[[WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012 Littlest Pet Shop]]''. Also animated using Flash by the same studio and using the same group of voice actors, it also shares some writers (but not all of them). In both shows, the central character is an intellectual young woman, fashion is a major theme, one of her friends is a pink energetic goofball, there are a lot of musical sequences (sharing Daniel Ingram as a composer), and seasons end in a two-parter. It was not able to match ''Friendship Is Magic'' in popularity, but it still lasted until the network changed from The Hub to Discovery Family. That being said, the different writers and their opposite directions in its fantasy elements (''Friendship Is Magic'' has magic permeating the whole setting, but ''Littlest Pet Shop'' is limited to one character [[spoiler:and her mother]] being able to talk to animals) resulted in the two shows feeling very different from each other.

** When Harman and Ising left the studio for MGM in 1933, they took [[WesternAnimation/BoskoTheTalkInkKid Bosko]] with them, and had to cook up a replacement called Buddy, who was more-or-less Bosko in all but name and design.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThundarrTheBarbarian'', the villain Gemini is an {{Expy}} of Comicbook/{{Darkseid}}. He was designed by Creator/JackKirby, who created Darkseid for Creator/DCComics.

* Music/{{Steppenwolf}}'s "Born to Be Wild" and "Faster Than the Speed of Life" are another example of songs from the same album that sound almost identical.

** Their 2017 single "Weekend Woman" is effectively a drastically reworked version of "Burning Sun", an outtake from their 2001 self-titled album: The verse melody is identical, but the arrangement is very different, most of the lyrics are changed, and new bridge and chorus sections have been added.

* Some college professors will let you submit a revised version of work from a previous course or a modified version of what you're producing for another class if you ask, but this is generally not advisable and more likely than not to be treated as an offense just as bad as classic plagiarism.

* John Fogerty was once sued by his former label (the one who represented him when he was with Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival, before his solo career) for sounding too similar to himself. In other words, they thought "The Old Man Down the Road" (which he recorded as a solo act for his 1985 album ''Centerfield'') sounded too much like CCR's "Run Through the Jungle" (to which they owned the rights.) Fogerty won the case by performing both songs in the courtroom, illustrating the notable differences (though the songs ''do'' sound somewhat alike).

* A more literal example occurs with Creator/ArthurCClarke's novel ''[[Literature/TheSpaceOdysseySeries 3001: The Final Odyssey]]'', which simply cut and pastes several paragraphs concerning the Monolith builders' intentions from ''2001''. The same applies to a description of Europan life in ''2010'', which was reused almost verbatim in ''2061'' and ''3001''.

* A number of Music/JosephHaydn's piano trios are reworkings of his solo piano sonatas, or parts thereof.

** Pixar, 1995: What if [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory toys]] had feelings

[[caption-width-right:272:[[https://web.archive.org/web/20150520231247/http://www.cracked.com/funny-316-family-guy/ Strictly]] [[StrictlyFormula MacFormula]].[[labelnote:shows]]Left to right: ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow''.[[/labelnote]];[[labelnote:additional similarities]]Oh, and all three non-human best friends are voiced by Creator/SethMacFarlane.[[/labelnote]];[[labelnote:differences]]Tim the Bear has a family and doesn't live with Cleveland; the others don't (although Brian had Jillian as his long-term girlfriend [[Recap/FamilyGuyS2E5WhistleWhileYourWifeWorks for a whole season]] until [[Recap/FamilyGuyS6E2MovinOutBriansSong they broke up]]) and live with their respective main characters.[[/labelnote]]]]

* The CutSong "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG_0HRYUqyM Proud of Your Boy]]" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' bears a resemblance to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBa9QlzEWA4 "Part of Your World"]] from ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', which itself is a self-plagiarism of Ashman and [[Music/AlanMenken Menken's]] "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouLiQ7KhmYU Somewhere That's Green]]" from ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors''. Reportedly, when writing "Part of Your World" they jokingly called it "Somewhere That's Dry."

* Notoriously common in the Baroque era, before copyright was invented. For instance, Music/JohannSebastianBach reused both the melody and arrangement of his own secular {{cantata}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMWSmmoLxZo ''Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten!'']] (Sound, ye drums! Resound, ye trumpets!) for his Christmas Oratorio. The only thing that was changed was the lyrics (not written by Bach, but a hired poet, in this case probably a man known as Picander). The cantata is now mostly known with the Christmas lyrics ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRASBMG9nic Jauchzet, frohlocket]]'' (Rejoice and be merry!).

* In a similar instance to their Theatre example, Music/{{U2}} does it again. They copied the riff off "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptNhXGejEak Raised by Wolves]]" from the very first track off their very first album, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2BqLlVHlWA I will Follow]]".

** ''VideoGame/RockBand Unplugged'' and the DS version of ''[[VideoGame/LegoAdaptationGame Lego]] Rock Band'' in turn cribbed from ''Amplitude'', a rhythm game they developed for Sony prior to ''Guitar Hero''. Just so you know, [[http://kotaku.com/226215/harmonix-denied-frequency-sequel-on-psp Sony vetoed a direct sequel to that game even after Harmonix became a major developer]], so...

* The band Mystic Moods Orchestra recycled "The First Day of Forever", from their album ''Awakening'' (1973), for the US opening theme (also aired in some other Western coutries) of the Japansese series ''Series/{{Spectreman}}'', under the request of the producer of the US airing. The band recorded a slightly modified and shortened version of the song's instrumental background. It got new lyrics from Gregory Sil, then the band recorded the new version as ''Spectreman's Theme''.

** Harlequin II a.k.a. "Joker's Daughter", besides being modeled after Jill Thompson, shares the clown/ jester motif and the red-and-green, diamond-shaped patterned costume with the much more heroic Jack-in-the-Box.

* Notoriously common in the Baroque era, before copyright was invented. For instance, Music/JohannSebastianBach reused both the melody and arrangement of his own secular cantata [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMWSmmoLxZo ''Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten!'']] (Sound, ye drums! Resound, ye trumpets!) for his Christmas Oratorio. The only thing that was changed was the lyrics (not written by Bach, but a hired poet, in this case probably a man known as Picander). The cantata is now mostly known with the Christmas lyrics ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRASBMG9nic Jauchzet, frohlocket]]'' (Rejoice and be merry!).

* ''The Rough Guide to Music/PinkFloyd'' says ''Music/{{Animals}}'' is full of this ("Dogs" recycles "Seamus", "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" copies "Have a Cigar", and "Sheep" is a pastiche of their psychedelic years).

* Creator/FrankMiller:
** In ''ComicBook/DaredevilBornAgain'', one of the Kingpin's lieutenants speaks with an excessive amount of SesquipedalianLoquaciousness, which is played for laughs. He would later use the same type of gag when writing Shlubb and Klump (AKA Fat Man and Little Boy) from ''ComicBook/SinCity''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''. Practically the only thing that distinguished [[VideoGame/QuakeI the first]] ''Quake'' from the latter series was that it had mouse-look and used true 3D instead of sprites.

* Harmonix created ''Karaoke Revolution'' for {{Creator/Konami}} and the first two ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' games. After Creator/{{Activision}} purchased Red Octane, Harmonix were left with the rights to those games' source code, but not their brand names. Their next project was ''VideoGame/RockBand'', which used a tweaked version of ''VideoGame/GuitarHero''[='=]s gameplay for guitar, and a tweaked version of ''Karaoke Revolution''[='=]s for vocals.
** ''VideoGame/RockBand Unplugged'' and the DS version of ''[[VideoGame/LegoAdaptationGame Lego]] Rock Band'' in turn cribbed from ''Amplitude'', a rhythm game they developed for Sony prior to ''VideoGame/GuitarHero''. Just so you know, [[http://kotaku.com/226215/harmonix-denied-frequency-sequel-on-psp Sony vetoed a direct sequel to that game even after Harmonix became a major developer]], so...
* Like ''VideoGame/RockBand'' above, the ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' series was created by former ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'' developers. In turn, the later ''[=MoH=]'' games had gameplay rather similar to ''[=CoD=]'', with [[RecycledTitle the reboot]] going up as direct competition to ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare''.
* In 1997, 3DRealms released a first-person shooter called ''ShadowWarrior'', a game based on the Build engine, about a loud-mouthed guy with big guns who likes breaking stuff and quipping sarcastic remarks about enemies he just killed. [[VideoGame/DukeNukem3D What does that remind you of]]?

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' is widely considered to be a ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'' clone, thanks to the massive amount of collectables and level design in ''[=DK64=]'', both staples of ''Banjo-Kazooie''. Both games were made by Creator/{{Rare}}.

* Baloo the bear from ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'' became so popular that Disney hired the character's voice actor Phil Harris back to play an {{expy}} of the character in their next two films. Thomas O'Malley in ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'' is identical to Baloo personality-wise but isn't the same species, while Little John from ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'' has a different personality but looks almost exactly like Baloo (save for being orange rather than gray).
* In ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', Little John and Lady Kluck dance like Baloo and King Louie in ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967''. Robin and Marian dance like Duchess and Thomas in ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats''. Marian dances with a pig, an owl, a rabbit and a dog in a manner similar to the dance that Snow White and the Dwarfs do in ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''. An elephant sounding off like a trumpet is stopped by Lady Kluck, like Colonel Hathi stopping a Jungle Patrol elephant in ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967''. Sir Hiss uses HypnoticEyes similar to Kaa in ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967''.

* In-universe example from ''Film/ILoveTrouble'' as Peter Brackett is a renowned newspaper reporter turned author who loves his party lifestyle that he barely pays attention to deadlines. In a rush to get to a party, Peter takes an old story from over a decade ago, alters a few names and wording and submits it. When his editor needs someone to cover a train crash, Peter begs it off only for his editor ([[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome an experienced newsman who knows Peter's tricks]]) to openly ask his assistant to start going through all of Peter's past stories for one almost exactly like what he just submitted. Realizing it's the crash or find a new job, Peter reluctantly goes.

* ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' started life as a ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' fanfiction called ''Master of the Universe''. When edited for publication, it remained 89% identical to its former self.
* In ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'', Patrick Bateman invokes this trope when reviewing Genesis, making claims such as the song "That's All" sounding too much like their previous song "Misunderstanding".
* Creator/GregBear has reused some of the science-fiction concepts he invents in one book in completely unrelated books. For instance, ''Moving Mars'' and ''Anvil of Stars'' both use the concept of [[RealityWarper 'hacking real life']], while ''Darwin's Radio'' and ''Literature/BloodMusic'' both use communication and reasoning among microorganisms as major plot points. ''[[Literature/TheWaySeries Legacy]]'' and ''Moving Mars'' also both contain ecosystems based on Lamarckian evolution, as minor plot points.
* A more literal example occurs with Creator/ArthurCClarke's novel ''[[Literature/TheSpaceOdysseySeries 3001: The Final Odyssey]]'', which simply cut and pastes several paragraphs concerning the Monolith builders' intentions from ''2001''. The same applies to a description of Europan life in ''2010'', which was reused almost verbatim in ''2061'' and ''3001''.
* Creator/MichaelCrichton's ''Film/{{Westworld}}'' depicts an amusement park built around unique attractions, robots. After the initial magnificient impression, chaos and death ensues when the robots outgrow their design and safeguards. Skip ahead two decades and change robots to dinosaurs and you get the wildly successful ''Literature/JurassicPark''.
** ''{{Literature/Timeline}}'', in turn, replaces ''Jurassic Park'''s dinosaurs with Medieval knights, but is otherwise a very similar story. Scientists (archaeologists instead of paleontologists) are revealed that a CorruptCorporateExecutive has developed a groundbreaking new technology that might render their discipline pointless (cloned dinosaurs vs time travel), and are given the chance to explore it safely. However, [[TheStarscream a corrupted worker of the project]] lifts the security measures, putting everyone's lives at risk. Eventually, the project is destroyed and the chairman who developed it for profit is killed.
* Creator/DavidEddings has this happen in at least ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' and ''The Mallorean''. Indeed, the ''characters'' [[GenreSavvy recognize]] and [[DiscussedTrope discuss]] the repetitions of stories in their own lives, even noting the [[JustifiedTrope reason]] for it happening. At one point, a character even ''exploits'' this, noticing how similar the current situation is to a previous one and choosing to handle it differently.
* Creator/FrederickForsyth fell prey to this in ''The Afghan'', stealing several word for word passages from ''The Fist of God'', and plot elements (such as one man telling the government that his brother can pass for an Arab, and then reminding the same people about it ten years later....).
* Creator/HPLovecraft, despite his originality on almost all other fronts, had a tendency to create his ''own'' cliches and recycle plots and plot events he'd already used before, perhaps several times. One excellent and particularly extreme example is "Literature/{{Dagon}}" and "Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu", the latter being pretty much a {{Remake}} of the former.
* ''Literature/TheShadowOfTheLion'', by Creator/MercedesLackey, Creator/EricFlint, and Creator/DaveFreer, includes a fantasy reworking of Lackey's contributions to the science fiction shared-world "Literature/MerovingenNights" begun by Creator/CJCherryh, with the names changed but several passages taken almost word-for-word.
* Creator/PhilipKDick often reused elements from his short stories in his novels. For example, the dolls from "The Days of Perky Pat" play a major role in ''Literature/TheThreeStigmataOfPalmerEldritch'', and the concept of half-life from "What the Dead Men Say" is an important part of ''Literature/{{Ubik}}''.
* ''Literature/EvilUnderTheSun'' by Creator/AgathaChristie features an identical [[spoiler:love triangle dynamic]] to that of ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile''.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' writer Creator/TerranceDicks has, when writing for the novel ranges, tended to recycle stories he wrote for the TV series. In one case (the novel ''World Game'') he literally cuts and pastes large sections from a previous novel.
* Creator/DouglasAdams lifted plot points from two ''Series/DoctorWho'' arcs that he wrote, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]" and the unfinished storyline "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]]" to make his novel ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency''.
* Programming writer Herbert Schildt is notorious for this, frequently copy-pasting parts of his books to newer books, which might be almost forgivable if he wasn't so frequently ''wrong'' about some very basic things. His collected works are referred to by most programmers as "Bullschildt".

* [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Every. Single. Book.]] by Creator/DanBrown tells the tale of a GaryStu [[FlatCharacter university professor]] and a smart WorldsMostBeautifulWoman ([[InformedAttribute who is not really that smart]]), brought together by a murder and a riddle, and forced to flee through a foreign country while being chased by a colorful assassin (usually with a disability), who works for a secret cabal (usually the Catholic Church, or a group within it) that does not want the riddle solved because it would reveal The Truth before the world (this Truth is revealed in the end, of course). After ''Literature/TheDaVinciCode'', Brown even dispenses with naming the GaryStu differently and just reuses Robert Langdon, who is nonetheless oblivious to the fact that the exact same plot keeps happening to him.
* Creator/TerryPratchett was so pleased with himself for coming up with this joke that he used it in ''two'' Discworld books. To wit: a flour cart crashes into a heggler's cart and also a milk cart, resulting in a huge mess. In ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'', a character comments that they could make an enormous cake. In ''Literature/TheTruth'', Sacharrissa uses "CITY'S BIGGEST CAKE MIX-UP" as a headline. William de Worde remarks on how this is [[SelfDeprecation just the right amount of unfunny]] to be a newspaper joke. Major Clive Mountjoy-Steadfast merely snaps "[[LamePunReaction Tom!]]"
* ''Literature/AnitaBlakeVampireHunter'' and ''Literature/MerryGentry'', both by Laurell K. Hamilton feature a female protragonist who's short, busty, and mixed-race who has an ex-husband who hates her for not being tall and blonde. Both feel "inferior" due to not being tall and blonde. Both get NewPowersAsThePlotDemands, most of which are sex-based and make them supernaturally skilled lovers. Both gain harems of impossibly sexy, impossibly endowed men with supernatural powers and inhuman combat prowess who are completely devoted to them and wish to cater to their every whim. And both of them eventually find that they've got a destiny as the saviors of the supernatural.

* ''Literature/AnitaBlakeVampireHunter'' and ''Literature/MerryGentry'', both by Laurell K. Hamilton feature a female protragonist who's short, busty, and mixed-race who has an ex-husband who hates her for not being tall and blonde. Both feel "inferior" due to not being tall and blonde. Both get NewPowersAsThePlotDemands, most of which are sex-based and make them supernaturally skilled lovers. Both gain harems of impossibly sexy, [[BiggusDickus impossibly endowed]] men with supernatural powers and inhuman combat prowess who are completely devoted to them and wish to cater to their every whim. And both of them eventually find that they've got a destiny as the saviors of the supernatural.

[[caption-width-right:272:[[https://web.archive.org/web/20150520231247/http://www.cracked.com/funny-316-family-guy/ Strictly]] [[StrictlyFormula MacFormula]].[[labelnote:shows]]Left to right: ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow''.[[/labelnote]];[[labelnote:additional similarities]]Oh, and all three non-human best friends are voiced by Creator/SethMacFarlane.[[/labelnote]];[[labelnote:differences]]Tim the Bear has a family and doesn't live with Cleveland; the others don't (although Brian had Jillian as his long-term girlfriend [[Recap/FamilyGuyS5E2WhistleWhileYourWifeWorks for a whole season]] until [[Recap/FamilyGuyS6E2MovinOutBriansSong they broke up]]) and live with their respective main characters.[[/labelnote]]]]

[[caption-width-right:272:[[https://web.archive.org/web/20150520231247/http://www.cracked.com/funny-316-family-guy/ Strictly]] [[StrictlyFormula MacFormula]].[[labelnote:shows]]Left to right: ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow''.[[/labelnote]];[[labelnote:additional similarities]]Oh, and all three non-human best friends are voiced by Creator/SethMacFarlane.[[/labelnote]];[[labelnote:differences]]Tim the Bear has a family and doesn't live with Cleveland; the others don't (although Brian had Jillian as his long-term girlfriend [[Recap/FamilyGuyS5E5WhistleWhileYourWifeWorks for a whole season]] until [[Recap/FamilyGuyS6E2MovinOutBriansSong they broke up]]) and live with their respective main characters.[[/labelnote]]]]

[[caption-width-right:272:[[https://web.archive.org/web/20150520231247/http://www.cracked.com/funny-316-family-guy/ Strictly]] [[StrictlyFormula MacFormula]].[[labelnote:shows]]Left to right: ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow''.[[/labelnote]];[[labelnote:additional similarities]]Oh, and all three non-human best friends are voiced by Creator/SethMacFarlane.[[/labelnote]];[[labelnote:differences]]Tim the Bear has a family and doesn't live with Cleveland; the others don't (although Brian had Jill as his long-term girlfriend for many seasons until they broke up) and live with their respective main characters.[[/labelnote]]]]

* Music/MarkKnopfler reforged much of 1982's "Love Over Gold" into "Private Dancer" 2 years later.