History Main / WeirdAlEffect

A link somewhere on the Internet sent you to this page.

It may refer to one of the following pages:

* ParodyDisplacement: A parody is more well known than the work it's a parody of. Originally named "Weird Al" Effect after Music/WeirdAlYankovic.

Please change any link to point to the correct page.

* ParodyDisplacement: A parody is more well known than the work it's a parody of. Originally named "Weird Al" Effect.

[[redirect:ParodyDisplacement]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Website/YouTube https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/weird_al_2.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Above: A Website/YouTube upload of the song "Jeopardy". Below: [[Music/WeirdAlYankovic Weird Al's]] parody. Notice how the parody has almost four times the views.]]

->''"Spoof films used to be so good that they'd eclipse the movies they spoofed."''
-->-- '''[[LetsPlay/LetsDrownOut Gabriel Morton]]''', ''[[https://youtu.be/B2O4JAbSjNQ The Ego Review: Age of Evil]]''

When a parody is more popular than the property that's being parodied, often to the point where those unfamiliar with the source material will believe that the parody is its own thing.

Named for the fact that, when listening to the [[LongRunners earlier work]] of Music/WeirdAlYankovic, modern fans may be so unfamiliar with the songs being mocked as to not even realize that the Weird Al song ''is'' a parody. For example, many people are now more familiar with "I Lost on ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}''" than with the original "Jeopardy" by the Greg Kihn Band. Some may even have forgotten Jimmy Webb's "[=MacArthur=] Park," or Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" (or Music/StevieWonder's "[[SampledUp Pastime Paradise]]," for that matter), remembering only Weird Al's "Franchise/JurassicPark" or "Amish Paradise."

Often, people who are only 'familiar' with a work through the parody are surprised when the subject of the parody turns out to be better than they thought.

Occasionally the trope can be inverted, where the parody is forgotten, but aspects of it get associated with the original work.

Related to the concept of a ForgottenTrope, except it is not tropes but works or personalities that have been forgotten. Could be an extreme expression of RuleOfFunny (the music may not have had much staying power, but at least the parody is funny). See also AdaptationDisplacement, PopculturalOsmosis, PopculturalOsmosisFailure, OlderThanTheyThink, TheCoconutEffect, CoveredUp, SampledUp, RevivalByCommercialization. Contrast ShallowParody, when lacking knowledge of the original work merely renders the parody meaningless.

Be careful: If the original still has a respectable pop culture presence, then claiming the parody is better known may tend toward FanMyopia.

----
!!Examples with their own pages:
[[index]]
* ''WeirdAlEffect/LooneyTunes''
* ''WeirdAlEffect/TheSimpsons''
[[/index]]

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Trope Namer]]
* For those wondering how people could make such a mistake with Music/WeirdAlYankovic, he ''does'' also have a lot of original humorous songs. Most of us older folks know him better for his parodies, but he's spanned a few generations since his Creator/DrDemento days and is [[http://www.weirdal.com/ still going strong]]. Moreover, knowing '''that''' a song is a parody and knowing the song it parodies are two different things.
** Coolio was quite peeved about "Amish Paradise", for which Yankovic had obtained permission through official channels but not through Coolio himself. He felt that Weird Al's version trivialized the seriousness of the song. Though Music/LadyGaga on the other side of the spectrum stated that having your song parodied by Weird Al is like a rite of passage to being an artist in the music industry. This was backed up in an earlier interview by Music/KurtCobain where he said when Al called him about making a parody of "Smells like Teen Spirit" is when he realized Music/{{Nirvana}} made it in the music industry. Confusing the issue further was that "Gangsta's Paradise," Coolio's song, was actually a Weird Alization of a Music/StevieWonder song called "Pastime Paradise."
** To confuse matters further, many of Al's original songs are "style parodies" where he parodies a band's/artist's musical style instead of a specific song. Because he does change the music a bit even with parodies, this leads to some thinking that these style parodies are a parody of a specific song. Examples follow:
*** Trigger Happy -- Music/JanAndDean / Music/TheBeachBoys and 1960's SurfRock in general
*** Pancreas -- Music/BrianWilson, especially Music/SMiLE
*** Dare to Be Stupid -- Music/{{Devo}} (Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh even said it was "the perfect Devo song")
*** CNR -- Music/TheWhiteStripes
*** Craigslist -- Music/TheDoors (He even got Ray Manzarek, The Doors' keyboard player, to play for him)
*** Everything You Know Is Wrong -- Music/TheyMightBeGiants
*** You Make Me -- Music/OingoBoingo
*** Close, but No Cigar -- Music/{{Cake}}
*** Velvet Elvis -- Music/ThePolice
*** Frank's 2000" TV -- Music/{{REM}}
*** Good Old Days -- James Taylor
*** Genius in France -- Music/FrankZappa and The Mothers of Invention (He even got Dweezil Zappa, Frank's son, to play the solo)
*** Germs -- Music/NineInchNails
*** Traffic Jam & Want 2B UR Lover -- Music/{{Prince}}
*** Ringtone -- Music/{{Queen}}
*** I'll Sue Ya -- Music/RageAgainstTheMachine
*** Dog Eat Dog -- Music/TalkingHeads
*** Young, Dumb and Ugly -- Music/{{ACDC}}
*** Mr. Popeil -- Music/TheB52s
*** Skipper Dan -- Music/{{Weezer}}
*** Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me -- Music/MeatLoaf (or Jim Steinman's production in general)
*** One More Minute -- Music/ElvisPresley
*** Waffle King -- Music/PeterGabriel
*** Bob -- Music/BobDylan
*** Mission Statement -- Music/CrosbyStillsNashAndYoung
*** Albuquerque -- Music/TheRugburns
*** My Own Eyes -- Music/FooFighters
*** I’m So Sick Of You -- Music/ElvisCostello
*** Why Does This Always Happen To Me? -- Music/BenFolds (who plays piano on the track)
* You may not be aware that his Music/TheBeastieBoys style parody "Twister", aside from the pastiche elements, is genuinely a ''cover'' of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g2eEZu_0L4 the original 1966 commercial for the board game]].
* His [[OncePerEpisode Once-An-Album]] polka medleys tend to be time capsules of a particular period in music, covering both enduring hits and flashes in the pan. For instance, [[https://youtu.be/oYWvi4Y5soU "Polka Your Eyes Out"]] from 1992 [[note]](which many consider his best medley)[[/note]] is bookended by "[[Music/BillyIdol Cradle of Love]]" and "[[Music/VanillaIce Ice Ice Baby]]", but in-between has such classics as "[[Music/{{REM}} Losing My Religion]]," "[[Music/TheB52s Love Shack]]", and "[[Music/{{Metallica}} Enter Sandman]]".
** Referenced in WebAnimation/TheFlashTub [[http://www.somethingawful.com/d/flash-tub/gamescott-reviews-cartoon.php Gamescott Review]] (which is a parody of both 90's Internet videos and Internet game reviews) in the end credits, crediting Papa Roach's "Last Resort" to "Weird Al", since Weird Al did cover it in one of his medleys.
** Incidentally, the polka medleys themselves are an example of this trope. A lot of us probably don't remember Stars on 45, a Dutch novelty act which created song medleys set to disco. Al took the concept, only he set the medley to polka music instead with "Polkas On 45". While Stars on 45 is largely forgotten, Al continues to feature polka medleys on each of his albums (except "Even Worse" and arguably "Alapalooza", where instead of a medley he did a polka cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody").
* Because Weird Al was effectively the only parody artist to hit it big in the pop music era, there is a widespread, pronounced tendency on the Internet to [[MisattributedSong attribute to Weird Al]] ''any'' parody song whose artist is otherwise unknown. This has been especially common on pirate UsefulNotes/MP3 repositories such as Napster, where searching on Weird Al would produce any number of non-Al music, some of it obscene or offensive, with his name on it. (Weird Al is on record as saying that this mistaken identity, rather than any theoretical lost revenue, is the biggest unwanted effect piracy has on him personally.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Advertising]]
* The Advertising/EnergizerBunny, {{mascot}} for the Energizer brand of batteries for over 20 years, was originally a parody of an ad campaign by rival Duracell, in which a small and cute bunny with a small drum powered by their battery would last longer than one powered by their chief rival -- which in the commercial was Everlast to not name Energizer (owned by Eveready at the time) by name. (Energizer's ad was that its bunny, like its battery, was too large and impressive for Duracell's ad.) In part due to its effectiveness as a campaign and in part due to Duracell not keeping up with the trademarks, the original bunny is all but forgotten in North America (although still active in other continents). Duracell claimed that 40% of the audience thought they were still Duracell ads, but never really tried to back that up.
* The phrase, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature" has been used and re-used so often (just as often as a parody as not), that it's approached the point where many people have no idea where it actually came from (for the record, it was from a 1970 commercial for a butter substitute called Chiffon).
** Similarly, the phrase "that's-a spicy meatball-a" is used in a few places. It was originally from [[CommercialSwitcheroo a fake ad]] [[https://youtu.be/xUpj9oTNIBI for meatballs inside an Alka-Seltzer ad from 1969]].
** And again for a very distinct, hushed delivery of "We've secretly replaced somebody's 'X' with 'Y.' Let's see if they can tell the difference." Originally from a Seventies and Eighties ad campaign for [[http://mst3kriffaday.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/31-weve-replaced-the-pacific-ocean-with-folgers-crystals-lets-watch/ Folger's Coffee Crystals]], but the references to it have far outlasted the ads.
** This is, in fact, pretty common with commercials. The endless repetition of them can easily create annoyance, which means writers and creators will see them as ripe for parody in their work, with the end result being the parodies can live on even when the ad campaign itself ends.
* You know the [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext funny-but-bizarre]] slogan from the software Winamp "It really whips the llama's ass!", right? They didn't make it up. Actually, it's a quote from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JntDcqOxMsM one]] of many other bizarre songs by outsider artist Music/WesleyWillis.
* [[https://youtu.be/We2oVpZcWbg A 2013 Super Bowl ad set in a library]], in which a whispered argument over Oreo cookies escalated into a brawl, prompted the creation of a sign proclaiming, "In light of recent events, NO OREOS will be allowed in the library." In the years since, this sign has frequently circulated on social media—shared by [[http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/05/twitter-had-a-meltdown-when-this-woman-discovered-a-library-sign-banning-oreos-6362861/ puzzled library-goers who have no idea what it's talking about]].
* Unless you're a pretty major film buff, chances are pretty good that you've heard of Advertising/SegataSanshiro long before you heard of the Creator/AkiraKurosawa film ''Film/SanshiroSugata''. By a similar count, the frequent {{Actor Allusion}}s to ''Series/KamenRider'' probably flew over the heads of most Westerners.
* The song used in the "Mac Tonight" UsefulNotes/McDonalds ads is a parody of Music/BobbyDarin's version of "Mack the Knife".
* The song used in the Atari 2600 ''VideoGame/MarioBros'' commercial is actually a parody of the ExpositoryThemeTune for the 1961 TV series ''Car 54, Where Are You?''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Art]]
* Quite some famous or well known people from previous centuries are nowadays better known because they were painted or sculpted by world famous artists. So whenever, for instance, the ''Mona Lisa'' is parodied, most people aren't aware that she was an actual aristocratic 15th-16th century lady.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' and ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' are a {{Deconstruction}} and a parody, respectively, of the HumongousMecha series of their day. Ten years later, who can remember their contemporaries?
** Between ''Nadesico'' and ''Anime/IrresponsibleCaptainTylor'' there are buckets of fans who "know" ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Uchuu Senkan Yamato]] / Star Blazers'' without ever having seen it.
** Similarly, ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' started as a deconstruction and parody of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam''. Guess which one got immortalized across the pond in ''Anime/{{Robotech}}''?
** The flip-side of this trope, when it comes to mecha anime, is the ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' game series, which have the effect of re-popularizing old, "out-of-print" series.
** While were on the subject, the word "Instrumentality" will have most anime fans thinking of ''Evangelion''. However, it's actually a reference to the stories of sci-fi author Creator/CordwainerSmith.
* ''Anime/{{Gunbuster}}'' was actually a parody of ''Manga/AimForTheAce'' a ''tennis'' manga and anime series; as well as {{Super Robot|Genre}} anime programs like ''Anime/MazingerZ'' and ''Manga/GetterRobo''.
* ''Manga/DragonBall'' originally started as a parody of ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'', which, while still popular in Asia, is more or less unknown in many countries ''Dragon Ball'' was released in except those that had ''Series/{{Monkey}}!'' on their [=TVs=].
* The speech "Sometimes I'm a..." is closely associated with ''Anime/CuteyHoney'', so much so that the original source (''Tarao Bannai'') that Cutey Honey was parodying with that speech has been long forgotten.
* Fandom example: At least on this wiki, it appears as if the use of the term "White Devil" [[FanNickname in reference]] to ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' protagonist Nanoha Takamachi has almost completely eclipsed its original use as a ''canon'' nickname for the RX-78 and/or Amuro Ray of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam''.
* In the Western world, ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has completely overtaken terms and names like FuumaShuriken, [[SelfDuplication (Kage) Bunshin]], [[NinjaLog Kawarimi]][[note]]A real weapon and techniques that existed at least in fiction before[[/note]]; a ninja called Sasuke[[note]]an extremely common "ninja name" in Japanese fiction and folklore, akin to "Kurtz" for villains[[/note]]; and a trio with the names of Tsunade, Orochimaru and Jiraiya with powers based on snails, snakes, and frogs, respectively[[note]]a homage to the folktale ''Jiraiya Go-ketsu Monogatari'', their names being the literal words for their animal[[/note]].
* ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' appears to be headed this way, with more people watching the show having not seen any of the shojo it parodies. The surface humor and well-developed characters serve to attract people who don't get the joke.
* ''Manga/SgtFrog'': The anime commonly includes {{Shout Out}}s to older works to entertain some of its older audiences, so naturally for many younger viewers, it's often the first they've ever heard of certain things. Lampshaded by the Dub, in which the narrator tells people to search for ''Series/SpaceSheriffGavan'' on Website/YouTube. Interestingly, that show actually ''was'' shown in America, but it's highly likely that most viewers never saw it.
* The gaudy clothes, pencil-thin mustache, and uncommonly large overbite of ''Manga/OsomatsuKun'''s Iyami is much more well known to Japanese audiences than Tony Tani, the vaudeville comedian who inspired him. Even his trademark "zansu" tic came from Tani's act.
* A general example: The sheer amount of references to the ''[[Franchise/UltraSeries Ultraman]]'' franchise in anime is staggering, ranging from blatant parodies of the entire franchise to extremely subtle nods to specific episodes of specific series, but most are rarely understood by non-Japanese viewers, especially since ''Ultraman'' is [[AmericansHateTingle usually brushed off as]] "that low-budget ''Power Rangers'' ripoff" by many. A particular case of this is ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', which bears ''many'' resemblances to ''Ultraman'', and whose creator, Creator/HideakiAnno, is a massive enough fan of the franchise that he made his own fan film at one point.
* ''Anime/PrettyCure'' is used in many stock shout-outs to {{Magical Girl}}s but the references fly over many international fans heads. In most countries, ''Pretty Cure'' has never had the same mainstream accessibility as ''Sailor Moon'', or even anime like ''Tokyo Mew Mew'', largely due to LateExportForYou and NoExportForYou. Many English-speaking anime fans know of ''Pretty Cure'' parodies more than they know the actual ''Pretty Cure'' characters.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* The pirates in ''Comicbook/{{Asterix}}'' comics are close parodies (allowing for the difference in art style) of Captain ComicBook/BarbeRouge (Redbeard) and his crew in the comic of the same name. Originally published in the same magazine as ''Asterix'', ''Barbe-Rouge'' is almost unknown outside France. You have a shot at recognizing them if you've seen one of the 90s cartoon shows, but the parody characters have such a distinct look that it's not obvious.
** ''ComicBook/{{Iznogoud}}'' contained a ShoutOut to specifically to the ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' versions of the pirates in one story. They look much more like their ''Asterix'' designs and the crow's nest pirate observes that the ship they're about to attack 'has no Gauls on it'.
** Furthermore the pirates, on yet another occasion when their ship is smashed by Asterix and Co, end up in a sequence with them parodying the painting "The Raft of the Medusa". Said painting is actually pretty famous in France, and a mainstay of school textbooks on French painting, but non-French readers will be less likely to recognize it. Adding to this, the parody has an untranslatable French pun involving the idiomatic meaning of "médusé" (stupefied). The [[{{Woolseyism}} English translation]] has them say "We've been framed, by [[StealthPun Jericho]]!" [[note]]The painting is by Théodore Géricault, whose last name is pronounced close to "Jericho" in French.[[/note]]
** ''Comicbook/{{Asterix}}'' generally is packed solid with references to French politics, society, and other such in-jokes, though in some cases the original reference are quite obscure nowadays. In ''Recap/AsterixAndTheBanquet'' Asterix meets a group of characters in Marseille, who are a shout-out to the 1930s movies ''Fanny'' and ''Marius'' by Marcel Pagnol, something most people of today, even in France, wouldn't get. The antagonist from ''Recap/ObelixAndCo.'' is supposed to be a parody of Jacques Chirac. Yes, as in ''former President of France'' Jacques Chirac, though the parody was focused on his largely-forgotten-outside-France stint as Prime Minister.
* ComicBook/LuckyLuke: How many people today think of the Dalton brothers as the historical Bob, Grat, Bill and Emmett, compared to the Dalton Brothers as ''Lucky Luke's'' Joe, Jack, William and Averell? In Europe and the French-speaking world, at least, it's not even a contest.
** Joe, Jack, William and Averell are supposed to be the Dalton ''cousins''. The "historical" Dalton ''brothers'' were featured (caricatured) in the album ''Outlaw'' which is probably [[MyRealDaddy forgotten because Goscinny didn't write it]], plus it's just one album vs. over 20, plus they were actually KilledOffForReal whereas Lucky Luke moved to ThouShaltNotKill a few albums later.
** There are others who may associate the Daltons as Dinky, Pinky, Stinky, etc. from ''Huckleberry Hound''.
** Morris' work on the series in general has resulted in this. He liked to parody various overused tropes from Western films, and the distinctive features and screen personas of actors associated with the genre. While the comics keep getting reprinted, much of the European audience is no longer particularly familiar with the parodied films, or with tropes that haven't seen much use since the 1960s. Most of the actors parodied are also long gone, and in some cases poorly remembered.
* [[Characters/GreenLantern1941 Solomon Grundy]], born on a Monday. Also, he is a zombie. If you know of Solomon Grundy, chances are you probably know him from [[Franchise/TheDCU the comics]] [[WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}} and]] [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague cartoon]], but not from the nursery rhyme. In Mexico, there is a wrestler known as Solomon Grundy, and people don't know about any rhyme, comic, or cartoon. The rhyme itself IS mentioned in the popular Batman series ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween''. It is also briefly referenced in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' and Arkham City. One ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' cartoon episode has him sacrifice himself for something (nevermind that being a zombie, he can't really die off permanently). The gravestone shown usually mentions the rhyme. The rhyme is also referenced in the Batman story "One Night in Slaughter Swamp", published in Batman: Shadow of the Bat # 39 (1995). The Crash Test Dummies also used his name for their Superman song, only because it rhymed with money. ...sorta. The rhyme was also used in ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', with [[ComicBook/GreenArrow Ollie]] quipping "[[PostMortemOneLiner Died on Saturday; buried on Sunday]]" after defeating him.
** Note that the 19th-century nursery rhyme has a couple of variations, but is only eight lines long and gives the Grundy depicted no individual traits. Making it unlikely to receive many memorable adaptations. In its longer form, the nursery rhyme simply describes the rather conventional course of life for a man. Grundy was (in order) born, Christened, married, taken ill, having his medical condition further deteriorating, died due to his illness, and then buried.
* Many comic book fans didn't even realize that Creator/DCComics had other characters besides Wesley Dodds and Morpheus who went by "ComicBook/TheSandman" until they saw Hector Hall acting foolish in volume 2 of Creator/NeilGaiman's celebrated series.
* The Guy Fawkes mask is now associated more with ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' than with the guy -- er, Guy -- it represents. In America anyway... Bonfire Night is still a well-celebrated national holiday in the UK, and kids are taught about the history behind it in school. Its meaning is shifting even beyond that, now that it's being used as a tool of 4chan/anonymous for their real-world protests (although, technically they are using it in the style in which it is portrayed in ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'') -- and this applies to both the US and UK as the mask has lately appeared on the office wall of ''Series/TheITCrowd''. Whee!
** Indeed, in the "set tour" featurette on the 3rd series of ''Series/TheITCrowd'', it's actually ''referred'' to as the ''V For Vendetta'' mask, rather than a Guy Fawkes mask, by Graham Linehan himself!
** British technology news/discussion site The Register also uses the mask as the only icon available for Anonymous Coward posts.
** For that matter, the English word "guy" is itself a reference to Guy Fawkes that has evolved over the centuries to be used as reference for anyone, not just an effigy of the original Guy. On top of that, Mr. Fawkes himself was named after a long-forgotten local celebrity from his hometown, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fairfax Guy Fairfax]].
* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} was originally conceived by Creator/RobLiefeld as a rather blatant ripoff of Creator/DCComics supervillain Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}}. [[MyRealDaddy Later writers]] took the character and [[ParodyRetcon revamped him into a parody]] to save Marvel some face. While Deathstroke still has a strong fan following, Deadpool has pretty well eclipsed him in terms of popularity.
* ''ComicBook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}'' started as an underground comic strip that [[AffectionateParody affectionately parodied]] many popular Creator/MarvelComics series of its era, but it went on to become much better-known than most of them after [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 the cartoon adaptation]] became a major hit. In particular, the comic took major cues from the ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' and ''ComicBook/XMen'' issues penned by Creator/FrankMiller, who was famous for his [[CreatorThumbprint fascination with Japanese culture]]. The most obvious aspects were the Turtles' mentor "Splinter" (as opposed to Daredevil's mentor "Stick"), and their enemies "The Foot Clan" (Daredevil's were "The Hand"). The Turtles' origin story, involving a runaway canister of radioactive chemicals, also parodied Daredevil's origin.[[note]] Matt Murdock was hit in the eyes with a canister of radioactive chemicals as a teenager, while the Turtles were mutated after a canister of radioactive chemicals leaked into the sewers after hitting a teenage boy "near his eyes"; some versions even strongly imply that the teenage boy actually ''was'' Matt Murdock in a LawyerFriendlyCameo.[[/note]] And their basic character dynamic parodied the X-Men--another surrogate family of temperamental teenage mutants with contrasting personalities. Even their most iconic villains, the samurai Oroku Saki ("The Shredder") and the grotesque alien Krang, took some obvious inspiration from the Marvel villains [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Samurai Keniuchio Harada]] ("The Silver Samurai") and the grotesque mutant [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MODOK MODOK]].
* Even with proper annotation you'll be hard pressed to identify most of the references to Victorian literature in ''Comicbook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', with bonus points if you are even aware of the original work. To understand how far Creator/AlanMoore goes, there are references to ''Victorian porn novels that have been out of print for decades'', and visual reference gags can number in the triple figures ''on one page''. It gets even worse once he gets into the twentieth century.
** In some cases the characters mentioned or encountered are from the 19th century, but not from British literature. There are cameos for example of Auguste Dupin (created by Edgar Allan Poe) and Anna/Nana Coupeau (created by Émile Zola). Also there are references to even older characters. Issue second includes a reference to the character Lady Termagant Flaybum. Flaybum is a major character in an 18th-century novel concerning flagellations, and having a sado-masochistic tone.
** There are also unusual depictions of famous characters, such as Charles Dickens' characters outside their typical era. One scene involves an aging thief giving Fagin-like training to a group of child thieves. Moore does not give a name for the old man, but the implication is that we are seeing child-thief Artful Dodger in his old age. He became a copy of his mentor. Another scene involves a young rape victim who seems unusually optimistic. The name given for her is Polly Whittier, a character better known as "Pollyanna".
* ''ComicBook/{{Viz}}'' started as a parody of British children's comics and now the genre it parodies is all but dead with the exception of ComicBook/TheBeano, which Viz even outsells.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Nero}}'': To this day many Flemings (especially from the older generation) will think of the protagonist from this popular comic book series whenever they hear the name "Nero", instead of the [[UsefulNotes/{{Nero}} Roman Emperor on which his name was based]]. Meneer Pheip's son, Clo-Clo, has a name based on French singer Claude-François' AffectionateNickname, but how many people remember that?
* ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'': Similarly, the name "Barabas" will remind many people in Belgium and the Netherlands of the AbsentMindedProfessor in this comic book series, rather than the biblical character.
** There is a Suske en Wiske story called ''De Texasrakkers'' ("The Texas Scoundrels"), which was originally a shout-out to the popular 1950s TV western series ''The Texas Rangers'', but this show is nowadays completely forgotten. In fact mention ''The Texas Rangers'' today in Flanders or the Netherlands and everybody assumes you mean ''De Texasrakkers''.
* ''ComicBook/{{Agent 327}}'': This series started out as a parody of Franchise/JamesBond, but mostly the campy 1960s version. For many people unaware of these movies they may not notice the parody element anymore. Similarly the character Olga L'''a'''wina has a PunnyName (''lawine'' means ''avalanche'' in Dutch and the character is of Swiss nationality) which refers to the nowadays almost forgotten Dutch singer Olga L'''o'''wina.
* The Hellfire Club's introductory appearance in ''ComicBook/XMen'' was originally a parody/homage of the classic ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' episode "A Touch of Brimstone", where Steed and Peel battle a genteel criminal organization called...[[NamesTheSame the Hellfire Club]]. Practically everything about the story arc's plot was inspired by the ''Avengers'' episode in some way: Jean Grey's famously kinky "Black Queen" outfit was an exact replica of Emma Peel's "Queen of Sin" costume, and Jason Wyngarde was [[ComicBookFantasyCasting modeled after]] British actor Creator/PeterWyngarde, who guest-starred as that episode's villain. But while the Hellfire Club in ''The Avengers'' appeared only once, Marvel's Hellfire Club has remained a major part of the X-Men mythos for over three decades, and most younger fans don't know about its origins, especially in the US, where the syndication package [[NoExportForYou omitted that episode]] and it only became available much later. It helps that their introductory appearance was in the first part of ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'', the most beloved ''X-Men'' story of all time.
** Fewer people still may be aware that the Hellfire Club was a real thing, albeit not necessarily evil, but rather a series of 18th century gentlemen's clubs that took a satirical and ironic view of society and religion. Calling themselves "devils" and engaging in mock ceremonies that mostly just involved alcohol and pranks, {{Flanderization}} and ArtisticLicenseHistory likely inspired their appearance in ''The Avengers''.
** The other part of Jason Wyngarde's name is from the amiably cheesy TV series ''Series/JasonKing'' (1971–72), in which Wyngarde portrayed a foppish writer who is often mistaken for the hero of his adventure novels.
* ''ComicBook/{{Hitman|1993}}'' featured a TakeThat in its ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' issue to NinetiesAntiHero Gunfire, who was at the time fairly new, having debuted in the same CrisisCrossover as the protagonist of ''Hitman.'' In the years since that issue came out, Gunfire has appeared in about ten issues, and [[CListFodder had a speaking role in only two of them]], while ''Hitman'' remains a CultClassic - consequently, chances are that if anyone has read an issue featuring the character, it's the one where he [[BloodyHilarious turned his ass into a hand grenade]].
* The second annual for the ''ComicBook/SpongeBobSquarePants'' comic features a story that's a WholePlotReference to ''ComicBook/StardustTheSuperWizard'', even being written in part by the guy largely responsible for bringing the series to the public eye. Considering that ''Stardust'' is deep inside "cult fanbase" territory, and the few fans it does have generally don't overlap with people who buy ''[=SpongeBob=]'' tie-in comics, it's anyone's guess how many kids were left very confused by that issue.
* ''ComicBook/MeggMoggAndOwl'' is a SubvertedKidsShow parody of the children's picture book and TV cartoon franchise ''WesternAnimation/MegAndMog'', about a kindly WitchClassic and her cat, which depicts the characters as nihilistic, self-destructive stoners. It's become sufficiently successful as to be more famous than ''Meg and Mog'', which is now remembered only by those who were children during the era.
* The infamous "Arm Fall Off Boy" of ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' was essentially an early AscendedMeme; the AtrociousAlias was a joke thrown around a lot in the book's letters page. With the rise of the Internet enabling his single scene to be posted everywhere, people remember him a lot more than the original joke (and a good chunk of them seem convinced he was serious).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* While "Stronger Than You" is the SignatureSong of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' and is quite popular, a large number of people think of it as an ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' song due to a fanmade parody of it sung by Sans during his boss fight. If you search the song on Website/YouTube, more ''Undertale'' versions appear than ''Steven Universe'' videos and various ''Undertale'' versions have more views than the Garnet version. There are even several "Stronger Than You" parodies which are based on the Undertale version, with the original's focus on how [[ThePowerOfLove love is stronger than hate]] lost in favor of particularly mean-spirited jabs (the original not containing anything much harsher than "I think you're just mad 'cause you're single") and/or a battle to the death (while there was always fighting involved, it wasn't to the death in the original), more akin to the Sans version. That said, [[PoesLaw it's difficult to tell how many people really believe that the Undertale version came first, and how many are just playing along and/or trolling Steven Universe fans]].
* ''Music/LullabyForAPrincess'' is well-known amongst bronies but, because it is a fandom-centric FilkSong, it's prone to this when parodies. For example, many ''Warriors'' fans know of ''[[https://youtu.be/MNL9G2oApP0 Lullaby For A Warrior]]'', a version about Bluestar and her sister Snowfur, before the original.
* "Ready As I'll Ever Be" is ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries''' SignatureSong but it's [[MemeticMutation most popular]] with amateur animators. As a result, many people learn of it from animatics without realizing it's from a Disney cartoon.
* Many fans of ''WebComic/{{Homestuck}}'' do not know the words to "Fergalicious", but ''do'' know all the words to its fanmade parody "Karkalicious".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* Of course, [[TheGenieKnowsJackNicholson Genie's impressions]] in ''{{WesternAnimation/Aladdin}}'' were always meant as a ParentalBonus, but some are getting obscure even for the adults, at least the ones who weren't already adults in the 1990s. You know when Genie says there are provisos and quid pro quos? That's an impression of Creator/WilliamFBuckleyJr, whom you're unlikely to be familiar with if you're either not American or not old enough to remember the Reagan administration.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'''s name is based on the legendary circus elephant Jumbo, something not many people nowadays remember or know (his proper name is given as Jumbo Jr., while "Dumbo" is a mean nickname given to him by the other elephants).
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Rockadoodle}}'', Pinky is to Colonel Tom Parker what Chanticleer is to Music/ElvisPresley. Young kids who grew up in the 90's probably knew who Elvis was, but the Colonel, not so much. The name/character of Chanticleer himself is from one of Chaucer's ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', who took it from the body of folk tales about him and Reynard the fox. But you would have to be a medievalist to make that connection.
* Many young viewers watching the ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'' movies will not realize that Puss in Boots is an AffectionateParody of the titular character from ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'', even being played by [[Creator/AntonioBanderas the same actor]]. This applies both to when ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'' was released, as it came out six years after ''Zorro'', and to the present day, where the ''Shrek'' fandom is still very active despite no new releases in years, while the ''Zorro'' franchise hasn't been in the limelight for some time. Because of this trope, it can be humorous when fans of the film grow up and realize that Puss, who has become an iconic character in his own right, is so heavily inspired by another classic character.
* While older audiences and rock fans likely know of the song, the target audience for ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'' typically know of "Goofy-Goober Rock" before the original 1980s song "I Wanna Rock" by Music/TwistedSister. This extends to fans who were kids at the time of release but are now adults.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]
* Many Hollywood actors of the 1930s and 1940s are only familiar to younger generations as a result of their caricatures in old Creator/{{Disney}} and ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cartoons, not from the movies that made them famous.
* Kenneth Alford's 1914 tune "Colonel Bogey March" is now best known as "that whistling tune from ''Film/TheBridgeOnTheRiverKwai''” (or “[[Film/{{Spaceballs}} the Dink song]]”). During World War II, the song acquired parody lyrics and became known as "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball".
* The classic 1940s-era shorts by ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' were often parodies of contemporary films, many of which are today mostly forgotten, contrary to the Stooges themselves. The best-known example may be "Men in Black" (a takeoff on a now-forgotten doctors-and-nurses tale called ''Men in White'').
** In a similar case, it affected former third Stooge Joe Besser as well: While he was quite popular for various comedic roles during his time -- most notably his "whiny sissy" act that he carried over to his Stooge role -- today, he's known for ''nothing'' but being a replacement third Stooge (and a subpar one at that).
** Well, Joe Besser is also remembered as "Stinky" on ''Creator/AbbottAndCostello''.
* ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' (1980) lifts, often word for word, the story of a 1950s disaster movie called ''Film/ZeroHour1957'' (itself a remake of a Canadian television movie). As a matter of fact, the Zucker brothers bought the rights to ''Zero Hour!'' so they could use its plot so closely without being sued. However, ''Airplane!'' is better remembered as a general parody of '70s [[DisasterMovie disaster films]], specially the ''Film/{{Airport}}'' series, which jump-started the craze. And many younger viewers haven't even heard of those films, especially ''Airport'', as ''Airplane!'' was a pretty thorough GenreKiller.
** Ethel Merman is best known nowadays for appearing as an asylum inmate who claimed to be her.
** The ''Series/SixtyMinutes'' segment ''Point/Counterpoint'', where a liberal and a conservative debate current events, and its conservative commentator [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Kilpatrick James Kilpatrick]], only live on in the public consciousness from the Kilpatrick parody in the film.
--> "Shana, they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, [[NoSympathy let 'em crash]]!"
** The joke with a copilot who's played by (and seemingly really ''is'') basketball player Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar is a particularly silly reference to the original ''Zero Hour!'', where the copilot was played by Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch, a popular football player at the time who was trying to break into film. The number of people who remember both ''Zero Hour!'' and Hirsch today is pretty small.
* In ''Film/BlazingSaddles'', the villain Hedley Lamarr is always correcting people who call him "Hedy". There are fewer people today who know Creator/HedyLamarr (who starred in 19 films, had six husbands, and held a patent for radio frequency-hopping) than who know ''Blazing Saddles'' -- or who know Hedy [=LaRue=] in ''Film/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'', a more direct takeoff on Lamarr.
** Ditto jazz musician Mongo Santamaria, who is perhaps best known today as the punchline of a throwaway joke involving the character Mongo in ''Blazing Saddles''.
** Almost nobody in the movie's target audience would have known that, by Hollywood cliché, Native Americans were played by Jewish actors... hence the movie's Yiddish-speaking Indians.
** The Waco Kid's famous speech about how and why he ended his time as the FastestGunInTheWest and turned into a [[TheAlcoholic depressed drunk]] is a spoof of a speech given by a character in an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959''. The enduring fame and popularity of ''Blazing Saddles'' has meant that far more people are familiar with the Waco Kid's scene in the film than with the source material.
** Few people know who Creator/RandolphScott or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dix Richard Dix]] are anymore.
* Also by Creator/MelBrooks, ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'' makes it easy for people to find some unintentional comedy in many scenes of ''Film/{{Frankenstein 1931}}'' (and on a lesser level, ''Film/BrideOfFrankenstein''). And few viewers realize that as well as being a general pastiche of Frankenstein films, it lifts its plot and several whole scenes from ''Film/SonOfFrankenstein'' in particular.
* Yet again from Mel Brooks, ''[[Film/RobinHoodMenInTights Robin Hood: Men in Tights]]'' is probably better remembered by its fans than ''[[Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves]]'', the movie it was most closely parodying. Also, most people don't realize that the utterly ridiculous facial expressions that Cary Elwes makes throughout the movie are actually a spot-on imitation of those made by Errol Flynn in the classic ''Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938).
** Robin Hood: “Unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent.”
* Him again: ''Film/TheProducers'''s "Springtime for Hitler" scene features a portion where a group of people form a swastika, an image lifted straight from Nazi propaganda film ''Film/TriumphOfTheWill'' (albeit on a much smaller scale). For obvious reasons, the latter is only watched by film students and neo-Nazis.
* ''Film/DrStrangelove'':
** The title character is a parody of Wernher von Braun, the ex-Nazi scientist who worked for NASA. Ex-Nazi scientists were also a stock character in the 50s.
** It is an adaptation of the now long forgotten ''dramatic'' Peter George novel ''Red Alert''. Nuclear holocaust stories were popular in the 50s. The film was originally going to be a straight adaptation before getting turned into a darkly comic satire.
** The film ''Fail-Safe'', released around the same time, used the identical concept played straight. (In fact, it was based on a novel itself, and the author of ''Red Alert'' sued the author of ''Fail-Safe'' for plagiarism...) Today if it's remembered at all, people tend to assume it's boring and stodgy in comparison, but it's actually a critically acclaimed drama.
** The title character's metal hand is more recognizable today than that of Rotwang in ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', the character which it homages.
* Several scenes from the spy thriller ''Film/MarathonMan'' ("Is it safe?") are arguably more famous for being parodied than the movie itself.
* You are likely to encounter ''Film/CitizenKane'' through a parody or reference in a children's cartoon years before you even hear of the film itself - especially the word "rosebud".
* The Film/AustinPowers franchise parodies a lot in the ''Film/JamesBond'' franchise, some that "everyone" would get (Random Task throwing a shoe), while others are obscure enough that most viewers wouldn't get unless they were a Bond fan. Music/BurtBacharach provided music for ''Film/CasinoRoyale1967'', which is why he makes an appearance in the first Austin Powers film. Austin himself is a parody of Jason King, a suave hipster secret agent from the British TV shows ''Series/DepartmentS'' and [[Series/JasonKing his own eponymous spin-off]], who is now largely forgotten even in Britain. Austin also parodies the titular character of the short-lived British spy show ''Series/AdamAdamantLives''
* Far more people nowadays have seen the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' films than [[TwoFistedTales the '30s adventure films]] [[GenreThrowback that inspired them]]. To the point where one of the main criticisms of ''[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'' was that it didn't follow the '30s adventure template, even though the production team was trying to do the same thing to the '50s sci-fi shows. Recursively enough, it's closer to '70s parodies of the template (the crystal skulls, AncientAstronauts, and TheGreys especially are '70s tropes).
* Try showing some German expressionist movies to someone who isn't already familiar with the genre, and see how long it takes for them to mention Creator/TimBurton.
* While not a parody, Creator/RobertDeNiro's famous "YouTalkinToMe?" line from ''Film/TaxiDriver'' was a reference to the 1953 Western ''Film/{{Shane}}'', where the title character is called out.
-->'''Shane:''' You speakin' to me?\\
'''Chris Calloway:''' I don't see nobody else standin' there.
** Other reports claim that De Niro was inspired by a standup routine he saw in New York.
** Some people who grew up watching ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' will associate it with The Goodfeathers, who occasionally used this catchphrase.
*** Similarly, many people are familiar with the Goodfeathers but have never heard of "Goodfellas". This includes people who are old enough to remember a time when Animaniacs didn't exist.
* The ''LOVE/HATE'' [[KnuckleTattoos tattoos]] that dangerous people have on their knuckles originated in ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter'', which has been spoofed by countless films and TV shows:
** ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' once had a biker accidentally getting the tattoo "LOVE/HATS" but didn't mind because he actually really loved hats.
** When BA first appears in the film version of ''Film/TheATeam'' a pair of camera closeups during the fight shows "PITY" on one hand and "FOOL" on the other as he throws punches.
** The four-fingered Sideshow Bob had "LUV" on one and "HĀT" on the other in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.
** Going one step further, ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' not only has a parody of the tattoo, but an even more obscure parody of the scene in which its meaning is explained.
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' had an episode where George, a moose, tried to be tougher and wrote "LOVE/HATE" on his antlers.
** ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' had Dipper outright wear Reverend Powell's IconicOutfit when he was supposed to play a preacher for Mabel's elaborate puppet show/play in the episode "Sock Opera". Younger viewers usually will only be familiar with the costume as what Dipper wears during the play [[spoiler:[[GrandTheftMe while possessed by Bill nearly the whole time]], and by extension as the IconicOutfit of Bill-possessed Dipper (aka Bipper)]].
%%** ''Film/RaisingArizona''
%%** Eddie in ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''.
%%** Radio Raheem in ''Film/DoTheRightThing'' has ''LOVE/HATE'' four-finger rings.
%%** Music/TheClash makes a reference to it in the lyrics of "Death or Glory".
* Creator/BruceLee is so ubiquitously parodied (specially the FunnyBruceLeeNoises in fight scenes) that many people don't even realize who they are imitating when they do it. It speaks to the man's influence that despite inspiring an [[BruceLeeClone entire subgenre of martial arts films]], the man himself only made five movies, four and change if you want to get technical.
** His yellow and black tracksuit in ''Film/GameOfDeath'' is also common for parody:
*** ''Film/ShaolinSoccer'' has the goalie, a Creator/BruceLee lookalike, wear the tracksuit and imitate some of his mannerisms.
*** ''Film/KillBill'' features the Bride in a black and yellow tracksuit.
* ''Film/PulpFiction'' contains another iconic example in Jules' quoting of a (rather heavily modified) passage from Ezekiel. This is in fact a fairly overt reference to Creator/SonnyChiba's character in ''Film/KarateKiba''. Also, more people know the film's version of Ezekiel 25:17 rather than the actual Bible passage.
* Most people would recognize scenes from films such as ''Film/TheGreatEscape'' or ''Film/TheDamBusters'' than would recognize the films themselves. For example, the "bouncing bombs" or the "throwing a ball against the wall in a prison cell" are widely recognized by people who have never seen either of those.
** The fact that the attack on the Death Star sequence in ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope]]'' is a shot-for-shot homage to ''Film/TheDamBusters'' will confuse people a bit though.
** Double that for the theme tunes. Most people will recognize the ''Great Escape'' theme or the ''Dam Busters'' march but have no idea what film the music is from.
** Teenagers of high-school-age might find their introduction to ''The Dam Busters'' via ''[[Music/TheWall Pink Floyd: The Wall]]''--it's what Pink watches on TV throughout.
** ''Film/TheGreatEscape'' gets a bit more recognition in the UK, what with it having to be a Christmas Tradition for many years.
** Most kids who played the "Grape Escape" board game had no idea that its name was a pun.
* How many people have seen or even heard of the Dalton Trumbo war film, ''Literature/JohnnyGotHisGun'', and how many people only know it as the backdrop to Music/{{Metallica}}'s music video for "One"? (Metallica bought the rights to the film for the video, but were decent enough to release it to video as well.)
* ''Film/WhosAfraidOfVirginiaWoolf'': Creator/ElizabethTaylor does an exaggerated impression of Creator/BetteDavis saying a line from ''Beyond the Forest'' (1949): 'What a dump!' In an interview with Barbara Walters, Creator/BetteDavis said that in the film, she really did not deliver the line in such an exaggerated manner. She said it in a more subtle, low-key manner, but it has passed into a legend that she said it the way Elizabeth Taylor delivered it in this film. During the Barbara Walters interview, the clip of Bette Davis delivering the line from ''Film/BeyondTheForest'' was shown to prove that Davis was correct. However, since people expected Bette Davis to deliver the line the way Creator/ElizabethTaylor had, she always opened her in-person, one woman show by saying the line in a campy, exaggerated manner: 'WHAT ... A... DUMP!!!' It always brought down the house. 'I imitated the imitators,' Davis said."
* Many of the movies and cultural references mentioned in ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' opening song "Science Fiction Double Feature" (as well as references throughout) are completely lost on the younger fans of RHPS.
* ''Film/FullMetalJacket'': During the boot camp sequence [[DrillSergeantNasty Sergeant Hartmann]] mockingly refers to Leonard Lawrence as Gumber Pyle, a reference to ''Series/GomerPyleUSMC'' from ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow''. Nowadays people associate the name Gumber/Gomer Pyle with the movie, and most are unaware it's not his real name.
* The dialog between Han and Leia in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' that includes the line "I happen to like nice men" matches similar dialog from ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' almost exactly:
-->"Scarlett, you do like me, don't you?"\\
That was more like what she was expecting.\\
"Well, sometimes," she answered cautiously. "When you aren't acting like a varmint."\\
He laughed again and held the palm of her hand against his hard cheek.\\
"I think you like me because I am a varmint. You've known so few dyed-in-the-wool varmints in your sheltered life that my very difference holds a quaint charm for you."\\
This was not the turn she had anticipated and she tried again without success to pull her hand free.\\
"That's not true! I like nice men--men you can depend on to always be gentlemanly."
* Probably more people nowadays recognize "Heeeeeere's Johnny!" as something Creator/JackNicholson said in ''Film/TheShining'' than as [=Ed McMahon=]'s introduction of Creator/JohnnyCarson on ''Series/{{The Tonight Show|StarringJohnnyCarson}}''.
* The call and response "You remind me of the babe (what babe?)" isn't originally from ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'', but instead references the 1947 Creator/CaryGrant film ''Bachelor Knight'' (originally named ''Film/TheBachelorAndTheBobbySoxer'').
* ''Film/TheGoonies'': People are more likely to assume "Hey you guys!" is from this film rather than ''Series/{{The Electric Company|1971}}''.
* Say "It's showtime!" to anyone born before 1960 and that person is likely to think of Creator/RoyScheider in ''Film/AllThatJazz''. But say the same line to anyone born after 1960 and ''that'' person will probably think of Creator/MichaelKeaton in ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. [[note]]That is, if they don't think of Wrestling/{{Sting}}, the obscure Eddie Murphy/Robert De Niro film ''Film/{{Showtime}}'', or ''Film/{{Creepshow}}''.[[/note]]
* ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere most likely didn't originate from ''Film/HotShots''. But good luck finding someone who knows where it '''did''' come from. Considering the phrase was already pretty well known before ''Film/HotShots'' came out...
** The similar phrase "I can see Russia from my house", from Saturday Night Live, became more famous than the real Sarah Palin quote which inspired it, "you can see Russia from land in Alaska", to the point where many people believed that the SNL line was something she actually said.
* The afterburners on the airship from ''Film/TheMummyReturns'' are a CallBack to the turbos from ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'', which in turn are a CallBack to ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}''.
* The only thing most people today remember of the 1957 horror film ''Film/NightOfTheDemon'' was the line "It's in the trees! It's coming!", which was sampled rather effectively at the beginning of the Music/KateBush song "Hounds of Love".
* The WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue from ''Film/AnimalHouse'' [[TropeCodifier which everyone has mimicked/spoofed]] was actually a parody of the epilogue of ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'', released just five years earlier.
* Leni Riefenstahl's ''Film/TriumphOfTheWill'' has been extensively parodied in everything from ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing'' to ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars: A New Hope]]'' to ''Film/{{Gladiator}}''. While most mature viewers would recognize the Nazi iconography it's doubtful they know the original source.
* {{Invoked|Trope}} by ''Film/MrHollandsOpus''. In an effort to teach his class to appreciate classical music, Mr. Holland plays a popular rock song (the Toys' "Lover's Concerto") on the piano, then transitions into Christian Petzold's "Minuet in G" (at the time attributed to Music/JohannSebastianBach) from which it derives. "Minuet in G" is also used in the film ''Film/ElectricDreams'' in a scene where a sentient computer uses sound synthesis to imitate a Classical violinist. It's not hard to find comments or threads on the Internet where people claim the song in ''Electric Dreams'' was plagiarized from "Lover's Concerto".
* The Sid Caesar short comedy "Sneaking Thru the Sound Barrier", which plays on a loop at the National Air and Space Museum, is, as mentioned in its introduction, a parody of films about test pilots that were popular in the 1950s. Casual museum visitors today are likely to go "What test pilot movies?"
* Melodramatically proclaiming "''YOU'RE TEARING ME APART!''" has been done by countless [[Film/TheRoom Tommy Wiseau]] impressionists who probably don't realise that Wiseau got it from ''Film/RebelWithoutACause''.
* Jessica Rabbit's appearance (and especially her [[PeekaBangs hairstyle]]) was based on Creator/VeronicaLake, a [[TheForties 1940s]] icon who frequently showed up in the sort of noir films ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' was spoofing (though Lake was blonde, not a redhead). Nowadays that look is usually associated with Jessica Rabbit rather than the real actress she was a parody of.
* "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" No, not from ''Film/BlazingSaddles'', but ''Film/TheTreasureOfTheSierraMadre''.[[note]]Also a BeamMeUpScotty -- the original line is "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"[[/note]] Go Figure! Then Weird Al himself co-opted the scene in ''Film/{{UHF}}'': "Badgers? Badgers?! We don't need no stinking badgers!"
* Nobody outside of Germany would have ever heard of ''Film/{{Downfall}}'' if not for the much more famous [[VillainousBreakdown "Hitler Rants"]] parodies of it.
* Most people today are far more likely to recognize the strut set to James Brown's "Get Up and Drive That Funky Soul" from ''Film/SpiderMan3'' than from ''Slaughter's Big Rip-Off''.
* While on the Spider-Man movies, one [[https://youtu.be/hziG9Nr6KHU video for "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head"]] uses images from the movie it was written for, ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid'', yet many comments are from people who know the song from a scene in ''Film/SpiderMan2''.
* People who watch ''Film/LastActionHero'' today may not realize that the "Hamlet" segment was a send-up of Ahnuld's fellow action star Creator/MelGibson, who had starred as ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' himself just a few years earlier.
** The brief appearance by a "black and white digitization of Humphrey Bogart" as one of the assigned police partners is sending up the uproar created the previous year when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnmkfP47-gI an ad for Diet Coke]] used CGI to turn Bogart, James Cagney, and Louis Armstrong into posthumous pitchmen for a modern soft drink.
* In France, many young people still quote lines from the ''La Cité de la peur'', released in ''1994'' (before many of them were even born) by Les Nuls, while many of the already dated RedScare films it spoofed are now lost to time. Many, many jokes from this film, most of which are untranslatable, have now become MemeticMutation:
-->'''Commissaire Bialès:''' Do you want some whisky?\\
'''[[PunnyName Odile Deray]]:''' Two fingers.\\
'''Commissaire Bialès:''' [[IntercourseWithYou Don't you want some whisky first?]]
* Creator/MauriceChevalier's [[MauriceChevalierAccent distinctive French accent and hon hon laugh]] are still imitated to this day whenever English people try and imitate a Frenchman[[note]]A joke about this in ''Film/HistoryOfTheWorldPartOne'' is the trope namer for JustAStupidAccent[[/note]]. Yet virtually almost nobody today has a clue that they are indirectly referencing him. They may think of [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast a certain talking candlestick]], however...
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' has a sketch where a film crew is making a movie called ''Film/ScottOfTheAntarctic'', about the failed expedition of polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott. Most viewers nowadays would be amazed that there actually ''is'' a movie with that title. ''Scott of the Antarctic'' (1947) is a faithful adaptation of the real-life tragedy, but is mostly forgotten nowadays aside from its Music/RalphVaughanWilliams soundtrack (the concert version being titled "Sinfonia antartica").
* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'':
** Parts of the film are jokes on the Broadway musical ''Theatre/{{Camelot}}'', especially the scene where the knights arrive at Camelot and immediately watch a musical number before deciding that Camelot is "a silly place." It's also most likely the reason the musical adaptation of the film was named ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}''. As the Broadway musical hasn't been run regularly since the Kennedy administration (hence why "Camelot" is a common name for that period), the Camelot sequence comes off as pretty random to modern viewers, as does the idea of naming the musical after a comparatively innocuous line from said sequence.
** The {{Intermission}} scene was parodying the at-the-time common practice in the RoadshowTheatricalRelease, which essentially died out in the early 70s (bonus points: many of these films were musicals, including the 1967 adaptation of ''Camelot''). Nowadays, intermissions in film are much, much rarer, particularly ones that look anything like the one in the film, and even home releases of films that do feature intermissions tend to cut them out.
* Potted Groot dancing at the end of ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' has recently become this. Younger fans may not be aware of the battery-powered [[https://www.google.com/search?q=dancing+flower+toy&tbm=isch dancing flower toys]] popular circa 1990.
* Creator/EdwardGRobinson's gangster portrayals in early 1930s movies have inspired quite some archetypical movie gangster, especially in cartoons like Rocky from Rocky & Mugsy in ''Franchise/LooneyTunes'' and the Mob boss of the Ant Hill gang in ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces''. Nowadays most people have no clue that these characters and their speech mannerisms were based on anybody.
* Adding the phrase "Electric Boogaloo" to the name of any sequel has become so commonplace that people may not be aware it is a reference to the 80s movie ''Film/Breakin2ElectricBoogaloo''. Even less known is the fact that "Boogaloo" refers to one of the breakdancers' nickname.
* It is lost on modern viewers, but in ''Film/TradingPlaces'', in the restaurant scene when Billy Ray gets asked about wheat, the entire room stops speaking and leans in to hear his advice. This was referencing a series of 1980s commercials for the brokerage firm, E.F. Hutton. Their slogan was, "When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen."
* Most kids who watched the Disney Channel Original Movie "Film/TeenBeachMovie" were most likely unaware that it was a spoof of the teen beach movie series of the 60s starring Frankie Avalon and famous Mouseketeer Annette Funicello.
* The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'' was a parody of the Pillsbury Doughboy. Anyone who tells you that Stay-Puft is a real brand of marshmallows, and that the Stay-Puft Man was their real mascot, is trying to confuse you and turn you to the Dark Side.
* ''Tiger & Crane Fists'' was a rather obscure kung-fu film. Nowadays is mostly remembered as the movie that ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist'' parodies.
* ''Film/SinginInTheRain'' was itself a satirical pastiche of Hollywood musicals. All but one of the songs are from earlier films. Many of the characters are references to early Hollywood royalty. And while those many films are forgotten, Singin' in the Rain tops every list of Best Movie Musicals.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In the early chapters of Creator/LewisCarroll's ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'', when Alice is trying to "sort her head out", she recites two children's verses, which she names "How Doth the Little..." and "You Are Old, Father William." Contemporaries of Carroll would have recognised these as parodies of "Against Idleness and Mischief" by Isaac Watts and "The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them" by Robert Southey. These days, while many people know Carroll's parody of Southey's verse, fewer know that it is in fact a parody, and fewer still could name or recite the original. Some verses that Carroll parodied even scholars aren't sure of because they are now so obscure. In fact the only one that hasn't caused the Weird Al Effect is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" ("Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star").
** Speaking of Southey, his poem "The Battle of Blenheim" originated the familiar album cover trope of the kid playing innocently with a skull.
** And few modern readers of ''Through the Looking-Glass'' would know the tune[[note]]"My Heart and Lute"[[/note]] the White Knight's "A-Sitting on a Gate" is supposed to be sung to, even though Alice points out that "the tune ''isn't'' his own invention."
** Much of the wording in ''Alice in Wonderland'' was meant to be surreal and strange, but has actually made its way into common parlance so that it seems perfectly normal to a modern reader [[note]](not unlike [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare the Bard's contributions to the English language)]][[/note]]. For instance, Alice says "Let's pretend," in the beginning. At the time, "pretend" meant "to lie or deceive", so "Let's pretend" sounded ''very'' odd. Now, thanks to ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', the meaning of the word has changed quite a bit. A few words, such as "chortle", were coined outright and would have been nonsense to ''Alice'''s first readers; today we think nothing of them. Because of their origin they could be considered a double instance of the trope -- very few people will realize they came from Alice, and further, even if they do, they won't realize that the original references in Alice were parodies themselves! ''Alice in Wonderland'' is its own Weird Al Effect, one could say.
** Check out the wonderful book "Annotated Alice" where famed (and late) mathemagician Martin Gardner takes the time to annotate virtually ''every'' cultural reference made. Suffice to say there are at least as many words in the annotations as there are in the original stories. One particularly in-depth aside takes up a full two-page spread, written in 8-point font. In a large-format hardback.
** ''Through the Looking-Glass'' has a nice example. ''The Walrus and the Carpenter'', the poem sung by the twins, is a parody of ''The Dream of Eugene Aram'', which is about an elementary school teacher who is convicted of murder. This was actually a famous and still controversial trial from the 18th century. Eugene Aram (1704–1759) was a groundbreaking philologist, who worked as a schoolmaster early in his career. In 1744, a friend of Aram called Daniel Clark disappeared, and was thought to have either run away with stolen goods or to have been the victim of foul play. Aram was arrested as a suspect because he was found in possession of some of the stolen goods. There was no evidence connecting him to crime, so he was released. In 1758, a skeleton was found in a cave, and authorities suspected it belonged to the still-missing Daniel Clark. Aram was arrested again and was put on trial for the murder of Clark. He tried to explain in his defense that there was no proof that the skeleton actually belonged to Daniel Clark, and that the "evidence" against him was circumstancial. He was convicted anyway and executed. He supposedly confessed before the execution that he hated Daniel Clark, because he was a close friend of his, but he had been sleeping with Aram's wife. The murder case inspired a ballad by Thomas Hood, a novel by Creator/EdwardBulwerLytton, and a theatrical play by William Gorman Wills. The fame of the case is partly based on the perceived duality between Aram's brilliant work as a scholar and his apparent guilt in a violent murder, and partly on suspicions that he may not have performed the murder after all. The "evidence" in the trial were indeed flimsy, and a key witness against Aram happened to be another main suspect in the murder of Daniel Clark. Some researchers view the other man as the most likely murderer.
** The Mad Hatter was already a trope before Carroll came along. Hatters used mercury to cure felt, and would sometimes lose cognitive function from inhaling the fumes, so mad hatters was a Victorian trope somewhat analogous to the modern trope of insane postal workers. Though "Mad Hatter's disease" is still used occasionally as an informal term for mercury poisoning, the book has the only surviving use of the character concept. Though interestingly, while he was a hatter, and mad, he was never outright called "The Mad Hatter" in the actual story, just "The Hatter".
** The beast in Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky" is more commonly known by that name since most works that reference it use that instead of the creature's ''actual'' name: Jabberwock.
** The phrase "grinning like a Cheshire cat" has been dated to the late 18th century, eighty years before the novel, although no-one is entirely sure what its origins are. It is thought that it may be connected to the dairy farms of Cheshire, and the past reputation of the area for its "abundance of milk and cream". It was the pre-eminent milk, cheese, and cream producing county of England for several centuries. Others have pointed that Lewis Carrol himself was born and raised in Cheshire, and may have been inspired by the 16th century sandstone carving of a grinning cat, on the west face of St Wilfrid's Church tower in Grappenhall, a village adjacent to his birthplace in Daresbury. A photo of Grappenhall's grinning cat is available [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheshire_Cat#/media/File:Sandstone_carving_of_%27Cheshire_Cat%27,_St_Wilfrid%27s_Church,_Grappenhall.jpg here]].
* An even older literary example is Cervantes' ''Literature/DonQuixote'', which parodied a number of {{Chivalric Romance}}s from the time period, especially one called ''Amadis of Gaul''. None of these are read any more, except by scholars. The original version of ''Amadis of Gaul'' had been written by an anonymous writer in the 14th century, but the work was thought to be incomplete. Throughout the 16th century, several different writers (Spanish, Italian, German, and French) added new volumes to the story. By the 1590s, there were about 24 volumes of Amadis in circulation around Europe. They were of varying quality and full of internal contradictions, due to the different styles and backgrounds of the writers involved. There were also other Chivalric Romances which copied tropes and ideas from ''Amadis''. Writing in the early 17th century, Cervantes decided to satirize both the genre and its main source.
** Miguel de Cervantes was the victim of a trope misunderstanding when an anonymous writer calling himself "Avellaneda" published a false sequel to ''Don Quixote''. The sequel completely missed the cleverness of Cervantes' references that mocked tropes of the chivalric genre (the noble knight's [[BagOfHolding Unlimited Knapsack]], the magic HealingPotion), instead choosing to write a slapstick and completely unfunny book that no one ever reads now. The book is signed as "Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda, born in Tordesillas", but that is a fake name, and the prologue is riffed with insults to Cervantes and unashamed flattering to his main rival, Lope de Vega. Apparently at the time the book came out the writing style was famous enough to identify the author without need of giving his real name. Given the volume of TakeThat in Cervantes' canon sequel, it is more than likely that Cervantes knew perfectly well who he was. However, precisely for this reason nobody bothered to ever write down Avellaneda's real identity. Now, 400 years later, Cervantes and Don Quixote are as famous as ever, while we only know the other as "that guy that insulted Cervantes in a FanFic". Interestingly, in Cervantes Part 2 of Don Quixote, Quixote is infuriated that there is an imposter using his name. At one point Quixote meets Don Alvaro Tarfe (a character created by Avellaneda) and "gets him to swear an affidavit that he has never met the true Don Quixote before".
** Another case of this in ''Literature/DonQuixote'' is that both books were a satire and, as such, contained a lot of references not only to now disappeared chivalry books (the second part contains extensive parodies of ''Tirant lo Blanch'', one of the better chivalry books and a Cervantes favorite) but to Spain's popular culture at the 17th century: (respectful) [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed caricatures of then-famous celebrities]], unrespectful [[TakeThat caricatures of contemporary writers]], [[ShoutOut quotes from Cervantes's favorite poets]], [[HurricaneOfAphorisms popular proverbs]], then contemporary UrbanLegends, [[DoubleEntendre phrases that can be taken in at least two different ways]], [[TheAnnotatedEdition all of them completely unknown for the modern reader if not by the notes provided in the reprints]]. [[DontExplainTheJoke Cervantes's book was incredibly funny when he published it, but it is very difficult to see it like this now]].
** Another of the difficulties of the novel is that at some points Quixote and his squire are merely listeners to someone else's story. A number of secondary characters narrate at length their own past experiences and adventures, which often have nothing to do with chivalric romance at all. They are Cervante's takes on other genres.
* Creator/{{Voltaire}}'s classic ''Literature/{{Candide}}'' is a harsh satire aimed at the optimistic teachings of Gottfried Leibniz... who is now only remembered as a mathematician. And they have forgotten the more likely target of Voltaire's satire, the now still more obscure [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Wolff_(philosopher) Christian Wolff]], who combined views as optimistic as Leibniz's with a career nearly as random as Pangloss's.
* In Creator/AgathaChristie's collection of stories starring Literature/TommyAndTuppence, ''Partners in Crime'', each story is a {{Homage}} to a different crime-writer. While many of them are still famous today, a few are now hopelessly obscure. (Anyone familiar with the blind detective Thornley Colton? Anyone?)
* Stella Gibbons's comic novel ''Literature/ColdComfortFarm'' has outlived the rustic romances it parodied.
* ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' was a parody of the then-popular genre of journeys to distant lands. It is now a standalone classic. It contains innumerable digs at people and ideas of Swift's time, which go right past modern readers. This has led many people to think of Creator/JonathanSwift as nothing more than a writer of a whimsical children's tale, when in reality he was a vicious and biting satirist who regularly savaged society in his writings. One of his other better-known works is "Literature/AModestProposal", where he satirically suggests that the best way to handle all the starving children in Ireland was to simply eat them, reasoning that since the British had already exploited Ireland in every other way, the only thing to do now is go [[ImAHumanitarian humanitarian]].
** Certain sections of ''Several Voyages to Remote Nations of the World by Lemuel Gulliver'' are also parodying other works. His Laputa and Balnibari are much more directly mocking Francis Bacon's New Atlantis. And, strangely, the ideas of each of the 4 places he goes may have been taken from an old Japanese story, or collection of stories, that talked about tiny people, giants, and horses. Whether this is truth or an extraordinary coincidence unclear, but considering how Japan is the only place Gulliver goes to that Swift treats with any kind of reality (in addition to being the only real place Gulliver goes, and the only place where he doesn't learn the language) there may be something to it.
** When Hayao Miyazaki made a film called ''Laputa: Anime/CastleInTheSky'', he apparently didn't understand that Swift's floating island of idiot-savants was meant as a scathing satire of scientists and the British crown, so simply presented it as a place of advanced technology and learning. He also had no way of knowing that the name of "Laputa" was derived from one of the worst possible epithets in Spanish, for the sake of a joke about etymology at the expense of the scientists Swift was lampooning. Consequently, most foreign releases of the anime elide the first word of the title. "Laputa" literally means "the whore" in Spanish.
** Most of the Laputa chapter is devoted to mocking scientists and other would-be intellectuals of Swift's era. The male masters of Laputa have devoted their entire lives to astronomy, mathematics, music, and technology, but they have little to no skills in any other area. They are complete failures when it comes to designing buildings or designing clothes, to the point that none of their clothes fit and none of their buildings have any symmetry. They are often so lost in their own thoughts, that they have to employ servants just in order to bring them back to reality for a few minutes, or to remind them that they have to eat, or urinate. These "intellectual" masters are married, but pay little attention to their wives or their needs. So their wives have to find lovers among the people who visit Laputa, and adultery is actually widespread in their society. The husbands don't pay attention, even when the adulterous act happens in front of their eyes. Lost in their own world.
* One interesting detail in ''Literature/TheGreatDivorce'' is that Heaven is so "solid" that souls coming directly from Earth or Hell are unable to move anything--even leaves or blades of grass. In the preface, Creator/CSLewis credits a SciFi short story for giving him the idea: the protagonist of the story {{time travel}}s to [[TemporalMutability the unchangeable past]] and finds "raindrops that would pierce him like bullets and sandwiches that no strength could bite". Lewis couldn't remember the name of the story or its author, but it has been speculated to be the "The Man Who Lived Backwards," by the never-famous Charles F. Hall, and thus, the only reason why some might even know of his name.
** The title and purpose of ''The Great Divorce'' serve as a TakeThat against the now obscure-in-comparison ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'' by Creator/WilliamBlake -- which was ''itself'' a TakeThat against the doubly obscure ''Heaven and Hell'' by Creator/EmanuelSwedenborg.
* Although the modern vampire dates back to Lord Ruthven of John William Polidori's 1819 short story "Literature/TheVampyre", Literature/{{Dracula}} is still the archetypical vampire. Even then, it is the Dracula in adaptations people think of, rather than the original book character.
** Only if they don't [[Literature/{{Twilight}} sparkle]].
** For instance, many people reading ''Dracula'' will be surprised to see the title character walking around in daylight.
** For that matter, many people familiar with Lord Ruthven might not realize that this tragic Romantic figure was a none-too-kind dig at the author's boss, Creator/LordByron. And Polidori actually borrowed the name "Lord Ruthven" from the novel ''Glenarvon'' (1816) by Lady Caroline Lamb, where Lord Ruthven is a rakish villain who seduces and corrupts innocent women. Both Polidori's and Lamb's Ruthvens are unflattering depictions of Lord Byron, because they both felt that Byron betrayed their trust. Byron had spent quite sometime trying to romance the (already married) Lamb. Once she fell for him, he quickly broke off their affair and rejected her increasingly desperate attempts to get him to bed her again, leading to them publicly quarreling about their love life, and making their relationship one of the worst kept secrets in the British Empire. Lamb gained a rather scandalous reputation in the process. Polidori dreamed of becoming a famous writer like Byron and initially viewed Byron as his friend (and possible role model), not just as an employer, until Byron started publicly mocking any work written by Polidori, stressing his superiority in physical, combat, and literary skills over Polidori, and getting impatient with Polidori's periods of ill health. He fired the young physician after about a year of service. A BrokenPedestal-process changed the way Polidori perceived Byron.
* Creator/JaneAusten's ''Literature/NorthangerAbbey'' seems to be more widely studied and read than the gothic fiction of Creator/AnnRadcliffe which it parodies.
** In fact, for a long time scholars weren't even sure that the works she parodied even existed. The novel was published in 1817, but had actually been written in the late 1790s. Austen had chosen to include humorous references to seven then-recently published novels, most of which were soon out of print and forgotten due to the changing preferences of the 19th-century audience. Soon neither scholars, nor readers could understand what Austen was referring to. In the 1920s, two literary historians tracked down the forgotten works and revived interest in them. All seven have seen reprints in the 20th and 21st century, mostly because Austen happened to mention them.
* A number of 18th century poets such as Creator/ColleyCibber are mainly known even to academics for being mocked and parodied by Creator/AlexanderPope in ''The Dunciad'' and other works.
* ''Literature/TenSixtySixAndAllThat'', a 1930 parody of the patriotic Whiggish school history books of the early 20th century, has long outlasted the works it is parodying.
* The ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series was partially inspired by the time-honored British boarding school genre. ''Harry Potter'' is now way, ''way'' more famous than ''Literature/TomBrownsSchooldays''. [[note]] Or indeed the jolly hockeysticks boarding school yarns of Creator/EnidBlyton or Frank Richards' Greyfriars with the abominable fat boy Billy Bunter.[[/note]]
** While on the topic of ''Literature/HarryPotter'': A lot of the creatures, spells, and other magical phenomena in the book have their roots in [[OlderThanYouThink much, much older]] literature. {{Basilisk|AndCockatrice}}s, for example, are at least OlderThanPrint (and a certain fantasy collectible card game featured both a Cockatrice and a Thicket Basilisk back in '93/'94). However, with the exception of elements used frequently in modern works (werewolves, for example), most ''Harry Potter'' fans aren't fully aware of how little of Harry's world originated with J.K. Rowling. (The exception is that if you are even vaguely aware of alchemy or one of the other works that used it, then you would know at least that Rowling did not invent the Philosopher's Stone.)
*** And Nicolas Flamel (c. 1340-1418) was a real person, who supposedly ''did'' invent the Philosopher's Stone. The real Flamel was a successful French scribe and manuscript-seller. He gained a large fortune for his era, owned much real estate property, and had the reputation of a generous philanthropist. In the 17th century (2 centuries following his death), a number of texts started claiming that he was a fabulously wealthy and immortal alchemist. His reputation has since grown mostly due to the legends about him.
** But then ''Literature/TomBrownsSchooldays'' also gave rise to that grand antihero Literature/{{Flashman}}.
*** Of course, around here Flashman himself is best known for being parodied by Literature/CiaphasCain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!
** A good number of elements in the series are meant to parody aspects of British culture that are little-known beyond it. A classic example is the rather funky conversion method for wizarding currency (seventeen sickles to a galleon, twenty-nine knuts to a sickle), which confuses most foreigners but was a pretty apt parody of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_the_pound_sterling#Pre-decimal_coinage the incredibly convoluted pre-decimalization coinage]] that Britain phased out in the 70s.
** More specifically, many of the elements of following magical children through their time at school were first done in Creator/JillMurphy's ''Literature/TheWorstWitch'' series. Many scenes in Harry Potter appear to be close to direct copies of scenes in The Worst Witch, including things such as the broomstick lessons and getting into trouble for smuggling an animal into the school. The first book was published in 1974, and actually written well before that. While The Worst Witch is not really obscure, with new books still being published and selling well, along with multiple TV adaptations and most recently a theatre production, there's no question which series is better-known.
* Few people remember that the character of C.S. Forester's ''Literature/HoratioHornblower'' was an homage to and AffectionateParody of, at the time, well-known British naval officers, particularly Lord Horatio Nelson. Many of Hornblower's adventures, as well as his career progression, closely parallel Lord Nelson's. These days, all but Nelson are largely forgotten by those who aren't historians or military strategists, and Nelson himself is little-known outside of Great Britain.
* Believe it or not, Creator/AldousHuxley's ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', the {{Trope Maker|s}} for {{Dystopia}}, was written because the writer found so much FridgeHorror in one of Creator/HGWells's later novels (written long after Wells had [[JumpingTheShark jumped the shark]]) that Huxley considered that novel to depict more of a dystopia than a utopia. Today, ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' is considered a classic, and practically no one knows or cares about ''Literature/MenLikeGods'' or any of Wells's other post-1922 novels. Partly justified by the nature of these novels and their relative lack of impact in comparison to Wells' earlier works.
* In a variation of this trope, you'd be surprised to learn how many words you use each day that didn't exist until TheBard wrote them down. Addiction, advertising, amazement, assassination, bedroom, blanket, blushing, countless, fashionable, frugal... The [[http://shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html list]] goes on and on.
* ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}: Legion'' does this InUniverse. When Colonel Barclay mentions ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' in reference to the alien invaders, Nathan Gould doesn't get it. The Colonel promptly laments the ignorance of the classics.
* The 1966 novel ''Mott the Hoople'' by Willard Manus is only remembered now because of [[Music/MottTheHoople the band who named themselves after it]].
* For a truly extreme example, ''Literature/TheSatyricon'', a satirical epic spoofing the aspiring middle-class through a group of poetry-FanBoy criminals WalkingTheEarth, contains multiple occasions where characters will break into poems that are parodies of poems of the day, often with plenty of StylisticSuck applied. Even the prose contains numerous {{Shout Out}}s to contemporary pop culture and [[MemeticMutation memes]]. The thing is that the work was written during UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire, and almost all of the works it references are long lost. In most cases, ''The Satyricon'' is the only record that they existed at all.
* Robert Michael Ballantyne's 1858 novel ''The Coral Island'' features three boys living in harmony on an island after a shipwreck. The novel used to be a real classic in the early 20th century. However, it also used to really annoy a certain William Golding, so he wrote a {{Deconstruction}} of it, complete with names ripped out of Ballantyne's work. Now, which is better known today, ''The Coral Island'' or ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies''? (Only one of these works has a page.)
** ''Lord of the Flies'' is in a similar situation to ''The Cold Equations'', in that it's essentially a DeconstructiveParody of a genre that was widespread at the time, but doesn't really exist anymore. There were countless novels about British schoolboys going into hostile environments with no parental support, and using basic survival skills, the power of teamwork, and their stiff-upper-lip courage and wit to become the masters of their surroundings. (It also doubled as a sort of pro-colonial narrative, since the message was essentially "Brits are better than the savages and can build civilization anywhere!", which was obviously popular at the time.) ''Lord of the Flies'' turned out to be the GenreKiller by arguing that the boys would actually quickly descend to the level of "savages" and break down into factionalism, infighting, and murder, and nowadays no story plays the original tropes straight anymore.
* ''Literature/ASwiftlyTiltingPlanet'' features St. Patrick's Rune, which the protagonists use to fight against evil. Many readers may believe that the rune was the author's own invention or (if they are familiar with St. Patrick's Lorica/Breastplate) that it was her own variation of the original. The truth is that the exact wording of the rune was taken from the longer "St. Patrick's Hymn Before Tara", written by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clarence_Mangan James Clarence Mangan]], a nineteenth-century Irish poet.
* ''Literature/TheColdEquations'' was written as a subversion/deconstruction of {{Invincible|Hero}} ScienceHero people who {{Ass Pull}}ed perfect solutions to everything using [[HandWave SCIENCE]]. It was a character archetype that plagued science fiction and other literary genres at the time, so the DownerEnding of ''Cold Equations'' was meant to be a SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome moment where the scientist ''can't'' magically save everyone thanks to a mixture of incompetent engineering and pure bad luck. However, the archetype ended up dying out relatively soon after, while ''Cold Equations'' has been reprinted often as a sci-fi classic. As a result most people who read it nowadays don't have the context behind the story and are just astounded by the laughably short-sighted spaceship design.
* How many people read eighteenth-century literature and think, “Hey, this sounds like [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraft!]]”?
* ItWasADarkAndStormyNight has been parodied so many times, most people have no idea that it comes from ''Paul Clifford'' (1830) by Creator/EdwardBulwerLytton, or that that phrase is the ''just the start'' of a very long opening sentence. The phrase was: ''It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.'' It was supposed to be "atmospheric" and gave the novel a GothicHorror-tone.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has as one of its many settings the [[WizardingSchool Unseen]] [[AcademyOfAdventure University]] where most if not all of the Wizard characters reside and as such is the most respected (read: oldest) institution of magical academics that wasn't destroyed by the [[GreatOffscreenWar Mage Wars.]] What many readers may not realise is that its name is a parody of the Invisible College, a group of like-minded scientists and natural philosophers in England formed around the mid-17th century.
** Likewise, Ankh-Morpork is itself a parody of Fritz Leiber's ''[[Literature/FafhrdAndTheGrayMouser Lankhmar]]'' series.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Series/MagnumPI hasn't ''completely'' fallen into obscurity, but its memory is being kept alive mostly by people on the Internet who love explaining what Chip and Dale's outfits on WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers were based on.
* [[https://youtu.be/A4hZmKj-CiM The opening credits]] of ''Series/PoliceSquad'' [[https://youtu.be/yaOsNhSGYoE are almost a shot by shot parody]] of both the images and [[https://youtu.be/PAhXez5Ib2k music]] of the little known '60s series ''Series/MSquad''.
** ''Series/PoliceSquad'' also heavily parodies the look of ''Series/TheStreetsOfSanFrancisco'', a show which was very popular at the time but lacks the stick-in-the-memory qualities of such contemporaries as ''Series/{{Kojak}}'', ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'', or ''Series/{{Ironside 1967}}''. And the iconic shot of the bubble light atop the police cruiser was lifted wholesale from the [[https://youtu.be/FdZNQkF0sE4 closing credits]] of the first season of ''Series/HawaiiFiveO''.
* The show-within-a-show ''Tool Time'' on the sitcom ''Series/HomeImprovement'' is a parody of ''This Old House'', with the main host (Tim) being a charismatic salesman and his co-host (Al) being an anti-charismatic, bland, flannel-wearing man, who nonetheless possesses unrivaled expert knowledge of the topic at hand. They are both a direct parody of Bob Vila and Norm Abram's screen presence. In addition, scenes outside of ''Tool Time'' point out how most of the actual renovation work is done by a trained crew and that the hosts' contributions are mostly symbolic. In-universe the show was occasionally noted as a knockoff, and Tim had an UnknownRival relationship with Villa when he guest starred. However, as ''Home Improvement'' has managed to remain popular and remembered in popular culture more than 20 years after it first aired, while Vila and Abram have been eclipsed by newer, younger talent in the "Home Improvement" genre such as Ty Pennington and Mike Holmes, the fact that Tool Time is a parody is largely lost on those who watch the reruns today.
* When ''Series/DoctorWho'' started in 1963, as a budget saving measure the Doctor's possibly-infinitely-large-inside space'n'time traveling ship was disguised as an ordinary, everyday object that all viewers would be familiar with -- a police box, examples of which could be seen in every town in Britain. By the time the series was revived in 2005, there hadn't been a working police box anywhere in the UK for over 20 years[[note]]Since the show's revival, a genuine working Police Box has been installed in the Bournemouth suburb of Boscombe. The council admitted at the time that it's there as a tourist attraction as much as it is a means of calling the police.[[/note]], and a line of expository dialogue was required in the first new episode to explain the TARDIS's appearance. Indeed, the TARDIS is usually the first thing anyone thinks of upon seeing a picture of a police box.
** Even [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures Sarah Jane]] makes the mistake in one episode, in which she travels back to 1950s England.
** There is a police box right out the Earl's Court tube station in London, [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/08/uk_enl_1199712723/html/1.stm big and blue as anything.]] This isn't an original police box though, it was built in 1997. It was put there because tourists who had seen ''Doctor Who'' were disappointed by the lack of police boxes in England.
** This has led to possibly the only prop-based instance of the CelebrityParadox -- in the real world, a Police Box would be anything ''but'' inconspicuous, because just about everybody in Britain would recognise it as the [=TARDIS=]. This is occasionally lampshaded, with mixed success/cringeworthiness, in UK media.
** Possibly the only ''legally binding'' case of the Weird Al Effect: The BBC trademarked the look of the TARDIS in 1996. The Metropolitan Police challenged it, and lost, with the judge saying that it was far more recognizable as a symbol of ''Doctor Who'' than as a symbol of the police. (The fact that the police had never attempted to trademark it themselves over the course of 40 years also counted against them.)
** Nicely spoofed in [[Recap/DoctorWho2011CSTheDoctorTheWidowAndTheWardrobe one Eleventh Doctor Christmas Special]] when the Doctor gets his space suit helmet stuck backwards, and needs to recruit a local to help him find the TARDIS. After she follows his instructions on what to look for, he goes inside...and remembers that he is in a time period where there are still real police boxes.
** Curiously, the same thing hasn't happened in North America with regard to payphones and two well-known Keanu Reeves franchises: ''Bill and Ted'' and ''The Matrix''... or, for that matter, the trope of Superman changing into his costume in a payphone... but it's only a matter of time.
* Serious and downbeat drama series ''Series/SecretArmy'', about the Belgian resistance during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WW2]], was closely parodied in knockabout comedy ''Series/AlloAllo'' -- which went on to be much more popular and longer-running than the original. To this day, most fans of ''Series/AlloAllo'' are unaware that it began as a parody at all...
* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batusi Batusi]] from ''Series/Batman1966'' is far better remembered than [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watusi_(dance) the Watusi]] it was originally punned off of. The Batusi is now better known as "that dance Creator/JohnTravolta does in ''Film/PulpFiction''" (not to be confused with "That dance John Travolta does in ''Saturday Night Fever''"). Or from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': "How come Batman doesn't dance anymore?" This has now collapsed in on itself and become a double-Weird Al Effect, as the Batusi is more widely remembered as the source of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrmPehlHK3w ualuealuealeuale]]", one of the first really big gags to take off on Website/{{ytmnd}}.
* Speaking of ''Series/Batman1966'', most fans of UsefulNotes/{{the Dark Age|of Comic Books}} Batman regard the 1960s series as the representative of that era's Batman, when actually it was widely regarded as an intentionally over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek parody of the comic book. According to [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} That Other Wiki]], the comic later turned up the camp because of the TV show's success.
** That didn't stop parents from taking their kids to see the later Creator/TimBurton movies, expecting the same style as the Adam West series. [[DarkerAndEdgier Boy were they in]] [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids for a surprise]]...
*** The '60s TV series was also a parody of the '40s ''Batman'' film serials, especially the cliffhanger narrations.
* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' is, possibly, a SequelSeries to spy series ''Series/DangerMan'', or at least a SpiritualSuccessor. The cartoon ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' takes its title (and protagonist's name) from ''Series/DangerMan''. Both are much better remembered.
** The theme for the American release, ''Secret Agent'', is a staple of oldies radio.
* In one episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', the visual similarity between Spike and Music/BillyIdol is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d. To a large number of fans, Spike is far more recognisable than Billy Idol. The key thing here is the look; many people have heard of Billy Idol, but don't know what he looks like, hereas ''everyone'' recognizes Spike hen they see him.
** [[HistoricalInJoke The series goes on to say that Idol took his look from Spike...]]
* Few people will recognize ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'''s voice as being based on Maxwell Smart from the '60s TV series ''Series/GetSmart''. Fewer still know that Don Adams' portrayal of both characters was inspired by ''Film/TheThinMan''.
* The children's TV series ''Series/{{LazyTown}}'' has the song "Cooking by the Book", which was eclipsed by [[https://youtu.be/K5tVbVu9Mkg its comic mashup remix]] with the hip-hop song "Step Yo Game Up" featuring Music/LilJon. Its mashup actually has more than 30 million views on Website/YouTube, whereas the original song has only 6 million views.
* These days, the phrase "Bozo the Clown" has become a commonly recognizable meme. A high-profile example is a ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode in which George wanted Bozo the Clown for his girlfriend's son's birthday party. But how many people know that the phrase refers to a specific, original, historical Bozo the Clown dating back to 1946? Even by the time when the Seinfeld episode aired in 1994, Bozo was 50 years old, and some of the episode's humor revolved around the character's obscurity.
* People who grew up in the 1980s might be familiar with the series Series/MrBelvedere, starring Christopher Hewett in the title role. However, many of them might not be aware that this was based on the Clifton Webb movie ''Sitting Pretty'', which was in turn based upon the novel ''Belvedere'', both from TheForties.
* The TV show ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' is now better known than the Robert Louis Stevenson novel ''The Black Arrow'', which the title is a ShoutOut to and which the first series parodied.
** The intro of the second season features a snake crawling over the opening titles, and being dragged back into shot by black-gloved hands when it leaves the screen too quickly. Hardly anyone nowadays knows this is a parody of the opening titles from ''Series/IClaudius''.
* Once upon a time, there was a UK game show called ''If I Ruled The World''. It inspired another game show called ''Series/{{Parlamentet}}''. ''If I Ruled The World'' stopped after two seasons -- ''Parlamentet'', however, is still going strong. In Scandinavia, admittedly, but twenty-two seasons deserve a mention.
* Many {{Game Show}}s become an example of a variation of this trope when a revived version of the show becomes more popular than the original version. Some examples:
** ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' has been a fixture on daytime TV since 1972 and is likely the only version known to most people today--but the original version was also very popular in its time, airing in both daytime and primetime from 1956 to 1965. Additionally, when producer Mark Goodson updated ''The Price Is Right'' for the revival, he intended to incorporate elements of the most popular game show on TV at the time--''Series/LetsMakeADeal''. The ''Deal'' connection was largely forgotten... although with a new version of that show now airing (on the same network as ''Price'' and as a companion piece, no less), the connection may become clearer once again.
*** With the two shows having held a crossover week in the 2015-16 season, it seems mission accomplished.
** ''Series/MatchGame''. The 1970s version is the most popular due to the funny and suggestive nature of the questions. However, the original version--despite being much more sedate and tame--also had a long run on NBC from 1962 to 1969.
** ''Series/PressYourLuck'', one of the most popular game shows of the 1980s, was actually based on a short-lived game show called ''Series/SecondChance'' that aired in 1977.
** Before the still-running version with Alex Trebek started up in 1984, ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' was hosted by Art Fleming for 10 seasons (1964-1974), followed by a short-lived reboot in 1978. (Yes, children of the '80s, ''that's'' who that guy is in the {{Trope Namer|s}}'s "I Lost On Jeopardy" video...)
** Despite what its producers would have you think, Pat Sajak and Vanna White were ''not'' the original host/hostess tandem on ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' — that would be Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford. Still, Chuck ends up a subversion, since he would go on to become famous for many other popular game shows, such as ''Series/{{Scrabble}}'', ''Series/LoveConnection'' and ''Series/{{Lingo}}''.
*** This came back to bite one group of contestants on another Woolery show, ''Series/{{Greed}}'', who were asked to pick out the one game show Woolery had not hosted, with the possible answers being ''Series/{{Scrabble}}'', ''Series/LoveConnection'', ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', and ''Series/SingledOut''. The contestants chose ''Wheel'', when the correct answer was ''Singled Out''.
* Speaking of ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', many people may remember the jingle "I'm a Wheel Watcher", used in commercials (and sometimes even on the show itself) for most of the 80s and 90s. What most people may not realize is that the song is a rewrite of "I'm a Girl Watcher", a 1960s blue-eyed soul song.
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'''s ''The Continental'' recurring sketch with Creator/ChristopherWalken is actually based on a real TV show. ''The Continental'' was a short-lived Creator/{{CBS}} program that aired Saturday nights during the 1952-53 season, and starred Renzo Cesana as the title character. Its target audience was lonely, dateless women (though when it moved to Creator/{{ABC}}, it aired in the daytime for lonely, bored housewives). The combination of the subjective camera angles and the Continental's charm was designed to make these women believe they were being romanced through their TV sets. The ''SNL'' version is exactly like that, except Walken's Continental has been {{flanderiz|ation}}ed to a HandsomeLech-cum-StalkerWithACrush-cum-DirtyOldMan-cum-CasanovaWannabe.
** Similarly, more people recognize Mike Myers' "Simon" sketches than "Simon in the Land of Drawings", the British series that it spoofed.
*** Not if they are old enough to have watched ''Series/CaptainKangaroo'' as kids.
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iCbK3ooekU ''Prose and Cons'']] short, particularly Eddie Murphy's "kill my landlord" poem, is more familiar these days than the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abbott_(author) Norman Mailer/Jack Henry Abbott debacle]] that it was satirizing.
** The "Royal Deluxe II" car commercial[[note]]in which a rabbi performs a bris in the back seat at 40 mph to demonstrate the soft ride[[/note]] is continuously available on {{Creator/Hulu}} while the original Lincoln-Mercury ads it spoofs, despite old car commercials as a class being rarely copyright-policed at all, are hard to find on the Internet.
** When Spanish dictator UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco was on his deathbed in 1975, news programs would sometimes update his condition on slow news days. Sometimes, these reports would simply state that "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still alive." He finally died in November of that year. Then, Creator/ChevyChase started to feature ThisJustIn reports that "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead." The catch phrase remained in the public consciousness long after the countdown to Franco's death.
** Weekend Update's ''Point/Counterpoint'' ("Jane, you ignorant slut!"), was a parody of a ''Series/SixtyMinutes'' segment that aired in the seventies until it was replaced by ''A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney''. The segment was also parodied by ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' ("I say, let 'em crash!").
** The ''Dear Sister'' digital short, where everyone shoots each other while Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" plays, is probably much more famous than the scene from the second season finale of ''Series/TheOC'' that it was spoofing.
** Not many people know that the nickname for the original cast, the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players", was a reference to a competing show called ''Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell''[[note]]That show was why SNL was originally called just ''Saturday Night'', taking the name ''Saturday Night Live'' after Cosell's show was cancelled[[/note]], which had a trio of comedy performers called the "Prime Time Players" – all three of whom (Creator/BillMurray, Creator/BrianDoyleMurray, and Creator/ChristopherGuest) went on to join the SNL cast.
** Can most people even remember what UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush sounded and acted like? Or are you more likely to picture Creator/DanaCarvey doing his impression of Bush? The original was only President of the United States, and within the lifetimes of many of us alive today. Likely the same could be said of UsefulNotes/GeraldFord and Creator/ChevyChase as well.
*** This is the fate of MANY politicians. Bob Dole, however, may be the all-time king. In addition to a satirical depiction of him in the 1996 "Treehouse of Horror" episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', he went on to star in a series of commercials for Viagra... and THEN starred in a series of Pepsi commercials that were parodies of his Viagra commercials! He has also been immortalized in the ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' fandub parody "Redeath". Not bad for a Presidential hopeful who lost badly and immediately faded out.
** An inversion of the Trope. While "Hans und Franz" never eclipsed Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger by a long shot, many of their features and {{Running Gag}}s are incorporated in the [[TheAhnold numerous expies of him]].
** Many people didn't know that Harry Cary was a real person (much less his profession) and assumed he was a character created by Creator/WillFerrell.
* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'' had an obvious influence on ''Franchise/StarTrek'' frequently acknowledged by people who worked on the series. [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The original series]] was also influenced by the TV Westerns of its day, but now more people have heard of ''Star Trek'' than ''Series/{{Gunsmoke}}''. Creator/GeneRoddenberry specially referenced both Horatio Hornblower and the highly successful show ''Series/WagonTrain'' in his original pitches and as a result, both series are remembered only for the phrases "Horatio Hornblower in space" and "Series/WagonTrainToTheStars".
* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' popularized many old and obscure Sci-Fi movies simply because the old and obscure movies were the cheapest to get the rights to. The show itself owes a lot to a tradition of host segments on old horror movies (see HorrorHost) dating back to the 1950s, and started in a similar vein--a local show on a station that needed filler. Its willingness to mock the movie not just during breaks but during the runtime, its reliance on sarcasm and wit rather than the stock campiness-and-bad-puns format of other hosts, and its heavy utilization of home video has insured that it outlasted and overshadowed most of its ancestors.
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'':
** A lot of sketches are parodies of British TV shows that were popular during the late 1960s and early 1970s. For example, "How To Do It?" is a spoof of the BBC children's program ''Series/BluePeter''. "The Golden Age of Ballooning" spoofed costume dramas on the BBC. ''Whicker's World'' spoofed TV presenter Alan Whicker who had a travel show. The spinning globe was also an official BBC bumper between broadcasts. The sketch ''The Bishop'' is a parody of the opening titles from ''Series/TheSaint''. Many people who grew up outside the United Kingdom or who are younger than the 1970s will probably not understand something is being parodied.
** ''Flying Circus'' managed to do this to a ''figure of speech'', of all things. The show's classic "Spanish Inquisition" sketch is kicked off when the Spanish Inquisition bursts into a boring British drawing room drama after a man gets tired of being badgered with questions, and cries out, "Mr. Wentworth just told me to come in here and say there was trouble at the mill, that's all! I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition!" Many younger viewers might be unaware that "I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!" was a well-known StockJoke that had been used in English drama and television for decades before Monty Python came along. The Pythons, in their sketch, responded with "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!". Guess which phrase is more well-remembered today.
* Referenced in the game show ''Series/BeatTheGeeks''. The host of the show once jokingly referred to Music/MichaelJackson as "the guy who did all those [[Music/WeirdAlYankovic Weird Al]] parodies". Sadly, the Effect did not help music geek Andy Zax. He was unable to describe the cover of Weird Al's album "Off The Deep End", despite it being a parody of Music/{{Nirvana}}'s "Music/{{Nevermind}}", the topic of the previous question.
* Popular and light-hearted [=WW2=]-themed TV sitcom ''Series/HogansHeroes'' was considered at the time to be a rip-off of the darkly humourous 1953 movie ''Stalag 17'' (itself an adaptation of the Broadway play of the same name), starring William Holden. While the producers of ''Hogan's Heroes'' never acknowledged the parody, the two were similar enough to inspire a successful lawsuit by the creators of ''Stalag 17''; even down to the name (and look) of the bumbling German guard "Sgt. Schulz". Today, ''Hogan's Heroes'' is an icon of American pop culture; while ''Stalag 17'' is known only to serious classic film and theatre buffs.
* ''Series/ChappellesShow'' made popular many things, but none of them are as readily quoted as David Chappelle's Rick James impersonation: "I'm Rick James, bitch!" If you were to ask anybody born after 1980, they wouldn't even know who the real Rick James is, except some funny sketch from a comedy television show. Also, the show's famous parody of Creator/WayneBrady can seem very inexplicable to younger viewers; at the time, Brady was known almost solely for family-friendly roles and game show hosting, so seeing him [[AdamWesting acting like a sociopathic gangbanger]] was kind of like watching Creator/FredRogers getting high. In the years since, however, Brady [[PlayingAgainstType has done significantly more adult-aimed projects]], and thus no longer has the ultra-squeaky clean and wholesome image he used to.
* Children who grew up watching ''Series/SesameStreet'' in the early-mid 1980s were likely introduced to Creator/CharlieChaplin's "Little Tramp" character from the shorts starring [[SamusIsAGirl Maria (Sonia Manzano) doing a Chaplin impression]] (with Emilio Delgado playing the Tramp's ButtMonkey) before (or even instead of) ever seeing the original Chaplin movies. Either that, or they saw the original TV and print ads for the IBM [=PS1=] computer, which adopted Chaplin as an unofficial spokesperson (four years after his death!) in 1981.
** Many songs are spoofs of pop songs. Due to them either being too old or too adult for children to have heard the original, the Sesame Street parody is more likely to be recognized:
** "That's the Letter O", comma a parody of "That's the Way We Flow" by Queen Latifah.
** "Don't Know Y", a parody of "Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones.
** "I Want to Count", a parody of "I Want to Rock" by Cab Calloway.
** "Ten Commandments of Health" is a parody of "Ten Commandments of Love" by The Moonglows.
** More recent example: Feist's parody of her song "1234", refitted to be about counting to 4, is more popular than the original and has more views.
* Famous Mexican comedian and writer ''Creator/{{Chespirito}}'' has several:
** ''Series/ElChapulinColorado'' is a parody of both the {{superhero}} genre and the {{tokusatsu}} genre, especially ''Series/UltraMan'', but the show is so popular in Latin America and has been in reruns for so many decades that most people would probably associate Ultraman with Chapulin than vice versa.
** ''[[Series/{{Chespirito}} Chompiras and Botija]]'' is a parody of ''Series/TheHoneymooners'', problem is, the original Honeymooners never was popular in Latin America and nor even ran in some countries, so very few Latins other than TV Geeks would know the reference.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'':
** An in-universe example. Britta does an impression of a bit Jon Stewart does frequently on ''Series/TheDailyShow'', itself an impression of [[Series/TheTonightShow Johnny Carson]], which comes off as a weird impersonation of Carson. When asked "Is that your Johnny Carson?" Britta is confused, and says no, it was her Jon Stewart.
** Later in the same episode another in-universe example plays off the first in-universe one: when Starburns does his Carson impression, Troy says he's "got Britta down."
* In-universe in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', at Ann and Chris' [[PutOnABus going-away party]], Chris gets a rubber UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy mask and begins to recite his "Ask not what your country can do for you..." line. Andy mistakes it for coming from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.
* In Spain, La Hora Chanante's sketch [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXwPjtW-sP8 "Hijo de puta más"]] (More son of a bitch) is better known than the song that it's based on, Mr. T's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_rBidCkJxo "Treat Your Mother Right"]].
* ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' was originally a parody of vaudeville theater and variety TV shows. It also included ''many'' songs and acts from the vaudeville era, which would have otherwise been unknown to young viewers in the 70s. Today, even songs that were then contemporary are probably now only remembered by their ''Muppet Show'' appearances. The same is probably true for at least half the guest stars. The fact that viewers do not remember vaudeville is not entirely unexpected. It was a dominant form of theatrical entertainment from the 1880s to the 1930s, but was considered unable to compete with the then-innovative sound films at the movie theatres (or with the fact that tickets to a movie theatre were often much cheaper). During the 1930s, several companies and theatres previously counting on vaudeville for their profits, either shut down or invested in the film industry. Most of the old vaudeville stars were forced to either retire, or try their hands at a film career. References to vaudeville in the 1940s were already considered retro. About 70 years later, they are references to an entirely different era.
* The syndicated talk show ''The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet'' lasted just two seasons and is largely forgotten. However, the [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/spaghetti-cat Spaghetti Cat]] meme, which it unwittingly originated, is still around.
* ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'': Adam Savage's CatchPhrase "IRejectYourReality and substitute my own!" actually comes from the 1984 film ''Film/TheDungeonmaster''. He did give its current literal meaning, though.
* ''Series/ScotchAndWry'': The cultural legacy of the ''Last Call'' sketches far outstrips that of the sermonettes they were actually parodying. There doesn't seem to be a conclusive date as to when the original ''Late Call'' finished up but it was probably at some point during [[TheNineties the early nineties]].
* The Drew Carey version of ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' includes constant jabs at Drew and Ryan for "having two shows" and joking plugs for ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'', which ran on the same network during the same period, and was quite popular. Popular enough, in fact, that Drew Carey's involvement in pitching Whose Line to the network was what got the show and its cast brought to the United States from England. These days, Whose Line still has a dedicated fanbase, and has had a successful revival in 2013. ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'' is not shown in reruns anymore, and while people probably remember when it was on, don't think of it much, except as "the other show Drew and Ryan were on while they were doing Whose Line." (Or that one show where Creator/CraigFerguson got his start in the US, though that's not ''exactly'' true...)
** Gene Rayburn, host of ''Match Game '73'', often teased panelist Richard Dawson with "if you ever get your own show," when Dawson was host of ''Family Feud''.
** Drew's version also contained several jokes about the quality and success of the TV movie ''Film/{{Geppetto}}'', an adaptation of ''Pinocchio'' which Drew starred in and Wayne Brady was featured in. It is forgettable enough that most people only know of it now through its ridicule on ''Whose Line''.
*** Similarly, most people who've seen "Terminator 2: the Superfantastic Musical" would be surprised to learn that Bob Patterson was a real show starring the real Jason Alexander.
* ''Series/FCDeKampioenen'': Carmen's dog Nero was originally named after the Belgian comic strip character ''ComicStrip/{{Nero}}''. Since 2002 the comic strip has been terminated and the albums are no longer available in regular stores, making the original reference more obscure. Most younger people will probably assume it is a reference to the Roman emperor UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}.
* ''Series/SpittingImage'': This show featuring puppet versions of famous celebrities has also caused some MemeticMutation. Today many people in the UK remember UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan and UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher more as in their grotesque villainous puppet versions than as Real Life people. A good example is Thatcher beating up members of her cabinet in many sketches, which a lot of people almost assume she did.
** And, arguably, most Americans have no idea the British TV show even existed (much less the short-lived US adaptation.) They only know the puppets, which appeared in Music/{{Genesis}}'s music video for their song ''Music/LandOfConfusion''.
* In 1986 BBC Scotland ran a documentary about football called ''Only a Game?''. In 1987, they ran a SelfParody called ''Series/OnlyAnExcuse?'' Today ''OAE?'''s parody of football and Scottish culture is a fixture of the Hogmanay schedules and has had several live shows, while ''Only a Game?'' remains a thirty year old documentary (although there is talk of an updated version).
* The Canadian SketchComedy series ''Series/TheRedGreenShow'' is a loose parody of ''The Red Fisher Show'', a Canadian comedy series that aired from 1965 to 1989. In both Canada and the United States, ''The Red Fisher Show'' has become completely obscure in comparison.
* ''Series/DieWochenshow'', given its massive success in Germany, naturally did it when they spoofed lesser known shows, such as ''Tsjakkaa! Du schaffst es''.
** Creator/AnkeEngelke's portrayal of Ricky as TheDitz was so popular (she would actually return to the role on occasion on other shows for years to come), it obviously had this effect for people not too familiar with pop music. In fact, Music/TicTacToe's success had also been massive but relatively brief, and both Ricky's solo career and the later reunion were particularly short-lived.
** Engelke's parodies of politician Regine Hildebrandt were also prominent for a while. There is a rumor that Hildebrandt once entered a cab and the driver was completely surprised that she was actually real.
* Partly a case with Greek sitcoms from the 1990s and 2000s, such as ''Konstantinou kai Elenis'' and ''Savatogennimenes''. They often included satirical references and even episodes with [[WholePlotReference Whole Plot References]] to a number of "serious" dramatic series and long-running [[SoapOpera Soap Operas]] of their era, counting on the audience getting the jokes. One or two decades later, many of these sitcoms are still being broadcast on reruns and are familiar to most Greek television viewers. (The programs of old channels such as Mega Channel, have consisted primarily of reruns for years.) The dramatic series mentioned are rarely being broadcast anymore (with several of them considered too dated), and the soap operas are both long-defunct and never chosen for reruns by their channels. Quite a number of viewers have no idea what is being satirized.
* A lot of ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'' fans didn't realise that Veronica's "[[https://youtu.be/9HVMasHN84Q Your Brain On Jingle Jangle]]" scene was a parody of a 1990s anti-heroin PSA.
* For the 73rd Tony Awards, Creator/JamesCorden (as well as some [[Music/SaraBareilles other]] [[Music/JoshGroban former]] [[Creator/NeilPatrickHarris hosts)]] sang a parody of "Michael in the Bathroom" in a bathroom stall about being insecure about their jobs as hosts. A lot of casual viewers didn't recognize the song from ''Theatre/BeMoreChill.'' Since ''Be More Chill'' was only given one nomination for Best Score (with the song's original singer, George Salazar, being snubbed for Featured Actor) and composer Joe Iconis wasn't even aware there would be such an extensive parody, several fans were upset that the song was parodied without giving a proper boost to the show, since it's not very well known outside of the theater fandom. Corden, as well as others in the theater community, later gave formal credit on social media, linking to videos of Salazar's original performance.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* West Coast Rapper Music/EazyE's most famous song "I'd Rather F*** With You" is actually a parody of the slightly obscure "I'd Rather Be With You" by Music/BootsyCollins.
* O-Zone and their song "Dragostea din tei" are only known because of the "Numa Numa" video with Gary Brolsma.
** Gary Brolsma's video, in turn, was an imitation of another video set to the same song. Why Gary's video became famous and the original didn't is anyone's guess.
** In some Spanish-speaking countries, the song "Pluma Pluma Gay" is more popular/better known than "Dragostea din tei", the song it parodies.
** In Brazil, a cover that isn't a parody but certainly takes a {{Filth}} detour, "Festa no Apê", also obscures "Dragostea din tei".
* Music/TheBeatles:
** If you say the word ''beetle'' in a non-English speaking country nobody will think of insects, but will immediately think you're referring to the rock group.
** The song "Good Morning, Good Morning" from ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' has a line about "it's time for tea and ''Meet the Wife''." Most people probably assume it alludes to meeting your wife after a long day of work, but it's actually a reference to a popular British TV series, ''Meet the Wife'', that has nowadays completely faded away in obscurity.
*** It's the tune that [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus the man with the tape recorder up his nose]] plays!
*** And the tune to which Allan Sherman sings "Louis XVI was the king of France in 1789; he was worse than Louis XV... (etc.) ... the worst, since Louis the First!"
*** This gets referenced in the Podcast/RiffTrax to ''Film/{{Casablanca}}''. When part of Marseillaise is used in the opening (and closing) credits, the guys start singing "Love, love, love!"
** Another Beatles song, "Back in the USSR", was originally written as a tribute to a Music/ChuckBerry song, [[https://youtu.be/xGCJ5j7oVWc "Back in the USA"]], that is largely unremembered by comparison to the Beatles song. It was also a sarcastic response to a buy-native-made-goods ad campaign which used the slogan [[http://bit.ly/JRKZIW "I'm Backing Britain"]] (the refrain sounded like "I'm backin' the USSR") which no one remembers either.
** Again, it cuts both ways. The British answer to Weird Al is probably style parodist Creator/NeilInnes, whose Beatles-themed soundtrack to the parody film ''[[Music/TheRutles All You Need Is Cash]]'' was so stylistically perfect that to this day, songs like ''I Must Be in Love'' are often mistaken for actual Beatles tracks. Much of his earlier work with Music/TheBonzoDogBand consists of stylistically perfect parodies of other peoples' work; refer to the Bonzo Dog Band page for lots of examples.
*** And then to muddy things further, The Bonzo Dog Band showed up in a scene in the film ''Film/MagicalMysteryTour''.* American kids who grew up in the '90s are more likely to have sung [[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow The Royal Anthem of the Canadian Kilted Yaksmen]].
* ''The Merry Go 'Round Broke Down'' is best known as "the theme song to ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''".
* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' has done this to a lot of music. Thanks to "WesternAnimation/WhatsOperaDoc" many people can't hear "Music/RideOfTheValkyries" without singing "Kill da wabbit!"
* Creator/CheechAndChong's "Basketball Jones" is much better known than the song it was originally parodying: "Love Jones" by The Brighter Side of Darkness.
* The song "Flappie", by Dutch comedian Youp van 't Hek, was originally (in 1981) intended as a parody of Christmas songs, both contemporary and the older carols, and mostly of the fake 'Christmas spirit' people felt they needed to put up. Now most people don't realize that and play this song simply for the humorous lyrics (it tells the story of how a boy finds out his father killed his rabbit (called 'Flappie') to serve at the Christmas dinner). It's even a staple of the Christmas songs played on radio and in malls.
* National Lampoon's "Deteriorata" is obviously a parody of ''{{Literature/Desiderata}}'', but the style is a parody of a hit record recording of ''Desiderata'' by Les Crane in 1971, including the {{narm}}y "You are a child of the universe" chorus.
* Creator/AllanSherman's breakout hit ''Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!'' is more well-known in the USA than its source, Amilcare Ponchielli's ''Dance of the Hours''.
** And nowadays the [=K9=] Advantix commercial that uses a lyrically changed version of the song is probably more well-known to younger audiences.
** And if not either of these, there's ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'''s version accompanying the dancing ostriches and other animals.
* "On top of Spa-ghehhhhhh-tiiiiiii, all covered with cheeeeeeeeeeeeese..." For all non-yanks in the Audience ''On Top of Old Smokey'' is an American Folk Song. And for all those Americans in the audience too young to remember any but the least obscure folk songs, the third line is "[[AntiLoveSong I lost my true lover]]", not "[[ComedicSociopathy I shot my poor teacher]]".
** Another rendition of this for military children in Japan is "On top of Mt Fuji, all covered with sand, I shot my poor teacher, with a rubber band."
** 'On Top of Spaghetti' is a real song. Copyrighted and everything.
* French satirist group Creator/LesInconnus has quite a few such songs. “C'est toi que je t'aime” is still played at almost every student party (at least in Belgium), more than 20 years after its release, while very few people remember ska band Music/ManoNegra on whose performances the parody is based (although most people know who is Music/ManuChao, very few know that this is the band which made him famous before his solo albums). The same could be said about “Casser les couilles” which parodizes Patrick Bruel's “Casser la voix”.
** While "Casser la voix" and Bruel himself are still somewhat recognized in France (albeit among the sort of people who still remember him as a [[TheEighties teen heartthrob]] rather than a [[TheNewTens poker commentator]]), this completely applies to "Isabelle a les yeux bleus", which took large jabs at the band Indochine, its needlessly depressed tone, its word salad lyrics, even GratuitousEnglish, and is possibly the most well-known of Les Inconnus' parodies in France today. Suffice to say Indochine frontman Nicolas Sirkis was [[CreatorBacklash not amused]]. And today, virtually any mention of Princess Stephanie Grimaldi will elicit a reference to their impression of [[LargeHam STEPHANIIIE DE MONACOOOO]]. Or "[[MemeticMutation Est-fe que tu baives]]".
* On the subject of French satirists, the song "La Carioca" from Les Nuls' film "La Cité de la peur". It's often believed to be a real dance (since Carioca literally means an inhabitant of Rio), but Alain Chabat made it up on the spot, ostensibly to poke fun at shoehorned musical interludes in period RedScare films.
* Gracie Fields' "Sing As We Go" from the 1930's is almost completely forgotten today, save for the melody--instantly recognizable as Creator/MontyPython's "Sit On My Face", written by Eric Idle, from ''AudioPlay/MontyPythonsContractualObligationAlbum''.
** [[https://youtu.be/Sg95RPRMTyQ Japan hasn't forgotten, apparently.]]
* The catchy tune "Mah NA Mah NA"[[note]]Do do do-do-do[[/note]] is known to most people in English-speaking countries from [[https://youtu.be/QTXyXuqfBLA the first episode]] of ''Series/TheMuppetShow''. It's actually from the soundtrack of an exploitative and inaccurate [[https://youtu.be/KoheVioD3Bg Italian "documentary" on Sweden]].
** While it probably won't eclipse the Muppets, the [[https://youtu.be/iEWgs6YQR9A ROFLMAO Song]] by [[Machinima/OxhornShortShorts Oxhorn]] is fairly well known. In fact, click on it and check under Crowning Music.
** Also, younger Muppet viewers might have originally thought the "word" was ''phenomenon'' and that the song came from Kermit and [[https://youtu.be/h5Mc55P1i9g Sandra Bullock]].
* In the UK at least, novelty group The Wurzels' song about their brand new combine harvester is better-known than the original, "Brand New Key" by Melanie.
** If they see ''Film/BoogieNights'', they'll never forget the original.
*** Speaking of ''Boogie Nights'', most people who saw that movie probably had no idea that the song "The Touch" was actually from the 1986 animated film ''The Transformers: The Movie''.
** The Wurzels didn't even come up with Combine Harvester on their own either. It was actually recorded a year earlier by Irish comedian [[https://youtu.be/NcGUlliTFBg Brendan Grace]]
* "I'm Looking Over My Dead Dog Rover", in [[MemeticMutation its various and sundry forms]] (almost all of which claim to be first), started out as a parody of "[[http://popup.lala.com/popup/432627047858788390 I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf-Clover]]".
** "[[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny I'm looking over a three-leaf clover]], [[{{Pun}} that I overlooked be-threeeeee...]]"
** Not as much to residents to Philadelphia, who would recognize it as "the song that the Mummers use all the time."
* The 1961 Music/HarryBelafonte song "Monkey" is more well-known for being covered and parodied on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}''.
** Music/{{Weezer}}'s "[[https://youtu.be/R7e-HDRykUg The Greatest Man That Ever Lived]]", subtitled "Variations on a Shaker Hymn"—you guessed it.
** Speaking of Copland, how many people can hear the [[https://youtu.be/LsReWx9XdNs Hoedown]] from his "Rodeo" (itself based on an older folk tune), and not immediately think "Beef, it's what's for dinner"?
* Rap gets subjected to this All. The. Time. Play the opening of Rick James's "Super Freak" for anyone born after 1980, and people will chant "Can't touch this!"
** Or possibly even [[Music/WeirdAlYankovic "Can't watch this!"]]
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0oXPf0hMag DIABEETUS]]
** Same with "Under Pressure". It's managed to avoid this in a way though, as most people will wonder until the guitar part if it's "Under Pressure" or "Ice Ice Baby".
*** Don't you mean [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i6HkV_jO0o Ice Ice Brimley]]?
** "I Got The..." by Music/LabiSiffre can be enjoyed as the transcendent soul classic it is for the first minute and a half of the song... but the second the instrumental break kicks in, anyone listening will start yelling "'''''Hi!''' My name is (chkka-chkka) [[Music/{{Eminem}} Slim Shady]]''".
** Many more of these can be found on the SampledUp page.
* This is happening to Music/ChuckBerry's "Johnny B. Goode" in Poland. While a lot of people know the song from ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', the parody made by a famous Polish cabaret "Ani Mru Mru" is becoming more known.
* In Russia, most people do not know that the song [[https://youtu.be/NOaKPbkJg-I “Malchik khochet v Tambov”]] by Murat Nasyrov is actually a parody of Brazilian hit [[https://youtu.be/81CwbdtmOrw Tic Tic Tac]] by Carrapicho
* John Philip Sousa's march "The Liberty Bell" is now better known as the theme for ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus''.
** Hearing this theme played straight at the inauguration of U.S. presidents is something that amuses British people -- and Python-literate Americans -- immensely. A possible urban myth has it that the British diplomatic contingent at the inauguration of President Clinton all, without fail, blew a squelching-raspberry noise at the end of the sixteenth bar. Some things become ''ingrained''...
** The other Sousa march trotted out at such an occasion is the Earwig Song, one generations of British people know, from football matches, as a soccer chant:
---> ''Earwig-o, earwig-o, earwig-o... (Here we go, here we go, here we go!)''
*** It's known to Americans as "The Stars and Stripes Forever", though its bridge may be better known thus:
----> ''Be kind to your web-footed friends ...''
* For some time after the movie ''Film/{{Excalibur}}'' came out, the "O Fortuna" movement from Carl Orff's ''Music/CarminaBurana'' was widely known as "that music from Excalibur".
** For those in the [[TheEighties '80s]] who were unfamiliar with ''Film/{{Excalibur}}'', it was "the music from ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982''" -- or "that Old Spice music" (from an aftershave commercial). (It's not in ''Conan'' the movie, but it is in a trailer for ''Conan''.)
** Now it's "that OminousLatinChanting music in all those movie trailers."
*** Including [[https://youtu.be/UaHjkYqMcvM?t=16 fake, fan-made ones]].
** It's also almost unknown, to all but the most hardcore orchestral music buffs, that the words of Carl Orff's ''Music/CarminaBurana'' are taken from a [[OlderThanTheyThink much older collection]] of Latin and German songs and poems by the same name (many of them quite bawdy for their time).
** "Estuans interius ira vehementi". Odds are you're not thinking of one of the poems, or even the Orff rendition, as much as you're thinking of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. The same goes for the rest of the non-Sephiroth lyrics of that song. (In fact, "sors, immanis et inanis" comes from "O Fortuna" itself.)
* Many will recognise ''Entry of the Gladiators'' as the Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey circus music.
* "Burlington Bertie" is still a well-known Music Hall song, if only from its appearance in ''Series/TheMuppetShow''. Except ''that'' song, about a vagrant claiming to be an UpperClassTwit, is actually called "Burlington Bertie From Bow", a parody of an earlier Music Hall song called "Burlington Bertie" that really was about an UpperClassTwit.
* There was once a Russian musical piece called "Days of our life". They had to stop playing it because whenever they did, ''everyone was laughing at remembering the parody''. Today, the music is recognizable, and most people at least remember the first lines of the parody ('''A large crocodile lady was walking on the streets''').
* In Brazil, a certain child's song ("Criança feliz, feliz a cantar. Alegre a embalar seu sonho infantil."[[note]]Happy child, happy and singing. Joyful in going through its juvenile dream.[[/note]]) is overshadowed by its parody version ("Criança feliz, quebrou o nariz, foi pro hospital, tomar Sonrisal..."[[note]]Happy child, broke his nose, went to the hospital, to drink Sonrisal... (BTW, Sonrisal is [[ArtisticLicensePharmacology an effervescent antacid]])[[/note]]. A line of the latter was even used in a popular Music/PatoFu [[https://youtu.be/KH6253M8sMs song]].
* Even though he had a long solo career, wrote ''entire albums'' for Frank Sinatra and The 4 Seasons, and became a prolific ad jingle writer, Jake Holmes is mainly remembered now because Music/LedZeppelin (ahem) [[UsefulNotes/{{Plagiarism}} "borrowed"]] his song "Dazed and Confused".
* Fans of Music/TheDeadMilkmen might think the joke of "Watching Scotty Die" is just the fact that it's [[LyricalDissonance a peaceful-sounding]], country-esque ballad about a young boy dying from exposure to poisonous chemicals... In fact it's a parody of the significantly [[TastesLikeDiabetes sappier]] "Watching Scotty Grow", a Bobby Goldsboro hit released more than 15 years earlier.
** "(Theme From) Blood Orgy Of The Atomic Fern" has a bridge where Rodney Anonymous starts sing/speaking what sounds like [[StylisticSuck deliberately bad]] angsty high school poetry (followed by a chant of "No art!"). The "poetry" is actually taken straight from the most commonly used English translation of famously morbid Hungarian ballad [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloomy_Sunday "Gloomy Sunday"]].
* Few Russians know the 1906 song ''[[https://youtu.be/1EafHZcxi2Q On the Hills of Manchuria]]''. However, play the melody, and everyone will be able to remember a few (mostly obscene) out of a virtually endless number of stanzas starting with ''"It's quite in the forest"''.
* The theme from ''Theatre/{{Carmen}}'' has been used in so many places such as ''Film/TheBadNewsBears'' and in a musical Hamlet episode of ''Series/GilligansIsland'' that most people have no idea where it's from originally.
* During the 70's there was a commercial selling a classical music album based on this trope.
** "I'm sure you recognize this lovely melody as 'Stranger in Paradise.' But did you know that the original theme is from the Polovetsian Dance No. 2 by Borodin? So many of the tunes of our well-known popular songs were actually written by the great masters--like these familiar themes... "
* "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" was written about soldiers during the American Civil War, but most today know it as the playground song "The Ants Go Marching One By One." The Civil War song was a version of the much more depressing Irish song "Johnny we hardly Knew Ye" about a soldier returning from war missing his limbs. (Music/SteeleyeSpan did a version called "Fighting for Strangers".)
** The playground version was in turn featured in the Dreamworks movie ''Antz''.
* Music/FrankZappa often uses high pitched or low pitched singing voices in his repertoire, most famously on ''Music/CruisingWithRubenAndTheJets''. Most younger Zappa fans assume his singers are just putting on funny voices, while when you listen to a lot of 1950s doo-wop songs you'll notice those comically sounding singing voices really aren't that far off.
* Music/{{Eminem}}:
** "'97 Bonnie and Clyde":
*** The song is inspired by the Music/WillSmith song "Just The Two Of Us" (which was the song's original title). The original song is [[TastesLikeDiabetes a very cute and wholesome song about a father's love for his child]]. In Eminem's version, the father loves his child so much that he [[TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether kills her mother, her mother's new husband, and her half-brother]] so he can have her all to himself. Naturally, the song about a weird, bleached-blond CardCarryingJerkass who was marketed ''[[YouCanPanicNow to your children]]'' [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity writing a fantasy about killing his actual then-wife]] proved more memorable than the song about a nice, handsome, family-friendly rapper-actor loving his son in a non-homicidal way.
*** The song's updated title comes from a lyric in the [[Music/TupacShakur Makaveli]] song "My And My Girlfriend", which Eminem interpolates in the song ("''97 Bonnie and Clyde, me and my daughter''", referencing "''96 Bonnie and Clyde, me and [[ICallItVera my girlfriend]]''"). If you reference this line now, people will think of Eminem - while undoubtedly one of the legends, [=2Pac=]'s Makaveli phase is not remembered so much for its musical content (widely considered to be [[SoOkayItsAverage fine, not great]]) and is instead more significant for [[OvershadowedByControversy it being his first posthumous release]], and how Pac may have been LostInCharacter as his Makaveli [[AlterEgoActing alter-ego]] in such a way as to contribute to his death.
** "The Real Slim Shady":
*** The catchphrase "Will the real [person's name] please stand up?" is now more likely to be associated with "The Real Slim Shady" than the 1960s/70s game show ''Series/ToTellTheTruth''.
*** Eminem himself got the phrase from the 1990 song "Real Solo Please Stand Up" by K-Solo, which he parodies in his song. The original K-Solo song is about other rappers biting his style, which he responds to by killing them; Eminem's version is about his fans imitating him, and cheering them on as they [[TheNewRockAndRoll do everything the moral panic about him thinks they do]].
*** When Eminem adopts a sing-song voice to rap "my bum is on your lips! My bum is on your lips!", that's a reference to Creator/TomGreen's "Bum Bum Song" routine (where he would put his bottom on various things and then sing "''My bum is on [the thing!]''" - not that anyone under the age of 35 would have a hope in hell of knowing that.)
*** The Music/ChristinaAguilera diss - "''yeah, he's cute, but I think he's married to Kim, tee hee''" - is a parody of a piece of ephemera that would have been obscure even at the time - a music video showcase slot Christina did for MTV, in which she played "My Name Is" because Eminem is "cute", but not before giving the young girls in her audience some [[MoodWhiplash strangely serious advice]] about not staying with men who [[StrawMisogynist talk about women]] the way Eminem does in his songs. Apparently, what had outraged Eminem was that she'd brought up his personal life - not that he exactly hid the details of it himself.
** The bridge in "Marshall Mathers" ("''Music/NewKidsOnTheBlock suck a lot of dick/Boy-girl groups make me sick/And I can't wait 'til I catch all you [[HeteronormativeCrusader f----ts]] in public''") is interpolated from the hook of LFO's "Summer Girls" ("''Music/NewKidsOnTheBlock had a bunch of hits/Chinese food makes me sick/And I think it’s fly when girls stop by for the summer''"), which, if it's remembered now, is for the [[WordSaladLyrics awfulness of the lyrics]]. (Bad enough that Eminem's hyper-offensive version makes much more sense.)
** The line "two trailer park girls go 'round the outside" from "Without Me" is adapted from the line "two Buffalo Gals go 'round the outside" from "Buffalo Gals" by Malcolm [=McLaren=], who was best known as Music/TheSexPistols' manager.
*** Although the latter is prominently featured in ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', which is still watched pretty often...
** Several sections in Eminem's signature late-career BoastfulRap technical showcase "Rap God" are parodies of other records, but due to the outsized influence of "Rap God", the flows are now all associated with that song.
*** The iconic speedrap section is a parody of the flow of "Supersonic" by Music/JJFad (namechecked in the song). Eminem even opens the section by rapping the gibberish phrase 'summa lumma dooma looma', a direct quotation of a lyric towards the end of "Supersonic". Of course, this flow is now so associated with Eminem that rappers now refer to it as 'the "Rap God" flow'.
*** The "gay lookin'-boy" section is a parody of "Lookin' Boy" by Hotstylz, with the lyrics changed to take a homophobic and [[CondemnedByHistory rather outdated]] shot at ringtone rappers. By the time "Rap God" came out, "Lookin' Boy" had already been forgotten, meaning much of the audience didn't pick up on the joke, and "Rap God"'s enduring status as a trainee rapper practice piece means that kids with no memory of the ringtone rap era are probably reciting Eminem's version of its flow in front of their bedroom mirror right now. Maybe in five years they'll release their own single, with just a little bit of that influence there...
* The tune we now hear as "Hail, hail the Gang's all here" comes from "With Catlike tread" in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance", which was a pretty obvious homage of "The Anvil Chorus" or "Gypsy Chorus" from Music/GiuseppeVerdi's "Il Trovatore".
* While there's no question of precedence, Finnish people born after the 70s (and not actively into Christmas music) will be able to sing the gruesome parody version[[note]]The Christmas tree has been stolen/ the police are at the door/Santa is hanged on the boughs of the Christmas tree. // The candles on the tree/burn Santa/Santa screams in agony:/"Bring flowers to my grave"[[/note]] of an old, sappy Christmas song (''Joulupuu on rakennettu'') at the drop of a hat, but struggle to remember the original lyrics[[note]]The Christmas tree has been set up/ Christmas is at the door/Sweets have been hung/off the boughs of the tree.// The candles of the tree/give off a lovely glow/ Children play sweetly/in a ring around the tree.[[/note]].
* Music/CarlyRaeJepsen's "Call Me Maybe" is well set on the road to this trope, as it's already more well-known for its [[MemeticMutation numerous parodies]] than for the song itself.
* "Aquarela do Brasil" ("Watercolor of Brazil") dates back to 1939, and gained initial success in the States via the Creator/{{Disney}} film ''WesternAnimation/SaludosAmigos''. However, due to being one of two songs in Creator/TerryGilliam's ''Film/{{Brazil}}'', most people most commonly associate it with that, and as a result just call it "Brazil" or "the song from ''Brazil''" (to be fair, the song was commonly known under that first name long before the film came along). The younger set will probably only remember it from the ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' trailer. And the lyrics (or anything beyond the initial "bum-bum-bum, bum-bum-bum-ba-bum"s) are virtually forgotten.
* Chuck Mangione is probably better-known today for his [[AdamWesting recurring role]] on ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' than his lengthy musical career. His big hit "Feels So Good", even more so.
* You know that kids' song "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands"? Would you believe it was once called "Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parlez-Vous?"
* The cover art for Music/TheClash's iconic ''Music/LondonCalling'' album was intended as a pretty blatant homage to Music/ElvisPresley's self-titled debut album ''Elvis Presley''. These days everyone recognizes ''London Calling'' (to the point that it itself is often paid homage to and imitated), but most young music fans couldn't tell you what inspired it.
* Every Finnish schoolchild knows "I Know A Place So Awful"[[note]]Tiedän paikan kamalan[[/note]], an ode to a child's hate of school. Few know there ever ''was'' a straight version "I Know A Place So Dear"[[note]]Tiedän paikan armahan[[/note]] on the loveliness of home.
* Many Music/SpikeJones songs also suffer from this. Today the originals he spoofed are mostly forgotten.
* Whenever an EnnioMorriconePastiche is quoted during a scene taking place with cowboys, many younger generations have no idea Creator/SergioLeone's spaghetti westerns are spoofed. (It even happened when the article was created on this site and many younger tropers were totally unaware who Music/EnnioMorricone was.) If you're a metalhead from Europe, then Morricone's scores probably remind you of “To Hell and Back” by Music/{{Sabaton}}.
* The nursery rhyme "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" takes its tune from a 1761 French song titled "Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman".
* Creator/BillyConnolly's rewriting of the syrupy Country and Western song "D.I.V.O.R.C.E." is probably -- just about -- better known in Britain than Tammy Wynette's {{Narm}}-charged original about how she could bear to tell the kids she and Poppa were splitting up. the Big Yin's version is about how to tell a stroppy-but-intelligent dog you're taking it to the vet for a little operation...
* Doubly-subverted with Weird Al's "Amish Paradise": Most people know that it's a parody of Coolio's song "Gangsta's Paradise" (1995); fewer will remember that the latter was recorded for the 1995 Creator/MichellePfeiffer film ''Film/DangerousMinds'', which [[AdaptationDisplacement never reached the same level of popularity as its soundtrack]]. However, what most people don't know is that Gangsta's Paradise [[SampledUp samples the chorus and music of the song "Pastime Paradise"]] from ''Music/SongsInTheKeyOfLife'' by Music/StevieWonder (1976).
* Thanks to being featured in the film ''Film/{{Blade}}'', and in turn being sampled by Public Domain and Warp Brothers, the Pump Panel acid techno remix of Music/NewOrder's "Confusion" ended up displacing the original.
* Sing to any child of the 90s the first few stanzas of "Do You Believe in Magic?" and they'll say UsefulNotes/McDonalds Happy Meal commercials, when it originally was a 60s pop hit by the Lovin' Spoonful.
** A similar phenomenon occurred when "Wild Thing" was used in commercials for Marine World Africa USA.
** Play a 2000's kid the first few stanzas and they would likely mention [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Meet The Pyro.]]
* Bollywood music director Anu Malik, infamous for plagiarism, has ended up doing this to a few songs. British Indian rapper Apache Indian's ''Chok There'' was a minor hit in India despite heavy airplay, but Anu Malik's parody ''Stop That'', sung by Devang Patel (an Indian counterpart of Weird Al), was a runaway hit for a long time in India. A few years later, ''Neend Churayi'', directed by him, was a hit and went high up the Bollywood charts, while the song it ripped off, ''Sending All My Love'' by Linear, still remained obscure, and is remembered faintly only because Anu Malik copied it.
** Another Bollywood music director almost did the same with ''Pal Pal Har Pal'' from ''Lage Raho Munnabhai'', which was a big hit with the masses, but there were far too many fans of Music/CliffRichard in India, who were familiar with ''Theme For A Dream'', for this to go unnoticed.
* Many a Music/{{Metallica}} fan probably have never seen ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'' aside from [[https://youtu.be/tI0TAk1e-VI the clip that plays before the band takes the stage]] (they have also covered said track, "The Ecstasy of Gold"). A minor case is "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" [[https://youtu.be/rjBrkfX_XHw borrowing]] [[https://youtu.be/224gm8JEVx0 from]] ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''.
* The hard rock/heavy metal band UFO isn't a well-remembered band, but they did make one notably popular song, "Doctor Doctor". However, [[CoveredUp a cover of the song]] by heavy metal giant Music/IronMaiden largely eliminated the original artist from popular culture outside of rock and metal circles. This is because Iron Maiden frequently uses their cover of the song to open their concerts via a public address system, so it's very well-known by fans, while the original is now mostly forgotten.
** The same thing happened to the indie rock band The Zutons. Their hit single "Valerie" was covered by Music/AmyWinehouse. Her version was an enormous global success, and ever since, the original song and the band that wrote it have been virtually erased from existence.
* "Like a Boss" by Music/TheLonelyIsland is much better known than Slim Thug's rap song of the same name, which it parodies.
* Video game remix and mashup conglomerate Music/SiIvaGunner has become this to many video game music fans. Formerly called "[=GiIvaSunner=]" (taking advantage of [=YouTube=]'s sans-serif font that causes capital "i" to look like lowercase "L"), they successfully {{troll}}ed many people trying to look for the real [=GiLvaSunner=]'s music uploads by uploading BaitAndSwitch videos with the same titles. Eventually, [=SiIva=]'s pranks gained a fandom of their own, and they even managed to surpass [=GilvaSunner=] in subscribers, leaving him forever associated with [=SiIva=]'s "high quality video game rips".
** The effect was made even stronger when Siiva's 'rips' started to become just as popular, and in several cases more popular, than actual videos of the music on Website/YouTube. Famously, searching "[[VideoGame/SuperMario64 Slider - Super Mario 64]]" or "[[Anime/LoveLive Snow Halation - Love Live]]" on Google will result in Siiva being the top hit.
* This can happen to a [=Bowdlerization=] as well as a parody: more people heard the slightly syrupy "Bless 'em All" (especially in its [[https://youtu.be/xf4jhb9p2v8 rendition by Vera Lynn]]) than Fred Godfrey's original WWI song, whose first word wasn't "Bless."
** For that matter, generations later than WWII are likely to recognize [[Music/VeraLynn Vera Lynn's]] name only from references to her in [[Music/PinkFloyd Pink Floyd's]] [[Music/TheWall The Wall]], and associate her most famous song with [[Film/DrStrangelove nuclear annihilation]] rather than going off to war.
* If one goes by Website/YouTube views, the song "God Is A Girl" is this. Some people heard the [[https://youtu.be/TiVIFMbwxOc Nightcore version]] by Maikel-6311 first (also like it better) than the [[https://youtu.be/rp53irFjzYg original version]] by band "Groove Coverage".
* While ''LetsPlay/PewDiePie'' was playing ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'', he makes a reference to a Swedish song called "Hej Hej Monika" and sings it (due to a character in-game named Monika who is very iconic in the game). Then he made a cover of the song with the help of ''Party In The Background'' and let's just say many people would know [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk8UEWHYfEg his version of the song]] better than the ''2004'' version.
* It is impossible for gay men to listen to "Girl on Fire" by Music/AliciaKeys without hearing the DragQueen parody "This Boy is a Bottom" by Creator/WillamBelli.
* The song from TheFifties, "Tequila", is recognizable to any child of TheEighties as "the Pee-Wee Herman dance". Some of them will also recognize it as the "Ninjitsu" dance from ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''.
** And then there are the kids who thought that the Turtles stole it from Pee-Wee...
* "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes was a major touchstone for Generation X. Younger generations will probably lack the same visceral, angsty response to the song, instead being surprised that it doesn't have a red-hot gaybar dance beat, and isn't sung in increasingly silly falsetto voices by [[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983 He-Man]].
* Music/LynyrdSkynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" was written as a TakeThat AnswerSong to Music/NeilYoung's [[Music/AfterTheGoldRush "Southern Man"]], which was a ProtestSong about the racism of the South. "Sweet Home Alabama" is much more famous and [[IsntItIronic has lost its meaning]] due to being used in so many irrelevant contexts (i.e. mocking DeepSouth stereotypes such as KissingCousins instead of [[SweetHomeAlabama celebrating Southern US culture]]).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* The 1980s {{Anime}} series ''Anime/JushinLiger'' is likely known in the West because the Japanese wrestler Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger based his gimmick on it, even using the show's theme song as his entrance music.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* Many of the radio parodies Radio/BobAndRay did. Perhaps the most durable example was their spoofing the then-hit SoapOpera ''Mary Noble, Backstage Wife'' as "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife". The former was [[RadioDrama a deadly-earnest story]] of an 'ordinary woman' married to a matinee idol; the latter... culminated, around 1970, in Mary and her family leaving showbiz altogether to open a toast-themed restaurant. The series having earlier openly mocked [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy Senator Joseph [=McCarthy=]]] at the height of the Army hearings. It is still one of B&R's best-known skits.
* ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue'': "The antidote to panel games" was born from the creative minds behind ''Radio/ImSorryIllReadThatAgain'' and conceived as an unscripted parody of panel shows. ''Clue'' has been on the air for over 40 years now and is better known than the shows it parodies, as well as itself becoming not so much an antidote but a ''template'' for the next generation of panel games.
** "Mornington Crescent" may be better known as the name of [[{{Calvinball}} one of the rounds]] from ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'' than as a station on UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground.
* A lot of 1930s and 1940s American radio shows are totally forgotten nowadays, but live on as punchlines in WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes and Creator/TexAvery cartoons. The funny thing about it is that even back in the day these jokes were completely incomprehensible to people outside the USA or people who didn't listen to the radio. Modern audiences nowadays will probably be amazed how many of these recurring catch phrases and punch lines actually originate from radio shows, movies and even commercial jingles:
** "Turn off that light!" (reference to air raid wardens during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII)
** "Was this/that trip really necessary?" (reference to a slogan used to encourage people not to take unnecessary trips to free up gas and rubber for the war effort and to free up space on trains to ferry troops to their duty locations. )
** "It's a possibility!" (reference to Creator/ArtieAuerbach's catchphrase as Mr. Kitzle during Creator/AlPearce's radio shows)
*** "Nobody home, I hope, I hope, I hope" - Al Pearce
** "That ain't the way I heard it!" (reference to The Old Timer character from the radio series ''Radio/FibberMcGeeAndMolly'')
*** "'T ain't funny, [=McGee=]!" – Molly's frequent line in ''Radio/FibberMcGeeAndMolly'')
*** "I love that man!" - (reference to the character Beulah (Marlin Hurt) on ''Radio/FibberMcGeeAndMolly''.)
*** "Operator, give me number 32O.. ooh, is that you, Myrt? How's every little thing, Myrt? What say, Myrt?" - (reference to the character Fibber, whenever he made a phone call to a certain Myrt in ''Radio/FibberMcGeeAndMolly''. )
*** "Well now, I wouldn't say THAT!" - (reference to the character Peavey (Richard Le Grand) in the radioshow ''Radio/TheGreatGildersleeve'')
** "Don't you believe it!" was the title of a 1947 radio show in which popular legends, myths or old wives' tales were debunked.
** "Aha! Something new has been added!" and "So round, so firm, so fully-packed. So free and easy on the draw." (reference to Lucky Strike cigarettes)
** "B.OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" from a commercial for Lifebuoy soap against B.O. (body odor)
** "Ain't I a stinker?" (Lou Costello from Creator/AbbottAndCostello)
*** "I'm only three and a half years old!" - From a character named Martha (Billy Gray) on the Abbott & Costello radio show.
** "Ah, yes! (Insert statement here), isn't it?", "Yehudi?", "Don't work, do they?" and "Greetings, Gate! Lets osculate!" (Jerry Colonna, sidekick on Creator/BobHope's radio show.)
** "I dood it!", "He don't know me very well, do he?" and "You bwoke my widdle arm!" – RedSkelton's radio comedy character Junior, aka Mean Widdle Kid
** "Of course you realize this means war!" ([[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]])
** "Ain't I a devil?" - Ralph Edwards in ''Truth or Consequences''.
** "Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?" and "I'm going to hug him and pet him and hug him and pet him..." (reference to Creator/JohnSteinbeck's novel ''Literature/OfMiceAndMen'')
** Several dimwitted characters were based on [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Mortimer_Snerd Mortimer Snerd]], a puppet character by puppeteer Creator/EdgarBergen, created in 1938.
** "Henry! Heeeeeeeeeeen-''RY''!" "Coming, Mother!" (reference to Radio/TheAldrichFamily, a radio sitcom)
** The NBC Chime
** "Monkeys is the cwaziest peoples." - A catch phrase from Lew Lehr. In parody the word "monkeys" was often replaced by other animals or people.
** "Ah say! I'm from the South, son!", "That's a joke, son!", "Pay attention now, boy!" - Kenny Delmar as Senator Claghorn in "The Fred Allen Show". The Looney Tunes character WesternAnimation/FoghornLeghorn was entirely based on this radio personality.
** "See?" - A verbal tic actor Creator/EdwardGRobinson used. When characters in Looney Tunes use it, it's usually in a police or gangster context.
** "I'll moida da bum." - A reference to boxer Tony Galento.
** "I have a problem, Mr. Anthony!" - Reference to John J. Anthony, who presented the daily radio advice program "The Goodwill Hour".
** "Train leaving on Track 5 for Anaheim, Azusa and Cuuuu-ca-mon-gaaa!" - Creator/MelBlanc usually said this, quoting a character he played on "The Creator/JackBenny Show".
** "Come with me to the casbah" - Reference to Creator/CharlesBoyer as Pépé le Moko in the 1937 film ''Film/{{Algiers}}''. Interesting detail: the line was prominent in the trailer, but not in the movie itself.
* The signature station ident of the BBC World Service for decades until 2008 was a jolly tune, dating from the late 17th century, called ''Lilliburlero''. People not familiar with the music of Restoration England tended to wonder why Britain's English-language service to the world uses an up-tempo version of the nursery rhyme ''Rock-a-bye baby, in the tree top/When the wind blows, the cradle will rock...'' as its theme tune.
* Baba Booey, the nickname of Creator/HowardStern's producer Gary Dell'Abate, is probably more well known than whose name it was a mispronunciation of - WesternAnimation/QuickDrawMcGraw's sidekick Baba Looey.
** Double Inversion, as Baba Booey is so commonly screamed after a golf swing on TV that some think it is just something you scream when golfing.
* ''Franchise/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', in its various incarnations, is much better known these days than ''The Hitch-Hikers' Guide to Europe'', the real travel book that inspired it.
* Many episodes of the 80s comedy ''Radio Active'' are parodies of specific and now long-forgotten shows, though if (as is highly likely) you don't know the original shows, they still work as send-ups of a general ''type'' of programme.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Religion, Folklore and Mythology]]
* Regarding the Myth/ArthurianLegend, many French people will have first heard the names of Myth/KingArthur's Knights of the Round Table from the very popular parody series ''Series/{{Kaamelott}}'' rather than from more serious sources.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sports]]
* Many [[UsefulNotes/AustralianRulesFootball AFL]] clubs' theme songs are better known to Australians (at least in AFL states) than the songs they are based on. Even where those based on songs that are still widely known (Adelaide: the "Marines' Hymn" (as in the [[SemperFi US Marines]]); Brisbane: "La Marseillaise"; Geelong: Song of the Toreador from ''Theatre/{{Carmen}}''; Hawthorn: "Yankee Doodle Dandy"; St Kilda: "When the Saints Go Marching In"), people are more likely to be familiar with the club song lyrics, while once-popular songs used by other clubs (Carlton: "Lily of Laguna"; Collingwood: "Goodbye Dolly Gray"; Essendon: "Keep Your Sunny Side Up"; Melbourne: "Grand Old Flag" (which is very well-known in America); North Melbourne: "Wee Doch an Dorus"; Richmond: "Row, Row, Row" (not to be confused with "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"); Sydney: "Victory March" (the University of Notre Dame fight song); Western Bulldogs: "Sons of the Sea") are now known almost exclusively as the club songs. [[https://youtu.be/iSANBgZzi6o Here are some of the original versions.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Stand-Up Comedy]]
* Creator/BrianPosehn, a Weird Al fan, brings this trope up while talking about how he is unsure of the proper way to introduce Weird Al's music to his kids.
-->'''Brian:''' Should I make them listen to the original song first, and then go "Okay, here's Weird Al's version of it"? Or should I pretend they they are all completely original songs? That would be easier, but it might mess him up a bit, like when he's 16 and at some party and Music/MichaelJackson starts playing, and he goes "Wait a minute! What the hell is this?! "Beat It"?! Well it sure sounds a hell of a lot like "Eat It"! ''Somebody'' needs to get sued."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* Hardly anyone realises that the willow song in ''Theatre/TheMikado'' was actually a parody of the song Desdemona sings in ''Theatre/{{Othello}}''.
** Which itself was a well-known tune at the time, a fact that is lampshaded in the play when Desdemona accidentally starts singing the wrong verse and catches herself.
** ''Theatre/{{Ruddigore}}'' is mostly a parody of a kind of melodrama no one watches anymore.
* ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' was written as a parody of action plays popular around Shakespeare's time, in particular the most popular play in the Elizabethan era, a simple revenge plot about the Danish prince written by Thomas Kyd. While ''Hamlet'' has become one of Shakespeare's most popular plays and the main role a key challenge for actors, the Kyd play has been lost. Scholars call it "Ur-Hamlet."
** In Shakespeare's day it was very common for writers to rewrite well known stories, telling the same tales over and over with variation. Novelty wasn't exactly prized in art. As a result, many of Shakespeare's plays are based on other stories and/or plays. For example the tale of Hamlet derives from a legendary character in ''Gesta Danorum'' (13th century) by Saxo Grammaticus, King Lear is a character from the ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' (12th century) by Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Romeo and Juliet are characters from the 1550s novellas of Matteo Bandello.
* The famous quote from ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'', "some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em" is a parody of Matthew 19:12: "For there are some eunuchs, which were so borne of their mothers belly: and there be some eunuchs, which be gelded by men: and there be some eunuchs, which have gelded themselves for the kingdom of Heaven." (From the Geneva Bible, a modernized version of the translation Shakespeare would be most likely to have read, omitting the annotations telling to take it metaphorically.) Between the {{Squick}} of this verse and Shakespeare's importance, the first quote has become ''far'' more familiar than the second.
** And many people associate it with Joseph Heller's ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'' (his version substituting "mediocre" and "mediocrity" for "great" and "greatness" respectively) rather than Shakespeare.
* A few Shakespeare scholars suspect that this effect accounts for a lot of puzzling things the Bard wrote. Several parts of his early comedies and later romances (the ending of ''Theatre/TwoGentlemenOfVerona'', Posthumus' notorious vision in ''Theatre/{{Cymbeline}}'', most of ''Theatre/TitusAndronicus'', etc.) are not just generally deemed bad ... they're bad in bizarre, far-out-in-left-field ways that have left centuries of readers stumped as to what Shakespeare even thought he was doing. However, these scholars argue, many of these plays fall into focus if we picture Shakespeare writing them as merciless parodies of other popular Elizabethan plays, which are now lost to history.
* It cuts both ways. Many people have searched the Bible in vain for the line ''"The devil can cite Scripture for his own purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness is like a villain with a smiling cheek."'' not realising the provenance is Shakespeare: ''The Merchant of Venice'', Act One, Scene Three. Shakespeare is referencing something that actually happens in the Bible, at least (the Temptation in the Desert, which appears in three Gospels).
* "Whatever Lola Wants" has been used in so many commercials like this one for Levis Jeans: (NSFW) [[https://youtu.be/hPaYk2dnDhM]] that many people don't know that it was used in the musical ''Theatre/DamnYankees''.
* Everyone remembers Creator/HarryHoudini, but the man whose name he stole as his pseudonym, magician Jean-Baptiste Houdin, is nowadays very obscure.
* Indeed, the parody sometimes outlives the original, as many of the plays by famous Greek tragedians which were made a mockery of in Creator/{{Aristophanes}}'s plays are now lost.
** Aristophanes was also parodying and making satirical references to comedy works by his rivals, such as Eupolis and Cratinus. He is the only writer of Old Comedy whose works survive to the present day, and we know little about his contemporaries.
** Some of the politicians and generals satirized by Aristophanes suffered the same fate. Lamachus was a real-life general of the Peloponnesian War, and was killed in combat (along with most of his unit) in 415 BCE. But he is mostly remembered because he is the antagonist in ''The Acharnians'', one of the most famous among Aristophanes' surviving works. Cleonymus of Athens was a real-life general and politician, who reportedly threw away his shield during a battle and run for his life. Aristophanes often mocked him for his cowardice. More that 2000 years later, most people (including scholars) know Cleonymus due to Aristophanes' jokes about him, rather than anything he did in life.
* A number of scenes in works by Creator/{{Euripides}} seem to satirize or point at plot holes in the older works of Creator/{{Aeschylus}}. Modern readers often have to read annotations to get the references.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'''s Solid Snake (and to a lesser extent, his predecessor Big Boss) has become a more popular character than [[Film/EscapeFromNewYork Snake Plissken]], the character he was originally a pastiche of.
* VideoGame/DukeNukem was not [[Wrestling/RoddyPiper the first guy]] [[Film/TheyLive to make]] a OneLiner regarding [[ChewBubblegum the kicking of asses and the chewing of gum]]. In general, a ''lot'' of lines thought of as Duke Nukem lines came from various 80s and 90s action films, most notably ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness''.
* Dan Hibiki from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha'' (and following ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' games) was a parody of the two main characters from ''VideoGame/ArtOfFighting'': Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia. This was a result of the original ''Street Fighter'' designers jumping ship to Creator/{{SNK}} and helping create ''VideoGame/FatalFury'' and ''Art of Fighting''. Suffice it to say, Creator/{{Capcom}} was not happy, and the two companies shared a deep rivalry throughout the 90s. However, ''Street Fighter'' is much better-known in North America than ''Franchise/TheKingOfFighters'' and has moved much further into the mainstream due to several separate factors, so it is not uncommon for an American fan of the series to not know that Dan is a parody of anyone specific, or to assume that he is just a parody of Ryu and Ken.
* While it is very well known in Japan, not many Western fans of ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' know that the title of the "Marisa stole the precious thing" [[MemeticMutation meme]] is a parody of a line by Inspector Zenigata from ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro''. Possibly because the original line has a slightly different wording if translated: "He ([[GentlemanThief Lupin III]]) stole something outrageous -- your heart."
** Similarly, most Western fans don't know that [[FanNickname OVERDRIVE'S]] famous [[EasyModeMockery EASY MODO?!]] is a parody of the H-doujin ''Datsu! Doutei''.
** Flandre's theme, "[=UN=] Owen Was Her?" is more commonly known as the "[[UsefulNotes/McDonalds Ronald McDonald Insanity/Ran Ran Ruu]] Song" because of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q16KpquGsIc this video]].
* Sure that StopMotion animation from the ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' trailer for [=PS4=] looks kind of [[NightmareFuel creepy]], too bad almost no one knows that this is an AffectionateParody of the stop motion animations from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation such as ''WesternAnimation/{{Puppetoons}}''.
** ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'', in general, can yield quite a lot of this trope. While some parodies are more obvious than others (Such as the titular character being partially an {{Expy}} of Franchise/MickeyMouse), many of the cartoons ''Cuphead'' references throughout the game [[MainstreamObscurity are completely obscure for modern audiences]].
* Most people today will probably be more familiar with Morrowind, an area in ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', than they will be with Morrowindl, an area in ''Literature/TheHeritageOfShannara'' that it was likely named after.
* In the [[MemeticMutation memetic]] exchange between Richter Belmont and Dracula from the ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' localization, the line "What is a man!? A miserable little pile of secrets!" is actually a quote from the preface of André Malraux's ''Antimémoires''.
* The Koopalings from the ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Super Mario]]'' series are all named after many long-forgotten 80s personalities, like Morton Downey Jr. and Wendy O. Williams. And, in one case, [[Music/LudwigVanBeethoven a classical composer]]. The tie-in book ''Dinosaur Dilemma'' did something similar with a bunch of officials named after real people whose last names were "Cooper" or "Koop" that the target audience probably never heard of, like C. Everett Koopa.
* Shulk's "Now it's Shulk time!" quote in [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU the 3DS and Wii U editions]] of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' is a reference to the character Reyn from Shulk's home game, ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1''. Reyn would frequently say, "Now it's Reyn time!" during battle, and the line became a common in-joke among players. Because ''Smash Bros.'' is a much more mainstream game than ''Xenoblade Chronicles'' (which notoriously had a very limited print run in the Americas and came out extremely late in the Wii's life cycle, while ''Smash 4'' has collectively sold nearly 10 million units), Shulk's version of the line has become much more well-known among the general gaming audience.
** Thankfully, this issue has now been partially alleviated by the release of the 3DS port of the original game.
* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'':
** Sans and Papyrus, a pair of skeleton brothers, are a parody of a webcomic called ''WebComic/{{Helvetica}}'' and its eponymous skeleton protagonist. The joke was that Helvetica is a font that is beloved by typeface aficionados, while (Comic) Sans and Papyrus are fonts that are widely derided. But ''Undertale'' became far more popular than ''Helvetica'', and Sans and Papyrus are two of the most popular characters in the game, to the extent that even people who have never played the game know about them.
** The line "you're gonna have a bad time" was a preexisting meme from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''.
* The "here lies andy. peperony and chease" tombstone joke from ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail'' is a reference to [[https://youtu.be/vKspf06XuaQ this '90s Tombstone Pizza ad]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Beatmania}}'': The song "Bloomin' feeling" is known as the "Creator/JackBlack Octagon Remix" due to a StupidStatementDanceMix of Jack Black's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7jpz_55EdM appearance]] on ''Series/SesameStreet'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Mv_mN8s1o seen here]], which isn't even the original upload.
* ''VisualNovel/TokimekiMemorial'' has so many parodies, pastiches, and satire due to it being the TropeCodifier of {{Dating Sim}}s, but due to its NoExportForYou status, many people outside of Japan have only seen those parodies without ever knowing what it was they were parodying. The dating sim genre, in general, gets this a lot to the point where certain modern dating sims are confused for a parody, a StealthParody, or even a {{Deconstruction}}, when they're actually straight takes on the genre just with an unorthodox cast (''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' being a notable example).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''WebComic/SweetBroAndHellaJeff'' was originally created by Creator/AndrewHussie to parody [[SturgeonsLaw utterly derivative]] concept art posted for an upcoming TwoGamersOnACouch comic called ''[[http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=85435 Higher Technology]]''.[[note]]The source pictures have sadly vanished, being hosted on [=ImageShack=][[/note]] Bro and Jeff's designs were taken straight from ''HT'', as were the giant eyes and "porkchop" mouths, and the [[MemeticMutation famous line]] "[[RougeAnglesOfSatin AHAHAHAHAHA just HOW high do you have to BE]] [[StylisticSuck just to DO something like that........]]" [[http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=85435&page=4 was meant as a riposte]] to ''HT'''s author asking if ''SBAHJ'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs had been made on drugs]]. That was in March 2009. Three years later, ''Higher Technology'' never even came to exist beyond a few half-finished sketches on the ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' forums. Meanwhile, ''Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff'' was integrated into ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' as a ShowWithinAShow and remains immensely popular with the fans of its own accord.
* [[http://www.lukesurl.com/archives/3141 This]] strip of ''Luke Surl Comics'' points out how knowledge of classic literature is gained not from reading it but from seeing it referenced in cartoons.
* One ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' [[https://www.shortpacked.com/comic/batman-can-breathe-in-space comic]] mocked a Franchise/{{Batman}} figure from the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' toyline that, for some reason, [[https://i.imgur.com/uKeoN20.png had a helmet that didn't cover the top of his head]]. It claimed that this is because "I'm Batman, and I can breathe in space." Due to being an inherently funny line, it caught on among Batman's MemeticBadass following, and even [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace named a trope]]. Many people don't even realize it's talking about a specific action figure, and the figure in question is long forgotten even among toy collectors (it's a rather generic EnvironmentSpecificActionFigure in a line full of them).
* Brian Clevinger's ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' has had this effect on the original ''VideoGame/{{Final Fantasy|I}}''. Many of the concepts featured in the comic (the WhiteMage being female, the BlackMage being non-human, the Fighter being an IdiotHero, etc.) are either totally invented by it, or are [[FandomNod references to]]/[[DeconstructiveParody parodies of]] longstanding ''Final Fantasy'' {{Fanon}} and memes, but many people assume them to be canon to ''[=FF1=]'' even though they're really not. A lot of this can be blamed on the fact that ''[=FF1=]'' is both a very old game (one that younger readers are less likely to be familiar with) and a very [[ExcusePlot barebones]] one compared to later entries in [[Franchise/FinalFantasy the series]]; Clevinger wasn't twisting the personalities of the characters for humor, he was [[OCStandIn inventing personalities for them where they had none before]].
** Even among people who ''do'' remember the original ''Final Fantasy'', or at least know about it through various spinoffs and tie-ins, some characters are still better-remembered as their Clevinger versions. Characters like Sarda or the unnamed king of Coneria have little dialogue and even less discernible personality in the original game, and their role in the plot is just to give you an item or open up another part of the world. They became [[AscendedExtra major recurring figures]] in ''8-Bit Theater'', and consequently, when you say, for example, "Sarda" to someone, they're much more likely to think of the Clevinger version.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* There was a popular AMV called "Euphoria". It combined the song "Must Be Dreaming" with the anime ''Anime/RahXephon''. Rather better-known these days is a parody from ''WebVideo/AMVHell 3'': "[[Manga/AzumangaDaioh Osaka]] Must Be Dreaming" (same visual effects, same song, but with clips of Osaka).
* WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall:
** Linkara's CatchPhrase "'''I''' am a '''man!'''" followed with a punch is actually a reference to infamous comic ''ComicBook/SupermanAtEarthsEnd'', one of the first titles he reviewed.
** Another phrase of his, "[[AWizardDidIt It's magic, I don't have to explain it.]]" is a reference to Creator/JoeQuesada[='=]s disliked explanation for ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay''.
** Inverted whenever '90s Kid appears. Many people assume that's Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" playing in the background, but Lovhaug actually uses the Weird Al parody "Smells Like Nirvana."
* Speaking of Website/ChannelAwesome, how many people do you suppose get Doug's repeated references to the TV show ''Series/OneStepBeyond''? Most people are far likelier to have heard of WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic and therefore assume the catch phrase originated with him.
* [[http://ursulav.deviantart.com/art/The-Biting-Pear-of-Salamanca-29677500 The Biting Pear of Salamanca]], also known as the [[MemeticMutation LOLWUT Pear]].
* There's a ''Website/CollegeHumor'' video in which someone tells a story of Amir ordering "Gangsta's Paradise" on karaoke only to sing "Amish Paradise." The owner of the bar later said that they actually had "Amish Paradise" in the machine.
* The Kitsune^2 song, [[https://youtu.be/RvFNU_vN5JI Avast Your Ass]] is a popular song for remixes. One such remix, [[https://youtu.be/NbIGnY_DSIE Avast Fluttershy's Ass]] (or whatever title the author has changed it to by now) is more often searched for than the original, and has over twice as many views. The fact that it's about [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Fluttershy]] is most likely a huge contributing factor to this.
* One case that somewhat depends on whether you're a bigger fan of hip-hop, or ''Series/GameOfThrones''. If the latter, you're likely more familiar with [[https://youtu.be/H-oZ4Bug_zA# Backflip Wilson's version of Black and Yellow]] than [[https://youtu.be/UePtoxDhJSw the original]].
** [[https://youtu.be/3x4weajfqm0 Green and Purple]] by Kritikal is so wide-spread by Internet memes, most don't know it's a parody. It's popularity is mostly from the titular colors, rather than the subject of [[OdeToIntoxication smoking marijuana]]. And in an even stranger version of this, [[https://youtu.be/NzEemp1SLOM this]] ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' music video has almost double the views than the song on ''Kritikal's official Website/YouTube channel'' (the former video).
* Quite a few people are only familiar with the relatively obscure anime ''Anime/IrresponsibleCaptainTylor'' because the Empress Azalyn character is the AuthorAvatar of WebAnimation/{{YouTube Poop}}er [=RootNegativeSixteen=].
* ''Fanfic/WeissReacts'' was actually an AffectionateParody of an older, moderately well-known fic the author happened to like based on a similar premise about the characters of WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} reacting to fanfiction. Nowadays, the former fic is so famous and well-known that the latter was actually called a rip-off of Weiss Reacts, even though ''it came first''. The authors of both fic take it in stride, as the latter fic, ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9919670/1/Dear-Fanfiction Dear Fanfiction]]'' is actually featured in the former.
* In a bizarre case of the {{Trope Namer|s}} himself getting this treatment, very few fans of LetsPlay/NintendoCapriSun are aware his CatchPhrase "IN THE BATHROOM" comes from a Weird Al song. ("A Complicated Song", to be exact.)
* Many younger fans of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' tend to believe that Luna's song in "WebAnimation/ChildrenOfTheNight" is an original song rather than being from ''Film/HocusPocus''. Complicating things is the fact that "Children" uses original lyrics not featured in the original movie that were added years after ''Hocus Pocus''' release in a fanmade cover of the song.
* One comment in the comment section of the obscure song [[https://youtu.be/KGEKWd48sSM The Midnight Tango]] by Herb Alpert said it better.
-->''That moment when a parody involving a [[https://youtu.be/5u3iv8AT8G8 dog barking the melody]] has more views than the original''.
* Mike Stoklasa of ''WebVideo/RedLetterMedia'' based the character of Mr. Plinkett on a character in one of his earlier films, where Plinkett was played by Rich Evans. The Plinkett reviews have proven so explosively popular that Stoklasa's version of the character has far eclipsed Evans's, to the point that Evans's reprising of the role for ''Half in the Bag'' was mostly met with TheyChangedItNowItSucks - even RLM has come to call Evans's version [[YouDontLookLikeYou "Fake Plinkett."]]
* The Website/{{Twitter}} parody account ''@seinfeldToday'' got very popular in 2014-2015 sharing imaginary Seinfeld plots based around modern technology, and was widely criticised for being lame and uninspired (including by Creator/LarryDavid). One of its critics started a parody account of the parody account, ''@seinfeld2000'', which contained [[StylisticSuck dreadful spelling and grammar]], surreal and horrifying plotlines, and very well-produced parody {{Mashup}} videos and music. ''@seinfeld2000'' has outlived ''@seinfeldToday'' and made ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' [[MemeticMutation a popular meme]].
* These days, it's nearly impossible to find references to the original 4 Non Blondes song "What's Up?". It has been almost entirely supplanted by the [[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse He-Man]] parody remix, "HEHEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA" (part of a larger parody, "[[https://youtu.be/FR7wOGyAzpw Fabulous Secret Powers]], by Slackcircus created in 2005).
* In one of [[WebVideo/{{React}} The Reacts Channel]] regular segments "Do Teens Know 90s Music", Gangster's Paradise was played. At least one teen recognized it as "The song Weird Al parodied". He couldn't actually name the song beyond that.
* In a case of a work doing this to itself, memetic ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' song "Trogdor" features the line "And the Trogdor comes in the NIIIIIGHT!", a CallBack to the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail "guitar", where Strong Bad improvised a song that included the line "And the dragon comes in the NIIIIIGHT!" As "guitar" is a fairly early email that's on the obscure side, and the Trogdor theme is popular even outside the site, chances are very likely anyone who heard the original heard the CallBack first.
* There are quite a few people who have never heard of Music/DrDre's "What's the Difference" before hearing the Creator/BillCosby Franchise/{{Pokemon}} rap using that song's background music and audio samples of Cosby from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.
* Those who saw the viral video "She Blocked Me" from Albino Blacksheep may be hard-pressed to find that it's a parody of the lesser-known song "She Hates Me" by Music/PuddleOfMudd.
* In 1953, German playwright Max Frisch published ''Biedermann und die Brandstifter'' (or ''The Arsonists'' in English), a stage play about a pair of psychotic arsonists who pose as simple traveling salesmen, and use their [[AffablyEvil charm and wit]] to persuade a [[TheEveryman perfectly ordinary man]] to help them in their arson spree; written when UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's rise to power was still in recent memory, Frisch intended the fire as a metaphor for fascism, and used the play to demonstrate how otherwise good people can be taken in by evil. If you're below a certain age, though, you're probably more likely to know the WebVideo/PhilosophyTube [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO6uD3c2qMo episode]] that was inspired by the play (and the subsequent episodes where "The Arsonist" became a recurring character).
* In the WebVideo/GameGrumps episode on ''VideoGame/MickeyMousecapade,'' Arin spends [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-LfKbCR0MI the entire episode]] speaking like an [[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd AVGN]] [[FollowTheLeader wannabe,]] with deliberately bad jokes and a ton of off-color scatological humor. A lot of viewers just enjoy the bizarrely-specific ToiletHumor at face value without realizing it's based on a specific video ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywokdc8Am68 this]] riff of the same game), especially since AVGN copycats aren't as prominent as they were in the early [=2010s=].
* Happened to Weird Al himself on Wiki/ThisVeryWiki. Most tropers may be more familiar with the tropes named after the song "White & Nerdy", (AsianAndNerdy, BlackAndNerdy, and JewishAndNerdy) than the song itself.
* LetsPlay/CaptainSparklez's "Revenge" Minecraft Parody of Usher's DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love. For a while it had more views that the official upload of the original. Despite ExecutiveMeddling from Usher's label taking the video down and forcing Captain Sparklez to change the sound, the original is back up with still more likes than the original. The original has since, however, overtaken the parody in terms of [=YouTube=] views.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Not many people realize that the characters WesternAnimation/{{Chip and Dale}} are a pun on the surname [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chippendale "Chippendale"]][[note]]the furniture maker, not the strip club[[/note]]. Or that their ''[[WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers Rescue Rangers]]'' incarnations are meant to invoke Franchise/IndianaJones and Series/MagnumPI, respectively.
* This is simultaneously parodied and {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' when the Warners meet UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk. They toss him into a dentist's chair and announce that they need to give him some "Anastasia." A girl in a tiara and a poofy dress then hits Rasputin on the head with a hammer. Dot [[BreakingTheFourthWall turns to the camera]] and deadpans, "Obscure joke. Talk to your parents."[[note]]Ironically, Creator/DonBluth would [[WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}} bring the good duchess back into popular consciousness]] just a few years later[[/note]]
** The vaudeville catcall "Hellooooo, nurse!" is now forever tied with this show despite it predating the series by decades.
%%* The process is still going on -- consider all of the increasingly dated ''early '90s'' references in ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures''.
* ''WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts'':
** Likewise, ''WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie'', well-remembered as the first talking WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse cartoon, is a loose parody of a contemporary Buster Keaton feature, ''Film/SteamboatBillJr''.
** Cartoons like ''Mickey's Gala Premier,'' ''Mickey's Polo Team,'' and the WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck cartoon ''The Autograph Hound'' were full to the brim with famous celebrities of the time. Nowadays most people will probably only recognize a few of them.
** The black and white Mickey cartoon ''The Klondike Kid'' is a mash-up of ''The Shooting of Dan [=McGrew=]'' and ''[[Creator/CharlieChaplin The Gold Rush]]''.
** [[Creator/JimmyDurante Guess who Mickey imitates]] in the black and white cartoon ''Mickey Plays Papa''?
** In the cartoon ''The Hockey Champ'' Donald is seen at the beginning parodying then-famous skater/actress Sonya Henie.
** Several of the Disney shorts were spoofing then-popular genre fiction. ''Duck Pimples'' (1945) spoofs horror-themed and crime-themed radio shows of the era, as Donald's imagination runs wild. ''Frank Duck Brings 'Em Back Alive'' (1946), spoofs the autobiography of animal collector Frank Buck (1884-1950) and its series of fictionalized film adaptations. ''How to Be a Detective'' (1952) spoofs several tropes from FilmNoir, and mocks their convoluted plots. ''Two-Gun Goofy'' (1952) spoofs television Westerns. Unclear how many modern viewers get the references.
* WesternAnimation/BettyBoop:
** Helen "boop-a-doop" Kane is now recalled as having been like Betty Boop -- which she was before Betty Boop was created.
** Betty's design was heavily inspired by Creator/ClaraBow, down to having red hair like her (as shown in her only colored short, ''WesternAnimation/PoorCinderella''). Clara is considered one of the first Hollywood superstars but has since faded into obscurity for various reasons.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheModifyers'' is a little known cartoon that was rejected by Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}. It only aired [[OneEpisodeWonder a single pilot episode]] that ended on [[LeftHanging a cliff-hanger]] and was dropped. About the only reason anyone's even heard of it, [[RuleThirtyFour is because of the unofficial]] [[BestKnownForTheFanservice porn parody]] by Zone, [[AdaptationDisplacement which has become more popular and widely known than the show itself.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'':
** The shows version of {{Dracula}} is drawn to look like an older version of Film/{{Blacula}} (complete with early 70's sideburns and mustache) and acts like a dead-on impersonation of Fred Sanford from ''Series/SanfordAndSon'', complete with a penchant for calling people "dummy". Both were decades old when the show was produced, and not something young viewers were likely to recognize.
** Its parody of the Creator/HPLovecraft mythos, "Prank Call of Cthulhu", must go over the heads of most young viewers as well.
* The Cuddle Buddies from ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' are on the surface send-ups of Beanie Babies. But if you dig further, you'll note their unmistakable resemblance to ''WesternAnimation/TheWuzzles'', a slightly obscure 1980's kids' show also produced by Disney. ''WesternAnimation/TheWuzzles'' was also MerchandiseDriven, and when that show was airing, store shelves did have boxes with stuffed Wuzzles on/in them. If you're baffled as you why you've never heard of them, ''The Wuzzles'' only lasted 13 episodes and broadcast over a 3-months period in 1985, making it one of Disney's shortest-lived series.
* Grandpa from ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has a photo stashed away of Creator/HedyLamarr. Naturally, kids had to go ask their parents.
** The parents, in turn, might have only been familiar with the ''Blazing Saddles'' character...
* The "Log" song from ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' is a parody of [[https://youtu.be/XdjNH34a2l4 classic Slinky commercials]]. There's also comedian Stinky Wizzleteats from "Stimpy's Invention," a spoof of actor/musician Music/BurlIves. Specifically the lines about "teaching your grandmother to suck eggs" and "I told you I'd shoot but you didn't believe me!" come from ''Film/TheBigCountry''. And, of course, Ren's voice and persona are largely based on characters played by Creator/PeterLorre, with Ren's famous CatchPhrase "You fat, bloated ''EEDIOT!''" paraphrased from Joel Cairo's VillainousBreakdown near the end of ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1941}}''. [[https://youtu.be/IvVuNkE-LMw See here.]]
* The classic schtick of [[OverlyPolitePals two characters trying to out-polite each other]] "After you. No I insist after you." has been done innumerable times in ''Goofy Gophers'' and ''WesternAnimation/HeckleAndJeckle'' cartoons. Both of these are parodies of a much older comic strip routine involving two guys named Alphonse and Gaston. The only way a non-historian would have heard those names would be at a baseball game. (An "Alphonse and Gaston" is when two guys chase a fly ball and simultaneously pull up so it drops between them.) And then you need an announcer who loves the classics. - Though the original Alphonse and Gaston comic strip was actually fairly long-running (1901-1937), and had received adaptations in stage plays and films. It was one of the most famous creations of comic strip artist Frederick Burr Opper (1857–1937), one of the pioneers of the comic strip genre. Opper's best remembered character is Happy Hooligan (1900-1932), the "well-meaning hobo who encountered a lot of misfortune and bad luck" due to unjust treatment. He was the character which Creator/CharlieChaplin was imitating in his "Little Tramp" persona.
** On "It's That Man Again", a wartime BBC radio show, it was "After you Claude." "After YOU, Cecil."
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'':
** It's just easier to say that ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' is another Weird Al Effect machine a la ''Alice in Wonderland'', particularly when it comes to '80s cartoons and toys:
** "Oh my god! Somebody remembered [[Film/SleepawayCamp this movie]] and made a comedy sketch about it!"
** Most younger fans may not be aware that the chickens bawking in the end is "The Gonk" from ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'' and instead refer to it as the ThemeTune.
** Composite Santa Claus is probably more well-known than the villain he's a parody of. Composite Superman hasn't been seen since before ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', and the few people who remember him probably wish they didn't.
*** Ironically, Composite Superman wound up appearing in ''Robot Chicken DC Comics Special III: Magical Friendship'', with a major role, no less!
** One sketch had Lewis and Clark, portrayed by Lois Lane and Clark Kent, specifically acting out their unique character traits from ''Series/LoisAndClark''. Clark [[BreakingTheFourthWall addresses the audience]] that unless they saw the show they would probably not get the joke.
* Most ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' viewers don't seem to be aware that Roger's distinctive voice and mannerisms (done by Creator/SethMacFarlane) are intended to parody Creator/PaulLynde.
** Lynde is a frequent victim of this trope, as his voice is imitated quite often in cartoons. The result is that some animation fans think of his voice as a stock cartoon voice used for AmbiguouslyGay or just plain CampGay male characters and aren't aware that all those voices stem from one man. He did some voice work himself, such as the Creator/HannaBarbera 'toons ''WesternAnimation/ThePerilsOfPenelopePitstop'' and ''WesternAnimation/CharlottesWeb''. HB were so well known for using celebrity imitators in their cartoons, that even people who have heard of Mr. Lynde probably assumed it was an imitation. On the other hand, since Lynde ''was'' so commonly imitated, people will often assume that any cartoon from the 1970s or earlier that includes a Lynde-like voice has him doing that voice - but sometimes it isn't. (Alan Sues is frequently mistaken for Lynde, for example.)
** What they ''really'' aren't aware of is that Lynde admitted he borrowed his manner of speaking and mannerisms from Creator/AliceGhostley, a popular Broadway star of the '50s who later became a Hollywood character actress.
*** Interestingly, both Lynde and Ghostley each had a recurring role on the TV series ''Series/{{Bewitched}}''.
** For that matter, Creator/SethMacFarlane's penchant for referencing 1980s TV and movies, along with 1950s lounge music, has made his shows into a Weird Al Effect machine for people too young to remember those decades (AKA the vast majority of his audience). ''Family Guy'' is a much bigger offender than ''American Dad'', though.
** The opening titles of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' are a parody of the opening titles of ''Series/AllInTheFamily'', something that is completely lost on younger viewers.
** Ask anyone about the song "Surfin' Bird" and they'll most likely attribute it to Family Guy instead of its original creators, the Trashmen.
*** Although see the music section above - it wasn't originally the Trashmen's either.
** ''Family Guy'''s penchant for obscurity runs the gamut -- especially when it comes to parodies. For example, a number of people might recognize a song they play straight -- such as "Shipoopi" from ''Film/TheMusicMan'' -- but how many people actually know that the "Fellas at the Freakin' FCC" song from the episode "PTV" is sung to the tune of a song from an obscure Broadway musical called ''Take Me Along''?
** Creator/SethMacFarlane's love of old movies, demonstrated in the score reference to ''The Sea Hawk'' during a car chase seen that turns in to a parody of age of sail ship to ship battles.
** Go to Website/YouTube and search for any scene or clip from a pop culture phenomenon that ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has parodied or mentioned. Most of the comments will consist of, "I thought ''Family Guy'' created this!"
*** With the possible exception of ''Franchise/StarWars''. For now.
* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'':
** The "Don't you believe it!" line in a couple of ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoons is clearly a reference to one of the openings to the NBC Radio show [[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=491245 "The Passing Parade"]]. 'Don't you believe it!' was a radio program back in the mid to late forties. This program was run by Toby Reed. In the beginning of the show they listed off a number of trivia type things, "and say if you believe so and so ... Don't you believe it!" then it went on to explain what really happened in a kind of documentary style. Today this joke has gotten so obscure that hardly anyone remembers it.
** Another episode had a small robotic mouse walking back and forth repeating "Come out and see me some time". This was a reference to Creator/MaeWest's once-notorious line: "Come ''up'' and see me sometime".
* Double example: the theme from ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' was a parody of the theme from ''Series/HogansHeroes'', which in turn was a parody of the march from ''Film/TheGreatEscape''.
* Similarly, ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'' is ''Film/{{Shaft}}... [[RecycledInSpace In School!]] (with a heavy helping of 1970's cop movies and TV shows thrown in). Although the show was loved by many fans, supposedly part of the reason is was cancelled is that [[ExecutiveMeddling the suits]] felt the kiddie target demographic didn't get all the 1970's references (and believed that it mattered whether the kids got all the references or not).
* Snagglepuss is, so far, an aversion. While his voice is based on Bert Lahr's [[Film/TheWizardOfOz cowardly lion]], the original is still well enough known as to avoid the Weird Al effect.
** Yet Snagglepus himself is sometimes confused with WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther in countries where that character is more familiar.
* ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR'' [[TurnedUpToEleven exists almost entirely on this trope]]. Giant robot anime, movies, cartoons, tv shows, literature, pop culture, obscure throw-away characters from other series, actors, conspiracy theories, theoretical physics, urban legends, real life... Everything is a source for [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools what is likely the most awesome cartoon ever made]].
* When they're parodying a certain musician, ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' will sometimes use a modified version of their existing material, resulting in a lot of viewers giving them full credit for it.
** If you're a ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' viewer who doesn't listen to popular music, you might not know that the song at the end of "Fishsticks" is a parody of the Music/KanyeWest song "Heartless". Given enough time, even those who do probably won't recognize it, leaving poor Kanye's musical career [[PopculturalOsmosis eclipsed by a song about gay fish]].
** More people are familiar with the episode "Trapped in the Closet" than the actual Music/RKelly album it parodies (which was generally regarded as a low ebb in his career).
** The two episodes featuring Music/MichaelJackson—-"Meet the Jeffersons" and "Dead Celebrities"—-used three songs as the basis for his musical bits: "Heal the World" from ''Music/{{Dangerous}}'' and "Childhood" and "You Are Not Alone" from ''Music/HistoryPastPresentAndFutureBookI''. Seeing as all three were lesser known relative to his other hits, it can be easy to miss them.
* The Disney villain [[Characters/MickeyMouseComicUniverseAntagonists Phantom Blot]] is a parody of a character in many film serials, the main villain whose face is hidden in a cloak until the final episode reveals him to be a character already familiar to the audience. This was a recognizable stock character when the Blot was introduced in 1939. Now the serials are forgotten, but the character lives on.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' used quite a few "[[InkSuitActor special guest voices]]" of celebrities of the era given {{Punny Name}}s, such as "Ann-Margrock" for actress Ann-Margaret and "Jimmy Darrock" for Jimmy Darren. Kids who grew up watching the reruns would have had no clue who these people were.
* Rarity's song "Art of the Dress" from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' is done InTheStyleOf the song "Putting It Together" by Barbra Streisand. The former is much more popular and many people only know of "Putting It Together" from "Art Of The Dress".
* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' is a parody of the stop-motion Christian cartoon ''WesternAnimation/DaveyAndGoliath''. Not many people realize it due to the latter being a niche work from the 60s.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** The theme song is sung to the tune of the sea shanty "Blow The Man Down", and has become more popular than the original song.
** Barnacle Boy is likely a lot more well-known at this point than [[ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} Aqualad]], the character he is pretty clearly a parody of. Aqualad himself has been OutOfFocus for decades in comic continuity, largely due to the issues DC's long had with making Aquaman on his own work. He's gained some recognition in the years since the show's debut due to his appearances in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' and ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', but those incarnations of the character are so far removed from the classic version that Barnacle Boy is based off of that the connection is likely still lost among viewers.
** Indeed, the original ''Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy'' ShowWithinAShow is clearly based on the 1960s ''Aquaman'' series produced by Creator/{{Filmation}}. Though when ''[=SpongeBob=]'' premiered in 1999 the shorts had been rerun over on the Cartoon Network, nowadays you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone aware of the Filmation Aquaman (other than comic-book geeks and die-hard animation fans).
** "Sweet Victory" has been so ingrained into the show (to the point of where the Super Bowl LIII received backlash for not playing it during their halftime show) that most people don't realize that the song was actually recorded by David Glen Eisley for a stock music library. It [[ColbertBump was almost unheard of]] prior to the airing of "Band Geeks".
** The Creator/NFLFilms song "The Lineman" is probably better known as the theme of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy than its original use.
* How many viewers of ''WesternAnimation/ThePerilsOfPenelopePitstop'' realised it was a pastiche of 1910s film serials like ''Film/ThePerilsOfPauline'' (1914)? Okay, now how many realised the Hooded Claw is specifically based on the villain from the follow-up to ''Pauline'', ''Film/TheExploitsOfElaine'' (1914), who was known as the Clutching Hand? Note that the Clutching Hand was "the first mystery villain to appear in a film serial", and became the template for every mystery villain in the genre.
** Many people may also believe that ''The Perils of Pauline'' and ''The Exploits of Elaine'' were invented by Scott Westerfield for the ''Literature/{{Leviathan}}'' books.
* Most of ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'''s characters are obvious clones of historical figures - UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi, UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc, and so on. Even minor characters are based on historical figures (with the exception of Principal Scudworth). There are, however, some that may have slipped past viewers:
** [[RobotBuddy Mr. Butlertron]] is a parody of the titular character of ''Series/MrBelvedere'', down to calling everyone Wesley. The creators even wanted to name him "Mr. Belvetron", but they couldn't get the rights. This parody would go right over the heads of anyone who watched the series today, or even during the original run if they were on the younger side.
** It is easy to miss that the [[RememberTheNewGuy "guest star"]] Ponce is based on a real historical figure, Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon. His full name is only used once, [[spoiler:on the end title card memorializing his death]], and given the intro's blatant emphasis [[spoiler:that he is the clone who will die tonight]], it is pretty easy to assume that they just made up the character to make it his RememberTheNewGuy status even funnier, as a normal person in a school of clones.
** The series's concept as a parody of the VerySpecialEpisode [[UpToEleven in every episode]] can be lost on viewers, as the overtness of such episodes has been downplayed in modern sitcoms (if it shows up at all - series typically avoid dropping such {{Anvilicious}} messages, and if they are going to include drug/alcohol use, death, or sex, they will do it from the start).
* Link's now-memetic "[[WellExcuseMePrincess Well, EX-CUUUUSE ME, princess!]]" from the old ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda'' animated series is fondly remembered by those who grew up with the show, and is usually understood on the Internet to exclusively be a reference to the cartoon. More than a few of these fans may not recognize that the recurring line is a direct ShoutOut to one of Creator/SteveMartin's famous bits from his stand-up comedy days. Same delivery and everything.
* A lot of the parodies and jokes in ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' that are based on pop culture go over people's heads. For example, Tom's song "Let It Burn" is an actual Music/{{Usher}} song. Other episodes are based on real life events or real people (often times word-for-word), including the teacher who says the "n" word at Riley and the gay prisoner with the beanie.
* Despite airing on the popular ''Series/CaptainKangaroo'' show in the country, ''[[WesternAnimation/SimonInTheLandOfChalkDrawings2002 Simon In The Land Of Chalk Drawings]]'' is most remembered by people living in North America due to the Creator/MikeMyers sketches on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' featuring a character named Simon that used the same intro theme.
* Before Website/YouTube became a thing, people assumed that the segment in the ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies'' episode "Mortages and Marbles" in which puppets sing a song about marbles was original. It's actually a spoof of the famous Canadian PublicServiceAnnouncement "Don't Put It In Your Mouth", in which two puppets [[WarningSong tell children to ask their parents permission before putting something in their mouth]].
* Similar to the "Sweet Victory" example, the stock music track "The Night Begins To Shine" by BER is better known as Cyborg's favorite song in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo''. It doesn't help matters that they devoted several episodes to said song.
* Say "[[GratuitousFrench omelette du fromage]]" and people will probably think you're referencing an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory''; it has its roots in a classic Creator/SteveMartin comedy routine from his "Wild and Crazy Guy" era wherein he describes visiting Paris.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' main villain Mojo Jojo has a very distinctive speech pattern where he [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment repeatedly explains the meanings of the words he's using]]: for instance, when he says he will conquer the world, he'll go on to say that he will take it over through military force. According to Creator/CraigMcCracken, this was based on Literature/TheSuperdictionary, which uses the ''exact same'' cadence as Mojo Jojo's dialogue, and is mostly only known to people through the "40 Cakes" meme.
* ''Series/TheSecretDiaryOfDesmondPfeiffer'' has been completely and utterly eclipsed by ''WesternAnimation/ClerksTheAnimatedSeries'' using it as a RunningGag, to the point that the overwhelming majority of people [[AluminumChristmasTrees don't even know it was a real show]]. If you're wondering why, ''Secret Diary'' was [[AudienceAlienatingPremise a bawdy sitcom about an African slave working as a butler for Abraham Lincoln]] that was so controversial and poorly received that it was [[ShortRunners cancelled after only four episodes]].
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Other]]
* Real Life example: the phrase "Unholy Alliance" is commonly used in a wide variety of contexts, but almost nobody remembers that it was originally a parody of the "Holy Alliance" of Russia, Prussia, and Austria that formed in the early 1800s.
* You always remember people based on the physical features and characterisations that are different than others. As a result people you know are remembered as caricatures of their physical features or behaviour more than how they actually look and behave. For instance:
** Prince Charles' ears have been exaggerated in cartoons so often that many people often imagine them to be WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}-sized. In the BBC documentary series ''The Human Face'' they used him as an example by first simply tracing the lines of a photograph of him into a realistic drawing. As a result he was unrecognizable. Only when they exaggerated his features into caricature you instantly recognized him as Prince Charles.
** The vocal patterns and mannerisms of UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush are much more remembered through Creator/DanaCarvey's exaggerated impression of him than by video recordings of his actual voice and physical presence. Indeed, once Carvey's impression gained traction, anyone else's impression of Bush Sr. was most often an imitation of Carvey's impression.
** Many dictators like UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi, UsefulNotes/IdiAmin, UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein... have also been caricatured as AxCrazy lunatics. This is also how they live on in people's perceptions, even though if they were all as nuts as some parodies make them they would have never been able to remain in power for so long.
*** The widespread belief that Adolf Hitler was a hyperactive madman is derived from his highly threatrical speeches, where he deliberately shouted at the top of his voice and rapidly waved his fists around in a dramatic, passionate manner to excite crowds.
** Music/ElvisPresley's greasy quiff has been elongated to such absurd lengths in caricatures that people may actually be surprised to learn it was actually not five feet long in reality.
** Music/RingoStarr has been caricatured as a dimwitted ManChild in so many parodies that people may be surprised to realize that he actually is a smart, normal-behaving adult.
** UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte was caricatured by 19th century British cartoonists as a small dwarf with a large hat. This is also how he lives on in our minds. In reality he was of average height for his time.
* Creator/BillCosby did a retelling of a sketch from an old radio drama called "Lights Out" about a chicken heart that ate up New York City. Since he was a kid, he thought [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou the chicken heart was coming to eat him]], and he promptly smeared Jell-O all over his floor and set his sofa on fire to discourage the "monster." Cosby's routine is now much better known than the original sketch. Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump...
** The "Lights Out" sketch was itself based on the [[RippedFromTheHeadlines then-popular news]] of an experiment that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Carrel#Cellular_senescence kept chicken heart tissue alive for 20 years in a lab]]. Said experiment is very obscure today -- and the fact that [[ScienceMarchesOn its results were probably spurious]] did not help.
* The ChickenJoke: "Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side". Despite being used as the mascot of joke-telling, it's really a parody of other jokes. Where most jokes end with some kind of pun, "To get to the other side" is a straight answer that only works if the listener was expected something absurd.
** This joke in turn has been the source of thousands of parodies.
* Plenty of modern media references "DoNotAdjustYourSet" to mean "this weirdness is real". The phrase was first used in this sense in ''Series/{{The Outer Limits|1963}}'', but it originated years earlier [[TheArtifact as a warning to viewers that the station was experiencing technical difficulties]]. "Do Not Adjust Your Set" meant "the problem's on our end, not yours, so don't go fiddling with the antenna".
* The expression "[[WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties technical difficulties]]" is now highly likely to be used as a euphemism for a person (or even a society) going insane, or even for something disastrous or off-color (as, most hilariously, in ''Film/ProblemChild 2''), rather than something as mundane as a problem with a broadcaster's equipment.
* Weird Al, who loved Creator/DrDemento and got his start on the show, probably laments the fact that the ''still-running'' [[http://www.drdemento.com/ Dr. Demento show]] has been almost forgotten except by connection to him. (To wit, he's gone [[http://www.geekosystem.com/dr-demento-radio-show-over/ Internet-only]].)
* Any cartoon, video game, film, etc. made prior to TheNineties that wasn't Disney-popular that was parodied in and after TheNineties will get this effect in Eastern Europe due to that region locked away from Western pop-culture for 50 years (where only the very best of the West passed the border).
* The name "Barcalounger" (the brand of reclining chair) is a play on a the name of a type of sailing ship, the Barca-longa. No one but naval historians and readers of the ''Literature/AubreyMaturin'' series (which are not such distinct populations) would know that now.
* Any denizen of the Internet knows about demotivational posters. On the other hand, the kind of motivational posters they're based on aren't nearly as well-known, especially outside the USA.
** Anyone who's worked in any kind of office environment is likely to recognize them, or at the very least take a closer look to see if it's a demotivator or the real thing.
* Chef Al Yeganeh, the New York proprietor of "Soup Kitchen International" (later "The Original Soupman"), and the real life inspiration for ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'''s Soup Nazi was in business about ten years prior to the episode that made him famous. Despite his insistence to the contrary, prior to Seinfeld, Al Yeganeh was an obscure New York figure known mostly to certain circles of affluent late 80s/early 90s Manhattan yuppies who were willing to pay $30 for a pint of soup. Nearly everyone else knows of him because of the Soup Nazi episode. In one TV interview, he seriously claims that he made Seinfeld famous. In an interesting subversion of the trope, many feel that the ''Seinfeld'' version is relatively tame compared to the real man who has been known to use profanities such as calling a female reporter a "bitch" on camera in one instance.
* ''Seinfeld'' also popularized the "Dingo ate my baby!" meme. Outside of Australia, it's largely forgotten that this joke references a real event, the death of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Azaria_Chamberlain Azaria Chamberlain]], the (false) accusations that her parents murdered her and the media circus surrounding the case. [[note]]Further, ''Seinfeld'' was likely referencing a then-recent film about the case, ''Film/EvilAngels'' (or ''A Cry in the Dark''), starring Creator/MerylStreep.[[/note]] This is lampshaded in ''Film/TropicThunder'', where the Australian Kirk Lazarus reminds another character making these jokes that [[DudeNotFunny it was a real case]] and he doesn't see the humor in it.
* Conservative cultural critic Rod Dreher came up with the term [[http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-menace-of-earwabbits/comment-page-1/ “earwabbit”]] to describe when you can't hear a traditional song or piece of classical music without thinking of a pop culture spoof. He chose “earwabbit” as a reference to the Looney Tunes spoof of “Ride of the Valkyries”, which is discussed elsewhere on this page.
* Brown Windsor Soup is a by-word for disgusting British cookery at its early-to-mid-twentieth-century nadir. Problem is, [[http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/brownwindsorsoup.htm there are no]] reliable references to it existing before the mid-1940s, and the majority of references for the first few decades afterwards are SelfDeprecation jokes about horrible British railway/hotel/restaurant cuisine. In fact, it appears to have originally begun as a comic reference to a real, but now forgotten product called Brown Windsor so'''a'''p, obviously the reverse of anything made for human consumption. Despite this, some "traditional British" cookbooks and websites, including Jamie Oliver's, have attempted to reverse engineer an (edible) Brown Windsor Soup, usually involving some kind of meat consomme.
* The German version of Weird Al might be comedian Otto Waalkes (just think of his Pfefferkuchen epos parodying the Neue Deutsche Welle) but in general, the trope is less pronounced in Germany.
* The term "Bazooka" for rocket launchers began as a reference to their visual similarity to the instrument of the same name. Now, the name has become far better known for the weapon, with the instrument itself largely unknown.
[[/folder]]
----

* While the characters of ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' have become popular and well-known despite only being in that story, the original Charlton heroes that inspired their creation have almost faded into obscurity. ComicBook/TheQuestion, ComicBook/BlueBeetle, and ComicBook/CaptainAtom have managed to escape this to some extent, but Thunderbolt and the Peacemaker (Ozymandias and the Comedian's counterparts respectively) have suffered.
** In Thunderbolt's case, he isn't owned by DC anymore. Pete Morisi, the creator of the character, eventually claimed full ownership over him. Morisi died in 2003, and his estate still owns the rights to the character. Thunderbolt still had a second lasting contribution to comics aside from Ozymandias, though: his quartered black and red costume influenced Bruce Timm’s design for Harley Quinn. (On a curiosity, Pete Morisi based the Thunderbolt's costume on the "symmetrically divided, red-and-blue costume" of a 1940s superhero: "Daredevil" by Lev Gleason Publications. Morisi had attempted to purchase the rights to the defunct character, but after one of the co-owners refused, he simply decided to create an expy with a similar costume.)
** And Peacemaker only very superficially resembled the Comedian, making any connection ridiculous on its face. (If they ever met, they would ''not'' get along.)
** Nightshade doesn't really resemble either Silk Spectre except in costume/appearance, especially since Nightshade has [[CastingAShadow darkness manipulation]] powers and Doctor Manhattan was supposed to be the only superpowered member of the Minutemen or Crimebusters. Alan Moore has said that the character was more based on Creator/QualityComics' Phantom Lady, who DC tried to revive in the ComicBook/PostCrisis era but it didn't really take.
** For that matter, a ''very'' early form of ''Watchmen'' would have had it using the even ''more'' obscure MLJ heroes, whom Moore thought DC owned at the time. The Comedian's 1940s origin and CaptainPatriotic elements come from ComicBook/TheShield--the original pitch was more or less "[[PlotTriggeringDeath The Shield gets murdered; how do the other heroes handle it]]?" Needless to say, the tiny handful of people who remember The Shield likely only remember him for his connection to ComicBook/CaptainAmerica.
** Another ''Watchmen'' one: Moore and Gibbons' use of the 9-panel grid has prompted a lot of people, including comic book historians, to believe that Steve Ditko (the creator of the original Charlton characters) worked almost exclusively in the 9-panel grid format. This is not to say that Ditko didn't use it frequently, but it was hardly his "go to" layout.
** Rorschach is a particularly fun one, because while his initial impression is based on The Question, he's also closely inspired by ComicBook/MrA, who is even ''more'' obscure. And this is somewhat recursive as well, because many of Rorschach's aspects were incorporated into the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' version of The Question--due to being a TV series aimed at kids and teens, this was the first time many had been exposed to the character.

* Far more people know Arkham as the asylum populated by ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' villains than know it as one of [[LovecraftCountry Lovecraft's fictional haunted towns in New England]]. The prototype of the BatSignal in ''Theatre/TheBat'' was not used to strike fear into the hearts of criminals, but was a notorious criminal's CallingCard striking fear into the hearts of people staying in an OldDarkHouse.

* ''ComicBook/DeKiekeboes'': A lot of younger people may not associate the name "Konstantinopel" with the original name of Istanbul, but with Kiekeboe's son.
* ''ComicBook/{{Urbanus}}'': Urbanus, just like the comedian he is based on, is named after several medieval popes. Nowadays most people in Flanders and the Netherlands will automatically think of him, rather than these popes. Similarly there are lot of children who know Urbanus more as a comic book character than as the comedian he was based on, mostly because Urbanus doesn't perform that often anymore.

* ComicBook/{{Thanos}} was created as an AlternateCompanyEquivalent to ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} but years of buildup to his confrontation in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse have led Thanos to become more popular than the character he aped off of, whose appearances in [[Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse DC's own cinematic universe]] have been limited to being TheGhost.

* Captain Ahab of ''Literature/MobyDick'' is far more well-known today than the Biblical King Ahab from whom he gets his name.

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', the scenes where [[spoiler:the Ents (walking trees) join the battle]] and [[spoiler:the Witch-King is defeated by Eowyn with Merry's help]] are actually [[Creator/JRRTolkien Tolkien]] trying to fix ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''. But those of us who aren’t literature nuts probably don't realize that these scenes are references to the scenes [[NoManOfWomanBorn where the witches' prophecies are fulfilled by]] [[spoiler:Macduff's soldiers cutting down branches from the trees and using the branches as camouflage]] and [[spoiler:Macduff being “no man of woman born” because he was cut from his mother’s womb]].

* ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'': People are now more familiar with the opening theme and the closing theme "I Love You" than the songs they were based on: "Yankee Doodle" and "This Old Man", respectively. Additionally Barney's main inspiration was the Wee Sing video series.

* More people know or at least have heard of ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' than ''Literature/GraysAnatomy'', the textbook the TV series is named after.

* "The Magnificent Seven" reminds most younger people of the Music/TheClash song on ''Music/{{Sandinista}}'' and not the western ''[[Film/TheMagnificentSeven1960 The Magnificent Seven]]''.

* Music/TheRamones song, "Pinhead" from ''Music/LeaveHome'' (Gabba gabba we accept you, we accept you one of us!), is actually a reference to the cult horror movie Tod Browning's ''Film/{{Freaks}}''.

** Furthermore the pirates, on yet another occasion when their ship is smashed by Asterix and Co, end up in a sequence with them parodying the now somewhat obscure painting "The Raft of the Medusa". Said painting is actually pretty famous in France, and a mainstay of school textbooks on French painting. The parody has untranslatable French puns involving the idiomatic meaning of "médusé" (stupefied). The [[{{Woolseyism}} English translation]] has them say "We've been framed, by [[StealthPun Jericho]]!" [[note]]The painting is by Théodore Géricault, whose last name is pronounced close to "Jericho" in French.[[/note]]

* ''Everyone'' knows [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Superman’s]] iconic costume, but not many people today realize that said costume was actually inspired by (and designed to resemble) the outfits worn by [[TheStrongman "strongman" circus performers]]. Mainly because most modern strongmen no longer dress that way, but Superman’s costume [[GrandfatherClause is so associated with him that it’s never been changed much]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'':
** "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", originally released in 1961 based on a South African song released in 1939, was covered, remixed, and sampled by dozens of artists over several decades. Some of these covers went on to become chart-toppers in their own right, and the song was still extremely famous in the early '90s, having been covered by They Might be Giants in '92 and REM in '93. Robert John's 1972 cover was featured in ''Ace Ventura: Pet Detective'', which was theatrically released in February of '94. However, none of these would have the pop-culture permanence of ''The Lion King'', released in June of '94, and as a result, some young people allegedly believe that the song is actually from, and created specifically for, ''The Lion King''. It doesn't help that the song is used briefly in the Broadway musical and on the ''Rhythm of the Pridelands'' CD.
** The film includes a notable CastingGag in its voice cast; Simba's parents Mufasa and Sarabi (the King and Queen of Pride Rock) are voiced by Creator/JamesEarlJones and Madge Sinclair, who also played the King and Queen of an African kingdom in the classic Creator/EddieMurphy comedy ''Film/ComingToAmerica''. But ''The Lion King'' went on to become a major classic in its own right, and it's now considerably more famous than ''Coming to America''. As a result, the gag is lost on many viewers today.

* ''Literature/TheBible'' has been so ingrained in Western culture that many sentences, expressions, sayings, allusions, festivities in many languages are directly inspired by the text, yet how many people are aware of all of them? Even Christians may not realize all the linguistic expressions that have a biblical origin.
** Many, many common names in regions where the Abrahamic traditions are dominant come from the Abrahamic tradition. The names have, through use, become utterly unremarkable. What English speaker immediately thinks of the Biblical origin of such common names Thomas, Matthew, David, Mark, John, Michael, Sarah, Elizabeth, Rachel, Naomi, and Mary? The same happens in many languages. More at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_biblical_names The Other Wiki]].
* Similarly, some stuff that is associated with Christianity has in fact little to do with it. Christmas, for instance. People already held end-of-the-year festivities centuries before Christ's birth and the Church simply adapted Jesus' birth to that date because these pagan festivities, like Saturnalia (Roman Winter Solistice) were too popular to simply ignore or suppress. Even if you approach the text logically it wouldn't make sense for shepherds to be tending sheep flocks at night during the winter (but they would in spring). Though the date of Christmas is nine months after the Conception on March 25 -- the start of the barley harvest in the Middle East-- the Bible still doesn't mention the date of Jesus' conception and birth.
** His birth date comes from the Jewish tradition of being executed on the date of your conception.
* In Belgium and the Netherlands UsefulNotes/{{Sinterklaas}} is a popular festivity. Many foreigners assume he is a rip-off of SantaClaus, while in reality it's the other way around! Also, ''Sinterklaas'' was originally a Catholic saint ''Saint Nicholas'', but since the 19th century people of all faith celebrate Sinterklaas, many not even aware of its religious origin. In fact: the only thing still reminding of his Catholicness are his name and outfit. [[OlderThanTheyThink And to go even further]]: Sinterklaas riding his white horse and leaving presents for the children on December 5th was derived from the [[Myth/NorseMythology Scandinavian god Odin and his white horse Sleipnir]].
%%* Something about Easter.
* Many Flemish and Dutch folklore characters are more familiar to Flemish people for appearing in ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'' albums than from their original origin. Examples are Flemish folklore characters like Lange Wapper, Kludde, De Bokkenrijders and [[Literature/TillEulenspiegel Tijl Uilenspiegel]].
* American folklore and/or tall tale characters like Myth/PaulBunyan, UsefulNotes/JohnnyAppleseed, UsefulNotes/DavyCrockett, Pecos Bill... are all more familiar to audiences today from the fact that Creator/WaltDisney used them in cartoons and/or live-action TV series.
** Paul Bunyan is an especially interesting example. The character originated in loggers' folktales, but his national popularity and best-known stories come from a promotional pamphlet for the Red River Lumber Company. So when Disney re-introduced him, it was the ''second'' time that an older Paul had been covered up by a newer version.

* In general, there are about 3 or 4 pieces of opera or classical music that are still recognized mostly as generic stock classical music. All the rest are going to be "that music from the pop-culture thing":
** The Lego Beer Song has ten million views on Youtube. Approximately two of those people have heard of an opera called "Carmen" by composer Georges Bizet. Fewer still know that the opera in turn was an adaptation of a novella.
*** The Lego Beer Song itself was undoubtedly inspired by a few previous music videos that had been made using the same song.
** Speaking of famous Carmens, anyone over a certain age who watches the new Carmen Sandiego cartoon on Netflix might have noticed the opening music from the 1994 cartoon playing in the elevator in one episode. Far fewer will know that it was originally a Mozart piece.
* Similarly, many a classical music StandardSnippet will get this due to usage in cartoons, comedy shows, etc. For instance, in ''Film/{{Intouchables}}'', "[[https://youtu.be/zR_GVUWllP4 Flight of the Bumblebee]]" gets the reaction "WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry?"
* The "Dance of the Sylphs" from Music/HectorBerlioz' ''The Damnation of Faust'' will nowadays be recognized more as the melody of "The Elephant" from Camille Saint Saens' ''Carnival of the Animals''.
** Berlioz himself is now known almost exclusively for being mentioned in ''Star Trek: First Contact''
* The [[Music/TheCanCanSong "Can Can"]] was not originally composed for the Moulin Rouge; rather, it originates as the "Infernal Galop" from Music/JacquesOffenbach's operetta ''Orpheus in the Underworld'' (from a scene where people are partying in hell). Offenbach's "Orpheus" is itself a spoof of another opera, Christoph Willibald Gluck's "Orpheo et Eurydice". Camille Saint Saens spoofed this one in "Carnival of the Animals" too, slowing it down to provide the melody for "Tortoises".

* Everybody seems to take for granted that Howard Shore wrote the "Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold" tune for Peter Jackson's ''Hobbit'' films from scratch -- but listen to "Misty Mountains Cold" that Maury Laws produced for the Rankin/Bass ''Hobbit'' film from 1977!

* A double-Weird Al Effect: What is usually referred to as "the theme from ''[[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey]]''" is actually a piece by the late-Romantic German composer Richard Strauss, entitled "Music/AlsoSprachZarathustra". Considering how widely-used the song is outside of the movie that featured it, it is strange how few people know that. But fewer still know that the Strauss piece was itself an homage to the essay of the same title by Creator/FriedrichNietzsche.
** And both the music and the essay allude to one of the secret initiation rituals of Freemasonry...
** For younger [[ProfessionalWrestling NWA/WCW/WWE]] fans this may be a Triple Weird Al Effect as Wrestling/RicFlair (and now, his daughter Wrestling/{{Charlotte|Flair}}) uses ''Music/AlsoSprachZarathustra'' as his [[ThemeMusicPowerUp entrance theme]].
*** It was also Music/ElvisPresley's [[ThemeMusicPowerUp entrance theme]] at concerts in the '70s.
*** University of South Carolina fans will most likely think of it as the Gamecocks' entrance music at home [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball football]] games.
* There is a song from TheGayNineties, called "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay", parts of which can be heard in WesternAnimation/TheAristocats. (It's the song Georges Hautecourt, the lawyer, sings when he visits Mme. Bonfamille.) However, viewers who grew up in TheFifties would be familiar with a different set of lyrics, to wit: "It's Howdy Doody time!".
** And then there's the generation that has never heard the phrase "It's Howdy Doody time" outside of ''Blood II: the Chosen'' and is completely baffled by this alleged connection to a Disney movie.

*** This is true of every music group, from every country. For example, try mentioning "Rammstein" to anyone outside of Germany and see how many people ''don't'' assume you're talking about the metal band.

** Americans are probably more familiar with the beginning of Music/TheBeatles' "All You Need is Love" than the beginning of UsefulNotes/{{France}}'s National Anthem.

*** And then to muddy things further, The Bonzo Dog Band showed up in a scene in the film ''Film/MagicalMysteryTour''.
* For you American kids who sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee (America)" in 2nd grade, you probably don't know that its melody is taken off "God Save the King/Queen".
** American kids who grew up in the '90s are more likely to have sung [[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow The Royal Anthem of the Canadian Kilted Yaksmen]].
** Similarly, what US kids would call "The Graduation Song" (and is ''actually'' called "Pomp and Circumstance") contains the patriotic British anthem "Land of Hope and Glory" by Sir Edward Elgar.
*** Literally nobody in the US calls it that, though a few of us might ask "haven't I heard that in a commercial somewhere?"
** Britain's ''God Save the King/Queen'' is (allegedly) an adaptation of an earlier French anthem (''Grand Dieu sauve le Roi'') that was composed to commemorate Louis XIV's recovery from some painful hemorrhoids. [[RealityIsUnrealistic Indeed]].
** AKA, even more esoterically, "We Wear Our Blue and White".
*** Also a cover of a Music/{{Queen}} guitar instrumental on ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'' [[https://youtu.be/EDUe6R-ogjM The one they played on the PA at the end of their concerts]].
** Molly and Emily from the ''Literature/AmericanGirlsCollection'' fight over that very subject.

** Or that one song that [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Roger Rabbit]] plays when he breaks plates against his head.
*** ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' actually helps counteract the Weird Al Effect in this instance, as a few scenes later, Judge Doom says the name of the song in a very memorable scene. It's also a FreezeFrameBonus, as pointed out by the DVD extras.
** Similarly, ''Merrily We Roll Along'', from ''Billboard Frolics'' of 1935, is only known today as the ''[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]]'' tune and an incorrect alternative set of lyrics set to the tune of ''Mary had a Little Lamb''.
** ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' has done this to other music. Thanks to "WesternAnimation/WhatsOperaDoc" many people can't hear "Music/RideOfTheValkyries" without singing "Kill da wabbit!"
*** In the '70s, it became "That song from [[Film/ApocalypseNow that Vietnam War movie]]". Then from 1998 onward, it was "The song that the guy imitates when you click on a siege tank too many times in ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}''". We now have at least 3 generations that would be surprised to learn that it was ever used in Looney Tunes.
*** Similar to the Roger Rabbit example above, ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' had Slappy Squirrel use the proper name for the song, teaching at least some viewers its real name.

* "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States, is a poem that was set to the tune of "The Anacreontic Song" (a.k.a. "To Anacreon in Heaven"). How many Americans have ever heard (or even heard of) the original drinking song, popularized by a society of amateur musicians to the point where it was often used as a ''sobriety test'' -- its melody was so tortuous that if you could actually sing a stanza, you were sober enough for another round.
** "The Anacreontic Song" was also supposed to be performed as a lively minuet. Such a performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" today would be received as irreverent and un-American.
*** "The Star-Spangled Banner" ''was'' performed as a lively minuet until John Philip Sousa rearranged it circa 1900 to make it sound more majestic, and added, amongst other things, the two holds and the counterpoint. Most current arrangements are based on the Sousa version. The original, more spritely version can be heard in the Ken Burns documentary ''The Civil War''.
* "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" ("Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord") took its melody (and some of its lyrics) from the Civil War marching song "John Brown's Body".
** ...which took its melody from "Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us".
** And which has subsequently found many new versions as summer camp songs such as "I wear my pink pajamas in the summer when it's hot..."
** "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school..." AKA "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah/Teacher hit me with a ruler..."; every UGA fan has this stuck in their heads.
*** So I shot her to the floor with my trusty forty-four...
** Plus the Engineers drinking song, "Lady Godiva". Many Engineering students only know this song with the words: "We are, we are, we are, we are, we are the engineers. We can, we can, we can, we can demolish forty beers!".

** What was just mentioned above gets lampshaded in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' in which Peter, after visiting a 1950s-themed diner, becomes enamored with '50s and '60s novelty tunes. His absolute favorite is "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen, which he starts listening to ''ad infinitum'' and obsesses about to the point that the rest of the Griffin family becomes sick of the song. When Peter panics after Brian and Stewie steal the record, Lois comforts him with the fact that records don't just walk up and leave; this leads to a CutawayGag with an old LP of Sherman's "Camp Granada" song, stomping out the door in a huff while claiming (in a stereotypical upstate New York accent) that there are many "old Jews out there" who still want to listen to it.
*** "Surfin' Bird", incidentally, is combination of "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" and "The Bird's the Word" by The Rivingtons, and is now better known than either of them. And indeed, the song is much better known today from its use on ''Family Guy'' than as a hit from the '60s.
*** And there may be one or two in the audience who remembered when the short-lived Creator/{{CBS}} cartoon ''WesternAnimation/{{Birdz}}'' used a cover of "Surfin' Bird" as its theme song.

* The melody to the children's song "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" is taken from the verses of the song "There Is a Tavern in the Town", a late 19th century drinking song. It has also been set to "London Bridge Is Falling Down", but unlike "There Is a Tavern in the Town", that song is still fairly well-known in its own right.

* Many tunes for prim and proper church hymns were actually [[BleachedUnderpants co-opted from drinking songs]].
** And in turn, many were co-opted as union songs, the best-known of which are "The Preacher and the Slave" ("The Sweet By and By") and "Which Side Are You On?" ("Lay the Lily Low").
** Thank you, Martin Luther; all those months spent, ahem, ''researching'' folk songs in German taverns have left behind some great pieces of music.
*** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_form Bar Form]]. It's a common misunderstanding on the part of people who don't know anything about music history--or church history, for that matter.

* The classic Shaker hymn ''Simple Gifts'' has been appropriated twice: Once for another hymn (''Music/LordOfTheDance''), but most people would recognize it as the first movement of Music/AaronCopland's ballet/suite ''Appalachian Spring''. The tune is attributed: that section is titled ''Variations on a Shaker Melody''.
** People who were in elementary school wind ensembles probably first knew it as an unnamed (or possibly numbered) warm-up "etude".

* "All Along The Watchtower" is near-universally known as a classic Music/JimiHendrix song, but old folk rock fans will know it was actually originally a Music/BobDylan song. Like the Bette Davis note above, Dylan himself admits that when he plays it, he tries to play it more like Hendrix did, rather than he himself originally did, which was quite different.
** "''All Along The Watchtower?'' You mean that song from Battlestar Galactica?"

* ''The William Tell Overture'' by Music/GioachinoRossini is far better known as Radio/TheLoneRanger's theme music.
** Or from Music/SpikeJones repurposing it as a parodic horse race theme.
** Or from a scene of ''A Clockwork Orange''.
** Unless you're an '80s kid, in which case you might recognize it as the opening tune to ''Series/YouCantDoThatOnTelevision''.
*** Or a '90s kid, in which case you know for a fucking fact that the correct lyrics begin "[[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} George Washington was the first you see, he once chopped down a cherry tree]]..."
*** ... or a child of [[UsefulNotes/The2000s The Oughts]], brought up by the Interwebs... in this case you will definitely recognize it as... [[https://youtu.be/CXgoJ0f5EsQ Anita Renfroe's Momisms.]]
** "My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to ''The William Tell Overture'' without thinking of the Lone Ranger." -- Billy Connolly
* A case of [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Tropes Are Not Good]], Hervé Roy's "[[https://youtu.be/-uk49gxS2L8 Lover's Theme]]" is known nowadays as [[SoundtrackDissonance the background music for]] ''[[ShockSite Two Girls, One Cup]].'' If you want to talk about intellectual vandalism...

* Most Theory of a Deadman fans don't realize that "Bitch Came Back" is InTheStyleOf a children's song called "The Cat Came Back".
* Music/TomLehrer's "Lobachevsky" is much better known than its direct inspiration, a Creator/DannyKaye PatterSong titled "Stanislavsky."
* The bouncy jazz-blues standard "Why Don't You Do Right" was singlehandedly transformed into a slow, sultry number by [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Jessica Rabbit]]. Nowadays, the original style of singing it is nowhere to be found in covers of the song.

* Those born after the 2000s would probably associate "I'm A Believer" with the cover sung by Donkey in the DancePartyEnding of WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}} (performed on the soundtrack by Music/SmashMouth) long before they would attribute it to Music/TheMonkees, who first made the song famous, and especially Music/NeilDiamond, who wrote it.
** Those born in the '80s know damn well that it was a famous song before Shrek, but probably couldn't tell you where it ''is'' from.
* Music/HueyLewisAndTheNews is more associated these days with the scene from ''Film/AmericanPsycho'' where Patrick Bateman recites a pre-planned monologue about the band, plays "Hip to be Square" on his stereo, and then chops Paul Allen up with an axe.
* The Russian folksong "'Twas on a night in rainy autumn" is most likely known to non-Russians from its use in the opening scene of ''Petrushka'', where it is played on a barrel organ (followed by a popular ditty mocking Sarah Bernhardt which Stravinsky remembered very well but has long since been forgotten). However, when Stravinsky asked Andrey Rimsky-Korsakov to mail him the tune, he received it with some highly inappropriate lyrics in place of the original words (which come from a poem by Creator/AlexanderPushkin). This was not entirely surprising, since numerous other lyrics had already been set to the same tune. As Richard Taruskin put it in ''Stravinsky and the Russian Tradition'':
-->This song was particularly widespread around the time of the UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar and the political disturbances of 1905, when it became the vehicle for endless satirical and seditious parodies. It was a tune any turn-of-the-century Russian would have known instantly, but ten native hearers would very likely have associated it with ten different sets of words.
* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHvnMi9_9mM Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet]]" by Tchaikovsky has been used so many times in children's cartoons during corny "boy meets girl and they instantly fall in love" moments, that many people assume that the song is [[StandardSnippet stock music]].

* As a literal example, Mando Guerrero had Weird Al's "Taco Grande" as his entrance music in [[Wrestling/HerbAbramsUWF Herb Abrams' UWF]], instead of the song Al was parodying, [=Gerardo=]'s "Rico Suave".

** Other communist countries like China and especially North Korea also suffer from this. China has opened up more to the West since UsefulNotes/MaoZedong's death, but North Korea remains the most isolated country in the world.
** The same happened in Nazi occupied Europe during World War Two. A lot of early 1940s American films only reached the European continent after the end of the war. This also explains why so many comedians from the interbellum (Creator/LaurelAndHardy, Creator/MarxBrothers, Creator/CharlieChaplin) remained far more popular and well known in Europe than American comedians who made their debut during the war (like Film/TheThreeStooges and Creator/AbbottAndCostello, for instance). For example, the 1978 Greek entry for the Series/EurovisionSongContest was the tribute song "Charlie Chaplin". It was intended to mark the then-recent death of Chaplin (he died in 1977), and primarily refers to his still-popular "Little Tramp" persona.

* Website/{{Cracked}} goes meta with this in "[[http://www.cracked.com/article_19109_6-things-our-kids-just-plain-wont-get.html 6 Things Our Kids Just Won't Get]]", which includes the save icon (floppy disk), time-related TV activities such as Saturday morning cartoons (thanks to cable becoming commonplace and [=DVRs=] which allow people to watch things whenever they want), and common older sitcom plots, such as plots when someone gets lost (nowadays people would just call them on a cell phone).
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applejack_(beverage) Applejack]] was originally a potent form of distilled apple brandy. However, for the last few decades it has been more commonly known as a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Jacks breakfast cereal]] that once counterintuitively used the fact that it ''doesn't'' taste like apples as a marketing gimmick. And now that the cereal commercials aren't airing as frequently, a lot of people now associate "Applejack" with [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicApplejack the My Little Pony character of the same name.]]
** People who aren't familiar with the cereal sometimes cite Applejack as an example of the show being packed full of references to alcohol. This is extremely confusing to people who are ''only'' familiar with the cereal.
*** In fairness, there is more than a [[ParentalBonus wink-and-nod]] reference to the alcohol in her name, even though it's an inherited name from earlier shows in the franchise. The Apple Family cider, while strictly non-alcoholic, is [[DrunkOnMilk frequently treated as if it were hard]].
* The [=McIntosh=] apple [[OlderThanTheyThink dates back to 1811]]. No, not an UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh, a [=McIntosh=] apple. [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Apple named the computer after a type of apple.]] Averted for most Canadians, since the [=McIntosh=] apple was first bred there.
* Chucky, from ''Film/ChildsPlay,'' is believed to have been based on a real toy called "My Buddy", which was only slightly less creepy. Other people believe that he was based on the "That Kid" doll.[[note]]He was actually supposed to be based on the Toys/CabbagePatchKids, but considering the My Buddy line [[TheRedStapler took a noticeable hit in sales]] ever since ''Child's Play''... it ''really'' didn't work out as intended.[[/note]]
* Anyone growing up in the US in the last 50 years will be more likely to recognize the name of Martin Luther King, Jr., than the name of Martin Luther, whom Dr. King was named after. This is the fault of American history books and classes, which mention Dr. King years before mentioning Martin Luther.

* The term "shooting brake" is now making a comeback, on which the definition is generally accepted as a type of station wagon that has a coupe-like roofline, with only two doors instead of five. The common belief was that the term was just an archaic name for the more familiar station wagon or estate, but nobody realizes that term originated from roofed carriages that are normally used as hunting vehicles, complete with storage for guns and ammunition. Only after the rise of motorized vehicles did shooting brakes evolve into customized wagons used for hunting towards the present form.
** Similarly, the term "brake". Unlike the apparatus that forces the vehicle to slow down, these brakes are used to refer as carriages that "break-in" spirited horses (read: tame hyperactive horses for carriage work). The only usage for this term is on French car companies, only because the French word for station wagon is "break."
* Oreos, "Milk's Favorite Cookie", are actually a shameless knockoff of a brand called "Hydrox". However, the immense popularity of Oreos forced Hydrox into obscurity, and people nowadays believe that ''Hydrox'' is the knockoff (to the extent that the bulk of poor Hydrox's advertising now centers around pointing out they were on the market first).
* Many street names are named after famous people. Some of them very famous to this day, others haven fallen in such obscurity that you have to consult an encyclopedia to find out who they were and what they did to earn a street named after them. Although, in some cases (like Adelaide, South Australia), the street naming committee just named the streets after their own members, because they could, basically [[InvokedTrope invoking this]].

* Depending on one's interests, the phrase "Big Bang Theory" is more likely to bring to mind [[Series/TheBigBangTheory the CBS sitcom]] than the actual hypothesis of how the universe came about. (The phrase "big bang" by itself seems to be free of this, though.)

* Shulk's "Now it's Shulk time!" quote in [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU the 3DS and Wii U editions]] of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' is a reference to the character Reyn from Shulk's home game, ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles''. Reyn would frequently say, "Now it's Reyn time!" during battle, and the line became a common in-joke among players. Because ''Smash Bros.'' is a much more mainstream game than ''Xenoblade Chronicles'' (which notoriously had a very limited print run in the Americas and came out extremely late in the Wii's life cycle, while ''Smash 4'' has collectively sold nearly 10 million units), Shulk's version of the line has become much more well-known among the general gaming audience.

** ''The Tick'' had a villain named Chairface Chippendale. Since this villain was not in any way similar to, nor made any references to, the Rescue Rangers, any particularly insightful kids who saw both cartoons might have guessed that both names were a reference to something from an earlier time.

* ComicBook/SolomonGrundy, born on a Monday. Also, he is a zombie. If you know of Solomon Grundy, chances are you probably know him from [[Franchise/TheDCU the comics]] [[WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}} and]] [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague cartoon]], but not from the nursery rhyme. In Mexico, there is a wrestler known as Solomon Grundy, and people don't know about any rhyme, comic, or cartoon. The rhyme itself IS mentioned in the popular Batman series ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween''. It is also briefly referenced in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' and Arkham City. One ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' cartoon episode has him sacrifice himself for something (nevermind that being a zombie, he can't really die off permanently). The gravestone shown usually mentions the rhyme. The rhyme is also referenced in the Batman story "One Night in Slaughter Swamp", published in Batman: Shadow of the Bat # 39 (1995). The Crash Test Dummies also used his name for their Superman song, only because it rhymed with money. ...sorta. The rhyme was also used in ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', with [[ComicBook/GreenArrow Ollie]] quipping "[[PostMortemOneLiner Died on Saturday; buried on Sunday]]" after defeating him.