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Better by a Different Name

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"I liked [Bleach] better when it was called YuYu Hakusho, and I liked that show better when it was called Dragon Ball Z!"

It is common that some work is heavily "inspired" by a previous work—they may have different authors and settings, but there are strong similarities of plot, situations and characters. It is also common that the second work is much inferior to the original because the original is great or the derivative is awful or both. The Better by a Different Name snarkily expresses this idea. The usual phrasing is "[This work] was better when it was called [other, earlier work]."

Though rarely this can be a compliment, such as noting that a good film also works as part of another series of films if you imagined it so.

Often overlaps with If I Wanted X, I Would Y.

A Sub-Trope of They Copied It, So It Sucks!, in that this trope is a common way to express that belief.

Compare Take That! (to mock the referenced work), Recycled In Space (where a work is set in a new setting), Serial Numbers Filed Off (where a work cannot use the same setting names, but is suspiciously similar), and Spiritual Successor (where audiences consider the work to be nearly the same as a sequel, despite the Serial Numbers Filed Off).


In-Universe Examples Only (sorted by source of the comment instead of the subject):

    open/close all folders 

    Comic Strips 
  • In a 1989 issue of MAD Magazine, during the spoof 21 Junkheap, the cast of The Mod Squad makes a cameo pointing out that about 15 years ago, we did "just like these shmendricks are doing".
  • In one Doctor Who Magazine "The Comic Assassins" strip by Steve Noble and Kev F. Sutherland, they watch "The Curse of Fenric" and have the following conversation.
    Steve: Hang on. An old war ... a brigadier ... We're not watching "Battlefield" by mistake, are we?
    Kev: Can't be. In "Battlefield" a stupid blue-faced monster appeared for no apparent reason and...
    Ancient Haemovore (on screen) Hello, I am a stupid blue-faced monster.
    Kev: Oh, lordy...

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 

    Music 
  • Mitch Benn liked Russia's 2008 entry for the Eurovision Song Contest better when it was by Cat Stevens and called Wild World.
  • Voltaire's song "U.S.S. Make Shit Up":
    I was stranded on the Voyager
    And pounding on the door
    When suddenly it dawned on me—
    I'd seen this show before!
    Perhaps I'm in a warp bubble
    And slightly out of phase
    Coz it was way back in the sixties
    When they called it Lost in Space!
  • "He has a woman's name and wears makeup. How original."

    Web Original 

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 
  • An early episode of The Simpsons features Bart and Homer watching an episode of Disney's Dinosaurs, with Bart commenting: "It's like they took our lives and put them right up there on the screen!"

    Other 

Alternative Title(s): I Liked It Better When It Was Called X, I Liked It Better When It Was Called

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