Celebrity Power - Television Tropes & Idioms

Lisa: Wait a minute, Xena can't fly!

Lucy Lawless: I told you, I'm not Xena! I'm Lucy Lawless.

— The Simpsons, "Treehouse of Horror X"

The characters of a work are in some kind of a crisis, and simply need help. Thankfully, they bump into a friendly celebrity. No, the work is not Like Reality Unless Noted - they could very well be diminutive talking sea creatures who meet David Hasselhoff on the beach. And it's more than that — the celebrity is very unlike reality. In fact, they have super-powers. Why? Because they're a celebrity.

Similar to, but distinct from Memetic Badass and Popularity Power. In both of those cases, it's a fictional character who most often gets the treatment; in Celebrity Power, it's a real-life celebrity, and it doesn't need to be a meme to qualify. Any celebrity who has super-powers just because they're a celebrity counts.

Examples:

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Film (Animated)

As suggested within the description, David Hasselhoff is shown this way in SquarePantsMovie. He's apparently capable of swimming like a speedboat, and firing things out from between his pectoral muscles at incredible velocities.
Brian Boitano as represented by "What Would Brian Boitano Do?", in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Apparently in possession of fire breath, and a Time Machine, among other strange powers.
- The South Park boys also had contact with Barbra Streisand, who transformed into... Mecha Streisand. She was opposed by Leonard Maltin, Sidney Poitier, and Robert Smith, all of whom transformed into one kind of Kaiju or another.
  - In the movie, Barbra Streisand was a swear word profane enough to trigger the V-Chip.
The Beatles in Yellow Submarine, because "it's all in the mind." Some of John Lennon's are blatantly plot-critical, but everyone has something important — even if it's just Magic Music. George Harrison uses much of his for Mundane Utility...
In Rango the Spirit of the West (also called "The Man with No Name") is heavily implied to be a retired Clint Eastwood. Who gives the protagonist the advice needed to save the town.

Film (Live Action)

In Little Nicky, Nicky pulls a Deus ex Machina by summoning the ultimate force of darkness to take down Adrian: Ozzy Osbourne, who proceeds to bite the head off the then-bat-transformed demi-devil. Awesome.
At the end of Half Baked, the day is saved when one of the characters opens the "Jerry Garcia -in-a-bag" that he'd been wearing around his neck and talking to the whole movie.

Puppet Shows

On an episode of Muppets Tonight, Cindy Crawford was shown to have heat vision, because she's a supermodel.
- And then there was Christopher Reeve back on the original Muppet Show, as demonstrated after a backhanded comment about Ms Piggy.
  Piggy: Hi-yah! <bounces off>
  Kermit: Wow! He really is the Man of Steel.

Video Games

Every pro in Backyard Sports, since they specialize in their respective sports while the neighborhood kids play many different sports.

Web Original

Chuck Norris Facts.

Webcomics

One of Shelley's plans to rescue Des from his hosts on a council estate in Scary Go Round is "Enlist Bjork!" (With a picture showing Shelley giving the Icelandic musician a pistol.) It makes as much sense as her other ideas, but, (un)fortunately, she doesn't know Bj�rk.
In PS 238, Wil Wheaton is a psychokinetic.
MegaTokyo's Ed is obsessed with Erika and Kimiko because high caliber idols have the power to shape nations. Which... isn't actually THAT much of a stretch. Maybe not NATIONS, but at least subcultures and such.
Fake News Rumble runs on this.

Western Animation

Metalocalypse is one tremendous deconstruction. Its overarching theme is how fans worshipping celebrities hurt themselves and society.
In a Treehouse of Horror episode, the following exchange occurs after (super-powered) Bart and Lisa rescue a certain actress from "The Collector":
Lisa: "Wait, Xena can't fly!"
Lucy Lawless: "I told you, I'm not Xena. I'm Lucy Lawless!"
An episode of Johnny Bravo features the unlikely team of Don Knotts, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and the Blue Falcon. Al gets to invoke the trope at the end.
The final episode of God, the Devil, & Bob ends with the Devil nearly causing a riot at a performance of Arsenic & Old Lace as the citizens of Detroit clash over censorship versus free speech, but the two sides' animosity is destroyed by the inexplicable arrival of... Kevin Bacon, who convinces everyone to dance. To that song from Footloose. Everyone is friends again and have fun. The Devil laments to his henchman Smeck, "Kevin Bacon again! I create one little party game, and now he won't leave me alone!"
Family Guy had an episode where newsman Hugh Downs (doing his own voice) shows up to rescue Meg and the local geek from a hostage situation. At the end of the scene, he flies away, a la Superman.

Came Back Strong

Magic and Powers

Chain Lightning

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