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alt title(s): Big In Japan; Foreign Country Popularity; Popularity By Reigon
The credits roll to the Baywatch closing theme, sung by the Hoff himself, which is called "Current of Love". And I apologize in advance to all the Germans I'm about to offend, but David Hasselhoff really cannot sing. At all.
The Agony Booth, Baywatch, "Mirror Mirror"

A version of the Ensemble Darkhorse where character interest is sparked by an audience well-divorced from the production source, particularly if the show is released in other countries. Places with different cultural baggage often hook onto different characters, whether or not these are the ones being pushed by the story. This is even more of a gamble when one character's personality and motivations have a direct tie to the culture of origin.

Since many companies get paid by foreign distributors simply for the right to air, how shows do overseas is not always of direct concern to the original producers. Other times, these characters are not tightly connected to a single story and are more an owned property, and may get their own storylines released more or less exclusively in certain countries.

Trope named for Saturday Night Live's Norm Macdonald's punchline during his Weekend Update sketches, which he'd go out of his way to include. David Hasselhoff, the Baywatch actor/producer, who was popular in Germany for his work as a singer in the late 1980s/early 1990s; he has had seven albums go platinum there. (His popularity has since waned, however, though Dirk Nowitzki, flag-bearer for Germany in the 2008 Summer Olympics and NBA star, claims he hums Hasselhoff songs at the free throw line)

Another variant of this trope is the joke that something is "big in Japan." If You Know What I Mean.

The opposite of Americans Hate Tingle, where something that's popular in its home market becomes loathed abroad.

See also Periphery Demographic. Alien Arts Are Appreciated is the Speculative Fiction version.

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Game BreakerUnexpected Reactions To This IndexAmericans Hate Tingle
Genre Turning PointFan-SpeakAmericans Hate Tingle