"Shamone!"
In Real Life, Michael Jackson was one of the most accomplished entertainers of the 20th century. His accolades alone from his four-decade career include 13 Grammys, 26 American Music Awards, 4 Video Music Awards, and a whopping 40 Billboard Music Awards. He singlehandedly popularized many dance moves we still gawk at today, in particular the Moonwalk Dance.
And yet, he also was a man of great controversy and speculation. His changing appearance resulted in concerns about his physical health, Moral Guardians abhorred him as a toxic influence on children, and his legacy was permanently hampered in the 1990s and 2000s after multiple allegations of sexually abusing children at his Neverland Ranch, which would result in heavy scrutiny until his tragic death in 2009 made him even more endearing as a musical artist to many fans.
Regardless of his legacy, it would be a lie to say that Jackson wasn't one of the most influential musicians ever, so naturally, there would be a lot of parodies of Jackson, namely his appearance, his clothing, and his personality.
Common traits of a Michael Jackson parody based on his 1980s persona include:
- Imitating specific dance moves, like a "Thriller" parody or a Moonwalk Dance
- Outfits and accessories inspired by his music videos, like the red leather jumpsuit from "Thriller", the Too Many Belts outfit from "Bad", or a single High-Class Glove.
- Being a skilled singer and dancer whose skills border on Choreography Porn
- Having '80s Hair that resembles a Jheri curl
- Having an Effeminate Voice with a wide vocal range
Parodies of MJ in the '90s and 2000s, after his eccentricities became public knowledge and he was accused of child molestation, tend to depict him in a darker light:
- Being an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette with way too much plastic surgery, sometimes with the nose falling off
- Owning a Big Fancy House based on Neverland Ranch, complete with a Shrine to Self, strange collections, a private zoo full of Unusual Pets, and an Amusement Park
- Acting like One of the Kids, such as hosting Slumber Parties for children
- Behaving like a Manchild and obsessing over characters that Never Grew Up, like Peter Pan
- Being the target of a Pædo Hunt (justifiably or not), or otherwise being Mistaken for Pedophile
Sub-Trope of Fountain of Expies and Stock Parodies. Compare Abbey Road Crossing, Elvis Impersonator, Sgt. Pepper's Shout-Out, We Didn't Start the Billy Joel Parodies, and Freddie Mercopy for other music shout-outs. While it is related to Moonwalk Dance and Michael Jackson's Thriller Parody, those tropes involve his dances rather than Jackson himself.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Fairy Tail: In Ep 211 (Eclipse Celestial Spirit filler arc), when Cancer gives Gray the power to dance, Gray ends up channeling the King of Pop Music, specifically his moves from Smooth Criminal right down to the fedora hat.
- One Piece: While facially based on Steven Tyler, Michael Jackson is specifically credited as the inspiration for Jango, a former pirate turned Marine who has a penchant for moonwalking while holding his hat in front of his face.
Comic Books
- Concrete: The protagonist becomes a bodyguard for an eccentric rock star in one of the earlier stories set in The '80s, and the character is very reminiscent of Michael Jackson and Prince.
- Judge Dredd: Jaxon Prince is a 20th-century pop star who was cryogenically frozen at his own request, then revived over a century later for his comeback show. As his name suggests, he's a parody of both Michael Jackson and Prince. Unfortunately, Jaxon has suffered severe brain damage from the primitive cryogenics, leaving him a shambling, slurring wreck who endlessly repeats the only lyric he can remember (implied to be "Thriller"). Despite this, the crowd loves his show.
- Spider-Man: The appropriately named "Ace", is a mysterious biker Anti-Hero who exuded urban cool and tangled with Spider-Man in a couple of annual stories in The '80s and was described by editor Christopher Priest as "what if Michael Jackson were more masculine?" However, Ace was less based on Jackson the real-life musician, and more on the characters Jackson "played" in videos and movies.
Fan Works
- Although it's not confirmed that is based on him, many fans agree that Muzan Kibutsuji from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba was based on Michael Jackson, mostly for the resemblance of him with his suit outfit◊ that reminds of Moonwalker look and in specific with "Smooth Criminal" music video. This is far from official, but that didn't stop fans from making fanarts and photoeditions of him, and isn't rare to see Muzan cosplayers in events that make stuff like the Moonwalk Dance.
Film — Live-Action
- In Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Johnny Depp played Willy Wonka, already an eccentric recluse who invites five children to tour his whimsical factory in the source material, in a manner resembling Jackson.
Literature
- Saras Face has Jonathan Heat, an extremely successful pop icon of decades who has gone through multiple "eras", most of them themed around extreme transformation. His most recent comeback is themed around werewolves. He has also had an excessive amount of plastic surgery, which has fuelled his comebacks in terms of dramatically reshaping his image. However, most recently, his face has more or less collapsed due to the amount of plastic surgery he's had.
Live-Action TV
- Atlanta: Played for Surreal Horror in the infamous episode "Teddy Perkins." Teddy is a bizarre Jackson Expy with a strange mask-like face, living in a dark mansion with his piano player brother Benny Hope. He shares Jackson's high-pitched voice and apparent plastic surgery addiction, as well as his Daddy Issues (even proclaiming he wants to add Joe Jackson to a museum of "great fathers"). The episode deals with Darius trying to buy Benny's piano from Teddy and dealing with his unpleasant eccentricities; Eventually it's revealed that Teddy has been holding Benny prisoner, and intends to murder him and Darius and stage it as a home invasion turned deadly.
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: "Sick" is about a billionaire toymaker, Billy Tripley, an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette who lives in an enormous mansion full of toys and other kid-specific stuff and views himself as One of the Kids. He throws lavish parties for children and has molested multiple children, including J.J., whose family took an enormous bribe from him in exchange for signing an NDA and denying that he had been abused. Billy is also the target of a Pedo Hunt that turns out to be false, as an attention-seeking ploy from an abusive grandmother, and allows him to go free and abuse other kids. Needless to say, this is an ''extremely'' controversial example.
- One of the characters of the Chilean comedy Show Morande con Compania was "Maikel Perez Jackson," a MJ impersonator who believes he was the real MJ and make comical routines as he was taken this seriously, as well talking with an Effeminate Voice all the time. The case is, this character balances between being a parody and a real MJ impersonator, since he could mimic all the looks MJ had in his history (in music videos and even concerts) and also makes various poses and dances, including the Moonwalk Dance.
- Bo' Selecta!: Michael Jackson is one of Leigh's most frequent objects of lampoon, of the "Too Much Plastic Surgery" variety. Speaks near exclusively in Jive Turkey.
Music
- Barenaked Ladies: In the song "If I Had a Million Dollars", some of the things that the singer would buy if he were a millionaire are meant to be references to unusual purchases that Michael Jackson has made. These include exotic pets, such as a monkey, as well as Jackson's attempt to buy the remains of Joseph Merrick.
- The music videos for the Beatfreakz songs "Somebody's Watching Me" and "Superfreak" feature a dwarf dancer dressed like the Michael Jackson zombie from Michael Jackson's Thriller, named "Mekill Hacksaw".
- Silva Gunner: One of the competitors in the King For A Day competition is "Weird Al" Yankovic who was the first competitor to lose the competition. In the King For Another Day, he returns with a stand named BEAT IT(which is based on Jackson's appearance in Smooth Criminal). The stand's power allows Weird Al to tap into the powers of the deceased King of Pop, which also expands Al's sources to include rips involving Michael Jackson's music catalogue and Sonic 3 & Knuckles due to Jackson's rumoured involvement in that game's soundtrack.
- In Rod Stewart's video for "The Motown Song", an animated version of Michael Jackson can be seen moonwalking across the street. The dog opens a manhole cover behind him and he falls through it.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic:
- "Eat It" is a food-themed parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It". In its official video, many scenes from the video to "Beat It" are referenced, but with some humorous twists, such as the street gang fighting each other with kitchen utensils. The end of the video is a reference to Thriller, in which Weird Al turns to the camera and suddenly has yellow cat eyes.
- The cover of his album Even Worse is intended to be a parody of the cover of Michael Jackson's album Bad, including Al wearing a black jacket with multiple belts. Fittingly, this album contains the song "Fat", a parody of "Bad".
Professional Wrestling
- In the independent scene, there's Santana Jackson, an MJ impersonator who also is a famous wrestler and mimics the What If? MJ fights in a ring, having as Signature Move the "Moonwalk DDT." He's actually working for GCW... in the times he doesn't make tribute shows in Las Vegas.
- A subversion (or aversion) also exists, since there's a wrestler who has nothing to do with this trope, but IT IS called Michael Jackson, being his real name. His ring name is Mike Jackson (also called "Action" Mike Jackson) and he currently works for Impact Wrestling.
Video Games
- Battle Arena Toshinden 3 has an assassin with the codename of Ten Count, who is a rival to and a Moveset Clone of longtime Toshinden deuteragonist Kayin Amoh. His physical appearance and mannerisms are reminiscent of Michael Jackson from his "Smooth Criminal" music video, including shouting high-pitched "Whoos" during his special moves and grabbing his crotch during his taunt.
- BlazBlue: Hazama not only has a fighting style that resembles Michael Jackson's dance moves, he also dresses very similarly to him. This has not gone unnoticed by the fanbase, who have given him the nickname "The Smooth Criminal" in reference to the song of the same name.
- Five Nights at Fuckboy's: During the Save Import Scenario, Freddy Fuckboy and his archenemy Balloon Boy travel back to 1987. After 80s B.B opens the presents, Lord Micheal arrives and proceeds to fight Freddy and his party. Lord Michael is a direct reference to the King of Pop, with two of his attacks referencing his iconic dance moves note . After being defeated, Lord Michael opens the presents himself and transforms into the stronger Mecha Jackson who is a direct reference to Moonwalker, which had Michael Jackson transform into Robo-Jackson.
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Tott is a cheerful dancer who lives in Windfall Island and calls himself "The World's Charismatic Dancer Extraordinaire". While his dress makes him look like Elvis Presley, his hair and dance moves are direct nods to Michael Jackson. Even the voice sounds he makes when performing his signature dance (especially the "Wow!" at the end) remind players of the King of Pop. Notably, the dance he performs turns out to be the Song of Passing, which Link can play with the Wind Waker to change between day and night.
- Plants vs. Zombies: The original version from May 2009 (i.e. a month before the superstar's death) had the Dancing Zombie resemble Michael Jackson, with his fashion and dance being taken from the music video for "Thriller". Complaints from Jackson's estate led to the Dancing Zombie's appearance being changed to a more generic disco design in later versions.
- Space Channel 5 has the most egregious example with Space Michael, though it's more of a cameo, considering he's voiced by Michael Jackson himself. Sega seemed to have quietly retired Space Michael out of respect, with Space Michael not appearing in any other media including Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda★Funky News Flash.
- Yakuza 0: Miracle Johnson is a skilled dancer who wears shades shaped like an M and is an American pop star visiting Japan to record his new video (which has zombies, referencing "Thriller"). No matter how hard the player tries, they cannot beat Miracle Johnson during their dance-off the second time you meet him.
Webcomics
- Scary Go Round: During what was at the time intended to be the last Scary Go Round story in 2009, the mysterious father of the enigmatic figure known as The Child, aka Poh, turns out to be a nameless figure who is clearly Michael Jackson or a close expy. Writer John Allisonnote says that his original plan was for this character to have done "some wretched deeds", but unfortunately Jackson died while the strips were being created, and the story had to be toned down rather heavily. The character still ended up being arrested because The Child had been abducting and imprisoning local postmen, however.
Western Animation
- Alfred J. Kwak: In one episode, Alfred's girlfriend Winnie is in love with an arrogant pop singer named Michael Duckson, who is a partial parody of Prince too; though his appearance and stage act is mostly parodying Michael, even with a moonwalk-like dance.
- Black Dynamite: The episode "Just Beat It, or Jackson Five Across Yo Eyes" features a young Michael Jackson as the primary antagonist. Not only does he physically abuse his father and brothers, but he's also revealed to be a pale-skinned, tiny-nosed alien from the planet Mamasay Mamasah Mamacoosa.
- Fanboy and Chum Chum: One of the recurring side characters is Michael Johnson, a kid whose clothing and hair resemble Michael Jackson's costume from the "Thriller" music video, and can often be seen moonwalking or saying phrases from Michael's songs like "Hee-hee!" and "Shamone!"
- My Little Pony 'n Friends: One four-parter features a pony named Knight Shade, who is a famous rockstar like Michael Jackson and even resembles him as a pony.
- The Simpsons infamously played with this trope a bit in "Stark Raving Dad", in which Jackson's voice acting guest role arguably qualified more as a mixture of this trope and Adam Westing. Enter Leon Kompowsky, a mentally ill patient who is under the impression that he is Michael Jackson. Through a backstory, he reveals that he was never Jackson in the first place. Unfortunately, the episode was yanked following renewed scrutiny against Jackson in 2019, with "him" playing a birthday song for Lisa in a room with only her and Bart resulting in exactly what you'd expect.
- South Park: In "The Jeffersons", Michael Ja—er, Jefferson is a creepy Manchild whose behavior concerns the boys, especially to his son Blanket.
- The Venture Bros.: Captain Sunshine's background and behavior are a mashup of a Batman Parody, a Superman Substitute, and Captain EO, with his white suit and light-based powers. He has a mansion full of toys and arcade games to spoil his sidekick Wonderboy with and insists on having a Slumber Party with Hank when he spends the night. His behavior towards children is implied to be pedophilic at first, but it's revealed that it's a result of the trauma of being a Former Child Star (or Former Kid Sidekick, more accurately).
