Mock Hollywood Sign

That screwy, ballyhooey Vinewood...

The Hollywood Sign is a sign on Mount Lee overlooking Hollywood, Los Angeles. It consists of 44-foot tall white letters spelling out HOLLYWOOD^note It originally read "HOLLYWOODLAND" for a housing development in the area, but the "LAND" was removed following a collaborative restoration effort in 1949 that ensured the sign reflected the whole district. Because of the obvious glitz and glamour associated with the area, as well as its proximity to America's oldest studios, the sign is one of the most iconic symbols in American pop culture. Unsurprisingly, it has its own share of mock-ups and parodies, with fictional communities often planting their own white block-letter signs on their surrounding mountains. Bonus points if the sign overlooks a No Communities Were Harmed version of Hollywood.

A subtrope to Fantasy Landmark Equivalent. When the sign is used to establish a setting as being in or around Hollywood, see Eiffel Tower Effect.

May overlap with Rushmore Refacement.

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Examples:

Asian Animation

• In Inspector Chingum, the city of Shantiwood has a big sign reading "SHANTIWOOD" in the same style as the Hollywood sign.
• In One Piece, Mirror Ball Island has such a sign, spelling out "FUNKY" for any approaching seafarer.

Comic Books

• Black Panther did this as a homage to Dr. Dre's album "Compton" with a Hollywood-esque sign overlooking Wakanda in a World Of Wakanda variant cover.

Films — Animation

• The trailer for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part shows that the Bricksburg sign (which largely resembles the Hollywood sign) has been ripped apart during the apocalypse.
• The Monster Mash (2000) song "Waiting for Spike to Speak" has a bit where the Hollywood sign gets wrecked and is altered to read "Holy Cow".
• The kingdom of Far Far Away from the Shrek series, which is patterned on Beverly Hills, has a Hollywood-style sign with its name on the hills overlooking the kingdom. Said sign is first seen in Shrek 2 with the kingdom's introduction, and briefly appears again at the end of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
• Uglyville of UglyDolls has a plush version of its name on the side of the mountain that it is in.

Films — Live-Action

• Barbie (2023): Barbieland's hills bear a pink "BARBIELAND" sign in the style of the Hollywood sign. The latter is seen when the setting moves to Los Angeles.
• Between Two Ferns: The Movie: The Ferns backdrop is the word "Ferns" in the style of the Hollywood sign.
• The teaser for MaXXXine (a sequel to X (2022)) features a version of the Hollywood sign reading out the film's title.
• Robin Hood: Men in Tights has a Hollywood-style sign saying "England".
• The Doc Hollywood poster places "DOC" in front of the Hollywood sign.
• In The Wizard of Speed and Time, the Wizard slams into the sign during his cross-country run, altering it to read "WHOLLY ODD."

Live-Action TV

• Henry Danger and its sequel Danger Force are set in the city of Swellview, which is overlooked by a sign much like the Hollywood one.
• The upcoming season of Brother vs Brother was shot in Los Angeles. The season title is deliberately styled to look like the Hollywood sign.
• Reboot (2022) is set in a Hulu studio in Hollywood, CA and parodies show business. Fittingly, it uses the Hollywood sign's font as its poster's title font, and in some versions of the poster the logo replaces the actual Hollywood sign in the background of the Show Within a Show's set.

Music

• The album cover to Dr. Dre's "Compton" has a blocky white sign spelling "Compton" overlooking said city.
• The music video for Lil Nas X's "Holiday" song has Lil Nas riding on Santa's sleigh, passing over a "HOLIDAY" sign, stylized after the Hollywood Sign.
• The music video for Stone Sour's "Through Glass" has the band performing in front of the Hollywood sign, except spelled "Hollowood", mocking the hollow nature of Hollywood. The end of the video reveals that it's just a plywood set.
• The cover of the band System of a Down album Toxicity depicts the Hollywood sign with the letters spelling out the name of the band.

Tabletop Games

• In Urban Jungle, Coronado, the movie making district of San Dorado, has its own version of the sign. It even started out advertising a housing development called "Coronado Hills" before the last word was removed.

Theme Parks

• Toon Town at Disney Theme Parks has a mock-up of the Hollywood sign, as white letters spelling "Toon Town" are placed on the surrounding "hills".

Video Games

• The Amazing Frog?: The town of Swindon has a Hollywood-like sign declaring its name just outside it.
• Bang-On Balls: Chronicles: The game takes place in Bobbywood, a fictional counterpart of Hollywood, which fittingly enough has a giant white sign, like Hollywood does in real life.
• Brawl Stars: The Brawlywood environment has one of these.
• Burnout Paradise: Paradise City has a sign reading the city's name on the hill overlooking the Ocean View sub-district of Palm Bay Heights. You get a clear shot of it if you arrive at the Hamilton Avenue Junkyard after unlocking a new vehicle.
• Criminal Case: Pacific Bay: The district of Ivywood Hills, which is a straight-up parody of Hollywood, has one of these overlooking the district from one of its many hills. The sign itself is the crime scene of the first case of the district, with the victim having her corpse tied to it.
• Cyberpunk 2077 has one for North Oak, a newly-built neighborhood of luxury villas, as revealed in a screenshot a month before release.
• Discworld II has a huge HOLY WOOD sign on a cliff face above (of course) Holy Wood.
• John Seed of Far Cry 5 created one of these, and it simply says "Yes". There's even an unmarked quest that involves wiping it out, and he's not exactly happy if you do so.
• The default Garry's Mod map GM_Flatgrass has a Hollywood sign in the distance that reads "FLATTYWOOD".
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto V has Vinewood, an Expy of Hollywood itself, and has its own version of the Hollywood sign.
• Katamari Damacy: Starting with We ♥ Katamari, the Hollywood Sign is one of the world landmarks you can roll up when your katamari gets big enough. The letters are separate objects, and in some stages the letters are rearranged to spell other phrases, like "OH MY WOOD" (with an upside-down "W" serving as an "M").
• The mobile game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood has a giant KARDASHIAN sign replace the Hollywood one.
• In The Sims 3, Hollywood-inspired Starlight Shores has a large sign of the town written in Simlish.

Web Comics

• Homestuck: On post-scratch Earth, Dirk's bro, a movie superstar, is responsible for creating a horribly misspelled and visual artifact-filled version of the Hollywood sign ("HOPYWOODOO"), either replacing the original one or somewhere else entirely.

Web Original

• Minilife TV: One of Minilife's landmarks which can be seen in the background of some shots (like the Season 4 intro) is a huge sign saying "MINILIFE" similar to the Hollywood sign.

Western Animation

• The Flintstones: Hollyrock, Hollywood's stone-age predecessor, has a giant "HOLLYROCK" sign on the mountain overlooking the city.
• The Simpsons has a giant Springfield sign on the mountains. It plays a large part in the final scenes of The Simpsons Movie.
• BoJack Horseman is set in Hollywood, but after shenanigans in the seventh episode, the letter "D" is lost from the sign and the city is henceforth referred to as "Hollywoo". A replacement letter is put in to fix the sign in the last episode, but due to it coming from a recurring less-than-competent printing company, it's a "B", thus turning the city's name to "Hollywoob".

Real Life

• In Renca, a county of Santiago, Chile, there was a Hollywood-like sign with the phrase "Renca la lleva◊" (lit. Renca rules), which provoked annoyance in part of the people of Santiago, but also being target of a lot of memes. Some time after being installed, the sign was damaged and eventually was retired from the hill.
• The City of South San Francisco erected a huge sign◊ saying "South San Francisco, The Industrial City" shortly after the Hollywood Sign was built
• In the southwestern United States, nearly every town has a big letter for the town's initial on the mountain behind the city.
  • And in the Midwest, where there aren't any big hills to adorn with town names, practically every village big enough to have a municipal water tower paints its name on it.
• Kelso, Washington, has a big K on the mountain within its city limits.
• The original Hollywood sign is sometimes defaced. In 2017 it was defaced to say "HOLLYWeeD" and in 2021 six people were arrested for altering it to "HOLLYBOOB".
• New Zealand:
  • Wellington, the capital city known for its film industry, erected a Hollywood-style sign in 2012, with the last few letters of the city's name blowing away as an allusion to the city's famously windy weather. It would've originally been the nickname "Wellywood" to make it even more obvious, but public backlash forced them to change it.
  • The small South Island town of Mosgiel has a hillside sign based on the Hollywood one.
• The historic People's Park in the Sky (Originally named as Palace in the Sky) in Tagaytay, Cavite, Philippines.

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