redirected from Main.ImNotADoctorButIPlayOneOnTV
alt title(s): Im Not A Doctor But I Play One On TV
Sometimes it would be really great to get a doctor or other medical authority to say something nice about your product and or service on TV. However, for some reason — FDA approval, budget, etc. — it will not be possible to actually get a real doctor to do this.
The solution, dress an actor up in a white lab coat, and give them a stethoscope. Even if he is a dentist. If possible put them in a set that looks like a waiting room, pharmacy, or hospital. As long as you don't say they're really a doctor you aren't going to get in trouble.
Trope named for a commercial from the 1980s in which Peter Bergman, who played a physician on
The Young And The Restless, opened his pitch for Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup with this very line.
Not to be confused with
Playing Doctor.
- Subverted in a Jack in the Box commercial where a guy in a lab coat rattles off a bunch of preposterous health claims about cheesy fries on a tv screen being watched by the Jack character and a suit. When Jack asks the suit where he found this guy, the suit replies, "Tobacco company."
- Someone at the old spice marketing department looked at this page and went "Hey, I think I have an idea...
"
- Basketball player Dr. J has started doing Dr Pepper commercials, concluding with "Trust me, I'm a doctor." Ditto with Gene Simmons (as Dr. Love) and Dr. Dre.
- Sounds to me like a subversion since they are actually called 'Doctor'.
- A Kermit-the-frog-themed parody of Five for Fighting's "Superman" that opens with the verse: "I can't stand to swim / Swamp soaks right through me / I'm not amphibian / I just play one on TV."
- Many Male Enhancement ads combine this with Hot Scientist. According to her, 66% of men can't satisfy! Wait but she's not a doct- hey boobs.
- Dr. Wattage from Wildguard is not a doctor, but the name sounds cool.
- Australian television has currently (July-August 2009) ads for some functional food. At first a female doctor is introduced, saying that as a doctor, a healthy diet is important to her - then the camera in one fluent motion moves to a second, similar woman (although with different haircolor) who will continue where the other woman left of in mid-sentence and happily endorse a specific product. I assume that's because a doctor maybe cannot endorse a product directly on tv.
- David McCallum isn't a doctor, but has spoken at forensic conventions. He does the research.
- Parodied on Pokemon - Ash is disguised as a Mr. Mime for a circus act and gets kidnapped by Team Rocket who aren't aware of this. Upon revealing his disguise to them, Ash says "I'm not a Mr. Mime, I just play one on TV."
- This being Pokemon, this could easily be a complete coincidence.
- Played with in a Venezuelan commercial for a headache/flu medication, where two animated mosquitoes says that the medicine in question can't work in dengue patients and the two models dressed as doctors are not of trust because they "only play as doctors on TV". Cue the "doctors" saying that the medicament indeed works even on that disease, and the narrator saying "Even TV doctors know it; [Brand Name], your best choice to relief even in suspected dengue".
