Not Thriving: Informed Real Life Fame

Assumed to be more famous to the demographic than they really are

• Laconic.Informed Real Life Fame: "Bob is famous because the TV show he's guest-starring tells us he is."
• YMMV.Rupauls Drag Race:
  • One of the biggest issues fans had with Secret Celebrity Drag Race was that many of the celebrities had smaller followings than many of the mentor queens (many of whom were season winners or fan favorites). Might be valid? Or again, Pop-Culture Isolation.

Known to certain audiences, but obscure to the general mainstream

• YMMV.The Muppet Show: "Had this to an extent—especially in the first season, when no one knew how big it was going to be, and the special guests were mostly doing Lew Grade a favour. So there were several British celebs that American audiences had never heard of, but Kermit would still try and convince everyone that Bruce Forsyth was an international megastar (the most he got internationally was the ABC game show Hot Streak, a 13-week flop in 1986). (This went both ways throughout its run, as not all the American guests were familiar to British audiences.) That said...it actually does fit Kermit's character, and the fact that it's supposed to be a D-list variety show..." The British celebrities thing is more Pop-Culture Isolation. It might fit in some cases.
• C-List Fodder:
  • What's My Line?: Gil Fates, executive producer of the iconic panel game show that aired from 1950-1975, wrote in his 1978 retrospective of the series that some "mystery guests" during the syndicated years were rather obscure to most viewers. These included second-tier Broadway performers, local New York-New Jersey personalities, and lesser-known soap opera actors/actresses of shows produced in New York^note , where most soaps were still being produced at the time. This, he reasoned, was because of having to stretch to find mystery guests for a five-day-a-week program (or, 195 per television season) once the better-known stars had their turn, whereas it was much simpler to find just one prominent star a week for the original CBS series (or, just 35 or so during a September-through-May season) … and it led to many panelists and viewers scratching their heads, wondering, 'Who is that person?' Obscure mainstream actors known within smaller local circles.
• Pop-Culture Isolation: Can also result in people outside the subculture experiencing Informed Real Life Fame. I think these two tropes overlap a lot, and I'm wondering if it's simply worth merging.
• Characters.Ru Pauls Drag Race Season 8: "Was quick to let the the girls know she's a former Miss Drag Continental." Listed as "invoked" on a character page, without explaining how it fits the definition.
• YMMV.Mallard Fillmore: "Tinsley did a two-week-long series of strips promoting the drafting of conservative economist Walter E. Williams as the 2008 Republican presidential nominee. In the strips, he depicted the groundswell of popular support for Williams' drafting as being so huge that it causes a frightened Howard Dean (who was Chairman of the DNC at the time) to throw a tantrum out of frustration. In reality, Williams was little-known other than by hardcore listeners of the Rush Limbaugh Show where he sometimes guest-hosted when Limbaugh was on vacation." Seems valid but may overlap with Fan Myopia.
• YMMV.Rupauls Drag Race:
  • Courtney Act was runner-up on Australian Idol, and even went on the tour afterwards, touring around Australia to millions of fans ... in the U.S. however she's just another drag queen, so her shilling of her Aussie fame can come off as an informed attribute (and a bit arrogant). Sounds more like Pop-Culture Isolation.
  • Willam could come off as this during Season 4 if you were not familiar with Nip/Tuck or didn't watch detective shows. Basically a ZCE as it doesn't explain why Willam would be considered famous, but may also overlap with Pop-Culture Isolation.

Was famous when the work is produced, no longer famous now

• The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!: "While most of the celebrity guests in the live-action segments are either still well-known (Magic Johnson, Ernie Hudson) or at least recognizable as '80s icons or historical figures (Cyndi Lauper, Mikhail Gorbachev), some of them will be complete headscratchers to contemporary viewers. Who the hell is Rob Stone? ^note Rob Stone was an actor on Mr. Belvedere, before you look it up." They were popular at the time, and their popularity faded like many other celebrities. Again, that happens too much to be truly notable.
• YMMV.Whats My Line:
  • Modern viewers of the reruns may experience this when the mystery guests turn out to be long-forgotten teen heartthrobs or Broadway stars. This is a natural consequence of the passage of time.
  • Also Inverted on the 1 December 1963 episode, where the "regular person" guest contestant was a little-known restaurant owner named Colonel Harland Sanders. You can't invert YMMV. This is Retroactive Recognition.

Not known by an audience outside its target demographic

• Literature.When You Reach Me: "In an In-Universe example, Miranda experiences this at work while watching a taping of The $20,000 Pyramid. ("The celebrities take the stage. I've never heard of either one of them.")" The character in question is 12 years old, so she's not in the target demographic for this show. Is it notable that she doesn't recognize these celebrities?

Character treated as more famous than they are as a joke

• YMMV.Mystery Science Theater 3000: "Frank being referred to as "TV's Frank" as if to suggest he's a well-known television star even though he's not famous for anything. The creators just thought the convention of adding "TV's" or "Hollywood's" to an actor's name is funny. Sounds like an In-Universe parody of the phenomenon, not a legitimate example of celebrity shilling.
  • The joke is taken Up To Eleven in the revival with Max's preferred name of "TV's Son of TV's Frank"
  Ma: Dear TV's Diary of TV's Son of TV's Frank...
• Recap.Clone High S 1 E 07 Plane Crazy Gate Expectations: "Parodied. Ashley Parker Angel is only ever referred to as "Ashley Angel From O-Town" and depicted as being one of the most famous, influential music personalities in the world, rather than a former member of a flash-in-the-pan boy band.^note MTV ordered this episode as a cross-promotion with Making the Band, so this was the writers' way of tweaking their nose about it." Seems like a valid in-universe example, and isn't subject to cultural or demographic dissonance.
• Trivia.Clone High: "The creators were also forced to do a cross-promotion with Making the Band by having Ashley Parker Angel from O-Town (whose formation was the subject of the reality show's first season) as a guest star. They were not told, however, how to write the episode, so they made all of Angel's lines Self-Deprecation and had every other character acting as if he was the single most famous and important musician who ever lived so that nobody took it seriously." Same context as above, still valid IMO.

Zero context example / murky

• Popcultural Osmosis Failure: Listed in a long nondescript list of "Compare to..." tropes.
• Wrestling.Larry Sweeney: To Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard's horror at Supercard Of Honor II.Johnny Fairplay is a big named celebrity, for real! In-universe ZCE.

Indexing

• Audience Reactions: A work features the shining star power of...someone you've never heard of. [[Green:Index.]]