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SeptimusHeap MOD (Edited uphill both ways)
Mar 24th 2021 at 2:21:23 AM •••

Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Hey It's That Guy needs repair, started by burinnu on Mar 7th 2010 at 6:45:47 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
SeptimusHeap MOD (Edited uphill both ways)
Mar 20th 2021 at 9:58:05 AM •••

Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Misused, started by Prfnoff on Feb 17th 2016 at 3:59:59 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
KeithTyler Since: Oct, 2011
Feb 17th 2014 at 6:04:21 PM •••

Hey Its That Guy is not always trivia. It is if the fact that an actor has done more than one work is incidental. For example, Kathy Bates in Misery does not rate a HITG as "the chick from Fried Green Tomatoes." She was just a good fit for the part.

But sometimes a casting team and/or director or producer specifically hire an actor known for certain roles. (Like, say, anything that Wil Wheaton has been in since STTNG. Sorry, @wilw.) Their appearance in the work is not because they were necessarily a good fit, but because the show/movie creators either wanted them specifically, or even specifically wanted someone known to a target audience. (Like putting Christopher Lee or Ian Mc Kellen in a fantasy movie. Or both.) In this case, a reaction of "Hey Its That Guy" is intended.

The thing is, because so much of HITG entries are incidental, this idea that HITG qualifies as trivia has become a hard-and-fast no-exception rule that karma-crunching editors will automatically ship to the Trivia/ subpage of a work without a second thought, which... frankly, that's the sort of shallow-minded autocratic crap I expect from The Other Wiki. And even there, they have some semblance of sense, once in a while, for making these sorts of distinctions.

Edited by 67.168.125.31
SeptimusHeap MOD (Edited uphill both ways)
Nov 9th 2013 at 5:04:48 AM •••

Re description change: Done under the conclusions of this TRS topic.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
wattage Since: Mar, 2011
Oct 14th 2011 at 10:04:10 PM •••

I have a problem with this page, or specifically how it's used. Go to the trivia page of any live action show, movie, cartoon, or anime of reasonable popularity, and you'll find this trope. Not only that, it lists the entire main cast and their previous roles.

Take the Twilight entry, for instance. Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, and Kristen Stewart are all well-known actors, even if Twilight is the thing that made them well-known (in Lautner and arguably Pattinson's case.) And yet, they are all listed as examples of "actor who you've seen before but have no idea what their name is."

TL;DR This trope is misused on a large amount of the trivia pages it appears on, or at least the one's I've seen.

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VeronicaWakefield Since: Oct, 2011
Nov 1st 2012 at 12:15:50 AM •••

Seconded massively. This is one of those tropes that gets pounded to death because people want to make their favorite shows' pages as long as possible.

BlackTemplar Since: Mar, 2012
Mar 18th 2013 at 3:06:36 AM •••

This. Also the preferred format seems to be "(Possibly) Obscure reference to minor character played by this actor turns up here." For example a reference to Faran Tahir's character in Star Trek might read "Raza is now a starship captain." If you were lucky "Raza" MIGHT link back to Iron Man, but it's possible you still didn't notice him as Captain Robaru. I think the format should be much more along the lines of "(Actor X) who plays (Character Y) played (Character Z) in (Media A)."

serizawa3000 Since: Sep, 2010
Aug 19th 2011 at 7:20:11 PM •••

Er... no entry for Michael Berryman? He's kind of... unmistakable...

DragonQuestZ The Other Troper Since: Jan, 2001
The Other Troper
Aug 3rd 2010 at 1:15:48 PM •••

This discussion is about the fate of this page.

I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
TheNerdyNinja Since: Dec, 2012
Jul 15th 2010 at 11:59:06 AM •••

The Video game examples all seem like they fit better under Hey Its That Voice. Why exactly are they on this page again?

Cambdoranononononono Since: Jan, 2001
Jun 3rd 2010 at 1:52:57 AM •••

A few things on the new picture:

  • Just A Face And A Caption
  • I have no idea who J. T. Walsh is, and looking at his filmography, I'm not particularly convinced that I should. This is always the issue with the above point, but it's particularly relevant here since the entire trope hinges on the ability to recognize the person.
  • How is J. T. Walsh, or any other person, the "quintessential" example? That is, how do you determine that a particular actor is more recognizable in multiple works than any other actor?

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