History Main / PlayAlongMeme

* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': Fans will generally refer to Vincent Adultman as the adult man he's pretending to be, rather than [[TotemPoleTrench several kids in a trench coat]], in keeping with nearly every character on the show.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' has fans playing along with Solid Snake's PaperThinDisguise as "Iroquois Pliskin", joking about him being a new character who couldn't possibly be Snake, since Snake [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat "died"]] in the Tanker incident in the prologue.

* ''Fanfic/HouseOfGold'', a RealPersonFic shipping WebVideo/DrewGooden and WebVideo/DannyGonzalez, writes Drew's wife (or girlfriend, as written in the fic) Amanda out of the story by saying she was lost at war in Afghanistan. After Drew and Danny read the fic in a crossover video, Drew's fandom began joking that Amanda was still lost in Afghanistan, despite her never going to war in real life. Even when Amanda appears in Drew's videos, the comments section will express relief that she's finally been "rescued."

** In the season 2 premiere, Twilight had Spike bear the Element of Loyalty necklace and told him "you're the new Rainbow Dash". Fans will thus occasionally discuss pictures of Spike as though they were pictures of Rainbow Dash.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Series 6 (2011) introduced the Silence, a religious order of creepy humanoids. Once anyone looks away from a Silent, they forget about them. However, these aliens use post-hypnotic suggestions. Many commenters act like they've never seen the Silence but remember what they said; it went as far as videos of the Apollo 11 moon landing, a major plot point in the episode "Day of the Moon".

** The fight between [[ComicBook/TheFlash Wally West]] and [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog]] ends with [[spoiler:the latter being hit with enough intensity to [[RetGone erase him from existence]]]]. Afterwards, it became a common joke for fans to not recognize characters from, mentions of and allusions to [[spoiler:''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'']].

** The same thing would occur with [[WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty Rick]] vs. [[Series/DoctorWho The Doctor]], where it ended with [[spoiler:Rick getting hit by the Doctor's Dematerialization gun, therefore erasing him from existence, time and pretty much everything as a whole.]] Much like the above example, it's fairly common for people to ironically complain that the episode was just 22 minutes of radio silence [[spoiler:other than The Doctor's analysis]], or that the fight was just [[spoiler:The Doctor talking to thin air and swinging a spoon around]], and confusion on [[spoiler:Morty "from the hit Adult Swim show Morty" making a cameo appearance at the end]].

* As ''Film/WeirdTheAlYankovicStory'' is a parody of musical biopics, particularly their tendency to employ artistic license, it has a lot of inaccuracies in the name of the RuleOfFunny. Fans treat these inaccuracies as if they really happened, including the ending, where [[spoiler:Al is killed in 1986 by a cartel hitman employed by Madonna]].

* ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'': No-one InUniverse is able to recognize the real identity of Count Bleck's enigmatic minion Mr. L. And despite the fact that he's obviously [[spoiler:a BrainwashedAndCrazy Luigi]], neither are fans of the game.
* The Spy from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is able to disguise himself as any of the 9 classes including himself on either his or the enemy's team by wearing a literal PaperThinDisguise. [[SelfDemonstratingArticle Pictures of random characters from other media often appear in the feeds of TF2 communities, much to their confusion.]]

** In the Book Three episode "The Headband", Sokka dons a PaperThinDisguise consisting of a fake beard and uses "Wang Fire" as an alias. Fans are fond of jokingly treating "Wang Fire" as a separate character (and as something of a MemeticBadass to boot.)

** Fans will sometimes claim not to remember who Wallflower Blush is, or say that that they've never seen her before -- this is because in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsForgottenFriendship'', [[spoiler:she used a magical artifact to erase everyone's memories of her.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E12MargeVsTheMonorail Marge vs. the Monorail]]", Mr. Burns, after getting fined three million dollars, attempts to get people to invest in the Springfield Power Plant using the money by [[PaperThinDisguise putting on a fake mustache]] and introducing himself as [[SdrawkcabName Mr. Snrub]]. Notably, the usually-stupid citizens of Springfield recognized him at once, but fans still like to wonder about the enigmatic Mr. Snrub. One [=YouTuber=] even made an alternate ending to "Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part Two" where Mr. Snrub was the real victim of the shooting after [[BecomingTheMask getting too comfortable in his role as Mr. Burns' body double]] and the real Burns was the shooter. Not only that, Smithers also had a body double as revealed by his Season 1 design.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', the extremely simple card Pot of Greed (which allows its player to draw two cards from their deck) is explained in full almost every single time it's played, which is ''extremely'' often. Fans like to joke that [[ViewersAreGoldfish they really are that forgetful]] and claim to have no idea what the card does whenever it pops up.

** In an early episode, Fluttershy mentioned that she would like to be a tree. Cue bronies everywhere calling trees "Fluttershy" or pointing out a tree in any shot Fluttershy is in. Similarly, when Apple Bloom called Scootaloo a chicken, the same thing happened with her.

[[quoteright:204:[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mr_snrub.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:204:Perhaps someday, we'll uncover the truth about this [[SdrawkcabName Mr. Snrub]].]]

* When the trailers for ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' appeared on youtube, the comment section got filled with people pretending to consider the show a master piece and how moved they are by [insert character from the show] saying or doing [something from a completely different work].

* ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'': The fight between [[ComicBook/TheFlash Wally West]] and [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog]] ends with [[spoiler:the latter being hit with enough intensity to [[RetGone erase him from existence]]]]. Afterwards, it became a common joke for fans to not recognize characters from, mentions of and allusions to [[spoiler:''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'']].

* In ''LightNovel/ReZero'', the BattleMaid Rem is erased from everyone's memories except the main character's. Of course, when Rem is mentioned somewhere, fans will be quick to mention they never saw that character before and call her a cheap OC and a recolor of Ram (her twin sister)

** Maud Pie canonically doesn't express facial emotion (at least, very rarely), so fans often pretend that she is heavily emoting in images that contain a completely neutral expression.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': [[Recap/SouthParkS25E2TheBigFix "The Big Fix"]] reveals that Token Black's first name is actually spelled "Tolkien", and Stan spends the episode feeling guilty that he thought the [[TokenMinority only black boy in school]] was actually named "Token." The fandom ran with this by accusing anybody who still called him "Token" of being racist, and claiming that any scenes where he was still called "Token" were edited. Adding to the meme is the fact that the creators went back and [[OrwellianRetcon edited the closed captioning]] in previous episodes such that every mention of "Token" was changed to "Tolkien"... except in Stan and Kyle's dialogue.

* Joshua Norton was a failed businessman who lived in San Francisco in the 1800s, who at some point went through some kind of break and [[AuthorityInNameOnly declared himself to be the Emperor of the United States]]. He began walking around the streets in an old dress uniform, issuing "Norton scrip" currency, and making proclamations and political demands. In what might be one of the earliest examples of this trope, most of the people who met him decided to play along: his currency was widely accepted, the local media often reported on his latest requests, and he received frequent donations that kept him out of homelessness--even Kamehameha V, king of Hawaii, referred to Norton as the United States's true leader. By most accounts he was, despite his pompousness and eccentricities, a goodhearted and likeable man who tried to use his "position" to the benefit of others (indeed, he seems to have been a fairly progressive man for his time, supporting abolition of slavery and women's suffrage), which contributed to the rest of the city being willing to entertain his attitude. Even his gravestone describes him with his full titles.

* When the trailers for ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' appeared on youtube, the comment section got filled with people pretending to consider the show a master piece and how moved they are by [insert character] saying or doing [something from a completely different work].

** Fans will sometimes claim not to remember who Wallflower Blush is, or say that that they've never seen her before -- this is because in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsForgottenFriendship'', she used a magical artifact to erase everyone's memories of her.