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Actor Allusion / Western Animation

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  • In one episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, Jimmy supposedly forgets Carl's name, calling him Rob.
  • Adventure Time:
    • In "Red Throne", the Flame King and Don Jon come to blows and have a comically-drawn-out fist-fight, remiscent of the one in They Live! between Frank and Nada, who were played by their voice actors Keith David and Roddy Piper.
    • In "The Mountain", Lemongrab has a vision of Princess Bubblegum offering to play catch with him. In this vision, Bubblegum speaks in a stitled, overly-formal manner reminiscent of Starfire from Teen Titans, who was also voiced by Hynden Walch.
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  • In the Aladdin: The Series episode "When Chaos Comes Calling" Iago is given a human head, which closely resembles his voice actor Gilbert Gottfried. It could also be an allusion to animator Will Finn's process into designing the character; Finn caricatured him, then gave him a parrot's body. Also related to Ink-Suit Actor.
  • American Dad!:
    • Bullock (played by Patrick Stewart) shows off a device he calls the "Hologram Deck." When Dick and Stan point out the resemblance to the holodeck from Star Trek, Bullock claims not to know what that is.
    Bullock: Some of us spent the late '80s and early '90s getting laid, Smith.
    • In "The Neverending Stories," Bullock claims people call him "Professor X." Because he does so much ecstasy.
    • Another episode has Jon Cryer guest star as Francine's high-school friend Quacky, a nod to his role as Duckie from Pretty in Pink.
    • One episode features a scene where Klaus says that he can perform animal sounds to help Stan make money. Klaus happens to be voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, who is known for being second only to Frank Welker when it comes to voicing various animal and creature characters.
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    • The character of Snot, voiced by Curtis Armstrong, is essentially an American Dad version of Booger from Revenge of the Nerds. In one episode, Steve and his friends discuss the film, but Snot claims to have never seen it.
    • In "Dreaming of a White Porche Christmas", Roger is trying to explain the plot by analogy to a movie. Stan hasn't seen any of the movies he mentions, including, to Roger's surprise, Ted.
  • Animaniacs/Pinky and the Brain:
    • Orson Welles attempted a series of radio commercials for several foods, probably sometime around the 1960s. Animaniacs did a Pinky and the Brain sketch built around Maurice LaMarche imitating fairly famous outtakes of that recording session almost verbatim (compare Orson and Maurice). If the entire cartoon wasn't enough of one long Actor Allusion on its own, it includes a line where the Brain storms off, saying, "if you want this done, you'll just have to find some actor who does impressions!"
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    • Other Pinky and the Brain episodes featured parodies of Citizen Kane, The Third Man and the Mercury Radio Theater production of The War of the Worlds.
    • One episode of Animaniacs featured a Game Show host called "Ned Flat", resembling Ned Flanders from The Simpsons not only in name but in voice — Harry Shearer's voice, in both cases.
  • Archer:
    • The character of Malory Archer (played by Jessica Walter) is essentially Lucille Bluth placed in command of a spy agency. She even has a feud with her unseen neighbor Trudy Beekman, echoing Lucille's feud with "Lucille Two"
    • Eventually we meet Len Trexler, the head of the rival agency ODIN who was involved with Malory in the past and thus may be Archer's biological father. He of course is played by Jeffrey Tambor, who played George Bluth, Lucille's husband.
    • The Season 4 premiere revealed Archer had developed amnesia and was selling burgers under the name Bob. H. Jon Benjamin voices Archer and Bob from Bob's Burgers. The idea that both characters were the same person was made all the funnier by the fact that they look nothing like each other, despite sounding exactly alike. Far from being a quick gag, the allusion was a major plot point, complete with an Archer-style makeover for the Bob's Burgers settings and characters. It tiptoed along the border of Actor Allusion and a full Crossover episode.
    • In "Honeypot", Thomas Lennon guest-stars as one of the villains of the week. At one point, Archer is shown dressed in an outfit very similar to Terry, the recurring gay prostitute from Thomas’ series Reno 911!.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Mick Foley voices The Boulder, a parody of The Rock. The Rock and Mick’s character Mankind formed the popular tag team The Rock and Sock Connection.
    • Small one from Robert Patrick when he voices Piandao. When Piandao describes swordsmanship, he says the sword is like a extra long, really sharp arm. Robert Patrick’s most famous role was as the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and the Terminator he played was fond of making his arms long and sharp to use as swords.
  • The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes! manages to combine this with Talking to Himself. Fred Tatasciore plays both the Incredible Hulk (reprising the role from... practically everything the Hulk has been in since 2003) and Graviton. Then Graviton lets loose one of Hulk's catchphrases:
    Graviton: I am the strongest one there is!
    Hulk: (lands next to him) You sure about that?
  • Batman:
    • In an episode of The New Batman Adventures, the Joker is attempting to kill Commissioner Gordon while he is at the dentist. Batman manages to find out first and stops him, but before he leaves the Joker tosses a grenade in while making the pun "May the floss be with you!" This is an obvious parody of the line "May the Force be with you", and it is a reference to his voice actor Mark Hamill, famous for his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise.
    • A similar reference appears in the spin-off comic book Harley and Ivy which stars the Joker's henchgirl Harley Quinn and the villain Poison Ivy; the two are on a movie set beating up what look like Batman and the Joker, but turn out to be actors. Harley laments about some actor trying to impersonate the Joker and takes off his fake nose while the actor mumbles something about "Yoda" and the "Dagobah System". It is safe to say that this is a reference to Hamill again, probably suggesting that the actor is supposed to be him.
    • In The Batman, Boss Zucco, voiced by Mark Hamill, kills John Grayson, who is voiced by Kevin Conroy. As Mark voiced the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and Kevin voiced Batman, many noticed that, in a way, the Joker finally managed to kill Batman.
    • Batman: The Animated Series has Temple Fugate (the Clock King) played by Alan Rachins, then best known for playing the punctilious managing partner Douglas Brachman on L.A. Law — a clock watcher's clock watcher.
    • In his introduction in "Heart of Ice", Mr. Freeze says "Revenge is a dish best served cold.", popularly called a Klingon proverb. Michael Ansara, who plays Freeze, played the Klingon Captain Kang in Star Trek.
    • Grant Walker, voiced by Dan O'Herlihy, has decided that things are too rough and has decided to replace an old society with a new city, and is willing to take drastic steps to take out the old one. Granted, wiping out the planet's population is more extreme and Grant was based on Walt Disney, but Oceania sounds a lot like Delta City from the RoboCop movies, which OCP's chairman, the Old Man, (also played by Dan) intended to replace crime-ridden Detroit. The willingness to commit mass murder for a cause he supports also evokes yet another Corrupt Corporate Executive Dan played, Conal Cochran from Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
  • Batman Beyond:
    • The villain Mad Stan is a psychopathic Luddite who very closely resembles Spider from Johnny Mnemonic, even going so far as to mimic his "information overload" rant (minus the profanity.) Actor Henry Rollins played both roles, and Stan was probably modeled after Henry' performance.
    • King is voiced by George Lazenby, who was known for his short stint as James Bond. He gets two significant lines: First, "we have all the time in the world", a reference to his James Bond performance. Second, "Do you have any idea what it's like living in someone's shadow?"
  • Will Friedle again invokes Batman Beyond by playing Bats' on-again, off-again partner Blue Beetle in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. The show was full of these, particularly referencing the DC Animated Universe.
  • In Beast Wars, Silverbolt remarks that Venus reminds him of Blackarachnia. Blackarachnia was voiced by Venus Terzo.
  • Ben 10:
    • A rather obscure one: Ben Tennyson exclaims in one episode: "How stupid do you think I am?", a line uttered by Terrence of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends no less than 2 years beforehand. Both characters are voiced by Tara Strong.
    • Another episode where Ben and Gwen are drawn into a video game involves a scene where Grandpa Max notices that their game console has been left on, and drops into a deeper voice to complain, "I thought I told you to turn the game console off!" If you've played Metal Gear Solid 2 to the ending, you will likely void your bowels at this exact moment - Paul Eiding plays both Grandpa Max and Colonel Campbell, and towards the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, the game abruptly shifts into a No Fourth Wall horror game. At the start of this downwards slide, the Colonel shouts at Raiden to turn the game console off!
  • Big City Greens:
    • The Pepper Merchant from "Feud Fight" is played by Griffon McElroy, with basically the same voice he uses for Garfield the Deals Warlock.
    • A foreign dub-based example in "Gramma Driver", Gramma Alice Green becomes the getaway driver for an Outlaw Couple inspired by Jessie and James. The reason for this is because Gramma is voiced by Inuko Inuyama in the show's Japanese dub, and her most famous role is Meowth.
  • Bob's Burgers: In "Just One Of the Boyz 4 Now" one of the boys Tina crushes on, Jesse, gets a section in his song where he raps about stereotypical French culture. Jesse's voice actor, Daveed Diggs, famously played the Marquis de Lafayette in Hamilton.
  • Although BoJack Horseman is chock-full of celebrity gags, there are only a few about those voicing the main characters; however, in several seasons Princess Carolyn has a parody of a David Sedaris book in her bookshelf. She's voiced by Amy Sedaris, his sister.
  • The Boondocks has quite a few of these.
    • There are many allusions to Friday, both direct and indirect, which starred John Witherspoon, the voice of The Boondocks' Robert "Granddad" Freeman.
    • In the episode "A Date with the Health Inspector", the character Gin Rummy (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) makes several statements pulled almost word-for-word from Pulp Fiction, including the iconic "English, motherfucker, do you speak it?". Rummy also also seems to have a certain inclination towards tasty beverages.
    • In one episode, Mark Hamill plays a dealer who sells Granddad a strain of marijuana called "Skywalker".
    • Rev. Rollo Goodlove messes up while singing "Go-Go Gadget Gospel," a song originally performed by his voice actor Cee-Lo. Extra layers of funny occur when you realize Cee-Lo is purposefully messing up his song when he should be able to sing it perfectly.
    • Charles Murphy as Wuncler III had the line "I'm rich, bitch!"; a line from Chappelle's Show where he frequently performed on.
  • In CatDog, Cat, voiced by Jim Cummings, would often refer to his and Dog's live-in neighbor Winslow as a blue rodent. Jim had previously played the villain in a cartoon starring Sonic the Hedgehog whom he would often refer to as "rodent."
  • In Class of 3000 musician Andre "3000" Benjamin provides the voice of Sunny Bridges. In one episode, we learn that Sunny has Andre Benjamin on his cell phone speed dial.
  • The Critic:
    • There's this memorable exchange between title character Jay Sherman and his son Marty, the humor hinging on the fact that Jay is voiced by actor Jon Lovitz (and drawn to look more than a little bit like him, too):
    Jay Sherman: Don't worry son, if you think that only handsome musicians can get beautiful women, I have two words for you: Lyle Lovett.
    Marty Sherman: I thought that he was handsome.
    Jay Sherman: You're thinking of Jon Lovitz. With his good looks, he takes the cake.
    • One episode takes this further by actually having Jon voice himself in a scene where he passes by Jay. Marty mentions their voices are similar.
  • The Dan Vs. episode "The Catburglar" is basically Curtis Armstrong (Dan) as his other famous character he played in the 80s. note 
  • Danny Phantom:
    • In an episode where Maddie married Vlad instead of Jack, Jack mistakenly called Danny "Davy" at one point. Danny's voice actor is David Kaufman.
    • In "Splitting Images", while Danny is stuck inside a 1950's version of Caspar High in the Ghost Zone, there's a brief shot of Marty McFly (played by David in the animated series) among the students.
  • In one episode of Disenchantment King Zog, voiced by John DiMaggio, shouts a variant of Bender's catchphrase:
    Bite my shiny metal axe!
  • The Dragon Prince has a pretty blatant one in "The Midnight Desert": while riding in a howdah on the back of an enormous beast of burden, Callum finds something strangely familiar about a boomerang, the signature weapon of Jack De Sena's previous role, Sokka.
  • The Fairly OddParents:
    • Adam West, again, in the role of Catman. Fun fact: that episode was co-written by Seth MacFarlane, who of course is responsible for the "Mayor Adam West" character on Family Guy, mentioned above.
    • The Crimson Chin is voiced by Jay Leno, a chin-themed superhero whose origin story comes when a late night talk show host was bitten by a radioactive celebrity. In a later episode, the Crimson Chin crashes through a building during a fight scene...straight onto the filming of an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
    • In his first appearance, Chip Skylark, voiced by Chris Kirkpatrick, mentions "The album comes out July 24th." *NSYNC actually had an album come out July 24th, 2001.
    • There's also Dr. Rip Studwell, voiced by series creator Butch Hartman himself. His over the top, soap opera style is a reference to Butch’s acting roles on soap operas before he made it big in animation. His design is also based on Butch himself, originally done as a joke.
    • Probably unintentional, but the episode "Sleepover and Over" has Timmy wearing a Captain Ersatz version of a Hello Kitty costume near the end. One of Tara Strong's first voice acting roles was the title character in Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater.
    • When the episode "The Gland Plan" was redubbed for Brazilian audiences, the scene where Cosmo turns into a G has Cosmo saying it's G for Guilherme. Cosmo's Brazilian voice actor is Guilherme Briggs.
  • Brazilian extinct dubbing studio Herbert Richers was such a loose environment during the late 80s\early 90s that the voice actors liked to throw this, such as acknowledging Manolo Rey by having someone say "Mr. Manolo's bakery". One the actors fondly remembers that in one episode of Denver the Last Dinosaur, the guy playing a fashion designer decided to basically list the voice actors in a French accent.
  • Family Guy:
    • Seth MacFarlane intentionally avoids allusions to Batman (1966) with Adam West because they're too obvious. Though there was the Super Griffins short where he mentioned having past experiences fighting super-powered beings.
    • Also, in the episode "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air", Peter notes the similarity between the voices of Dr. Hartman and Carter Pewtersmidt — both played by Seth MacFarlane — who do indeed sound nearly identical. Hartman and Carter then converse about this, with Carter noting it as being a bit lazy, whereas Hartman figures that there are only so many voices out there, with some bound to sound similar.
    • There was a fairly subtle one on the first episode after the show came back. Peter listed all of the series on FOX that had been cancelled since they were. When Peter says Greg the Bunny, he looks at Chris, whose VA, Seth Green, was the star of that series.
    • Later in the series, Peter and Chris have a conversation about Robot Chicken (which also did a Star Wars episode) with Peter dismissing the show and Chris defending it. Seth Green is the co-creator of Robot Chicken.
    • There's an even more obvious reference to Robot Chicken in "Road to the Multiverse:"
    Stewie: How's it feel to be on a major network for 30 seconds?
    Chris: FUCK YOU!!
    • In the second Star Wars spoof, Peter short-circuits the argument by bringing up Without a Paddle, which causes Chris to scream and run out of the room angrily. Without a Paddle was a critically-panned box office flop that starred Seth Green.
    • In the third Star Wars spoof, they simply go into outright bashing Seth Green by name, which naturally irritates Chris/Luke. At the end, Chris asks Peter what his problem with Seth Green is, proceeding to turn around and bash Seth MacFarlane with Meg and Lois, while Peter, Stewie, and Brian (all voiced by MacFarlane) try to defend him.
    • In "Meet the Quagmires", where the timeline was altered, President Gore killed Osama bin Laden. Lois says: "Who woulda thought that bin Laden was hiding out in the cast of MADtv?" Quagmire remarks: "Man, the perfect hiding spot. The one place no one would look!" Alex Borstein, the voice of Lois, had a recurring role on MADtv.
    • In one episode, Carl the gas station attendant gives lackluster impersonations of Sterling Archer and Bob Belcher, both of which share their voice actor H. Jon Benjamin with Carl.
  • Freakazoid!:
    • The title character's butler Professor Jones, voiced by Jonathan Harris, is pretty much a reprisal of Jonathan’s role as Dr. Smith from Lost in Space — snotty and coward, with some lines directly lifted from LiS. A Running Gag in his introductory episode "Mission: Freakazoid" involves everyone asking Jones if he was "on a show with a robot". Also, Sgt. Cosgrove and the villain Guitierrez resemble their voice actors, Ed Asner and Ricardo Montalbán, respectively.
    • In "The Chip", Guitierrez delivers a speech to Dexter that seems to have been taken from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Guess what actor portrayed Khan. Ricardo Montalbán.
    • The first season's finale is titled "The Wrath of Guitierrez". One gets the impression that the writers really liked having Ricardo Montalbán on their side.
  • Futurama:
    • In one episode, Leela (played by Katey Sagal) meets and falls in love with a fellow cyclops called Alkazar... who insists she calls him Al... who then turns out to be a shiftless slob... and eventually the show temporarily turned into an episode of Married... with Children, in which Katey played Peggy Bundy, right down to the hooting FOX audience.
    • In Bender's Big Score, in the battle against the scammers, the Chanukah Zombie, voiced by Mark Hamill, flies a stereotypically Chanukah-themed TIE Fighter.
    • "Hah — Billy West? What a stupid, phoney, made-up name." Fry's line might be one of the least subtle actor allusions in history.
    • In "Leela and the Genestalk", Bender finds Finn and Jake trapped in Mom's floating Genetics lab. John DiMaggio voices both Bender and Jake.
      Jake: What time is it?
      Bender: Time for you to shut up!
  • Garfield and Friends:
    • The title orange cat is voiced by Lorenzo Music, who had previously voiced Carlton the Doorman on the CBS sitcom Rhoda. Naturally, one of the Couch Gags featured the line, "This is Garfield, your doorman." (Doubles as a Parental Bonus, given that Rhoda aired during The '70s.)
    • Aloysius Pig's catchphrase is "That's not right!", a reference to his voice actor Kevin Meaney.
    • Another episode had Garfield consider getting help from the Ghostbusters, only to then say they were cancelled, a reference to Lorenzo Music's role on that show.
  • In the Gargoyles episode where the characters went to Ireland, a teenage wastrel remarked that there was more to Bronx than meets the eye, a reference to the tagline for Transformers. Bronx's voice was provided by Frank Welker, who also did a lot of voices in Transformers: Generation 1.
  • In the Gravity Falls episode Carpet Diem Candy remarks that Kevin from the electronic dating game she is playing has the voice of a robot. Her voice actress is Nikki Yang, the voice of BMO from Adventure Time.
  • Green Eggs and Ham: Broadway star Daveed Diggs, best known for playing Marquis de La Fayette in Hamilton, plays another character who's a revolutionary with a French accent who sings a song which parodies Les Misérables in "Mouse."
  • Baron von Ghoulish in Billy and Mandy Save Christmas is introduced brushing his fangs and humming "Singing in the Rain". His voice actor is Malcolm McDowell, who infamously sang that same song in A Clockwork Orange.
  • Justice League, especially when it entered its Loads and Loads of Characters phase, absolutely loved these.
    • Examples include bringing in the entire lead cast of Teen Titans to voice the first Royal Flush Gang, bickering brothers Hawk and Dove being played by Wayne and Kevin Arnold from The Wonder Years, and Nazi-esque villain Virman Vundabar, voiced by Arte Johnson, saying "verrry interesting... but schtupid!"note  — his Catchphrase in his most famous role, Wolfgang the German Soldier on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.
    • Not to mention tapping Nathan Fillion to voice Vigilante, a cowboy that flies a spaceship. And paired with Vixen, who was voiced by Gina Torres.
    • Keith David, who was Goliath in Gargoyles, voice acts Despero the cult-leader. When he's brainwashing the heroes one by one, he remarks about Hawkgirl: "The wings give her an exotic quality, wouldn't you agree?"
    • "The Great Brain Robbery" has a "Freaky Friday" Flip between Flash and Lex Luthor in which voices are decidedly not mental. Flash's voice actor, Michael Rosenbaum, plays Luthor in Smallville.
    • During "The Once and Future Thing, Part 2", as time itself starts to degrade and warp out of control, a group of redcoats suddenly appear. They see the Terry McGinnis Batman and one of them shouts, "Fire at will."
    • "Epilogue" features a new Royal Flush Gang and the Jack in this one is a samurai. When he's returned to normal, the animators made him look exactly like Phil LaMarr - the voice of Samurai Jack.
    • Justice League Action took the concept of actor allusion to its ultimate limit in the short "Missing the Mark" when the Joker (most famously voiced by Mark Hamill) and the Trickster (played by Mark Hamill in The Flash (1990) and as two different version of the character in The Flash (2014), and here voiced by Mark Hamill) abduct famous actor Mark Hamill (voiced by himself), who helps in his own rescue by fooling the Joker and Trickster by imitating their voices, allowing his rescue by Swamp Thing...who in Justice League Action is voiced by Mark Hamill.
  • Kim Possible:
    • A two-in-one parody in "The Fearless Ferret": an aging TV star who played a superhero on TV is voiced by Adam West of the classic Batman (1966). He coaches a successor via radio, in the form of series regular Ron. Ron's VA, Will Friedle, was the voice of the future Batman on Batman Beyond — whom the original Batman coached via radio.
    • On another episode, Señor Senior Sr. speaks of chasing someone 'round perdition's flames, in much the same way his voice actor (Ricardo Montalbán) did in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
  • King of the Hill:
    • One episode of (specifically "Arlen City Bomber") has Bobby state that his dream is to eat a corn chip right off the production line. Lucky tells him "I'm gonna help you run down that dream." Lucky's portrayer had a song titled "Runnin' Down A Dream".
    • In the season four episode "Rodeo Days", the boy Bobby (voiced by Pamela Aldon) meets at the rodeo is voiced by Andrew Lawrence. This is not the first time they've been on the same show together.
  • In The Legend of Korra, Henry Rollins voices Zaheer, the Arc Villain of Book 3 and a Bomb Throwing Anarchist like Mad Stan (albeit much more spiritual).
    • The Brazilian dub had Korra replying to a question of whether she's the avatar with "Yup, that’s me!" in the same pronunciation of another role of Mariana Torres, That's So Raven. She also employed the phrase as her other Raven in Teen Titans Go!.
  • A PBS childrens show called Liberty's Kids had Walter Cronkite as the voice of Benjamin Franklin. Separate from the main storyline (having to do with a trio of preteen reporters during the American Revolutionary War), there would be anachronistic segments, including Benjamin as a newscaster-an obvious nod to his voice actor, who was also a newscaster. He would even end each segment with "And that's the way it is."
  • In an episode of Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Pleakley (voiced by Kevin Macdonald of The Kids in the Hall) is visited by his mother, sister and brother, voiced by Scott Thompson, Bruce McCullough, and Mark McKinney, respectively, three of Kevin's four regular costars from The Kids in the Hall. The remaining costar, David Foley, appears as well, playing a priest at Pleakley's mock wedding. Not to mention Pleakley is fond of crossdressing.
  • According to Roger Ebert, Scar's answer to Simba's "You're so weird," from The Lion King (1994) is a reference to an earlier Jeremy Irons part in Reversal of Fortune where he played Claus von Bulow. Even the intonation is exactly the same.
  • Looney Tunes:
  • An episode of Martha Speaks had an Imagine Spot that was a parody of My Little Pony. Martha's voice actress Tabitha St. Germain is pretty much the voice of My Little Pony, as she's done tons of characters in both the G3 era and Friendship is Magic.
  • Megas XLR:
    Magnanimous: AHHHH! IT HURTS! ...Oh wait, no it doesn't...
  • Molly of Denali: In "Mollyball", Trini (voiced by Vienna Leacock) suggests that there may be aliens on another planet playing basketball. Sydney is also voiced by Leacock and she hangs out with an alien (Jet) every day.
  • In both Moral Orel and High School U.S.A., Jay Johnston plays a cop (he plays multiple characters in the former). He's also played a cop in live-action tv shows like The Sarah Silverman Program and Arrested Development.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
  • Odd Job Jack: One episode's supposed guest star is none other than the voice actor of the main character who plays himself. The title character disapproves of and criticisms him and the two fight each other throughout the episode.
  • Pepper Ann: In one episode, Pepper Ann is watching a show suspiciously similar to Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series; April Winchell, who voiced PA's mother Lydia, also voiced Tanya on MD:TAS.
  • Phineas and Ferb:
    • In an episode, Candace (voiced by Ashley Tisdale) competes for a job at Mr. Slushy Burger with Wendy (voiced by Brenda Song). Both Ashley and Brenda appeared on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.
    • On another episode where Candace does a horrible job at acting in a movie her brothers made, Ferb edits the final cut resulting with a Photoshopped photo of Ashley Tisdale as a princess in a castle.
    • And in "Hawaiian Vacation", we have a Hotel Manager who tries to bust Phineas and Ferb. He is voiced by Phill Lewis, who also played Mr. Moseby on The Suite Life.
    • On the show, Ferb (voiced by Thomas Sangster) has a Precocious Crush on Vanessa (played by Olivia Olson). In Love Actually, Thomas’s character had a crush on Olivia’s character.Compare their Smooches of Victory.
    • The Halloween-themed episode "the Curse of Candace" had three in one episode:
    • In "Phineas and Ferb Save Summer," Jack McBrayer's character Irving Du Bois sings a song about wilderness safety in which he advises his audience to avoid "banjo-playing hicks."
  • When The Real Ghostbusters hear that a movie about them is being planned, they look at a press release and see that some guys named Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis are in the main roles.
  • Recess:
    • In the episode "The Dude", the main six meet Franklin Dudikoff, the school's original charismatic prankster (Like T.J.) in the '80s, who's now back to become a teacher. T.J. looks up to him like an older brother. The Dude is voiced by Joey Lawrence, who's the older brother of T.J.'s then voice actor, Andy Lawrence.
    • In Recess: School's Out, T.J.'s sister, Becky, is shown talking on the phone in one scene with her friend, Melissa. Becky's voiced by Melissa Joan Hart.
    • In Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade, Becky is voiced by Tara Strong instead of Melissa Joan Hart. In two made-for-TV movies for Sabrina the Teenage Witch, both of them star in the films: Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina, and Tara Strong as Gwen.
  • In an episode of Regular Show, an anthropomorphic hot dog is voiced by Tim Curry, known for his role as Dr. Frank-n-further in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (the original film).
  • In Rick and Morty, Morty's mother Beth is a horse surgeon voiced by Sarah Chalke, who played a doctor in Scrubs.
  • An episode of Roary the Racing Car has a racecar designer called Hugo Amarillo, apparently purely so Big Chris (voiced by Peter Kay) can say "Is this the way to Hugo Amarillo?", referring to the song he mimed to for Comic Relief.
  • Rugrats:
    Quiz show host: (voiced by Alex Trebek, of Jeopardy! fame) This automotive tool is used to tighten bolts.
    Didi: What is a torque wrench?
    Host: You're absolutely right, and Didi, you don't have to answer in a form of a question.
    • Said host's name is Alan Quebec, both rhyming with Alex’a name and punning on Alex being Canadian.
  • Sabrina: The Animated Series: Captain Jean Lafitte, voiced by Long John Baldry, shouts "I HATE Salem!" after being defeated in "This Is Your Nine Lives."note  This is nearly identical to the Once an Episode Catchphrase used by Dr. Robotnik in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, who Baldry also voiced: "I HATE that hedgehog!"
  • The Rankin/Bass Christmas special Santa, Baby! has a twofer. It features the voice of Eartha Kitt, the original performer of the song, and she voices a cat, referencing her role as Catwoman.
  • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated:
  • The Simpsons:
    • One episode titled "Brother from Another Series" starred Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer) and his brother Cecil, voiced by, you guessed it, David Hyde Pierce. One scene becomes an obvious extended reference to Frasier, down to the incidental music and sarcastic dialogue. At one point when Bart jumped on his back and yelled "Guess who!" Cecil's first guess was "Maris?" Maris was the never seen/never heard wife of Niles Crane. A later episode starred Bob, Cecil, and their father Robert, voiced by John Mahoney. One extended Couch Gag had the Simpsons running through sets from different sitcoms; they sit in the bar from Cheers (the show Frasier was a spin-off of) and Sideshow Bob walks in.
    • Another episode features Lisa plotting against Bart and cackling evilly. When Marge asks her what's so funny, she quickly covers by saying she was just thinking about a joke she saw on Herman's Head, on which Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa) starred. Conversely, Yeardley Smith's character on the show once asked if she sounded like that girl who voices Lisa Simpson.
    • In one episode Comic Book Guy says "America needs the wisdom of Hermans Head now more than ever." Comic Book Guy is voiced by Hank Azaria, who co-starred on Hermans Head.
    • Spoofed: Mark Hamill, starring in a dinner-theatre production of Guys and Dolls, is forced to adapt everything to fit his role in Star Wars, climaxing with the "Luke, Be a Jedi Tonight" musical number and a few references like "use the Forks!"
    • The episode "Lisa's Substitute", guest-starring Dustin Hoffman, features an extended sequence that comes out of nowhere in which Dustin’s character and Mrs. Krabappel do a shot-for-shot reenactment of the famous seduction scene from The Graduate. Ironically, Hoffman used a pseudonym in this appearance, so anyone who couldn't recognize his voice was probably completely mystified as to why the episode suddenly stopped dead in its tracks to do such a specific parody.
    • In the episode "Lard of the Dance", a character voiced by Lisa Kudrow says when meets Lisa: "Your name's Lisa? Shut up, I love that name!" Later, she tells her not to be such a Phoebe.
    • In the Latin-American version of The Simpsons, when Homer wants to prove that he forgot the name of Lisa's secret boyfriend, he incorrectly gives his name as "Beto Vélez". Humberto Vélez voices Homer. In another episode, when calling a photographer for an erotic photo shoot, he gives his name as "Humberto Simpson".
    • In the episode "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", Homer meets Dan Castellaneta (who's Homer's voice actor).
    Tour Guide: Oh, why look! There's Dan Castellaneta from The Tracey Ullman Show.
    Homer (leaning out of the tour guide tram) Hey, funny man! Say something funny!
    Dan Castellaneta: Please don't lean out of the tram, sir. You might get hurt.
    Homer: (childishly imitating Castelleneta) Oh, don't lean out of the tram! (Homer hits his head on a statue of Mischa Barton)
    • In the episode "Apocalypse Cow", there's a CD called Anguished Animals III, recorded by Tress MacNeille. Tress MacNeille voices many female supporting characters on The Simpsons.
    • In the episode "The Bob Next Door", Bart thinks their new neighbor is his nemesis, Sideshow Bob in disguise, because he sounds like him. Homer and Marge tell him that lot of people sound like Sideshow Bob, like "Frasier on Cheers, Frasier on Frasier, and Lt. Cmdr. Tom Dodge in Down Periscope." Those roles were played by Kelsey Grammer, the voice of Sideshow Bob.
    • Combined with a Take That! in a scene in which Fat Tony (Joe Mantegna) becomes emotional and says "I haven't cried this much since I paid to see Godfather III" (that movie being a favorite punching bag on The Simpsons.) The Godfather Part III co-stars Joe Mantegna as Joey Zasa.
    • When Rodney Dangerfield voiced Mr. Burns' son Larry, he echoed his "I don't get no respect" catchphrase with "I tell ya, I don't get no regard. No regard at all. No esteem, either."
    • In "Mypods and Boomsticks", Homer has a dream sequence where he meets up with the Genie from Aladdin who, like Homer, is voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He previously voiced Genie in Aladdin: The Return of Jafar and Aladdin: The Series.
      • A similar and rather unusual example in the episode "Special Edna", in which Dan plays an expy of John Keating. Genie and John were both played by Robin Williams originally.
    • In "Homer's Enemy", Marge wants a vanity license plate, but Marge, Margery and Mitzi are taken. When the clerk mentions 'Nancy' is available, the camera focuses on Bart who leaves. Bart is voiced by "Nancy" Cartwright.
      • Also, one of the things Bart writes on the chalkboard during the opening was "I am not a 32 year old woman", when Nancy Cartwright was 32.
    • The Canadian French dub frequently makes references to the voice actors from that dub. One such example is in "Mr. Plow". When Troy McClure mentions that Krusty's "inspiring battle with Percodan addiction" will be the subject of a movie of the week, Krusty adds that he'll be played by Jimmy Smits in that movie. In the dub, he instead says that he'll be played by Marc Labrèche, who voiced Krusty during the first 18 seasons of the show.
  • In an episode of the short-lived series Sit Down, Shut Up, after hearing hot science teacher Miracle Groh sing, bisexual drama teacher Andrew comments "you sound good enough to be in Wicked". Miracle's voice actor is Kristen Chenoweth, who was indeed in said play. (Seconds later, Miracle because of her character, reveals she has never heard of either Wicked or The Wizard of Oz.)
  • The Smurfs:
    • Not the first time both Paul Winchell and Don Messick worked together as an owner and his pet.
    • Don Messick voiced three other cats before Azrael, named Ruff, Sebastian and Spot.
    • Before Miner Smurf, Alan Young provided a Scottish accent to David Filby and Wilbur Post’s father.
    • In the episode "The Masked Pie Smurfer", Papa tries to solve the identity of the titular Masked Pie Smurfer. Not only are both Scooby-Doo and Papa voiced by Don Messick, but Hefty’s voiced by Fred Jones himself.
    • During 'The Crooner Smurf,' Harmony gains the ability to sing like a professional. In actuality, Hamilton Camp was a songwriter/musician.
    • If Henry Polic II provided the voice of Tracker, who plays the role of a guard in “The Adventures of Robin Smurf,” then Henry had worked in a Robin Hood production before as the Sheriff of Nottingham alongside Dick Gautier, the voice of Wooly Smurf as well as additional voices, who played the titular outlaw.
      • Dutch film director and voice actor Arnold Gelderman, the Netherlands' dubbed voice for Jokey, played said outlaw in the Disney version of the folklore.
        Likewise, Brainy's and Clumsy's French dubbed voice actor, Francis Lax, and Hefty's French dubbed voice actor, Albert Augier, provided the voices of Nutsy and Trigger, the two vultures.
    • Gargamel brings Jokey’s caricature dummy of said wizard to life to cause havoc in Smurf Village, and Paul Winchell voiced the dummy. Paul was a ventriloquist star in 1950s and 1960s television and films.
    • Ray Walston, who was the voice of Scruple's teacher in "The Enchanted Quill", was also Jeff Spicoli's teacher in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
    • Farmer Smurf's voice actor, Alan Young, played a farmer before in 1952 movie Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick as titular Aaron Crick. Farmer even refers to himself as a 'country bumpkin' in one episode!
  • Whenever the children of South Park visited Chef's home, there was a photograph of Isaac Hayes on the wall. Issac provided the voice of Chef.
  • In the '90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Ed Asner played the voice of Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson. This isn't his first role as a news editor; his best-known role was that of Lou Grant in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, head of a TV news program. In his own spin-off series Lou became a newspaper editor.
    • He later voiced the editor of The Springfield Shopper on The Simpsons.
  • This exchange from Sonic Boom:
    Sonic: Coming in for a hard landing, Tails. You got me covered?
    Tails: Roger.
    Knuckles: Who's Roger?
    Sonic: He's talking to me.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • "Whirly Brains" sees a temporarily brainless Patrick say "M-O-O-N. That spells moon!" This just happens to more or less be the catchphrase of Tom Cullen in The Stand, and just who do you suppose played Tom in the 1994 miniseries adaptation of the book?
    • In the German dub, Mr. Krabs is played by Jürgen Kluckert. In "Born Again Krabs", when the Flying Dutchman comes for Mr. Krabs' soul, Krabs gives the hasty alias of "Benjamin Blümchen", a nod to Jürgen‘s role as the voice of the German children's cartoon character of the same name.
  • In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Obi-Wan's love interest is the Duchess Satine. Ewan McGregor played Obi-Wan in the Star Wars prequels as well as the male lead in Moulin Rouge!. His character's love interest was named Satine.

    • Mother Talzin, leader of the Nightsister clan of witches, is voiced by Barbara Goodson, best known as the other space witch Rita Repulsa.
  • Steven Universe:
    • In Steven's Birthday, Garnet and Greg are looking through the latter's album collection for music to play. Greg pulls out a "Stella" album with a very familiar cover.◊ Garnet, voiced by Estelle, is not amused.
    • Steven Universe: The Movie introduces Steg, a fusion of Steven and Greg, who gets a duet with Pearl and Amethyst's fusion, Opal. Their respective voice actors, Ted Leo and Aimee Mann, form the rock duo The Both.
  • In Tamagotchi Video Adventures, Mimitchi and Potitchi playing the parts of Ren and Stimpy in a screenless television set is alluding to their voice actor, Billy West, also voicing Ren and Stimpy themselves.
  • Teen Titans:
    • Beast Boy talks in stereotypical surfer lingo and won't touch meat. His VA, Greg Cipes, is a professional surfer, and has lived on a vegan diet since he was a kid. Also, "You're just jealous 'cause I sound like a rock star."
    • Titans villain Mad Mod (voiced by Malcolm McDowell) claims that nothing teaches discipline and respect like brain-erasing drugs. Not to mention at one point he has mechanical chairs that hold your eyes open.
    • The witch character Mother Mae-Eye is voiced by Billy Hayes, who also played a witch in H.R. Pufnstuf.
  • In Teen Titans Go!, Raven is revealed to be a fan of the TV show "Pretty Pretty Pegasus". Her voice actress also happens to be the star of the show it's based on. At the end of the first episode, it's revealed that Robin is openly a fan, as well. His voice actor voiced Danny, the human boy, back in generation 1.
  • Another Lord of the Rings allusion is present in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "Turtle Temper", where Raphael (voiced by Sean Astin) is told to go home by Leonardo after letting his temper get the better of him when the guy they saved calls them 'Kung-Fu Frogs', then shows up to save his brothers from Spider Bytez.
  • In ThunderCats (2011), Claudus (voiced by Larry Kenney, the original Lion-O) announces that he'll show his son Lion-O what the Sword of Omens is capable of in the proper hands. Old Retainer Jaga makes reference to how much like his son Claudus was in youth. Later, he gets to yell out "ThunderCats, HO!" one last time.
  • In a Tiny Toon Adventures episode formatted like Saturday Night Live, Tress MacNeille voices Bart Simpson-Expy guest host. In another episode, she voices Babs imitating Bart, Marge and Maggie. Tress voices many characters on The Simpsons.
  • The bumper for the last broadcast of Toonami's original run has TOM delivering a closing monologue and flying away, and while he's in the distance he says "Bang". This was a line said by Spike Speigel multiple times and was his last line in the series. Both are voiced by Steve Blum.
  • Transformers Animated:
    • Sentinel physically resembles The Tick in both his blue color and huge chin. They have Townsend Coleman as a voice actor. The creators have confirmed that they had this in mind when designing Sentinel once they found out Townsend was cast. It's also been lampshaded a time or two, like when Sentinel has the line of "Energon-y goodness", referencing the Tick's odd manners of speech.
    • When Ratchet says Wreck-Gar wouldn't dare do something really, really moronic, he replied "I am Wreck-Gar. I dare to be stupid!", referencing his voice actor "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Dare to be Stupid". This also counts as a Mythology Gag as it was the Junkions' theme (the Junkions being lead by Wreck-Gar) in the G1 movie. Another happens in "Human Error, Part 2", where he briefly tries to fight Soundwave with an accordion, an instrument Weird Al often uses.
    • A script-reading for Animated called "Bee in the City" actually had four:
      • Beast Wars Megatron taking Sari's key and declaring that he has a big boost of confidence, referencing the Enzyte commercials that David Kaye narrates.
      • Optimus Prime (also David Kaye) saying waiting in a line took longer than an Inuyasha story arc, which is punctuated with a fist pump. David had a recurring role on Inuyasha as Sesshomaru.
      • Bumblebee saying "My manwich!", a line Bumper Robinson previously said as Dwight Conrad in Futurama.
      • Isaac Sumdac calling Sari "The joy and the laughter", referencing Tara Strong's previous role as Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls.
    • In the final season finale, Optimus dons a new jetpack in order to fly and be able to fight Decepticons more evenly. Upon takeoff he shouts Excellent!! YEEEESSSSS!!, two words frequently pronounced by the Beast Wars Megatron. Both were voiced by David Kaye.
    • Two toys based on Transformers Cybertron had Optimus Prime and Megatron temporarily turn into a gorilla and a Tyrannosaurus rex while still on the Jungle Planet according to their toy bios.
  • The TRON: Uprising episode "Price of Power" has Beck (voiced by Elijah Wood) being slowly driven mad by a ring-shaped item which grants him incredible power, and which he must destroy through very hot means.
  • In-universe example at the end of Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie: When Khalil appears and asks who needed a tow, Twippo says "Uh...have we met?" This was because Archibald was Jonah and Twippo in the film and Jonah meets Khalil in the Jonah story in the film.
  • The Venture Bros. featured Batman: The Animated Series voice actor Kevin Conroy as an avenging superhero mourning his dead sidekick. His reputation with teen sidekicks is suspect at best.
  • In the TV series Watership Down, the main antagonist General Woundwort is voiced by John Hurt who also voiced the main protagonist Hazel in the 1978 feature film of the same name.
    • In said film, Michael Graham Cox voiced Bigwig. The pair of John Hurt and Michael Graham Cox voiced two certain other characters that year who share a strikingly similar dynamic; Aragorn and Boromir in The Lord of the Rings. John Hurt voices the born leader whereas Michael voices the stubborn and slightly envious subordinate with greater physical prowess.
  • Tino of The Weekenders is voiced by Jason Marsden, who, in addition to being an accomplished voice-over actor, also served as an announcer on Disney Channel for a number of years. The episode "Careers" has this dialogue:
    Tino: Well this is right on target! My number one career is announcer.
    Lor: But you don't even like sports that much.
    Tino: No, it doesn't say sports announcer. I'm thinking like one of those guys on TV. (doing an announcer impression) "Up next, a very special Teen Canyon", or "Tonight on Action Flash News: Are your socks killing you?" (switches to a high-pitched voice) Or maybe I could do cartoon voices.
  • Captain Neweyes's last line in We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story is "And that's the way it is," referencing how his voice actor Cronkite signed off his newscasts back in the day.
  • Adam West practically made a new career out of this. On an episode of Batman: The Animated Series he voiced a washed-up has-been actor whose most famous role was playing a superhero in a television show. Later on, he voiced Mayor Grange in The Batman, and appeared in Lois & Clark. He had a steady role as Mayor Adam West of Family Guy. (Yes, the names are the same and he's insane, but there doesn't seem to be an actual connection to Batman.) Adam West also appeared in Johnny Bravo a few times.
    • As a bonus, a handful of minor roles, including some mention above, involved some parody of Batman (for example, Catman from The Fairly OddParents).
  • A bit of an inversion in W.I.T.C.H.: during a scene in the second-season episode "L is for Loser", the girls wonder aloud why the Knights of Destruction have been able to feed off of their negative emotions, and why Cornelia hasn't been affected. Cornelia responds matter-of-factly with "I'm the only one here who's not starring in a soap opera". Her voice actress, Christel Khalil, plays Lily on The Young and the Restless, and is the only one of the five main voice actresses who is in fact starring in a soap opera. The girls lampshade this by saying "This week".
  • Minor villain Black Spider from Young Justice (2010) is played by Josh Keaton, who played another wisecracking person with arachnid themed powers in a Greg Weisman production.
    • In-Universe example: Beast Boy’s mother was the star of a short-lived cult sitcom when she was a teenager. Years later, Beast Boy becomes the star of a Star Trek clone, and the actor who played his mom’s boyfriend is cast as The Captain to highlight their characters’ quasi father-son relationship.

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