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Always Introduces Themselves

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Harriet Jones: [flashes ID] Harriet Jones, Prime Minister.
Multiple Other Characters: Yes, I know who you are.

Some characters are famous for always introducing who they are, whether it's a stock introduction whenever they meet someone new, or an unnecessary introduction to people they're already familiar with. These introductions may be done so often that they become a catchphrase.

This trope can be played one of two ways:

  • A person always meets a lot of new and different people. It could be part of their line of work, or they're just very friendly and outgoing. Therefore, they would need to introduce themselves often, and become known for that.

  • A person is famous and well-known, or at the very least is known to everybody in the room, but that doesn't stop them from needing to introduce themselves every time they appear. Maybe it's because they're insecure, or maybe they have a huge ego. Either way, they subject others to unnecessary introductions.

This trope could also apply to people who are forgotten by everyone, due to a lack of personality or, in some genres, being the victim of a curse. Therefore, they need to constantly tell people who they are because no one remembers them.

Compare Incoming Ham.


Examples:

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    Anime 
  • Bleach: Ichigo has a habit of frequently shouting some variation of “Ichigo Kurosaki, Substitute Shinigami!” to friends and foes alike.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • Ash Ketchum and his friends introduce themselves to someone new in almost every episode. It makes sense as they're usually Walking the Earth and rarely come across anyone who already knows who they are.
    • The Team Rocket motto, which used to be repeated by the trio in every appearance, included their names at the end.
      "Prepare for trouble, and make it double. To protect the world from devastation, to unite all peoples within our nation, to denounce the evils of truth and love, to extend our reach from the stars above. Jesse! James! Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light! Surrender now, or prepare to fight! Meowth, that's right!"

    Comic Strips 
  • While Johnny Hart drew the newspaper strip B.C., an occasional character was the apteryx, who always pointedly introduced himself thusly: "Hi, I'm an apteryx, a large flightless bird with hairy feathers." This intro has faded from use once Johnny's grandson, Mason Mastroianni, took the reins of the syndicated strip.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) exaggerates this with Groot. The only thing he ever says is "I am Groot." until he sacrifices himself to save the others when he says "We are Groot." However, he says it with different inflections and tones so it's possible to get a vague idea of what he's trying to say.
  • The phrase "The name's Bond... James Bond", uttered at least once per film as the character is constantly having to introduce himself, has become one of the most iconic parts of the franchise, is perhaps the phrase most associated with Bond himself, and has been quoted and parodied too many times to count. It even resulted in its own trope: The Name Is Bond, James Bond.
  • Star Wars: "My name is C-3P0, Human-Cyborg Relations (and this is my counterpart R2-D2)."

    Live-Action TV 
  • Doctor Who: Harriet Jones was originally an MP from a remote, obscure constituency, so she developed a habit of introducing herself by flashing her ID card and saying "Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North". It became a Running Gag when she kept it up even after becoming Prime Minister. The standard response was "Yes, I/we know who you are."
  • A recurring sketch on The Fast Show featured a stereotypically handsome, toothy American TV host saying "Hi! I'm Ed Winchester!" to camera in different locations. End of sketch.
  • The Golden Girls: Dorothy's ex-husband Stan always says "Hi, it's me, Stan" whenever he drops in on the girls, despite all of them (especially Dorothy) knowing who he is.
  • Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide: Claire Sawyer, "Future Lawyer", always introduces herself in this manner. Her friends always respond with "Claire, we've known you since pre-K".
  • Newhart: Larry would always introduce himself and his two brothers Darryl and Darryl whenever they came by the Stratford Inn.
  • The Office gives us Bob Vance, of Vance Refrigeration. (It is implied that he only does this for the benefit of the documentary cameras.)
    Ryan: What line of work are you in, Bob?
  • Saturday Night Live: In the "Brian Fellows' Safari Planet" sketches, Brian Fellows (played by Tracy Morgan) would always say "I'm Brian Fellows!" after his guests introduced themselves.
  • During his Sesame Street days, it was typical to hear, "Hi ho! Kermit the Frog here."
  • Shake it Up: Gunther and Tinka always feel the need to loudly introduce their presence, despite everyone knowing them and having been in their class since first grade.
  • On Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ambassador Lwaxana Troi always introduces herself as "Lwaxana Troi, Daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed".
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Liquidator Brunt of the Ferengi Commerce Authority always marks his arrival with a smug "Brunt, F.C.A.".
  • On Ted Lasso, Trent Crimm, with The Independent, always introduces himself as "Trint Crimm, The Independent", when he asks a question at one of the team's press conferences. Until he quits. Then he's "Trent Crimm, independent".

    Music 
  • Eminem's Slim Shady character has numerous songs where he announces what his name is (often saying 'hi!' in a distinctive inflection and/or making disc scratching sounds with his voice), like "Any Man", "My Name Is", "I'm Shady", "Just Don't Give A Fuck", "The Real Slim Shady", "I'm Back", "Marshall Mathers", "Rain Man", "Hello", "Marsh", and numerous others.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Enzo Amore during his WWE tenure, introducing himself, Big Cass, and Carmella:
    "My name is Enzo Amore, and I am a certified G and a bonafide stud! And you can't teach that! And this right here?! This is Big Cass, and he's seven foot tall! And you can't teach that! And this right here?! This is Carmella, and she's hot as hell! And you can't teach that! Bada-boom! Realest guy/guys in the room! How you doin'..?!"
  • Elias (formerly Elias Samson) always introduces himself with *Guitar riff* "Hello, I am Elias, and I have one question for all of you: WHO WANTS TO WALK WITH ELIAS?"
  • Ric Flair, the "limousine-ridin', jet-flyin', kiss-stealin', wheelin'-dealin' son of a gun".
  • Zack Gibson always starts his promos with "I am Zack Gibson, Liverpool's number one! Soooooon to be recognized as <promotion>'s number one! Soooooon to be recognized as UK's number one! Sooooooon to be recognized as the world's number one!"
  • Paul Heyman always introduces himself with "Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman".
  • Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson always starts his promos with "Finally, The Rock has come back to <city>!". Less frequently, he introduces himself as "The Great One, the most electrifying man in sports entertainment" and "the jabroni-beatin', pie-eatin', Hell-raisin'/Eyebrow-raisin', trailblazin', (...) people's champion"
  • John Laurinaitis, during his time as Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live general manager, always introduced himself as "Executive Vice-President of Talent Relations and General Manager of Raw and Smackdown".
  • John Morrison, during his tenure in WWE as a Jim Morrison expy: "Hello/Hi, I'm John Morrison, and <insert rambling here>".
  • The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn and Road Dogg), during their time with D-Generation X, would introduce themselves with this paragraph:
    "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, D-Generation X is proud to present the current/future and (previous reigns)-time TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD... THE ROAD DOGG JESSE JAMES, THE BAD ASS BILLY GUNN, THE NEW! AGE! OUTLAWS!"
  • The New Day has their introduction screamed by Big E.:
    "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWW <city>! DON'T YOU DARE BE SOUR! CLAP FOR YOUR LONGEST REIGNING <time>-TIME CHAMPS AND FEEL THE POWER!"note 

    Video Games 
  • Regularly heard Once per Episode in the Remedy Connected Universe: "My name is Alan Wake. I'm a writer."
  • In Kingdom Hearts, Sora always introduces himself, Donald and Goofy when meeting people, in that order whenever they meet someone new.
  • Kirby: Planet Robobot: Susie does this whenever she or one of her robotic creations is about to have a boss battle with you, and on all occasions she's doing it to the same character (Kirby). Whether this is because she doubts his intelligence or because she's genuinely uncertain he'll remember her is unknown.
  • In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Daisy says "Hi I'm Daisy" every time you swap her to the back of your kart, meaning she will likely use this line multiple times a race.
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Played straight with Rourke, who always introduces himself by name and rank each time he issues new orders to his subordinates, via comlink. Every message begins with: "This is Commander Rourke..."
  • Sonic the Hedgehog usually has a habit of saying, "I'm Sonic—Sonic the Hedgehog!" whenever he comes across someone new.
  • Exaggerated with the Chucksters in Super Mario Sunshine, who say only one line on repeat the entire game - "I'm a Chuckster".

    Web Video 
  • During his limited tenure on Campaign One of Critical Role, Tiberius Stormwind would always introduce himself with "(Greetings and salutations!) I am Tiberius Stormwind from Draconia!"
  • The Nostalgia Critic: The opening line of nearly every video is "Hello, I'm the Nostalgia Critic, I remember it so you don't have to."
  • In Sword Art Online Abridged, Klein apparently has introduced himself so often to people he meets that his guild believe the phrase "His name is Klein!" is how he greets people. He only does this because his account name is BallsDeep69, an account he made to mess around and learn the mechanics of the game before he made his main.
  • In The Muppets web series Statler & Waldorf: From the Balcony, Hollywood reporter Ted Thomas has the catchphrase "I'm Ted Thomas!" which he not only says at the start and end of his reports, but whenever he can't think of anything else to say.

    Western Animation 
  • Darkwing Duck would always introduce himself beginning with "I am the terror that flaps in the night!" followed by another chilling, yet humorous, introduction that would change each time, then ending with "I am Darkwing Duck!"
  • Webby from DuckTales (2017) always greets new people with "Hi! I'm Webby."
  • The Fairly OddParents! has Doug Dimmadome ("owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome").
  • Looney Tunes: In three of his encounters with Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote would introduce himself (twice to Bugs and once to us).
  • In Our Cartoon President, Ted Cruz always yells his name whenever he shows up.
  • Rocky and Bullwinkle: Boris usually says "Allow me to introduce myself" when appearing before our heroes in disguise.
  • In The Simpsons, Troy McClure always introduces himself with "Hi! I'm Troy McClure," followed by a list of movies people might remember him from.
  • TaleSpin: Colonel Spigot of Thembria would always introduce himself upon arrival, followed by "Perhaps you've heard of me?"
  • Wreck-Gar of Transformers: Animated. "I am Wreck-Gar! I/I'm [insert random action or noun]!"

    Real Life 
  • In the United States, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 required that political ads (which play repeatedly during the campaign season) contained a message from the candidate along the lines of "I'm <insert candidate name> and I Approved This Message."


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