Basic Trope: A time traveller visiting the past introduces himself with an alias taken from pop culture.
- Straight: Bob Longstone is stuck in the 1800s. He introduces himself to a passerby as "Tom Sawyer".
- Exaggerated: Bob Longstone introduces himself as "President Abraham Lincoln, freer of the slaves".
- Downplayed: The name is generic enough that it really isn't that noticeable — Bob introduces himself as "Tom Jones".
- Justified:
- Bob needs to rendezvous with another time traveller, so he chooses an alias that will tip off his target but nobody else.
- Bob needed to give a false name, and that was the first name that came to mind.
- Inverted:
- A famous historical figure is trapped in the future, and introduces himself with a generic name.
- Bob is stuck in the 2800s. He introduces himself to a passerby as Don Quixote.
- Subverted:
- Bob introduces himself as Tom Sawyer, and the person he's talking to snarks at how ridiculous that name is. Bob blusters and admits it was a fake name.
- A time-traveller introduces himself as Tom Sawyer. It's actually his real name.
- Double Subverted: ...and gives his "real" name as Rhett Butler.
- Parodied: Bob panics and identifies himself as Luke Skywalker, but the local looks confused and mentions that he had already spoken to ten strange men that day who introduced themselves as such. It transpires that Bob is one of many people stuck in the past.
- Zig Zagged: Bob gives the name of a contemporary historical icon his friends always say he looks like. However, the local says that he's never heard the name before. Turns out the icon is famous, just not in this part of the world.
- Averted: Bob gives a generic alias, or doesn't bother with aliases at all.
- Enforced: "Hey, wouldn't it be neat if when people time-travelled they used names like 'Steve Irwin?'"
- Lampshaded: "Yeah, I read that book just yesterday. Anyway, what's your REAL name?"
- Invoked: Bob scours obscure TV shows from his time and rolls a syllable from nine or ten protagonists' names into a singular name whose constituent parts no one could tell.
- Exploited: Bob identifies himself as a famous person who the local has heard of and becomes mistaken for that figure. This leads into a new plotline.
- Defied: Bob knows a number of pop-cultural icons, but discounts them all on the basis that no one will believe it's a legitimate name and picks an entirely appropriate alias for his time and place.
- Discussed: "Yeah, you know, a lot of people seem to have that name. Is 'Sawyer' a middle name?"
- Conversed: "Using those names that aren't yet household, good ol' Bob Longstone is bound to find himself committed by the end of the season."
- Deconstructed: Bob unknowingly introduces himself as Tom Sawyer to Mark Twain's future great-aunt. Mark Twain himself goes through his family photo album ages later and finds out about the man who for some mysterious reason has the exact same name as the protagonist of his recently published novel. Twain goes insane, gives up writing, and becomes an antisocial recluse.
- Reconstructed: Bob unknowingly introduces himself to Mark Twain as Tom Sawyer. Twain likes the name and asks to use it in a book he's writing. And the rest is history.
Back to I'm Mr. [Future Pop Culture Reference], Monsieur Jean-Luc?
