WebVideo.Mic The Snare: In The Maroon 5 Deep Discog Dive, when discussing "Out of Goodbyes" (a duet with Lady A), Mic refers to Lady A as "Lady formerly known as Antebellum", an allusion to their old name.In the Stem Player episode, Mic refers to Kanye West as "The Artist Formerly Known as Kanye West", a reference to him changing his legal name to Ye. Mic also does this, appropriately, in the Prince Deep Discog Dive, calling it "the series formerly known as the Deep Discog Dive" and changing the name to an unpronounceable symbol.
VideoGame.Discworld MUD: A quest in Genua involves a parody of this, where the player sleeps and dreams of a prince that turns into a frog after he's kissed.
WesternAnimation.House Of Mouse: Donald temporarily goes as The Duck Formerly Known As Donald in "The Three Caballeros". The whole incident inspired Mickey to close out the episode as "The Mouse Currently Known As Mickey". In another episode, Pete performs on stage and is referred to as "The Villain Formerly Known As Peg-Leg Pete."
VideoGame.Fallen London: According to a sidebar blurb, at some point the Bazaar attempted to force the London Magazine to change its name. In defiance, the magazine changed its name to The Magazine Formerly Known As The London Magazine.
FamousLastWords.Rooster Teeth: "Ray's Heist": "I can't shoot the chopper; it's- it's on the other side, Jack!" Ryan (James) "Get in the cargobob!" Geoff (Lazer) "Oh no! I'm jumping! I'm jumping! Ahhhh! Ahhhh!" Jack (Shannon) "Michael, boi! AHHHHH! AHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHH!" Gavin (David) "I'm taking as many fucking cops with me as I can! YOU'RE COMING WITH ME, MOTHERFUCKERS! Oh, I'm out of explosives!" Michael (Vincent) "All right, plan is: blow it open, take the money, back to limo. It's- oh, God!" Ray (TAFKAR)
WMG.Todd In The Shadows Trainwreckords Deconfirmed Albums: Come: This was a breaking point in Prince's career, suffering from an incredibly Troubled Production as he experimented with several different concepts along the way but was unable to settle upon a coherent vision due to infighting with his label. Not only was it a critical and commercial flop upon release, but it also dropped around the time Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable "Love Symbol" to spite Warner, which suddenly made him look like a giant egomaniac. The album's reception remains poor today, being seen as emblematic of how ugly the Prince/Warner feud got.
Characters.Ru Pauls Drag Race UK Vs The World Series 1: On all her prior seasons and even at the start of this one she was known as Monique Heart. She decides to change it to "Mo Heart" during UK vs. The World to release the "butch man" in her and change to a more gender-neutral name.
Funny.Prince: Prince on Muppets Tonight. Right to even a joke regarding The Trope Formerly Known as X. He even writes a song about food! Twice. And even early on, Prince is detailed by Bobo: Bobo: And your name is? Prince: (Looks at the camera) This will be fun. When Bobo still won't check the list for his name: JUST CHECK THE LIST, FOOL! Prince dressed as a farmer. With a southern accent.
AerithAndBob.Live Action TV: Key & Peele's "East/West Bowl" skits is chiefly a Long List of fictional American football players with a Ghetto Name. The first skit in particular showcases this trope the best, as it starts with names like D'Marcus Willums and Tyroil Smoochie-Wallace before becoming increasingly absurd and ridiculous to names like Shakiraquan T.G.I.F. Carter, Donkey Teeth, and (The player formerly known as Mousecop), before ending with...Dan Smith.
Characters.Formula 1 Drive To Survive: Before assuming their new identity as Red Bull's feeder team they raced as Minardi, a team that has gained notoriety as a plucky underdog in the late 90s and early 2000s; despite their perpetual backmarker status, they still gained a lot of sympathy for their great management, friendly atmosphere and ability to constantly participate in races in spite of having a ridiculously shoestring budget. After being sold to Red Bull in 2006 they changed their name to Toro Rosso - which literally translates to Red Bull in Italian. In 2020 they were renamed again as AlphaTauri to help promote Red Bull's burgeoning fashion brand.
AndTheFandomRejoiced.Western Animation: Britt also said there's going to be new merchandise for the series as well. Also, one of the possible networks Mumfie could air on is the channel formerly known as The Hub but now known as Discovery Family!A Mumfie remake has been announced? That's cool, but-IT'S BEING MADE BY ZODIAK KIDS, THE STUDIO BEHIND Totally Spies! AND OTHER MARATHON MEDIA SHOWS? AWESOME! Even better- The executive producer behind season 18 of Thomas as well as The Adventure Begins, is working on it. Looks like a preview is up, and it already doesn't look good, considering Scarecrow isn't in it and it's an All-CGI Cartoon-wait, an octopus that assists Mumfie and Pinkey with cooking skills and a smartphone? The characters all have British accents now? Whale finally gets a name? The premise is about Mumfie traveling the world? This actually looks cool!
YMMV.Disney Theme Parks: On fan forums, Disney's Hollywood Studios tends to be referred to as "The Park Formerly Known As Disney-MGM Studios", or "TPFKAD-MGMS" as a gag of sorts. More likely, however, fans will refer to the park as either "MGM Studios" or just "MGM", although at least some fans will call the park "The Studios".
Series.Roundhouse: The Trope Namer (Prince) is parodied in the Cinderella episode, where the Prince Charming is represented by Prince - they at first refer to him as "the singer formerly known as Prince but now represented by this symbol" (holds up a sign with the Prince symbol while a riff plays in the background) but later on they just hold up the sign with the riff playing.Earlier on, in the new baby episode, the top story on Entertainment, Yeah Right is of other celebrities capitalizing on Prince's name change, such as Sylvester Stallone changing his name to the periodic symbol for iridium - the densest of all the elements.
Website.Not Always Healthy: This family all agree that their dog no longer has her shelter name of Princess, but they all have a different name for her, and in the ensuing argument they come up with three more. So the vet's assistant notes the name as "The Dog Formerly Known as Princess".
Film.Garfield: When the animals of the Carlisle estate first encounter Garfield, who's masquerading as Prince: "Obviously that cat is not Prince." "He's not even the cat formerly known as Prince."
WesternAnimation.Shrek 2: During Far Far Away Idol Prince Charming sings "I'm So Sexy" in a matter so bad he is ejected from the stage. Simon remarks "That was the Artist Formerly Known as Prince Charming!"
Literature.Star Island: The narrator refers to Cherry Pye throughout the novel as "the former Cheryl Bunterman", simply because she hates her birth name and refuses to answer to it. She is not referred to as "Cheryl Gail Bunterman" in the present tense until the epilogue, after her music career has crashed for the final time and she is forced back into drug rehab. Played with in the following exchange between Maury and Cherry: Maury: You blow this tour, say adios to the good stuff. Because Cherry Pye as a brand is over, understand? Done. Cherry: Awesome! 'Cause from now on I'm gonna be called Cherish. Maury: How about "Bankrupt"? You like that name? The Artist Formerly Known as Solvent.
Film.Monty Python And The Holy Grail: When the Knights Who Say "Ni" become the Knights Who Say "Ekke Ekke Ekke Ekke P'tang Zoom-Boing Rlrlrlrl" (Ni!), Arthur finds himself unable to remember this and resorts to calling them the Knights Who Til Recently Said "Ni".
FanNickname.Music: The Artist, TAFKAP - Prince; during the period where he changed his stage name to an (intentionally unpronouncable) symbol because his old record label held the rights to "Prince", the media and fans eventually settled for referring to him as "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince".
Series.Key And Peele: The whole show runs on this (mostly of the "Let's see how far we can ramp up the insanity" variety, but they do dabble in the "Let's make light of something serious" variety of Refuge in Audacity), but nowhere more than the East/West Bowl sketch. And it's just a list of names. It starts with comparatively reasonable names like "D'Marcus Williumz", "T.J. Juckson", and "Ibrahim Moizoos", and gets to unbridled insanity like "X-Wing @Aliciousness", "T.J. A.J. R.J. Backslashinfourth V", "EEEEE EEEEEEEEE", "Torque [Construction Noise] Lewith", "[The Player Formerly Known as Mousecop]", and "Dan Smith from BYU". The 2013 season is even more ridiculous. There's names like Morse Code spoken in Morse Code, Harvard University,note from DeVry University Fudgenote just Fudge, no college, Firstname Lastnamenote from College University,Benedict Cumberbatch, Jammie Jammie-Jammie, A.A. Ron Balakay...
FanDisservice.Music: The cover to Dangerous Toys' The R*tist 4*merly Known As Dangerous Toys: To go with the "The Trope Formerly Known as X" album title, they made the album cover a take-off on a Prince album starring their Metal Band Mascot. Their mascot is a Monster Clown and the album they chose to parody was Lovesexy, so the cover involves a naked monster clown.
Webcomic.Dissonance: James named the revived mouse "Lazarus", or "Lars" for short, because "the mouse formerly known as mangled carcass" would be too long.
Music.The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing: Following a lawsuit by EMI Records, the album Now That's What I Call Steampunk! was retitled The Steampunk Album That Cannot Be Named for Legal Reasons.
Radio.Im Sorry I Havent A Clue: In S25E04, "The artist formerly known as Prince" was the subject for a round of "Limerick" which, in five lines, managed to work in just about everything that was ludicrous about the situation. The Artist Formerly Known As Prince; On stage he would waddle, and mince. Then just for a giggle, Changed his name to a squiggle, And nobody's heard from him since.
Wrestling.Goldust: The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust, a period where he was managed by Luna Vachon and most known for wearing disturbing outfits.
Music.Lady Baby: A rare played-straight example. As noted in the introduction, after Ladybeard left the group, Rie and Rei opted to continue as a duo. For whatever reason, legal or personal, they chose to call themselves "The Idol Formerly Known As Ladybaby". Yes, 'Idol' singular. Evidently, this was just as annoying a mouthful for Rie as it was for the fans, so she changed the name back in 2018, though the group got a new logo. Fans joked that Rie's new lineup ought to have been called "The Idol Formerly Known As The Idol Formerly Known As Ladybaby".After Beard and then Rei left, some of the weirdness remained. Even by underground Idol standards, very little about Ladybaby follows the "rules" of the scene. Fuka, the only one of the three new members to have an Idol background, said she found Ladybaby's nearly "anti-Idol" aesthetic a refreshing change of pace and was happy Ladybaby allowed her to "discover another side of [her]self".
Animorphs.Tropes Q To Z: Ax always calls the leader of the group Prince Jake. (Ax is an Andalite, and 'Prince' is a military title.) During one issue where only the pair of them were left, Jake tells Ax that there aren't enough people around, so he should be called The Jake Formerly Known As Prince. Later, when the group is back together, the two go through their Running Gag ("Don't call me Prince." "Yes, Prince Jake") and Ax says, instead, "I will call you The Jake Formerly Known As Prince." Marco: Now he's telling jokes. Bad, bad jokes. When Rachel tests Marco by saying "You know you're a toad, right?" his answer is: Marco: Kiss me and I'll become a prince. I'll be the Prince Formerly Known As Toad. You know you want me. You can't help it. After all, you're female, and I'm... well, I'm me.
Funny.Beyond The Outer Gate Lies: Harry refers to Archangel Michael as "the angel formerly known as the Prince of the Hosts" during the Kuoh Conference. Only Sirzechs realized that he mixed the title "Prince of the Heavenly Host" and a reference to "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" and almost started to laugh, but Grayfia prevented him from breaking protocol by discreetly pinching him.
TheOrderOfTheStick.Tropes S To U: Among the suggested In-Series Nicknames for a vampire is "The Corpse Formerly Known as Durkon."
BetterThanItSounds.Music: Prince: A short guy from the Midwest writes and performs songs about sex in a falsetto voice all the while wearing feminine outfits. Later changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, forcing the media to resort to referring to him by an extremely long name. Prince's Associates: Same guy releases songs with different lead singers while not crediting himself anywhere on the record.
Recap.The Simpsons S 6 E 19 Lisas Wedding: Featured on Kent Brockman's list of arrested celebrities are "The Artist Formerly Known as (Love Symbol #2)" and "The Artist Formerly Known as Buddy Hackett".
Literature.Unseen Academicals: Vetinari repeatedly refers to the former Dean and current Archchancellor of Brazeneck University as "Archchancellor formerly known as Dean" in the gathering that happens halfway into the book. Later the narration starts using this form of address as well.
YMMV.Prince: Memetic Mutation: Prince's symbol name caused him to be referred to as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, as it had no defined pronunciation. The name became universally mocked.The opening dialogue to "Computer Blue" – as well as many lines from Purple Rain – are prized by Prince fans. When the Revolution actually reunited for a one-off Purple Rain-centric performance, they catered to this by including a full section of fan-favourite dialogue - which included Brownmark's non-verbal Aside Glance at his wristwatch from the practice scene. Even though it came from Dave Chappelle and Charlie Murphy's classic skit about The Purple One being great at basketball, this quote will forever belong to Prince: "Game. Blouses."
Recap.Mystery Science Theater 3000 S 08 E 16 Prince Of Space: Running Gag: "We like it very much!" Many jokes about Prince. Mike: (as Prince) Just call me 'The Artist'! Clucking whenever the villains are on-screen, and chicken jokes about the villains in general. Constantly noting the incompetence of the villains. Crow: We've filled our pants, SIR! Servo: Ready, aaaaaand.... mince! Mince! Mince! Mince! Mince! Mince! Variations on The Prince's declaration of "Your weapons have no effect on me!" Exclamations of "Oh!"/"Prince of Space!" from the kidnapped world leaders in the climax.
ComicStrip.Knights Of The Dinner Table: "Will 'The Character Formerly Known as the Man with No Name' and now associated with this symbol please be advised that he has inexplicably attracted the unbridled wrath of the Gawds and has just been turned into a newt!!"
Recap.Street Sharks S 01 EP 06 Shark N Roll: Rox describes himself as "the artist formerly known as Melvin Kresnik", symbolizing him ditching his unpopular old self and becoming a more outgoing person.
KeepCirculatingTheTapes.Music Rescued: In December 1987, Prince asked Warner (Bros.) Records, his label at the time, to scrap the release of The Black Album a week before its release date. However, by this time over 500k were pressed on vinyl & CD and preview copies had gone out. Most copies were destroyed, with the few remaining being the source for "the most bootlegged album of all time". In 1991, Warner planned a greatest hits package which would have included the album as a bonus disc. However, it was scrapped when Prince delivered Diamonds and Pearls to the company. Finally in 1994, during Prince's feud with the same label, the album was legitimately released; Prince was paid around $1 million for it. Ironically, it's now out of print.
LetsPlay.Achievement Hunter Grand Theft Auto Series: "Ray's Heist" subverted this; it was planned in a small bathroom, he simply used their middle names as their code names,note Except for himself and Ryan; the latter's middle name is Ryan, so Ray had him go by his little-used first name, James. Ray lacks a middle name, so he went as "The Artist Formerly Known as Ray". there was only one target (an armored truck), and the plans were more simple. What could not be subverted was how quickly and badly everyone got themselves killed this time, though at least he accomplished his goal of not having the Crew kill each other.
Music.FKA Twigs: Her full stage name is "Formerly Known as Twigs," owed to the fact that her original stage name, Twigs, was already taken.
Radio.Martin Molloy: At the time when Prince was "the Artist Formerly Known as Prince", Tony and Mick did a bit about how his close friends get to call him 'Formerly'.
Funny.The Order Of The Stick: The team tries to come up for a nickname for The High Priest of Hel. They come up with names like Count Durkula, Nose-Fur-atu, and Greg. Even the normally deadpan Vaarsuvius is shown suggesting silly names. Roy: In fact, we shouldn't even call that vampire Durkon anymore. We should come up with another name to keep it straight in our minds. Any suggestions? Haley, Belkar, Elan, Blackwing, Vaarsuvius: Count Durkula? Jerkon? Undurkon? Leechy Veinquaff?note A reference to Leeky Windstaff, another villain from much earlier in the comic Nega-Dwarf? Durkzzaro? Deep Fang Friar? The Creature Preacher? Nokrud? The Thorsaken? Pastor Expiration? Whiskers in the Dark? Nose-Fur-atu? Hel's Shell? The Corpse Formerly Known as Durkon? Greg? Roy: ...Never mind.
YMMV.Lady Baby: Because "Nippon Manju" specifically went so viral (and was the group's very first release), plenty of non-fans or new fans have seen only that and are often unhappy to discover that the group changed so drastically so quickly. note To put this in perspective — the Ladybaby Project was first announced on March 25th 2015. Ladybeard was officially a member for exactly sixteen months plus a week, counting the three months he spent trying in vain to negotiate a new contract (his final performance as a member of Ladybaby was April 15th 2016). After Rie & Rei declared TIFKA in August, Rei hung around for an additional fifteen months before quitting.
Film.High School High: Over the opening credits, David Zucker is credited as a hieroglyphic symbol accompanied by the words "The Producer Formerly Known as David Zucker."
