Misused (Alt names crowner 21 November 2020): Theme Tune Cameo

Non-theme songs^note counting both opening and ending themes as a show's "theme songs" here:

• Azumanga Daioh does the same thing with a character's Image Song.
  • Tomo has her Image Song as a cellphone ringtone.
  • Osaka and Sakaki sang their image songs at the karaoke. Yomi does the same and epically fails. As if Rie Tanaka couldn't sing...
    • More on Sakaki, her Image Song appears again in the radio show that both Tomo and Yomi were listening to, only it's listed as being sung by Yuu Asakawa, who is actually Sakaki's seiyuu.
  • While we're at Tamers, an interesting one: Ritsuko's ringtone is Ravel's Boléro. While technically not originally a Digimon song, the track was part of Digimon Adventure's soundtrack, usually played within the context of the real world.
• Kim Possible:
  • And in another episode, Ron attempts to win a rap music contest, and his entry is Rufus's theme from the soundtrack.
  • Ron also hums the "Naked Mole Rap" in at least two other episodes.
• In an episode of Justice League Unlimited, Green Arrow hums along to his own Theme Music Power-Up (though it's his personal Leitmotif, not the show's theme). And then the instrumental version plays, similar to the Castle example above.
• Not a theme tune, but in the VeggieTales episode "Madame Blueberry," the episode's Silly Song ("His Cheeseburger") shows up as muzak playing in the food court.
  • Songs from earlier episodes, especially the Hairbrush song, actually turn up in the background a lot during different episodes.
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door:

  • The game also uses the ice world theme from Super Mario Bros. 3 when you receive a message from a mysterious informant, "Mr. X".

• The ringtone of Godot's cell phone in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations happens to be the same music as his own Theme Tune. ("theme tune" used here to mean character theme, and not in the way the trope description seems to use it)
  • Wesley Stickler's cell phone ringtone in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is one of Klavier Gavin's band's songs, Guilty Love, sped up to almost double the tempo.
  • Klavier himself plays a recording of Guilty Love by way of an introduction in court. It's somewhat safe to assume that every single repeat of the theme tune afterwards is just Klavier toeing "play" on the CD player beneath his bench.
  • Even Phoenix's cell phone is like this: his plays the Steel Samurai theme song.
  • In case 1-5, Ema Skye's cell phone plays the Steel Samurai theme song as well. This allows Phoenix to pass it going off in the parking garage as his when the detective at the scene asks what just happened. Or, possibly, he set it to the Steel Samurai theme tune because of this incident (in cases 1-1 to 1-4, his cell phone had a generic ringtone).
• Pokémon Gold and Silver have Team Rocket hijack the radio tower as part of their plan to find their missing boss, Giovanni. The music that plays on all radio broadcasts while they do this is the same theme that plays when a Rocket Grunt challenges you to a battle.

Non-diegetic music/unclear

• In Balala the Fairies, the theme song is their transformation music. Even the toys made for the show play it. (seems to just be as background music?)
• Bear in the Big Blue House:
  • Each episode has an instrumental snippet of the theme play over the title card.
• The Noddy Shop:
  • Each episode begins with an instrumental version of the theme playing over the shot of the store with the episode's title over it.
• At least one song in every Silent Hill game after the first includes a part of the track playing notes from the original game's theme. Namely Theme of Laura, Hometown, One More Soul to the Call, and Hell Frozen Rain.
• Partial example: The Mega Man X series uses a rocking metal cameo of the musical stinger that plays when you pick a robot master in the first Mega Man game. ("partial" example?)

Other work's theme song:

• Lucky Star's Konata uses the ending theme from another Kyoto Animation show, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, as her ringtone. The song also shows up in a few other places, including an arcade rhythm game.
  • She also hums the opening theme for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya while playing her Brand X MMORPG, replacing certain lines with MMORPG-specific phrases.
  • One episode has a scene where Konata and her friends attend a concert featuring an Image Song from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
    • This is a real world concert Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisō that the characters 'attended'. The 'person' singing on stage is Aya Hirano, credited as such (she is also the VA of Konata and Haruhi) and is a fairly good likeness of the actress.
  • The ending themes for Lucky Star up to episode twelve are often themes to other (non-Kyoto Animation) series, anime or otherwise. The others are general popular tunes.
• In a comic featuring Venom as the main character, he's seen swinging building to building singing a song, with lyrics featuring himself, obviously meant to line up with the classic Spider-Man theme song.
• In Deadpool #8, the merc sings Spider-Man's theme song with his own lyrics:
  "Deadpool-Man! Deadpool-Man! Does whatever Deadpool can! Makes a plan, any size, catches thieves and makes them die. Look out! There goes the Deadpool-Man!"
• In the first issue of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, the Spider-Man theme tradition is◊ continued◊:
  "Squirrel Girl, Squirrel Girl! She's a human and also a squirrel! Can she climb up a tree? Yes she can, easily. That's whyyyy Her name is Squirrel Girl!"

• Animation.Motu Patlu
• Animation.Pororo The Little Penguin
• Anime.Aquarion Evol
• Anime.Corrector Yui
• Anime.Danganronpa 3 The End Of Hopes Peak High School
• Anime.Doki Doki Precure
• Anime.Gankutsuou
• Anime.Irresponsible Captain Tylor
• Anime.Negima Second Season
• AxisPowersHetalia.Q To Z
• AudioPlay.The Further Adventures Of Nick Danger
• Characters.Ace Lightning
• Film.A Fistful Of Dynamite
• Film.The Apartment
• Film.The Addams Family
• Film.Barbarella
• Film.Gamera Vs Zigra
• Film.Love With The Proper Stranger
• Film.The Smurfs
• FireEmblemAwakening.Tropes S To Z
• Kaeloo.Tropes N To Z
• Literature.Happy Appy
• LightNovel.How To Raise A Boring Girlfriend
• LightNovel.Ladies Versus Butlers
• LightNovel.Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online
• Literature.Maya The Bee
• Literature.The Witches Of Eastwick
• Manga.Ai Yori Aoshi
• Manga.Digimon Xros Wars
• Manga.Goldfish Warning
• Manga.Kannagi
• Manga.Osomatsu Kun
• Manga.Sakigake Otokojuku
• Manga.The Wallflower
• Recap.The Amazing World Of Gumball S 2 E 12 The Words
• Recap.Sponge Bob Square Pants S 12 E 16 Boss For A Day The Goofy Newbie
• Series.Hellcats
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• Series.Night And Day
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• Recap.Wakfu S 2 E 14 The Voice Thief
• VideoGame.Bravoman
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• VideoGame.Everything Or Nothing
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• VisualNovel.Clannad
• VisualNovel.Rumbling Hearts
• WesternAnimation.The Angry Birds Movie
• WesternAnimation.Avez Vous Deja Vu
• WesternAnimation.My Life As A Teenage Robot
• WesternAnimation.Ready Jet Go
• WesternAnimation.Rupert
• WesternAnimation.The Scooby Doo Show
• WesternAnimation.Timothy Goes To School
• WesternAnimation.Zig And Sharko

• Anime.Guilty Crown: "Euterpe" several times, and also the first ending theme "Departures ~あなたにおくるアイの歌~" as Inori's main song. ("Euterpe" is apparently a song sung by one of the characters in the first episode, not sure if it's considered a "theme tune"?)'
• VisualNovel.Tayutama: The Karaoke Box session from episode nine uses this one. (which "one"?)

• Manga.Hidamari Sketch: The second season anime ends with the first season OP. (assuming this means "using the first season's OP as second season's ending theme?)
• Recap.Monk S 8 E 9 Happy Birthday Mr Monk: The original Monk theme shows up in a slower, waltz form when Monk is having fun testing out the new self-cleaning vacuum on his living room rug.
• Series.Minder: When Terry returns to boxing in an episode, a Training Montage features the theme song, including verses not usually heard in the opening or closing credits. | When Ray is revealed as Arthur's new minder after showing he can fight, the new theme tune plays, with cheesy results.
• Series.The Monkees: Used for comedic effect in multiple episodes. One example is in "Monkees A La Mode", when after the group is proclaimed "typical young persons" by a chic magazine, the show cuts to a photo montage of the boys making goofy faces while the show's theme song plays in the background.
• VideoGame.Castlevania 64: The franchise's "Big Three" songs, Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, and Beginning, also reappear, although never in the form of a full remix.
• VideoGame.Obsidian: The game's theme pops up within a few puzzles throughout the game, such as when the Bureau's Celestial Puzzle is solved, and whenever one of the camouflage buttons on the Crossover Switch happens to be pressed.
• VideoGame.Super Mario World: The World 1-1 theme from Super Mario Bros. plays in the Special Zone, but the player must wait nine loops.
• WebVideo.Game Grumps: Small portions of The Angry Video Game Nerd's theme song can be heard during the "___ WINS" screens at the end of Game Grumps VS videos. (also counts as "theme tune from other work)
• WesternAnimation.Cartoon All Stars To The Rescue: When Alvin and the Chipmunks and Slimer first appear, their respective cartoons' theme songs play in the background. | When Pooh is initially talking to Corey, an instrumental version of the theme to The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh plays in the background.''
• ThunderCats Roar: In "Mumm Ra of Plunn-Dar", the original theme song can be heard during the final fight with Mumm Ra.

• Series.The Wild Wild West: Not a theme tune cameo, but at the end of "The Night of the Sabitini Death," we get a clip of the music typically played during the first scene of a Gilligan's Island episode. See Actor Allusion on the trivia page.
• WesternAnimation.Heathcliff And The Catillac Cats: A few second season episodes have one from another DIC production: Kidd Video.
• WesternAnimation.Animaniacs: In "Take My Sibling, Please", Wakko sings the Tiny Toon Adventures theme before getting tired of it, and instead sings his show's theme on the way over the troll bridge.