Characters
They really thought they’d be popular huh?
Bruce and Lloyd from get smart (2008), two side characters who have a comedic duo vibe going on and where featured in a lot of advertisements, even having their own direct to video spin off movie that came out the same year, despite this these two aren’t really remembered or talked about, not even amongst people who remember the 2008 get smart film.
Mr hanky from South Park: apparently Matt and Trey thought he’d be the big breakout character, featuring him in a ton of merchandise and having him appear a lot, however while the character has his fans, he isn’t really that popular amongst the South Park community and has basically been written off the show.
Clod from elemental: featured in a bunch of ads and was pushed as the popular character despite his low screen time, while elemental isn’t seen as a Pixar classic, it does have its fans, however almost none of them bring up Clod when talking about why they like it.
I mean, making a movie based off them alone shortly after the original movie released meant they thought they’d be popular to some extent (regardless of where’d they release it), since if they thought they was no demand for anymore of them, this film wouldn’t be released at all (also back then, straight to dvd was basically the same as straight to streaming now).
Black Adam from the DCEU. The Rock literally thought the character would become as popular as Superman and would be the face of the DCEU going forward.
Needless to say, the film flopped hard and contributed to the fall of the DCEU.
From the moment he started doing promotions for the movie, it was obvious that he was coming at this from the wrong angle (the character is a villain, there's no changing that). But he did the same thing with Scorpion King.
Justice Society was the biggest draw of that film, Hawkman and Fate made it worth watching. They probably should have edited out much, if not all of the Rock’s scenes. He’s a minor Captain Marvel villain, not a headliner.
The funny thing about Blinx is that he REALLY looked like a bootleg Bubsy, who was already trying to be a bootleg Sonic by that time.
The funny thing is that Bubsy would eventually resurface as a self-aware parody of the whole "mascot with an attitude" fade of the 90s and early 2000s. Nobody really remembers Blinx.
Blinx 2 was at least really good in some ways for the day. Had a character creator with a ton of actual sliders for proportions way before that was common, and the time controlling puzzles were pretty fun sometimes.
Granted, Blinx was barely even IN the game, only appearing in a cutscene or two and getting the occasional name drop.
And (spoilers for a very old game) your custom characters all die at the end.
So there was very little in that game to sell you on the "hot new masot."
Reminds me of a commercial I hated back in the day for Ty the Tasmanian Tiger.
They had Crash, Mario, and sonic in the hospital with boomerang injuries. For some reason I hated that this nobody was threatening to hospitalize these characters I loved lol.
Clod is the funniest case of an industry plant ever. He was pushed into all of the marketing, they made fake ads showing "people" in a "theater" cheering when he came on screen, they gave him his own character poster, they did everything. He has a minute and a half of screentime. iirc he isn't even in the Wikipedia page's synopsis of the plot.
The idea of an industry plant character ending up being a dirt clod with grass hair feels like malicious compliance to me. As in, the suits told the creatives they needed a marketable character for kids merchandising so they replied with Clod.
Those fake Clod theater cheering ads alone made me never want to watch the movie. Im not even sure why but it just triggered every single negative emotion I have about modern day internet culture and social media.
I think they knew it’d be a tough movie to market otherwise. It’s basically an animated romantic comedy for adults without the classic kiddie friendly elements, hence Clod.
This guy is infamous for his botched debut entrance when he stumbled as he broke through a wall.
Despite it being absolutely hilarious, The Shockmaster was supposed to be an Undertaker-level character and was planned to have a big push to be a mainstay on the roster.
His debut was so messed up that they had to scrap the whole idea and drop the character.
Seriously, if you haven’t seen it, you need to watch it! Please remember, this was supposed to be serious:
Thank you for showing me this. Even if we pretend he didn't fall, there was such an awkwardly long pause full of silence and dead air after his entrance. No dramatic music or anything. Then the absolutely awful voice came on. Did they not do a single rehearsal and realize
He can't see in that helmet
The helmet doesn't stay on
His scary voice stinks
They covered his helmet in glitter and pretended it was scary
The Shockmaster was portrayed by wrestler Fred Ottman, an uncle of the Runnels/Rhodes family. Apparently Cody Rhodes was a kid when this went down and was watching it when it aired with his dad, Dusty. When the helmet goes flying off, Cody looked at his dad and went "Hey it's Uncle Fred!", and I can only imagine what was going through Dusty's head.
Edit: While on the subject of baffling WCW decisions, there's also the Ding-Dongs (a tag team covered in bells) and the Hunchbacks (a tag team with hunchbacks that can't be pinned).
Apparently "who's under the helmet" was supposed to be a big deal of his story arc....so naturally the very first thing that happened was it fell off his head xD
They didn't drop the character though, they just changed up the whole look! The Shockmaster stayed around and he wrestled under that name on the next 3 pay per views, but dressed as a construction worker instead I guess to repair the wall!
I'm so very confused as to why they though this was going to be an impactful character. Maybe I'm just unfamiliar with that era of wrestling, but he's wearing a goddamn bedazzled storm trooper helmet less than 20 years after Star Wars debuted, so people would absolutely recognize it and know what it is. Other than that, his costume is a fur vest/shawl combo and a pair of jeans? I just don't know what they were going for.
I think even in an alternate universe where he doesn’t eat shit, this gimmick still goes down the crapper. Who’s intimidated by a fat guy in a sparkly helmet? Good luck catching me
My favorite part of that will always be Sid trying to stay on script and act like this is a huge moment and he needs to go full throttle against this guy.
Mr Hanky was SUPER popular when his first episode came out. I was in grade school and we talked about him constantly and I would always say “HOOOOOOOOOWDY HO!” when I saw my friends.
I didnt even really watch much South Park as a kid, but even i constantly say “Hoooooowdy Ho!” to people in the way he does. Im 29, its become one of my main greetings lol
Yeah I’ve heard a few people reference the “talking Christmas poop” with them having no idea it was connected to South Park. Not massive but certainly left a mark.
Maybe you're younger, but I'd argue Mr hanky was popular in the 90's. He was just a shock value thing, take thing people love and add a gross mascot. But as the show got bigger and hit more broad topics he really doesn't have a place in it anymore. Also, as for merch... yeah, I can't imagine that doing well. When I say mr hankey was popular it was more in people going 'hooooowwwdy ho' to each other, no one wanted toys based on talking poo
Ooo, I have a meaningful contribution. I am friends with Nate, the guy who played Lloyd; he is a remarkably talented man, with drive, timing, and an open sort of charisma. I can absolutely understand how a studio exec could be convinced by a screen test of him to give him his own film.
He later went on to voice Clawhauser in Zootopia, so he’s doing fine. We moved a freezer together a year ago.
I could see this being on the same level as Shovel Knight if only the game was good. They overpromised and underdelivered, and the weird absorption mechanic wasn’t enough to separate him from Mega Man, but it WAS enough to make the game worse in comparison.
There's a lot Pokemon this could probably go but the biggest is probably poliwhirl. Back in Gen 1 during pokemania poliwhirl was routinely placed alongside the eras heavy hitters like meowth, jigglypuff, the starters and pikachu and seeminglytreated as the middle stage Pokemons mascot. Even at the time it was just rando a middle stage of a water type line.
This is because Poliwhirl is the creator of Pokemon's favorite. Poliwhirl was the partner pokemon of Red, the protagonist, in the first run of the Pokemon manga.
IIRC, When Encanto released, Disney banked on Isabela being the bigger seller. They even pushed back on making Luisa so muscular because they were worried about selling dolls.
Jokes on them, they made too much Isabela merch and not enough Luisa to meet demand.
Isabella's whole thing is that she's under constant pressure to look perfect to the outside world as the beloved face of the family, when all she wants to be is creative and different. Seems kind of ironic to try and use her as the face of your merch.
This is why it's so important to actually have at least a few people in their early twenties on the creative team. Gen Z's "b-b-big l-l-lady" phase was well under way by this point
The orange outfit especially gives him that industry plant energy. "Oh, the guys from Dragonball and Naruto both wear orange, so my equally successful series' protagonist will too!"-type of vibe.
I'm actually reading the manga and did some research on Toriko, and it isn't that bad. But compared to the absolute giants he is fist-bumping, yeah, it's no contest. I would definitely recommend pirating it if you find some good scans
The ANIME, however, IS terrible. This came from a low point in Toei's history. Tacky art direction, garbage pacing, and overall poor animation. And that's before you remeber half the cast are fantasy monsters no one has ever animated before. It all guaranteed the property wouldn't be the money maker Toei clearly wanted it to be.
If you ever want to laugh, watch the Toriko intro. It looks like an anime parody from an early 2000s Nickelodeon cartoon
I was excited to see Elmyra again, unfortunately, they paired her with Pinky & the Brain. I wanted a Rita & Runt series, or Goodfeathers maybe even Chicken Boo.
Concord will forever live in infamy and be a black stain on Sony’s reputation. $500 million dollars and an episode of Secret Level just to shut down servers after two weeks.
It's insane how the Sony execs were absolutely convinced it was going to become their very own Star Wars, a flagship title that was going to spawn a multimedia empire. Like, bros do you have functional eyes?
Yeah seeing him on this list is wild. People loved him, quoted him, had plushies, tatoos, etc. it definitely landed. You just can't do a lot with a talking poo.
Kind of a combination of multiple failed "Next big thing" character tropes all in one. She's a "Likable*" and "wise-cracking™" child character who is introduced as being one of the previous protagonists' apprentices. (Not only in that she's training under her, but said former protagonist just tells you that you need to pay attention to her since "She is going to become a Siren". Sirens being one of the ultra-rare, extremely important magical beings in this setting who are usually born that way. She doesn't elaborate on how or why.)
She's clearly supposed to be this game's version of Tiny Tina, a fan favorite character from BL2 who was also a tween who has sort of an adoptive parent relationship with a previous game's protagonist. But a key difference is that Tina was given a surprisingly gradual, carefully paced out arc which, through audio logs digging into her past, unexpected turns in a side quest she gives you, and the actual events of the story, shifted her from being a quirky comic relief to a genuinely tragic figure who's lost more than most characters in the series have; and even gets a surprisingly well executed storyline exploring her grief and healing process in one of the games' DLCs.
Ava on the other hand, was not so delicately written. They try to give her the same treatment, with her also having a side-quest which digs into her sad backstory, and then having her lose the parental figure she looked up to during the main campaign, but it's all much more clunky, and at best a rehash. Her backstory is just "She was poor for a long time and it really sucked." And she actively causes the death of said former protagonist by insisting they get into a fight with the main villains when she was told to run away, and getting herself captured, forcing a longer, more costly confrontation. Afterwards she proceeds to blame someone else for what happened, and then the game ends on the person she blamed dying, and the entire group deciding that this 13 year old is going to be their new leader because they have so much faith in her apparently.
Needless to say, fans absolutely hated Ava, and it clearly blindsided the devs, as they ended up cutting her from Borderlands 4 at the last minute, hastily replacing her with a different character entirely.
The sad part is that they could have spared her some of the infamy if they had stuck to the game's original script. When she got her mentor killed, there was an entire funeral sequence planned out where she would admit this was all her fault. It gave her an extremely needed sense of self awareness, but for either budget or time reasons the mission was cut, and we just got left with the least likable version of her possible.
Madame Web and Morbius. After the success of Venom, Sony decided to make more movies about Spider-Man villains without spider-man in them. Yet they decided to choose two characters most general audiences have never heard of (one of whom has never even had her own comic run). Both were massive flops and only hold relevance because they were heavily memed.
Just because nobody has ever heard of them doesn't mean you cant make a good movie.
See Guardians of the Galaxy and even Iron Man to a degree, at that point in 2008 he was only really popular if you read comic books and making an Iron Man movie wasn't seen at the time as a guaranteed hit
The Neon Maniacs were a bunch of terrible gimmick horror villains that were intended to kickstart a franchise. They each have a gimmick (commando! Samurai! Cowboy! Etc.) and have been compared unfavorably to the Village People
I thought Mr. Hanky was super popular when he first appeared. I thought he was funny as hell. Surprised actually that they basically got rid of him entirely.
Yeah this guys wrong. Mr. Hanky was absolutely popular when the episodes first aired, things just didn’t go viral like we see today. He’s been written off because there’s only so much schtick you can pull with a talking poo. It’s even a meta joke, he’s a product of a different time and literally a piece of shit, hence the Roseanne references when he finally leaves for the last time.
Something I heard once is that their entire existence came feom the fact that the island they were filming on had way too many birds to try and shoot around, so they up with a solution.
Disney execs really looked at Gravity Falls and thought this guy was gonna be the breakout star. All the merch they made for the show originally was of this guy lol
Because it's great? I don't think this fits the trope, his popularity isn't based on people thinking he's a great character, it's from this visual moment here where he's barfing a rainbow. Or, put better, the character isn't pushed, it's this particular barfing gnome visual.
As someone who remembers the late 90s, Mr. Hankey was fairly popular early on in South Park’s run. I think it’s moreso the fact that Trey and Matt eventually got bored of him.
For some strange reason, Kishimoto believed that a female character—one who tends to be a burden to her team and whose existence largely revolves around a superficial crush on a man—would be popular with a female audience.
Liberty Biberty was genuinely amusing when it existed as nothing more than an incidental utterance in a single commercial—a spontaneous, absurd little morsel of comedic brilliance that benefited precisely from its brevity and lack of self-awareness. But Liberty Mutual, in its seemingly inexhaustible commitment to corporate overexploitation, evidently recognized this fleeting moment of humor as an untapped marketing resource and proceeded to wring every last drop of commercial viability from it. By elevating Liberty Biberty from an amusing throwaway gag to a fully realized corporate mascot, they have committed the comedic equivalent of taxidermy: preserving the external appearance of something that was once entertaining while thoroughly extinguishing the very essence that made it funny. LibBib is no longer a joke; it is the hollow, zombified husk of one, shambling aimlessly through the advertising landscape as a monument to the catastrophic consequences of a marketing department that simply does not know when to leave well enough alone.
I don't know why pregnant super heroes fighting is something they keep thinking is cool. Everyone I knew hated her because why is she doing anything when that pregnant.
In the mid-2000's WWE was trying to push any buff guy with height and intensity following the success and departure of Brock Lesnar 2002-04. Luther Reigns, Heidenreich, Snitsky, Nathan Jones, Tyson Tomko, Matt Morgan, and Batista (the only true success of this approach) all of come to mind who are within this mold initiated by talent scouts of this time like Johnny Ace, with varying results. There were talented guys, with a few exceptional cases, but it mostly felt like WWE was trying to replicate Lesnar when that simply wasn't possible. At worst, you have Luther Reigns telling people he's had peas before.
Scrappy Doo. Shoved into Scooby Doo to boost ratings, plastered on every piece of merch, and instead became the most hated cartoon character ever. Even the 2002 movie dunked on him
Nah Scrappy saved the show. He added a new character to play off of, and it really helped the show avoid becoming stagnant. But the studio figured it was Scrappy, rather than 'a new character', so they started pushing Scrappy more and more, and it led to the franchise's re-stagnation.
Then he had his redemption arc in Velma by killing Vel- Mindy Kahling's awful self insert who apparently is supposed to be Velma but does not have any of her character traits whatsoever.
They made this fucker the mascot for Cartoon Network back in the mid 2000s and was featured in a ton of ads and merch. However he only appeared in 2 episodes and in some tv special/movie that nobody cares about.
He's an unfunny relic of mid 2000s "quirky silly waffles lol random xd" humor that should stay forgotten.
When he came out, I found him so annoying, that I used Fred’s catchphrase as part of a basketball game at a summer camp I went to (we were allowed to taunt and annoy the person making the shot). Needless to say, “Fred-Fredburger, Fred-Fredburger” over and over caused more than a few missed throws. 😂 🏀
I dunno man, that's a different thing. Those things were featured in a quiznos commercial and absolutely went viral like crazy. They were like the puppy monkey baby of their year
The problem they had was that people thought they were weird and novel for like a week. Then they were done. But quiznos ran them into the fucking ground. It wasn't that they weren't popular, it's that quiznos misunderstood their popularity and oversaturated them.
They tried to forcibly recreate the lightning-in-a-bottle popularity of Lucario the following generation. It didn't quite pan out. That's not to say Zoroark was despised by the fanbase; it was modestly popular, just not the rainmaker Nintendo/Game Freak had hoped for.
Part of that was because of how hard it was to GET in Black and White, the sequels at least give you N’s Zorua as a gift but you couldn’t get either in B/W without either one of the event Legendary Beasts or… Celebi, pretty sure. To say nothing of it being somewhat underwhelming outside specific use cases of it’s Ability, most of the cool ones of which weren’t until like Alola for single player.
Its Hisui counterpart and Zorua (both Hisui and base form tbh) ironically seem much more popular than the original, in part because they got a unique typing alongside the Illusion ability and cuteness. Still not QUITE Lucario 2.0 but round 2 wasn’t as much of a miss.
Poof from fairly odd parents. While not the WORST of the side characters he was what kickstarted the whole trend which caused the show to die a painful death with Chloe Carmichael. I still mourn the loss of Fairly Odd Parents
I'm old enough to remember the pre-Prequels era when Boba Fett and Wedge Antilles got entire novel series dedicated to them. Or the books dedicated to every character in the Mos Eisley Cantina or Jabba's Palace.
Fast forward 20 years and no one cares about characters like Snaps Wexley or Captain Phasma. He'll, they barely care about the leads (Rey is the only one that seems to have any breakthrough appeal.).
This is such an insane post, I literally just saw Get Smart yesterday, and it's such a nothing movie that it's crazy that I'm finding out there was a spin off
Get Smart did numbers in my house because my dad loved the OG show, my mom watches anything with The Rock in it, and my sister is the same way with Anne Hathaway.
For about a year, Sunday lunch was a rotating playlist of Get Smart, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, The Larry The Cable Guy Toothfairy movie, or a Pixar film. There wasn't a single person living in that house who was under driving age.
Peter Theil bought and paid for Vance and who knows what he used to blackmail Trump to get him Vive Presidency. No one likes him not even conservatives.
What scuttled his megapush was his inability to work matches longer than 2 minutes without gassing out unless he was being hard carried by a ring general like Randy Savage.
Loot, Magic the Gathering. He's not a bad or hated character, but it seems creators were hoping for an MTG Pikachu and the fanbase didn't buy in. Besides, we already have Fblthp, a cute one-eyed homonculous that's already a player favorite so it's odd they didn't lean into marketing/merchandising it.
I'd replace Mr hanky with Mr poopy butthole from Rick and morty. The show seems to be voiced by the same guy, but he does the same voice for like half the characters. And it's not even funny, just whiney.
I mean to give credit where credit is due, Bruce’s actor (Masi Oka) got to play a pretty iconic TV Show character and is the face of that show as well, which was sweet
Tom Lizard from Hoppers, was advertised a lot and was the first character advertised for the film in the teaser for Elio iirc however he only had a few minutes of screen time in the actual movie
I loved Elemental, and still blaime Disney's terrible marketing for it underperforming at the box office. Though yeah there was an odd amount of focus on him in the very limited promotion I saw for it.
When he first debuted he was the muscle/big guy of the Shield, mainly existed to be tagged in and hit the big moves and most people assumed that either Seth Rollins or Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley) would be the breakout stars, especially considering they were well renowned on the indies
Shield breaks up (as every team does in wwe because they are still trying to find the next Shawn Michaels), Roman is IMMEDIATELY catapulted to being the guy in spite of being a charisma black hole and not all that good in the ring, fans hated every second of it and dude was booed relentlessly on screen, which should've been a sign the experiment wasn't working...and ignoring the fact he was getting better
Sadly, Roman was diagnosed with Leukemia and had to take time off, but when he came back he was turned heel (bad guy in wrestling terms) and given a new character of the tribal chief, which people actually enjoyed.
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u/OliviaGrunwald 13h ago