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Anonymous Ringer
- 132 statements
- 23 feature instances
- 31 referencing feature instances
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Sometimes, an Invisible President or a Banana Republic just doesn't work in the context of a story an author is trying to tell. Note that we're not just talking about government officials, it may be necessary to refer to some famous person or group. The world the story unfolds in is meant to be the real world, and the people in it should be real people. Enter the Anonymous Ringer - a character or place transparently meant to be a recognizable real-world figure, but never explicitly mentioned by name. This device allows an author to write about England being invaded by "a country to the north", the US being driven to war by "the president", or a riot at a concert of "a popular rock-and-roll band", without having to worry about Scots, Donald Trump, or the Rolling Stones firing off a cease-and-desist letter. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_content_3'); })Compare Roman à Clef, Historical-Domain Character, Lawyer-Friendly Cameo (which is not so vital to the plot). Examples: |
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| Anonymous Ringer | fetched |
2018-10-13T08:48:34Z | |
| Anonymous Ringer | parsed |
2020-06-25T17:24:00Z | |
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Dropped link to AlternateHistory: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to BattleRoyale: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_17f7fc5c | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_17f7fc5c | comment |
Academia is never explicit about its setting, but the buildings are all modeled after University of Toronto and its surrounding neighbourhood. | |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_2275c659 | type |
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The House episode "The Tyrant" guest-starred James Earl Jones as the dictator of a fictional African country. He's clearly a stand-in for Idi Amin. | |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_230b3240 | type |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_230b3240 | comment |
Jack Ryan: In Clancy's early novels, ostensibly set during the Reagan years, the president is referred to only as "The President". His background (a lawyer) is different to that of Reagan though. Later novels introduce a string of fictional presidents, including one who appears to be a strawman liberal interpretation of Bill Clinton. Saddam Hussein and Indira Gandhi are likewise referred to only as "The president of Iraq" and "The prime minister of India". Taken to its extreme in Patriot Games, wherein Prince Charles appears as a major character and even assists Jack Ryan in a gunfight against the IRA; throughout the novel, he is referred to only as "the Prince of Wales". |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_2754c6fb | type |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_2754c6fb | comment |
The Timeline-191 books are pretty bad when it comes to this trope thanks to Turtledove's de-emphasis on geopolitics. Except for a few mentions of Churchill, leaders of countries other than the USA and CSA are only referred to by title ("the Kaiser", "the Czar", etc.). Actually, most of these character's names are spoken at least a few times. "The Kaiser" is used in a ton of speeches, but when only one man on the planet has that particular title, it's just easier to refer to him in that way. US and CS leaders both have the title of President, so if you wanted to refer to Jake Featherston (Confederate Hitler) instead of Al Smith (US Neville Chamberlain, though Smith was also a real historical figure) you had to use both name and title. |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_28ccdd97 | type |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_28ccdd97 | comment |
The Blake and Mortimer story "SOS Meteors" is about a plot by a hostile superpower in Eastern Europe to destabilize the West and invade it. Said superpower's agents have Slavic-sounding names and boast about the superiority of their ideology. But at no point in the story is the Soviet Union mentioned by name. | |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_4456bfc2 | type |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_4456bfc2 | comment |
Mephisto by German author Klaus Mann did this to the extreme. The protagonist and theatre attendant Hendrik Höfgen is a copy of the real-world Gustav Gründgens among others. Other Weimar entertainment figures receive similar treatment, including a Marlene Dietrich Expy who leaves Germany to pursue a film career. Also the important figures of the Nazi regime are only referred to as "the dictator", "the pilot-general", the propaganda-minister" and so forth. This strategy however didn't stop West-German court from prohibiting publication of the book until much later. | |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_4522fd1 | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_4522fd1 | comment |
Largely averted in the webfiction Whateley Universe. There are two created countries run by supervillains (Wallachia in Eastern Europe and Karedonia in the Caribbean), but other than that, real countries are named and real people are used. Furthermore, both countries are small, and very explicitly have no real-world analogues. (Wallachia is real location, but it hasn't been a separate country since the mid-19th century: it's the main province of Romania, and was the bit that Vlad the Impaler ruled back in the day.note In the series, it is mentioned that the 'Wallachia' which Lord Paramount carved out for himself during the fall of the Ceaușescu government only overlaps with the historical Wallachia in a small part of its southernmost territory.) |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_457b671e | type |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_457b671e | comment |
In season 2 of 24, "three Middle Eastern countries" are accused of complicity in an attempted nuclear attack on the US. Again in Season 5, where "Central Asia" becomes a euphemism for Chechnya. In Season 6, Fayed's home country. (Obviously Lebanon, based on maps shown on-screen.). It is painfully referred to dozens of times as "his country", "the country" etc. In 24: Redemption, the fictional African nation of Sangala is apparently a stand-in for Sudan. And the IRK is an obvious stand-in for the Islamic Republic of Iran, right down to the controversial nuclear program. |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_52dd4a4c | type |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_52dd4a4c | comment |
Marvel Comics, which has always liked to root itself in the real world more firmly than DC, does have appearances by President Bush and other real politicians (especially Ultimate Marvel, wherein Air Force One gets attacked by supervillains). Their portrayal is usually as unbiased as possible — see Marvel writer John Jackson Miller's comments on this Peter David blog post. The big exception is Secretary of Defense, a position which has been held by two major Marvel characters in the last few years: the Red Skull and Iron Man. Marvel also had Gordon Brown appear as British Prime Minister in Excalibur, save for the fact that he was blond rather than dark-haired. This was seized upon with much amusement by the British press, as their respectful treatment of him contrasted with how he was being universally lambasted at the time. Combine this with the Comic Book Age Ghetto for a certain kind of person to find "SuperGordon" incredibly funny. This has been going on for a while. Then Canadian PM Trudeau appeared in Alpha Flight #1, for example. LBJ reunited Sgt. Fury's Howling Commandos for a Vietnam mission. This has the unfortunate effect of making Comic-Book Time more jarring, though. |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_565ad68a | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_565ad68a | comment |
For the most part, this is averted in the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, as real world people and places were used when needed. Certain other public figures (like the current US Secretary of Defense, Dr. Andrea Coudriet, and the current in-universe Pope, Alexander IX) are purely fictional substitutes for real people. | |
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| Global Guardians PBEM Universe (Roleplay) | hasFeature |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_5e91c7d | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_5e91c7d | comment |
Resident Evil 4 takes place "in a rural part of Europe", though a character mentions he used to be a cop in Madrid and the currency collected is in pesetas. In yet another case of RE's infamous voice-acting quality, the characters speak in Mexican dialects instead of Spanish ones. One might argue this was to make the game's setting harder to pinpoint, but then the Separate Ways side-story starts off with Wesker viewing a satellite image of the location in question... and it's smack-dab in the middle of Spain. | |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_70814599 | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_70814599 | comment |
Stargate SG-1 had two sitting Presidents over its ten year run. The first was never shown or mentioned by name, but a Brainwashed and Crazy Martouf/Lantash tries to kill a decoy that looked like then-President Bill Clinton. The second was the entirely fictional Henry Hayes, with equally fictional antagonist Robert Kinsey as Vice President. Kinsey is forced to resign at the end of the seventh season, but his replacement is never mentioned or shown. Mitchell does make a quip about a "Vice Presidential duck hunt" in the tenth season, suggesting Kinsey was replaced by then-Vice President Dick Cheney. | |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_8ac8797e | type |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_8ac8797e | comment |
Stross' The Merchant Princes takes place during the second Bush administration, and the descriptions of the president and vice president's past and personality clearly indicate that they are G.W. Bush and Dick Cheney respectively, but they are only ever referred to (or addressed) as BOY WONDER and WARBUCKS, their supposed CIA code names. This may be due to the fact that BOY WONDER dies in a nuclear attack on D.C. partially orchestrated by WARBUCKS | |
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| The Merchant Princes | hasFeature |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_8c1caf4 | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_8c1caf4 | comment |
Transformers: While the President's face was never shown, nor his name ever given, during the scenes on Air Force One in the first film, his accent is clearly meant to be that of George W. Bush. The trope is averted in the sequel, in which President Obama is mentioned by name and his staff is villainized. | |
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| Transformers | hasFeature |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_9045b1b7 | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_9045b1b7 | comment |
One of the vignettes in World War Z describes a group of celebrities holing up in a Long Island mansion to wait out the Zombie Apocalypse. The narrator declines to name names for fear of legal action from the survivors or their estates, but Paris Hilton, Bill Maher, Ann Coulter, Ruben Studdard, and Larry the Cable Guy are all identifiable from their descriptions. Several politicians get the treatment as well - the wartime president and veep are clearly Colin Powell and Howard Dean, the pre-war president's chief of staff is Karl Rove, and Vladimir Putin apparently declares himself Czar. | |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_a3145d21 | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_a3145d21 | comment |
In the Justice League Elite mini the resident spymaster has a phone conversation in which he suggests to an unseen clueless world leader to have his daddy and his uncle Dick explain things to him. Of course, back when Reagan was President, he appeared in the comics a lot. Both Batman and the Martian Manhunter impersonated him on separate occasions. The Phantom Stranger punched out Reagan's evil double. No, really. There was a Captain America comic where Reagan was transformed into a lizard-man that attacked Cap. He got changed back by sweating out the poison during the fight. No...really. |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_bcc05def | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_bcc05def | comment |
Averted and played straight in different versions of Bad Dudes. The home console versions all have you rescuing "The President", who is never mentioned by name (though at the end he resembles George H.W. Bush). The original arcade game, however, specifically asks if you're a "bad enough dude to rescue President Ronnie", and the image at the end is clearly Reagan. | |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_c43df4d8 | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
In Doctor Who "The Christmas Invasion", Harriet Jones, Prime Minister (Yes, we know who you are) refers to "the President" and then makes an Iraq War comment: Which becomes somewhat ironic when her course of action in the end is to wait until the aliens have surrendered to the Doctor and then kill them all as they leave. Well, a war it wasn't, anyway. She also mentions jokingly that she is "not one of the 'babes'", referring to the so-called "Blair's Babes", a term used to refer to the high-profile women that Tony Blair gave favour to at the beginning of his administration. Later in the series, a US "President-Elect" (which Russell Davies thought was just the longer official title of the president) would actually be shown on screen. While the president in this case is a fictional character, he has some similarities to George W. Bush. And is killed by The Master (he even stays dead when the Reset Button gets pushed at the end of the series, his death being the last event before it takes effect). In season 10, the US President briefly appears in an episode, but he is a brown-haired male although this was actually happening in a simulated reality with minute differences from the original. The next episode has companion Bill Potts refer to the President as being "orange". |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_c4a1d59e | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_c4a1d59e | comment |
In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the Middle-Eastern country where Khaled al-Asad stages a violent coup is never named, but since the game has explicit map views, it's obviously Saudi Arabia. The geography tends to be "all over the place" with pinpointed areas including land in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait. Al-Asad refers to a "monarchy" that was replaced by al-Fulani during in a revolution. Saudi Arabia is the only monarchy in the region, neither Iraq nor Iran nor Yemen having monarchies. Kuwait could qualify, being an Emirate but unlikely. |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_c9fecd11 | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_c9fecd11 | comment |
In "Dead and Buried", an episode of The Bill (a show that usually names countries), the plot involves a diplomat from an unnamed Eastern European country. It also has a character mislocate Prague as Western Europe ("Central Europe" is the more accurate term). | |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_e4ee75a9 | type |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_e4ee75a9 | comment |
The Prime Minister's Brain by Gillian Cross is one of many British stories from the 1980s that referred to "the Prime Minister" but avoided mentioning said character's sex. | |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_e5ea79ee | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_e5ea79ee | comment |
The long-running comic book series The Authority played with this trope. One issue had Jack, the leader, tell off a hologram of Bill Clinton, telling him to watch himself. Later, a generic President is thrown through a portal into Iraq, after claiming that he, the President, was only a figurehead. Then Jack takes a turn as President, which falls apart after Washington D.C. is nuked flat (the radiation is magically removed). The Authority makes sure good elections happen and we are back to generic presidents. Later, characters accuse The Authority of making an ex-President vanish. | |
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| Anonymous Ringer / int_fe8ef766 | type |
Anonymous Ringer | |
| Anonymous Ringer / int_fe8ef766 | comment |
There was a Captain America comic where Reagan was transformed into a lizard-man that attacked Cap. He got changed back by sweating out the poison during the fight. No...really. | |
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