Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls Do cameos distract?

Pam said:
And didn't you also put yourself into Tryst? And the President Kent series, from what I remember.

I guess I never paid any attention to the mood of the stories that had cameos in them.

In 7 Days of Superman, a VERY serious story, I cameoed/created characters based loosely on some Folcs.

Knat Wilson, the reporter. A minor role.
Nan Smith, a Secret Service agent. She was really a major player in the story.
Dr. Phil Atkliph, Dr. Klein's assistant. Another major player.

I only asked permission from Nan because her name was unchanged. Since neither Tank nor Phil complained, I took it as tacit approval.

True, I killed both Nan and Phil, but since this was a time traveling/dimension hopping story, they didn't stay that way.

And yes, I made Knat responcible for the world wide knocking out of some 3 billion people. It seemed fitting for the character.

I also stuck several components from other fanfics, with the permission of the original authors.

Mickey, the Pomeranian, from A Time to Adjust By Lara Blasingame

President Kent and Keith Jackson, from the President Kent series by Pam Jernigan

Pagimon by Tara Smith

I did the cameos for two reasons, I thought it would be neat and I thought it would 'help me become more a 'part of the group', as Tank had mentioned earlier. I also included story ideas from those stories that I really liked. I wanted to pay homage to them.

(Elisabeth also reminded me that because of the intensity of the story, I had included various cameos to help lighten the story.)

No one said at the time that these elements were distracting.

James

Wendy, in Second Chances I put my real self in <g> Not an "inspired-by-real-life" character, which they all are, anyway. But like I said, you'd have to search *and* know about me before you'd find it. As I recall, it's just a few words

And I've remembered -- I did a story years ago featuring me, Chris Mulder, and Tara Weaver as future physicists who accidentally pull L&C forward in time -- with their memories swiss-cheesed.

I had fun with it, but it was definitely *not* a serious story <g> In fact, I never sent it to the archive; just kept it on my own site. If you're curious, it's here: http://www.geocities.com/~chiefpam/timeflies.html

PJ

Hazel mentioned the type of cameo that only the cameoee (there's that word again) or those close to them would recognise.

While it's true that those don't affect the story because the character is 'just' a character, but it does bring a smile to the face of the one placed there.

Specific case in point is the few cameos I've enjoyed in actual published comic books. (It plays to know artists). I appeared as a bartender in Power of Shazam number 10, and had a brief appearance in one of the X-file comics. I was also in a crowd scene on the cover of one of the Star Trek: The Next Generation comics. Those were all great fun for me, but to the world at large, it was just a guy with a beard.

Tank (who admits that he did autograph a few copies of the Power of Shazam book for some of his friends, but doesn't think they were being serious )

Yup, what Chris, Tank and Kathy said. Although I would add that I don't even like single name cameos in serious fic - if I'm the cameo! I think it's only happened once, and it was done as a thank you for a bit of help I gave the writer - but I've found that whenever I read the story, I cringe when I see my own surname. Just want to run and hide under the nearest blanket in embarrassment.

I should add that I certainly *did* appreciate the honour of being written into the fic - don't want to appear ungrateful!

Yvonne

PS - I couldn't vote in the poll, 'cos none of the options fit.

Okay, Pam. Where are you in Second Chances? I just reread that story and the only person I can think of is the secretary who hums an obscure singer's songs.

Irene
scratching her head....

Okay, maybe it wasn't that hard to find Yeah, that's me. At the time, I was a secretary, who often worked late (or sometimes just *stayed* late in order to write fanfic <g> ), and, well, hummed But I'm not sure that qualifies as a cameo...

PJ

I don't think of it as cameo *per se*, but, well, I certainly nipped certain elements of FoLCdom at the time, when I wrote What REALLY Happened?, which is in the TOCs for this board. It was a parable, you see, of what I saw happening during one of the many fights it seemed like FoLCdom was getting into at the time (and since) - I'll not go into that here, because what's done is done. But anyway, that inspired me to draw some parallels with something that Perry mentioned in the show, and tell the story more in detail.

Um, so would you call that a cameo or not?

Melisma (ducking shyly back under her Rock)

Well, I didn't vote because I'm torn. I think I'm going to echo what a lot of people have already said, but here goes.

I adore cameos when the fic is a short, funny story, not meant to be taken seriously. I love spoofs and such. However, when I see a cameo (be it a folc, or an allusion to the show or the actors) in a serious fic, it jerks me right out of the story. For me, it all depends on the mood of the story.

Annie

Hm... the cameo challenge is, erm, challenging my opinion about cameos I think I voted in the cautious-about-cameos range (can't remember which one now), but after reading some of the hilarious stories the challenge has produced, I think I really like them now - provided they are in light-hearted stories. I should think that in a long, seriously A- and/or B-plotted story, that is not intended to be a comedy, a very obvious cameo would be distracting. Minor mention (ie, not by name, and prolly in passing) of a FoLC might work in those, if done very carefully...

Melisma (scratching her head here under her Rock)

One thing to think about when deciding whether to do a cameo or not... will the story still make sense to people who don't know the people who are cameo'd?

There are a few stories from very early in FOLCdom that were heavy in cameos of people I'd never met or even heard of, so the jokes went right past me, and the story wasn't very fun or interesting to read. The cameo-challenge fics being written in the fic challenge section are hilarious, but only if you have some idea who these people are. So they do have a limited audience.

PJ