The Ahnold

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Get to the choppah!

"I'm American, and you're not! So FUCKING DIE!"
"I'll cry when I'm done killing."
"Welcome to the Land of Freedom, Bitches! AHHHHHHHHH!"

Jack Howitzer (various quotes from his films), GTA Radio

An Affectionate Parody of 1980s action stars. It could be an actor, or a character based on one of them. The most common star used for this trope is Arnold Schwarzenegger, particularly exaggerating his accent, hence the trope name. But other stars, like Sylvester Stallone, happen as well.

If the character is animated, this overlaps with No Celebrities Were Harmed.

Examples of The Ahnold include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

  • Randy Violent in The DCU.
  • Arnie from Ninja High School doesn't even try to be subtle about it. Also Kenterminator, a mix of Kenshiro and the Terminator. Maybe others as well—the whole series runs on shout outs.
  • Hulk 2099 features a brief appearance by an action movie star called Albert Studebaker.

Film

Danny Madigan: You think you are funny, don't you?
Jack Slater: I know I am. I'm the famous comedian Arnold Braunschweiger.
Danny Madigan: Schwarzenegger!
Jack Slater: Gesundheit.

  • Conan the Barbarian. The DVD commentary starts with director John Milius saying in an "Arnie" accent: "My name is Arnold Schwarzenegger." The real Schwarzenegger then goes: "And I'm John Milius the Great!"
  • The scriptwriter for End of Days pitched his script on how great it would be to hear Arnold Schwarzenegger say "I'm sending you back to Hell!" to the Devil (this indeed is the best part of the movie). But when pitching End of Days to the man himself, he suddenly realised that "I can't do 'Arnie' to Arnie!" Fortunately Schwarzenegger said the line himself, thus avoiding any embarrassment.
  • Lampshaded, like much of the stuff going on in Super Capers, of the Gadgeteer Genius' Robot Buddy Robo, who bases all his inventions off movies.

Live-Action TV

Music

  • The song "I'll be back" by Arnie and the Terminators is sung in this manner, naturally.
  • Three words: Austrian, Death, Machine! All of their songs not only have Ahnold style vocals, but they all pay tribute to various films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Get to the Choppa!" They even have their lead singer in a giant rubber Schwarzenegger mask and call him "Ahnold", just to score the extra point.

Puppet Shows

  • Les Guignols de l'info
    • In this French Spitting Image-style satirical show, Monsieur Sylvestre, a highly cynical and brutal man with a dark sense of humour who occupies many different functions (White House adviser, Cardinal, CEO, etc.), is one of the few characters who does not correspond directly to any real-life person... but he does look an awful lot like Sylvester Stallone, though.
    • His voice has grown different from the one of the puppet standing in for Sylvester Stallone himself, however. The latter is closer to the French dubbing voice in Stallone's movies (mainly Rambo or Rocky).
    • Also, the puppet for Arnold Schwarzenegger always speaks with the Terminator's voice.

Video Games

"What is best? To crush the Zerg, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the Protoss."

  • The Cryo Legionnaires in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, are basically Mr. Freeze.
  • Lisa's father in Persona 2: Innocent Sin is a carbon copy of Steven Seagal.
  • League of Legends: Sion certainly qualifies.
  • Several mercenaries in Jagged Alliance series count. The most stereotypical example is Bobby "Steroid" Gontarski who shares his appearance and accent with Schwarzenegger.
  • The Hublanders in the Broken/Mended Drum in the Discworld PC adventure game both speak with the Arnie accent, and even go so far as to say in conversation "This ffery boring town" and the followup "Ja...ve von't be back."
  • Prinny 2: You don't get anymore Ahnold than Asagi Schwarzinature.
  • Johnny Cage of the Mortal Kombat series is very much an expy of Jean-Claude Van Damme, because originally the game was to star the real Van Damme, with a bunch of other characters he could beat up. When Van Damme backed out because he considered it "selling out", thus was born Mortal Kombat as we know it.
  • Biff Atlas, the bodybuilding ghost from Luigi's Mansion.
  • One boss in the original Metal Gear was a pair of Terminator ersatzes named Arnold, later renamed Bloody Brad for legal reasons.
  • Abore in Double Dragon II, although the arcade game's version also has elements of Andre the Giant.
  • The Sledger in Battle Realms (a game set in a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of feudal Japan) is an Arnold reference, constantly talking with the accent and making references to his giant muscles.

Web Comics

  • Frans Rayner, "The Great Dane", from The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. Action star turned evil mastermind—and a clear homage to Jean-Claude Van Damme. The author even said in an interview that if the webcomic was made into a movie, he would insist on Jean-Claude playing Frans.

Western Animation