Elvis Impersonator: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Most often can be found overseeing marriages in [[Viva Las Vegas]], the '''Elvis Impersonator''' (a subtype of [[Celebrity Impersonator]]) usually dresses and acts like late era [[Elvis Presley]]: portly, with an exaggerated pompadour hairdo, wearing a ridiculously pimped out jacket, and [[Catch Phrase|fond of saying]] "thank<s>you</s>yewverymuch".

[[The Other Wiki]] lists three types of Elvis impersonators—Look-alikes, sound-alikes, and combinations—who tend to be either professionals, amateurs, [[Just for Fun]] types, or those who do their routines for [[Comedy]] and/or [[Parody]]. They also state that the earliest known Elvis impersonator was a Canadian teenager who started making stage appearances in 1956.

 

{{examples}}

* One ''Progressive'' commercial ends with an Elvis impersonator as one of the customers.

* A Dejope bingo casino commercial in Madison, Wisconsin area has several Elvis impersonators getting haircuts.

 

* ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'': the second arc's [[Big Bad]] Etemon. He had some rockstar traits even before the dub, but in english he's pure Elvis.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Though we never see him in his Elvis get up Sangrecco from [[Mesmo Delivery]] does this as a hobby and claims not only to have won a competition in the past but that he would have made "A better Elvis than Elvis"

* One shows up in [[ABC Warriors]] and proceeds to hit on Morrigun, an Amazonian [[FemBot]], it does not go well for him.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* One segment of the film ''Aria'' has an Elvis impersonator lip-synching Verdi's "La donna è mobile", from the opera ''Rigoletto''.

* ''[[Bubba Ho-Tep]]'': Bruce Campbell plays the ''real'' Elvis, who had become bored with his life so he switched with an Elvis Impersonator. It was the impersonator who died in 1977. (Same movie has [[John F. Kennedy]], whose brain was implanted into the body of a black man so people wouldn't believe it's really him.)

** Speaking of Elvis and Nicolas Cage, his performance in [[David Lynch]]'s ''[[Wild at Heart]]'' is pretty much an Elvis impersonation played straight.

* In ''[[Into the Night]]'', Diana goes to her brother Charlie (an Elvis impersonator) for help, and he throws her out of his house.

* One shows up in the background in ''Redline''.

* Invoked in the US ''[[Godzilla]]'', where French secret service agent Philippe Roche, played by Jean Reno, manages to pass for an American with a credible Elvis impression. "He was the King."

* Quebec film ''Elvis Gratton'' has the titular character, a crass, boorish french-canadian Archie Bunker-type, used at the time as a satire of many Quebecois' lack of pride in themselves, contentment with mediocrity and self-loathing (most of us who are self-aware will freely admit how messed-up we are psychosocially). Of course, he takes part in an impersonator contest, which include among others a chinese impersonator (Elvis Wong), prompting a racist tirade from Gratton.

* In ''[[Dudes]]'', an impersonator who goes by the name of [[Just for Pun|Dared Elvis]] is something of a [[Trickster Mentor]] to the lead characters.

* An Elvis Presley-esque RV shows up at the Piston Cup races in Disney/Pixar's ''[[Cars]]''.

* Chanticleer from ''[[Rock-a-Doodle]]''.

 

* An Elvis impersonator ends up as a murder suspect in ''[[CSI]]''.

* Albert (of all people) dresses as one as part of a scam in the ''[[Hustle]]'' episode "Big Daddy Calling".

* If this didn't happen on ''[[Las Vegas]]'', I'll quit tvtropes forever.

* An episode of ''[[The Weakest Link]]'' had Elvis impersonators as contestants, including the Latino Elvis, "El Vez".

* Jarod met one on ''[[The Pretender]]'' when he was working at a casino.

* Sort of a weird one: On ''[[Red Dwarf]]'', "Waxworld", the crew pops into the middle of a war between good and evil waxdroids - wax androids originally intended to be part of a theme park, but who had broken their programming. A waxdroid Elvis was on the good side.

* On [[Father Ted]], Ted, Dougal and Jack won a contest by all impersonating Elvis at different points in his life.

** And then he {{spoiler|killed Elvis by accident and took his place}}.

*** Possibly inspired by {{spoiler|[[Michael Moorcock]]'s short story, later novel, Behold the Man - although that was not abot Elvis, but Jesus!}}

* The short lived Canadian series [[Taking The Falls]] had an episode that strongly implied that the real (but not dead) Elvis was hiding out at a convention of Elvis impersonators.

* One episode of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' involved a Halloween party, and [[Those Two Guys]], Bulk and Skull, actually considered Elvis costumes; Skull as young Elvis and Bulk as "Vegas" Elvis. They wound up rejecting the idea and eventually went as "punks" instead (read: [[For Halloween I Am Going as Myself|themselves]] - [[Rule of Funny|not that they realized this]]).

* Showed up on one episode of ''[[The Golden Girls]]'', when a mix-up had them accidentally invited to Sophia's quickie wedding. One of them was played by [[Quentin Tarantino]] (!).

* A sheriff on ''[[The Adventures of Brisco County Jr]]'' bore a very close resemblance to Elvis, right down to the fried banana sandwiches and sunglasses he'd invented himself.

* On ''[[Castle]]'', in the episode "Heartbreak Hotel", Castle, Ryan, and Esposito are in Atlantic City investigating a murder during a convention. They get kicked out by the casino manager, and Castle's plan for sneaking back in involves going full Elvis.

* [[Smart Guy|Emil Hamilton]] of all people turns into one during a [[What Did I Do Last Night?]] plotline involving magically-spiked champagne on ''[[Smallville]]''. [[Hidden Depths|Seriously.]]

 

== [[Literature]] ==

{{quote|''If he did his quiff with chip fat and he couldn't really sing,

If Elvis were a Northerner, I'd be just like the king.'' }}

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* In a show for the Army, ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'', Sergeant Snorkel and General Halftrack became Elvis impersonators. Bailey was introduced as Young Elvis, Sarge as Old Elvis and General Halftrack as ''Dead'' Elvis.

 

== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==

{{quote|''Rollover Elvis! Let the Honky Tonk Man show you how to rock & roll!''

''Elvis who? He couldn't carry a tune if it had handles on it!'' }}

* For a short time after it debuted, [[TNA]] had a stable of Elvis impersonators in their high-flying X Division. They were dubbed—what else? -- The Flying Elvises.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has a card named ''[[Elvish Presley|Elvish Impersonators]]''. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]; Elvis impersonators with pointed ears.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In the original ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'', you'd sometimes come across wandering rows of Hare Krishnas [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|you could run over for a quick bonus]]. In the sci-fi sequel, ''GTA 2'', they were replaced with... wandering rows of Elvis Impersonators.

*** One in particular chimes in during the Madd Dogg suicide mission. "Jump! Look what dying did for my career!"

* Maxi from the [[Soul Series]] dresses similarly to Elvis, but is otherwise a [[Bruce Lee Clone]].

* In [[Kingdom of Loathing]], you can get an anthropomorphic dog with a Pompadour hairdo as a familiar. He is a [[Dance Battler]]. This is a direct shoutout to Elvis' song "You Ain't Nothing But A Hound Dog"

* In ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', the entire gang "The Kings" is like this, although only the head honcho (who confusingly enough calls himself The King) and his [[Number Two]] do the voice due to the fact that the holotapes of Elvis himself broke a good while ago. Because it's a couple hundred years [[After the End]], nobody actually remembers who "The King" is, but after finding a school filled with memorabilia, instructions on how to act like him, and a metric ton of hair gel, they figured it '''must''' be a place of worship and they'd keep his memory alive. [[From a Certain Point of View|They're not wrong, per se...]]

* An early villain in ''[[Fossil Fighters]] Champions'' is named Rockin' Billy, and talks in extremely exaggerated Elvis references.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Yakko Warner from ''[[Animaniacs]]'' did it in one scene (although he wasn't fat) where he was sitting at a piano and introducing something.

* In an episode of ''[[Tutenstein]]'', Tut visited a CONVENTION of Elvis Impersonators.

* In the ''[[Veggie Tales]]'' cartoon ''Lord of the Beans,'' Larry the Cucumber does his traditional Silly Song, while playing the fearless ranger Ear-a-corn. He dons fake elf ears and sings "Silly Songs With Elves," while wearing a suspiciously familiar bouffant wig and sparkling jumpsuit. The song is interrupted by elven archer Leg-o-lamb, who pulls off one of the ears and declares, "I knew it! You're not a real elf -- you're an elvish impersonator!"

* One episode of ''[[Cyberchase]]'' had The Hacker take over Happily-Ever-After as their king, and couldn't decide on which historical king he should dress up as, so he decides to dress up as Elvis as a result of this.

* One episode of ''[[Stunt Dawgs]]'' had Fungus buy a casino and hire Whiz Kid as an Elvis Impersonator. His act was of Elvis dying.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

** To give an idea of how this worked in his act: Andy would go on stage already in his Foreign Man character and give a series of [[Bad Impressionists|terrible impressions]], mostly consisting of "Hello, I am [person x]" in the same "foreign person" voice. Then, just as he was about to completely lose the audience, he would announce his Elvis impression. When he turned around, Foreign Man was completely gone and replaced with a completely flawless Elvis.

** Not only was his Elvis impression absolutely-spot on, but he also pre-dated the "impersonator" trend.

''Hey Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby. Are we losing touch?'' }}

* [http://elvistrooper.com/ TK-4321], the Elvis Trooper. Yep. There's an Elvis [[Star Wars|Stormtrooper]]; he's part of the 501st Legion, the Star Wars villain costuming group. Sometimes he's Indiana Elvis, Ghostbuster Elvis, or Elvis Solo.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]