So the other night I had the TV on. I’m not paying attention to it because I’m too busy surfing the net.
All the sudden, I hear a voice from the TV say my full name (both first and last). My attention immediately goes from my computer to the TV.
Despite being somewhat of a shady character, I wasn’t a suspect in a murder case that was being investigated. I did however, have some vital information on the case which prompted the head detective guy to give me a visit.
Of course, being the shady character that I am, I didn’t just give this information to him willingly. But alas, I finally had to capitulate to that A-hole detective guy’s demands or else he’d bust my ass on some trumped up charge. Bastard!!
Oh, and for some reason, on camera, I appear to be black.
(Seriously tho’. That was weird hearing my full name being used on a TV show.)
How strange it would be, to me, seems to vary by the name. I knew a Phil and Bill Fish; between Barney Miller and Deep Sea Fishing Masters they got pretty used to it. Now, if I had a name like Abercrombie Faphuffnik and heard THAT on TV, I would be really creeped out.
(Once, a few years back, I found a book had been written in my old home town using my last name for the lead character. It’s an odd enough name that I read the book with the number of a good attorney handy. Didn’t matter - the booked sucked so bad I didn’t have the heart to complain or call any of the cousins.)
Inever hear my own name, but a friend of mine had his name being the same as the hero of a cheesy 1950s monster flick. Naturally, I showed that at one of my Bad Film Festivals he attended.
Be sure to record the show so you can return and savor your Moment of Immortality.
I have a really unusual last name. I mean really really unusual last name.
So you can imagine how blown away I was when a Robert Duvall film I was watching years ago featured a character with that same last name! Different spelling, but sounds the same. I couldn’t believe it.
My first name is pretty unusual too (I can never find any of those mugs or keychains with my name), so I’m confident there’ll never be a show that uses my first and last name unless it’s actually about me.
That’s nothing. one SF writer once wrote an entire science fiction novel about aliens called by my last name invading the earth. I posted copies of the hardcover and later the softcover version on my door. The (CalMeacham) Are Among Us – “The (CalMeacham) are wily, devious, and perfectly terrible looking…It didn’t help that every one looked like a (CalMeacham).”
One day I hope to get even with him by writing The (SFwriter) are Among Us.
I don’t watch the show, but a few years back I was informed by a cow-orker that CSI:Miami (or something of that genre, still don’t watch whatever show it was) had me as a suspect too! (For those with Rainman-like ability to remember one-off characters in overrated TV shows, maybe they can provide more detail, IMdB search yields nothing)
Is CSI rounding up Dopers for something? Are they monitoring the SDMB? Should I start worrying?
This is a slight drift but - Isn’t there an actual Rambo on the Vietnam Memorial? I seem to recall some small flap from family members over the name when First Blood came out.
Years ago, I was in a letter writing club and I was matched up with a sci fi writer who so liked my unusual first name, she asked permission to use it for her main character. She was unpublished and I didn’t think much of it, until a few years later when I got a copy of the book signed by her.
Again, I didn’t think much of it, but I started playing WoW and was making a new toon and decided to use my first name. Then some guy starts whispering me and asking me if I was a big fan of [sci fi writer] cause his gf was and had all her books.
A quick search of WoW showed that my first name was being used in several different servers already!
So weird. All my life, it was my name. Never met anyone else with it. Now I have to share it with everyone else.
My last name isn’t common like Smith or Jones, but it’s uncommon enough that I usually do a double-take when I hear it. One of the characters on South Park shares my name, and there’s also a drama that ran in recent years where the star had the same last name as me. Back in the mid '80s, though, there was a short-lived series where one of the leads had my first name as well. My first name is very common, but it was still weird.
As for the person-with-a-famous-name angle, at the restaurant I used to run I had a young lady work for me for a few years named Lauren Holley.
