Crossover

Mack, Kevin, Trent, and Upchuck do Ghostbusters (Daria's Inferno)

Crossovers mix Daria elements (characters, settings, plots, etc.) with those from another fictional work entirely, permitting interaction between those elements. Primarily this is done in fanfiction and fanart - often, due to fanfic's nature, with science fiction or fantasy canons such as the Marvel Universe - but has also been done in other canonical media.

For variations on this concept in fanfiction, see Dariaverse Crossover (Daria crossing over with an alternate reality Daria) and reality crossover (Daria crossing over with the real world). A crossover involving three or more non-Daria works is sometimes called a megacrossover (per the Fanfiction Glossary).

Daria Crossed-over in Other Canons

Daria and company have appeared in a number of places as crossover characters in works for other canons, including Internet comics. Some examples are noted in the Media section of Outpost Daria. Significant appearances in other non-Daria media are given below.

Gimpy, altered to look like Daria, in Undergrads ("Room Mates")

Undergrads

At the beginning of episode 6 of the MTV cartoon Undergrads ("Room Mates," first aired June 15, 2001), the technophile college freshman named Gimpy is being cyber-harassed by a female hacker, She-Prime. During a webcam discussion between Gimpy and Nitz, a friend at another college, Gimpy's image is altered by She-Prime so that he looks like a young woman. "It's never easy to say this," says Nitz with a laugh, "but Gimpy... you look like Daria."

The New Adventures of Bobbin

In an installment of The New Adventures of Bobbyn by Joycelyn Yik (August 31, 2001), the characters noted the similarity between their situation and The Kiss... causing Daria and Jane to arrive with a court injunction.

Mall Monkeys

Outpost Daria notes that a now-extinct webcomic called "Mall Monkeys" was briefly visited by the Fashion Club in the installment for October 23, 2002. That particular episode was preserved by the WayBack Machine of Archive.org and may be viewed at this link.

Evil Josh and Billy

Daria and Evil Josh (Evil Tom? Tom?) in Evil Josh and Billy

A net cartoon by ex Daria fanfic writer John Berry included a Daria lookalike in an Evil Josh and Billy episode, "Evil Josh and Billy, Episode 2: Party at JC's", in a shout-out to "The Invitation". Daria also ends up being caught as an underage drinker. The series was earlier noted to have an "evil Tom Sloane" lookalike as well.

PPMB Threads

• I think John Berry may have ripped off Tom Sloane
• Daria ref in net cartoon

Drawn Together

On October 4, 2007, Daria fans were astonished to see what appeared to be a crossover using Daria on the Comedy Central TV show, Drawn Together (episode 30: "Lost in Parking Space, Part Two"). The appearance was all the more shocking as Daria was a mutilated victim in a Hostel parody. She, like captured other animated characters, had gone to a Hot Topic store to see how her licensed merchandise was doing. "This is men fault," was her monotone comment after having a nail driven into her right eye, a remark many fans felt was rather out of character for her. This appearance received much coverage on PPMB and was also mentioned in several Daria fanfics. (Comedy Central, like MTV, is a part of Viacom.)

Daria in Drawn Together

General Information

• "Lost in Parking Space, Part Two" archived on Wikipedia (page has been combined with other episode pages on one page)
• Episode summary on TV.com
• "Daria on Drawn Together," LiveJournal entry by MagicSushi

PPMB Threads

• Daria guest appearance!
• Daria on drawn together!
• Who else hated this?!?!?

Fanfics

• "Drawn & Quartered", by The Angst Guy on PPMB (stand-alone version)
• "Canon Fodder", by Roentgen
• "I Still Want a New Duck", by Patrick Moore

Robot Chicken

On January 30, 2011, Daria was the subject of part of a segment on the Adult Swim show Robot Chicken. Set as a Michael Moore-esque documentary searching for forgotten '90s cartoon characters, the host finds Daria as an overweight trans man named Daryl. Daryl then goes into graphic detail describing the process of how he became a man, causing the host to vomit. Reaction to this among fandom has been mostly negative.

PPMB Threads

• Robot Chicken

External link

• "The 90's Revisited" clip on Adultswim.com (US only)

The scene in Blood Waters of Dr. Z when "Daria" appears (Mystery Science Theater 3000)

References to Daria

• The well-known comic strip Luann by Greg Evans featured Daria's image on a student's T-shirt on May 3, 1999. Outpost Daria has the strip (in color) here, but it may also be viewed at the Luann homepage in black and white.
• In May 1999, the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 poked fun at a 1975 horror B-movie called Blood Waters of Dr. Z. At one point, the mad scientist Dr. Leopold (transformed into a monster) kidnaps a young woman and draws a picture of her, which he tapes to a zodiac picture. Mike Nelson (Michael J. Nelson), watching the film, remarks: "Hmm. Daria looks nice without her glasses." The Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XVII DVD, which contains Blood Waters of Dr. Z, was released on March 16, 2010.
• On a September 23, 2003 episode of Gilmore Girls, Rory Gilmore compares her social life with that of Daria, noting that "I don't wanna change. I don't wanna be the anti-town girl. I'm not Daria."
• The webcomic "Sufferin’ Joyce," found at ComicCritics.com, had an interesting entry for May 15th, 2009, involving two characters with remarkable similarities to Daria and Jane.
• A September 2010 entry of Our Valued Customers, a webcomic reproducing inane and stupid comments made by real customers in the artist's comic shop, had one grumpy customer telling his friend: "You remember that show Daria? I wanted to punch that bitch in the face."
• A June 2011 song, A Love Story, by Watsky & The GetBand has Watsky rapping about his failing relationship with a girl... as represented by a cutout Daria, who disses him at the end of the song for being "emo".

Might-Have-Beens and Lookalikes

Hyrin pointed out on PPMB that there is a close copy of Daria, as a child, in The Care Bears Movie in the audience in the magic-show scene (back row, right of center).

Daria crossovers in fanworks

Trent and Daria do Casablanca (MTV)

There are two types of crossover in fanfiction and fan art:

• The first is where Daria characters or elements encounter the characters or elements of another canon, or vice versa. For example, "It's Eureka, Daria" (Richard Lobinske) has the Morgendorffers moving to the eponymous town from the sci-fi show Eureka; "Have Faith" (Mediancat) inserts Daria into the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel; "Screams of Silence" (Jim North) that has Daria entering the haunted town of Silent Hill.

• The second is where an amalgamation is created of Daria and the other canon, the characters of the former becoming the latter. This is often seen with superhero stories, such as "Lawndale's Finest" (NightGoblyn) where Jane and Daria are Superman and Batman (respectively). This sort of fanfic can be played straight ("DeWitt", crossing Daria with Dexter) or for humour by contrasting the Daria characters with the crossed-over setting and genre ("Is It The Grim Darkness Of The Far Future, Yet?" by RX-87, where everyone is a Warhammer 40K character).

Other Links

• Crossovers Not Yet Crossed Over thread on PPMB
• The Incomplete List of Daria Crossovers thread on PPMB
• Essays on fanfiction crossovers at the Fanfic Symposium