Tuckerization

Dawn, a background character named for an MTV staff member

Burnout Girl and her designer/inspiration, Karen Disher (MTV Daria flipbook, online).

Tuckerization is the act of naming a person, place, or thing in a work of fiction after a living person either as a homage or as an in-joke. The word is derived from 1950s science-fiction writer Wilson Tucker, who would name characters in his works after friends and family. In current science fiction, successful science-fiction authors have been known to auction off Tuckerizations for charity; the winner gets to have a character named after him in the next book.

A Tuckerization, however, is not a "guest appearance," where the character named after a living person is actually meant to represent that living person. Tuckerization is the naming of characters who are essentially different from their real-life counterparts, although they might have some similarities. MTV feature The Transformed Staff revealed that a number of background characters are tuckerisations of MTV staff, including Burnout Girl; the background character known as Dawn was also based on a former Daria production assistant (see notes in the Sick Sad World website).

A variant of Tuckerization is frequently used in Daria fanfic, in that the online screen names of fans, authors, and artists are used in stories instead of those persons' real names (e.g., the major characters of "Scarlett").

Examples of Tuckerizations

A partial list of Tuckerizations in current Daria fanworks follows. Almost any appearance of a penguin, particularly if named Tux, is assumed to be fanservice for TAG.

Falling Into College:

• Gina Fulton's best friend Natalie is named after Quiverwing.
• Isabelle, the Costume Mistress for Raft's Theater Department, is named for HelpfulSkittlesExplosion.

John Lane:

• The new English teacher brought in to replace Timothy O'Neill, Ms. Ruiz, was named after Liz Ruiz.

Legion of Lawndale Heroes:

• The quarry is named the Forman Quarry, after fanfiction writer C.E. Forman.
• The Bowman Acts and Senator James Bowman are named after fanfiction writer James Bowman, who wrote the first part of Legion of Lawndale Heroes, and the body of water which provides Lawndale ocean access is named Lewis Bay, after series co-creator Susie Lewis. (These Tuckerizations were added by co-writer Brother Grimace.)
• Bealer and Curtis, two members of Furmaan Singh's bodyguard, are named after fanfiction authors Kristen Bealer and Scissors MacGillicutty (although Scissors's name is misspelled).
• Natalia Luchinni, the Argentinian-born lover of Darren Appleton, is loosely based on Quiverwing.
• Several cadets at the United States Academy of Extranormal Studies are based upon PPMB posters.
• The Doctor, one of the metahumans who frequents Old Stanley's and who used his telepathic skills to help Quinn, is based on the Russian PPMBer UU.

Mad Dog

• A location "..at the corner of MacGillicutty Street and Wright Avenue, next to the storefront church with the broken-winged angel on the sidewalk outside," refers to three of the the Angst Lords: Scissors MacGillicutty, Brother Grimace, and Angelinhel.
• Half a block away from the above corner is the "Renfield Building" which refers to the Angst Lord Renfield.

Visitations:

• Two villains in "Visitations" are named after James Bowman and Thomas Mikkelsen, two fan fiction writers.