Look, I love a good celeb guest star. It's fun to see your favorite stars drop into your favorite shows! But sometimes massive celebs pop up on a show and you're just like "...huh?"
Usually, this happens when the celeb guest star is not an actor, or just feels really, really out of the place in the subject matter of the show. Here are 26 examples!
1. We'll start with the most recent: Megan Thee Stallion on She-Hulk. I'll forgive them for this one since I love Megan and it was an after-credits scene, but...Megan, what are you doing there??? How are you relevant to the plot???
Watch the scene here:
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2. The absolute worst, though, is when a singer pops on a show to do a performance. No, not as themselves performing at some in-show event where at least it makes sense. I'm talking about when they play a random character who is never seen again, who happens to sing. LIKE SHAWN MENDES ON THE 100.
Shawn literally just shows up to sing a professionally-recorded song in a literal bunker, then Jasper body-slams him. And that's the last we ever see of this character.
Watch the scene here:
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3. But the holy grail of this trope is Ed Sheeran on Game of Thrones.
He randomly shows up, sings a song, and then THAT'S IT. It's even worse than the Shawn example because Game of Thrones is a medieval-inspired fantasy show. At least The 100 is near-future.
You can watch the scene with him here:
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4. Coldplay's Will Champion also appeared on Game of Thrones, albeit in a smaller capacity. But what was weird to me is that this bizarre cameo is during the Red Wedding, arguably the most violent and iconic GoT scene of all time. Like, why did they need a celeb cameo in that scene???
Watch the snippet here:
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5. It's definitely more acceptable when the musician guest star has an actual reason to perform, like Carly Rae Jepsen on Castle (she was performing on a fake version of SNL). It's still weird, though, especially when the show doesn't commonly have full performances. Like, Castle and Beckett take a full-on break from their investigation to jam out to Carly Rae Jepsen.
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6. Similarly, it was super weird when Gossip Girl had *sort* of a musical episode where Dan, Vanessa, and Olivia had to put on a production of Snow White using Lady Gaga lyrics.
And then at the end, Blair "pulled some strings," and Lady Gaga HERSELF showed up to perform. Like, a full Grammy Awards-worthy performance, to a few NYU students. It was odd, to say the least.
Watch the scene here:
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7. Even stranger was Carrie Underwood on Cobra Kai. You know, the karate show? What is an American country singer doing there???
Watch the scene here:
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8. It's not just musicians; shows will throw on all different kinds of celebrities. Like Bill Nye on Blindspot, playing himself but also...Patterson's dad?
Watch one of his scenes here:
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9. Olympic athletes also randomly cameo on shows. Like gold medal gymnast Kerri Strug on Beverly Hills, 90210... Kerri's honestly fine in this scene, but I can't with the dialogue. It's so forced. Who says, "Do I have to win a gold medal or something to get into a class I want?"
Watch the scene here:
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10. Though the absolute best example of this is Shawn Johnson's appearance on The Secret Lie of the American Teenager, where she (I guess?) flirts with Ricky. I'll try to show it below, but screencaps don't do it justice.
Please, please, watch the scene here — you won't regret it:
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11. Back to musicians...One Tree Hill was known for its musical guest stars (which mostly made sense, as they performed at the in-show club/music venue Tric). But one guest deserves a mention on this list, and that's Pete Wentz, who first appeared with Fall Out Boy.
Which, fine. Normal enough. But things get worse when he appears AGAIN, and FLIRTS WITH PEYTON. A 17-YEAR-OLD.
THEN THEY START DATING FOR A COUPLE EPISODES. Like this random high school girl is just...dating Pete Wentz. We're supposed to believe that???
Watch a scene with him and Peyton here:
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12. Okay, sorry, I gotta mention one more One Tree Hill one. Season 8 saw lots of musical guests at Tric, including Kid Cudi. This one was kind of a big deal IMO, just because of how big Kid Cudi is and how much less popular OTH was from its heyday in Season 8.
But the reason why this one is so bizarre is that, like, ten episodes later, the fact that Kid Cudi performed becomes a low-key major storyline that somehow reveals that Brooke is pregnant. Which is a huge deal considering she's been trying to have a kid for seasons.
It also involved the Air Force and pot brownies and a flashback to Kid Cudi's entourage forcing Chase to smoke a joint, and the whole thing, and the fact that it somehow led to Brooke realizing she was pregnant...truly a mess.
13. Sorry, another GG one — anyone else remember when the MAYOR of NEW YORK (at the time) guest starred? Mike Bloomberg shows up for two seconds in the finale to express shock at Dan being Gossip Girl. Like, what???? How does he even know about GG?
Watch the scene here:
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14. Supernatural had a lot of wild guest stars, but there's one that felt ESPECIALLY out of pocket: Paris Hilton. Now, Paris had done a few acting jobs, but for some reason, she played herself in the show...but like, she was also a pagan god?
Even more bizarre, Hilton had recently starred in House of Wax with Jared Padalecki, who played Sam in the show. This means that if this is the same Paris, she should recognize Sam as Jared — which doesn't happen. They do, however, make a funny reference.
Watch the scene here:
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15. The wildest Supernatural guest star to me, though, was Snooki. Yep, Snooki of Jersey Shore fame. Again, playing herself — but she's possessed by a demon.
Watch the scene here:
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16. Next, I'm going to nominate one I actually like, but was super wild — when Prince showed up on New Girl.
Basically, they end up at a party at his house, and he steps in to help Nick and Jess with their relationship problems. Like, fully, he is the reason they end the episode on good terms. SO random but also I kind of love it.
Watch the scene where Nick and Jess meet him here:
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17. Another New Girl one — Taylor Swift. She shows up at Cece and Shivrang's ill-fated wedding to declare her love for Shivrang in true "Speak Now" fashion, and while it's a great bit of casting, it is SO random.
Watch the scene here:
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18. Yet another example of an ultra-famous pop star appearing on a show for no real reason is Britney Spears on Jane the Virgin.
Turns out, Rogelio and Britney have some beef from the past — you know what, as celeb guest star explanations go, this one isn't terrible. But still — Britney freaking Spears is just casually hanging with Jane for a lot of the episode!
Watch the scene here:
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19. Disney Channel actually had a few huge guest stars, like Dolly Parton on Hannah Montana — though that kind of made sense, as the main character was a famous singer. One that made a little less sense? Dwayne Johnson on Wizards of Waverly Place.
Basically, he shows up to visit Max, who is pretending he has a fake disease called mono-orangosis. Why specifically The Rock, a massive superstar, over any other actor? No reason.
Watch the scene when he first appears here:
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20. Another wild Wizards of Waverly Place guest star was Shakira.
She literally just walks into the Russo's sandwich shop. She then morphs into Alex's uncle (who has been Shakira this whole time!!!), but I'm pretty sure that only makes this example more nonsensical.
Watch the first scene with Shakira here:
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21. Another random massive cameo on a kid's show was when Aerosmith's Steven Tyler showed up as Santa on Lizzie McGuire. First of all, Steven Tyler is a major rockstar and it was super random to have him on a kid's show. He's dressed as Santa the entire episode, and at the end, he sings a song, when it's finally acknowledged that he's Steven Tyler. It is SO RANDOM.
Watch the scene here:
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22. Even though Hannah Montana was about a celebrity, I still think it was super strange for Larry David, of all people, to randomly appear. Like, the Venn diagram of fans of Larry David and fans of Hannah Montana is just...two separate circles.
Watch the scene here:
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23. Another super weird Hannah Montana guest star was John Cena, who was really not an actor at the time. He shows up in Jackson's magazine — then, as a fully formed hallucination who kicks Jackson's butt in order to convince Jackson that reading is fun. No, I did not make that sentence up.
Watch the scene here:
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24. One of the biggest stars on this list is Kim K. Considering her fame, you wouldn't expect her to show up on a random sitcom like 2 Broke Girls. But...she does. It actually does kind of make sense to see her in the episode, which is centered around KUWTK producers planning to shoot an episode at Max and Caroline's cupcake window. Kim doesn't show up until the very end, when she apologizes for it not working out. But still — she's Kim freaking Kardashian!!! What is she doing on 2 Broke Girls??
Watch the scene here:
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25. Kim and her sister Khloe also quickly appeared on 90210 back when they were a little less famous. In the episode, they played themselves, bringing Naomi some clothes from DASH.
I think the main reason I found this so weird — besides the Kardashian's mega-fame — was that Naomi openly insults Kim in the scene and perpetuates stereotypes about Kim. Like, why the heck did Kim want to appear??
Watch the scene here:
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26. And finally, truly the most bizarre example to me is Big Bird on The West Wing.
Watch the scene here:
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Suggested by carleenh