Believe it or not, but Stan Lee has made cameos in plenty of other television shows and films
outside of Marvel properties and adaptations.
Considering he’s a pop culture icon, that shouldn’t be too surprising!
Lee was in high demand, especially towards the later decades of his life.
So today, we’re taking a look at some of his notable appearances with our list of the
top 10 Stan Lee Cameos in Non Marvel movies!
And some of them are quite unexpected, too!
Let’s jump in.
10 Mallrats Mallrats is one of Lee’s most well known
non Marvel appearances, a film by Kevin Smith from 1995.
A cult classic, the film initially didn’t do well at the box office, but has gone down
in history as one of Smith’s greatest, despite it’s now uncomfortable rape jokes.
Lee plays a full blown role in the film, as himself of course, and has stated that the
film was his favourite cameo to date.
Lee gives the character Brodie some much needed advice on romance.
9 Big Bang Theory Personally, I hate the Big Bang Theory.
Why?
Because the majority of the shows comedy doesn’t come from making smart jokes about the nerdy
pop culture content it’s character’s are fanboys of.
Rather, it makes being a fanboy and a nerd the joke, which feels like an easier way to
get cheap laughs and actually make fun of the culture.
Regardless of what myself (and many other people) feel about it, the show managed to
do one thing right and get Stan Lee to stop by it’s studios to make a pretty good cameo.
In an episode called The Excelsior Acquisition, Stan Lee plays himself, visiting the gang’s
local comic book shop.
Sheldon isn’t able to make the event, so Penny brings him to Stan Lee’s house, who
shows up at the door wearing a Fantastic Four robe and proceeds to fling a whole lot of
sarcasm at Sheldon and Penny.
8 Pizza Man Back in the early 2000s, there was a dark
period of contemporary cinema in which producers put Frankie Muniz, aka Malcolm in the Middle,
in a lot of sh*tty movies.
One of those sh*tty movies was none other than Pizza Man, a film that actually came
out in 2011 (WHAT THE F*CK) in which Muniz played a dude named Matt Burns, a pizza delivery
boy who wakes up with superhuman strength after consuming a genetically altered tomato.
Yep.
This was a real movie.
Although considering how cringe it was, you probably don’t remember it, let alone know
of any of the other actors who starred in it, minus Muniz and two very special comic
book legend cameos (who also made it on the movies main poster in a sad attempt to sell
more tickets).
We’re talking none other than Stan Lee, and Adam West, who played Batman in the campy
60s television series and film.
7 Kick-Ass Compared to the likes of other live action
films and shows on this list that play with the superhero genre, Kick-Ass is an actual
comic adaptation, a more realistic and gritty story about a high school student and comic
book fan who decides to become a superhero.
In case you’ve forgotten how great this 2010 hit was, it also starred Nicolas Cage
and a very young Chloe Grace Moretz who went around murdering bad guys and cussing, to
the point where the film actually spawned some criticism from overly concerned parents.
Anywho, Stan Lee makes a cameo in the film as a man watching the news.
A brief but wonderful Easter egg.
In real life, when Stan couldn’t make the films premiere due to a prior commitment in
Vegas, he tweeted out “I’m surprised they didn’t change the premiere for me” as
a joke.
Oh Stan.
How we miss your sense of humour.
6 Teen titans Go to the movies While Stan definitely had his differences
over the years with DC comics, and quite a few qualms with certain copyright issues,
ahem power girl ahem, that didn’t stop the Marvel powerhouse from appearing in DC properties
out of good fun.
We’re talking specifically the recent Teen Titans Go!
To the Movies animated feature film.
The film, which slaps on layers and layers of meta dialogue and moments at times, finds
the teenage heroes at a movie studio lot, with Stan Lee in the background sweeping,
looking directly at the camera.
Later, he jumps onto the cart the titans are driving, with the Titans shouting out his
name.
Lee responds in a very cheeky and meta way himself.
It’s one of the last Lee cameos we’ll ever see, so it’s kind of nice to see him
have a fun go at his life long competitors in a friendly way.
5 Heroes Heroes was quite revolutionary at the time
it came out.
It was a story making use of the superhero genre that subverted the films and series
we had previously seen about caped heroes and honourable vigilantes.
Set in the real world, the 2006 show followed the lives of ordinary people who discovered
they had superhuman abilities, and how they all had work together to prevent a catastrophic
future from occurring.
While it followed the form of American comic books to an extent, it was quite different
that your typical comic adaptation.
So of course, based on the subject matter of the show, it was no surprise when Stan
Lee made a nice little cameo, driving a truck in a scene with the ever so endearing Hero
Nakamura.
4 Muppet Babies Muppet Babies is perhaps one of the more odd
additions to the list.
But considering Lee appears in an episode called Comic Capers, it kind of makes sense.
In the episode, the Muppet Babies decide to make their own comic book with a bunch of
different parody segments inspired by the likes of Dick Tracy, Peanuts and, of course,
Spider-Man.
After the Spidey segment is up, Lee appears, telling the Muppet Babies, “don’t you
know there’s only one Spider-Man?”
To which he’s then hit in the face with a bunch of spider-webs from an off screen
web shooter.
3 Robot Chicken Stan Lee had a great sense of humour.
And nothing better depicts that than his sometimes absurd and wonky cameos for adult animated
comedy series, Robot Chicken, which he appeared on on three separate occasions.
The first appearance was in 2007 in Tapping a Hero, the second was in 2012’s Executed
by the State and the third and final cameo was in 2013’s Robot Fight Incident.
These cameos include Stan hosting a superhero gossip news show with Pamela Anderson, only
to be revealed to be entirely in Stan’s mind.
He also jumps out a window while wearing a Spider-Man mask.
It’s all very funny.
2 The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement There is something wonderfully absurd about
Stan Lee making a cameo in The Princess Diaries.
And not even the first Princess Diaries, we’re talking the significantly less popular The
Princess Diaries 2 Royal Engagement.
YEP.
He plays a guest at Mia’s wedding, who hits on the Queen, played by Julie Andrews, in
the process.
It’s also one of the most random things Stan Lee has ever done, considering that most
of his cameos have some sort of connection either to comics or to individuals in the
film industry he was pals with.
But after some serious digging, one fan connected the film’s director Gary Marshall to a 2010
documentary called With Great Power The Stan Lee Story, suggesting that perhaps they had
crossed paths in other ways than the 2004 Princess Diaries sequel.
1 The Simpsons The Simpsons is by far one of the most important
and iconic animated series of the 20th and 21st century.
Aside from what it’s done for the industry and for comedy in general, many people also
think the show has the ability to predict the future.
Regardless of whether or not you believe that, it’s hard to deny that the Simpsons has
pumped out some stellar episodes since the show debuted in 1989, including three episodes
in which Stan Lee makes a cameo.
Yup, THREE.
His first appearance was in 2002, where he played himself in the episode I Am Furious
Yellow.
Bart makes a comic about Homer that goes viral online, and Stan isn’t a fan, noting that
his “stinky sense” is tingling.
There’s also a great moment where Stan puts an X-Men comic in front of a Superman comic
at the local Springfield comic book store.
If you’re curious about his other cameos, he appears in the episodes The Caper Chase
and Married to the Blob, in which he reprises his role as himself in both, including a scene
in which he smashes a kids bat mobile when trying to sell him on a Thing action figure.
There we have it friends!
Which of these was your favourite cameo?
Give us a shout in those comments below and let us know your thoughts!
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