10 of the strangest cameo appearances in 'Scooby-Doo' history

When a character has been a consistent feature on TV and cinema screens for as long as Scooby-Doo has — more than 50 years — it’s inevitable that they’re eventually going to cross over with the world of celebrity. Throughout the dozens of films and TV shows that make up the Scooby-Doo universe, real world celebrities and other fictional characters have frequently crossed over with the Mystery Inc. gang.

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Some of these cameos are to be expected, with other Hanna-Barbera characters like the Flinstones and Yogi Bear inevitably crossing paths with Scoob and his pals. However, others are truly baffling and completely bizarre.

Here are some of the most unusual faces to ever share the screen with the world’s most famous animated Great Dane.

Batman

Scooby-Doo and Batman have shared the screen on several different occasions. They first joined forces in 1972 in the second episode of the cameo-tastic series The New Scooby-Doo Movies. In the episode, entitled The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair, Batman and Robin teamed up with Mystery Inc. to investigate a strange hooded character linked to Joker and Penguin.

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Years later, the collaboration between Mystery Inc. and the Caped Crusader expanded to feature-length with the 2018 direct-to-video outing Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold. The movie also featured a selection of other characters from the DC stable, including Martian Manhunter, Aquaman and Catwoman.

Pamela Anderson

Baywatch star Pamela Anderson is the only live-action cameo on this list. The star appears in the opening sequence of the 2002 Scooby-Doo movie, which was written by future Guardians of the Galaxy helmer James Gunn. She portrays the owner of a toy company which is being menaced by a floating ghost, who of course turns out to be the janitor in some sort of helium-infused suit. After the gang catch the ghost, she dramatically rams the Mystery Machine through the door.

Read more: Anderson claims she lost out on role after rejecting Steven Seagal

The fact that Anderson seems to own the factory is a reference to The New Scooby-Doo Movies, in which the celebrity guest of the week almost always had a wildly implausible second job along with their fame.

Simon Cowell

In perhaps the most unusual cameo on this whole list, Scoob! casts Simon Cowell as the benefactor who helps Mystery Inc. turn their mystery-solving hobby into a viable business. He isn’t a fan of Shaggy and Scooby, though, which results in the duo separating themselves from their friends. It’s a fate that has befallen many groups on Cowell’s talent shows, with weak links mercilessly ejected from bands who put ambition ahead of loyalty. Always the villain, Mr Cowell.

Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy also appeared in the first season of The New Scooby-Doo Movies in an episode called The Ghost of Bigfoot, with Mystery Inc. bumping into the famous double act en route to a ski lodge. The duo are on the hunt for a job at the lodge, only to find that the presence of Bigfoot is scaring away all of the guests.

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The episode culminates in Laurel and Hardy becoming bellhops at the hotel. I don’t remember that bit of Stan and Ollie. It might have been a bit less awards season friendly.

Harlem Globetrotters

The famed exhibition basketball players of the Harlem Globetrotters are among the most prolific Scooby-Doo guest stars, appearing in three episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies across its two seasons. The team were already part of the Hanna-Barbera family, having portrayed animated versions of themselves in a cartoon of their own, airing at the beginning of the 1970s. Across their three episodes with the Mystery Inc. gang, they encountered spooky pirates, sea serpents and hooded ghosts. The usual Scooby mix.

Sonny and Cher

In the brilliantly named 1972 New Scooby-Doo Movies episode The Secret of Shark Island, Sonny and Cher — just a few years after I Got You Babe — encounter the gang while on their honeymoon and, of course, befriend this bizarre group of teenagers and their talking dog. From there, they are all plagued by a giant monster shark. Bonus points for the outfits on this one too.

Sam and Dean Winchester

In 2018, Scooby-Doo left the confines of his own show for an episode of Supernatural, which saw Sam and Dean Winchester sucked into the world of Scooby and his friends. Warner Bros owns the rights to both shows and so the crossover was able to happen with the current casts of both series.

Sam and Dean assist the Mystery Inc. gang when a real ghost is suddenly introduced into A Night of Fright Is No Delight — a 1970 episode of the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! series. The episode was acclaimed by critics for its meta comedy.

Dick Van Dyke

In the final episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, first broadcast in 1973, Dick Van Dyke runs a carnival. A ghostly strongman is stalking the carnival, driving away guests. Less than a decade after Mary Poppins, Van Dyke was very much a household name at this point, bringing the series to its end on a high.

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Sia

The modern equivalent of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, the newest Scooby series also deals in celebrity guest appearances. Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? features a different celeb each week, with the 2019 first season including such names as Weird Al Yankovic, Wanda Sykes, Ricky Gervais and magician duo Penn & Teller. Perhaps the strangest, though, was quirky singer Sia.

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She appeared in an episode entitled Now You Sia, Now You Don't! which featured an infamous jewel thief who had somehow managed to become a double for Sia. Naturally, she calls the Mystery Inc. gang to help her out.

Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? is back this summer, with guest stars including Whoopi Goldberg, Mark Hamill and Neil deGrasse Tyson. The world of Scooby just gets madder.

The Undertaker

In recent years, Scooby has appeared in several movies in collaboration with WWE Studios. The first was 2014’s Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery, which pitted the Mystery Inc. gang against a ghostly bear seemingly awakened by the titular wrestling event. Even weirder, though, was the 2016 direct-to-DVD adventure Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon. The movie saw Shaggy and Scooby join forces with The Undertaker to solve the mystery of a bizarre interloper disrupting a racing tournament.

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Given Undertaker’s absolute adherence to his quasi-supernatural gimmick throughout his 30-plus years in the wrestling business, it’s doubly weird to see him diving headlong into something as goofy as Scooby-Doo meets Fast & Furious. By the time the villain is unmasked as fellow wrestler Triple H, it’s difficult to imagine it getting any stranger.