He's not so well known outside of the States, but in his home country Carey is something of a cultural institution. He's rarely been off television screens since his sitcom, The Drew Carey Show, started in 1995; he's since hosted the American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, currently presides over game show The Price Is Right , and is part of the current roster of Dancing With The Stars. Carey's also clearly an avid gamer, and that's not just based on his portly appearance - the comedian actually put a shout-out to The Sims in an episode of his TV show, the opening scene of which featured the characters all speaking the made-up language of the game, with speech bubbles explaining the basic content of their conversations. It's pretty fun! And developers Maxis were apparently so charmed by the reference to their burgeoning series (which recently spawned its fourth proper sequel; it's not clear if the "trapping people in a burning building" mechanics have improved any since the first) that they arranged for Carey to have a cameo in one of the expansion packs released for the original game. To have the celeb turn up at their house party in the add-on, erm, The Sims: House Party, players had to ensure that the shindig was appropriately raucous. At a certain level of festiveness Drew Carey would pull up in his limo and join the fun! Which was confusing for anybody not playing the game in the US case in point, Swedish Sims-players used to call him Göran Persson, cos he looked like their former prime minister of the same name.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
