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The concept of social comparison is a core aspect of social psychology research and an important part of identity development, yet there has been little research on this phenomenon in the context of media usage. Combining different kinds of measurements, this study investigates the similarities and differences in social comparison to media characters versus persons from the social environment. A sample of 278 respondents answered a questionnaire about both kinds of comparison. Results indicate that persons from the social environment serve more often as comparison targets than media characters. Furthermore, media characters lead to an increased amount of upward comparison and to comparison with dissimilar others. The relevance of comparison dimensions seems to be independent of the comparison target.