The One With...

Well, my vote is still to have them removed. Most of them are already on JustForFun.The One With page, some don't make sense (The One Where Sonic kicking Eggman's ass) and still don't provide any real contribution to the pages. The laconic pages already do a similar purpose.

I like them. They're witty IMHO.

I don't find any or them particularly witty, and they are functionally Laconics taking refuge on the main page. At least the Running Gag on our Final Fantasy pages involved someone putting in the effort to find absurd adjectives in a thesaurus.

I don't like them. At best they're restating the laconics, at worst they're just annoying and taking up space for the sake of a joke.

I don't want to go all "Troper's Law" here, but I do think these are just harmless injokes that can add some flavor if done well, and I feel like the recent push toward removing page jokes like these are making things too dry. I've personally never even seen the point in having a laconic for anything besides a trope, so the overlap issue doesn't bother me very much. If anything, having it on the same page makes it easier.

Other than that, I really don't care if they stay or go, but I do think some of the arguments for removing them are a little weak.

Edited by WarJay77 on Jan 13th 2022 at 4:02:04 AM

Fair enough, but most of the time I don't think they are done well, and I just don't find them funny.

They're silly things that don't actually function as "laconic". They're not informative enough to actually fit that. They're just jokes to begin with, and probably fit better in "just for fun" instead.

They also don't actually hurt a thing either way, but could have some cleanup for ones that are blatantly bashing or gushing. Neutral but fun.

They actually already are JFF now.

Then the rest is easy cleanup. Thanks for noting that~

Frankly, "sometimes they can be done badly" doesn't strike me as a good reason for a blanket ban.

I still find them annoying, but if they stay that's fine.

x2 I've yet to see them done well, and the Sonic '06 one was used to complain to top of that.

Bringing this back from the dead because Need for Speed game pages just had The One With… lines added to them. Full disclosure that I haven't played these games. None of them sound too complainy (not sure about Need for Speed Payback's "uh" line), though some are vague (like Need for Speed II's use of the word "arcadey") or feel like restating the title without really mentioning a defining feature (Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Need for Speed: High Stakes). Do people think these should be kept on game pages or moved to the JFF page? I'm voting for the latter myself (don't think they're particularly witty, but that is my opinion).

These lines were removed from Sonic The Hedgehog game pages and "we can use this space to discuss what to do with existing entries and any future additions on other pages", so I want to make sure.

Edited by Piterpicher on Nov 2nd 2022 at 12:11:47 PM

I would be in favour of a blanket ban of beginning work pages with The One With, for sure.

Hello. I wonder what we should do about The One With… lines for the James Bond film pages, such as Film.Dr No.

Edited by gjjones on Feb 26th 2023 at 5:45:59 AM

I honestly don't think this is enough of a problem for work pages. Compared to some really bad "everyone wants to be a Caustic Critic"-type 2010 snark I've found, this kind of Running Gag is harmless.

So as long as it doesn't spread to other pages it's fine.

I asked about adding these lines to TNG recaps in Ask The Tropers and was directed to this thread.

The way I see it, if the Star Trek film pages can have them, there's no reason the TV shows can't. So long as they're done well and are witty, I think they're harmless. The objections ITT go against the spirit of "being a buttload more informal than Wikipedia".

A good example is the Doctor Who episode World War Three, which invokes Billy Sol's catchphrase from SCTV. ("It blowed up real good!") See, now that's funny! It's also very witty.

I'll say I honestly kinda like them for the Bond Films pages? Because a lot of them do tend to be referred to that way instead of their proper titles. "The one with the Ninjas" "The one with the Voodoo" etc...

Like I'm not usually fond of this kind of stuff but on the Bond film page they frankly feel like they do fit.

Most pages do use them poorly (Need for Speed Payback's "The one with X, alternatively the one with Y" is awful, like pick one.) But I'll stan the bond film's use.

I'm fine with a show in a franchise having them. But individual episode recaps is frankly overdoing it.

Edited by Ghilz on May 6th 2024 at 4:43:57 AM

You can also add them to the dedicated subpage.

I still don't like them very much, though I haven't fully articulated why until now. Even when they don't have other problems, they're gratuitous and rarely convey information that couldn't be integrated into the description (or, worse, already is in the description). Take Film.Dr No, for example:

The one that started it all.

This is made redundant by the start of the very next sentence:

Dr. No is the first film in the Eon Productions James Bond series and the first cinematic adaptation of Ian Fleming's literary hero (based off the novel of the same name)...

I don't mind the other description Running Gags because they're just a few words that can be cleanly integrated into the description itself, whereas these ones are forced into the very start of an article.

(Also: the commented-out notice in that same article claims that "the site owner himself has discussed The One With and said they should stay. Please leave them alone." Where was this? I've intermittently followed the discussion about these lines and I've never seen the owner of the site chime in about them.)

Edited by BlueGuy on May 6th 2024 at 9:57:43 AM

I think the Dr. No example is kinda lame and could be updated to something better, though I don't see concerns of redundancy with the rest of the descriptions to be a recurring issue. The only comparable example I can really find is Casino Royale (2006) which says "The one where it all began — again.", which feels like it's noteworthy because of how much that film adjusted the status quo of the franchise.

I've never seen Dr. No, but if we replace the Casino Royale line, I'm partial to "The One With the parkour chase where James Bond runs through a wall."

Edited by number9robotic on May 7th 2024 at 12:26:58 PM

Doctor Who recaps have this and no one seems to mind.

Love this. It's exactly the style I was trying to emulate: humorous pithy introductions to Trope Overdosed (to the point of being memetic) works.

Taking TNG as an example, I had ideas for Yesterday's Enterprise and Q Who, and wanted to branch out to the other famous episodes in the fandom: BoBW, Cause and Effect, Measure of a Man, The Drumhead, The First Duty, Tapestry, Remember Me, The Inner Light, The Pegasus, Deja Q, Qpid, etc.

Or the most infamous episodes:

• Shades of Grey (a clip show so bad no other show in the franchise has attempted one since)

• The High Ground (a hamfisted allegory of the Northern Ireland conflict)

• Symbiosis (D.A.R.E. but in space)

• Code of Honor (the "white savior complex" episode)

• Episodes where the Enterprise-D crew goes to the horny brig, like Sub Rosa and The Naked Now

So far I've got lines for Yesterday's Enterprise and Q Who, and would like help with BoBW.

• Yesterday: The one where Denise Crosby gets the proper send-off she was denied two years before.

• Q Who: The one where the Enterprise-D makes first contact with...the Borg.

• BoBW: This is a tough one, because there are so many options. Picard gets assimilated by the Borg? Riker is offered command? Backdoor series finale? The greatest cliffhanger in the franchise?

I'm also toying with an example for Cause and Effect: The One With… Groundhog Day before Groundhog Day.

Edited by 773202luna on May 10th 2024 at 11:10:38 AM

As pointed out by Trending Toon 1 in this ATT they bumped, Recap.My Life As A Teenage Robot has The One With… on each episode page, and they're kinda low effort.

I feel if the "The One With"s aren't witty, are generic, and don't tell you much about the episode or its reputation, they can probably go.

Yeah, a surprising amount of them are bare-bones or just a different story’s plot with "…again" added at the end.