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openUnhelpful Definition
A gag/pithy statement that defines something in a roundabout/unhelpful way.
e.g. "A true friend is the one whose betrayal hurts you the most", "Reputation is that which takes a lifetime to build and a minute to destroy", etc.
open"Had to Be There" Episode
Something with YMMV I've noticed. Episodes that are deeply rooted in a real-life experience, one that most viewers wouldn't have gone through, and derive most of their humor from it. These tend to attract a Broken Base between fans who can relate and those who can't.
- The Amazing World of Gumball: "The Web" focuses entirely on Gumball and Darwin helping their mother, Nicole, set up her computer and use it for work. A majority of the episode's jokes are about adults just not being good with technology, misunderstanding slang, giving out too much personal information, etc. The episode gets a lot of hate from people who find it outdated or not that funny, but, as you can see from some comments here, people who have worked in IT or helped family members with computers in real life have admitted to finding it really funny and relatable.
- South Park: "I Never Should Have Gone Ziplining" has a massive Broken Base, with fans either considering it one of the best or worst episodes with little inbetween. The entire episode is a dramatic retelling of a boring guided tour. It has a very "inside joke"-y vibe with things like cheesy instructional videos, waiting for people to have their questions answered, and the activities ultimately not being fun at all. A reviewer goes into its polarizing reception here.
openBattle of ideas
Describing a battle between 2 persons, groups, or even whole factions, which is as much about an argument of ideas/philosophy as it is a fight where blood may be shed. May involve symbolisms.
openCalling Out The Player Videogame
Essentially, in games where there is Video Game Cruelty Potential, the game calls the player out on it without it exactly being a Video Game Cruelty Punishment. Could overlap with not-videogame tropes where a character calls another character for their Jerkass behavior.
openGame Decides Your Actions For You Videogame
A punishment for being slow in a game which features a Time Limit in some capacity. After it expires, it forces your character to do something rather than just do nothing or instantly give you a gameover.
openPiñata Gag
A joke involving characters hitting piñatas, usually as part of a birthday party or celebration. The pinata may be shaped like something funny, it might contain something decidedly unwanted (or even nothing), or the blindfolded person may miss and end up smashing something else.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Krusty Katering", when Mr. Krabs caters a kids' party, the pinata is in the shape of his business rival, Plankton. The blindfolded kid ends up hitting him instead, quickly turning the party violent and destructive.
- The Simpsons: In "Let's Go Fly a Coot", Homer ruins Nelson's birthday party by filling his pinata with rice cakes.
openIntroduced to an outlier first
We are introduced to a character that belongs to a certain group: nationality, profession, species, etc. And this character has certain traits that are assumed to be common for their group. But then we see other characters from the same group, and it turns out that the first character was actually an outlier.
For example, we meet a Blood Knight warrior alien who is always looking for a fight, and it's assumed (whether in or out-of universe) that he's from a Proud Warrior Race and all his quirks are part of his culture. Except then we see the rest of his species, who are all meek pacifists, and it turns it's just this one guy who's a weirdo.
openTreacherously Encouraging Underling
Alice works for Bob and is plotting his downfall, but instead of directly betraying Bob or backstabbing him, she does so by encouraging Bob in whatever destructive path he's heading down, and if successful he'll never even know it was her.
e.g. Bob is a small-time goon who kills Alice's parents. She finds out who Bob is and becomes his girlfriend, subtly pushing him to think he's more important than he is, fanning his ambition until he tries to take over the gang... at which point Alice goes into hiding for her safety (Bob thinking it was his idea) and waits for him to get killed by the far more competent gangsters.
Edited by Chabal2openMagic Mutates
The use of magic, or repeated exposure to mana, causes physical changes and mutations in mages.
openAbsurd plot source reveal
You know the kind of major story events that turned out to have started in the most ridiculous way possible, it's almost laughable? For example: An entire town is overrun by zombies, then you find out later in the story that the zombie outbreak happened because someone ate a rotten cheeseburger.
openHero takes Advantage of Villian
Main character uses a connection to the villain that said villain made to control them to learn the villain's plans.
Seen in Dracula, when the party uses Mina's connection that Dracula made with her while trying to transform her into a vampire to track him down and defeat him.
openArms As Legs
A type of Bizarre Alien Biology where a creature has a humanoid body plan, but the limbs attached to the shoulders are so long that they serve as legs, while the lower limbs are prehensile and used as arms (the body is usually much smaller than a human's).
resolved Instinctual Language Knowledge
A character is able to speak the language typical for their nationality or species despite never learning it. For example, an elf who is raised around humans and has never heard or seen Elvish before can speak it fluently when they meet another elf for the first time.
Alternatively, just a character being able to speak a language fluently without learning it, if the above is too specific.
openDeath Amnesia
Someone is dead and either a ghost or in the afterlife, but doesn't realize/is in denial that they're dead.
resolved A Worker, Not a Friend
A character thinks someone in a service position is being nice to them out of genuine regard, but it's either just a job or a front to get more money out of them.
openFear of being Forgotten
Looking for a trope where a character's source of angst comes from their fear of being forgotten, usually after their death.
openExposed Skull?
What’s the trope for when a character has an injury on their head that leads to some of the skull exposed?
openHonesty Mistaken For Lie
Bob is completely honest about something, and his factual statement is taken as a lie/exaggeration/understatement (but spoken normally, so not Sarcastic Confession).
e.g. Bob is a blacksmith with several swords on display, one of which costs 10 times as much as the others despite appearing no different. When asked about it, he outright says the only difference is that it's more expensive, which makes customers think there's something else to it like magic or sharpness. There really isn't, and every time Bob sells one of the expensive swords he promptly moves another one to that price bracket, even in front of other customers.
openIs this Aside Glance? Anime
At no point do they move their gaze, but they stare at what appears to be the camera and respond to what the other characters say.
The universe has a morality axis, and Good and Evil are tangible metaphysical forces that can be measured empirically, like in The Good Place.