Trope Overdosed is when a series uses many tropes. The inverse, when a trope applies to many different series, is an Overdosed Trope. If you want a real challenge, look for a work page that doesn't use a single one of these tropes.
Many of these tropes are popular because they are used as a verbal shorthand (Squick, Oh, Crap!, etc.), and others are popular because they're more ways of discussing works than they are part of the work themselves (Nightmare Fuel, moments of awesome and funny). In any event, the only requirement to be included on this page is that a trope is referenced by at least 10,000 other pages, as listed in the "related" page.
The numbers given here are for rough estimation purposes only, since the pages will inevitably have changed since the trope was added or updated.
See Also: Omnipresent Tropes, Tropes of Legend, Trope Overdosed. For tropes that attract a lot of potholes, see Pothole Magnet.
Over 30,000
- Big Bad: 70599
- Shout-Out: 66378
- Lampshade Hanging: 43410
- Jerkass: 41960
- Oh, Crap!: 39731
- Running Gag: 38584
- Played for Laughs: 36458
- Deadpan Snarker: 35857
- Word of God: 35878
- Nice Guy: 33337
- Berserk Button: 32171
- Meaningful Name: 31662
- Heroic Sacrifice: 31223
- Foreshadowing: 31118
- Heel–Face Turn: 30527
20,001-30,000
- Subverted Trope: 29738
- Call-Back: 29626
- Butt-Monkey: 28248
- Expy: 27710
- Curb-Stomp Battle: 26870
- Ax-Crazy: 26792
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: 24537
- What Could Have Been: 24519
- Character Development: 24440
- Large Ham: 24302
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: 24046
- Eldritch Abomination: 23570
- Cloudcuckoolander: 23120
- Memetic Mutation: 23064
- The Reveal: 23022
- Tear Jerker: 22534
- Take That!: 22577
- Big Damn Heroes: 22532
- Action Girl: 22505
- In-Universe: 22455
- The Dragon: 22413
- My God, What Have I Done?: 22089
- Heroic BSoD: 21830
- Determinator: 21719
- Kick the Dog: 21665
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: 21587
- What the Hell, Hero?: 21415
- Love Interests: 21338
- Blatant Lies: 21267
- Abusive Parents: 21191
- Mythology Gag: 21130
- Continuity Nod: 20988
- Noodle Incident: 20891
- Pun: 20884
- Pet the Dog: 20419
- Only Sane Man: 20387
- Driven to Suicide: 20259
- Manipulative Bastard: 20157
15,001-20,000
- It Makes Sense in Context: 19814
- Nightmare Fuel: 19477
- Even Evil Has Standards: 19296
- Too Dumb to Live: 19292
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: 19134
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: 19033
- Hilarious in Hindsight: 18944
- Title Drop: 18921
- Hidden Depths: 18669
- Disproportionate Retribution: 18412
- Hoist by His Own Petard: 18306
- Took a Level in Badass: 18151
- Chekhov's Gun: 17903
- Mad Scientist: 17856
- Fantastic Racism: 17776
- Darker and Edgier: 17694
- Blood Knight: 17495
- Bittersweet Ending: 17374
- Irony: 17207
- Body Horror: 17188
- Tempting Fate: 16975
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: 16912
- Face–Heel Turn: 16847
- The Dreaded: 16827
- Karma Houdini: 16799
- Ho Yay: 16787
- Would Hurt a Child: 16775
- The Hero: 16685
- Laser-Guided Karma: 16536
- Mood Whiplash: 16362
- Downplayed Trope: 16338
- Sarcasm Mode: 16250
- Fridge Brilliance: 16201
- All There in the Manual: 16007
- The Stoic: 15994
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: 15954
- Brick Joke: 15827
- Asshole Victim: 15655
- Downer Ending: 15633
- Beware the Nice Ones: 15620
- Squick: 15604
- Mooks: 15593
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: 15473
- It's All About Me: 15468
- Dark and Troubled Past: 15454
- Ship Tease: 15432
- Wham Line: 15275
- The Cameo 15232
- Justified Trope: 15230
- Averted Trope: 15211
- Evil Counterpart: 15142
- Black Comedy: 15124
- Hypocrite: 15103
- Exact Words: 15065
- Anti-Hero: 15046
10,000-15,000
- Enemy Mine: 14854
- Affably Evil: 14812
- The Woobie: 14724
- What Happened to the Mouse?: 14624
- Final Boss: 14630
- Freudian Excuse: 14491
- Everyone Has Standards: 14431
- Fridge Horror: 14390
- Awesome Music: 14369
- And I Must Scream: 14338
- Ms. Fanservice: 14336
- Harsher in Hindsight: 14199
- Villainous Breakdown: 14083
- Back from the Dead: 14019
- Establishing Character Moment: 14101
- Ensemble Dark Horse: 13905
- Eye Scream: 13895
- Arch-Enemy: 13878
- Hypocritical Humor: 13823
- Foil: 13785
- Reasonable Authority Figure: 13784
- Alternative Character Interpretation: 13666
- Moral Event Horizon: 13572
- Despair Event Horizon: 13551
- Big Eater: 13495
- The Mole: 13400
- Papa Wolf: 13454
- Truth in Television: 13361
- Bad Boss: 13283
- Comically Missing the Point: 13267
- Ascended Extra: 13119
- Badass Normal: 13099
- Sanity Slippage: 13087
- No-Sell: 13071
- Killed Off for Real: 13051
- The Ace: 13046
- Badass Boast: 12996
- The Chessmaster: 12875
- Playing with Fire: 12850
- Smug Snake: 12967
- For the Evulz: 12832
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: 12814
- Undying Loyalty: 12868
- Big Brother Instinct: 12857
- Fate Worse than Death: 12772
- Tsundere: 12735
- Invoked Trope: 12732
- Crapsack World: 12562
- Never My Fault: 12364
- Anti-Villain: 12352
- Book Ends: 12286
- Wham Episode: 12265
- The Atoner: 12200
- Inverted Trope: 12077
- Punny Name: 12051
- Put on a Bus: 12035
- Break the Cutie: 11963
- Groin Attack: 11950
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: 11927
- Mama Bear: 11918
- Bait-and-Switch: 11907
- Beat: 11901
- A Day in the Limelight: 11865
- Player Character: 11773
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: 11745
- Villain Protagonist: 11728
- Early-Installment Weirdness: 11714
- Batman Gambit: 11666
- The Bus Came Back: 11663
- Monster of the Week: 11660
- True Companions: 11620
- Didn't Think This Through: 11590
- The Stinger: 11585
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: 11569
- Deal with the Devil: 11507
- Narm: 11410
- An Aesop: 11403
- Fridge Logic: 11399
- Worthy Opponent: 11330
- Dirty Coward: 11326
- Faux Affably Evil: 11312
- The Ditz: 11298
- Big "NO!": 11294
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: 11256
- Brainwashed and Crazy: 11244
- Serial Killer: 11226
- Genki Girl: 11205
- Humongous Mecha: 11202
- Jerkass Has a Point: 11197
- Fanservice: 11095
- One-Man Army: 11087
- Time Skip: 11083
- Knight Templar: 11074
- Hope Spot: 11028
- Serious Business: 11009
- Big Good: 10987
- Shock and Awe: 10959
- Combat Pragmatist: 10957
- Older Than They Look: 10939
- Tranquil Fury: 10925
- Death Glare: 10909
- The Rival: 10904
- Happily Married: 10893
- Evil Laugh: 10868
- Greater-Scope Villain: 10852
- Spiritual Successor: 10836
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: 10781
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: 10779
- No Name Given: 10751
- Hot-Blooded: 10739
- Moment of Awesome: 10743
- Zig-Zagging Trope: 10742
- One-Hit Kill: 10722
- From Bad to Worse: 10678
- Shipper on Deck: 10658
- MacGuffin: 10655
- Trademark Favorite Food: 10615
- Epic Fail: 10607
- Mind Rape: 10606
- Troll: 10594
- The Big Guy: 10573
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: 10560
- Alpha Bitch: 10557
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: 10501
- Vitriolic Best Buds: 10470
- Trope Namers: 10462
- Executive Meddling: 10444
- Demoted to Extra: 10399
- Damsel in Distress: 10389
- Physical God: 10363
- Crazy-Prepared: 10293
- Lighter and Softer: 10267
- Mind Screw: 10258
- Insistent Terminology: 10217
- Earn Your Happy Ending: 10182
- Dark Is Not Evil: 10175
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: 10174
- Heel Realization: 10173
- Lightning Bruiser: 10171
- Actor Allusion: 10157
- Super-Strength: 10153
- Yandere: 10132
- Green-Eyed Monster: 10128
- Rule of Three: 10118
- Disappeared Dad: 10109
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: 10108
- Show Within a Show: 10047
- Made of Iron: 10038
- Omnicidal Maniac: 10101
- The Smart Guy: 10004