This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Way Too Much At Stake launched as Serious Business Discussion: From YKTTW
When I hear serious business I sure as hell don't think fans taking something too serious, I think fiction in witch a particular event is world changing. it seems like a lot of these examples are more about individual characters having OCD...
do you think we should mention how seriously some people take the wiki (well, any wiki or forum, really)? in america
Nameless: .hack and all it's sequels can also be counted as this, except for the fact that people actually get put into comas by it. Despite this, the 'heroes' of the series get way too serious about an online MMORPG.
Rutee: .hack is rightfully taken as Serious Business by (most) major characters, considerring that corruption in The World has serious repercussions in the 'Real World', and the major characters are generally aware of this, in some form or other. However, minors still take it too seriously.
Tanto: How about this quote for this page?
"In society at large we use sports to express and defend our values, as well as to teach them. Strange as it seems, the reaction of the public in the period after the War to End All Wars was, in essence, that it was one thing when the police were corrupt, that it was one thing when juries were bribed and judges kept on retainer, that it was one thing when elections were rigged and politicians let contracts go to the highest bidder, but when baseball players started fixing games, well that was just too much; something had to be done about it. And it was; the expulsion of the crooked players was a symbolic purging of society which set the stage for the many other purgings and cleansings which are remembered now as the Teapot Dome scandal. It is odd that this is remembered now not as the period when governors took bribes to free criminals, but as a time when a few baseball players threw the big game."
As Real Life has three examples by itself, should this be under Truth in Television?
Morgan Wick: About this:
- Duel Masters is another card game anime. It's not quite as blatant about it as Yu-Gi-Oh, but stadiums are still packed full of spectators watching our heroes play cards.
Ununnilium: Yeah; there's no shortage of that in actual CCG tournaments.
Pteryx: Thoughts on including this image here?
◊
crapface: Bout damn time the rabbit got his revenge. anyway I think Its a maybe.
Ununnilium: I say go for it.
Citizen: It has little to do with the actual trope, though. Serious Business is when a show revolves around an activity where a sizable portion of the in-series population takes it far more seriously than it should. Also, the rabbit striking back is already covered by Cereal Vice Reward's image. Replaced with epic thumbwrestling
◊ for lack of anything else.
Cassius335: Aaand I've switched back. The Trix_murder pics been around long enough to be part of the page's identity. If you must replace it Citizen, replace it with something worth replacing it with, not a random postage stamp "for lack of anything else"...
Citizen: It fits better than the rabbit.
Cassius335: I like the rabbit.
Citizen: And I don't. So what?
Cassius335: So I will defend it To The Death. Yours.
Later: What, you really can't come up with something actually better?
Even Later Still: Apparently, Sketch likes the rabbit too. Two verses One, your move.
Doug S. Machina: That's quite an American reference; I didn't get it until I read this discussion. I have heard the phrase "Silly rabbit, x is for the kids!" but never bothered to look it up.
Servbot: Because I find something strangely funny about turning the image for Serious Business into Serious Business, I shall muddy the waters even further and say that I like the epic thumb wrestling better for this page. Blame my unamerican blood. >>
Doug S. Machina: Now I know, I like the rabbit image better, my unamerican blood is up and I shall not rest until I prevail. Or go something else.
Ununnilium: Restored the original "this wiki" line, since the ones after it don't make much sense with the changed version.
BT The P: Ethan from Shortpacked being obsessed with toys doesn't make them serious business. Even though he's the main character, there's no evidence that the whole world cares about them as much as he does. This is about the world being somehow focused on something seemingly inconsequential from our viewpoint.
Prfnoff: Removed these examples for violating the Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgment:
- Politics is very obviously serious business, such in the case of a Clinton supporter stabbing an Obama supporter. As Fark puts it: "During political argument, Clinton supporter brings hope and change to Obama supporter's unstabbed torso." This is nothing compared to the level of Serious Business found in Ron Paul supporters. Some of them have threatened to kill people who criticize him, including radio talk show host Glenn Beck and Ron Paul's opponent in his re-election bid.
- Cannabis. In the USA there are people serving life sentences for possession of the stuff, and there are plenty of nations that execute people for it. Serious. Business.
- Religion. This editor is astonished that it's taken so long to mention it; leaving aside discussion about the merits (or lack thereof) of various forms of belief or whether any kind of God does or does not exist, the fact remains that a multitude of wars have been fought, nations have risen and fallen, unlimited power and wealth has been seized and lost and countless billions have lost their lives over differences in religious belief. In especially tragic cases, the differences are tiny (such as worshipping the same God in a slightly different way) and often are so miniscule that anyone who isn't deeply entrenched in that belief is given to wonder (many times not without merit) exactly what the big deal is. And that's not even getting into the fact that most (if not all) religions have peace and love for your fellow man as core virtues, meaning that killing people to prove your religious point is a perversion of all the religion supposedly stands for.
movie007: I wonder if we should just mention that religion and politics are probably the ur-examples of Serious Business, without mentioning specific examples. Maybe even add a little something about why it's not a good idea to list specific examples for those two issues.
octochan: I've just read the bit about the Dr Who community being shut down for four days; who was that for? If that was over Christopher Eccleston, I shudder to think of what will happen when David Tennant leaves. *shudder*
Somehow this quote only barely grazes the mark, for me:
- Please note that there are only two references to sports in this book. They are pages 71 and 95, and are appropriately dismissive. If you wish for further sports information, might I kindly refer you to every other aspect of our culture?John Hodgman, The Areas Of My Expertise
Sorry!
Cassius335: It's basically saying: "Sports are Serious Business everywhere else, but not here!.
Ninjacrat: There was a joke here once. You shits murdered it:
- ...this is some metaphysical shit right there, dude. If we delete this here line, the Wiki automatically becomes Serious Business, but if we leave it in then the Wiki Gods would strike us down for not being able to parse logic puzzles! Such excerpts are the reason why the Taoist leanings of this Wiki are made more apparent everyday, I feel. For more details, read my User Account Blog.
- And because we're leaving in the line to prevent being struck down by the Wiki Gods, we're proving that by leaving the line in, this Wiki is Serious Business. This logic paradox has resulted in this editor being consumed by Flying Time Monkeys.
- I noticed some genius deleted the line. Way to go. Clap. Clap. When we get swallowed up into the void, they're to blame.
- My dear, when you believers get sucked into the void, I will be right here, pointing and laughing.
- This argument is Serious Business.
- Mostly.
- I'm so confused. I need a flow chart on this. This entire argument is taking on Mind Screw proportions.
- This editor must remind us all that the Wiki WAS swallowed by the void, and you're all to blame for unleashing the Seal on the Data Vampires.
- The Data Vampires? When were they ever In The Can?
- There was a leak in the can, so there were always a handful loose. The unsealing freed all of them, thus the void swallowing.
- ...this is some metaphysical shit right there, dude. If we delete this here line, the Wiki automatically becomes Serious Business, but if we leave it in then the Wiki Gods would strike us down for not being able to parse logic puzzles! Such excerpts are the reason why the Taoist leanings of this Wiki are made more apparent everyday, I feel. For more details, read my User Account Blog.
The Nifty: Cut this:
- One word: Fallout.
Why? because a)someone stuck it in at the start of the examples list instead of the end of it and b) I'm not sure how it's an example of the trope, let alone a "one word" example of the trope. If you're too fucking lazy to write a description for your entry, don't bother sticking it in. This website is Serious Business, you know.
Danel: Edited to remove:
- Firefly got canceled, and the fandom howled. This was such SERIOUS BUSINESS, in fact, that the fans eventually got themselves a movie made despite only a handful of episodes being aired.
It's not like they made it themselves out of matchsticks or something. No-one died.
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer is serious business in this wiki, particularly in the Forums. This editor can tell this all too well.
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer is serious business in this wiki, particularly in the Forums
Aw, were they mean to you? Seriously, what happened to make it serious business? Did they identify you in RL and send vampires to attack you, or...?
- Cooking. No Seriously. There were rumours that the restaurant of Bernard Loiseau, a French chef, was going to lose one of its three prized Michelin stars. What did Loiseau do? He shot himself. And to top it all off, his restaurant to this day still has three stars. Serious.
- This was referenced in Pixar's film Ratatouille, in which the famous chef Gusteau died of a broken heart after his restaurant lost one of its stars (prompting it to lose another star because of his death).
It's not like we're talking about making a sandwich, here... this is the guy's livelihood. Restaurants with three Michelin stars usually involve a lot of money; it's where rich people spend a fair bit of money.
- Dude, he did shoot himself over his job. Which turned out not to be in danger after all. Pretty damn serious, if you ask me.
ninjacrat: Just as soon as we add accountacy, boxing, real estate, taxi driving, writing and every other profession that has ever driven a guy to suicide.
So as not to keep you in suspense? That would be never.
Kerrah: The Dark Knight quote (the one about seriousness) didn't have anything to do with this trope. Took it down.
Mullon: How accurate was Ratatouille about restaurant star ratings being serious business? Was that inflated, or was accurate. Is it just a french thing?
Fire Walk: From what I can gather, a bit, but not astoundingly so: Someone dropping a lot in their star ratings is a major issue, and also a loss of a lot of money.
Mullon: I kinda sounded like the guy killed himself over his rating.
Novium: Everytime I see the meta example, I want to delete it in order to fulfill the trope. Meta-meta. So I am posting here instead of giving in to the temptation. Anyone else similarly tempted?
32_Footsteps: Actually, in some ways, you're too late. It's been deleted and restored multiple times. Also, see that nice little thread that Ninjacrat posted above? That used to be following it, but it was taken out because people thought it was pointless. In other words, the Serious Business page is Serious Business (and yes, I've already pointed this out on the Troper Tales page for this trope).
fleb: ...There is no Real Life Serious Business. Serious Business is "when a show revolves around an activity where a sizable portion of the in-series population takes it far more seriously than it should." Real Life doesn't intrinsically revolve around anything in particular. And Internet fandom, for one, is just a tiny minority of the general population, so it doesn't meet either qualification—it definitely doesn't merit the 'oh my god it's full of bullet points' number of examples here. That's all just Fan Dumb, not this.
Cassius335: I think you're supposed to allow discussion before removing entire sections. And of course Real Life doesn't all revolve around one activity, any more than all Western Animation revolves around one activity.
fleb: Sorry. Both sections are pure Square Peg Round Trope, though. Real Life is more of a single show than a genre, if we're applying tropes to it. Serious Business is practically defined by its non-resemblance to Real Life—it's when practically everyone acts like a die-hard fan of Whatever It Is.
Cassius335: Real Life is an anthology: lots of stories, not just one big one.
fleb: Maybe, but it's all the same 'Verse, so they'd all share the same in-universe population. The seriousness and popularity of Wikipedia doesn't rival Elvis, and there aren't mainstream schools dedicated to Doctor Who canon.
Examples of this trope have to be unbelievably popular and mainstream, and none of those listed fit that. ...Okay, maybe American Idol is Real Life Serious Business, but that's not even listed yet.
fleb: Okay, it is the apocalypse, but nobody knows that, so the rest of the world isn't watching the game or taking it seriously at all.
- One episode of Suzumiya Haruhi stakes the end of the universe on the outcome of a baseball game. (Although not without some Lampshade Hanging.)
- The What Do You Mean, It's Not Awesome? Deep-Immersion Gaming duel between the SOS Brigade and the Computer Society probably also qualifies. This one's less The End of the World as We Know It and more just kids getting a little too excited over a competition, though.
- Come to think of it, Haruhi takes pretty much everything this way, game or no.
- The What Do You Mean, It's Not Awesome? Deep-Immersion Gaming duel between the SOS Brigade and the Computer Society probably also qualifies. This one's less The End of the World as We Know It and more just kids getting a little too excited over a competition, though.
Rogue 7: Maybe not the first example, but the second one definitely counts.
fleb: It's more like pure What Do You Mean, It's Not Awesome? than this, because no one outside the computer club and the SOS club actually care.
Plasma Wing: Rewrote this as a straight example:
- Inverted in the case of the Super Smash Bros tournaments - call it what you will; the fact that there are teams, official events, an annual world tournament, and a rather nice cash prize make it a sport. Now try convincing someone of this fact, despite the fact that chess is considered a sport and there are actual chess acadamies. Beautifully summed up on the Game FA Qs boards, where one poster asked another if he would "Tell David Beckham that soccer is just a game".
Gizensha: Not suggesting it isn't a straight example, but the way the inverted writeup was written did make an interesting point - Pretty much all professional sports fit this trope. (Hmm *adds*)
Incidentally - Americans spending $40 billion on their lawns isn't all that high, since that means that you guys are, on average, spending around $135 on your lawns per year each...
32_Footsteps: Yeah, and that's assuming every single American, regardless of age or residency, has their own lawn. Similarly, there are two chickens per person in the United States. This does not mean that every American owns two chickens. Or if it does, where are mine?
If you factored out how many homeowners there are, in 2004 that came out to about $550 per homeowner per year. Doesn't sound like much? Imagine buying ten to twenty (depending on your system of choice) video games a year - that would add up fast, and you'd definitely say that Crack Is Cheaper. So yeah, lawn care can get there (particularly as there are definitely people who spend way above average on their lawns).
- Yu-Gi-Oh GX has pushed this whole nonsense even further by revealing cardgames are the foundation of the universe, rather than just mere ancient Egyptian game of power.
Nerdspringer: Wouldn't Jack Chick's infamous "Dark Dungeons" count, since it essentially claims that D&D players take Dungeons And Dragons as Serious Business to the point of committing suicide because their P Cs died?
Longfellow: Are we going to distinguish between in-universe and out-of-universe in this article? Take Pokémon: ought we really mix the fact that Ash et al have Pokémon schools with the fact that the games have a committed competitive scene? I also find most of the out-of-universe entries mean-spirited. As if pointing and laughing at anyone who gives time to a niche interest.
Caswin: Cutting the example on National Treasure. First, "a bunch of gold" doesn't have much to do with "history fanatics". Second, "an impossibly vast and varied national treasure worth billions upon billions of dollars for all sorts of reasons" does not equal "a bunch of gold". (Is there a word for doing that?) Third, significant new information on Abraham Lincoln's death... probably would be serious business. Fourth, new examples don't go at the top.
Removed:
- That kid from Dead Poets Society who killed himself because his dad wouldn't let him pursue an acting career.
- Though in all fairness, it could have been that he had seemingly no control over his life's course, as his dad pre-planned it all. So Yeah...
Teen suicide doesn't really fit with the spirit of the trope. Suicide is often for reasons that seem trivial to others. That's not really what this trope is after.
