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* CowTools: It is mentioned that every University has a Very Big Thing, whose primary purpose is to be bigger and more impressive than the Very Big Thing owned by the school's rival University. UU's VBT is apparently a distinct item from Hex and the Roundworld, and only gets brought up in a budget meeting where the senior wizards are discussing if they need to make it even bigger to outdo Brazeneck University's.
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* LiteraryWorkOfMagic:
** ''II: The Globe'': The wizards of Unseen University visit the "Roundworld" to fight off the elves as they disrupt ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream''.
** ''SOD III: Darwin's Watch'': The wizards try to make sure that UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin completes ''The Origin of Species''
** ''II: The Globe'': The wizards of Unseen University visit the "Roundworld" to fight off the elves as they disrupt ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream''.
** ''SOD III: Darwin's Watch'': The wizards try to make sure that UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin completes ''The Origin of Species''
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* AuthorityInNameOnly: Rincewind's promotion to Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography is very much an excuse so the other wizards can dump him into Roundworld. The end of the book states that he's not allowed to teach or even get paid, but he can show up at meals, provided he eats very quietly.
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->''"With magic you can turn a frog into a prince. With science you can turn a frog into a PHD and still have the frog you started with."''
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* BewareTheNiceOnes: At one point in Book 2, all the wizards get duplicated due to time travel. Fixing this requires merging them, essentially killing at least one of the duplicates. Initially it seems like everyone is okay with this, only at the last second for them to turn on one another and try to punch themselves out (except the Rincewinds). The normally non-active Ponder is included in this.
* CreativeSterility: What mankind is like without the elves interfering. No drive, no ambition, no imagination. No ''humanity''.
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* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The first book originally skipped over the thunder lizards when showing the development of life on Earth. A later edition went back and added a chapter because... well, ''dinosaurs''.
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* PlanetOfSteves: The "edge people" created by the wizards interfering are all called Ugg. Or at least, this is the closest they can be bothered to get to naming themselves.
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* RuleOfCool: The first book originally skipped over the thunder lizards when showing the development of life on Earth. A later edition went back and added a chapter because... well, ''dinosaurs''.
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* SeriesContinuityError: Book 2's brief appearance of Granny Weatherwax portrays her as innumerate, when prior appearances have had it that Granny is a ''demon'' with numbers. It's literacy she's got no truck with.
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Updated Try To Fit That On A Business Card entry with info from third book
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* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: By the beginning of book 2, Rincewind has accumulated seven different titles (on the provision that he in no way act like this grants him any authority within the university whatsoever).
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* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: By the beginning of book 2, Rincewind has accumulated seven different titles (on the provision that he in no way act like this grants him any authority within the university whatsoever). By the beginning of book 3, this has grown to nineteen.
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* NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp: The Bursar is absent in book 2, being off with his aunt.
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*** Which seemingly gets retconned again in Book IV, which mentions they have indeed observed normal planets and stars passing by the Discworld. Blame quantum.
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** The narration in chapter 2 of book 4 mentions the unlikelihood of someone [[VideoGame/CommanderKeen building a spaceship out of old bean tins]].
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* MeasuringTheMarigolds: Averted in the science parts of the books.
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-->This is why we can get the words of songs completely wrong and not realise it. The ''Guardian'' newspaper ran an amusing section on this habit, with examples such as 'kit-kat angel' for 'kick-ass angel' -- bit of a generation gap there, which underlines how our perceptions are biased by our expectations. Ian recalls an Annie Lennox song that really went 'a garden overgrown with trees', but always sounded like 'I'm getting overgrown with fleas'.
** Amusingly enough, ''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle he's still wrong]]''. The actual lyric is 'I'm thrown and overblown with bliss'.
** Amusingly enough, ''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle he's still wrong]]''. The actual lyric is 'I'm thrown and overblown with bliss'.
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-->This is why we can get the words of songs completely wrong and not realise it. The ''Guardian'' newspaper ran an amusing section on this habit, with examples such as 'kit-kat angel' "kit-kat angel" for 'kick-ass angel' "kick-ass angel" -- bit of a generation gap there, which underlines how our perceptions are biased by our expectations. Ian recalls an Annie Lennox song that really went 'a "a garden overgrown with trees', trees", but always sounded like 'I'm "I'm getting overgrown with fleas'.
** Amusinglyfleas".[[note]]Amusingly enough, ''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle he's ''he's still wrong]]''. wrong''. The actual lyric is 'I'm "I'm thrown and overblown with bliss'.bliss".[[/note]]
** Amusingly
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Mondegreen is no longer a trope; dewicking
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* {{Mondegreen}}: Discussed in one of the science sections in the second book, when they bring up how our brains fill in the blanks in our sensory data by putting what we have seen and heard in a context.
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* {{Mondegreen}}: MondegreenGag: Discussed in one of the science sections in the second book, when they bring up how our brains fill in the blanks in our sensory data by putting what we have seen and heard in a context.
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[[caption-width-right:350:''An Experiment on a Parallel Universe with the Windbags.'']]
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/81zqcl8ir_l.jpg]]
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** In Book 4, Ridcully pulls the exact same gag on Vetinari that Ponder Stibbons did to him, having the Patrician ceremonially "activate" UU's latest MagiTek device despite the fact that they'd already turned it on earlier to make sure it would actually work.
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** In Book 4, Ridcully pulls the exact same gag on Vetinari that Ponder Stibbons did to him, him in the very first volume, having the Patrician ceremonially "activate" UU's latest MagiTek device despite the fact that they'd already turned it on earlier to make sure it would actually work.
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** In Book 4, Ridcully pulls the exact same gag on Vetinari that Ponder Stibbons did to him, having the Patrician ceremonially "activate" UU's latest MagiTek device despite the fact that they'd already turned it on earlier to make sure it would actually work.
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* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: On being defeated at the end of Book 3, the Auditors warn Charles Darwin and the Wizards that all they have done is created a timeline in which humanity will spread war and destruction across the entire galaxy. Darwin is a little disconcerted by this, but Ridcully's reaction, rather predictably, is essentially to shrug his shoulders and say "so what?"
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** This sub-series seems to suggest that not just the Discworld itself but the entire universe in which it resides runs on magical principles rather than the laws of of physics, with stars described as tiny points of light and so on, whereas earlier books implied that normal stars and planets also existed alongside Great A'Tuin and a few other oddities like planets made from the corpses of giant dragons, with things like the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality and (barely) FunctionalMagic only existing inside the Disc's self-contained BackgroundMagicField.
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** This sub-series seems to suggest that not just the Discworld itself but the entire universe in which it resides runs on magical principles rather than the laws of of physics, with stars described as tiny points of light and so on, whereas earlier books implied that normal stars and planets also existed alongside Great A'Tuin and a few other oddities like planets made from the corpses of giant dragons, with things like the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality and (barely) FunctionalMagic only existing inside the Disc's self-contained BackgroundMagicField.
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** This sub-series seems to suggest that not just the Discworld itself but the entire universe in which it resides runs on magical principles rather than the laws of of physics, with stars described as tiny points of light and so on, whereas earlier books implied that normal stars and planets also existed alongside Great A'Tuin and a few other oddities like planets made from the corpses of giant dragons, with things like the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality and (barely) FunctionalMagic only existing inside the Disc's self-contained BackgroundMagicField.
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* ShamuFu: In one timeline, Shakespeare is killed with a pike during a riot shortly after staging his first play. That is to say he was beaten to death by a fishmonger using his own wares, not impaled with a long medieval spear.
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** Rincewind's discussion about all the things you can make from [[TrademarkFavoriteFood potatoes]] with the Elf Queen in book 2 apes Bubba's similar discourse on shrimp with Film/ForestGump.
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** Rincewind's discussion about all the things you can make from [[TrademarkFavoriteFood potatoes]] with the Elf Queen in book 2 apes Bubba's similar discourse on shrimp with Film/ForestGump.Film/ForrestGump.
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** Rincewind's discussion about all the things you can make from [[TrademarkFavoriteFood potatoes]] with the Elf Queen in book 2 apes Bubba's similar discourse on shrimp with Film/ForestGump.
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** The enchanted VR suit Rincewind uses to explore prehistoric Earth, described as a bulky thing that looks like it was made out of some kind of bones, is not at all dissimilar to the "Space Jockey"'s pilot suit from ''Film/{{Alien}}''. Funnily enough, the book was written over a decade before ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', which reveals those creatures also visited early Earth and influenced its development.
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** In book 3, the Dean re-enacts that scene from ''Film/DirtyHarry''. The Auditor he's against is smugly sure he's got no chocolate left... then Dead fills it full of nougat (and admits, actually, he ''wasn't'' sure he had any left).
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** In book 3, the Dean re-enacts that scene from ''Film/DirtyHarry''. The Auditor he's against is smugly sure he's got no chocolate left... then Dead Dean fills it full of nougat (and admits, actually, he ''wasn't'' sure he had any left).
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* OneIPreparedEarlier: In the first book, Ponder explains his planet-making methods using Roundworld rules, before presenting another planet he made earlier. This one turns out to be Earth.
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* BrickJoke: In Book 3, Ponder, when the topic of evolution rears its head, lives in dread of Ridicully trying to ask about the eye. Eventually, Ridicully does mention the eye, and Ponder yelps in alarm. Fortunately, he's not asking about it. He figures eyes are easy. Now, the ''wasp'', on the other hand.
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* INeedToGoIronMyDog: When Ridicully tries discussing the evolution of the wasp, Ponder declares he can hear the lunch bell going off, and he'd better go check it right now.
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* ShoutOut: In book 3, the Dean re-enacts that scene from ''Film/DirtyHarry''. The Auditor he's against is smugly sure he's got no chocolate left... then Dead fills it full of nougat (and admits, actually, he ''wasn't'' sure he had any left).
** The Dean's proposed mile-high limpet, as the only life form on Earth to get anything like immortality, is identical to Leviathan - the oldest living creature on Earth in the ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' trilogy, with a point-for-point correspondence in the description.
** The Dean's proposed mile-high limpet, as the only life form on Earth to get anything like immortality, is identical to Leviathan - the oldest living creature on Earth in the ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' trilogy, with a point-for-point correspondence in the description.
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* ShoutOut: ShoutOut:
** One of the rules Ponder deduces for how things work on Roundworld is "[[Literature/TheSecondComing Things fall apart, but centres hold]]."
** The Dean's proposed mile-high limpet, as the only life form on Earth to get anything like immortality, is identical to Leviathan - the oldest living creature on Earth in the ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' trilogy, with a point-for-point correspondence in the description.
** In book 3, the Dean re-enacts that scene from ''Film/DirtyHarry''. The Auditor he's against is smugly sure he's got no chocolate left... then Dead fills it full of nougat (and admits, actually, he ''wasn't'' sure he had anyleft).
** The Dean's proposed mile-high limpet, as the only life form on Earth to get anything like immortality, is identical to Leviathan - the oldest living creature on Earth in the ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' trilogy, with a point-for-point correspondence in the description.left).
** One of the rules Ponder deduces for how things work on Roundworld is "[[Literature/TheSecondComing Things fall apart, but centres hold]]."
** The Dean's proposed mile-high limpet, as the only life form on Earth to get anything like immortality, is identical to Leviathan - the oldest living creature on Earth in the ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' trilogy, with a point-for-point correspondence in the description.
** In book 3, the Dean re-enacts that scene from ''Film/DirtyHarry''. The Auditor he's against is smugly sure he's got no chocolate left... then Dead fills it full of nougat (and admits, actually, he ''wasn't'' sure he had any
** The Dean's proposed mile-high limpet, as the only life form on Earth to get anything like immortality, is identical to Leviathan - the oldest living creature on Earth in the ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' trilogy, with a point-for-point correspondence in the description.
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** One of first non-fiction chapters paraphrases Death's speech to Susan from the end of ''Hogfather'', noting you could grind the universe down to its component parts, and still not find a single atom of Science.
* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The first book originally skipped over the thunder lizards when showing the development of life on Earth. A later edition went back and added a chapter because... well, ''dinosaurs''.
* FamousFamousFictional: The beginning of the first book has a series of epigraphs, including Arthur C. Clarke, Mark Twain, and finally... Ponder Stibbons.
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* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Wizards nearly foil their plan in "The Globe" by teaching Shakespear "The Hedgehog Song". But the Queen of Elves, under the assumption that the Wizards are ''trying'' to stop Shakespear from writing ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'', using her powers to strip the song from William's mind.
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* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Wizards nearly foil their plan in "The Globe" by teaching Shakespear Shakespeare "The Hedgehog Song". But the Queen of Elves, under the assumption that the Wizards are ''trying'' to stop Shakespear Shakespeare from writing ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'', using her powers to strip the song from William's mind.
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* RefugeInAudacity: In order to save Darwin, Rincewind has to be seen. In doing so, he dresses up in the most ridiculously over-the-top fashion, reasoning that Darwin won't tell anyone what he's seen, and that no-one will believe him if he does. Since history has never recorded of Darwin being saved by a wizzard dressed as a clown, it seems to work.
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* SkewedPriorities: Ridicully tells the Dean to stop playing on the squash court not because doing so (wizard squash being decidedly different from Roundworld squash, due to magic) is endangering everyone's life, but just because he feels wizards running around getting sweaty is unhygenic.
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* SophisticatedAsHell: The chapter in the first book explaining the premise of the non-fiction segments explains that it could have been like ''The Physics of X-Files'', trying to explain the logic of the setting, but that this would've been "dumb".
