History Main / DeadHorseTrope

* HollywoodPrehistory: Since it's now common knowledge that non-avian dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles lived millions of years before humans, [[MeekMesozoicMammal mammals that did live alongside non-avian dinosaurs were relatively small]], and [[MammothsMeanIceAge woolly mammoths]] and [[SnowySabertooths saber-toothed cats]] lived during the Ice Age along with said humans thousands of years ago, this setting is nowadays never played seriously.

* TheBigRottenApple: This trope was very popular in the 1970s-1990s due to a big fact that this trope was somewhat accurate...and not just in New York City, but in many cities in the United States and the United Kingdom starting in the mid-to-late 1960s. Crime, pollution, homelessness, economic stagnation, corruption, and major racial and political strife were part of New York City in that era, and the city almost went bankrupt in 1975 due to many residents (and hence the tax base) moving to the suburbs en masse to get away. While fiction clearly exaggerated it at times, it came from a real place. By the 1980s, the economy recovered and the population exodus slowed, but this trope was still popular, though not as much as in the 70s. However, by the mid-to-late 90s, the city had SEVERELY cleaned up its act, with crime and pollution plummeting, the economy booming, and its politics calming... and ''then'', in 2001, [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror a certain event]] occurred that turned NYC into pretty much ''the'' "Hero City" in the American consciousness. Unless one is doing a period piece, this trope is usually never played straight as of the new millennium, especially since a lot of media companies and production are in New York, and [[BerserkButton might not be happy]] with such a portrayal. Most mainstream fiction in New York City today (aside from just BigApplesauce) focuses on either trendy neighborhoods or the glitz and glamour among its wealthy.

* SawAWomanInHalf: The secret to the trick has been known for decades, so it's not going to wow an audience without some sort of spin on it. If it shows up it's usually {{Parodied}} in order to show that the magician is inexperienced or unimaginative, {{Exaggerated}} by making the trick more dangerous, or {{Subverted}} by have the magician outright [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe fail]] ([[DoubleSubverted or pretend to]]).

* DontEatAndSwim: The idea that you have to wait thirty minutes to go swimming after you eat so as to avoid getting cramps is a myth that's [[https://www.snopes.com/oldwives/hourwait.asp been debunked]] hundreds of times. There are no recorded instances of drownings or near-drownings caused by cramps developed from eating. And there's multiple experiments all across the Internet that show people eating meals, going swimming instantly after they're done, and getting no cramps at all. If this trope gets used these days, it's going to be exaggerated for the sake of comedy, like a character just dipping their toe in the water and suddenly developing cramps all across their body.
* DonutMessWithACop: Depending on the jurisdiction, many donut shops now would either offer free donuts and coffee to law enforcement officials as a public service or, more commonly, face fines or other undesirable consequences if they gave them, as it would be considered bribery. On the other hand, this just means the cops just buy the donuts and coffee and still hang out there, so it manages to remain true even though it's a dead horse (cops are fully aware of the trope and treat it with a laugh, because who ''doesn't'' like donuts?) In many places donut shops hours fit with their shifts, and were among the last places to allow indoor smoking. This als o made them attractive places to be.

* HypnoRay: Hypnotism in general has been getting a lot of scrutiny as a technique since the TurnOfTheMillennium. For one, you can only be hypnotized if you ''want'' to be hypnotized. And that's if you're not one of the people who can't be hypnotized at all (even if they wanted to be). Also, hypnotism can't make people do things that they wouldn't normally do, so telling a hypnotized person to (for instance) attack someone they love would just snap them out of it. Finally, the various methods to induce hypnotism usually involve deep relaxation or intense eye focus, things that a ray gun simply wouldn't be able to do. While MindControl and its various tropes are still around, using a beam from a MadScientist to do it has gradually fallen out of favor. Such ray guns in fiction these days are reserved just for comedic works, as it's pretty hard to take it seriously anymore. The ray gun in these works will only work on characters that are really stupid, use ExactWords to make it so that [[GoneHorriblyRight the hypnotizer comes to regret using the hypno ray through unintended consequences]], or just outright not work at all. But it will never be played totally straight anymore.

* DastardlyWhiplash: The original form of this stock villain character appeared in stage melodramas between the 1880s and the early 1910s, after which it was parodied in silent film; the character has been appearing only as a parody of itself for so long that the parody is now the trope and its origins are close to being [[ForgottenTrope forgotten altogether]]. For the record, even in silent film, the only work that contains a character similar to Dastardly Whiplash at all is the 1912 serial ''Film/ThePerilsOfPauline'', and in it the character [[UnbuiltTrope is quite different from any later parodies]]. As ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse'' had several Pauline-like episodes with such a villain (a mustachioed cat named Oil Can Harry), and ''WesternAnimation/DudleyDoRight'' was a parody of ''Pauline'' in many ways, this led to the misconception that such a character was very common throughout all silent films.

* DonutMessWithACop: Depending on the jurisdiction, many donut shops now would either offer free donuts and coffee to law enforcement officials as a public service or, more commonly, face fines or other undesirable consequences if they gave them, as it would be considered bribery. On the other hand, this just means the cops just buy the donuts and coffee and still hang out there, so it manages to remain true even though it's a dead horse (cops are fully aware of the trope and treat it with a laugh, because who ''doesn't'' like donuts?) In many places donut shops hours fi5 with their shifts, and were among the last places to allow indoor smoking. This als o made them attractive places to be.

* DonutMessWithACop: Depending on the jurisdiction, many donut shops now would either offer free donuts and coffee to law enforcement officials as a public service or, more commonly, face fines or other undesirable consequences if they gave them, as it would be considered bribery. On the other hand, this just means the cops just buy the donuts and coffee and still hang out there, so it manages to remain true even though it's a dead horse (cops are fully aware of the trope and treat it with a laugh, because who ''doesn't'' like donuts?)

* FloatingAdviceReminder: The traditional version of "partially transparent heads appearing to give advice" is virtually never played straight, and if it is used, only in parody. Nowadays, it's much more likely to be shown as a hologram in a SciFi setting, and it won't be like the traditional usage of the trope.

* CriticalAnnoyance: Majority of games have stopped using low health alarms when developers realized that player found them more annoying than helpful. Low health alerts were eventually made less intrusive. Parodies and subversions still sometimes show up.

* TheBigRottenApple: This trope was very popular in the 1970s-1990s due to a big fact that this trope was somewhat accurate...and not just in New York City, but in many cities in the United States and the United Kingdom starting in the mid-to-late 1960s. Crime, pollution, homelessness, economic stagnation, corruption, and major racial and political strife were part of New York City in that era, and the city almost went bankrupt in 1975 due to many residents (and hence the tax base) moving to the suburbs en masse to get away. While fiction clearly exaggerated it at times, it came from a real place. By the 1980s, the economy recovered and the population exodus slowed, but this trope was still popular, though not as much as in the 70s. However, by the mid-to-late 90s, the city had SEVERELY cleaned up its act, with crime and pollution plummeting, the economy booming, and its politics calming... and ''then'', in 2001, [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror a certain event]] occurred that turned NYC into pretty much ''the'' "Hero City" in the American consciousness. Unless one is doing a period piece, this trope is usually never played straight as of the new millennium, especially since a lot of media companies and production are in New York, and might not be happy with such a portrayal. Most mainstream fiction in New York City today (aside from just BigApplesauce) focuses on either trendy neighborhoods or the glitz and glamour among its wealthy.

* GreedyJew: Due to the UnfortunateImplications of this stereotype, it is only seem nowadays for satire or DeliberateValuesDissonance. The LighterAndSofter version AllJewsAreCheapskates is seen occasionally.

* OneMillionBC: Since it's now common knowledge that non-avian dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles lived millions of years before humans, [[MeekMesozoicMammal mammals that did live alongside non-avian dinosaurs were relatively small]], and [[MammothsMeanIceAge woolly mammoths]] and [[SnowySabertooths saber-toothed cats]] lived during the Ice Age along with said humans thousands of years ago, this setting is nowadays never played seriously.

* OneMillionBC: Since it's now common knowledge that non-avian dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles lived millions of years before humans, [[MeekMesozoicMammal mammals that did live alongside non-avian dinosaurs were relatively small]], and [[MammothsMeanIceAge woolly mammoths lived during the Ice Age]] along with said humans thousands of years ago, this setting is nowadays never played seriously.

* OneMillionBC: Since it's now common knowledge that non-avian dinosaurs and humans lived millions of years apart, [[MeekMesozoicMammal mammals that did live alongside non-avian dinosaurs were relatively small]], and [[MammothsMeanIceAge woolly mammoths lived during the Ice Age]] along with said humans thousands of years ago, this setting is nowadays never played seriously.

* HypnoRay: Hypnotism in general has been getting a lot of scrutiny as a technique since the turn of the millennium. For one, you can only be hypnotized if you ''want'' to be hypnotized. And that's if you're not one of the people who can't be hypnotized at all (even if they wanted to be). Also, hypnotism can't make people do things that they wouldn't normally do, so telling a hypnotized person to (for instance) attack someone they love would just snap them out of it. Finally, the various methods to induce hypnotism usually involve deep relaxation or intense eye focus, things that a ray gun simply wouldn't be able to do. While MindControl and its various tropes are still around, using a beam from a MadScientist to do it has gradually fallen out of favor. Such ray guns in fiction these days are reserved just for comedic works, as it's pretty hard to take it seriously anymore. The ray gun in these works will only work on characters that are really stupid, use ExactWords to make it so [[GoneHorriblyRight the hypnotizer comes to regret using the hypno ray through unintended consequences]], or just outright not work at all. But it will never be played totally straight anymore.

* FourOneNineScam: Since this con is one of TheOldestOnesInTheBook, most people are smart enough to know that there ''is'' no Nigerian prince on the other side of the email willing to give you a share of riches for shuffling money around. So when it's used in fiction, it's almost always parodied, most commonly by showing that the Nigerian prince ''is'' real, and dumbfounded as to why no one ever emails him back, or to show how stupid someone is to fall for this trick.

* OneSteveLimit: Since so many people are bound to share names with one another (primarily common ones such as John, Robert, Elizabeth, etc.), attempting to avoid giving characters a mutual first and/or last name isn't really done all that much anymore.

* HypnoRay: Hypnotism in general has been getting a lot of scrutiny as a technique since the turn of the millennium. For one, you can only be hypnotized if you ''want'' to be hypnotized. And that's if you're not one of the people who can't be hypnotized at all (even if they want to be). Also, hypnotism can't make people do things that they wouldn't normally do, so telling a hypnotized person to (for instance) attack someone they love would just snap them out of it. Finally, the various methods to induce hypnotism usually involve deep relaxation or intense eye focus, things that a ray gun simply wouldn't be able to do. While MindControl and its various tropes are still around, using a beam from a MadScientist to do it has gradually fallen out of favor. Such ray guns in fiction these days are reserved just for comedic works, as it's pretty hard to take it seriously anymore. The ray gun in comedic these works will only work on characters that are really stupid, use ExactWords to make it so [[GoneHorriblyRight the hypnotizer comes to regret using the hypno ray through unintended consequences]], or just outright not work at all.

* OneMillionBC: Since it's now common knowledge that dinosaurs and humans lived millions of years apart, [[MeekMesozoicMammal mammals that did live alongside dinosaurs were relatively small]], and [[MammothsMeanIceAge woolly mammoths lived during the Ice Age]] along with said humans thousands of years ago, this setting is nowadays never played seriously.

* OneMillionBC: Since it's now common knowledge that dinosaurs and humans lived millions of years apart, and [[MammothsMeanIceAge woolly mammoths lived during the Ice Age]] along with said humans thousands of years ago, this setting is nowadays never played seriously.

* HypnoRay: Hypnotism in general has been getting a lot of scrutiny as a technique since the turn of the millennium. For one, you can only be hypnotized if you ''want'' to be hypnotized. And that's if you're not one of the people who can't be hypnotized at all (even if they want to be). Also, hypnotism can't make people do things that they wouldn't normally do, so telling a hypnotized person to (for instance) attack someone they love would just snap them out of it. Finally, the various methods to induce hypnotism usually involve deep relaxation or intense eye focus, things that a ray gun simply wouldn't be able to do. While MindControl and its various tropes are still around, using a beam from a MadScientist to do it has gradually fallen out of favor. Such ray guns in fiction these days will either only work on characters that are really stupid, use ExactWords to make it so [[GoneHorriblyRight the hypnotizer comes to regret using the hypno ray through unintended consequences]], or just outright not work at all.

* HypnoRay: Hypnotism in general has been getting a lot of scrunity as a technique since the turn of the millenium. For one, you can only be hypnotized if you ''want'' to be hypnotized. And that's if you're not one of the people who can't be hypnotized at all (even if they wanted to be). Also, hypnotism has been shown that it can't make people do things that they wouldn't normally do, so telling a hypnotized person to kill someone they love under the influence of hypnotism is outright impossible. Finally, the various methods to induce hypnotism usually involve relaxation or intense eye focus, things that a ray gun simply wouldn't be able to do. While MindControl and its various tropes are still around, using a beam from a MadScientist to do it has gradually fallen out of favor. Such ray guns in fiction these days will either only work on characters that are really stupid or outright not work at all.

* OneMillionBC: Since it's now common knowledge that dinosaurs and humans lived millions of years apart, and [[MammothsMeanIceAge woolly mammoths lived during the Ice Age]], this setting is nowadays never played seriously.

* OneMillionBC: Since it's now common knowledge that dinosaurs and humans lived millions of years apart, this setting is nowadays never played seriously.

%%* HypnoRay: Along with hypnotism in general, unless its ability to be effective is heavily justified in-universe.