History Main / EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory

* A surprising number of people have suggested that Music/Eiffel65's hit "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" is about depression, of all things - taken literally, the lyrics describe a man living in a world where everything and everyone is the color blue, but blue can be associated with sadness, so in this interpretation he's viewing everything through the lens of his own depression.
* WordOfGod says the Music/{{Vocaloid}} song "Don't Look At Me In That Way" by Kikuo is about a kid who dies in a bike accident, and the song even describes riding the bike and losing control. This didn't stop a ton of listeners from thinking it was about an aborted or miscarried fetus and the stuff about the bike was symbolic.

* Somebody came up with the idea that the ComicBook/FantasticFour represent the four elements (Thing is Earth, Invisible Woman is Air, Human Torch is Fire (duh), and Mr. Fantastic is Water). This sounds like something that was developed retroactively. Creator/StanLee had no problem being labeled a genius, so he never discouraged this. This is lampshaded in the "Ultimate" version. The specific reasons why are in their entry in FourElementEnsemble. When Creator/JohnByrne took over the title in the 80s, one of his first issues features the Four fighting four elementals, who were ordered not to face their counterparts, thus making the mapping explicit. Creator/NeilGaiman later took advantage of the scheme for his ''ComicBook/{{Marvel 1602}}'' version of the Fantastic Four.

The concept of "the DeathOfTheAuthor", a theory in literary criticism envisaged by French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes has helped this state of affairs as it encourages everyone to insist that their pet theories are entirely valid (with or without justification), regardless of how many times the [[WordOfGod author of the text clearly states his or her intentions in writing the work]], or, as in many cases, that the pet theory absolutely ''isn't'' the state of affairs at all. Death of the Author is effective because WordOfGod isn't always reliable; the author him/herself can decide the work means different (even [[FlipFlopOfGod contradictory]]) things and if there are ''multiple'' authors, it's perfectly possible for them to disagree on what the work means and so [[FrenchJerk whoever]] came up with the concept of "DeathOfTheAuthor" has a good point. This is what literary Modernism is about. [[SelfDemonstratingArticle Thus it is proven that the tyranny of God gives way to the freedom of man!]]

-->-- '''Castiel''' (On WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner), ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''. Crono is Jesus, Marle is Mary Magdalene, and the entire game is simply rife with Biblical symbolism. [[http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/CTT:ChronoEnigma.html It's true! This site says so!]] Then there's Lavos! Evil, fell from "heaven", has (in the english version) been manipulating humanity since it came to earth, causes the Apocalypse once it reveals itself, is powering the allegory to the Anti-Christ, spends all its time in the center of the Earth, the place where Hell is usually depicted. Come on! It's Satan! It's obviously Satan! Finally, we have the kingdom of Zeal; Over'''zeal'''ous people following what turns out to be the wrong deity? Yeah, that works. Plus, the fall of Zeal was heralded by their use of the Mammon Machine (itself connected to Lavos); Mammon often being depicted as the demon of greed.

* WordOfGod says the Music/{{Vocaloid}} song "Don't Look At Me In That Way" is about a kid who dies in a bike accident, and the song even describes riding the bike and losing control. This didn't stop a ton of listeners from thinking it was about an aborted or miscarried fetus and the stuff about the bike was symbolic.

*** Henry Littlefield, seemingly the first of the bunch, and probably the most well-known, believed that the books argue in favor of bimetallism, a form of economic policy that sought to create a fixed exchange ratio betwene the U.S. dollar, gold, and silver. Apparently, in his interpretation, the Wicked Witches of the East and West and clearly allegories to wealthy investors from the east coast and those who became wealthy as a consequence of the Gold Rush, respectively, as both of those groups opposed the adoption of silver and preferred to maintain the gold standard (as it would've severley devalued the U.S. dollar). The Good Witches of North and South represent the interests of farmers, who supported the change to bimetallism as to lessen their debt. The Yellow Brick Road in here represents the Gold Standard, which causes the Scarecrow (in here an allegory to farmers) to trip several times, but Dorothy can walk through it with the Silver Slippers.

*** Henry Littlefield, seemingly the first of the bunch, and probably the most well-known, believed that the books argue in favor of bimetallism, a form of economic policy tat sought to create a fixed exchange ratio betwene the U.S. dollar, gold, and silver. Apparently, in his interpretation, the Wicked Witches of the East and West and clearly allegories to wealthy investors from the east coast and those who became wealthy as a consequence of the Gold Rush, respectively, as both of those groups opposed the adoption of silver and preferred to maintain the gold standard (as it would've severley devalued the U.S. dollar). The Good Witches of North and South represent the interests of farmers, who supported the change to bimetallism as to lessen their debt. The Yellow Brick Road in here represents the Gold Standard, which causes the Scarecrow (in here an allegory to farmers) to trip several times, but Dorothy can walk through it with the Silver Slippers.

* Creator/TerryPratchett insisted all his computer files and notes be so thoroughly destroyed after his death that they could never be retrieved - for this very reason. He was no great friend of the literary establishment, insisted he did not write "literature" and considered one of his greatest fears was that every last unpublished word he wrote would be analysed and dissected into absurdity by hopeful [=PhD=] students of English literature.

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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_2de74d_2130342_9790.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[SelfDemonstratingArticle This picture is obviously a metaphor for how postmodern capitalism has impacted our critical thinking skills.]]]]

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's (very) short story, ''The Immortal Bard'', features Creator/WilliamShakespeare being brought to modern times by means of a time machine. He expresses amazement at the amount of crap people have made up about his work in the intervening 400 years; the chap who built the time machine enrolls him in a modern Shakespeare class, and he fails.

* The WesternAnimation/SouthPark episode Recap/SouthParkS14E2TheTaleOfScrotieMcBoogerballs parodies this to no end. When the boys end up disappointed with the supposedly controversial Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye (which is often seen as fairly tame by today's standards), they set out to write the most pointlessly gross, upsetting, and vulgar for the sake of vulgar book they could muster. This ends up being the titular ''The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs'', which becomes a huge hit. Everyone draws their own conclusions about what the total debauchery means, including the merciless mocking of Sarah Jessica Parker being interpreted as a metaphor for "the oppression felt by the lower class". However, it means nothing, it was just a bunch of preteen boys being gross and immature.

* Santiago of ''Literature/TheOldManAndTheSea'' is UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}, though Hemingway stated that the book was just about fishing and old age, nothing else. It's also noted that, when the eponymous character is carrying his mast and sail back to his home, he falls five times, just like when Jesus when he was carrying the Cross. [[CriticalResearchFailure Too bad the Stations of the Cross state that Jesus fell three times, not five]].

* An in-universe [[DiscussedTrope discussion]] occurs in Creator/StephenKing's ''{{Literature/It}}'', which may or may not have been a bit of AuthorTract, or [[DeathOfTheAuthor may or may not have been a narrative convenience]]. Early parts of the novel detail when Bill Denbrough attends a writing course in college, he gets an instructor who was, to be frank, tediously academic in his pursuit of art. The instructor was a firm believer that everything involving fiction should have an underlying allegory, and he was appreciative of said allegory if it was reflective of his own sociopolitical views. Bill keeps struggling to maintain his grades because he's writing stories designed to stand on their own narrative, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical something the instructor struggles t appreciate]]. After clashing and being talked down to one too many times, Bill strikes out and submits one of his stories to a short fiction magazine, and turns into a hit. After showing this evidence to the instructor, the professor's bruised pride leads to a nasty falling out, and Bill drops out to become a successful horror author.

* Wiki/TVTropes: This very wiki's WildMassGuessing page often includes these kinds of claims. The most common ones are "X is really Haruhi Suzumiya, who may or may not be a goddess herself" and "The setting is actually in Evangelion's Instrumentality and thus a sea of souls".

Wiki/ThisVeryWiki isn't exempt from inflicting this kind of paranoia either, [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife as all of us here know]]. Is that LateForSchool scene supposed to be a ShoutOut to a similar scene from that other show, where things go immediately wrong after? Is it a {{satire}} of such scenes to demonstrate how cheesy they would be in real life? Are the background elements {{Genius Bonus}}es or just plain AccidentallyCorrectWriting? Did they make the symbolism too obvious to distract from the ''real'' symbolism hiding in the same scene?

* ''Film/DonnieDarko'' is never interpreted the same way by any two people, with interpretations going all over the allegorical scale. Which is hilarious because Writer/Director Richard Kelly has stated that he didn't create the movie with any particular allegories or "depth" intended, and that (to him) it's just a science fiction movie, plain and simple. Naturally, the creators specifically telling people they're wrong has never stopped fandom before. This has lead to an interesting relation between the theatrical cut and the director's cut: the theatrical cut is open to interpretation, the director's cut is the [[DeathOfTheAuthor director's interpretation]].

* A surprising number of people have suggested that Music/Eiffel65's hit "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" is about depression, of all things.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': It would be an understatement for fans of ''Series/BreakingBad'' and its prequel/spinoff ''Series/BetterCallSaul''. Literally every aspect has been analysed by the fandom for some sort of meaning, from the RV, to the choices of the cars that characters drive, to everyone's fashion choices, to coffee mugs to the fact that Walt wears white briefs. One reddit user decided to take this UpToEleven by trying to find tongue-in-cheek symbolism for every item in the [[http://i.imgur.com/M6nGsJy.jpg restaurant scene]] from "Confessions".

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]

* The genre of ProgressiveRock is known for songs which are loaded with allegory, metaphor, obscure symbolism, and the ConceptAlbum, in which all the songs on an album are all based on a specific theme, or which are all part of a larger story. For instance, the song "Music/SuppersReady" by Music/{{Genesis}} was based on the Literature/BookOfRevelation. Or their ConceptAlbum ''Music/TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway,''; which is about... [[MindScrew take your pick]].

* Music/{{REM}}'s "Shiny Happy People" being about the Tiananmen Square massacre is the fan theory that will not die, but WordOfGod has always been that it really is just a nonsense song that they did as SomethingCompletelyDifferent, and which they [[CreatorBacklash came to regret]].

* Just what the hell is ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''? Satanism (enslaving creatures), atheism (you can capture GOD), and so on. WordOfGod is ignored.

* Music/TheAvalanches 2001 single "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpqm-05R2Jk Since I Left You]], has been seen as being a metaphor for getting into heaven or accepting death, at least based on its music video, and endless debates in the YouTube comments seem to lean heavily towards this as the interpretation.

* Music/DuaLipa's single "If It Ain't Me" has been open to widespread interpretation, with many allegories, despite the fact it was meant to be a bubblegum pop single!