History Main / TomSwifty

[[ShowDontTell To demonstrate, rather than elaborate]], some examples:

[[folder:Catalogue of Tom Swifties]]
# "I might as well be dead," Tom croaked.
# "Who discovered radium?" asked Marie, curiously.
# "I've lost the rights to that gold mine," Tom exclaimed.
# "I unclogged the drain with a vacuum cleaner," Tom said succinctly.
# "They had to amputate them both at the ankles," Tom said defeatedly.
# Or similarly: "We have to amputate," Tom said disarmingly.
# "Word to the wise: don't pet the lions," Tom said offhandedly.
# "Why is it so dark in here?" Tom said delightedly.
# "Mush!" Tom said huskily.
# "I'm coming!" Tom ejaculated.
# "Me, drown in Egypt? It'll never happen!" exclaimed Tom, deep in denial.
# "I owe you £20," said Tom, with a score to settle.
# "I have to alert the town!" Tom cried.
# "I've dropped my toothpaste," said Tom, Crest-fallen.
# "We're out of toothpaste," said Tom, Aim-lessly.
# "I never sharpen pencils," Tom said pointlessly.
# "There's no air in your tires," Tom said flatly.
# "I tore up all my Valentines", said Tom halfheartedly.
# "Now where did I leave the deed to that land?" Tom muttered distractedly.
# "That river is full of nuclear waste!" Tom said glowingly.
# "Did anyone see where I left my pants?" Tom asked embarrassedly.
# "Did you walk right up to the victim and shoot him?" Tom asked, point-blank.
# "I sure did!" the suspect shot back.
# "I'm trapped in a penny!" Tom said, incensed.
# "Oh no, I've become an undead monster!" said Tom, aghast.
# "I'm trying to read Darwin's ''Voyage of the Beagle''", Tom said doggedly.
# "Okay, okay; just one more autograph," Tom said resignedly.
# "Take the prisoner downstairs with you," Tom said condescendingly.
# "I manufacture table tops," said Tom counterproductively.
# "My knee keeps twitching," Tom said reflexively.
# "It's the outside of a tree!" Tom barked.
# "That looks like it came from the chemistry lab," Tom retorted.
# "Terpsichore, Erato, Calliope..." Tom mused.
# "Get into the back of the boat," Tom said sternly.
# "A triangle has three, a square has four, a pentagon has five," Tom sighed.
# "You could plant box, or cypress, or maybe holly," Tom hedged.
# "Nnnn," Tom said forensically.[[note]]Four-"n"s-ically. Geddit?[[/note]]
# "I make sure to have a diet rich in iron," Tom said ferociously.
# "I just ate a bunch of lions," said Tom, full of pride.
# "The Red Sox didn't need the Babe", said Tom, ruthlessly.
# "This wine's far too dry", Tom said bitterly.
# "Stop playing with that FreezeRay", Tom said frostily.
# "Do I look like a mouse to you?", Tom squeaked.
# "We've taken over the government!", Tom cooed.
# "I just inhaled my fishing lure!", said Tom with bated breath.
# "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," said Tom rhetorically [[note]]''Film/GoneWithTheWind''[[/note]].
# "No, I won't play TabletopGame/TicTacToe with you," said Tom crossly.
# "Stop needling me," said Tom pointedly.
# "Fearless and Red are among my favorite albums," said Tom [[Music/TaylorSwift Swiftly]].
# "That's the dog star," said Tom seriously.
# "[[TheStoner Pass me a joint]]," said Tom bluntly.
# "I can't find the French legation," Tom said disconsolately.
# "The harbor markers are burning!" Tom yelled flamboyantly.
# "You got a nice butt, lady," Tom said cheekily.
# "The mosquitos won't get us in here," Tom said intently.
# "That martial artist looks a bit glum," Tom said [[Creator/BruceLee sadly]].
# "What a wonderful side street!", Tom said finally.
# "I think we should give the robot a masculine or feminine personality.", Tom engendered.
# "My lamp just went out!" Tom glowered.
# "Maybe we could try playing dice" Tom hazarded.
# "Get into this sack of potatoes, Richard", Tom dictated.
# "Keep the furnace going!", Tom bellowed.
# "Time to get moving!", Tom said ecstatically.
# "I'm feeling a bit devilish." Tom said impishly.
# "I'm going to go play the organ," Tom piped up.
# "Let's go explore tombs!" Tom said cryptically.
# "I need to replace my mower", said Tom forlornly.
# "My favourite music show's on!" cried Tom with abandon.
# "I'm the plumber," he said with a flush.
# "I can't believe I tore another pillow!", Tom said, feeling down.
# "I didn't do my math homework," said Tom, nonplussed.
# "Talking through this sieve makes me sound weird," Tom strained to say.
# "I need to revive the cookware", Tom said, deadpan.
# "I got the bomb to countdown again", Tom refused to say.
# "Glad I didn't get another text message requesting my credit card info today", Tom said, without context.
# "I don't know where I put my list of arguments against", Tom said, missing context.
# "I think Lee acted alone", Tom said, feeling justly attacked.
# "Leave them to germinate", Tom proceeded.
# "Well, I thought it was kind of nice being a girl for a while", Tom said dismissively.
# "The cooking implements were haunted," Tom wrote in cursive.
[[/folder]]

[[AC:Contests]]
* ''Literature/BulwerLyttonFictionContest'': It's a competition for bad prose, so this trope is kinda {{enforced}}. From Kimberly Baer, Woodbridge, VA in 2016, we have these.
-->"Nurse, I need more blankets, and my water pitcher is empty, and also my bedside lamp isn't working," Tom said coldly, dryly, and darkly, yet at the same time patiently.
* [[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers The New York Times]] newspaper held a [[http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/weekend-competition-tom-swifties/#comment-13201 contest]] for the top Tom Swifties.
* Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast: Mark Rosewater once held a ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering''-related Tom Swifty contest. The results can be seen [[http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr115 here]]. They will only make sense if you know the cards they're referencing, though.

%%[[AC:Magazines]]
%%* The Boy Scouts of America {{magazine|s}} ''Boy's Life'' has these in its jokes section.

[[AC:Magazines]]
* The Boy Scouts of America {{magazine|s}} ''Boy's Life'' has these in its jokes section.

# "Nnnn," Tom said forensically.[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Four-"n"s-ically.]] Geddit?[[/note]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E13FallWeatherFriends "Fall Weather Friends"]], Pinkie Pie says she is "your official p-ie in the sky announcer" for the Running of the Leaves.

[[AC:Real Life]]

* ''Website/TurkeyCityLexicon'': An unseemly compulsion to follow the word "said" with a colorful or [[IncrediblyLamePun punny]] adverb, as in "'We'd better hurry,' Tom said swiftly." An example from Creator/StephenKing: "'I'm the plumber,' he said, with a flush." This was [[TropeNamer a standard mannerism]] of the old ''Literature/TomSwift'' adventure dime-novels. [[ShowDontTell Good dialogue can stand on its own without a clutter of adverbial props.]] (Not to mention that these little winks are only funny to the pre-pubescent 11-year-olds who comprised most of Tom Swift's core demographic. Anyone more mature--such as a 12-year-old--will give them the groans they deserve.)

* The New York Times [[http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/weekend-competition-tom-swifties/#comment-13201 held a contest]] for the top Tom Swifties.

# "I might as well be dead," Tom croaked.

# "Who discovered radium?" asked Marie, curiously.

* The Boy Scouts of America magazine ''Boy's Life'' has these in its jokes section.

The name is a reference to the ''Literature/TomSwift'' series of books. They did not use the trope much themselves, rather the books and similar children's books of the time (''Literature/NancyDrew'', ''Literature/TheHardyBoys'' and other dialogue-heavy pint-sized detective novels) went to great lengths to avoid just repeating plain words like "said" and "tell" over and over again. So they employed many adverbs and alternatives: the Said-Bookism is deservedly [[SaidBookism its own trope.]] The Tom Swifty then arose later as an effective way of parodying this style [[BeamMeUpScotty until it became associated strongly with the original series itself.]]