History Theatre / HMSPinafore

* HypocriticalHumor: Captain Corcoran agrees that his "right good crew" are all "brave and sober men", however "though foes, they could thump any, they're scarcely good company" for marrying his daughter.

* HypocritcalHumor: Captain Corcoran agrees that his "right good crew" are all "brave and sober men", however "though foes, they could thump any, they're scarcely good company" for marrying his daughter.

* HaveAGayOldTime: See UnfortunateNames, below.

* FelonyMisdemeanor: Played both straight ("He said 'damme'!"), and for laughs. Dick Deadeye's observations that "It's a queer world" and "Captain's daughters don't marry foremost jacks" are greeted with shock and outrage by the other sailors-- even the ones who [[HypocriticalHumor just said the same thing]].

* MindScrew: Ralph and Captain Corcoran are at least 20 years apart in age, and Ralph and Josephine are the same age, yet [[spoiler: Little Buttercup nursed both of them (Ralph and the Captain) when they were both babies and accidentally switched them around. Wouldn't be possible]].

** However it is then played straight with Sir Joseph and Cousin Hebe

* TheSoprano: Josephine

-->'''Sir Joseph''': Stick close to your desks/And never go to sea/And you all may be rulers of the Queen's [[AccentUponTheWrongSyllable Na-vee]].

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous: Played both straight ("He said 'damme'!"), and for laughs. Dick Deadeye's observations that "It's a queer world" and "Captain's daughters don't marry foremost jacks" are greeted with shock and outrage by the other sailors-- even the ones who [[HypocriticalHumor just said the same thing]].

* InterClassRomance: In ''The HMS Pinafore'', a double version of this appears. A middle class woman loves a low class man but at the same time a upper class man is in love with her. Also, a lower class woman is in love with a middle class man.

* TakeThat: The song, "When I was a lad," is a pointed satire on William Henry Smith, the contemporary head of the Admiralty who actually had no naval or military experience, which as of course popularly considered an outrageous appointment for an island nation that depends on its navy.

* FridgeLogic: The Captain and Ralph are the same age... and then Ralph marries the captain's daughter. And the Captain marries Buttercup, the woman who nursed the two as babies.
* HelloSailor: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. None of the sailors have homosexual desires.

* DesignatedVillain: Dick Deadeye is treated as a knave and rapscallion mostly due to his [[FaceOfAThug looks]] and his UnfortunateName. The rest of the crew shout him down even when he's agreeing with them.

* Elopement: Attempted by Ralph and Josephine.

* TheSoprano: Josephine

* IAmSong: "I'm Called Little Buttercup", "My gallant crew... I am the captain of the Pinafore".

* {{Americanitis}}: When Gilbert and Sullivan went to America in 1879 to produce an authorized version of H.M.S. Pinafore (and there were many unauthorized American productions, given the state of international copyright law back then), one producer suggested Americanising it and changing the title to U.S.S. Pinafore. Gilbert replied to this suggestion by offering a sarcastic rewrite of the lyrics of "He Is An Englishman":
-->''He is American!\\
Though he himself has said it,\\
'Tis not much to his credit,\\
That he is American.\\
For he might have been a Dutchman,\\
An Irish, Scotch or such man,\\
Or perhaps an Englishman!\\
But in spite of hanky-panky,\\
He remains a true-born Yankee,\\
A cute American.''