Line #53 Main/EpisodeFinishesTheTitle


1	A title convention. The show's name is the first half of a sentence, and is completed by whatever is featured in the episode. For example, "The Troper's Guide to... Random Trope".
2
3	These titles frequently use ellipsis (but not [[DramaticEllipsis dramatic ones]]) or [[ColonCancer colons]].
4
5	A subtrope of/related to IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming. Contrast CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase, where there might be some overlap.
6
7	----
8	!!Example:
9
10	[[foldercontrol]]
11
12	[[folder:Advertising]]
13	* There was a UK campaign for the soft drink Tizer which was a variation on this trope. Each commercial would always end with an enigmatic word, e.g. "Hypno", "Bap", or "Trauma". The key to these ads was that all the words could be suffixed with the word "Tizer" to make a longer word. [[note]]Most of those words end with -tiser in British English, but the American -tizer isn't entirely unknown.[[/note]]
14	[[/folder]]
15
16	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
17	* Each chapter of ''Manga/{{Yotsuba}}'' is called "Yotsuba & [whatever]".
18	* ''Literature/IsThisAZombie'' has every episode title answer that question. Such as "No, I'm a Vampire Ninja", etc.
19	* The episodes of the ''Manga/MonsterMusume'' anime are always called "Daily Life With [theme of the episode]". The last one is a TitleDrop.
20	[[/folder]]
21
22	[[folder:Comics]]
23	* The full title of every one of Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/DRAndQuinch'' stories for ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' follows this trend with such tales as "D.R. & Quinch Have Fun on Earth", "D.R. & Quinch Get Drafted", "D.R. & Quinch Go to Hollywood", etc.
24	* Marvel's ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' series, although late in the run of Volume 2 this changed.
25	* Most English ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' titles are ''Asterix and X'' or ''Asterix in [country]'' (or on three occasions ''Asterix the..''; ''...Gaul'', ''Gladiator'' and ''Legionary''). The exceptions are ''Mansions of the Gods'' and ''Obelix and Co.'' The French titles often do this as well, but have a lot more exceptions.
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder:Live-Action Films]]
29	* It's been noted by several critics and cultural commentators that the majority of Creator/StevenSeagal's movies are deliberately made to read like this due to the poster usually billing him with "Steven Seagal IS..." followed by the title. e.g. Steven Seagal IS ''Film/AboveTheLaw1988'', Steven Seagal IS ''Film/OutForJustice'', Steven Seagal IS ''Film/OnDeadlyGround'', etc.
30	* The ''Film/RoadTo'' series starring Creator/BobHope and Creator/BingCrosby used this format, with the title always being "Road to" and followed by the name of whatever country most the film is set in (e.g. ''Film/RoadToMorocco'').
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Literature]]
34	* Shows up in many Do-It-Yourself book series, like:
35	** ''The Complete Idiot's Guide To...''
36	** ''... For Dummies'' (which actually goes the other way)
37	*** Which later joined forces as ''The Complete Idoit's Guide for Dumies'' (sic.)
38	* Also fairly common in children's book series. For example, ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears'', which have title like ''The Barenstein Bears Count their Blessings'' or ''...and Too Much TV''.
39	** The quintessential series in France that fits the trope is ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martine_%28book%29 Martine.]]''
40	* ''The Hitchhiker's Guide To...'' was a series of travel books for those relying on the transport of strangers. While seeing Europe this way, Creator/DouglasAdams imagined extending the book [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy a very long way out.]]
41	* Similarly, ''[[Literature/YoungWizards So You Want To Be A Wizard]]'' (and the in-universe book of the same name) takes its title from the ''So You Want To Be A...'' series of career guides.
42	* Other such travel guide titles include ''... on ''x'' Dollars A Day'' (also mentioned in ''HGTTG'') and ''The Rough Guide To...''
43	* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''[[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland Through the Looking-Glass]]''. Chapter 3 ends with an incomplete sentence, "She came upon two little fat men ... feeling sure that they must be" and the sentence is completed by the title of Chapter 4, "Tweedledum and Tweedledee".
44	* Many of the stories that claim to be "the shortest short story ever written" use this trick, technically making the "story" shorter by putting part of it in the title. For example, Forrest J. Ackerman wrote what may be the shortest science fiction story ever, titled ''Cosmic Report Card: Earth''. The actual story was one letter long, "F". It was actually published in the science fiction magazine "Vertex", and he was apparently paid $100 for writing it.
45	* Each title in ''Literature/MythicMisadventures'' follows the format of ''Pandora Gets [evil that she is recapturing]''
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
49	* The Creator/FoodNetwork show "The Secret Life of..."
50	* Two episodes of ''Series/{{Lost}}'' are called "...In Translation" and "...And Found".
51	* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_Of..._(TV_series) In Search Of...]]''
52	* Inverted by the first episode of ''Series/{{Angel}}'', named "City of..."
53	* The Australian talk show, ''A Quiet Word'' -- sample episode "A Quiet Word with Music/BillBailey".
54	* A series of sketches on ''Series/ABitOfFryAndLaurie'' parodied talk shows with titles like this. Instances include "Trying to Borrow a Fiver Off ...", "Introducing My Grandfather To ...", "Realising I've Given the Wrong Directions To ...", "Photocopying My Genitals With ...", and "Flying a Light Aeroplane Without Having Had Any Formal Instruction With ..."
55	* Every episode of ''Series/{{Bottom}}'' has a title that can be prefixed with "Bottom": "Smells", "Gas", "Apocalypse", "'s Up", "Accident", "Digger", "Burglary", "Culture", "Holy", "'s Out", "Hole", "Terror", "Break", "Dough", "Finger" and "Carnival".
56	* Each episode of ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' is titled "...vs. [something]".
57	* ''Series/TwoBrokeGirls'' starts each of its episode titles with "[[CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase And...]]".
58	* The title of each episode of ''Series/EverybodyHatesChris'' starts off with the phrase "Everybody Hates".
59	* ''The Funny Side Of...'', a BBC show in which Clive Anderson looks at bloopers and funny moments in a different TV genre.
60	* The ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episodes were always titled ''Mr. Monk and the ...'' or ''Mr. Monk goes to ...'' and so on. The books follow this trend.
61	* Eric Sykes' BBC sitcom, ''Sykes and...''
62	* The miniseries {{spinoff}} to ''Film/LockStockAndTwoSmokingBarrels'' was called ''Series/LockStock'', and the episodes were titled "...And [number] [{{MacGuffin}}s]".
63	%%* ''Series/TwoGuysAGirlAndAPizzaPlace''.
64	* The Animal Planet show "Growing Up...", which showed animals growing from babies to adolescence/adulthood, had different species of animals featured in each episode, and so the narrator would refer to the episode as "Growing Up Rhino/Penguin/Polar Bear/whatever the animal of the episode was".
65	* Every episode of ''Series/TheLibrarians2014'' begins "And the...", turning the whole thing into CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase.
66	* ''Series/WorldsDumbest'' does this, with the episode title indicating what kind of idiots are featured (Criminals, Drivers, Partiers, etc.).
67	* ''Series/GamersGuideToPrettyMuchEverything'' all use the formula "The (noun)", which focuses on what the "Gamer's Guide" is relating to in that episode.
68	* Each episode of ''Series/NeverHaveIEver'' completes the titular phrase, e.g. "...gotten drunk with the popular kids" or "...started a nuclear war".
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Music]]
72	* Album titles from Music/MeFirstAndTheGimmeGimmes start with a verb.
73	* [[Music/DReam D:Ream]]'s albums ''On Vol.1'' and ''World''.
74	* Music/RelientK named their cover album ''Is For Karaoke''.
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Radio]]
78	* ''[[http://www.tvcream.co.uk/?p=11910 Frank Muir Goes Into...,]]'' where Frank Muir looked at humorous quotes and archive clips on a given subject.
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Video Games]]
82	* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' creates this sort of title through ProceduralGeneration for books written during worldgen.
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Webcomics]]
86	* ''Webcomic/ZombieAndMummy'' has all its titles in the format of "ZOMBIE & MUMMY [do stuff]".
87	* The print books of ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'': ''Are Naked All the Time''; ''Hope They Don't Get Eaten''; ''Can be Real Ladykillers''; ''Are Gonna Sniff Everybody''; ''Don't Criticise Your Lovelife''; ''Will Do It For Free''; ''Don't Ask Questions''; ''Let Instincts Do Their Thing''; ''Don't Know How Stuff Works''; ''Can't Always Get What They Want''; ''Feel Strangely Exotic''; ''Rock the Bottomless Look''; ''Want To Speak To Management''; and ''Were Left Unsupervised''.
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Web Original]]
91	* Technically [[LetsPlay Let's Plays]] are a genre, but this shows up often enough to get a mention. Most [=LPers=] follow the convention of naming their [=LPs=] "Let's Play: Something"; for example, "Let's Play: The DrinkingGame/TVTropesWikiDrinkingGame."
92	* Creator/BradJones has a series called "''WebVideo/BradTries''," wherein Brad drinks various unsettling things. The episodes names go, "Brad Tries Cocaine," etc.
93	* [[YouKnowThatThingWhere You Know, That Thing Where]]...
94	* The [[SoYouWantTo/SeeTheIndex So You Want To]] namespace on Website/ThisVeryWiki.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Western Animation]]
98	* Most of the episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus'' form a complete sentence with the show title. Mostly of the "[verb]s [object]" form, like "Plays Ball" or "Spins a Web," but many others still form a descriptive phrase: "Inside Ralphie," "Wet All Over." In the case of "Cold Feet" an apostrophe would have to be added to make it fit, as a possessive. Only one episode fully deviated from this pattern: "The Busasaurus."
99	* ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'', obviously, names each episode after whatever it is that's ticked off Dan in that episode, like "Canada" or "The Dentist".
100	* ''WesternAnimation/WonderPets''. Usually "The Wonder Pets Save the [Animal in Trouble]".
101	* All the Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' have titles beginning with Master Funnie's first name, as do most of the Disney-produced ones. The title cards normally feature the show's logo, while exceptions ("Judy, Judy, Judy," "Judy's Big Admission," "Patti's Dad Dilemma" and the Quailman episodes) have it altered accordingly.
102	* Episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' almost always follow the naming formula "vs. (insert villain, inconvenience, or random plot point here)". The DVD releases have followed this pattern by naming the sets "vs. Season (number)"
103	* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' has the OriginsEpisode "Go!". "Teen Titans Go!" is their BattleCry.
104	* Most episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Tigtone}}'' follow a CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase format
105	[[/folder]]
106
107	[[folder:Other]]
108	* The drinking game "Never Have I Ever"
109	* The non-drinking game "Would You Rather"
110	[[/folder]]

Context Main / EpisodeFinishesTheTitle