| 1 | ->''"You're going to get diagnosed by someone who says her favorite superhero is ComicBook/XMan?"'' |
| 2 | -->-- '''Evil Abed''' on Britta, ''{{Series/Community}}'' |
| 3 | |
| 4 | Sometimes the title of a work is unintentionally counter-intuitive. It might have been selected for a specific purpose but is incorrectly interpreted by audiences, it might be confused with a similar title or even [[SimilarlyNamedWorks a different work with the same name]], or it might even be used inconsistently by the [[WordOfGod creators themselves]], causing further confusion. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | Subtrope of CommonKnowledge. Often contributes to instances of CowboyBebopAtHisComputer, including the trope's namesake incident. For confusion regarding our own {{Word Salad Title}}s, see JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant. Compare ViewerNameConfusion and ViewerGenderConfusion. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | Specific {{Sub Trope}}s include: |
| 9 | |
| 10 | * IAmNotShazam: The work's title is mistaken for the protagonist's name. |
| 11 | * IconicCharacterForgottenTitle: The protagonist's name is mistaken for the work's title. |
| 12 | * ProtagonistTitleFallacy: Which character the title refers to is clear, but that character is mistaken for the protagonist. |
| 13 | * TheTheTitleConfusion: When nobody is quite sure if a work's title begins with a "the." |
| 14 | * RefrainFromAssuming: A music variation, where a repeated phrase or line from the refrain is falsely assumed to be the title. |
| 15 | ---- |
| 16 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 17 | |
| 18 | !!Examples where the title itself is mistaken for something else: |
| 19 | |
| 20 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 21 | * A common misconception of entry-level ''Anime/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' fans is that the abbreviation is "Mermaid Melody". In fact, "Pichi Pichi Pitch", and sometimes "Pichi" or "P3", is the shortened title on every piece of merchandise, as well as the biggest part of the logo. Because this isn't common in other series (imagine calling ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' "Pretty Guardian" or ''Manga/AngelicLayer'' "Kidou Tenshi"), it's assumed that people just automatically think this because the first half of the title is the English part. The English and German versions of the manga have, in retaliation, moved "Mermaid Melody" to tiny font ''after'' the "Pichi Pichi Pitch". However, the French and Italian versions have ''embraced'' the Title Confusion, making "Mermaid Melody" bigger than "Pichi Pichi Pitch" (or, in the Italian version, "Principesse Sirene") on the logo rather than the other way around. This may be an example of a MarketBasedTitle, as GratuitousEnglish is more common in European languages than GratuitousJapanese is, and if you must have both in the title, it would make more sense to emphasize the one that would get more attention instead of stay true to the source. |
| 22 | * ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'': The different segments of the show are often referred to as ''Robotech: [[Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross The Macross Saga]]'', ''Robotech: [[Anime/SuperDimensionCavalrySouthernCross Masters]]'' (sometimes ''Robotech: Southern Cross''), and ''Robotech: [[Anime/GenesisClimberMospeada The New Generation]]''. These title expansions actually come from the comic books published by Comico and don't appear in the animated series itself. In newer DVD releases, such as ''Robotech Remastered'', they use newly created opening credit sequences for each segment. The original opening was a pastiche of scenes from all three constituent shows and was used throughout the entire series. |
| 23 | * The ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'' series are frequently known as ''Quest for Iscandar'', ''Comet Empire'', and ''Bolar Wars''. These subtitles were never used during the course of the series, only in home video releases starting with VHS in the 1990s. In Japanese, they were simply known as ''Space Battleship Yamato'' I, II, and III. |
| 24 | * The title of ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'' is sometimes mistaken for ''Magic Knights Rayearth'' or even ''Magic Knights of Rayearth''. |
| 25 | * ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' is often called ''Lum'' because the English manga used the title "Lum" with "Urusei Yatsura" written in small print under it. This was probably a good decision, since English speakers can pronounce "Lum" (especially back then before the modern manga boom). |
| 26 | ** When the show was dubbed in some European countries, it was actually re-titled ''Lamu'' (Lum's name in the dub, taken from the Japanese pronunciation / spelling of "Lum", which is ラム). |
| 27 | ** There was a bad British dub of the early episodes (cropped into widescreen) called ''Lum the Invader Girl''. |
| 28 | ** ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'' is sometimes mistakenly called ''Visions of Escaflowne''. |
| 29 | [[/folder]] |
| 30 | |
| 31 | [[folder:Arts]] |
| 32 | * ''Art/TheNightWatch'': The only reason the painting is named ''The Night Watch'' has to do with the fact that it was covered with a dark varnish that gave the impression that the scene took place at night, while it originally doesn't. |
| 33 | [[/folder]] |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[folder:Comedy]] |
| 36 | * Creator/TheFiresignTheatre's comedy album ''How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All?'', is commonly referred to as "All Hail [[Creator/TheMarxBrothers Marx]] and [[Music/TheBeatles Lennon]]" because of the [[TheBackwardsR faux-Russian text]] around the pictures on the building. |
| 37 | [[/folder]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Films — Animation]] |
| 40 | * ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven'' was localized as just ''Charlie'' in French, but it is often called ''Charlie, mon héros'' ("my hero") because several posters used it as the tagline. |
| 41 | * [[WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians That animated Disney movie from 1961 about talking Dalmatians]] is officially called ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'', not ''101 Dalmatians''; ''101 Dalmatians'' was [[Film/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians1996 the live-action remake from 1996]] with Creator/GlennClose. The confusion is understandable, as numerous other works in the franchise (including [[WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatiansTheSeries the animated series]]) have also used the Arabic numerals. |
| 42 | * ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty'' is commonly referred to as ''Sausage Movie'', even by major sites like Google. |
| 43 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Smallfoot}}'' is sometimes called ''Littlefoot'' due to confusion with the title character from ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime''. |
| 44 | * ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventuresHowISpentMyVacation'' is commonly and accidentally referred to as ''Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My ''Summer'' Vacation''. This is due to the fact that the movie takes place during the summer and the FourLinesAllWaiting plot involves various characters on break from school. |
| 45 | * ''WesternAnimation/BeeMovie'' is very often referred to as "The Bee Movie". |
| 46 | * ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' is very often referred to as "Princess and the Frog". |
| 47 | [[/folder]] |
| 48 | |
| 49 | [[folder:Films — Live-Action]] |
| 50 | * The film ''Film/TheBridgeOnTheRiverKwai'' is based on the book ''Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai'', translated into English as ''The Bridge ''Over'' The River Kwai''. Many people refer to the film by the English title of the book. |
| 51 | * ''Film/{{Cobra}}'' is often called "Stallone Cobra", due to Creator/SylvesterStallone's last name alone appearing on the movie poster just above the title in an identical font. |
| 52 | * The obscure 1970s movie ''Film/DeathBedTheBedThatEats'' is often referred to as ''Death Bed: The Bed That Eats '''People''' '' due to Patton Oswalt's infamous rant about the movie where he consistently and incorrectly refers to the movie by that title. |
| 53 | * ''Film/HowardTheDuck'' was localized in French as just ''Howard'', but it is often called ''Howard, une nouvelle race de héros'' ("a new breed of hero") because it was the tagline of a poster. Some also erroneously refer to it as ''Howard le Canard'' (literal translation of the original title). |
| 54 | * ''Film/JasonX'' is often misnamed "Jason 10", probably because it is the 10th film in the ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' series and X is the Roman numeral for 10. |
| 55 | * ''Film/HeroAndTheTerror'' is sometimes assumed to be titled '''''The''' Hero and the Terror''. Chuck Norris' character doesn't deserve a definite article, apparently. |
| 56 | * ''Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture'' was originally marketed under just the title "''The X-Files''"; the phrase "Fight the Future" was just its {{tagline}}. Confusing these two is rather like saying that every other episode of [[Series/TheXFiles the show the movie was based on]] was called "The Truth is Out There". The second movie, however, is titled ''Film/TheXFilesIWantToBelieve''. See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:XFilesMoviePoster.jpg the poster]]; by where "Fight the Future" is placed in relation to the title, it could easily be mistaken for a subtitle. Half the time, "I Want to Believe" is written in the ''same'' position when it comes to the 2008 movie, and "Fight the Future" appears on the spine of the DVD case, so it looks like [[AscendedFanon the writers have surrendered]]. |
| 57 | * A minor example, but ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire'' is often called "Interview with ''a'' Vampire", probably because the 'th' sounds in "with" and "the" blend together, and also because ''The'' vampire seems to imply there's only one vampire. |
| 58 | * ''Film/WereTheMillers'' is sometimes mis-titled ''"Meet"'' The Millers", possibly due to confusion with ''Film/MeetTheParents'', or possibly because they just think the alliteration sounds better. |
| 59 | * Technically a [[ParodiedTrope parody of this concept]], but some people jokingly call ''Film/Alien3'' "Alien Cubed" or "Alien To The Third Power", due to the font on the title having the "3" inexplicably written in superscript. |
| 60 | [[/folder]] |
| 61 | |
| 62 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 63 | * ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' and ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' are really ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and ''Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There''. It doesn't help that the two books are sometimes published in a single volume called ''Alice in Wonderland''. |
| 64 | * More a misspelling than a wrong title but a lot of people misspell ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears'' as the "Berenst'''e'''in Bears". This error is so common it even spawned an urban legend that it was originally spelled Berenstein but [[UnfortunateImplications changed to sound less Jewish]]. It's also a common example of the MandelaEffect. |
| 65 | * The Flemish playwright Hugo Claus originally titled his first novel ''The Duck Hunt'', then decided to change it to ''The Metsiers'' (title in Dutch: ''De Metsiers''), the name of the family on which the plot focuses. The novel ends on a duck hunt during which [[spoiler:the mentally ill son of the Metsiers family gets shot in the face and dies]], but Claus wanted the title to put the whole emphasis on the title characters (some scholars insist that this is such a deliberate and important choice). Then the novel was translated into French, English, etc. with the title ''The Duck Hunt''. |
| 66 | * The Analects of Creator/{{Confucius}} are mistitled in English. The actual title, ''Lún Yǔ'', means "discussion over Confucius' words" -- "analects" are a collection of excerpts from a literary work, an inaccurate description for the book in question. |
| 67 | * UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin's book ''On the Origin of Species'' is sometimes misnamed ''Origin of the Species'' or ''The Origin of Species''. It doesn't help that Music/TypeONegative'' has an album called "Origin Of The '''Feces'''" |
| 68 | * Creator/UmbertoEco's highly acclaimed medieval detective novel ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'' (and its movie adaptation alike) is quite often mistitled ''In the Name of the Rose'', which sounds more like some random swashbuckling romance. |
| 69 | * ''Literature/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' and both of its adaptations by the same title are often called ''The Grinch Who Stole Christmas''. |
| 70 | * The TV Series ''Series/GameOfThrones'' has become so popular that newer readers or non-readers who like the show have begun referring to them as the "''Game of Thrones'' books", though the novel series is actually titled "''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''" and the first novel only is called "''A'' Game of Thrones". However, one is much quicker and less awkward to say. |
| 71 | * ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'' is often misnamed "The ''Portrait'' Of Dorian Gray", likely because people think that sounds better. It's also surprisingly common for people to think it's "''A'' Portrait of Dorian Gray" and even to complain when people (correctly) use "The". Both of these misapprehensions may be influenced by awareness of works with names that begin similarly, for example ''Literature/APortraitOfTheArtistAsAYoungMan''. |
| 72 | * ''Literature/TheDiaryOfAYoungGirl'' is often called "The Diary of Anne Frank". While this is an accurate ''description'', as it is the author's diary, it's still the wrong title. Although the 1955 stage adaptation and its 1959 film version ''are'' titled ''The Diary of Anne Frank.'' |
| 73 | * ''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'', even later covers incorrectly list it as ''The Pickwick Papers''. |
| 74 | [[/folder]] |
| 75 | |
| 76 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 77 | * The British television spy series starring Patrick [=McGoohan=] was titled ''Series/DangerMan'' in the United Kingdom, ''Secret Agent'' everywhere else, but the chorus of the American theme song by Johnny Rivers is "Secret Agent Man." |
| 78 | * A TV adaptation of ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'' is titled ''Series/{{Monkey}}'' but is often called "Monkey Magic!" after the memorable chorus to the theme song. |
| 79 | * ''You'll Never Get Rich'' was a 1960's sitcom starring Phil Silvers as that lovable rogue Sergeant Ernie Bilko. Eventually, the show changed its name to ''Series/ThePhilSilversShow'' but in conversation, nearly everyone called it ''Sgt. Bilko''. The film adaptation even called itself that to avoid this trope. |
| 80 | * It's stunning how often people refer to Creator/DavidLetterman's CBS show, which aired from 1993–2015, as ''Series/LateNightWithDavidLetterman'', the title of his old NBC show which went off the air in 1993. The CBS show was the very similar ''Series/TheLateShowWithDavidLetterman'', and was circa 1993 seen as more of a continuation of ''Late Night'' than Creator/ConanOBrien's [[Series/LateNightWithConanOBrien actual continuation]], which Creator/JimmyFallon became the host of after Conan stopped doing so. ''Late Night'' still exists as of 2021 with ''Late Night with Creator/SethMeyers'' and is completely separate from ''The Late Show''. |
| 81 | * The Playhouse Disney / Disney Junior live-action interstitial series ''Choo Choo Soul'' often gets called ''All Aboard the Choo Choo Train'', [[RefrainFromAssuming because those words are repeated in the theme song]]. |
| 82 | * A minor example, but ''Series/SexAndTheCity'' is often misnamed "Sex IN the city". Understandable, as the two sound almost identical when spoken quickly. |
| 83 | * Many people believe that the BBC children's series ''Why Don't You'' was an OfficiallyShortenedTitle, and that it was originally called ''Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set And Go And Do Something Less Boring Instead?''. That was the show's tagline and featured in the theme song but was never actually the official title. |
| 84 | * ''Series/SquidGame'' is often misinterpreted as ''Squid Game'''s'''''. A consequence of this is that people then assume that the DeadlyGame the show is about is called "the Squid Games" (its name isn't actually specified). "The Squid Game" is a Korean playground game [[spoiler:which is also the game played in the final round]], which is explained in the opening of the very first episode. |
| 85 | * ''Series/Goosebumps1995'' episode "[[Recap/Goosebumps1995S3E10TheHauntedHouseGame The Haunted House Game]]": The deadly board game takes place inside a HauntedHouse, but is actually called ''Mansion of Terror'', not ''Haunted House Game''. |
| 86 | * Creator/{{NBC}}[='=]s ''Series/{{Today}}'' is often referred as ''The Today Show''. |
| 87 | [[/folder]] |
| 88 | |
| 89 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 90 | * The song "Killing in the Name" by Music/RageAgainstTheMachine is sometimes mistakenly called "Killing in the Name ''Of''" Since that is what the actual chorus says. |
| 91 | * Music/TheBeatles' ninth album (dubbed "Music/TheWhiteAlbum") is actually a SelfTitledAlbum. Because of the design, and that its release was 8 years into their fame, most people seeing the cover assume it has no printed title. |
| 92 | ** Ditto for Music/{{Metallica}} and their self-titled album, a.k.a. "The Black Album". |
| 93 | * Music/BritneySpears's hit singles "...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" are ''different'' songs, despite being extremely similar to each other. Many people think they are both the same song. (The former also gets hit with RefrainFromAssuming.) |
| 94 | * Arlo Guthrie's ''magnum opus'' song is called "Alice's Restaurant Massacree", found on the album named ''Music/AlicesRestaurant''. Furthering the confusion is that during "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" Guthrie explicitly says that "Alice's Restaurant" is the name of the song, even though it isn't. |
| 95 | * Music/CollectiveSoul has ''two'' self-titled albums and neither was their debut. Their second album and their eighth have no title, but while the second is usually called the "self-titled album", the eighth is often referred to as "Rabbit" due to the album cover being a picture of a large rabbit statuette. |
| 96 | * One of the songs from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'', "Stickerbush Symphony"[[note]]A "sticker bush" is a slang term for a thorny clinging shrub[[/note]], is frequently misspelled as "Stickerb'''r'''ush Symphony". This confusion may originate from a typo in the Platform/GameBoyAdvance remake of the game. |
| 97 | * Music/Blink182's fifth album is either [[SelfTitledAlbum self-titled]] or [[NoTitle untitled]], depending on who you ask. |
| 98 | * Music/DepecheMode: ''Ultra'' has a HiddenTrack named "Junior Painkiller", as it's a shortened remix of the track "Painkiller" from one of the singles from the album. As it's not given any name in the album notes or jewel case, some websites incorrectly assume it [[NoTitle doesn't have a name,]] and list it as simply "untitled" in the track listing. |
| 99 | * The Music/NewOrder songs "Cries and Whispers" and "Mesh" are notorious for how frequently they get mixed up. This can be traced back to the 1982 single release of "Everything's Gone Green", for which "Cries and Whispers" & "Mesh" were the [[BSide B-sides]]. On the back of the record sleeve, "Mesh" is listed as the first B-side, followed by "Cries and Whispers"; however, it's the opposite on the actual record, something the disc label accurately reflects (it's possible that "Mesh" was originally intended to be the first of the two B-sides before being moved to the second at the last minute, hence the discrepancy). Because of this, fans, critics, casual listeners, and even New Order's own compilations (most notably 1987's ''[[Music/SubstanceNewOrderAlbum Substance]]'') tend to swap the titles of "Cries and Whispers" and "Mesh". For reference, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NZfjbht79M this]] is "Cries and Whispers", and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpghMn2Vg1c this]] is "Mesh". |
| 100 | * Music/FaithNoMore: The [[BSide B-sides]] "The Grade" and "Cowboy Song" they were listed in the correct order on the "From Out of Nowhere" single, but became more widely available as bonus tracks on the LiveAlbum ''Live at the Brixton Academy'', where the first CD pressings accidentally swapped the track titles. |
| 101 | * Music/YellowMagicOrchestra's cover of Martin Denny's "Firecracker" (off their [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestraAlbum debut album]]) was the group's biggest hit in both North America and the UK, but mistitled in slightly different ways in both: |
| 102 | ** In North America, an edited version of "Firecracker" was released as a single, but somehow the details for the wrong track were listed on the center label, so it was issued was "Computer Game (Theme from the Circus)". As the error extended to the writing credits, Martin Denny went unlisted as well. |
| 103 | ** The UK got a different edit of "Firecracker" with a 22-second extract from "Computer Game (Theme from The Invaders)" added as an intro, and this time both songs were correctly listed on the single, but somehow the "Firecracker" title ''still'' got ignored and "Computer Game" was wrongly assumed to be the title of the entire piece. Many sources (including the Official Charts Company website) continue to perpetuate this error, even 40 years later. |
| 104 | * When "The Bidding" by Music/TallyHall became a [=TikTok=] trend in 2019, videos tended to use only the first, third, and fourth verses. Thus, the song is often known as "I've Been Sleeping in a Cardboard Box", based on its first line. "The Bidding" isn't a NonAppearingTitle, either; it's spoken aloud at the end of the song, with "they're too busy with winning the bidding to care". |
| 105 | * The liner notes to Music/MrBungle's ''Disco Volante'' credit members Bär [=McKinnon=] and Theo Lengyel with writing "Nothing", a title that doesn't appear in the proper track list - because there's a HiddenTrack it's therefor sometimes assumed that it's called "Nothing". But the reference to "Nothing" is a CreditsGag about Theo and Bär not writing any songs for the album, the hidden track is officially untitled, and no one can be said to have "written" it, as it's just the band messing around with instruments [[ThrowItIn while the tape was inadvertently left recording]]. |
| 106 | * Music/HouseOfPain"s debut is officially a SelfTitledAlbum, but is sometimes referred to as ''Fine Malt Lyrics'' due to that text appearing under the group's name - the intent was to parody alcohol brand Mickey's, which includes the text "Fine Malt Liquor" on their bottle labels. |
| 107 | [[/folder]] |
| 108 | |
| 109 | [[folder:Newspaper Comics]] |
| 110 | * To this day, ''ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus'' is sometimes mistakenly called by its original title, ''The Family Circle''. |
| 111 | [[/folder]] |
| 112 | [[folder:Pinballs]] |
| 113 | * Creator/{{Stern}}'s ''Pinball/IronMaiden'' pinball is not a [[LicensedPinballTables licensed tie-in]] to the [[Music/IronMaiden British heavy metal band]] of the same name. ([[HilariousInHindsight That said,]] successor company Stern Pinball would eventually make [[Pinball/IronMaidenLegacyOfTheBeast such a game]].) |
| 114 | * The stylized logo for Creator/WilliamsElectronics' ''Pinball/WhoDunnit1995'' causes confusion over the proper use of case and punctuation; variations include "[=WhoDunnit?=]", "[=WHO?dunnit=]", and "[=Who Dunnit?=]". Fan abbreviations frequently include [="W?D"=] and [="Wd?"=]. |
| 115 | * For some reason, ''[[Pinball/BugsBunnysBirthdayBall Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball]]'' is frequently misnamed by players as "Bugs Bunny's Birthday '''Bash'''" instead. |
| 116 | [[/folder]] |
| 117 | |
| 118 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 119 | * ''VideoGame/WingCommander Prophecy'' is sometimes referred to by fans as "Wing Commander 5", as the fifth "main line" WC, even though it's never been used outside the fandom using it as a working title, when almost nothing of the game was yet known. |
| 120 | * ''VideoGame/MegaManAndBass'' fans used to stubbornly refer to it as ''Mega Man 9'', until the real ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'' was announced. |
| 121 | * To quote from Website/TheOtherWiki, the video game ''Granada'' "is sometimes mistakenly referred to as '[=XGranadaX=]' or 'Granada X' because of ambiguity in the design of the logo." |
| 122 | * In some Japanese video games from the 1980s, the game's production team is so prominently credited beneath the title that the two are often mistakenly combined. This has resulted in references to "Final Zone Wolf" or "VideoGame/{{Zanac}} A.I." |
| 123 | * The 1990 ''VideoGame/DirtyHarry'' video game on the NES is often incorrectly called ''Dirty Harry: The War Against Drugs'' for whatever reason, but neither the game itself nor the box cover contains this subtitle. |
| 124 | * When ''VideoGame/MegaManMaker'', a ''VideoGame/{{Mega Man|Classic}}'' FanGame inspired by ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker'', was first released, it was called ''Mega Maker''. However, some sources referred to it as ''Mega '''Man''' Maker''. The Version 1.1 update officially added the missing word to the title because "Mega Maker" was the trademarked name of a company. |
| 125 | * ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'' is often mistakenly referred to as "Diddy Kong's Quest". Additionally, the in-game title contains a hyphen (rendering it as "''Diddy's Kong-quest''") to make it more obvious that it's a pun on the word ''conquest''. |
| 126 | * Similar to the ''X-Files'' example listed above, the full title for the game ''VideoGame/{{Strife}}'' is "''Strife: Quest for the Sigil''". However, the cover just says "Strife" and below that "Trust no one". "Trust no one" was meant as a tagline, but was - and still is - often mistaken for a subtitle (that the real subtitle only appeared in the manual in the original release didn't help). Likely as a MythologyGag, the remastered ''Veterans Edition'' on Steam lets you pick between "trust no one" (the demo, which is labeled as such) and "Quest for the Sigil", which is the full version, in much the same way old FirstPersonShooters let you pick which episode to start with. |
| 127 | * Another case similar to ''Fight the Future'': The first game in the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series is now almost universally referred to as ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', but the original release for Platform/{{Xbox}} only referred to it as such on the cover and manual artwork; everywhere else it was just simply "''Halo''" - including the spine for said cover artwork. Even Microsoft, who supposedly tacked on the subtitle as ExecutiveMeddling, referred to it as such for a while. |
| 128 | * The ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series is often referred to as the "Phoenix Wright" series instead. This stems from the fact that the first game was localized under the title ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', with the intention that "Phoenix Wright" would be the title of the whole series. When it was announced that Phoenix Wright wouldn't be the protagonist of [[VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney the fourth game]], the series was rebranded as "Ace Attorney", originally just the subtitle of the first game. Despite this, the original title stuck with many fans, and even many newer fans were introduced to the series with the title of "Phoenix Wright". |
| 129 | * Many people refer to ''VideoGame/MsPacMan'' as ''Mrs. Pac-Man''. |
| 130 | [[/folder]] |
| 131 | |
| 132 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 133 | * The webcomic ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'' is still occasionally referred to as ''Daily Dinosaur Comics''. [[http://web.archive.org/web/20030220043058/http://www.qwantz.com/ This]] is where "Daily" came from. Note the top of the page "Welcome to qwantz.com", then immediately on the next line "daily dinosaur comics". Since "qwantz.com" isn't a suitable title for the comic, the descriptive text was likely mistaken for the title back in the day, and it stuck. |
| 134 | [[/folder]] |
| 135 | |
| 136 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 137 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': The episode where Prunella and Marina engage in a speed-read to see who can finish a book first is officially titled "Prunella and the Disappointing Ending" on the title card, but the PBS Kids website and various TV listings refer to it as "Prunella '''Deegan''' and the Disappointing Ending." Exactly why is unknown, considering that no other episode titles use Prunella's full name. |
| 138 | * The ''Franchise/CarmenSandiego'' franchise spells her last name as one word, not two. |
| 139 | * ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' is popularly known as ''Stop That Pigeon'' or ''Stop the Pigeon'' because of its theme song. As a matter of fact, ''Stop That Pigeon'' was the series' working title, and instead of Dick Dastardly, a German baron was intended as the squadron leader. |
| 140 | ** This one's made it into an official production. In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/YogisTreasureHunt'', Dastardly captures a bunch of Creator/HannaBarbera characters, and starts ''[[CoolAndUnusualPunishment torturing them with clips from the show]]''. Snooper remarks "Oh no! Not ''Stop The Pigeon''-type cartoons!". |
| 141 | * Another minor example: ''Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You?'', a Creator/DrSeuss television special about a boy and a piano that takes him to any part of the world, is misremembered as ''Pontoffel Pock, Where '''the [[GoshdarnitToHeck Heck]]''' Are You?'' due to the refrain of the title song. The only time a TitleDrop without "the Heck" is used is when Pontoffel escapes and Neefa Feefa is left behind, yelling the title. On DVD, the special is instead called ''Pontoffel Pock and His Magic Piano.'' |
| 142 | * ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' go through this. When the show debuted on ABC in 1959, its original title was ''Rocky and His Friends'', though in-universe, it was always simply referred to as, "[[BreakingTheFourthWall The Rocky Show]]" (though it is referred to as ''Rocky and His Friends'' in "Rue Britannia"). Later, when it was moved to NBC in 1961, the network insisted on changing the title, and it became ''The Bullwinkle Show'', and has remained as such in ''most'' syndication markets. When reruns began airing on both Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network in TheNineties, each of the networks renamed the show themselves, with Nick titling it ''Bullwinkle's Moose-O-Rama'', and CN titling it ''The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show''. Are you confused yet? Because there's still even ''more''! When the series began seeing DVD releases in 2003, the show was rebranded again, under a new, "Collective" title: ''The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends''. Regardless of what the title is on screen, or on product, most fans simply refer to the show as a whole as "Rocky and Bullwinkle". |
| 143 | ** It gets even more confusing. The inter-title for the main segments is shown on-screen as "The Adventures of Bullwinkle and Rocky" (note that Bullwinkle gets top billing). The series as a whole was never referred to as "Rocky and Bullwinkle" during its original run. |
| 144 | ** Additionally, many fans refer to the "Peabody's Improbable History" segments as "Mr. Peabody". |
| 145 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" is sometimes incorrectly called "Marge vs. Itchy & Scratchy", in a similar vein to titles such as "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" or "Homer vs. Dignity." |
| 146 | * ''WesternAnimation/SpecialAgentOso'' is sometimes misremembered as "Secret Agent Oso". |
| 147 | * In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', there's an episode whose proper title is "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E13SoManyBirthdays So Many Birthdays]]". It often gets referred to by fans as "''Too'' Many Birthdays". |
| 148 | * A minor example: ''WesternAnimation/TheSylvesterAndTweetyMysteries'' were often thought of as just ''Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries'', which is understandable given that the title appears five times in the theme tune without the "The"; the "The" only appears in the title card. |
| 149 | [[/folder]] |
| 150 | |
| 151 | [[folder:Other]] |
| 152 | * It's "Creator/ChuckECheese", not "Chucky Cheese" (although it ''is'' pronounced that way, contributing to the confusion). The mascot's name is "Chuck", not "Chucky"; his full legal name is "Charles Entertainment Cheese" (yes, really). |
| 153 | [[/folder]] |
| 154 | |
| 155 | !!Examples where the meaning of the title is missed: |
| 156 | |
| 157 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 158 | * In a double case, ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' had a period where American viewers, upon hearing the title, would ask "Which one is Roan?" This is a result of people confusing "rurouni", meaning "wandering swordsman", with "{{Ronin}}". |
| 159 | * ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Star Blazers]]'': The crew of the Argo (Yamato) is never called the Star Blazers. They are always called the Star Force. However, in some of the episode recap blurbs, the narrator does say "a team of star blazers called the Star Force..." but it was never used by the characters in the actual stories. |
| 160 | * The "cheeky angel" in ''Manga/TenshiNaKonamaiki'' is Megumi, not the mischievous spirit who transformed Megumi into a girl. |
| 161 | * For ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'', "Rayearth" is the name of Hikaru's HumongousMecha, not the name of the world the series takes place in or the collective name of the PowerTrio. The world is called Cephiro, and the girls are just called the Magic Knights. |
| 162 | * The toy line for the ''Anime/{{Voltron}}'' cartoon called Vehicle Voltron Voltron I and Lion Voltron Voltron III. The never intended to be dubbed Albegas was released as Voltron II. Since the Lion Voltron was clearly more popular than the Vehicle Voltron, the question was why it took third place. Not widely known is the fact that ''Anime/DairuggerXV'' (''Vehicle Voltron'' a.k.a. ''Voltron of the Near Universe'') was always intended to be the flagship series and ''Anime/{{Golion}}'' (Lion Voltron aka Voltron of the Far Universe) was actually a late replacement for the planned but ultimately unavailable ''Daltanius''. World Events Productions simply overestimated how popular Dairugger would be in comparison to Golion. But the toy packaging was already done. Curiously enough, Lion Voltron still aired first in all regions so it must have been determined quite early. |
| 163 | * ''Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman'': [[https://twitter.com/tatsunoko_pro/status/914418263735570433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E914418263735570433%7Ctwgr%5E71b3e39fdc0e8c29335cedc5ff987e0dc8bf171a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.animenewsnetwork.com%2Finterest%2F2017-10-02%2Ftatsunoko-confirms-that-gatchaman-not-the-name-of-the-team%2F.122162 According to]] Creator/TatsunokoProduction, ''Gatchaman'' refers only to the titular group's leader, Ken the Eagle, with the other four being "Science Ninja Team Members". However, Gatchaman is frequently mistaken to refer to the Science Ninja Team itself, not helped by [[SeriesContinuityError continuity errors]] in ''Gatchaman II''[[note]]The opening theme refers to Gatchaman as being the team's name, while at one point everyone in the group ''except'' for Ken calls themselves "Science Ninja Team Gatchaman"[[/note]]. |
| 164 | [[/folder]] |
| 165 | |
| 166 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 167 | * After ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' developed a continuing plotline, stories that were not set in that plotline were labelled "Retro [=KoDT=]", meaning that they [[{{Flashback}} were set in an earlier time]]. Some fans thought that the Retro [=KoDT=] stories were reprints (despite a clear "The Never-Before-Seen Adventures" header) and complained. Eventually, the title was changed to "Lost Tales of the Knights of the Dinner Table". |
| 168 | [[/folder]] |
| 169 | |
| 170 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 171 | * The title of the film ''WesternAnimation/SinbadLegendOfTheSevenSeas'' is unintentionally misleading; the title implies that the plot of the film is about Sinbad and his pirate crew exploring the ocean in the hopes of discovering some sort of maritime legend (such as a sea monster or ancient ship). In reality, the "legend of the seven seas" is Sinbad himself, and the plot is actually about travelling to Tartarus (an abyss in Greek mythology) to retrieve the stolen "Book of Peace". |
| 172 | [[/folder]] |
| 173 | |
| 174 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 175 | * The play ''The Madness of George III'' was adapted into film as ''Film/TheMadnessOfKingGeorge''. Supposedly, this was because the North American audience would otherwise assume it was the third in a series, and, not having seen the first two, wouldn't bother to see it. The director and the actor playing the king, however, deny this. |
| 176 | * ''Film/{{The Pink Panther|1963}}'', in the movie, refers not to Inspector Clouseau nor his arch-enemy Sir Charles Lytton, but to the diamond Lytton stole. The "[[WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther Pink Panther]]" cartoon character only appears in the beginning and end wraparounds, and is not an integral or interactive figure in the content of the film. It doesn't help that most of the Clouseau-focused sequels keep "Pink Panther" as an ArtifactTitle. |
| 177 | * When ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'' was released, one of the criticisms was that Andy, who was innocent and pure, didn't need to be redeemed. In fact, it's Red, the true protagonist of the movie, who is redeemed. |
| 178 | * ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'' refers not to the Pacific Playland amusement park where the characters are headed, but rather to the zombie-infested world (or possibly just the United States) where they all live. |
| 179 | * The Spanish conquistador in ''Film/TheFountain'' doesn't journey to the New World in search of the FountainOfYouth--his quest is for the Tree of Life. "The Fountain" is the title of [[ShowWithinAShow the novel that Izzi Creo writes in the present day]], and its title is largely metaphorical (it alludes to the idea of the universe as a benevolent source of life). |
| 180 | [[/folder]] |
| 181 | |
| 182 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 183 | * Non-fiction example: The biologist UsefulNotes/RichardDawkins has often remarked about how many of his critics do not seem to have read his books past the title page. ''The Selfish Gene'' in particular is a magnet for this, with people assuming that he claims that ''people'' [[AppealToNature should behave in a selfish manner]], that human selfishness has some kind of genetic cause, or even that genes have emotional states comparable to selfishness in humans. There's actually been quite a bit of philosophical argument about whether or not the book itself bears this out. For clarity: the book isn't about a gene for selfishness -- rather, it argues that ''genes'' are "selfish", in that they ultimately serve only their own reproduction. |
| 184 | * Leonard Nimoy's 1977 book ''IAmNotSpock''. The book was an autobiography that dealt with the differences between Nimoy and his famous ''Series/{{Star Trek|the Original Series}}'' character. Of course, everyone read the title and assumed that he hated playing Spock. Years later, a ''Paramount executive'', believing this, almost refused to let Nimoy direct ''Star Trek III''! Nimoy later published a book titled ''[[IAmNotLeonardNimoy I Am Spock]]'', focusing more specifically on his experiences with ''Star Trek'', which made it clear that he had always enjoyed his role. (He did not, however, ever write a third book titled ''[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons I Am Also Scotty]]'') |
| 185 | * The title ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' is often assumed to mean the depth at which the ''Nautilus'' travels, which is problematic since this is greater than the diameter of the Earth. In fact, the name refers to the ''horizontal'' distance traveled underwater, coming close to twice around the world. |
| 186 | * ''Literature/DeadSouls'' is not about souls in the spiritual sense. The word "soul" meant "person" in Imperial Russian statistics, particularly concerning the peasant population. The eponymous dead souls are serfs who died before the latest update of the state records, making them factually dead but legally alive. |
| 187 | * The popularity of actress Creator/ZooeyDeschanel almost certainly caused some to think that the original Zooey (from J.D. Salinger's ''Franny and Zooey'') must be female. He's not. Granted, the fact that his name is Zooey is enough to make people assume he's a girl. Zooey (or Zoey or Zoe) is almost exclusively a girl's name. |
| 188 | [[/folder]] |
| 189 | |
| 190 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 191 | * A promotional press conference early in its run revealed that at least one reporter thought that the ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' was where its aliens were ''from'', rather than where they were ''visiting''... likewise the continuity announcers on [[Creator/{{Sky}} Sky One]], where the series premiered in the United Kingdom. |
| 192 | * Many people get confused as to what the hell the title of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' is supposed to mean. It comes from the street address of NBC's headquarters in New York City, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where the show is set. It's also an homage to the show's spiritual parent, ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', which is filmed in that building in real life. |
| 193 | * Many non-viewers erroneously assume that ''Series/{{Angel}}'' had a female main character, since Angel is more commonly a feminine name; in fact, the title character is male. ''Series/DarkAngel'' may have added to the confusion. And there's also a female character named Fred... |
| 194 | * On first hearing, ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' sounds like the name of the characters' ship. In actuality, Firefly is the type of ship, and ''Serenity'' is its name. |
| 195 | * The title of the TV show ''Series/{{Lost}}'' refers to how the greatly flawed characters are all metaphorically lost, wandering through their broken lives, before becoming physically lost on a mysterious island. This physical act of being lost is only the manner in which the series' themes and motifs are played; "getting rescued" is not the focus of the show and in fact [[spoiler:half the characters are rescued halfway through the series and then ''willingly return to the island'' three years later]]. |
| 196 | ** It was intentionally marketed as (and began as) a series about people physically lost on a mysterious island. |
| 197 | * ''Series/StargateSG1'' is often thought of as [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment unnecessarily repetitive]] by those unfamiliar with the show. In actuality, it refers to the Stargate program and its flagship team: [=SG1=]. |
| 198 | * ''Girls of the Magazine/{{Playboy}} Mansion'' is not, contrary to what it sounds like, a porn show, but rather a documentary on the lives of the three Hugh Hefner girlfriends. |
| 199 | [[/folder]] |
| 200 | |
| 201 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 202 | * The title of the Christmas carol [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Rest_You_Merry,_Gentlemen "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen"]] says "God rest you merry", i.e. "have a good time" to the gentlemen. It is not titled "God Rest You, Merry Gentlemen"; note the placement of the comma. |
| 203 | * The question-setter for BBC Radio 2's ''Popmaster'' quiz has a tendency to misinterpret song titles such as "Slave to the Rhythm" and "Rage Hard" as descriptions rather than instructions, so there are often questions like "Which singer was a Slave to the Rhythm?" or "Which band claimed to be Rage Hard?", to which one would be justified in answering "nobody". But of course, you wouldn't get the points for that. |
| 204 | * The title of the Music/PetShopBoys song "It Couldn't Happen Here" is sometimes thought to be a reference to Lewis Sinclair's famous novel ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere''. It actually refers to a quote that Neil ''himself'' said to a friend regarding the outbreak of AIDS in America (i.e. he was saying it won't happen in the UK as well). Tragically, that very friend died of AIDS only a few years later. |
| 205 | * In spite of what its title implies, the Music/PeterGabriel soundtrack album ''Music/{{Passion}}'' isn't the soundtrack to the 2004 film ''Film/ThePassionOfTheChrist'', but rather the 1988 film ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'' (the album was named after the film's WorkingTitle). |
| 206 | * With ''Music/TheSmashingPumpkins'' the word "smashing" is often thought to be a verb (i.e. smashing a pumpkin). It's actually an adjective (i.e. slang for "great"). |
| 207 | [[/folder]] |
| 208 | |
| 209 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 210 | * ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' is not Shylock, but Antonio, as made explicit by the original full title: ''The moſt excellent Hiſtorie of the Merchant of Venice. [=VVith=] the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the Iewe towards the ſayd Merchant, in cutting a iuſt pound of his flesh: and the obtaining of Portia by the choice of three chests.'' |
| 211 | [[/folder]] |
| 212 | |
| 213 | [[folder:Toys]] |
| 214 | * No character or group in ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' is actually called by that name. "Bionicle" is a {{portmanteau}} that people often think stands for "Bionic Chronicle", "Biomechanical Chronicle" or plainly "Bio Chronicle", because most of the characters are "[[MechanicalLifeforms living robots]]". The official press has added to the confusion, as one famous article about the franchise's first movie summarized the process of adding muscles and organs to the toys as "putting the bio in Bionicle". The title's actual meaning is "Biological Chronicle". The characters (at least those of the first 8 years) were parts of the body of a [[HumongousMecha giant comatose robot god]] -- their story was literally the chronicle of the robot's biological workings. Most people never realized the title's meaning because this reveal took 8 years to unfold and the in-story characters didn't know either apart from a few who had kept it secret. Franchise co-creator Christian Faber was inspired by his medical condition at the time, imagining his body as that of an ailing giant robot and the medicine he took as small warriors entering his system. Hence the title. |
| 215 | [[/folder]] |
| 216 | |
| 217 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 218 | * ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' doesn't refer to TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Rather, it describes the [[EmoTeen hero's]] [[NietzscheWannabe solipsistic outlook on life]] at the onset of the game. [[spoiler:He gets better.]] |
| 219 | ** Mind you, the Japanese title is the {{Glurge}}-ical ''It's a Wonderful World''. That name was unusable internationally due to trademark issues. |
| 220 | * The title of the game series ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' is often assumed to be GratuitousEnglish. It in fact refers to the main character Sol Badguy, the prototype Gear who feels responsible for the creation of the Gears. |
| 221 | * The ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2'' mission "No Russian", the controversial airport level centered on the player-character killing civilians to maintain his cover in Vladimir Makarov's Ultranationalist group, is often presumed to mean "don't kill any Russians," because Makarov and the Ultranationalists are themselves Russian, and the first line is Makarov doing a TitleDrop, using the phrase as an order to the player and his other lackies before the shooting starts. The airport, however, is in Russia. As such, the people waiting in line to pass through the metal detectors before boarding outbound flights are most certainly Russian, barring a few tourists or businessmen returning home. The title can also be interpreted as the fact that the player character is an undercover American agent and is therefore "No Russian". [[spoiler:Makarov himself knows about this as well and is relying on this fact by killing the player character at the end of the stage in order to instigate a Russian-American war]]. "No Russian" means "don't speak any Russian, use English," to disguise the fact that the attack is conducted by Russians [[spoiler:because Makarov intends to frame the United States for it]]. |
| 222 | * ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' features DualWorldGameplay but does not involve any time travel, as its title suggests. It's called that in English because the main character's name is "Link" and it's a {{prequel}} to earlier games in the series. |
| 223 | * ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' does not actually take place in Oblivion, which is the series' version of Hell. The game takes place in Cyrodiil, the capital province of the Tamrielic empire, with Oblivion being visited through in-game portals. |
| 224 | * The ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'' gets this a lot: the word or phrase that comes after "Tales of" in the games' titles usually has little to no relevance to the story, but some people will assume that said word is the name of the world the game takes place in. |
| 225 | * ''VideoGame/RoboArmy'': Does the title refer to the {{Cyborg}} protagonists, or the MechaMooks they fight against? The ExcusePlot is rather inconsistent in such details. |
| 226 | * ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'' is about a dungeon filled with guns, not [[Main/CoveredInGunge gunge]]. |
| 227 | * ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus'': The name doesn't actually refer to any person or thing in-game, but rather to a poem engraved on the Statue Of Liberty with that phrase (ok, technically the Statue ''does'' appear in-game in a [[MonumentalDamage brief scene when you enter the ruins of New York.]]) |
| 228 | [[/folder]] |
| 229 | |
| 230 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 231 | * The live-action/animation hybrid ''Vanpires'' had a title that actually referred to the series' villains. The good guys were named the Motorvators. |
| 232 | [[/folder]] |
| 233 | |
| 234 | !!Often occurs when a {{Revival}} or SeriesFranchise uses idiosyncratic names: |
| 235 | |
| 236 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 237 | * In movies, the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' and ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchises had sufficient inconsistencies in their naming conventions that their first installments have been retroactively retitled. |
| 238 | ** The first ''Star Wars'' film was originally titled "Star Wars". It was not titled "''Star Wars: Episode IV: Film/ANewHope''" until its second rerelease 3 years later. George Lucas claims this was because the [[ExecutiveMeddling execs]] thought nobody would get why this was Episode ''IV'' ... instead of which, nobody got why the ''second'' film was Episode ''V''. By then, of course, he had enough ProtectionFromEditors to get away with it. |
| 239 | ** The first ''Indiana Jones'' film was titled "''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''". It has been re-released as "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" on home media to fit better with the sequels, although the onscreen title still omits Indy's name. |
| 240 | ** Another ''Star Wars'' example: a [[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga video game series]] set in the New Republic Era, featuring Kyle Katarn, a mercenary-turned-Jedi (although he was not the player character in all of them). The games were named: ''Dark Forces'', ''Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II'' (with an expansion pack, ''Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith''), ''Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast'', and ''Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy'' (without any numbers despite being a sequel to ''Jedi Knight II'', which brought yet more confusion). |
| 241 | ** Other confusion that ''Star Wars'' evokes is when mentioning numbers since it started from the middle (when you mention "the first" can be either IV or I). |
| 242 | * A similar film example is the ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' series: The first movie in the series is named ''Film/FirstBlood'', the second ''Film/RamboFirstBloodPartII'', the third ''Film/RamboIII''... and to add to the confusion, the fourth movie in the series is simply titled ''Film/{{Rambo|IV}}''. The fifth was ''Film/RamboLastBlood'', not numbering the installment but doing the title BookEnds to note the series' finish. In Europe, the fourth Rambo movie retained its working title ''John Rambo'', probably because ''First Blood'' was called simply ''Rambo'' in Europe. |
| 243 | * The ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'' are largely themselves to blame for the confusion around their titles. While the first is simply ''Film/XMen1'', the second is identified in its opening sequence as ''X2'' but in its closing sequence as ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', and in publicity material is also promoted as ''X-Men 2'', ''X-Men 2: X-Men United'' and simply ''X-Men United''. Similarly, the third entry is variously known as ''X3'', ''X3: The Last Stand'', ''X-Men 3'', ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' and ''The Last Stand''. The next movie in the series was named ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' and is often confused with the later film ''Film/TheWolverine''. |
| 244 | * ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' is a bit of an ArtifactTitle; it was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally intended]] to be the first of a series of prequels focusing on the backgrounds of various characters (''X-Men Origins: Magneto'' was in the works but got lost in DevelopmentHell). Had this happened, the title would have at least made sense because "X-Men Origins" would be the series name, and "Wolverine" would be the movie name. |
| 245 | * ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious2001'', ''Film/TwoFastTwoFurious'', ''Film/TheFastAndTheFuriousTokyoDrift'', ''Film/FastAndFurious'', ''Film/FastFive'', ''Film/FastAndFurious6'', ''Film/Furious7''. And then there was a PunBasedTitle, ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious'' (thankfully the official abbreviation was ''[=F8=]''). Followed by one that was abbreviated right away, ''Film/{{F9}}'', and then ''Film/FastX''. |
| 246 | [[/folder]] |
| 247 | |
| 248 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 249 | * When Hal Roach began his series of child-centered comedy shorts in the 1920s, his titles included ''Roach's Rascals'' and ''The Terrible Ten''. But because the first short was titled ''Our Gang'', the public started referring to them as "Our Gang comedies". By the time MGM took over production in 1938, ''Our Gang'' had become the official title. The series' SyndicationTitle, ''Film/TheLittleRascals'', wasn't first used until the mid-1950s, when King World sold the shorts to TV stations. |
| 250 | * ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' was originally titled simply ''Enterprise'' for its first two seasons, to the confusion of fans. It gained the ''Star Trek'' title starting in its third season. |
| 251 | * ''Grace and Favour'' was, due to its title, not recognized by many fans as a sequel to ''Series/AreYouBeingServed''. It became ''Are You Being Served? Again!'' in the US, where it was much more successful. |
| 252 | [[/folder]] |
| 253 | |
| 254 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 255 | * ''VideoGame/BubbleBobble''; ''VideoGame/RainbowIslands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2''; ''Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble 3''; ''Bubble Bobble Part 2''; ''Bubble Symphony'' (or ''Bubble Bobble II'' in European languages); ''Bubble Memories: The Story of Bubble Bobble III'', and then ''Bubble Bobble 4 Friends''. These {{Non Linear Sequel}}s are confusing. |
| 256 | * ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'': |
| 257 | ** ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2'' originally didn't include the series name, ''Call of Duty''; the original ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' was ''Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare''. When it was discovered that the absence of the series name led to fans being less aware of ''[=MW2=]'', it was added back on. The special editions of the game still omit it on their box art. |
| 258 | ** A reboot ''Modern Warfare'' series began in 2019. It got its own sequel also called ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfareII Modern Warfare II]]''. |
| 259 | * The "Doom/Quake with a crossbow" series: ''VideoGame/{{Heretic}}''; ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}}''; ''Hexen II''; ''Heretic II''. |
| 260 | * The Platform/Nintendo64 installment of ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania|64}}'' was called ''Dracula [=3D=]'' in development. It ended up being called just ''Castlevania'' internationally, but is often unofficially referred to as "Castlevania 64" to distinguish it from the original ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania|I}}''. In Japanese, the game is known as ''Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku'' ("Demon Castle Dracula Apocalypse"). It's a wonder why Konami didn't just call the game "Castlevania Apocalypse" internationally. |
| 261 | * The Kaneko ShootEmUp ''Air Buster'' is also known as ''Aero Blasters''. The UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame used the former title worldwide, while the Platform/TurboGrafx16[=/=]PC-Engine version used the latter title in both English and Japanese. Kaneko published the Platform/SegaGenesis version as ''Air Buster'' in English and ''Aero Blasters'' in Japanese. |
| 262 | * Again by Kaneko, the fighting game ''Power Athlete'' was released in the West as ''Deadly Moves'' on the Genesis and ''Power Moves'' on the SNES. |
| 263 | * The ''VideoGame/MegamiTensei'' (lit. Goddess Reincarnation) franchise started off with a series of novels called ''Literature/DigitalDevilStory'', the first book of which was titled ''Megami Tensei''. When Atlus made a sequel to the first game in the series, they decided to keep the ''Megami Tensei'' despite the fact that no goddesses figure into the story in later installments. Curiously, some games sometimes still refer to the series as ''Digital Devil Story''. |
| 264 | * Of the first six ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games, [[NoExportForYou only three]] were initially released internationally, and the sequels were renumbered accordingly. So ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' became''Final Fantasy II'', and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' became ''Final Fantasy III''. The original numbering was restored with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' (the fourth game released in America), and it was all rendered moot later due to all of the games getting an UpdatedRerelease internationally and going back to the original numbers. |
| 265 | * Creator/{{Sega}} released a ''VideoGame/CommandoCapcom'' clone for the Platform/SegaMasterSystem as ''Ashura'' in Japanese and as ''Film/RamboFirstBloodPartII'' in American English. For the European languages, however, they put ''Secret Commando'' on the title screen, but the European box cover and cartridge are both titled ''Secret Command''. |
| 266 | [[/folder]] |
| 267 | |
| 268 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 269 | * The ''WesternAnimation/MisterT'' animated series is sometimes erroneously called ''Mr. T and the T-Force'', which was the title of an unrelated 1993 comic book series published by NOW Comics that just happened to also be based on Creator/MisterT's persona. |
| 270 | * The Franchise/{{Rambo}} animated series is titled ''WesternAnimation/RamboTheForceOfFreedom'', not ''Rambo and The Forces of Freedom''. |
| 271 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': |
| 272 | ** After the success of ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'', the animated series set between episodes II and III, Lucasfilm decided to create a new animated series set in the same time period called ''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Star Wars:]]'' '''''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars The]]''''' ''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Clone Wars]]''. |
| 273 | ** There was also a "Star Wars: Clone Wars" comic series long before the production of either television series. It was then followed up with "Clone Wars Adventures" and then simply "Star Wars: The Clone Wars", in turn, followed up by "Star Wars The Clone Wars" graphic novel series. [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Clone_Wars_%28disambiguation%29 Throw in a book series and several video games using only the words "Clone Wars" as their titles]] and you'd think someone would be able to think to at least subtitle them. Some people even mistakenly refer to ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' as "The Clone Wars". |
| 274 | * It's common to refer to the entire ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' franchise by just the name of its first season, ''Total Drama Island.'' Even Fresh TV's own [[https://www.freshtvinc.com/tdi-1 promotional website]] does this, despite including images from other seasons with different titles. |
| 275 | * There seems to be some confusion about whether ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' has a colon in the title, so it's either ''Transformers: Animated'' (like on the Creator/CartoonNetwork site), or ''Transformers Animated'' (which shows up on all press releases about the series). Cartoon Network [[CreditsPushback "up next" announcements]] sometimes makes things even worse by appending "Series" to the end. |
| 276 | [[/folder]] |
| 277 | |
| 278 | !!Titles which are plainly understood but [[ShortTitleLongElaborateSubtitle overly long, are usually abbreviated by fans]]: |
| 279 | |
| 280 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 281 | * ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' is often called by the straight pronunciation of its acronym, which comes out as "[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Gits Sack]]." Thankfully, the second season, subtitled "2nd Gig", is abbreviated as such. |
| 282 | * Many Japanese light novels (or manga/anime series based on the light novel) tend to use extremely long names, to the point where people tend to abbreviate them and only refer to the series name by that. Examples: |
| 283 | ** ''Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen Mae Hashutsujo'' is commonly and officially referred as ''Manga/{{Kochikame}}''. |
| 284 | ** ''Manga/NoMatterHowILookAtItItsYouGuysFaultImNotPopular'' has a really long name, and is almost always abbreviated as "[=WataMote=]" from the series' original Japanese name. |
| 285 | [[/folder]] |
| 286 | |
| 287 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 288 | * ''Film/BirdmanOrTheUnexpectedVirtueOfIgnorance'' is pretty much just called ''Birdman'' by everyone, and many aren't even aware of its full title. |
| 289 | * ''[[Film/DrStrangelove Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb]]''. |
| 290 | * ''Film/NewYorkNewYork''[='s=] title song and BreakawayPopHit is actually titled "Theme From New York, New York". Since the movie's title does feature quite prominently in the lyrics, the "Theme From" part is practically superfluous except as an attempt to remind people it was originally written for a movie, or to distinguish it from the pre-existing song "New York, New York" from ''On the Town'' (with which it still gets confused anyway). |
| 291 | [[/folder]] |
| 292 | |
| 293 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 294 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Because of the confusing nature of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series (for more information, see above), each game can have multitudes of abbreviations, such as JKII, JO, JKII:JO, SW:JO, DFIII. They are almost always called, in order, ''Dark Forces,'' ''Jedi Knight,'' ''Jedi Outcast'' and ''Jedi Academy.'' |
| 295 | * ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' is usually referred to by fans as "The Hitchhiker's Guide" or sometimes "[=H2G2=]." (The in-universe guidebook of the same name is referred to in-story and out as simply "The Guide".) Most of the books in the series have similarly long titles (if not even longer) and get referred to by acronyms or significant words. |
| 296 | * Several of Creator/KurtVonnegut's novels have overly long titles and the extra is generally ignored: |
| 297 | ** ''God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine'' is simply referred to as ''God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater'' |
| 298 | ** ''Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death'' is generally called ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive''. Besides his liking to create long names, the reason for adding, "The Children's Crusade" to it is explained in the book. As he was thinking of writing the book he promised the wife of one of his fellow soldiers that the book would not glorify war, promising it would be called "The Children's Crusade", to note that most of the "men" who fought in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII were 17 to 23 years old. |
| 299 | ** ''Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye Blue Monday'', everyone just calls it ''Literature/BreakfastOfChampions''. |
| 300 | ** ''Slapstick, or Lonesome No More!'', called just ''Slapstick''. |
| 301 | * ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde'' is usually shortened to "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or even just "Jekyll and Hyde." |
| 302 | [[/folder]] |
| 303 | |
| 304 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 305 | * ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'' is usually referred to as "Ned's Declassified" or just "Ned's"- however, the TV listings grid in Gannett newspapers listed it as "School", seemingly picking the most confusingly generic word from the title... |
| 306 | [[/folder]] |
| 307 | |
| 308 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 309 | * Music/DavidBowie's ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'' is oftentimes abbreviated to just ''Ziggy Stardust'' by fans; because the album has a song called "Ziggy Stardust", the frequent use of this shorter title makes the song come off as a TitleTrack. |
| 310 | [[/folder]] |
| 311 | |
| 312 | [[folder:Pinball]] |
| 313 | * [=WhizBang=] Pinball's ''Pinball/WhoaNellieBigJuicyMelons'' is seldom called such by fans, who instead refer to it as either ''Whoa Nellie!'' or ''Big Juicy Melons''. The creators themselves often shorten it to WNBJM in blogs and other written correspondence. |
| 314 | [[/folder]] |
| 315 | |
| 316 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 317 | * ''TabletopGame/TempleOfElementalEvil'' technically has a "The" in front of it, but absolutely no-one uses it (it gets a smaller font size on the original's logo even). Similarly, the [[VideoGame/TempleOfElementalEvil computer game adaptation]] has the subtitle "A Classic Greyhawk Adventure", but it isn't used outside of the cover, first patch installer, and copyright screen. |
| 318 | [[/folder]] |
| 319 | |
| 320 | [[folder:Technology]] |
| 321 | * Since almost everything else that Apple produces follows the same lowercase I and one-word format (iPod, iPad, iTunes, iPhone) for the sake of consistency, a lot of people will shorten the iPod Touch to simply the iTouch. However, any time you see this in an article, expect the first comment to be something along the lines of "It's called an iPod Touch. The iTouch is a knockoff!" |
| 322 | [[/folder]] |
| 323 | |
| 324 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 325 | * The "Android" table in ''VideoGame/EpicPinball'' was subsequently tweaked and renamed "Super Android", but used both names to refer to it in-game and in menus. |
| 326 | * The full title of ''VideoGame/FestersQuest'', going by the title screen, is ''Uncle Fester's Quest: The Addams Family''. Even there, however, everything but "Fester's Quest" is in much smaller letters. |
| 327 | * ''VideoGame/Robotron2084'' is usually just abbreviated as "Robotron". |
| 328 | [[/folder]] |
| 329 | |
| 330 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 331 | * It's common to drop the "Presents" from ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaPresentsTheRidonculousRace'', especially among those who don't realize that it's a spinoff and not a proper ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' season. It's usually simply abbreviated as "TDRR." |
| 332 | [[/folder]] |
| 333 | |
| 334 | |
| 335 | !! Titles that the ''writers'' are inconsistent with. |
| 336 | |
| 337 | [[folder:Asian Animation]] |
| 338 | * English-translated ''Animation/HappyHeroes'' materials can't decide whether to call the show ''Happy Friends'', ''Happy Hero'', ''Happy Heroes'', or ''Happy Superman''. Most third-party sources refer to it as ''Happy Heroes'' because 1. the AlliterativeTitle is easier to remember, and 2. there is more than one hero in the show, so "Heroes" should be plural. |
| 339 | * The ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' season ''Joys of Seasons'' has a [[MultiPartEpisode four-part episode]] comprising episodes 37 to 40. The Disney English dub titles the episode "The Lucky Can" for the first three parts, but then changes the title to "The Happy Can" for the fourth part. |
| 340 | [[/folder]] |
| 341 | |
| 342 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 343 | * Comic books, especially one-shots suffering from ColonCancer, sometimes have a different title in the indicia from that on the cover. |
| 344 | * Happened to ''Fear'', a horror anthology by Creator/MarvelComics in the first half of the 1970s. Originally, it simply reprinted stories from earlier series and was called just "Fear". After a while, it started featuring original stories starring the Comicbook/ManThing (and later Comicbook/{{Morbius}}), with the cover now reading "Adventure into Fear with the Man-Thing", although the word "Fear" continued to stand out (to a varying extent depending on the issue in question). Indeed, the title in the indicia remained "Fear", but as of 2017, ''Website/{{Wikipedia}}'' claims that this was just a formality and "Adventure into Fear" was the intended and trademarked title by that point. The recent ''The Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection'' however also refers to these issues as simply "Fear". And the database on Marvel's website, in an apparent but consistent mistake, calls the series (implicitly including the reprint-only issues) "Adventure''s'' into Fear". |
| 345 | * This happened to the ''ComicBook/IronMan'' storyline ''ComicBook/ArmorWars''. When the storyline was advertised, it was called "Armor War". The storyline itself in the comic was called "Stark Wars" (a pun of ''Franchise/StarWars''). The first trade paperback would call it "Armor War''s''". By the time of "Armor Wars II", the last title stuck. |
| 346 | [[/folder]] |
| 347 | |
| 348 | [[folder:Films -- Live Action]] |
| 349 | * ''Film/SchoolOfRock'' is the actual, official name of the 2003 Jack Black comedy film. However, within the film itself, the film is mistakenly titled "'''The''' School of Rock". |
| 350 | [[/folder]] |
| 351 | |
| 352 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 353 | * The first book of the ''Literature/{{Acacia}}'' trilogy is properly called ''The War with the Mein'', but this title is often relegated to a subtitle. Some editions of the book don't have the actual title on the front cover at all, naming it simply ''Acacia'', leading to weirdness like [[http://www.bookdepository.com/War-with-Mein-David-Anthony-Durham/9780307947130 this product page]], which lists the title as "The War with the Mein", but has a cover image with just "Acacia" on it. |
| 354 | [[/folder]] |
| 355 | |
| 356 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 357 | * The BBC science show ''Bang Goes the Theory'' is titled thus in listings, on its website, and basically everywhere except on the show itself, where the presenters -- and even the actual title card -- now just call it ''Bang''. |
| 358 | [[/folder]] |
| 359 | |
| 360 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 361 | * The Gershwin song "Oh, Lady, Be Good!" often loses the first word of its title. Part of the confusion is surely due to it being written for a musical titled ''Lady, Be Good!'' (which in fact replaced its WorkingTitle when the song was written). |
| 362 | * Music/{{Starflyer 59}}: |
| 363 | ** There's an obscure B-side that was included with the vinyl version of ''Everyone Makes Mistakes''. According to the liner notes, the song is named "Never Had a Name", but according to the label on the vinyl itself, the name is "Never Had One". Jason Martin eventually [[WordOfGod cleared up the confusion]]: [[NoTitle he literally never gave the song a name]], and this got lost in transmission when it came time to print the album. |
| 364 | ** Another song is inconsistently spelled. On the vinyl version of ''Dial M'' (published by Burnt Toast Vinyl), it's listed as "[[{{Magick}} Majic]]". But on the digital version of ''Dial M'' and the compilation ''Ghosts of the Past'' (both published by Tooth & Nail Records), it's listed as "Magic". According to Jason, "Majic" was the intended spelling. |
| 365 | * When Creator/GraceJones' single "Slave to the Rhythm" was included on the album of the same name, it was retitled "Ladies and Gentlemen: Miss Grace Jones", with a completely different song being turned into the new TitleTrack. This creates an odd situation where the original "Slave to the Rhythm" is ''not'' the album's "Slave to the Rhythm", nor is it called "Slave to the Rhythm" on said album. |
| 366 | * Music/JoyElectric: |
| 367 | ** Prior to starting Joy Electric, Ronnie Martin led a band named Dance House Children who released two albums. Then Ronnie released a third album, and no one can agree whether it was supposed to be a new Dance House Children album titled ''Rainbow Rider: Beautiful Dazzling Music No. 1'', or if Ronnie had changed the band's name to Rainbow Rider, and the album title was just ''Beautiful Dazzling Music No. 1''. The initial release on Siren Music did have "Dance House Children" on the front cover, but that name didn't appear anywhere else in the liner notes. Then when Ronnie rereleased it a few years later on Velvet Blue Music, the band was credited as Rainbow Rider, with no mention of Dance House Children at all. WordOfGod isn't particularly helpful either. Some sources claim that Ronnie wanted to rename the band Rainbow Rider from the beginning, but Siren Music vetoed that, then tacked "Rainbow Rider" onto the album title as a compromise. Other sources claim Ronnie initially meant for it to be a Dance House Children album with a long, two-part title, but fans kept mistaking "Rainbow Rider" for the band name and [[SureLetsGoWithThat Ronnie eventually gave up correcting them]]. In any case, Ronnie never recorded a follow-up album that might have cleared up the confusion, choosing instead to focus on his new solo project, Joy Electric. |
| 368 | ** JE's 2007 album is listed as ''The Otherly Opus / The Memory of Alpha'' on the iTunes music store. It's just known as ''The Otherly Opus'' everywhere else. The longer name ''was'' the album's working title--Ronnie Martin changed the name after he'd already submitted the info to iTunes. |
| 369 | * The two B-sides to Music/NewOrder's "Everything's Gone Green" are "Cries and Whispers" and "Mesh". However, because the back cover and disc label of the single lists the songs in opposite order (thanks to them being switched around at the last minute), re-releases of the two frequently swap around their names. This is most notably displayed on ''Music/{{Substance|NewOrderAlbum}}'', which not only mixed up the pair on physical copies but also retitled "Cries and Whispers" "Mesh (Cries and Whispers)" on the [=iTunes=] release; this was finally corrected when the album was put on streaming services in 2020. |
| 370 | * Music/SufjanStevens: |
| 371 | ** In his album ''Michigan'', a few song titles are listed differently inside the liner notes than they are on the back cover. Most of the differences just involve punctuation, but one is significant. The song is given as "Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)" on the back cover, but in the liner notes the parenthetical list of locations reads "(In Lake St. Claire? Dearborn Heights? Hamtramck?)" instead. |
| 372 | ** ''Illinois'' was initially released on CD. When it was rereleased on vinyl, several song titles were suddenly longer. For example, "Chicago" was now listed as "Go, Chicago! Go! Yeah!" And already-verbose "To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region: I Have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament", was lengthened to "To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region: I Have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament, and It Involves an Inner Tube, Bath Mats, and 21 Able-bodied Men." |
| 373 | * Young Deenay's album ''Birth'' includes a song called "I Wanna Be Your Man". When it became a single, it was retitled "I Want [[Letters2Numbers 2]] Be Your Man". Both pronunciations appear in the song itself. |
| 374 | * "The Province" is a track from the 2009 album ''Frequency'' by the neo-progressive rock band IQ. But on many websites and apps such as iTunes and Spotify, the song is listed as "The Province of the King". Even on [=YouTube=], the song is uploaded twice, with one video labelled as "The Province" and the other as "The Province of the King". Since the back of the official CD lists the song as "The Province" it is reasonable to assume that this is the name, but the song being listed as "The Province of the King" in so many places suggests that perhaps the title wasn't fully printed on the back of the CD. |
| 375 | [[/folder]] |
| 376 | |
| 377 | [[folder:Pinball]] |
| 378 | * Creator/{{Gottlieb}}'s ''Pinball/StreetFighterII'' pinball is simply named as such, but the backglass and table includes a "Championship Edition" subtitle in a sans-serif font, perhaps due to a last-minute change. |
| 379 | [[/folder]] |
| 380 | |
| 381 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 382 | * Creator/TheBBC Radio 4 sitcom ''You'll Have Had Your Tea: The Doings of Hamish and Dougal''. At least, that's what the announcer calls it. The BBC website calls it ''Radio/HamishAndDougal'' or ''Hamish and Dougal: You'll Have Had Your Tea'' (the Radio 7 Comedy A-Z used to list both separately) and the CD covers say either ''Hamish And Dougal: The hilarous spin-off from Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue'' or ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue: The Doings of Hamish and Dougal''. |
| 383 | [[/folder]] |
| 384 | |
| 385 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 386 | * ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2''[='s=] first expansion is referred to as both "Mask of '''t'''he Betrayer" and "Mask of '''T'''he Betrayer" (The Betrayer is a character's title, so it's an exception to normal grammar rules). Even the game itself is split when using "The Betrayer" vs "the Betrayer", but the newer instances (such as the gold and platinum releases) favor capital T. |
| 387 | * The ''X-Men'' LicensedGame for the NES is titled ''The Uncanny X-Men'' on the cover, but ''Marvel's X-Men'' is what the title screen says. |
| 388 | * ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' for the Vectrex is identified on the title screen as ''Star Trek - The Game''. It's a video game, not a motion picture. |
| 389 | * As if the aforementioned issue with ''VideoGame/BubbleBobble'''s idiosyncratic naming wasn't confusing enough, the Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem and Platform/GameBoy versions of ''Parasol Stars'' also have an inconsistent subtitle. The title screens use "The Story of Bubble Bobble 3" while the cover art uses "Rainbow Islands II," because Creator/OceanSoftware had the porting rights to ''VideoGame/RainbowIslands'' and ''Parasol Stars'' but not ''Bubble Bobble''. |
| 390 | * Happened ''twice'' when the Platform/AppleII game ''VideoGame/DavidsMidnightMagic'' was ported to the Platform/Atari2600 -- not only was the name shortened to ''Midnight Magic,'' but the in-game display misspells it as ''Mid'''nite''' Magic'' instead. |
| 391 | * Creator/{{Codemasters}} was seriously inconsistent with titling the games it published in the early 1990s: |
| 392 | ** One game box bore the title ''Stryker in the Crypts of Trogan''. The title was only spelled the same way on the LoadingScreen of the Platform/ZXSpectrum version--the Platform/{{Amstrad CPC}} and Platform/{{Commodore 64}} versions' loading screens spelled the first word "Striker." The spelling used in the actual opening titles (of all versions) is ''Striker in the Crypt of Trogan''. To make matters worse, many online sources try to correct the last word to "Trojan." |
| 393 | ** ''Grell and Falla'' was consistently titled in the game itself, yet it was packaged as ''Grell & Fella in the Enchanted Gardens''. Yes, "Falla" became "Fella." |
| 394 | ** ''Seymour Goes to Hollywood'' displayed ''Seymour at the Movies'' on the title screens of most versions. |
| 395 | * One of a few ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games for the Game Gear is known as ''VideoGame/TailsAdventure'' in English-speaking regions, but its original Japanese name, ''Tails Adventures'', appears in the game proper instead. |
| 396 | [[/folder]] |
| 397 | |
| 398 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 399 | * ''WebVideo/SMPLive'' (with no space) is stylized as such on the old official website, the logo, and many of the videos. However, some creators refer to the series as ''SMP Live'' in their video titles, creating a minor point of confusion as to which is correct. The former is usually considered such, due to it being more commonly used. |
| 400 | [[/folder]] |
| 401 | |
| 402 | !! Titles which are very similar, but not the same. |
| 403 | |
| 404 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 405 | * Don't confuse ''Film/{{Alien}}'' with its sequel ''Film/{{Aliens}}''. |
| 406 | * There were some, only going by the title and not having read a synopsis or seen a trailer, thought that ''[[Film/TwentyEightDaysLater 28 Days Later]]'' was a sequel to ''[[Film/TwentyEightDays 28 Days]]''. ''28 Days Later'' was about a zombie outbreak, ''28 Days'' (no "later") was Creator/SandraBullock playing a woman in a rehab program. It didn't help that ''28 Days Later'' was released 2 years after ''28 Days'', about the expected time for a sequel to be produced. |
| 407 | * ''Film/TheDayAfter'' is a movie about nuclear war. ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' is a movie about global warming and a new ice age. |
| 408 | * In the 1990s, we had ''Film/IlPostino'' ("The Postman" in Italian) in 1994 and ''Film/ThePostman'' in 1997. The two films are totally different -- one an Italian love story, the other about a drifter AfterTheEnd -- but both are "The Postman". |
| 409 | [[/folder]] |
| 410 | |
| 411 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 412 | * ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' and ''Series/ThirtyRock'', both Creator/{{NBC}} sitcoms, made all the more confusing by the fact that the former's title is commonly shortened to "''3rd Rock''". ''3rd Rock'' is about [[AlienAmongUs aliens living on Earth]], i.e. the third planet (rock) from the sun. ''30 Rock'' is a WorkCom set at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, otherwise known as "30 Rock". |
| 413 | * There are lots of easily confused ''Series/DoctorWho'' stories, since the titles tend to be fairly formulaic: |
| 414 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E5TheSeedsOfDeath The Seeds of Death]]" is about Creator/PatrickTroughton's Doctor fighting Ice Warriors. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E6TheSeedsOfDoom The Seeds of Doom]]" is about Creator/TomBaker's Doctor fighting PlantAliens. Particularly annoying because the "of Death" title template is very much associated with Tom Baker's Doctor. |
| 415 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E5TheUnderwaterMenace The Underwater Menace]]" is Troughton in Atlantis, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E6FuryFromTheDeep Fury from the Deep]]" is Troughton battling killer foam, and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E1WarriorsOfTheDeep Warriors of the Deep]]" is Creator/PeterDavison stuck in a war between Silurians and Sea Devils. All are confusable as the titles all mean virtually the same thing. |
| 416 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]" is a Fourth Doctor story involving a Parisian setting and some witty application of the TimeyWimeyBall. ''City of the Dead'' is an Eighth Doctor book. |
| 417 | ** "The Dimensions of Time" is the second episode of the First Doctor story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E7TheSpaceMuseum The Space Museum]]". "Dimensions in Time" is the [[Recap/DoctorWho30thASDimensionsInTime 30th Anniversary special]]. |
| 418 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E5Timelash Timelash]]" has the Sixth Doctor and Creator/PaulDarrow, and "[[Recap/DoctorWho2007CiNSTimeCrash Time Crash]]" has the Tenth Doctor and Creator/PeterDavison. |
| 419 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]" is the name of the Series 4 finale WhamEpisode Christmas special two-parter where the Tenth Doctor regenerates. It's also the name of a Tenth Doctor book published as part of an [[AlternateRealityGame ARG]]. Particularly notable because both of these involved the same Doctor. |
| 420 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E2TheMindOfEvil The Mind of Evil]]" is a Third Doctor story about a [[WhatDoTheyFearEpisode machine that makes you see your worst fears]]. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E4TheFaceOfEvil The Face of Evil]]" is a Fourth Doctor InternalDeconstruction about a cargo cult worshipping a mad computer. |
| 421 | ** "The Roof of the World" is the first part of the First Doctor story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E4MarcoPolo Marco Polo]]", as well as a ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' audio with the Fifth Doctor. |
| 422 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E6TheArk The Ark]]" is a First Doctor story. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace The Ark in Space]]" is a Fourth Doctor one. |
| 423 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E4Inferno Inferno]]" is a Third Doctor story, and a First Doctor episode aired as part of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E4TheRomans The Romans]]". |
| 424 | ** There are four Dalek stories with polysyllabic FauxSymbolism R-words in the title — "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E4ResurrectionOfTheDaleks Resurrection of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks Revelation of the Daleks]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks Remembrance of the Daleks]]", and "[[Recap/DoctorWho2021NYSRevolutionOfTheDaleks Revolution of the Daleks]]" — Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Thirteenth Doctor stories respectively. There's also "[[Recap/DoctorWho2019NYSResolution Resolution]]", a Thirteenth Doctor episode that involves the Daleks. Further confusing the matter, both "Resolution" and "Revolution of the Daleks" were New Year's specials. |
| 425 | * Some people who remember ''Series/TheNoddyShop'' have mistakenly called the show "The Naughty Shop", due to the similarity between the words "Noddy" and "Naughty". |
| 426 | * In the UK, Creator/TheBBC science show "Bang Goes the Theory" was often confused with the American sitcom Series/TheBigBangTheory. |
| 427 | * ''Series/DonkeyHodie'': |
| 428 | ** The show has two similarly-named episodes about games played with balls that tend to confuse viewers. The first is "Bobbly Ball", where Uncle Panda sends Purple Panda a game where the person has to catch a floating ball, and the second is "Bobski Bounce", where Donkey Hodie has to bounce ten times on a ball so she can have her picture put up on a board. |
| 429 | ** There's also "Super Duper Sleepover" (Donkey and Panda have a sleepover) and "Super Duper Magic Fun Box" (Panda gets a magical box with toys inside from his uncle). |
| 430 | ** There are two songs with almost identical titles. The song from "Donkey's Bad Day" is called "Cheer Yourself Up", and the song from "Donkey and Panda Cheer Up" is called "You Can Cheer Yourself Up". |
| 431 | [[/folder]] |
| 432 | |
| 433 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 434 | * Some people assume that Music/TheBeatles' "Revolution 9" is the song that has the lyrics "You say you want a revolution..."; they're actually thinking of "Revolution 1" (or "Revolution," the B-side to "Hey Jude"). "Revolution 9" is the weird sound collage with the voice repeating, "Number nine... Number nine... Number nine..." (which notoriously sounds like "Turn me on, dead man" when played backwards). |
| 435 | [[/folder]] |
| 436 | |
| 437 | [[folder:Pinballs]] |
| 438 | * Creator/{{Atari}}'s ''Pinball/MiddleEarth'' pinball has nothing to do with ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. The title instead refers to a LostWorld filled with dinosaurs and monsters. Even more confusing in that there's a ''Pinball/LordOfTheRings'' pinball from Creator/SternPinball. |
| 439 | [[/folder]] |
| 440 | |
| 441 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 442 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': |
| 443 | ** "To Beat or Not to Beat" (Arthur and his friends don't want to tell Francine that her consecutive drumming and singing is awful) and "To Eat or Not to Eat" (Buster investigates the ingredients on a new candy bar). |
| 444 | ** "Night Fright" (Binky tries to hide that he sleeps with a night light) and "Fright Night" (Buster's uncle, played by Creator/RLStine, tells him and Arthur a scary story). |
| 445 | * An interesting example with ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'': Because of the difficulty the target demographic of the show has in pronouncing the name, it's common for them to call it ''Papa Troll''. This became even more confusing when ''WesternAnimation/{{Trolls}}'' became popular among kids, leading many to think that their kids were talking about that film rather than ''PAW Patrol''. |
| 446 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 447 | ** "Monty Can't Buy Me Love" (Mr. Burns tries to gain peoples' respect) and "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love" (Mr. Burns gets Homer's help to date a woman) should not be confused, despite their similar titles and being only three seasons apart. |
| 448 | ** "Flaming Moe's" (Moe steals credit for a drink Homer makes) and "Flaming Moe" (Moe opens a gay bar) are very easy to confuse, title-wise. Even searching "Flaming Moe" will give you a preview and summary of "Flaming Moe's" instead. |
| 449 | ** "Little Big Girl" (Bart nearly marries a pregnant teenager) and "Little Big Mom" (Lisa substitutes Marge as a homemaker) have the same pun for their title but are very different episodes. |
| 450 | ** "Homer to the Max" (Homer changes his name to Max Power) shouldn't be confused with "Maximum Homerdrive" (Homer becomes a trucker), both being Homer-focused episodes written by the same writer (John Swartzwelder), and both in the tenth season. |
| 451 | ** "The Old Man and the Lisa" (Burns and Lisa team up to create a recycling company, with disastrous results), "The Old Man and the 'C' Student" (Bart does community service at the retirement home, with Lisa's help), and "The Old Man and the Key" (Grampa goes back to driving, and Homer confiscates his key following a drag race accident) are often confused, as they were released apart in a span of five seasons and the plots of all three involve the elderly in some way. |
| 452 | ** "Love is a Many Strangled Thing" (Bart wets his pants at an NFL game after Homer tickles him, resulting in Homer going to a fathering enrichment class) and "Love is a Many-Splintered Thing" (Homer and Bart are kicked out of the house and have to win back their love interests -- Marge and Mary Spuckler, respectively) were also released only two seasons apart, and are thus very easy to confuse. |
| 453 | * ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': |
| 454 | ** "Breath of Fresh Squidward" (Squidward gets electrocuted and turns nice) and "The Two Faces of Squidward" (Squidward breaks his face and becomes handsome after it gets reconstructed) are both in the fifth season and involve Squidward. |
| 455 | ** There are episodes named "Patty Caper" and "The Great Patty Caper" only one season apart, both involving the Krabby Patty secret formula and following a mystery plot. Some fans will refer to "The Great Patty Caper" as its promotional name, "Mystery with a Twistery", to avoid confusion. |
| 456 | ** "Sandy's Rocket" from the first season ([=SpongeBob=] and Patrick sneak into Sandy's rocket and accidentally crash it, but believe they are on the moon), "Mooncation" from the eighth season ([=SpongeBob=] goes to the moon with Sandy), and "Goons on the Moon" (Sandy takes [=SpongeBob=] and her other science scouts to the moon) should not be confused, despite all involving Sandy, the moon, and a rocket. |
| 457 | ** Season 8 has both "Frozen Face-Off" (everyone participates in a sled face) and "Face Freeze!" ([=SpongeBob=] and Patrick make silly faces that end up getting stuck). |
| 458 | * Fans of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' often confuse "Serious Business" (Robin establishes a 5-minute bathroom rule) with "Let's Get Serious" (the CrossOver with ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice''). |
| 459 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' has "Pipe Dreams" (the parents build their own bathroom) and "Coupe Dreams" (Lori becomes a rideshare driver). |
| 460 | [[/folder]] |
| 461 | |
| 462 | !! In-universe examples: |
| 463 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 464 | * The superhero ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' is sometimes called "''The'' Green Lantern". While this is understandable considering many superheros do have "The" in their name/title, it wouldn't make sense to be named this as he is part of an organization of thousands of Green Lanterns, whereas ''The'' Green Lantern implies he's the only one. |
| 465 | [[/folder]] |
| 466 | |
| 467 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 468 | * In ''Literature/ThroughTheLookingGlass'', the White Knight explains to Alice that, though the name of his song is called "Haddocks' Eyes", its name really is "The Aged Aged Man". However, that's not what the song is ''called'', which is "Ways and Means"; and, finally, the song itself is "A-sitting on a Gate". |
| 469 | [[/folder]] |
| 470 | |
| 471 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 472 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' the Soulsphere is a power-up that increases your health by 100, even if it means going over the normal maximum limit of 100. The message when the power-up is picked up is "supercharge!" As such, many players assume the power-up itself is named Supercharge rather than Soulsphere. An understandable mistake, considering every other power-up, weapon, etc in the game is referred to by name in the pickup message, but a mistake nonetheless. |
| 473 | [[/folder]] |
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