->'''Leonato:''' "You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her; they never meet but there's a skirmish of wit between them."
-->''MuchAdoAboutNothing'' I.i

A forerunner to the RomanticComedy genre by WilliamShakespeare. ''Much Ado About Nothing'''s plot centers on two couples: Hero and Claudio, who the villain Don John spends the play trying to drive apart, and Beatrice and Benedick, who most of the other characters spend the play trying to bring together.

The most well-known adaptation is probably the 1993 film featuring Kenneth Brannagh and Emma Thompson.

Benedick is the source of the word "benedict," for a man who marries after a long bachelorhood.
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Tropes from the original play:

* BerserkButton: Dogberry reacts this way to being called an ass.
* BetaCouple: Beatrice and Benedick role-wise; Hero and Claudio in terms of stage time.
* CardCarryingVillain: Don John decides to break up Claudio and Hero because, to paraphrase his own words, "I'm a bad guy, so I'm going to be bad".
* CounterZany
* DisorganizedOutlineSpeech: Dogberry, in that trope's page quote.
* DueToTheDead
* EasilyForgiven: Claudio, thanks to ValuesDissonance.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Well, sort of.
* GetTheeToANunnery: The title itself has an obsoleted DoubleEntendre, "nothing" being a sixteenth-century euphemism for "lady parts". And "noting" being a sixteenth-century euphemism for "doing the deed". So it's "much ado about noting" as well...
* HurricaneOfPuns: in scenes with Beatrice and Benedick.
* {{Idiot Ball}}: Claudio
* {{Malaproper}}: Dogberry
* MasqueradeBall: In which the Don Pedro pretends to be Claudio and courts Hero.
* MistakenForCheating: Claudio thinks Hero is cheating, thanks to Don John's plots
* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Claudio to Hero.
* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler: Okay, it doesn't really, but we need to guilt trip Claudio, so play along, 'kay?]]
* ShutUpKiss: Benedick to Beatrice
* SlapSlapKiss: Beatrice and Benedick (possibly the ur-example)
* TakahashiCouple: ditto
* ThisIsSPARTA: "YOU ARE AN ASS!"
* ValuesDissonance: By today's standards, Hero accepting Claudio after his over the top FreakOut can seem a ''bit'' odd.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Benedick and Beatrice. "There's a double meaning in that!"
* WhatTheHellHero: Literally, as the one being called out is actually ''named'' Hero.
**Don Pedro and Claudio in the wedding scene. "Over hasty" doesn't cover it.
*** Not to mention immediately after they are told that Hero has [[spoiler: ''died''.]]
* ZanyScheme: The plan to convince Beatrice and Benedick that they're in love certainly qualifies; arguably, having Don Pedro court Hero for Claudio does as well.
** And [[spoiler: faking Hero's death, just because... just because.]]

Tropes from the 1993 Adaptation:
*AdaptationDistillation: Trimming longer scenes and a bit of reorder as well as removing obsolete words
*HeyItsThatGuy: In which [[HarryPotter Professor Lockhart and Professor Trelawney]] are in a SlapSlapKiss relationship while [[TheMatrix Neo]] works to break up [[{{House}} Wilson]] and [[TheAviator Ava Gardner]] while Beetlejuice and Denzel Washington look on.
** Complete irony: Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh were actually married to each other off-screen from 1989 to 1995. So perhaps their casting was a bit of RealLifeWritesthePlot?
***He also plays opposite to her in Henry V. And both films were also directed by him. So it's not so much RealLifeWritesthePlot and Reallifecaststhemovies.
*LargeHam: Michael Keaton as Dogberry. Also, the film does feature BRIANBLESSED in a minor role.
* MonochromeCasting: Except for Denzel Washington. Who's Keanu Reeves' brother. ... SoYeah.
**''Half'' brother. Being illegitimate is Don John's main motivation for being evil.
* {{Narm}}: Keanu Reeves trying so hard to do Shakespeare
** Claudio's FreakOut at the first wedding was meant to be a shocking TearJerker, but it was so ridiculously over the top it became hilarious.
* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack?
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