[[quoteright:256:[[VideoGame/LEGOStarWars https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Lego_star_wars_II-box_art_3474.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:256:''Franchise/{{LEGO}}'' and ''Franchise/StarWars''? Who was RunningTheAsylum when this was thought up?]]

->''"A wise man once said, 'Any story, no matter how good, will sound really, really dumb when you shorten it to a few sentences.'"''
-->-- '''[[Literature/AlcatrazSeries Alcatraz Versus The Knights Of Crystallia]]'''

So you love a series. You own all the volumes, have various merchandise, can quote characters off the top of your head, and know every plot twist by heart.

However, one day someone asks the dreaded question "What's this about?" And suddenly it hits you -- trying to sum it up in only a few sentences makes it sound really, ''really'' ridiculous, and though the show itself may [[SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness take itself entirely seriously]], suddenly all the random parts, nonsensical aspects and just plain weirdness are laid bare before you.

But really, it's [[TitleDrop Better Than It Sounds]] once you actually see it in action.

This is the place to record those descriptions -- the random, the understated, and the WTF.[[labelnote:*]]Obviously [[ItsBeenDone not the only such place]]; [[http://www.postmodernbarney.com/2009/04/uncomfortable-plot-summaries/ this]] is just one of many interpretations of the same theme that exist. But [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools that's never stopped us before]].[[/labelnote]] This isn't "Sum up your favorite movie in one sentence!" (We've already got each movie's respective Laconic page for that), rather it is for the summaries that would make a person say "This would never sell!". This is not WunzaPlot, since those shows have an ''inherently'' ridiculous concept as part of the catch -- these are only made ridiculous by us mentioning things out of context.

To keep it interesting, put the name of the series in [[spoiler:spoiler tags]], disable autospoiler when visiting, and keep this from becoming Administrivia/ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike; it's actually [[LampshadeHanging Making Fun Of Things You Do Like]]. And most of all, have fun.

The concept of this game may have originated in 2012, when someone described [[spoiler:''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'']] as "a film where a man's wife is brutally murdered by a serial killer and left his unborn son physically disabled. Then, in a twisted turn of events, his son is kidnapped and he has to chase the kidnapper thousands of miles with the help of a mentally disabled woman." This post then [[MemeticMutation spread around the Internet]], one example being [[https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/zk0uy/i_just_watched_a_film_where_a_mans_wife_is/ here]].

'''Important Note''': This is a ''game'', not a proper trope. Please don't use it as an entry on a trope page.

See also SugarWiki/VillainWhitewashingService. Compare JustForFun/PitchTheWork. Contrast DarthWiki/WorseThanItSounds.

!!![+This Game Contains Spoilers By Necessity. Read At Your Own Risk.+]
[[index]]
* [[/index]][[{{Anime}} Edgy, Choppily Animated Doodles with Stupidly Huge Eyes and Spiky Hair Made in Japan]]:[[index]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/AnimeAndMangaAToC A To C]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/AnimeAndMangaDToG D To G]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/AnimeAndMangaHToK H To K]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/AnimeAndMangaLToO L To O]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/AnimeAndMangaPToS P To S]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/AnimeAndMangaTToW T To W]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/AnimeAndMangaXToZ X To Z]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/ComicBooks Literature with Pictures and an Intentionally Reduced Word Count]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/FanWorks Online "Books" Based on Pop Culture and Written by People with Little to No Experience]]
* [[{{BetterThanItSounds/Film}} Oodles of Nearly Identical Pictures That Are Flashed Across Your Field of Vision So Fast That You Cannot Tell Them Apart at All]]:
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmA 0-9 and A]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmB B]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmC C]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmD D]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmE E]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmF F]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmG G]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmH H]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmI I]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmJ J]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmK K]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmL L]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmM M]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmN N]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmO O]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmP P]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmQ Q]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmR R]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmS S]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmT T]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmU U]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmV V]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmW W]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmX X]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmY Y]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/FilmZ Z]]
* [[/index]][[{{Literature}} Stories Communicated via Arbitrary Symbols Printed on Fragile, Barely Flexible Sheets Made from Dead Trees]]:[[index]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/LiteratureAToJ A to J]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/LiteratureKToZ K to Z]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/LiveActionTV Oodles of Nearly Identical Pictures That Are Flashed Across Your Field of Vision So Fast That You Cannot Tell Them Apart at All - But Usually Lower Budget]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/{{Manhwa}} Series of Drawings That Look Suspiciously Similar to Japanese Comics (or in a Ridiculously Long Strip Format)]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/{{Music}} Sounds Arranged in Loose Periodical Order for Entertainment Purposes]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/RecordedAndStandUpComedy People Who Stand Up on Stage and Talk for as Long as Two Hours and Unaccountably Make Money This Way]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/TabletopGames Outdated Low-Budget Game Fun for Disillusioned Stay-at-Homes Who Don't Know Any Better]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/{{Theatre}} Paying Money to Observe Manchildren Staging Events as They May or May Not Happen in Real Life]]
* [[/index]][[BetterThanItSounds/VideoGames Modern High-Budget Game Fun for Disillusioned Stay-at-Homes Who Don't Know Any Better]]:[[index]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/VideoGamesAToC A to C]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/VideoGamesDToF D to F]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/VideoGamesGToM G to M]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/VideoGamesNToR N to R]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/VideoGamesSToV S to V]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/VideoGamesWToZ W to Z]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/GameMod When The Disillusioned Stay-at-Homes Start Believing That They Know Everything Better than the Professionals]]
** [[BetterThanItSounds/VideoGameGenres When the Aforementioned Intelligence Curtailers Start Coming in Different Flavors]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/WebAnimation Animated Cartoons Posted on the Internet Because No Legitimate Studios Would EVER Publish Them]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/{{Webcomics}} Literature for People With No Intention of Reading or Even Manually Turning the Page]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/WebOriginal Being Amused by People with No Life or Legitimate Income Who Seek an Impersonal Relationship with Their Worldwide Audience]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/WebVideos The Exact Same Premise as the Former Except It's Exclusively on a Video Format Because the Audience Can't Be Bothered to Even Read a Blog]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/WesternAnimation All That Is Made by Certain Westerners Who Earn Their Living by Drawing Yellow People, Talking Marine Invertebrates, Clothed Mice, Foul-Mouthed School Children, and Technicolor Miniature Horses]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/OtherMedia Miscellaneous Genres That Are Not Even Worth Wasting Your Space and Time on This Page]]
* [[BetterThanItSounds/RealLife Doing Pointless Things on a Spinning Orb of Dirt That’s Rotating Around a Spinning Orb of Gas In a System of Other Various Spinning Gas and Dirt Orbs That’s Moving Ever So Slightly Through an Incomprehensibly Large Cluster of Orbs Which Will Probably Collide With Another One Of Itself at an Unknown Date]]
[[/index]]
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