For the new Cheetos commercials, The Cheetos Cheetah appears to people and encourages them to do something bad to people who are annoying them, which seems basis for a psychotic illusion for the mentally unstable.
iFight Crime With Victorious: Neville Papperman goes from being a snobby rich kid to a snobby rich kid with an evil power and an obsession with destroying the symbol of his greatest failure, instead of just harming Carly, Sam, and Freddie's reputations.
Vash/Blade: Anti-Hero who sometimes commits mass murder but often tries to atone for his actions? Villain Protagonist who fights his enemies for fun and to gain additional powers? A deconstruction of the God Mode Sue?
Kekanu: Menace to society or one of the few heroes trying to stand up against Vash?
Soku's betrayal of Vash to the police: Was it motivated by a desire for money, or did she realize that she was unable to help her friend abandon his violent lifestyle?
Total Drama Island, by Gilbert and Sullivan invokes an alternate interpretation of Cody, due to the themes and character types that appear in the operettas, and corresponding limitations on the subject matter available in the verses. Because Cody's verses relate mainly to his unsuccessful suit for Gwen's affections, with frequent gender flipping that gives him verses originally sung by pining maidens, the cumulative effect is to depict him as a much more tragic and pitiable figure than the one that Total Drama Island portrays.
My Little Unicorn: The Grand Ruler: benevolent king, or racist tyrant?
Unicornicopia: Paradise on Earth, or autocratic dystopia?
Titan: Villain with no redeeming qualities at all, or a bitter old man who lost his mind because no one ever gave him a chance, leaving turning to the dark side as his only option?
Starfleet in general, with its tendencies to act as a multiversal policeforce and army comes in parts up like an evil overlords armed force, making sure that everyone obeys the whims of the unicornicopian overlords.
Marilyn Manson's first Concept Album, Antichrist Superstar. Is The Worm a villain for destroying reality, or was he justified due to its inability to change, as seen with their sycophantic worship of him when he becomes big, along with the other two albums in the triptych (which are the album after this and the one after that, which tell the story in reverse, so the last released is the first in the story).
Additionally, Marilyn Manson himself. Egotistical asshole who treats everyone but Twiggy like shit, misunderstood and mis-blamed and constantly abused by society innocent, or a mix of both? One could make an argument for both, making the third the most likely, with him softening over time.
Also, Marilyn Manson and Trent Reznor. Was their falling out caused by Manson being an asshole to Trent, Trent being an asshole to Manson or both being major gaping assholes?
In "Behind Blue Eyes," the narrator could be an unrepentant Nazi being hauled off to Israel by a Mossad agent.
Keane's song "Everybody's Changing" could be seen as a song about a Zombie Apocalypse... from the point of view of one of the Infected.
The lyrics to the Coldplay song "Fix You" could be a song from the point of view of a heroin dealer who feels guilty after watching one of his customers waste his life. The hint is in the title ("Fix You", a drug fix), the constant references to depression and misery throughout the song, and little hints like "When you get what you want/But not what you need?" Who'd have thought Chris Martin was capable of such depth?
On a radio station one of the DJs talks about how the video for the song has the Hollywood Homely trope(she didn't use the trope name) and the longtime friend didn't notice her till she cleaned up. There's an interpretation that he was actually asking Taylor Swift's character out in the video after his girlfriend dumped him and then she realized that her dream man had asked her out, she dolled herself up and headed for the dance.
The Saturdays, Ego — Stalking Is OK When Its Female On Male? Ok, the guy might get himself killed if he goes solo, but the actions of the five girls does rather suggest an unwillingness to let the guy go rather than any actual concern for his safety. Sorry, girls, but he might just possibly do fine without you. Also, one has to wonder who's not getting rescued (or who's committing crimes and getting away with it) while five girls are too busy playing 'woman scorned' to do the hero thing.
In The Megas: is Wily a Well-Intentioned Extremist who is trying to ascend robots out of their slavery? Or is he the same lying, manipulative, power-hungry jerk he is in the games?
Same can be said of The Protomen interpretation of Wily.
"One Vision" by Queen was obviously written as a cheesy plea for an end to war, famine, religious intolerance and other problems pop stars tend to call "bad things". However, due to the vagueness of the lyrics, it's more than a little ironic that it can be interpreted as a fascist anthem from the perspective of a frustrated wannabe-fuhrer. The Slovenian art-rock group Laibach did a version in German for this very reason which they re-titled "Birth of a Nation".
"One Less Lonely Girl"? Really? Because you met up with her and are now going together, or because you killed her, Justin? (This is now an internet meme).
Most versions of "Windmills of Your Mind" are melancholy paeans to regrets and lost love. The Muppets? A paean to gibbering insanity.
The character of Nicklausse in Jacques Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann), who in some editions of the opera is the Muse of Poetry in disguise, is sometimes suggested to be Hoffmann's conscience, who can only actually be seen and heard by him. (In at least some editions of the opera, no one but Hoffmann ever addresses Nicklausse directly.)
"The Man Upstairs" by Voltaire. The narrator is just as messed up as his neighbors; he's certainly paranoid, and there's strong evidence that he's manipulative ("If you want to be my friend, you'll have to prove you mean it.") Then, too, maybe his paranoia causes him to interpret someone perfectly normal and pleasant as an allegory for God Is Evil.
"Little Red Riding Hood" By Sam the sham and the Pharaohs, and a Song by the same name by The Cartoons, both interpret the big bad wolf as being in love with Red riding hood.
Julio Iglesias's 1987 song Lo mejor de tu vida(the best of your life) in which the narrator sings to a girl from whom he took all that's valuable in her (namely her virginity). Also, lots of verses allude to her youth at the time of the "seduction". This sound very suspicious, like what an sexual abuser would say to a victim (a child?), in order to make her feel worthless and dissuade her from having future healthy relationships.
Train's "Hey Soul Sister"; a nice little love song or an unsettling ghost story? The story takes place as this: a guy died from a blood clot to his brain (Your lipstick stains, on the front lobes of my left side brains) or commited suicide (And so I went and let you blow my mind), the ghost was very fond of her (Your sweet moon beams, the smell of you in every dream I dream), so he haunts her (I don't want to miss a single thing you do tonight). The girl thinks that he is a ghost haunting her and takes he takes her fear as affection (Just in time, I'm so glad you have a one track mind like me, you gave my life direction, A game show love connection, we can't deny). The haunting is going on for so long now the girl is considering killing herself (You see, I can be myself finally, I want the world to see you'll be with me) and possibly goes through with it.
Katy Perry's "E.T (Futuristic Lover)" to me sounds like someone who has fallen in love with the person who has kidnapped, raped and brainwashed them. The Kanye West remix furthers my belief ("See I abducted you/so I tell you what to do")
The song. Is it a romantic song laced with some sexuality, or pure sex? Kanye's part of the song leans to the latter, but then again he is Kanye.
Is it about a romantic love affair from two different groups of people but somehow manage to be on the same wavelength despite the huge difference in their lives. Love Story (Taylor Swift) but with more sex...
Ian Dury's I Want To Be Straight deliberately uses this trope. It can be a song about somebody who wants to be on the 'straight and narrow', that is, wants to kick their alcohol and drug habits and live a normal life... or it can be about a homosexual who wishes they were into the opposite sex because it's more socially acceptable. The song can be interpreted as either or both of these.
Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante, on the two occasions he's left the band. Reclusive genius or selfish bandwrecker?
Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats". Did he even cheat? Does she actually know whether he cheated or not? Is she justified in destroying his car if he did cheat? Maybe he stopped calling because he realized she was the type of person who was so crazy she was willing to smash up his car because she thought or knew he was cheating. Maybe he forgot to get the keys back, or told her where the spares are. Maybe the scene at the bar was her finally tracking him down after weeks of searching. She takes the bat, the Special Bat, she's been carrying with her just in case she found him, and peeks inside. Oh, there are a lot of people in there, and he's with some blonde "tramp". She can't Talk with him in there. Maybe she'll just leave A Message on his car...
Is the Gorillaz 2-D an irredeemable idiot, or Genius Ditz with wits dulled by head injuries and painkillers?
Whether you see the lyrics in "I Can't Do This" by Plumb as being "Oh, God, I need your help" or "Oh God, I need your help" depend on the person. The former makes sense being that it's a Christian band but the latter seems more like you're asking a person for help.
Is The Scientist a straightforward break-up song, or someone agonising over whether or not to turn off a loved one's life support machine after a car crash?
Evolution Schematic, a column at 411mania's wrestling site, is all about alternate character interpretations, specifically about finding the defining trait that serves as a wrestler's focus through all his Heel Face Turns, Face Heel Turns, gimmick changes, changes of employers, and other such nastiness.
Matt and Jeff Hardy. Depending on which degree of smark you are, one brother is potentially the future of the entire business, and the other shouldn't even be working the lowliest of indies shows. You can swap out whichever one you like.
Ever since the new incarnation of ECW debuted, fans have criticized the third brand for being a nothing more than a pale imitation of its former namesake, even moreso after a gradual talent purge left Tommy Dreamer the sole ECW Original. However, some enjoy the new ECW for having the pure wrestling that Raw and Smackdown sometimes lack and its focus on making newer stars and elevating wrestlers that aren't ready for Raw or Smackdown. In fact, repeat that last sentence subbing WWF for Raw and WCW for Smackdown and you may have a decent show to watch every Tuesday that just fell victim to a PG mandate a lot earlier than the other two brands did but recently found its own niche. Taz, after leaving WWE, once said call it something else and it would a cool hour.
Vince McMahon himself. Either he's one of the most brilliant showmen of all time and a man who should be hailed by all who would call themselves wrestling fans, or he's an imbecilic amoral scumbag who's only redeeming feature is that he knows to run with what's popular.
Many roleplayers use the ITT: We Are Our Avatars thread as a way to experiment with giving their characters different personalities. Several characters who began almost completely faithful to canon have changed and in many cases even gained new powers due to their interactions with other characters.
Web Video
The Game Grumps often come up with different interpretations of characters from the games they play.
Egoraptor believes that Kirby is a xenophobic psycho, which... isn't that far from canon.note Kirby is canonically a bit of a xenophobe and a less obvious Heroic Comedic Sociopath.
Their playthrough of Banjo-Kazooie has a lot due to its varied supporting cast.
Gloop the Fish is a depressed teenager, whose farts can get you high. His friends exploit this, and are only his friends because of this, always trying to get him to come to parties just so he can fart for them.note For the record, Gloop actually belches bubbles instead of farting them He also has a cousin named Beezenbatz that no one invites to parties because when anyone tries to invite him, people think he's trying to bring live animals.
Boggy the Bear is a deadbeat Dad that lets his 3 kids go hungry while he sleeps outside and also ate a Jiggy piece despite having 2 more ready to give away and therefore should have been familiar with them.
The mummy in the matching game pyramid just desperately wants to give you a hug because he died in a disfiguring accident and none of his friends know that he's still around. He's also a ghoul.
During their time in Athens, they've been interpreting nearly all their neighbours, such as Maelle as a chain smoker and Sally as a child abuse victim.
Rocky from Kirby Super Star is a lazy, overweight, slow loser who gently walks wherever he's needed, while screaming up ladders at fast speeds.
Chameleusnote Chameleo Arm has a family and two friends named Bob and Bill. Bill bought Chameleus a Game Boy Advance for his birthday and Chameleus, being more of a Sega guy, was a bit offended. However Chameleus covered it up well and pretended that he enjoyed the gift because he's very good at camouflaging himself.
Moundo, a mini boss in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, is not a rock. He is a grouchy mound who can't deny that he has a weight problem yet can't work out... since he's not human. If he were to be chiseled, it would hurt. The other rocks make fun of him because his mother was bad at naming.
War is a misunderstood Woobie who just wants to be loved. However, whenever he attempts to hug people it, "hurts them... and me."
They decide that the characters in Wild Guns are ruthless bandits, and all the enemies are just trying to protect their homes.
According to Egoraptor, Mickey Mouse is a man who has detachable ears and has a disorder where he has big hands, feet, and head, which he hides by claiming he's a cartoon character. When he goes home, he beats himself up, saying to himself that he's a freak whom no one loves.
