Follow Us on Tumblr

troperville

tools

toys

SubpagesAbusiveParents
ActionGirl
ActorAllusion
AffablyEvil
AlternativeCharacterInterpretation
AndIMustScream
AndTheFandomRejoiced
AntiVillain
ArsonMurderAndJaywalking
Awesome
AwesomeButImpractical
AwesomeMusic
BLAM
Badass
BadassBoast
BadassCreed
BadassNormal
BatmanGambit
BerserkButton
BetterThanItSounds
BewareTheNiceOnes
BeyondTheImpossible
BigBad
BigDamnHeroes
BittersweetEnding
BlessedWithSuck
BlindIdiotTranslation
BodyHorror
BookEnds
Bowdlerise
BreakTheCutie
BreakingTheFourthWall
BrickJoke
BrokenBase
BrotherSisterIncest
ButtMonkey
CatchPhrase
CharacterDerailment
CharacterGush
CharacterSheets
Characters
ChekhovsGun
CloudCuckoolander
ClusterFBomb
CombatPragmatist
CowboyBebopAtHisComputer
CrapsackWorld
CrazyAwesome
CreatorBreakdown
CreatorsPet
CurbStompBattle
DarkIsNotEvil
DarkerAndEdgier
DeadpanSnarker
Determinator
DethroningMoment
DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu
DieForOurShip
Discontinuity
DisproportionateRetribution
DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything
DownerEnding
DracoInLeatherPants
EarWorm
EarlyInstallmentWeirdness
EldritchAbomination
EnsembleDarkhorse
EstablishingCharacterMoment
EvenEvilHasStandards
ExecutiveMeddling
Expy
EyeScream
FamilyUnfriendlyDeath
FamousLastWords
FanDisservice
FanFic
FanNickname
Fanon
FantasticRacism
FirstNameBasis
FiveBadBand
FiveManBand
Flanderization
FoeYay
FollowTheLeader
FreudWasRight
FreudianExcuse
FreudianTrio
Fridge
FridgeHorror
FromBadToWorse
FunWithAcronyms
Funny
FunnyAneurysmMoment
GenreSavvy
GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff
GetAHoldOfYourselfMan
GroinAttack
GrowingTheBeard
Gush
HarsherInHindsight
Headscratchers
Heartwarming
HellIsThatNoise
HeroicBSOD
HeroicSacrifice
HeterosexualLifePartners
HighOctaneNightmareFuel
HilariousInHindsight
HoYay
HoistByHisOwnPetard
HonorBeforeReason
Horrible
IAmNotShazam
InternetBackdraft
InterspeciesRomance
It
JerkWithAHeartOfGold
Jerkass
JerkassWoobie
KarmaHoudini
KeepCirculatingTheTapes
KickTheDog
LampshadeHanging
LargeHam
LastNameBasis
Leitmotif
LightIsNotGood
MagnificentBastard
Main
MeaningfulName
Memes
MemeticBadass
MindRape
MindScrew
MisaimedFandom
MissingEpisode
Monster
MoodWhiplash
MoralEventHorizon
MrFanservice
MsFanservice
MundaneMadeAwesome
MythologyGag
NamesTheSame
Narm
NeverLiveItDown
NeverTrustATrailer
NiceHat
NiceJobBreakingItHero
NightmareFuel
NinjaPirateZombieRobot
NoExportForYou
NoodleIncident
ObfuscatingStupidity
OffscreenMomentOfAwesome
OhCrap
OldShame
OlderThanTheyThink
OneWingedAngel
OnlySaneMan
OurDragonsAreDifferent
OurVampiresAreDifferent
PapaWolf
ParanoiaFuel
ParentalAbandonment
PlayingAgainstType
PowerTrio
PrecisionFStrike
Radar
RecycledInSpace
RedOniBlueOni
Redundancy
RoleAssociation
RuinedFOREVER
RunningGag
ScrewedByTheNetwork
SeinfeldIsUnfunny
SerialEscalation
SeriousBusiness
ShipTease
ShootTheShaggyDog
ShoutOut
ShownTheirWork
SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism
SmugSnake
SoBadItsGood
SortingAlgorithmOfDeadness
SoundtrackDissonance
Summary
SuperWeight
SuspiciouslySimilarSong
TakeThat
TearJerker
TemptingFate
TheDragon
TheOtherDarrin
TheReasonYouSuckSpeech
TheScrappy
TheWesley
ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill
TheyChangedItNowItSucks
TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot
ThrowItIn
TimeLord
TitleDrop
TooDumbToLive
TookALevelInBadass
TropeNamers
TropersDoIt
TrueCompanions
Tsundere
TurnOfTheMillenium
UncannyValley
UnfortunateImplications
UnwinnableByMistake
ValuesDissonance
VillainSong
VillainousBreakdown
WallBangers
WarpThatAesop
WellIntentionedExtremist
WhamEpisode
WhamLine
WhatAnIdiot
WhatCouldHaveBeen
WhatHappenedToTheMouse
WhatMeasureIsANonHuman
WhatTheHellHero
WildMassGuessing
Woobie
XMeetsY
Yandere
YouGottaHaveBlueHair
YouKnowThatShow
YouShallNotPass
ZergRush

main index

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

TV Tropes Org
random
Beyond The Impossible: Live Action TV
Events in Live Action Television that are not possible. only list examples that fit this description

  • How I Met Your Mother has an episode in which Barney Stinson references this trope literally, claiming to have transcended the impossible to a point where the impossible and the possible meet: The Possimpible.
  • MythBusters deconstructs this trope. They demonstrate what is possible and what is not.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer states that only one slayer can exist at a time; when one dies, the next awakens. That's what the Council decreed. The show skirts this trope with clinical death which creates two slayers, but doesn't fully play it straight until Willow decides to break the rule and wake up EVERY possible slayer.
  • Subverted in Star Trek. Warp 10 is said to be the highest warp and it is; the only thing that increases is the speed of Warp 10. However, no matter how fast it becomes, its still Traveling at the Speed of Plot and therefore not really changing at all.
    • Played straight in Star Trek: Voyager in the episode in which the warp ten barrier is introduced. Voyager reaches Warp 10 and exists at every point in the universe, but also causes the humans onboard to evolve into salamander-like creatures. Normally with something like that we say it's Better Than It Sounds, but that one wasn't, and the episode has since been officially disowned by the writers.
      • There were two distinct warp scales used in Star Trek. The one that was used in original series was a cubic function (velocity = warp factor cubed x the speed of light) and had no upper limit. The one used from Star Trek: The Next Generation on is hyperbolic and made warp 10 equal to infinite velocity—even if you were traveling at warp factor 9.999999...., you would still be infinitely far from warp factor 10 in this scale.
  • America's Got Talent: Season 5 featured Jia-Yi He, a harmonica player who played not one, not two, not three, but four harmonicas at once. On his next appearance, he upped that to '''FIVE'''. He sadly did not pass to the next round, where he would presumably play a harmonica the size of a small car.
  • Pawn Stars Rick buys a car for Old Man's birthday and needs it restored. It's estimated that it would take 6 to 8 months to restore the car, and that's if Rick the restorer didn't have any other jobs the entire time. Rick needed it in three, and somehow, it was done in three. While Rick's shop worked on other projects.
  • Seinfeld Parodied as part of Jerry's ridicule of Kramer's claim that Keith Herandez spat on him. He traces the imaginary path of the spittle which involves changing directions and pausing in mid air. "that is one magic lugee." The point being to illustrate how impossible it was for the event to happen in real life.
  • Austin & Ally has a plot where Dez deep fries an entire restaurant, including the tables and chairs. How he made an ordinary deep frier do that is a mystery.
  • Xena: Warrior Princess features numerous Gods, (of Greek, Norwegian, Turkish and Roman orgins, among others) which like any Gods, are immortal. This is a universe where Immortal Life Is Cheap. For the first five seasons, it doesn't matter what you did to a god, they would not die. However, in the Season 5 finale, Xena gains the power to "Kill the unkillable." In the span of 12-15 hours after gaining this power, Xena had killed Poseidon, Hephaestus, Deimos, Hades, Artemis and Athena, with no signs of slowing down.
    • Xena also features the title character being impregnated by the redeemed soul of her archenemy, Callisto. When she discovers she is pregnant, she expresses the impossiblility of the situation, by slamming the doctor into a wall.
    Xena:It's impossible! I cannot be pregnant. If you weren't such a quack, you would know that getting pregnant involves certain physical requirements that I haven't met in a long time! And I mean a very long time! No one, zilch, zippo. I am a love-free zone! Therefore it is utterly impossible that I be 'up the duff'. So what's your diagnosis now?!
    Healer: Mood swings.
  • Monica Mancuso from Las Vegas flies off the roof of the casino when a gust of wind catches the "winged-style" dress she was wearing. She flies around for about five minutes before crashing into a shoe store more than a mile away. Characters spend the episode debating the impossibility of it, and buying shoes from the store.
  • Meta example from Doctor Who: in the episode Doctor Who NS S2 E4 "The Girl in the Fireplace", the Doctor makes a tremendously grand entrance — smashing through a mirror, on a white horse, into an actual Versailles ballroom. After much deliberation, this was deemed literally impossible to film by the production team. (Versailles does not allow horses into their ballrooms, for one.) When they told Steven Moffat, he broke down and cried like a child, and so the production team decided to film it anyway.
LiteratureBeyond the ImpossibleMusic & Sound Effects

random
10702
25