Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch - Television Tropes & Idioms

Dragonball Z has a lot of people who slam it on principle, and many of their reasons for not liking it are generic reasons that, to someone who's watched the series, are at best inaccurate (or, in some cases, just hilarious). The show has its faults, but many people who simply slam it aren't aware of them because they haven't watched it and/or know little about it. What is even more funny is the people who bash it used to love it a long time ago when they where younger. To be fair, the main complaint of the presence of large amounts of filler is accurate.
- Of course, the recent announcement of Dragonball Kai, a new "refreshed" and condensed version of Dragonball Z looks like it's going to remove most if not all of the filler.
- Some people reject the Dragonball series solely because of the art style. While the art is surely not beautiful, there is also a story which might have merits of its own.
Naruto certainly has received more than its fair share of hatred, mostly by Bleach and Death Note fans. What's ironic is that their reasons for the show being terrible, such as Naruto being a textbook highly visible ninja and Sakura being utterly useless, are considered as funny jokes by FANS OF THE SHOW (mostly because they were intentional character traits/flaws). The only legitimate complaint they usually get right it the enormous amount of filler (which is mostly because it happened all at once), although, by Naruto Shippuden, they seem to have gotten better with it.
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle has gained so much of its reputation from detractors who flipped through the series, grimaced at the increasingly bizarre and disturbing Deus Angst Machina (and the fact that Cardcaptor Sakura, despite being waaaaaay on the other end of the Scale, is now a part of the canon, which can be seen as "tainting" the previous work), that the "trainwreck" opinion has spread to a lot of people who have only read one or two (or seven?) volumes or seen one episode of the anime. Or maybe they just looked at the Fan Dumb and noted the illiterate masses, girl-bashing Yaoi Fangirls and everything else that comes with a fandom of its size...
How many people bashing Wedding Peach as a misogynistic show, that just forced women to get married, actually watched it, and not just based this opinion on that article from "Animerica" magazine? Those people should know the article itself was based on just the first handful of episodes, which themselves just had one actual wedding. The show is more about The Power Of Love. Cheesy, yes, but not the Family Unfriendly Aesop that it's claimed to be.
Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni. Go onto any Higurashi video that has tons of views, or watch any of the first 23 episodes on Youtube. Any.
A truly astonishing Real Life example that is half this, half Animation Age Ghetto and all Wall Banger: this entertainment brief about a nearby showing of Grave Of The Fireflies.
- Especially hilarious and/or damning is the way he describes anime as though it's this strange new thing that's apparently become relevant in ways he can't understand. If he'd written that ten years ago, it would have been mildly annoying. Having written it in 2009, I just feel embarassed for how out of touch this guy is.
You would not believe the level of misinformation spouted by people who hate Kodomo No Jikan (but are too Squicked by the concept to actually read/watch it). While, yes, it is Lolicon, NO, Aoki and Rin do NOT have sex. And while it would not be inaccurate to say Aoki loves Rin back, it's the sort of love a father has for a daughter (and the reason he is so focused on her is because he's trying to protect her from her guardian, Reiji, and his Hikaru Genji Plan).
Axis Powers Hetalia. Somewhat understandable, given the subject matter, that people immediately might assume it to be something completely different that what it is. It isn't for everyone, but some people like to perpetuate the idea that the series is some sort of revisionist history making genocide amusing and that the fandom is full of shallow stupid yaoi fangirls.
Four words and one letter: "Dragon Ball Z For Girls." True, Inuyasha was created by a woman, but there's nothing particularly "girlish" about the series (in fact it's occasionally really violent). The entire thing was kicked off by VG Cats slamming it and since then massive numbers of people who barely know anything about the series describe why they don't like with a word for word recital of the above quote.
- The line in question was actually referring more to the fact that Inuyasha, a shonen series, has an unusually large female fanbase. However, as expected by people's tendency to bandwagon, many people miss the point completely.
Pretty much describes almost any dub by Four Kids Entertainment, as the Hatedom claims that they dumb down the story by removing sex and violence from it. Ironically, the Moral Guardians who did watch the shows had the opposite complaint - the shows being filled with violence and crude humor! Sometimes, the only changes they really make are adding underwear, but the Hatedom isn't going to stand for that...
- You say this as if 4Kids hasn't earned the hatred they get with certain shows.

Close Anime & Manga

Some people bash Comic Book characters they don't like by claiming Wall Banger events that not only didn't happen, but those people admit they didn't even read the issues which the supposed events took place.
- This is a common feature over at Scans Daily, where people can get very vocal about how much a certain comic book sucks, even though they only know the few pages that have been scanned by the original poster and none of the surrounding 80% of said comic.
  - You know it's bad when people started to root for anyone who was fighting Iron Man (who thanks to Civil War has some hatedom). Example: a Super Soldier named Mallen, who anyone who read the comic would tell you was a Psycho terrorist who thinks the KKK did a good job.
Occasionally, people dislike Batman because he's "not a real Superhero," due to not having powers. The majority of these people have never picked up a Batman comic in their lives, nor, unfortunately, do they have any intention to.
Conversely, Superman gets a lot of flak for being 'boring', 'too-powerful', a 'goody-two-shoes' and such from people who apparently have never read a single comic featuring the character.
- The above two tropers may want to consider the possibility that those complainers weren't talking about the comics. There are a couple of other incarnations.
It's a fairly safe assumption to make that anyone who sneers at comic books for being "just for kids", if they've actually ever bothered to pick up a comic, has never actually read Watchmen. Or Maus. Or The Sandman. Or...
- Corollary: The Animation Age Ghetto belief is primarily held by people who have never seen any good animation what so ever, and refuse to do so.
A sizeable amount of anime fans label super hero comics as repetitive, absurd, hyper-violent and/or sexist. Because, you know, all anime is stacked full of progressive social commentary and non-cliched premises. This seems more prominent outside the US, where American comic books are less popular and there's a higher number of people who have never read one in their lives.

Close Comic Books

All notoriously bad modern movies. Every single one. Few people saw Gigli, Battlefield Earth, Catwoman or any of Uwe Boll's movies (and most professional movie reviewers had to), but everybody makes fun of them. Those who have seen them, though, encourage this.
Movies by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Epic Movie, Meet The Spartans, etc). Then again, the trailers are no more funny than the movies themselves, and since trailers traditionally have the best parts of a movie in them, it's understandable why nobody likes them. Not to mention that the creators themselves hardly bothered researching their material any further than watching the trailers, so it should only be fair for people to make their mind up about the movie from the trailer alone. Also, the movie directed by Craig Mazin and produced by David Zucker, Superhero Movie, was complained about by people who thought that it was by Friedberg and Seltzer.
- Wait, so it's ... Complaining About Movies That Are Bad by Default?
The backlash and criticism leveled against Monty Python's Life Of Brian is practically the definition of this trope. Watch one of the documentaries made about the controversy and it becomes readily apparent that none of the Moral Guardians who so hated it had actually seen it. In fact, one city councilman admitted to banning it in his town based solely on the recommendation of a group about which he knew nothing. The Pythons found it very ironic that people were told to hate a movie whose main theme was "think for yourself," and dutifully obeyed. Terry Gilliam almost sounded pleased when he said with a grin that protesters at the New York City premiere 'Didn't let us down!'
- What makes this especially odd is that the Pythons are unusually respectful of Christ in the story. He exists, the message is the same (and Brian seems genuinely moved), but damn if the locals can be bothered to listen.
One of the more notable examples was the film The Last Temptation Of Christ. The people picketing were upset about having heard it had scenes of Jesus having sex with Mary Magdalene. What they didn't know was that it was a hallucination caused by Satan to try and convince Jesus to go away from the Crucifixion, marry Mary, and settle down to a normal life. You know, sort of a last temptation. Which he rejects.
- In his book Kindly Inquisitors, Jonathan Rauch talks about the reaction to the film, comparing it to the Ayatollah's response to Rushdie's Satanic Verses. The argument is that for people who hold a truth as inherently sacred, the mere existence of an alternate version of that truth is automatically blasphemous: the people aren't protesting the movie's content, they were essentially protesting the effrontery of it being made in the first place.
When the movie Dogma was first released in theaters, it drew huge protests from the conservative religious crowd who assumed it must be an anti-Christian or anti-Catholic movie, even though the protesters admitted they hadn't seen the film at all. Adding to the hilarity, Kevin Smith actually lampshaded this by protesting his own movie, and was interviewed by a news crew — where he "admitted" that he'd "never actually seen it", but he'd "heard it was bad".
- The reporter who interviewed him also correctly identified him as Kevin Smith, and Kevin Smith denied it...? What does that say about his 'protest'?
- It says that the people standing right next to him protesting his movie had no idea what he looked like... Not only were they ignorant of the movie's content, they didn't recognize the man who made it and even put himself in the movie and the promotional material as one of the supporting characters. His entire "protest" was tongue in cheek but it rang true on a couple of levels.
Tropic Thunder was protested by disability advocacy groups for apparently making fun of the mentally impaired and frequently using the word "retard". In fact, the film was making fun of actors who cynically play offensively over-the-top mentally impaired characters as Oscar Bait.
Likewise, people have complained that they don't watch Godzilla because the films are too silly. Never mind the fact that several Godzilla films (i.e. the first one, Godzilla VS Destoroyah and GMK) are very dark and serious in tone.
The IMDB page on the feature film of Sex And The City was, within twenty-four hours of the movie's release, inundated with one-star reviews from young male moviegoers who'd never seen it, but objected to the very presence of a "chick flick" in theaters in summer. Considering the source material...But then again, some of that was an actual concerted effort by people who just didn't get the 'joke' of the series, and its 'joke' on the viewers who take it seriously.
Eragon. While the books themselves are flawed, and the movie was arguably just plain terrible, way too many people have bashed them despite having never seen the movie or read the books, or even read a summary. Particularly frustrating is the legions of self-declared writers who seem to believe Christopher Paolini is involved in a conspiracy to keep them from getting published.
Parodied with The Colbert Report's "Movies That Are Destroying America": he claims he only watches trailers, not movies, and so invariably gets the premise and content of the movie completely wrong in the process of condemning it. Conversely, he often recommends movies with highly controversial subject manner for families. For instance, Brokeback Mountain was praised as a "classic cowboy fable" that promoted good family values.
- Also, when reviewing Hairspray, he mentioned of John Travolta playing the mom something along the lines of "I don't know who that newcomer is, but she's hot."
A blatant example occurred in Toonzone when about 3 people would continually bitch and moan for over a month on how America had lost its sanity, and how undeserving Alvin And The Chipmunks where of its surprising success. Looking at their post would clearly show that they only watched the trailers and had based their entire opinion of the movie off a scene where Alvin eats crap, while the other people who had seen the movie pointed out that it wasn't that bad.
- In all honesty, if a trailer has a scene where one of the characters is eating crap, that goes straight into So Bad It's Horrible land.
Dragonball Evolution, full stop. The complaints started months before release due to pirated copies on the intarwebs, and have only begun to subside because those who saw it in theaters said the quality was better than what the pirater's Handi Cam could pick up, never mind that it was shot in a dark theater and incomplete. Still more only complained by what they saw in the trailers, or because of the choice of actors "Buffy's Spike is Piccolo?! OMG he can only play characters like Spike it'll suck!" "Goku's white!? He's supposed to be Asian!". No, he's supposed to be an alien from outer space. Granted, reviews have been almost universally negative, but at least those people saw a legal release of the film.
Bob Dole alledged that the film Trainspotting glorifies drug abuse. Given the terrible things that happen to people in that movie because of their drug abuse, it all made a lot more sense when he later admitted he'd never seen it.
Alan Moore has been known to do this, particularly with movie adaptations of his works.
Many people who mock My Dinner with Andre as incredibly boring have never actually seen it.
People who have never seen the original Planet of the Apes sometimes assume that it is campy and So Bad Its Good. In fact, it was a big-budget, award-winning epic that tackles very ambitious themes and is generally well-regarded by critics.
The people who tend to decry and debase Fight Club tend to be the folks who've never seen even 3 full minutes of it.
Roger Ebert does watch the movies he reviews. However, during his review of Up, he went on a long rant about how much worse the 3D version had to be. Admitting as he did so that he had never seen it. Put a little more faith in Pixar, damn it!

Close Film

A lot of parent groups were/have been/are trying to ban Harry Potter and similar books or movies. A number of arguments are undermined by the fact that they haven't actually read the books. Some humorous examples can be found in Cowboy Bebop At His Computer. The "defense" one such person (Laura Mallory) offered for making such a fuss about it despite not reading the series was that "they're really long".
- You're right! Any busy parent that wants to determine whether or not something is suitable for their children should read 3,000 pages of fantasy literature. What working parent doesn't have the free time and inclination to do that?
  - Reading one book - or at least skimming it - or watching the movie - or even reading the back cover and a couple of reviews is clearly far too much to expect from a modern parent.
  - This isn't "Not Watching Shows You Don't Watch". The problem is when said working parent spends all their precious free time trying to get the book banned...
- However, you should consult someone who has at least read the first book before deciding that it promotes devil-worship and should be banned.
- Subverted with the groups of former fans who dislike the way the series went and claim that the books give bad messages to children, as they have read the books... Possibly doubly subverted as most of the "bad messages" come from Alternate Character Interpretation bordering on Completely Missing The Point.
- There was one person who claimed that the theme of the book was that "There is no good or evil; only power, and those who wish to seek it." I'm not even going to mention where that theory went wrong.
  - I will. The very next sentence. When Harry rejected that idea out of hand.
Somewhere, a sensitive parent tried to get the book Fahrenheit451 banned from a school, but of course, he hadn't read the book. He may also not have understood the concept of irony. A lot of people have tried to do this in various jurisdictions; almost invariably because it contains the words "damn" and "hell," and always without any inkling that such a thing as "irony" exists. Bradbury himself has noted that writing a book about censorship does not, in fact, give him a free pass from censorship, but that clearly has not stopped people from believing it does.
- It's one of the few books with a visible title in Stephen Colbert's book-burning Yule log.
- This is lovingly lampshaded in The West Wing in a flashback by President Bartlett, where he states this exact act being done by an English teacher at his prep school.
- Although, the irony of attempted banning does lessen when you learn that Bradbury said that the novel was moreso exploring the effect of 'new media' (read: television) on reading. Schools and their Christopher Columbus discovered America lessons.
  - In my edition in the foreward by Ray Bradbury he says its about censorship.
While we're at it, let's bring up people blindly parroting Mark Twain's essay "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" without ever having read any of the books in question. If you did, you'd realize that a good percentage of the "offenses" don't actually exist. There's some speculation that Twain's criticisms were deliberately over-the-top and tongue-in-cheek. This speculation seems to be reasonable, especially to people who have heard of and possibly read something else by Mark Twain.
- Of course, there are those who have read the entirety of the Leatherstocking Tales and the essay in question, and agree with what Mr. Clemens said, for the most part.
The book I, Libertine: was banned in Boston, had a review written by a student (which got a respectable B+ from his professor), sparked major arguments, sent Publisher's Weekly into a tizzy trying to find the book, and didn't exist at all. It was a hoax begun by radio host/humorist Jean Shepherd. One can only imagine how much of this echoes the Necronomicon which, as you hopefully know, doesn't exist outside the world of HP Lovecraft's books. Although there is a collection of his works called the Necronomicon, but that doesn't really count.
Some Twilight haters display an immense dislike towards the series despite the fact that they never actually read the first book, and just go by the general complaints of the haters who did read the book. Or reviews of the last book only, making Twilight, a victim of Hype Backlash.
- To be fair, a large portion of that Hatedom is primarily Fan Haters, rather than people who have any strong complaints about the books themselves.
- Also, a good amount of people that hate it HAVE read the books, and have very strong (near undebunkable) reasons for it.
  - And some people can't stand to read it just from the back. Only a physco could lover somebody who she admits has a part of him (and doesn't know how dormant that part might be) wants to suck her blood.
While many valid criticisms of Ayn Rand's novels can be made, many people who criticize her work seem not to have read any of them or to have made an effort to find out what they were about. For example, they may throw out terms like "the virtue of selfishness" with no understanding of what she meant by them.
- Though, arguably, Objectivism is a fairly well known philosophy and one can have a fairly good understanding of it without having read Ayn Rand's books (and hence can have valid complaints about). Criticizing the novels themselves, on the other hand...
Religious works such as the Bible and the beliefs or practices based on them are often subject to this trope. Armchair critics, reluctant to browse through such a wordy tome, often resort to rehashing criticisms made by other people, who in turn got their information from someone else, ad infinitum, until it reaches a source who might have actually opened the book to read what's in it. Or maybe heard someone mentioning it. Perhaps it is assumed that being 2000 years old, whatever criticisms made about it must be accurate, or the criticisms wouldn't be around anymore. The idea that 2000 years of clarifications and defenses also exists does not cross the mind. The advent of the Internet makes this doubly worse—rants are much easier to find and copy-paste, yet a quick search for potential debunks takes too long.
The opposite is also true. Many people quote the Bible and other religious works, or refer to it to back up some extreme point of view or another. But many (especially in religious America) openly admit to never having read the Bible all the way through.
- That sentiment manages to miss the point just a bit. I'm certainly not discouraging people from reading the Bible in its entirety, but the notion that reading the whole thing to make reference to parts of it is patently ridiculous. It's an anthology, not a single document (though the thematic consistency is remarkable for such a work), and its purpose is largely a handbook for right living; claiming that knowledge of the whole it patently necessary for utilizing knowledge of only part of it is a bit like claiming that anyone who didn't read their textbooks cover-to-cover didn't really finish any of their classes, and certainly can't reference any of the chapters they did read.
- However the posters point is still valid as someone who has never actually read a verse in context and is just quoting it from a pamphlet has no real idea what they are talking about, and should at least take the time to read the darn chapter of the bible a verse they're quoting comes from. All too often they dont even do that.
"Looking For Alaska" caused controversy because the youths in the story have sex. The author John Green pointed out that the their attempt at sex is deliberately detached and disastrous as the youths have no idea what they are doing or how they should be feeling, and that there was an obvious contrast to how close the youths felt when they merely talked. Green asked the Moral Guardians if they had even read the book, to which they responded "you don't have to have cancer to diagnose cancer".
People on this very wiki often throw around the "evil pacifists" argument concerning The Sword Of Truth series. They nearly always portray the scene as if the protagonist sees a bunch of pacifists and decides to slaughter them, something that ANYONE who has read the book knows didn't happen.
- Not that there isn't a Wall Banger there, just that's it didn't happen that way. This is actually a melding of events in the 5th book and 8th book. They aren't quite "evil", but still portrayed as just as bad.
An extreme example is the reaction to Salman Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses. It caused immense rage among Muslims. They had't read the book: it wasn't even translated to Arabic, Urdu, Persian or other languages most Muslims could read and it was never published or even sold in the countries where most Muslims lived. Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran issued a fatwa, calling for the death of Rushdie. He hadn't read the book, either.
Some people complain a lot about fantasy books, but are fans of the film version of TheShining and enjoyed watching the Hearts in Atlantis movie adaptation: stories about psychic people taking place in a Verse of trans-dimensionnal gun-wielding magic-knights... ahem
When Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago was published abroad, Soviet critics quickly started to bash the novel, advocated for Pasternak's expulsion from the USSR and even called him a "pig". The ironic part was that none of those critics could possibly read the book because it was not published in the USSR. This incident led to the creation of a popular Russian sarcastic joke: "I didn't read [Pasternak's novel], but I condemn it!" This joke saying has survived in Russia to the present day, and is often invoked when one needs to invoke this trope.
His Dark Materials - remember when the Golden Compass movie came out? Yeah... Many people decried the books as evil terrible things, usually citing that God is portrayed as a "bad guy" and that in the last book they killed God. Almost none of these people ever read the books. If they had read them with anything resembling an open mind they most likely would have found that it was a bit more complex than that.
A Christian review site featured a review of 300 that described it as anti-Christian. It also rambled on about how Frank Miller portrayed religious people negatively in Sin City and how he must think ALL religion is fundie. However, the critic admitted to never reading a single Miller comic in his life.

Close Literature

Upon learning that Celebrity Wrestling would be up against Doctor Who, one of the competitors said that she'd never seen the show, never heard of Daleks, but thought that they were stupid, stupid, stupid.
On the other hand, there seem to be people on The Doctor Who Forum who do it the other way, dismissing the entire Reality TV genre (without distinguishing between Reality TV shows and Talent Shows, and, sometimes, Game Shows).
- Fans who came in with the new series flaunting their ignorance about the old series. "All the old companions were screamers and needed to be rescued by the Doctor" [Barbara, Zoe, Liz, Sarah, Leela, Romana, and Ace might have something to say about that.] "The changing of history wasn't questioned before the new series" (Of course! Hartnell's Doctor never, ever mentions this, nor does Barbara, or Sarah Jane, or...) And then there are the people who call the show "Russell T. Davies' Doctor Who." (Sydney and Verity... who?)
- Then, of course, there's the exact opposite. The old series fans who hate the new series for all the predictable reasons, minus the burden of actually watching it. Doctor Who fans seem to hate their own fandom more than just about any other groups.
  - Considering that when series Five airs in 2010 it will be the combined 31st series of Doctor Who, it is not surprising that the fans can't agree on anything. (Except that we want a TARDIS!)
- Torchwood, with its "often Doctor Who badfic premise", gets subjected to this trope a lot.
Every criticism of Myth Busters seems to be "OH LOLZ THEY JUST PUT MOAR EXPLOSIVES ON IT. ITZ DULL."
- "They don't use real science." Here's a XKCD rebuttal.
- For a subgroup of the people who hate "that they aren't doing real science" the problem is really that the voice-over makes it sound like they think they are.
  - It's the consequence of trying to get good ratings. Non-scientifically inclined people might be watching the show because they think it's scientific, so the voice-over has to sell it as such, and hope that more scientific people will either take it as tongue-in-cheek or not even notice much of a science theme. The ones that don't will instead change the channel quickly, and fall into this trope.
  - A lot of these accusations of improper method probably derive from the fact that they don't show their repeat experiments because it would be boring, leading people to assume that they just do the test once and call it a day. For example, they apparently did the Blind Driver test about 10 times, but only one made it into the final cut.
- Wait, more explosives is supposed to be a bad thing?
Donald A. Wildmon, who tried to promote a boycott of a PBS documentary that had not yet aired and that he had never seen: it was about black men and HIV, and he had heard that it was insufficiently condemnatory of homosexuality. Similarly, he tried to organize a boycott against the short-lived Norman Lear series Sunday Dinner before it premiered: he had heard that it had a character who called God "The Chief" (and what's even wrong with that? Surely Wildmon doesn't believe God is anyone's subordinate.)
One of the Moral Guardians who got in a flap over the Brass Eye 2001 special received some well-deserved flak and ridicule when she admitted she'd not actually seen it. Especially as part of the complaint was about the show being repeated the following night (when, thanks to the moral outrage, it won the timeslot handily) which would have given her and others ample opportunity to see it had they missed it the first time round. There were also a few people criticizing the show in general, especially the random masturbation skit, when they admitted they didn't want to see it.
A curious number of people are turned off by Buffy The Vampire Slayer without having ever seen an episode — is it the name? Do people who finally give it a shot end up seeing the worst episodes ("Teacher's Pet," "Inca Mummy Girl," etc.) and never look back? Or is it because they see it as a chick show? Or is it Hype Aversion?
- Some of it was people thinking (not unreasonably) that it would be like the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is a comedy...
- Many people love Firefly but have never seen Buffy or Angel. All these series have a similar "Joss Whedon" style, smoothly blending dark drama, action, and comedy. But Firefly is fairly hard Sci Fi; Buffy and Angel are fantasy because of their vampires (among other things). People who got into Firefly without being Joss Whedon fans were often hard sci-fi fans and thus were unlikely to lower themselves to watch vampire fantasy. Especially if it might be silly vampire fantasy.
- These people would probably be surprised to learn that there have been whole books written about the philosophy of Buffy. Look up "Buffy studies" on The Other Wiki.
- ~~Obligatory Penny Arcade~~ Real Life Comics link.
  - Because as we all know, a creator responsible for one good thing can never be responsible for anything bad, ever, no matter what.
An inordinate number of Power Rangers fans who have, over the years, been introduced to the source material, Super Sentai, show an illogical hatred for season 20, Gekisou Sentai Carranger, based entirely off the hearsay of others who have also never seen the season. Thankfully though, 2008's season Engine Sentai Go-onger is well-loved, and so stylistically similar to Carranger that the naysayers are being forced to shut up.
Professional Wrestling, naturally, gets a lot of heat from people who loudly declare that they would not be caught dead watching 5 seconds of an episode of SmackDown. Most of these people just love to whip out the "WRESTLING IS FAKE AND THEREFORE YOU ARE TEH STUPID FOR LIKING IT." excuse, despite the fact that going by that logic, people would be stupid to watch/read any piece of fictional work. Making it ironic that smarks themselves (ROH fans definitely included) are not immune to this trope, can be this way with taping spoilers (since unless they're there they'll only see the edited version on TV or the Internet).
- So the strategy for any a-hole wrestling fans hit by this: wait until that person watches something fictional, and slip in a "that's all fake, you know".
- Many MMA (who've only seen UFC) want nothing to do with wrestling. They show this by having a professional wrestler have their heavyweight title.
Heroes appears to get a lot of flack post season-1 from people who aren't even watching it (or claim to have stopped watching it in season 2.) Your mileage may vary. The complaint heard in one corner of the Internet is that the show is too keen on Women In Refrigerators, having killed or put on a bus all the female leads (Of the two remaining, one had a bridge dropped on her, coming back as a new character that's now being tortured, and the other is invulnerable to death.)
- Hereos Wiki actually has a list. Please note that both male and female sections are about the same length. Also note that the most-abused character, by far, is Peter Petrelli.
Any TV show will eventually spawn its own thread on any frequented forum on the Internet. However should the show not live up to the hype, the thread will degenerate into "oh I never watch the show, I just heard it sucks". See Troll.
As soon as it was announced that Battlestar Galactica would be remade and rebooted, fans of the original 1978 version were up in arms about how it was terrible and would suck, simply because it was not what they wanted, a continuation of the old show. Many of them comment on episode reviews, admitting to having not watched the show, and still criticizing it, up until the very last season. Their nickname for the show, "GINO (Galactica In Name Only)," was worked into the show with a character called Gina (who was tortured and raped repeatedly, but it probably wasn't a Take That).
Many people dismiss 24 as unrealistic and contrived. Right up until they actually watch an episode.
To many people who have never seen more than a promo or ad for it, it would seem that Supernatural is "that show with the pretty guys and the car." Uh...yeah.
Many of the people who claim Enterprise broke from Star Trek canon seem to have never actually watched the episodes of the show that feature these supposed breaks.
Dollhouse is an odd, partially-justified example, in that the first few episodes, while far from terrible, weren't up to the standard many people had hoped for. After a big chunk of the audience had given up, it got a LOT better, but by then the haters were set on attacking the entire premise of the show, and refusing to give it another chance even when the fans admitted the start was bad.
Several people have bashed Farscape, despite never seeing an episode or only tuning in to the... less good episodes (Jeremiah Crichton, Meltdown), and many have mocked it on the supposed basis of "it's Muppets in space!". Others are turned off because the aliens are a lot more... well, alien than those seen on other sci-fi shows. Others determine that it has to be bad purely on the basis that it was cancelled, in spite of the fact that this happens far too often to great TV shows. Also, when it first came out, some dismissed it as a Star Trek ripoff. Most people who have these views change their mind after actually giving the show a chance.
Dead Set got this treatment a lot when it was first shown (and probably still gets it, to be honest). Several people derided the show's premise of Big Brother + zombies, some due to a dislike of the former and snobbery towards the horror genre (with many referring to it as "stupid" and "cringeworthy", despite having never seen it), and others wrote it off as a parody. Others were also turned off by the prospect of Davina McCall playing herself. Most people who gave the show a chance, however, saw just how much better it is than it sounds, how, although it does have its satirical moments, it is far from a parody, and how Davina was surprisingly good at playing a zombified version of herself.

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The entire Emo subculture (and also Goth) is bashed and ridiculed everywhere on the net, to the point where "emo" has become a curse word. How many of those people have actually know what Emo is about? It's about a certain genre of music. Not cutting yourself, wearing black eyeshadow, and generally looking like the suicide prevention poster-child. Most music that gets called "emo" nowadays isn't even actual emo. Complaining about music you don't listen to, indeed.
- The Linkin Park song Crawling, specifically its Narmy chorus, is frequently used to mock Emos, and the group has somehow gained a reputaion as an emo band. They're technically nu-metal.
- To be fair, this is a bit like people complaining when the word "hacker" is used to describe someone who maliciously subverts computer security. Yes, it's good to know the word has an original, somewhat different meaning, but these days, the word emo does not conjure this up for most people.
- If a song isn't hardcore, blood-and-guts death metal with guitar-incinerating solos AND a drum track that could not logically be played by the entire band working together, let alone one guy, it's "faggy emo garbage" and nobody should ever listen to it.
Not to mention that a lot of singers and bands now considered "classic" were once labeled "Pop" (or the era's equivalent) and looked upon with disdain by the "sophisticated" listeners: The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Elvis Presley ...in fact, the entire genres of Rock and Roll and Jazz were once considered "passing fads" by the Establishment and it was sanctimoniously declared that they would "fade in a few years". Shows how much they knew. Then again, a lot of the supposed "pop" artists above aren't pop, and don't sound like utter shit.
- Although, Rock and Roll nearly did die out during the latter portion of the 50's and into the very early 60's. Listen to novelty songs like "Purple People Eater" among others and you can hear a genre on its last leg. What saved it? The British Invasion.
Punk rock. Detractors claim that musically you need no talent for it other than three power chords and shouting into a microphone. Completely false, of course. Punk was always more focused on the energy of the performance and lyrics that were relative to people's lives. Only metal and Electronica can reach Punk in its influence; just look at bands like The Clash, The Sex Pistols and the Ramones; Rolling Stone even called the Ramones the second most influential group in history, after of course the Beatles. Most original detractors were seen as fans of progressive rock bands, and later on metal fans. Many believe punk was a reaction to what was seen as the 'over indulgent' and 'masturbatory' rock of bands like Pink Floyd, Rush and Genesis, which of course isn't fair either. Both genres have their own merits.
- Punk needs defending far less than progressive rock does, though, and it does swing both ways - progressive rock is sneered at as being irrelevant, overindulgent and elitist by a lot of punks. You'll find far more detractors of progressive rock than punk rock.
Heavy Metal, most detractors say that it's "just noise", having listened to virtually none of it. German power metal groups are a good bet, they steal, er, lift so much from actual classical music you might say some ARE just playing baroque or romantic with 'heavier' instruments and a faster tempo. Some of Helloween and Hammerfall would qualify. For a stateside-but-German-in-heart example, Jagdpanzer, especially Cold of the Blade and All Things Renewed. About 25-30% of the content swings towards UK metal however, depending on album.
- Never mind Power Metal, there's the entire sub-genre of 'Symphonic Metal'. An extreme example of this would be Haggard (from Germany, surprise surprise), a 16 person band which includes timpani drums, oboe, clarinet, flute, piano (REAL piano, not keyboards), violins, viola, cello, double bass. It's a chamber orchestra... with electric guitars/bass and a regular metal style drums mixed in, and growled death/doom metal style vocals (also soprano and tenor clean vocals). Lyrics are primarily about historical figures, like Galileo, in a variety of languages, German, English, Italian, Latin, a smidgeon of French.... Not 'just noise' by any stretch, it's heavily researched and the classical parts are very authentic sounding and well done. A good one to bring out when someone makes the 'just noise' argument.
  - Arguing that many metal bands incorporate classical elements into their music as a means of defending the genre does not defend the genre, since there are still metal bands that don't. (That goes double if the person you're trying to defend it to has heard modern classical; recent classical compositions sometimes incorporate metal elements.) Metal is a valid genre. Many people who claim to dislike it as a genre misunderstand what the artists in question are trying to achieve. Some metal bands are trying to create a dark atmosphere; some are trying to experiment; some are trying to sound aggressive. Mainstream pop music generally avoids doing any of these.
- Countless fans of chart pop and pop rap think all metal is death metal. Some think all metal is "loud drums and screaming." At least one person has argued that Dream Theater and Metallica aren't metal bands.
When Metallica had first released the single "Ain't my Bitch" it garnered quite a lot of criticism from Woman's Rights Activists for being misogynistic, despite not being about women at all.
- See also: Nirvana's "Rape Me", Matchbox Twenty's "Push", and The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up".
  - Stone Temple Pilots' "Sex Type Thing". While the song is obviously about rape ("I know you want what's on my mind"), most people completely failed to realize it was condemning the act, not condoning it. A college radio station in Omaha, Nebraska did a parody on an afternoon show shortly afterward where the "station manager" sang a song called "I", about the musings of a pedophile. Not a whole lot of listeners got the joke.
- This is particularly apparent in the music video for "Smack My Bitch Up", which would seemingly be first-person perspective on a misogynist's night out... until it's revealed that the viewpoint perspective is actually that of a woman.
  - Women can be and often are misogynistic. Whether through indoctrination or just because they're jerks, it does happen and it is troubling.
  - Except when a woman does it, it's "empowering".
  - Funnily enough, the chorus is taken from a De La Soul song in which it is stated that they "never did it".
Most people who claim electronic and/or video game music is just bloop-bleep-type noises haven't heard any of it since the eighties, it seems.
- True. The relative simplicity of 80s Electronica like the Detroit techno scene and most importantly the gods that are Kraftwerk have revolutionized music. Many people also claim that making electronic music is derivative and simple to do, requiring little talent; one just has to look at Aphex Twin, the Prodigy, Leftfield, Autechre, Boards of Canada and countless others to quieten that. Even the basic Dance music you get in clubs is enjoyable and perfect for dancing to (hence the name).
- The correct title for Pac Man Fever noises is actually Chiptunes, so go ejumacate some mofos! Alternatively, show them what REAL noise is by introducing them to Winterkalte and Merzbow.
Could someone please tell me what the hell Country music is and why the hell everyone hates it? No one seems to be able to explain this to me.
- That's easy. Country Music is what's marketed by its label as Country Music. The good stuff with all the same relevant musical qualities is almost invariably labeled something like "bluegrass" or "folk." Nashville has brought this upon itself.
- For the stereotype that most people are claiming to hate, think people singing in a nasal whine accompanied by twangy guitar playing covering subjects like "my girl done left me and took my dog" and "I love my truck/tractor." As a genre, it seems to be associated mostly with the South and the Midwestern regions of the U.S. despite apparently being the most popular style of music in the nation according to a recent survey.
  - Yes, the stereotype is prevalent, and it seems to be the only description non-fans have any knowledge of. Check the Rock Band forums' thread on the newly released Country songs and you'll see such comments as "inbred hillbilly twangy crap" and "this ain't Banjo and Jug Band". The hate seems to be primarily subjective "I don't like it, it's not like what I listen to" as opposed to any objective judge of quality. On the up side, Rock Band's inclusion of Country may go a long way toward knocking down some of these barriers, as it forces people to really pay attention to music at a deeper level than we normally do.
  - Speaking of the Rock Band forums, there is a baffling amount of musically elitist regulars there that insist that Rush is not and was never a progressive rock band. Ironically, one particular member posted a list of "60 progressive bands to listen to before you die," that included Jethro Tull, a band that went from blues rock in the 60s to progressive rock in the 70s to a synth driven sound in the 80s to hard rock in the 90s. Rush went from hard rock in the early 70s to progressive in the late 70s and to a synth driven sound in the 80s to hard rock in the 90s and back to a progressive sound with Snakes & Arrows.
  - Five words: Johnny Cash Transcends All Boundaries.
  - The other problem with country music is not the sound, but the common subject matter: God, country, and rednecks.
  - Strangely, when Cliff Huxtable asked one of his kids why she didn't like blues, the reason she gave was the "my wife left me, my friends me, my dog left me" stereotype associated with Country.
- Suprisingly, Country music is very close to Hip-Hop and rap. From lyrics and subjects (both choosing from the list: being lower class, women, and how good it is to be a singer) to the emphasis on rhythmn and simple repeated melodies. However, most fans of either genre despise the other.
Leonard Cohen is often described as writing "music to slit your wrists by;" his songs are dismissed as pointlessly maudlin, self-indulgent, repetitive and too depressing to be enjoyed by anybody save the chronically suicidal and pretentious artsy sorts. This fails to take into consideration the moments of genuine evangelium in his work - the chorus of Anthem is a beautiful thing - and the sheer beauty of his language. Certainly, his songs can be poignant and melancholy - but any critic who actually took the time to listen to his music rather than just repeating what everybody else says would realize that it is art. </filibuster>
- A similar misconception seems to surround the work of Nick Drake. The manner of his death (antidepressant overdose at age 26) causes many to assume that everything he wrote was relentlessly depressing, ignoring lighter songs like "Man In a Shed" or "One of These Things First." Overall, his work would be better described as wistful, rather than utterly melancholy.
Perhaps the biggest problem about the "OMG U'S MUSIC SUCK. U SUCK" wars is the fact that people cannot accept that other people have different taste. If one person doesn't like Metal, some fans will say "Pfff, go listen to some good metal. Then we'll talk." Ignorance is another problem. Emo music is called blasphemous just because of all the "OMG. I CANT GO TO MCR AND MY CAPS BAR IS BROKEN. I'LL JUST CUT RIGHT NOW" kids. And, artist like Miley Cyrus. Another problem is people take publicity over substance over the artist. So, Britney accidentally tripped and tore her dress off, "She sucks and is a horrible role model." One punk band says they don't like some British rock artist, "Go *** all of yourselves." Frankly, it's messy out there. So many flame wars started because of ridiculous reasons.
Robert Bork, when ranting about socially corrosive modern music, referred to Nine Inch Nails as a rap group. Among other errors.
Hip Hop/Rap music. The people I've heard say "Rap is Crap" or that it's all about money and street violence and sex generally can't name 5 rap artists off the top of their head. What's more, is that they see a mainstream video or listen to 5 seconds of a track on the radio and make broad generalizations. Lil Wayne and 50 Cent are not the only rappers out there people.
- Not to mention that there seems to be a huge double standard a lot of people have towards the rap genre. Sweet Cherry Pie is fine because it's a lame double entendre, but how dare those rappers call girls bitches! And back during the Cop Killer controversy (more of a mix of rap and heavy metal, but still), a lot of people where asking why Bob Marley's classic "I Shot the Sheriff" is okay, yet when Ice-T says "Fuck police brutality!" it's bad.
Here's a fun drinking game: Go to any "Ask A Question" type forum. Ask "Why, exactly, does Disco Suck?" Chug every time someone answers in a way that doesn't boil down to "Because it does."
Classic music is one of the most popular victims of this trope. So many people complain that it is 'boring', but never heard a single note of classical music beyond Canon in D+.

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On Magic The Gathering rumour sites, there is a period of time between when the first fragment of a hint about a new set is discovered and when, well, actual information appears. During this time, fans will extrapolate the entire set from what information they have (usually the name, the logo, and a short paragraph that exists for marketing purposes and essentially reveals nothing) and then complain vocally that it is the worst set to date.
- There is a popular anecdote of "Wizards [of the coast] could put 50 dollars bills in the packs and people would complain they were folded wrong"
A similar attitude prevails on Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer40k forums - no matter how much information is available, it is immediately assumed that the next release will be a total flop, with horrible models and broken rules.
Stick around long enough on a forum for Magic The Gathering or another high end Collectible Card Game and you'll inevitably run into blind hate for the Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokémon games. Granted, these games are simplistic and riddled with balance issues, but the standard forum poster, in a desperate attempt to prove he's one of the cool kids, will unleash a flurry of "THE GAMES SUCK AND ARE FOR KIDS I CANT BELIEVE YOU LIKE THEM" even if the person he's lashing out at IS a kid.
The backlash for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons was so great that even before it was officially announced, just the rumors set fans to screaming about how bad it was going to be. When it was released, yet more fans screamed about how terrible it was without even cracking open the Player's Handbook. Of course, there are plenty who say it was bad even after reading the handbooks, but that's another story.
- To this day (six months after release), there are complaints on the official boards about rules not actually in the book.
  - It is widely believed that the core books were put on The Pirate Bay before release date (in excellent quality, no less) in order to fight the negative press. This was, of course, officially denied. Once people had seen it, many opinions became positive.
- A lot of complaints were raised about the changes made to the Forgotten Realms D&D setting for the 4th Edition of the game, because the setting was picked apart based on complaints of this sort, rather than listening to the fans who actually played in the setting.
- Roughly two thirds of the criticisms of both D&D 4e and 4e FR come from people who obviously have neither read nor played the new edition.
  - Roughly three thirds of the defenses for those criticism are accusations that fans of the older systems haven't read the books. It couldn't possibly be that the previous three and a half iterations followed a logical path, with 4th spiraling off into crazy land.
  - Well, of course. If you've read 4e and still hate it, then there's no reason to defend it against you. You know what you like.
  - Similar arguments were made on 3rd and 3.5th edition. A flamewar broke out once about how D&D of that timeframe was nothing but hack & slash, and gave no reward for RP. The trick being, of course, that RP was actually a better source of XP in most cases: by rules, XP came about by defeating an obstacle, not necessarily in combat. A fight with a dragon could take the better part of a night; fast-talking him could take maybe ten minutes, net the experience and possibly the key bits of the dragon's hoard to boot.
GURPS seems to be often accused of being too complicated or math-heavy by non-players. This is particularly aggravated by the fact that character creation "front-loads" many calculations, such as the infamous (ST^2)/5 calculation of weightlifting ability. However, once the smoke clears, it becomes a rather smooth experience, with rather uniform, intuitive mechanics applied to most gaming activities (no splitting different types of points; most rolls are done in the same way etc.). Of course, there's truth in television: there are special-interest supplements (especially the old Vehicles) for the math-obsessed.

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When Jesus Christ Superstar was first performed, it suffered a huge backlash, mostly from people who hadn't even seen the show. Which isn't at all anti-Christian.
- Ending the story at the crucifixion, without continuing to the resurrection, is a big deal and can be offensive (as it could imply that Jesus stayed dead).
- Some productions are (perhaps inadvertently) pro-Christian. At least one version makes it obvious that Jesus was the messiah and that Judas was wrong. It sort of ruined the sympathy that Judas otherwise might have gotten for trying to end poverty and free his people instead of just "waiting for heaven."
Godspell, for the same reason as above, which makes it clear many of those people didn't see it. In spite of the fact that the resurrection is not overtly depicted, the music is clearly intended to suggest it (it's an overlay of "Long Live God" with "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord," for heaven's sake!) and the point of the musical is the focus on Jesus's relationship with his disciples during his earthly teachings, not to be a passion play. It also takes flack for its use of clown imagery, even though the show includes a scene where Christ gently removes the clown makeup from the faces of his followers... which you would have to have seen it to know.

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The most egregious case ever was in the case "Interactive Digital Software Association vs St. Louis County" on June 14th, 2002, when Judge Stephen Limbaugh of St. Louis, Missouri declared that video games were not speech and not protected by the first amendment based off a video of four games, two of which were misnamed ("Resident of Evil Creek" and "Mortal Combat").
This trope is very commonly done with most haters. Pick a genre. Now pick a popular game from that genre to represent it. Now while the genres will play somewhat similar at least to that game, a very common argument is to cite that every single game in the genre is not only similar to that popular game representative, but an exact clone. Clearly, people who use this argument Did Not Do The Research.
There are three categories of games that will always get several complaints from non players: casual-based games for not appealing to the hardcore demographic, EA games for being rip-offs or copies from other games, and games with DRM for taking away some people's 'rights'. The problem: casual games are often fun for all kinds of people, some EA games are often not rip-offs at all but will still be treated as so from EA's reputation, and DRM rarely affects games. The worst part about DRM is that, in nearly every case, the people themselves never had a problem with it but heard other people did, which is especially jarring as most of those cases are from older games, and DRMs such as recent SecuROM and Starforce version stopped causing problems some time ago.
- Your Milage May Vary for the other parts but This Troper invokes Critical Research Failure for the DRM part. By the way, getting your legs chopped off also 'rarely affects games' but still isn't the nicest thing to ask of your customers to help fighting a problem that either DRM is obviously unable to handle (as pirates still can enjoy the game without DRM, more often then not before the actual customers) or arguably there was never a problem in the first place.
- Agree on Critical Research Failure. See the Spore debacle for example, which _is_ a recent Secu ROM version, and very clearly was causing problems since EA eventually backed down on some of the more egregious limitations.
- Arguably the older ways were less crippling. You had the full game. Now all you needed to do was make sure you didn't misplace the manual. Oh gads, Hodj & Podj, how must ye taunt me?
The Fox News interview segment about Mass Effect.
- Which turned on itself, as the community was more interested in bashing Fox News than the segment, the author or the opinions. Fox News has so much obvious strawmanning about its bias that it fits into this trope like a glove.
- This is doubly ironic because Jack Thompson himself came out defending the game.
Doom and every one of its sequels have always drawn a huge amount of criticism from religious groups, sometimes including baffling claims that the hero summons demons, uses Satanic powers and is trying to kill people. That the hero is, in fact, actually fighting the forces of Hell and trying to save the world, giving the game an (admittedly violent) anti-Satanic theme, never seems to get mentioned.
The CD-i Zelda games seem to have suffered this fate. Since nobody or their dog owns a CD-i, most everybody knows the games through other people's opinions - with the majority opinion being they never happened. Nevertheless, there exist some advocates on its behalf.
- This may be true for the gameplay, but the cutscenes, where the true So Bad Its Horrible (or So Bad Its Good) lies, are floating around the Internet.
- And, due to its halted development and scarcity of production, far more people know of Nintendo's Virtual Boy than have actually used one.
  - To be fair, it didn't even get enough games to really make a splash that way, so most people have only the rumours. And then there was that one story about the redness staying in your vision...
Daikatana. When almost every negative review concentrated on the first level and on the 'John Romero will make you his bitch' "scandal", and every average-positive review actually talked about the game in depth.
Some People actually won't touch any Dragon Quest game, Chrono Trigger, or even Blue Dragon because guess what? "OMG THAT IS DRAGON BALL Z AND DRAGON BALL Z IS BAD!!!!". Apparently, Akira Toriyama really traumatized a lot of people, so much that everything he even does the art for is Dragon Ball Z.
World of Warcraft is a HUGE example of this. When you go on an online community, you are most likely to find near instant World of Warcraft hatred. And guess what? If you asked most of the vocal anti World Of Warcraft people if they tried it, a lot of the time you won't actually get a response saying they played it. Instead, you'll get a story about one person who they "lost" because they abandoned them to play the game full time - Because they hear stories about the minority who actually ARE addicted to the game, they immediately assume that's what every person is like when there are a lot of "casual" gamers who don't play 40 hours a week.
- This is a trend with MMOGs in general... Before World of Warcraft there was nothing but Ever Quest hate and then Ragnarok Online hate and Quake and Counter Strike. Nowadays there's Call of Duty, Team Fortress 2, and Halo 3.
If you aren't throwing yourself over Kingdom Hearts like it's a gift of god to mankind...then you're absolutely trashing it and hating it like it murdered your family in a very brutal way. And you don't even need to guess that a LOT of those people who hate it and say it should not have been born haven't even gone within a mile of the game.
- Same with any sequel to Final Fantasy VII. Especially Crisis Core.
Super Smash Bros, specifically Brawl before the US release. "Brawl sucks because the roster is stupid!" "ZOMG ROB WASTED A SLOT HE'S THE WORST CHARACTER IN THE GAME" etc. On the competitive side it's even worse. "ZOMG LET'S RATE WHO'S THE BEST CHARACTERS IN A GAME WE'VE NEVER PLAYED", "BRAWL WILL NOT BE COMPETITIVE. I KNOW THIS NOT FROM EXPERIENCE, BUT BECAUSE IT'S NOT MELEE, WHICH IS A GAME I HAVE PLAYED."
- You forgot: "NEW STAGES? CUSTOM STAGES? FINAL SMASHES? LOTS OF NEW CONTENT? SCREW YOU. NO ITEMS, FOX ONLY, FINAL DESTINATION!"
- It got much, much worse after Yahtzee savaged the game in his review (well, technically he only complained about the game for thirty seconds, the rest of the video was devoted to bashing the fans who he said were going to react negatively). After that, half the people on The Escapist forums were bashing SSBB, and most of them had literally nothing to say about the game that weren't copied and pasted from the transcript of Yahtzee's video. Apparently Yahtzee's FanDumb didn't watch certain parts of his review which he explained that "he's not a fan of the fighting game genre".
- The comments above themselves are proof that people do not care at all about the fighting game community, and instead take any chance when they hear of a tier list to yell that all they play is Final Destination. Also, the "tiers don't exist" crowd.
Most of the people who insist that Pokémon in general sucked after the first generation are those that haven't actually given much attention to the releases since the fad died down,
- The franchise tends to be 'tainted' by the kiddy image given off by the anime. The games themselves, however, can be played on lots of different levels. Competitive battling requires lots of work, knowledge and prediction skills to achieve even competence.
  - While we're on the subject of the anime, guess how many that complain that the anime sucked after Misty left even bothered to watch those episodes? Or at least enough episodes to form an honest opinion? Nostalgia Filter, indeed.
The much-loathed Sonic 2006 has shown up on many "WORST GAMES EVAR" lists made by people who admit they're only going by "what everyone else says." Granted, you can justify this by saying, "Hey, what with all the tales and videos floating around, you don't have to play the game to know how bad it is!" Or maybe...
- It probably isn't as bad as its reputation (Then again, that probably applies to all the 3D Sonic games), and there aren't any Unexpected Genre Shifts, but the game suffers from both camera and control issues from the previous Sonic games. Not to mention the fact that you spend almost as much time in loading screens as actually playing.
- The camera in SA 2 would like to have a word with you about that reputation thing.
- Speaking of Sonic, The Black Knight nearly instantly became the subject of hate, ridicule and certainty that it would kill off the Sonic franchise for good, simply because Sonic was pictured with a sword. It makes you wonder how the fans would react if Mario was wielding a sword instead...
- ZOMG MARIO IS RUINED 4EVER!!◊
  - Reviewers who review Sonic games are also accused of this. It all started when the IGN reviewer had only unlocked the achievement for completing the first continent on Sonic Unleashed. He later stated that he did beat the game, but it was an incomplete version, he then played the first few levels of the completed version for comparison. None of his critics were convinced by this logic. It happened a second time at IGN with Sonic and the Black Knight, where the reviewers claimed to have beaten the game in only 2 hours, and didn't bother to play any of the extra missions, because they weren't interested. But that caused the fans to wonder if he had really beaten the game, or simply unlocked the bad ending, and didn't bother to see the final story.
  - Appearently, reviewers not finishing the games they are reviewing is actually a widespread practice, which is supported by some sites, like Kotaku, who state they make sure to complete games before reviewing.
It's even worse on The Escapist forums. Even mention Japanese RPGs in any context whatsoever, and you'll have several people quoting lines from Yahtzee's JRPG-bashing reviews in response, even those that say (proudly) that they've never touched a JRPG. Which is sort in line with his review of The World Ends With You, where he acts like he knows everything about JRPGs, despite saying that he has almost never actually played any (for example, he complained that all of the characters were cookie cutter stereotypes, when most of the characters in said game are nothing like the average JRPG cast). Though in the same review he admitted he had no idea if it was a good JRPG as many of the things he hated about it are what fans of the genre love, but that it was original with an interesting aesthetic with decent combat and thus he supposed it would be considered very good for its intended audience. Even by all of his JRPG hating standards he still stated (albeit at the end of the review) that TWEWY was an OK game, considering his pessimistic game rating system any normal person could replace that "OK" with a "good" or even a "great". Not that most of his fans listened, they watch his reviews for bashing and listen to nothing else.
- But of course, Yahtzee told them to hate it. So therefore, they hate it.
- Some people are complaining about Final Fantasy XIII coming to the 360 because "The Final Fantasy has always been for Sony consoles", because Nintendo apparently didn't exist until after Final Fantasy VII.
  - And people who actually did do the research would know that there was this game on the PC called "Final Fantasy VII", and that Final Fantasy has been on the MSX and wonderswan.
Wii Music was the subject of much vitriolic rage from the more hardcore Fan Dumb elements of Nintendo's audience long before it came out. Perhaps it was representative of a rejection of Nintendo's recent turn towards the "casual" market, but it's hard to claim that Wii Music wasn't a whipping boy for people who had, and who would never play it.
- Proving this trope was when EGM/1UP gave the game an A-. Many complained at the high score they felt the game didn't deserve and that the reviewer was biased or simply had no idea what he was talking about. Except the review came out at least a few days before the game was officially released, thus they were calling the game crap when they still could not have played it.
- Wii Fit has the exact same problem. The subject of intense mockery upon its announcement, it has gone on to be the best-selling console game of this generation. Most of the people complaining about it as "the cancer killing gaming!!!!!" have never touched it.
Fighting games are a very common example of this trope. People will play a game against their friend or once in the arcade, lose badly, and declare it a "button masher". Especially common with games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with a punishing learning curve.
While arguing for an AO rating for Killer7, Jack Thompson parroted lines from IGN's review concerning "cinematics that feature full-blown sex sequences". Nevermind the fact that there are NO full-blown sex sequences in the game and only one rather tame and nudity-free scene with sex at all, what's truly mind-boggling is that that same review said Killer 7's M really meant M. Of course it logically follows that a game that truly earned an M should be given a different rating.
- Not to mention his attack on Bully before ANYONE knew anything about it besides the title.
  - This was used against him by a gamer that decided to see if they could get him worked up over The Sims. He simply sent him an e-mail describing all sorts of graphic elements that don't actually exist in the game. True to form, Jack started up another media frenzy over The Sims before he realized he'd been had.
Watch videos on gametrailers.com and you'll start to realize just how many posts are by fanboys of consoles a given game isn't coming out on saying random stuff that rarely, if ever, relates the the game.
Most Trolls do this, but as stated in the troll article more experienced trolls actually do find out about what they make fun of in order to add insult to injury by figuring out what complaints really piss people off.
Controversy erupted when Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine assigned the review of the GBA racing game Karnaaj Rally to guest reviewer and Internet comedian Seanbaby, who bashed the game based solely on its Contemptible Cover without bothering to play it. Other reviews of the game found its actual content above-average or better.
Nintendo and its "kiddie company" reputation.
Any game of Japanese origin is instantly flagged as being the same as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest when they clearly have been trying new things and have actually been exploring new ground with their stories, and games like Katamari Damacy clearly have nothing in common with games like Final Fantasy except that maybe their creators passed each other on the street once.
- And in contrast, any game that's NOT of Japanese origin is instantly flagged as a Halo or Elder Scrolls clone when Gears Of War has very little in common with Halo and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic clearly has as much in common with Morrowind as a cantaloupe does with watermelon.
Some people think that Ocarina of Time is a simple gme that can be finished in two afternoons and thus is not worth starting.
"X console has no games" - This argument is applied to almost every console in recent memory, despite the fact that there are easily a lot of games on each system if people do their research which they might enjoy...
- On a related point: X game is the only thing worth playing on Y company's Z console. X usually stands for Halo, Gears of War, Final Fantasy or Zelda.
Crash Bandicoot receives this treatment a lot. Ever since Naughty Dog quit developing the games, people all over the Internet have been saying "LOL CRASH SUX NAO!" but most of those people haven't actually played any post PS 1 era Crash games and are just complaining because the new games look different from the originals.
Some people refuse to pick up and play Super Mario Galaxy because they seem to think that the entire game revolves around running on spherical planets that it's impossible to fall off. This is only true for the first couple of zones, afterward there are plenty of endless voids and black holes to fall into.
Tropers cite entries to new twists and revelations in Soul Calibur 4, except many were already revealed in Soul Calibur Legends a year earlier. It wasn't a masterpiece, but some people who actually played the game found it fun while it lasted.
A wonderful example of this can be found on the Guild Wars Guru forums, where, if the posters themselves are to be believed, about half the people in the Riverside Inn (General Discussion) board are people who quit the game as long as a year ago, yet still read (and complain very loudly) about the updates just for kicks. It's uncommon to see a popular RI thread without at least 5 posts beginning with "This is why I quit the game __ ______s ago..." and a post or two replying with "Well why are you still posting here???"
When Game Trailers made a list of the best and worst games ever, Zero Wing was rated the fifth or sixth worst game ever. The reason? Its opening cinematic has a bad translation. The short review never even mentioned how it plays or other such inconsequental details.
A congressman who shall remain anonymous for privacy purposes clearly Did Not Do The Research in his opposition to the FMV game Night Trap. He had said that the game was horrible and encouraged the player to capture, rape, and kill women. When asked if he even played it, he responded "I don't need to!".
- If you had seen the "Dangerous Games" documentary you can see a creator of Night Trap was actually told this by that congressman. Had the congressman or any of the opponents even set foot in a game store in their lives or knew what the game was actually about, they would know that the object of the game is to save the girls, since the player is given an automatic game-over if a girl dies an off-screen death. In fact, the filmers of Night Trap even went out of their way to make any implied deaths or violence look as fantastical and unrealistic as possible, the most famous one is when the enemies take a device that looks like a children's Sci-FI toy out and drag a girl away in it. One of the filmers said that it was so unrealistic that people were giggling on the set at the thought of it.
Star Fox is a good victim of this trope. Many fans preach just how horrible any game after Starfox 64 is, often claiming the lead female Krystal as "furry bait" for fantasies (despite the fact that a certain smelly wolf is more so the "bait" than anything) and that the story is too dramatic, depsite Starfox Assault having high end multiplayer and fixing some of the character development problems.
Scribblenauts is a very ambitious game, and is seen by many to be incredibly awesome. It was at E3, though it wasn't onstage and it wasn't advertised boldly. Many websites including IGN, Gamespot, and Gamespy named it the best game at E3, hands down. The many fans eagerly awaiting this game were thrilled and hyped, and many unbelievers were convinced. However, most of the "hardcore gamers" went absolutely berserk. They were furious and (completely ignoring anything about gameplay or concept) claimed because of its child-like graphics and music, it shouldn't have deserved the top spot. These people have probably never played the game, as most, if not all, of the people who actually stopped to play it said that the game was wonderful and amazing. This game deserves some kind of award for getting this many haters about 3 months before its actual release.

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Some have read the infamous rape arc in Dominic Deegan, and didn't like it. But they seem to try to invoke this trope when they leave out in their complaints that the rape was all but literally at gunpoint (he had to sleep with her or she would be killed as an orphan) and that the orc culture didn't even consider it rape (the way even our culture used to not consider it rape if it's a husband taking a wife). Those that do address those points, since there can be legitimate grievances against those (Anvilicious for one), don't count as this.
Many people like to hate on Mega Tokyo without having ever read it. Admittedly, it can be rather difficult to get into.
Ctrl-Alt-Del gets this invoked when some complain about the miscarriage, but try to paint the comic as nothing but random humor, ignoring that the comic had plenty of slice of life arcs before that. It's not the fact that they don't like that part, it's that they want us to think it just came out of nowhere.
- B^U
- It could be because the archive goes back to 2002, and trying to read it all would lead to a massive Archive Binge. Not that that excuses it
- A review by a snobby reviewer with an entire forum and way more worth of brainwashed sheep who happen to believe that his word is law certainly didn't help people who've never even heard of it before the review miraculously start hating on it and saying it is crap.
Every webcomic suffers from this, mainly induced by trolling other comic forums and adherence to Sturgeons Law. If you need proof, search for the name of any popular webcomic on a seemingly unrelated comic forum.

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Many Transfans absolutely LOATHED Transformers Animated before it premiered. "Their chins are too big. The art styles sucks. It's too kiddy (Which shows a failure to realize that, while Transformers is definitely more old fan oriented than most long running franchises, it's still aimed at kids). The toys are too 'Playskoolish'," they all whined. Then everyone saw it. It is now one of the most universally loved series in the entire franchise.
- Fans of Animated now rally under the cry of "We want bigger chins!" And I say this as a fan who was mildly sceptical at first and now owns the entire Animated toy line.
- The same was applied to the Armada. Energon, and Cybertron trilogy. While they weren't exactly the crown jewels of the franchise, a lot of people hate on the "anime style" of the art and narrative structure without having actually seen the show itself.
- Beast Wars has its share of these too, even after all this time. Some complain that it is unrealistic, even nonsensical for Optimus Primal to be a 20 feet tall gorilla that flings poo as his main attack. Neither if which is true, of course. Others, while admitting that they didn't even bother to sit down and pay attention to it, simply say everything about it is bad. Not to forget those who just couldn't get into robots turning into animals, and as such didn't watch it, but complain anyway.
Many of the people that bitch about Family Guy. To paraphrase person who's name I don't remember, "You guys only hate Family Guy because South Park told you to." (And this is coming from a South Park fan who dislikes Family Guy.)
- In particular, there are complaints that it just rips off The Simpsons, when, though such similarities are kind of inevitable, Family Guy's humor goes in an extremely different direction than The Simpsons generally does (digs from the Simpsons toward Family Guy are, as a result, usually just good natured jokes, but actual accusations).
  - Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who do only hate something because "South Park told them to."
Scrappy-Doo. Turns out that there are people who don't watch (or even hate) Scooby Doo hate Scrappy-Doo. The anti-Scrappy fandom are Serious Business. Some are confused to this day over Scrappy hatred. He didn't really do anything, except play the small-dog-thinking-he-has-a-big-bite role that most chihuahuas live. And many Scrappy haters he knows own chihuahuas or other small yappy dogs.
Beavis and Butt-Head drew wide criticism from people who had never seen it, including United States Senator Ernest Hollings. Granted, for some of those people if they had seen it they would find more to bitch about.
- All of this, despite the fact that Beavis & Butt-head are directly commented upon by everyone around them and the show itself to be a pair of self-destructive, idiot losers who grow old and die in front of the TV, with their life's accomplishment being that they saw naked people once. It gets so Anvilicious that the duo are a blight upon everyone around them, that the gratuitous It's a Wonderful Life episode consists of an angel trying to convince them to commit suicide for the good of the world. They're too dumb to get the message, and so were their critics.
- In the same vein, I know someone who won't watch King Of The Hill because its artwork matches Beavis and Butthead (both the creation of Mike Judge).
This editor has been known to complain (admittedly unfairly) about South Park despite never having seen a single episode, mostly because he disagrees with Matt Stone and Trey Parker's politics and doesn't like the art style.
HOLY JESUS does Cartoon Network falls under this. People either don't WATCH the new show, watch a few seconds of it, or DID watch a few episodes. The ones who did the last actually LIKED the show most of the time.
- Many fans of the "good" old shows bashed Squirrel boy for weird reasons, i.e. Andy has an oddly shaped head, or that there are talking animals in it (bonus points if said haters are fans of shows with talking animals).
- Chowder had people bashing it, but unlike Squirrel boy, they watched it. It became up there with Ed Edd n Eddy.
For a time, any 3D animated movie not made by Pixar apparently had penguins in it.

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Accurately parodied in a PSA by Simmons from Red vs. Blue.
Simmons: Creed sucks! I hate you! And I hate the bands you like!
Half the fun of a Childcare Action Project movie review is noting where it indicates that the sole CAP reviewer either never watched the movie he claims to be providing an objective review of, or slept through the talking parts.

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Any politician, anywhere, ever. Before any politician even opens their mouth or raises his/her finger, there'll be a legion of people ready to have them charged for crimes against the country for no other reason than they belong to a particular party, they're of a certain ethnicity or nationality, etc.
The very existence of the Sci Fi Ghetto - just mentioning that a work happens to be science fiction or fantasy is a good way to have people automatically dismiss a given work as being puerile 'genre' trash with no redeeming merit whatsoever - and luckily for them, they don't need to even read it beforehand!
- It can go both ways, however; there are instances of people who read or watch materials solely within the Ghetto to uniformly dismiss anything that isn't science fiction or fantasy as unimaginative 'populist' trash. Not only does this ignore the pretty blatant hypocrisy, but it also tends to overlook that it takes as much imagination to create any kind of fine fiction, no matter what the genre, as it does to create fine science ficton or fantasy. Also Sci-Fi fans can go overboard on the "our authors are as good as any authors" and wind up vastly overstating some authors' literary prowess.
Most political talk-radio hosts fall under this category: Right or left, they will inevitably be demonized by people who don't listen to them on a regular basis. Indeed, some would say that that is inherent in the medium's very nature.
Fussy Eaters. Granted, we don't expect you to try the beetroot muffin, nor the roasted tomato of squicky slime, but you could at least take one bite of pizza without just peeling the cheese off and leaving the base to congeal.
- Many fussy eaters already know what they do and don't like; being told to 'just try something' that's very similar in appearance and smell (the two primary factors for determining flavor) to other foods we dislike, well... Berserk Button if the picky eater isn't shy.
In an inversion of this trope, Richard Feynman had an anecdote where a publisher sent a book with blank pages to the California State Curriculum Commission. Six out of the ten members of the commission rated the book favorably, despite the fact that there was nothing in it!
Many critics of ANY computer operating system haven't used it, or haven't used it recently. Macs have two-button mice and a powerful command-line interface, Linux has several possible slick graphical interfaces, and Windows (I would assume) has progressed far beyond Windows NT (the last version this editor used with any regularity).
- They all still pale in comparison to the mighty Amiga. They do.
Oh gods, the Russell Brand and Johnathan Ross radio incident of October 2008. There were tens of thousands of "listeners" complaining and generally faking outrage despite never having listened to the original radio broadcast. Much of this whining came from people who either already hated Russell Brand, or wanted to vent their frustrations over Johnathan Ross' salery by trying to get him fired.
Fan Fiction. Thousands of people seem to uniformly hate fanfic and dismiss all of it as unmitigated trash riddled with bad porn and Mary Sues, and that all of it is written by teenage girls with bad grammar and no imagination.
The Philippine government recently passed a bill that banned hentai on the basis that it "depicts children in explicit sexual activity"
In the College or "Higher Ed" community, Art, Liberal Arts, Geography, Music, Psychology and Communications are classified as stuff like "Sleeper majors", "Easy As" and "Majors for lazy people" by the "Hard majors". Clearly those people have never actually even taken a course in one of those categories, or assumed the entire major is like the one freshman level course they took to get an "A".

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