Basic Trope: The title of a work tells you exactly what the work is about.
- Straight: A film called Bob Becomes a Zombie is about Bob becoming a zombie.
- Exaggerated:
- The film is called A Guy Named Bob Is Bitten by a Zombie and Turns into One Himself … which is literally all that happens in the film.
- The film is titled Three Hundred Twenty-five Zombies Escape from Eternal Imprisonment under the Island of Java, Two of Which Bite a Lawyer Named Bob, Causing Him to Turn into a Zombie Himself, Whereupon He Rampages through New York City and Destroys Two Gift Shops, a Supermarket, Blows up an SUV, and Doesn’t Brush His Teeth Afterward, Forcing His Friend Alice to Chase after Him for an Hour until She Defeats All of the Other Zombies Using a Magical Sword She Found at a Strange Antique Shop and Returns Bob to His Original Form.
- The title is literally the entire script of the film.
- Downplayed: Zombie Adventures is a fairly Self-Explanatory title, but you have to watch the film to learn just what those adventures entail.
- Justified: Bob is a very important figure and the film wants to document and inform the masses about this transformation perfectly.
- Inverted:
- The film is actually about a zombie becoming a guy named Bob.
- Non-Indicative Name
- The film is called Bob Becomes a Zombie, but it includes neither zombies nor characters named Bob.
- Subverted:
- Bob goes through several stages of the transformation, but then turns into a tomato.
- Bob Becomes a Zombie begins with a scene where Bob is bitten by a zombie, but it turns out to be Bob’s dream and the rest of the movie is about something else.
- Artifact Title
- Double Subverted:
- …and then he turns into a zombie. The tomato form was just an odd stage of the metamorphosis.
- Alternatively: What he turned into was a zombie tomato.
- Bob lives In a World… where Your Mind Makes It Real, and the first time he appears on camera again, he has begun transforming into an undead being.
- …and then he turns into a zombie. The tomato form was just an odd stage of the metamorphosis.
- Parodied:
- A Word Salad Title perfectly describes the TV show to which it is attached.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness describes something perfectly when expressed in Layman's Terms.
- Zig-Zagged:
- ...Actually, a zombie was just one of the later stages of the complete metamorphosis. Bob then turns into a potato.
- Some scenes revolve around Bob’s infection while others are about something completely different.
- Averted: The film is named Bob. The title is related to the film, but you wouldn’t be able to tell what it’s about without watching it.
- Enforced:
- “How will people know what the show is about without an accurate name?”
- The Authors ran out of clever ideas for a title, so they summarize the plot that excuses all of the action and events in the story in 3 words as a title.
- Lampshaded: “The title clearly states ‘Bob Becomes a Zombie!’ What did you think would happen?”
- Invoked: “We want to make sure the audience isn’t confused when watching this … Let’s give it a descriptive name!”
- Exploited: Alice has an ironclad excuse to keep her gun pointed at Bob all day long.
- Defied: “Damn it, no! I won’t let that stupid title be true!”
- Discussed: "So, there is the movie Bob Becomes a Zombie and the plot is what the title says.” “Yup. Real genius idea for a title, people.”
- Conversed: “I love when movie titles say exactly what the events of the movie are.”
- Deconstructed:
- Bob was the Sole Survivor of a Zombie Apocalypse and has just been bitten; the film goes into detail about how tragic living like a zombie is as he struggles through his infection.
- Bob doesn’t turn into a zombie until the very end, making the title a spoiler.
Back to Exactly What It Says on the Tin, the trope in which a name or title of something that tells you all about on what it's about.