Sandbox / What Do You Mean Its Not Didactic Wick Check

Audiences analyse work in unintended ways 11/ 50

• Bring Me the Horizon: There Is A Hell... highlights the ups and downs of the existentialist's unending search for truth and anxious but profoundly victorious refinement of self. What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic?
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Extreme cases of this [trope] can result in What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic?
• The Wizard of Oz: The entire film is a pre-emptive allegory of World War II and its lasting effects
• Devil May Cry 5: One Reddit poster noticed something that could easily be a happy coincidence or just straight up sheer coincidence regarding three of the boss fights Dante encounters over all five titles. Dante's final boss fight with Vergil in 3 is in the Demon World, while Dante fights Nelo Angelo in the Human World in 1, and finally the twins battle on top of the Qliphoth far above the earth in 5. Practically step for step on Dante Alighieri and his Virgil passing through Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso of The Divine Comedy. Referencing a possibly unintended allusion
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: The book is prefaced with a "Notice" threatening with various dire fates any reader who dares treat it as Serious Business. The warning has been universally disregarded, often taken as an invitation.
• The Moomins: There's a book that uses the characters to illustrate concepts from existentialist philosophy. It works surprisingly well. Couldn't find the book, but could find several articles.
• Alien³: Some interpretations of the film claim it's an allegory for the AIDS crisis, with the Xenomorph as the infectious disease in question and Weyland-Yutani as the medical companies profiting off of a "criminalized" minority.
• Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Slytherin House: That brings up a problem I had with the descriptions: One definition of "cunning" is "in a sly, deceitful way" (quote Dictionary.com), but another, quite common definition is "clever". If Ravenclaws are supposed to be smart and clever, which throws out the possibility that the only requirement is Intelligence, and Slytherin sorts with a bias for high Wisdom as well, that basically leaves Slytherin with "conniving and ambition". And no part-Muggles, unless they're really clever and ambitious (I'm probably overthinking the last line's Unfortunate Implications too much).
• Winnie the Pooh: Although the tone of the original stories and poems is mostly tongue-in-cheek, many texts and books have been written that analyze and explore the deeper aspects of the stories or use the setting and characters to illustrate complex philosophical ideas. Perhaps most famous are Benjamin Hoff's The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet, which use the characters to explore and explain various Taoistic principles. It works surprisingly well.
• Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff: The church episode is an allegory for the state of Christianity, specifically why/how it split into so many denominations over the years Wild Mass Guessing namespace fills for the audience part
• Zdzisław Beksiński: While his work is drowning in recurring symbols and potential interpretation, Beksiński refused to confirm any reading of his work, citing that if he had anything profound he would want to talk about, he would just say it or write it down. This is said to be the reason why he wouldn't put titles on his work, believing that titling them would force his paintings into a metaphorical box.

Audiences find a lesson in a work where the author did not intend one 2/ 50

• Good Girls Avoid Abortion, under Enforced: "We don't want to bring religion or politics into this show and polarize the audience, so we'll just avoid the issue." Implying the producers are aware of this
• Warp That Aesop: Contestants will take a piece of media... and, through a number of deliberate misunderstandings, a few Alternate Character Interpretations, taking some things out of context, assuming that everything presented was meant to be taken as instructional and serious, and reading in more than a little Fanon, make it seem like the creators were attempting to deliver a terrible, terrible message to the kids at home... no matter how utterly off-base it is!

Audience reaction, ambiguious authorial intent 4/ 50

• YMMV/Lost: See below. Some people think that there seems to be a little too much religious symbolism for it not to have some sort of message. Not only are there mentions of yin and yang, the I Ching, dharma, karma... I thought the creators were trying to encourage overanalysis, but I didn't follow the show.
• The Cruxshadows: A fairly straightforward example. Most of the lyrics borrow from Carl Jung in their use of archetypes, and from Plato and Søren Kierkegaard in their philosophical message/s. Sub-examples are lists of references to things from classic literature, might be didactic
• The Bully: Fans who have tried to analyze "Particle Man" by They Might Be Giants have interpreted Triangle Man this way, noting that he hates Particle Man and Person Man, and fights them because he wins, but never messes with Universe Man.
• The Boys (2019): Stormfront (an expy for Thor) is beloved by the masses for her affably snarky demeanour, while Homelander (a Superman Substitute) is considered old news because his imperfections are becoming more apparent with the arrival of some worthy competition. That's not a million miles away from describing the rivalry between the Marvel and DC cinematic franchises.

Characters analyse a work in unintended ways 10/ 50

• Candy Land: Candyland the Nature of the Absurd analyses the children's board game as though it were a deep philosophical work, courtesy of Existential Comics.
• So, What Colour Is Your Toothbrush?: Invoked for The Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars, of all things. Anna swears that the climactic musical number is actually a philosophical debate between objectivism and nihilism. Chill says she's, like, 99% certain that that really wasn’t what the writers intended.
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses – Blue Lions, Anette: invokedAnnette's songs are the target of over-analysis, to her dismay. They're supposed to be silly and mean no more than the words say, but Felix questions the lyrical content in her library cleaning song, and Claude assumes a song about growing flowers is really about bitter, regretful souls trapped in the underworld. If Annette and Felix get a paired ending on the Azure Moon route, the epilogue states that the songs she wrote remained popular for a long time, but their lyrics became distorted over the years and their original meanings forgotten.
• MonteFjanton: Played for laughs in-universe in the review of The Grief: Felix comes up with a theory that Norah is Sarah's alter ego, and keeps bringing up evidence for it and praising Danne for how deep the movie is, but then he remembers that he's reviewing a Danne Lehmussaari film.
• Luke Mochrie and the Inners: Dave the Inner Hipster loves to make a case for misbegotten works being purposefully "ironic". It usually doesn't go well for him.
• 2666: The Part About the Critics: A group of European literary critics discover the works of Archimboldi and bring them to forefront of academic debate and prominence.
• Steven Universe S3E21 "Beta": The concept is parodied in the meepmorps sequence. The leaf morp really is just about Steven giving Lapis a leaf, "Wow, Thanks" is Peridot's broken tape recorder with no function except to make her feel bad, and so on.
• House of Leaves: The Navidson Record has, if Zampanò's writing is to be believed, spurred countless theses and criticisms from academia, both for its moving themes and character studies but also for the perplexing riddle of the house and what it truly represents.
• Confused Matthew, under True Art Is Incomprehensible: He's not a huge fan of things that would be covered under What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic? or Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory.invoked He generally rejects the idea that a movie has any meaning other than what is obviously presented. If the movie has to be heavily analysed to grasp some meaning, then he feels that the meaning is likely just made up. Aversion
• Deadpool (2013): The late The Cynical Brit argued in this video that the game is a parody of macho, testosterone poisoned, chauvinistic meathead protagonists like Duke Nukem and other edgy anti-heroes from the 90s, or a deconstruction of overblown shooter franchises like Call of Duty. Deadpool is... really not that serious. Sounds like one person's interpertation

Character reaction, ambiguous intent 2/ 50

• Brows Held High, under Vase De Noces: "This of course symbolizes that the director wants this film to be symbolic fuck this I'm not reading into this."
• L.A. Story: The hilarious, rambling, erotic critique Harris gives about... a painting of a large, red rectangle.invoked
  Harris: I like the relationships. I mean, each character has his own story. The puppy is a bit too much, but you have to over look things like that in these kinds of paintings. The way he's *holding* her... it's almost... filthy. I mean, he's about to kiss her and she's pulling away. The way the leg's sort of smashed up against her... Phew... Look how he's painted the blouse sort of translucent. You can just make out her breasts underneath and it's sort of touching him about here. It's really... pretty torrid, don't you think? Then of course you have the onlookers peeking at them from behind the doorway like they're all shocked. They wish. Yeah, I must admit, when I see a painting like this, I get emotionally... erect.

Zero-context examples and Wicks with Pothole Trouble 11/ 50

• Play the Game, Skip the Story: Metropolis is watched today for its groundbreaking special effects, futuristic architecture, and kickass robot - not its romantic plot or political message (as the screenwriter intended). This often ties in with its own trope. Not sure what is meant by this; sounds like the film might be didactic. There's no entry for the film on the page.
• The Ugly Barnacle: Invoked, Exaggerated and of course Played for Laughs Doesn't explain how the story is re-interperted
• Bone Thugs-n-Harmony: Commented-out full ZCE
• Literature/Speak: Made fun of In-Universe through the English teacher's opinion of The Scarlet Letter See Hairwoman in the Other category
• Bright Eyes: The fanbase tends to look for meaning in every line. Commented out ZCE
• Lady Chatterley's Lover: Full ZCE, commented out by me
• Game of Thrones S2E9: "Blackwater": She tells him a bedtime story about a mother lion and her cub. "She loved him very much... but there were other things that lived in the woods, evil things. Like stags."
• Bertine Zetlitz: Invoked by herself in interviews, where she has explained that "Fake Your Beauty" came about because it rhymes with "shake your booty", a phrase which was popular to include in songs at the time. Missing how people interpert the song
• Friday (Music): This◊ academic postmodern analysis of the song. Also contains references to Uncanny Valley and He Who Fights Monsters. Dead weblink, but it would fit under unintended audience reading if written correctly.
• My Girlfriend is Shobitch, under Akiho Kosaka: Her with intimate relationships. Likely misuse, but there's not enough context to tell
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: See also Faux Symbolism and What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic?

Multiple categories fit 3/ 50

• Halo: Combat Evolved (and only Combat Evolved) is a post-modernist work of art, comparable to the Iliad, the Chief descended from Rambo AND Captain America, and... look, you just got to read it.
  • It specifically features religious references all over the place. Heck, even the main theme is Gregorian chanting. Part weblink to a book and ZCE, part ambiguous intent
• Bob Dylan: Just about everything Bob Dylan ever wrote. It doesn't even seem to matter what he says in interviews about what a song does or doesn't mean (although more often than not now he just avoids those sorts of questions altogether). Vauge example
  • Bob never answered those questions; he's just more subtle now. Ed Bradley asked him in the 2000s if his latest album was a new departure, and Bob ran Bradley into the dirt with a story about how an old jazzman showed him this "mathematical chord progression" that emotionally effected the listener every time. Back in 1965, some (even more) hapless reporter asked Bob about his "message" (captured on camera in Don't Look Back) eliciting the scathing reply:
  "What's my message?" Bob seizes a mercury arc light from the coffee table. "'Keep a cool head and always carry a light bulb!'" Unintended audience analysis
  • Or the Playboy interview by Nat Hentoff: Bob ended up editing all his answers into surrealistic evasions, with Hentoff's cooperation. (Allowing the subject to edit his answers is SOP at The Paris Review, interestingly. But not like that.) Not sure where this fits
• News at 11:
  • Given the subject matter of the album, it's not difficult to have multiple interpretations. Is it an attempt to capture the last moments of normalcy before the United States changed forever? Is it an attempt to ignore the attacks by delaying the inevitable, then switching to The Weather Channel when it becomes unavoidable? Is it a commentary on the phoniness of pre-9/11 American life? Is it a look into a parallel universe where the attacks never happened, September 11, 2001 was just another normal day, and the night watchman at the World Trade Center fell asleep watching the weather? Audience interpertation, ambiguous intent
  • YouTuber Pad Chennington talked about his own experience with the album as he listened to it on the 16th anniversary of the attacks, with 9/11 footage piped into one headphone and News At 11 piped into the other, describing it as "two different dimensions, reality and romanticism, at war." Combining two works makes me think it doesn't count

Referencing didactics in general 3/ 50

• Le Film Artistique: A Show Within a Show is sometimes the stereotypical artistic independent movie, the kind which practically requires a didactic analysis to convince people that, though it does not aim to entertain the Lowest Common Denominator in any way, it's a profoundly meaningful work of True Art.
• Literature/It: Author Tract: One occurs against a specific style of writing a few chapters in: we're given details about Bill's struggle in a college writing class, particularly with the man who is the instructor and would-be mentor. Whereas Bill is interested in writing stories for their own sake and cultivating his talent, the instructor insists everything must be didactic and is more interested in every story being an allegory for a stereotypically left-leaning political or social statement. On a whim, Bill submits one of his works — one which the teacher had flunked (had, in fact, scribbled "PULP CRAP" across the front page of) to a horror fiction magazine and gets high praise and a reasonably good cheque; he pins a copy of the acceptance letter to the cork board on the door of the instructor's office. This is the start of a nasty falling out which ends with Bill dropping out of college and going on to become a success anyway.
• Anarchist Cookbook: It was written to protest The Vietnam War that contained various instructions for things like phone phreaking and, most controversially, building homemade explosives. It is didactic in the sense that it's presented as a manual.

Other 4/ 50

• The Boondocks: Everything about the arc where Caesar somehow convinces Huey to take a vacation. It starts with Huey having absolutely no idea how to relax...
  • The next few strips thus solely feature Huey laying on a lawn chair, sipping lemonade, trying to relax... but mostly just letting out his inner Cloud Cuckoolander as his mind goes on random tracts of complete nonsense, all while the narration snarkly gushes about how supposedly deep and insightful his thoughts are. At one point, the narrator even actively forces him to stop thinking about politics. This trope isn't for narrators commenting on characters.
• Characters/Speak, Hairwoman: In-Universe, she is obsessed with every little possible symbol that can be found in The Scarlet Letter. Sounds like Not Symbolic
• Tokyo Babylon is a good example of the second point [spoiling plot points]. The french edition's summary used for promotion reveals all the important plot points up to volume 6. Of a 7 volumes series. Actually Trailers Always Spoil
• Escape from Tomorrow, under Faux Symbolism: There's a scene featuring a shot featuring the Disneyworld castle and a statue of Walt Disney that pans up to show the word "JESUS" written in the sky. A visual comment on the religious-level fanaticism surrounding Disney, or an incidental shot of a random skywriter (Christian ones in particular not being uncommon around Disneyworld) the filmmakers threw in because it looked meaningful? Sounds like Not Symbolic