I can't remember when I first visited TV Tropes, but it had a much different design when I did. (I believe I was in college at the time, but definitely before the (first) Great Crash.) I enjoyed it, but it slipped into the back of my mind. In 2008, I was reintroduced to the site by a high-school classmate and I became a lurker (it passed some dead times at work, let me tell you). Finally, toward the end of 2010, I finally gave in and became a Troper.
Most of my contributions are on a smaller scale. From time to time, I will add examples, fix broken Wiki Words, edit grammar or punctuation, or reorder a page if a folder or section is out of order. Occasionally I'll take on something that can be a bit more involved, such as re-alphabetizing tropes or examples, and if you look around, you may find a few reviews of mine as well.
As far as larger contributions go, I wrote the original Luther Vandross article (it has been moved to the Music namespace since), the Animals Have Problems Too entry, the Intentional Talk page, and, most recently, the Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee page. I am also the curator of the The Hub's Pound Puppies pagenote , and did both the soft and hard splits between the Hanna-Barbera and The Hub versions. At one time, I also was a curator of sorts of the Recess page as well, but I've left that to Minnie Mouse and Ash Spin for the most part, though the series remains on my watchlist, and in my heart. I've also done a couple of wick redirecting projects: One after creating the Pound Puppies series' pages, as well as the "Main/Recess" wicks alongside Ash Spin.
I happily give credit to the Better Than It Sounds page for encouraging me to watch My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, although I no longer consider myself a fan. Nonetheless, the idea of giving a show a chance despite what it might seem like will stick with me. Sometimes it works (Steven Universe, Gravity Falls), sometimes it doesn't (The Powerpuff Girls (2016)), and sometimes it makes me want to throw the television out the window (Uncle Grandpa).
I am getting more and more into anime and manga. If you have a suggestion of something based on what you see here, let me know. (One Piece, while a good choice, is out; I'll die before I'll be able to catch up.)
In case you're curious:
Characteristics of The Walking Anomaly:
- Chaotic Good: Much of the time.
- Chaotic Neutral: Feeling this way more and more.
- Deadpan Snarker: Oh, absolutely.
- Snark Knight: To a degree. I have even been told I am Daria once. I was not insulted.
- Grumpy Bear: Is my boy. See below.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Grumpy Bear and Daria Morgendorffer are my patron saints. On the other hand, Dan is a jerkass for treating a friend like Chris the way he does, and I enjoyed when Daffy got his on The Looney Tunes Show (Tina ruled). The handle has its reasons.
Tropes (and such) that make me happy:
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: This is usually good for a laugh from me.
- Continuity Nod/Mythology Gag: When I get them, I enjoy these; even retroactively, they can be cool.
- Hidden Depths: Okay, this is an index more than a trope, but still.
- Hidden Badass: Especially Badass Bookworm. Beware the Nice Ones is also good, and one I believe wholeheartedly.
- Meganekko: I love girls in glasses. This goes for Real Life too; if you look like Gretchen Grundler, Velma Dinkley, or Daria Morgendorffer, or better yet, are nerdy/geeky like them, feel very free to say hello.
- And if you're a nerdy guy, let's just say I won't say no to talking to you, either.
- Similar Squad: For whatever reason, I find these fun. Maybe it's because I like the idea of character study.
- Streisand Effect: I don't know if "happy" would be the word, but "amused" might. It has one simple corollary: "If something you don't like happens to become public, as tempting as it might be to complain about it, shut up. No, seriously, shut up."
- Actually, it might have a second: THINK.
Tropes that make me... less than happy.
- 65-Episode Cartoon: Let's be real, here: The sixty-five episode limit is simply a big F-U to viewers, both young and old alike. For the younger audience, it says that they are not important enough to make more shows for, and aren't smart enough to notice that (in syndication) the shows repeat every three months. For older viewers, it simply says your dedication and viewership don't matter.
- Absolute Comparative: I hate these. One in particular that drove me up a wall was the claim from the early 2000s commercials that Diet Dr. Pepper tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper. You don't say. What the hell else is Diet Dr. Pepper going to taste like? Mountain Dew?
- Author Tract: If you want to preach to me, be upfront about it. I'll probably ignore what you write, but at least I'll appreciate your honesty.
- The Ditz: If your defining characteristic is that you're an idiot, you will annoy me. Unless you are Pinky.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: You'd better be damn funny. Naaaaaaarrrrrrrf!
- Genius Ditz: Maybe, I'll forgive you. Maybe. Egad!
- Draco in Leather Pants/Ron the Death Eater: Two of the main reasons I tend to stay away from shipping fics. Being a Harry Potter fan, I particularly despise the second, not only because I like Ron, but because that seemed to be the preferred way of Harmonians to get the pairing they wanted. I might read a fic (HP or any other) that does the first; I will stop reading one that does the second.
- Eagleland: As much as I detest the flag-waving, stars-and-stripes-plastering, "my country right or wrong" Type 1 people, I hate the whiny, America is the source of everything wrong with the world Type 2 people even more.
- Everything Is Racist: ...or sexist, or homophobic, or ableist, or blah, blah, blah. If you want to know why bigotry will never end, it's every bit as much this as it is the bigots. (I don't mind this so much in fictional characters, though, because they usually tend to show how stupid it is.)
- Flanderization: Your characters should get deeper as your series goes along. Characters who don't develop depth are often aggravating, let alone the ones that lose it.
- Green Aesop: When an environmentalist makes a show, film, or documentary that isn't essentially a Humans Are Bastards tract and has even a hint of nuance, be a pal and let me know. Speaking of which...
- Humans Are Bastards and Humans Are the Real Monsters: I've never been considered a huge fan of people in general, but I'll recognize there is more to humanity than malice and destruction.
- Hollywood Nerd: Especially when the nerd is the protagonist, because it is always his awkwardness in social situations that drives the plot, and since they are never based on real nerds, it is grating, to say the very least. This goes about octuple for nerds in movies like Superbad and Road Trip.
- The Klutz: I'm not sure if this is more annoying than The Ditz or not. I'm leaning toward yes.
- Public Service Announcement: I bet you could count the total number of PSAs made that treated their viewers like intelligent human beings without taking off your shoes. Nothing outside political ads makes me grab my remote control faster. If I want to be spoken to like a six-year-old, I'll go sit in on a first-grade class.
- Rape Tropes: All of them. The quote on the page says it's second to homicide in the "ultimate violation of self". I'll argue that order is reversed. It's not redeeming, it's not funny, it's just plain cruel. That being said, at the risk of making someone angry, "rape" is a term that needs to be used more delicately than it is, or it loses all meaning. (Example: A guy looking at a woman could be a douche, but it is not a "mini-rape".)
- Spin-Off Babies: Barely liked the original Muppet Babies when I was a kid, hated all the other ones. I was one of the seemingly few that did like Rugrats' inversion, All Grown Up! though.
- Think of the Children!: If anyone uses the innocence of children in an argument, they have no argument. All it does is make an (unfortunately often successful) attempt at short-circuiting or circumventing logic. Furthermore, it is borderline disingenuous and a flat-out insult to both adults and children. Children as a whole are impressionable, but they're not stupid.
It's also a dream of mine to punch Jamie Kellner and Michael Eisner in their faces.
This is, of course, continually a work in progress.
Bye for now!
