"Oh, I'm so very happy you talked to me. Unless we're especially lucky, characters like me without notable personalities often wind up overlooked and ignored. But I'm happy. You talked to me. You've acknowledged me, in other words. Oh, I'm so happy!"
The exact opposite of
Genre Blindness. A
Genre Savvy character doesn't necessarily
know they're in a story, but they do know of stories like their own and what worked in them and what didn't. More sophisicated versions will also know they can't tell which genre they are in (and are often in far more realistic or complicated genres that the stories they remember), or which characters they are.
They know every
Simple Plan is doomed to failure from the start and instead of participating, sit back and wait to get in their "I told you so", or even a "
We Could Have Avoided All This". They can spot someone being controlled by
Puppeteer Parasite from a mile away (
usually). They're more likely to listen when they catch someone in a compromising position who sputters "It's
Not What It Looks Like!".
They can tell fairly early that the
strange old man who's offering free lollipops is probably best avoided. And they've seen enough
Horror movies to know that when there's an ax murderer on the loose, the
last thing you want to do is either
split up,
boink your significant other, or
investigate strange noises in the
Sinister Subway. They know how to avoid getting a bad rank on the
Sorting Algorithm of Mortality.
The
Genre Savvy live to
hang lampshades, give
Aside Glances, and say, "
You just had to say it, didn't you?" right after use of a
Tempting Fate Stock Phrase. Their
exasperation with the
sheer stupidity of the entire universe usually makes them a
Deadpan Snarker. They are likely to be told that
This Is Reality or
just ignored, and likely to be the one who
always wanted to say that. A useful person to have around if you get
Trapped in TV Land.
They will often try to
take advantage of tropes, either to fail embarrassingly (often because they're actually
Wrong Genre Savvy), or to achieve remarkable feats to everyone else's astonishment. The sophisticated savvy can realize that they do not know what characters they are playing, or whether they are exactly in the same genre as the books they read.
Genre savviness sometimes occurs when
And You Thought It Was a Game shows up. This is a
Justified Trope in situations where the character was initially recruited for their knowledge of the genre. (
Galaxy Quest,
The Last Starfighter,
¡Three Amigos!!) It can also be justified through experience — hopefully, after going through dozens of
Let's You and Him Fight scenarios a superhero will eventually see them coming and start trying to avoid them ahead of time.
There are two finely-distinguished varieties of genre savvy. The first comes form being familiar with
fiction. A good example of this is the
Scream series, where the genre savvy characters are savvy because they've watched horror movies. The other kind comes from being a character in some sort of serial fiction, and
having a good memory. For example, many modern comic book superhero characters exhibit a lot of savviness, simply because they can remember all the weird things that've happened to them, and thus are not surprised when yet another evil twin shows up.
Like playing with the
Fourth Wall, having one or more
Genre Savvy characters is indicative of
Post Modernism.
The most extreme, who know what
Genre Blindness is and that they're
supposed to be, remain
Contractually Genre Blind. On the other hand, when they're incorrect in their assumptions on what they're supposed to be, they're of the
Wrong Genre Savvy persuasion. Clever characters can be well aware of the possibility of
Wrong Genre Savvy and additionally that they may not realize what roles they are cast in, and launch many a quip and discussion about whether a certain trope is or is not in play.
While
Genre Savvy can be used to add spice to a tired old plot and create self-aware, intelligent characters,
it's not always the right thing to do — a character who is
too Genre Savvy can risk puncturing their story and turning it into a joke, which is a bit of a problem if it's supposed to be taken seriously. Furthermore, it can also ruin drama and suspense; some genres require a certain amount of
Genre Blindness and
Willing Suspension of Disbelief to effectively function, and if a character knows exactly what to do to get out of their story in a quick, easy and painless fashion at every turn, they're going to do it, and consequently lead an easy, trouble-free life, and... why are we watching them again?
When a villain instead says "screw that!" and
dodges every trope and
Idiot Ball that comes their way, they are
Dangerously Genre Savvy. When they don't, it's
Death By Genre Savviness. If a character uses his
Genre Savvy just to make humorous observations, he's a
Meta Guy. When characters are just
Genre Savvy enough to accept the premises of the story, they are
Functional Genre Savvy. When an entire story is built around the audience being this and the characters subverting or showing it, it's often a
Cosmic Comic Story. Compare with
Medium Awareness.
Examples:
