Confused with the plain-English phrase: Lame Excuse

I haven't checked the wicks yet, but since there are quite a few examples that are really I Need to Go Iron My Dog I assume the wicks are just as bad.

I like the idea, though, so I would suggest a minimal change, perhaps Lamed Excuse.

The child is father to the man —Oedipus

Allergic To Work.

Easy. Well, unless there are examples of people literally allergic to work...

Actually, now that I think about it, is that  ^*

actually what the trope is? The description is pretty thin, and most of it is just "and this other stuff might also happen alongside it".

edited 27th Jan '11 4:21:46 PM by billybobfred

she her hers hOI!!! i'm tempe

The trope is "getting out of something by pleading illness or injury." It's not necessarily about work. I knew someone once who claimed TMJ made fellatio impossible.

The child is father to the man —Oedipus

Isn't that Calling In Sick?

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Well, it sounds like this trope is not just work-specific (i.e. it would also encompass "not tonight; I've got a headache"), so that name could be misleading/unnecessarily limiting.

Allergic To Nitrogen Gas.

Fight smart, not fair.

^Um ... what? I guess, er, because nitrogen is a big part of the atmosphere? That's kind of oblique, even if I've somehow hit on your thought process the connection to the tropeis less than obvious, and certainly weaker than the current title.

The child is father to the man —Oedipus

If the joke is that air is a solution of several gases including nitrogen, then Allergic To Oxygen would be more obviously something that nobody is allergic to. Dunno, tho, that is more like "allergic to something that is not allergenic" and not "allergic to something that is not allergenic and is specifically that thing you want me to do" (or otherwise something that directly prevents doing that thing)... Allergic To Effort instead of Work? Dunno, not sold.

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

Im Sick Excuse

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Caught The Blue Flu. No, wait, apparently that's "blue" for cops, not good weather.

edited 28th Jan '11 12:49:03 AM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

We could always just call it what it is: Malingering.

But soft! What rock through yonder window breaks? It is a brick! And Juliet is out cold.

That's a good pre-existing term, but it's on the obscure side. If we went with it, it would Need Redirects.

Rhymes with "Protracted."

I like Malingering for the main with some searchable redirect. It gives the main a clear concise name, but our foreign readers still find it.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Well, all malingering means is "faking being sick," so why not Fake Sick?

I mean, of course, if you are faking, you are trying to gain something out of it, so that's unnecessary to mention.

Everyone Has An Important Job To Do

We already have the trope Playing Sick. It will be too easily confused.

edited 12th Feb '11 1:28:20 PM by shimaspawn

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Then if Big T is right — and it seems reasonable eough to me — can't they be merged? 'm not sure feigning illness is different from feigning illness because you don't want to do something.

It's even in the description from Playing Sick.

edited 13th Feb '11 5:36:16 PM by HersheleOstropoler

The child is father to the man —Oedipus

This trope is, as I read it, not "Playing sick to get out of work" in general but the much more specific "Claiming that something improbable about the work you are trying to avoid will make you sick."

edited 12th Feb '11 4:16:11 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

It's kind of vague, though. You may be right, but I'm not certain. However, the examples definitely do not support your interpretation.

Do we want to "redefine" it as what Madrugada suggested? I'm not sure we want to, given the examples' non-support.

Allergic To Work is a good title. I think Madrugada is right in differentiating this from actual malingering/playing sick. Playing Sick is often the plot of an entire episode, and it involves deceptions like staying home from school, heating up the thermometer, faking a rash with the aid of magical sweets, etc.

The trope currently known as Lame Excuse, on the other hand, sounds like it's about the line of dialogue where a character claims (usually unconvincingly) that they have a (usually improbable) health reason for getting out of something they don't want to do. It's usually a quick gag, and we can expect to see the character doing the unpleasant task in the next scene.

(At least, I think that's what this trope is supposed to be about. Some of the examples and the middle two paragraphs of the description do seem to overlap with Playing Sick. Perhaps it should be tightened up to make the distinction clearer?)

Bumping to resolve. Any other thoughts on this?

I think that Allergic To Work works as a concept. Do we want to rename and start the clean up?

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick