Why is this Show Within a Show only? : Stylistic Suck

The title says it all. Why?

Uh...why wouldn't it be? That's what the trope is about—shows within shows that are intentionally lower-quality than the show they're within.

Would you ask why Cool Chair doesn't apply to cool bicycles? No, because it's a trope about chairs, not bicycles. Similarly, this is a trope about shows within shows, not shows-not-within-shows.

edited 13th Feb '11 7:43:19 PM by troacctid

Probably because people would label anything they didn't like with it.

Not sure what a non-show-within-a-show example of this would look like. The idea of expanding this doesn't make much sense.

One possible example is Order Of The Stick, where this trope is often (mis)used to describe it.

Currently the trope looks like it needs a lot of clean up. There's a fair bit of just "I think this sucks" from both the wiks and the examples.

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What OP probably meant was, why shouldn't it apply to things that were intentionally made awful?

That image is from an in-universe show within a show, right? We've got some serious misuse here if it isn't.

@OP: Probably because occurences of "stylistic suck" in the work's own setting can be excused as an Art Shift.

When you get shows that do the extreme Art Shift like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Flipbook◊ Mr Bill style◊ Picasso◊ Live action◊ Claymation◊ Cut out◊ Pastel◊ Silhouette ◊ Normal◊ Animation (all in one ep btw) it does come off a little bit of this trope but its still more Art Shift.

edited 14th Feb '11 1:54:09 AM by Raso

What about things like Grindhouse and Machete, deliberately made to feel cheesy and old? There's not a lot of room for interpretation there.

Yes, it's from a character's (awful) webcomic in Homestuck.

edited 14th Feb '11 4:03:03 AM by Shale

Not sure what a non-show-within-a-show example of this would look like

There are lots of comedy examples. The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra, for instance, is basically Stylistic Suck from start to finish.

edited 14th Feb '11 5:51:01 AM by suedenim

Doesn't that just fall under parody, affectionate or otherwise?

It's a specific type of parody, though. In a way, it's like doing a Show Within a Show, but without the "show." Or like making a full feature out of Mant! without Matinee surrounding it.

edited 14th Feb '11 6:03:48 AM by suedenim

Yes, The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra came to mind immediately as a non-show-within-a-show example. I can think of a few Art Shift examples as well, for example in the episode 'Mac Daddy' of Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends, there are several 'what if' scenarios that are animated in a very simplistic, doodle-like style, in order to highlight the child-like/bizarre nature of the character Cheese.

Related, the art style of Crayon Shin Chan is intentionally supposed to make you think of a child's drawings. Or, somewhat playing with it, but maybe the beginning and end of Flowers For Algernon might count?

edited 14th Feb '11 8:42:45 AM by savage

My own Jet Dream Remix Comic thingies are basically Stylistic Suck too (well, they may be just plain Suck too, but I'll leave that for the reader to decide.)

Spinal Tap, maybe, to the extent that the band has a life outside the original movie?

edited 14th Feb '11 8:52:34 AM by suedenim

If anybody's still wondering how a non-show-within-a-show example could exist, today's Shortpacked is timely. The creator deliberately draws his characters with the same artistic quirks they're complaining about. I'd definitely call it this trope.

Huh, I always thought the trope was about intentionally low quality artwork for the actual show itself. Like the animation from Cromartie High School or the art style in Shin Chan.

If this wants to stay Show Within a Show only, I suggest a rename. Stylistic Suck, to me, implies any time something is done badly on purpose. That doesn't have to be within an existing work. My mind's blank on any specific examples, but I know there definitely are some.

We have a trope for examples of Stylistic Suck that aren't show-within-a-show - namely, They Plotted a Perfectly Good Waste.

edited 14th Feb '11 3:35:21 PM by Iaculus

Bump, what's going on with this trope

Stylistic Suck is something bad done on purpose. There is quite a number of things like that, not only shows within shows. Certain Stealth Parodies and Deconstructive Parodies use this to riddicule things they attack

edited 13th Jun '11 12:20:11 PM by nzm1536

Well the current definition is only about a Show Within a Show.

edited 13th Jun '11 12:23:13 PM by nuclearneo577

And that makes the current definition wrong.