Rename: Your Blank Is Broken

Very few of the examples use the form "Your x is broken". I'm confuzzled. Also, the examples seem very cluttered, as if it's two different stock phrases glommed together.

edited 29th Jun '11 5:13:59 PM by Twentington

It looks like somebody wanted to build a trope around some examples.

So any suggestions as to what to do?

Well, we could try to make Your _____ Is Broken be about that specific type of instance of a more general trope or give it a more inclusive name and make it broader. I support the latter solution since I think it helps with organization and makes it easier to understand what the trope is actually about.

Regardless of what we do, I think the trope description could use some work (i.e. I do not believe it should need so many examples in it to work).

edited 30th Jun '11 6:09:28 PM by LouieW

Anyone wanna help me? I'm not sure where to go here. I get that some are in the form of "It's not broken." "It is now!" but is that too long a trope name?

Twentington,

I made a page action crowner here. Hopefully, people will vote for what action to take and then we can go from there. Feel free to add options or point out any mistakes I may have made in making that crowner by the way.

This whole page is just random quotes from imdb. I'm not sure what the trope is.

Type three seems like a different trope than types one and two, which look like they're about acting as if you've already done something shortly before you do it.

Bump. Consensus seems to be to be in favour of a rename.

Calling the crowner

So as I interpret it this trope is about making a statement that will make no sense until you have done what you intend to do, in order to tempt somebody into pointing out that it makes no sense and then you can do what you intend to do and look smart.

Do we even know what this trope is about? It still seems to just be random lines from imdb.

I'm pretty sure it's this:

1. Alice makes a statement that confuses Bob, because it seems to be untrue. Such as saying that his _ is broken, but his _ seems to be fine.

2. The statement instantly becomes true, ending the confusion. The _ suddenly breaks, usually due to Alice's actions.

I'll throw Instantly Fulfilled Consufing Statement as a suggestion.

edited 5th Jan '12 4:29:10 AM by Laukku

That definition doesn't fit a full half of the 'examples'.

The trope is a character describes or makes reference to something that isn't true. Something immediately happens to make it true, usually an action taken by the character themselves. It's definitely tropable, but the Your _____ Is Broken title is way too narrow.

Preemptive Description?

Pre-emptive Declaration? Self Fulfilling Declaration? (Self-Fulfilling Prophecy is a prophecy that only becomes true after the actions of the ones who initially heard it)

edited 5th Jan '12 7:17:14 PM by Stratadrake

Those could work.

YourXIsBroken

Given the support for a rename, there is now an alternative titles crowner for this trope here. Feel free to add names you see fit.

Self Fulfilling Description isn't quite accurate, though — not all of them are self-fulfilling, sometimes they're just things that one character has noticed but the other hasn't. See the Iron Man example about the "icing problem", for example.

Bump for more votes.

Technically, there's a consesus for Preemptive Description, but with only seven votes on it (five in favour and two against) it's not a very convincing one.

I added Pre-emptive Declaration, which was suggested earlier, to the crowner, because that seems to give a better sense of what this trope is about than Preemptive Description.

Bump for more votes.

Your Blank Is Broken was definitely a bad name. I thought it'd be a list of times a cop pulled somebody over and told them, "your tail light's broken" and then proceeded to break it. >.>