Unhealthy Trope (alt-title crowner Oct 30): Break The Scientist

This is not a healthy trope page. First of all, I don't get the distinction between this and an Artistic License – Physics Lampshade Hanging. It also seems like it was just created for the El Goonish Shive character and was never fleshed out further, since it has barely any redirects (9) in the few months it's existed. 4 of those are the Trope Namer or related, and 2 of them are indexes. It either needs Wiki Magic (and a better description) or to be cut.

edited 11th Aug '11 11:34:49 AM by unhappyyak

Hmm, this sounds a lot like a trope whose name I can't remember, about the atheist in a world where gods are demonstrably real. Hang on...found it. Flat-Earth Atheist. This looks like a sister trope about the scientist in a world not necessarily governed by science. Which isn't quite the same as the Artistic License trope. Related to Arbitrary Skepticism. May overlap with the poorly-named Agent Scully.

I'm not sure.

Wouldn't this be closely tied to Science Is Wrong?

...Huh. That really looks like a redirect to Science Is Bad.

It seems that The Professor Is Crying Again is an in-universe reaction to Science Is Wrong manifesting itself. The pages don't link to each other, though.

edited 11th Aug '11 2:53:34 PM by Embryon

It's a specific form of Lampshade Hanging. It's just a joke, it doesn't have some deep connection to Science Is Wrong or whatever.

I think these belong under some variation of Hollywood Science. I'm not a big fan of giving many tropes their own page for "lampshading of this trope".

Probably fairly common in Urban Fantasy when someone with a scientific background sees past The Masquerade. Not necessarily a lampshade in such cases. I think there may be a good trope hiding in there somewhere, it just isn't very obvious.

I knew where this trope was from before I clicked on it. In Other words, I cannot believe some nimrod thought it was a great idea to attempt to make a trope out of a throwaway gag, and not even a reasonable one since it has so many similarities to others it's existence isn't even worth noting. Did this even get YKTTW'd?

Yes, there was and apparently the original name was even worse.

Me neither. Is there an official policy on that? Might save time here.

Hold on, hold on. I'm not familiar with the work that seems to have so many people here up in arms, but isn't this just a character reaction trope? Faced with the revelation that Science Is Wrong, some people will just accept it and move on; some people will reject the evidence in front of them (Agent Scully), and some will suffer a partial or complete breakdown trying to integrate two conflicting worldviews (this trope).

I don't see how that's a "lampshade hanging."

edited 12th Aug '11 1:33:04 PM by Xtifr

That sounds like a great description - clear and concise. The description needs to be rewritten to reflect that. Lampshade Hanging is mentioned, as well as Agent Scully, in a way that made me think it was what the trope was about.

Edit: There may need to be more retooling, as well. It means this isn't really a "crying" trope, as its indexes indicate, but rather a character breakdown trope, which should have "Breakdown" or "BSOD" in the name. It needs a new description at the very least, and possibly a rename and re-exampling. It still stands that the trope is far from healthy.

edited 12th Aug '11 2:06:54 PM by unhappyyak

Seriously, just paste that as the new description. That's about all we need.

The name has problems, and this is basically a brand-new trope, so we can pretty much rename it at will. Can anyone think of a good replacement name? Sometimes we get bad ones simply because no no one can think of a better one (I can't).

How about Cue The Crying Scientist?

The "nimrod" who made the trope here. I went through several names for this before resorting to an El Goonish Shive reference, and if anyone can think of a better one, go for it.

It's not always a form of Lampshade Hanging, but can be used as one. I agree with the bit about it falling under "Character Reactions".

Ah, I'd almost forgotten about this one. Will tag it this time so it doesn't disappear off my radar. As for the name, how about something simple, like Scientists Breakdown? (Custom-titled to add the missing apostrophe, of course.)

That sounds like it could be scientists having a breakdown for any number of reasons.

Scientists having breakdowns for any number of reasons isn't a trope. I can't think of any other reason why scientists in particular would have breakdowns other than this trope though. I honestly think the danger of anyone being confused is near-zero, but I'm always open to better suggestions.

I suppose it doesn't explicitly have to be a scientist, either. It could just be The Smart Guy, or the Agent Scully. Anyone who understands the laws of physics/biology/whatever and gets upset when they don't behave themselves.

'Scientist" doesn't necessarily have to be someone with an advanced degree and a research position. It can refer, informally, to someone with a scientific bent of mind or a firm belief in scientific principles. In fact, I like it better than "the professor" for just that reason.

Break the Scientist? Scientific BSOD?

Either of those work for me, though I tend to find "BSOD" a bit jargon-y and am reluctant to promote its further (ab)use.

Bump. Are we gonna rename this or what?

I apologize for being later to this thread, but there is now a page action crowner for this trope here. Feel free to add options as you see fit.

edited 19th Oct '11 6:07:43 PM by LouieW

Consensus is very clear, this can be called now.