Splitting: My Name Is Not Durwood

I'd prefer splitting, too.

Splitting actually sounds really good in this case.

"One character can't remember another character's name" tends to be used very differently that "Can't (or won't) be bothered to use the right name". I favor splitting.

edited 26th Dec '11 11:57:39 AM by Madrugada

My views exactly. Nthing split.

So is there a consensus for splitting, or should we make a crowner?

I haven't seen any objections.

I just found out that Detractor Nickname is a redirect to Fan Nickname. I say it would work better as the new name for the malicious version of this trope.

Detractor Nickname.. thats got flame bait-YMMV written all over it.

Not really, as long as we keep "meta" examples out.

Derisive Nickname has a nice ring to it for the "malicious version", I feel. I would, at least, want to make that a redirect for this page.

Having a hard time coming up with a good name for the other half of this, however.

edited 26th Dec '11 4:55:03 PM by SeanMurrayI

My Name Is Not Durwood?

*

But then wouldn't that mean the Bewitched example would fall under the "derisive nickname" category (at least, in terms of how Madrugada phrased the differences)?

edited 26th Dec '11 5:24:23 PM by SeanMurrayI

Hm, but I think she is not being intentionally derisive, she just doesn't care. She also refers to him as "what's-his-name". Maybe the line is fuzzy.

I'd be inclined to believe the boundaries between "intentionally calling someone the wrong name" and "not bothering to learn the right name" would overlap enough for the two to be categorized together. The differences just seem more subtle than distinct because the outcome is more or less exactly the same for both.

edited 26th Dec '11 5:54:37 PM by SeanMurrayI

That is true. Whether or not that character is personally being intentionally derisive, the writers are intentionally using that habit to communicate her derision.

edited 26th Dec '11 6:11:51 PM by rodneyAnonymous

If we're going to divide it, I think the line should be between "literally can't use the right name" (too stupid or otherwise mentally impaired, or physically can't pronounce it — things like that), and "doesn't even make an effort to use the right name" (doesn't care enough to try, is actively trying to be mean, things like that.)

And even that may be too fuzzy of a line.

edited 26th Dec '11 6:16:23 PM by Madrugada

It's good enough for me.

I think that works.

I'm not sure "Derisive Nickname" is a good name for this, though. In several examples where Bob is being mean and intentionally not using Alice's name, he's not giving her a consistent nickname either.

I think there's too much overlap between the two to divide them. I say leave it as is.

Are there any examples in particular that can be identified as overlapping?

At face value, "incapable of learning the correct name" and "not even bothering to learn the correct name" sound pretty distinct from each other.

I think that is the split I was proposing, just put better.

There is a little overlap but those ideas seem distinct to me. They are used to communicate different messages.

Sounds like a good distinction to me. In favour of splitting. Should we get some sort of crowner, or. . . ?

For the record, there is at least some overlap. For instance, there's this example:

"In the Batman Beyond episode "Out of the Past", Terry persistently mispronounces Ra's Al Ghul as RAUZ (the same pronunciation used in Batman Begins) instead of the "proper" DCAU pronunciation, RAYSH. Talia constantly corrects him, getting more and more annoyed when Terry never tries to get it right. Word of God says this was Terry's subtle way of dissing the criminal mastermind by not even getting his name right. So in short, starts out looking like type E but is really type A."

But it seems like there aren't many instances like that, so the split is probably safe.

Then this would fall squarely in the "not even bothering to learn/use the correct name" file. That much, at least, seems pretty clear cut to me; I don't see any overlap with "being incapable of learning/using the correct name".

The way how it's written, it just looks like an editor trying to shoehorn another variant based on the current trope outline, even though it doesn't fit and the example doesn't need to be written that way.

"In the Batman Beyond episode "Out of the Past", Terry persistently mispronounces Ra's Al Ghul as RAUZ, instead of the "proper" DCAU pronunciation, RAYSH. This was Terry's subtle way of dissing the criminal mastermind by not even getting his name right." —That's all that should be said.

edited 19th Jan '12 5:17:58 PM by SeanMurrayI