Needs Help: Best Before Decade

This needs a rename. Up until its launch it was BestBeforeTwentyYearsAgo. Upon launch, there was still an ongoing discussion on the name but it got launched anyway. The current name (which makes no sense) hadn't been mentioned once in the entire YKTTW.

Best Before Decade just doesn't sound like anything. Honestly more than anything else it makes me think of a VH 1 "Best of the x0's!" special. It certainly doesn't make me think of expired food. Decade being in there after Best Before simply doesn't make sense.

The YKTTW Crash rescue thread said to bring it here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13544789560A75740100&page=17

Best Before Twenty Years Ago was unwieldy, but fine. Someone also mentioned Sell Before Long Ago. There was also support for something along the lines of Excessively Expired Edibles.

edited 16th May '13 7:47:45 AM by Larkmarn

That YKTTW link is broken. Try this.

Thanks.

The other issue is that "Best Before Decade" makes it sound more like it's best before a decade from now, which is the exact opposite of the trope.

I like Excessively Expired Edibles. I couldn't figure out the trope by the current name, but this one says exactly what it is.

I think the Added Alliterative Appeal adds humor to the name.

edited 16th May '13 10:55:40 AM by Rethkir

That sounds really awkward.

What's wrong with Way Past the Expiration Date?

That looks good for me.

Maybe just Way Past Expiration? Just a little zippier.

I think that works.

It's kind of clunky and awkward. It feels like it's missing words, which it is.

Way Past Expiration seems fine.

Thirding that one.

Yeah, that works.

It's alright to me.

Shouldn't this have been sent to YKTTW Crash Rescue instead of the TRS?

Way Past Expiration seems too broad for this trope, which is specifically about food — that title keeps making think about an episode of The Simpsons (I think it was a Treehouse Of Horror) where Willie gets set on fire, and tries to put it out with a fire extinguisher, but it failed because the cheapskate PTO voted against having the expired extinguishers recharged by the fire department (despite it being free).

Anyway, I'd suggest Extremely Expired Food for the trope as described. Of course, looking at the examples, about half of them are just "expired food" instead of "food that expired an extremely long time ago".

@ 15: I went there first, they told me to bring it here.

*shrug* Dunno why, but fair enough.

In the original thread, I floated the options Best By Twenty Years Ago and the Excessively Expired Edibles Larkmarn mentioned in the OP.

Why shouldn't this trope include expired fire extinguishers?

Because it's about food. Fire extinguishers are a miscellaneous item.

edited 16th May '13 8:39:54 PM by Rethkir

Why only food? The joke is that it's proved bad, and then we cut to the expiration date and we're long past it. Ha, ha.

edited 16th May '13 9:19:09 PM by AmyGdala

@16 I was thinking about that, which is why I was advocating Way Past the Expiration Date. It's the complete phrase, no chance of confusion.

Things other than food have expiration dates, too, is the point. Though I don't see why this trope couldn't be broadened to include anything that expires or goes bad, whether it's food or a fire extinguisher or a coupon. The joke is always the same — "augh I wanted to use this, but someone's been keeping it around without paying attention to it, so I can't".

I don't think using it for things other than food changes the nature of the trope either.

Agreeing with the chorus - limiting this to food misses Tropes Are Not Narrow.