Ambiguous Name: Double Date

The name just sounds like it's, well, a Double Date between two couples. However, it's actually specifically about a double date where there's UST between a member of couple A, and a member of couple B (the example as thesis might not be helping this). As such, it gets potholed a LOT as just a plain double date.

I vote we turn the page into just a normal double date and make a new page with the old definition. UST Double Date or something.

• Video Game/Amagami: Used as a regular double date (more of a "diving on the friend grenade" situation than anything else)
• Anime & Manga: Looks like a normal double date, not 100% certain
• Bomb Girls: Seems valid enough.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer S 3 E 8 "Lover's Walk": Correct
• Castle S 2 E 14 The Third Man: Correct.
• Series/Cheers: Not sure. It does have one of the quintessential Will They or Won't They? couples, so I'm going to assume correct.
• Happy Days: Pretty sure it's used as a standard double date, given it's with Laverne And Shirley. Not certain.
• Characters/Housepets: No clue whatsoever.
• I Won't Say: Zero Context Example
• iCarly: Used as a normal double date.
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance: A DLC pack is named Double Date so it's potholed... but obviously doesn't fit this trope.
• Justice League: Used as the name of an episode, so traditional Double Date
• Noahs Arc: Actually seems to be more of a third wheel situation, since it seems like one guy invited two other characters over (none of whom were involved with each other), but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
• Series/Outsourced: Zero context.
• The Brady Bunch S 3 E 5 My Sister Benedict Arnold: Weird example, but it works, I suppose.

• The Brady Bunch S 5 E 5 Peter And The Wolf: Used incorrectly
• The Fools' Tournament: No clue.
• The Funhouse: No context, but looks like just a double date.
• Tropes A to D: Same as the Castle example above.
• Tropes A to F: Pretty certain it's wrong.
• Two-Timer Date: Episode title potholed. Given it's about a Two-Timer Date, that'd technically be misuse.
• X-Men Legends: Similar to the MUA, DLC potholed so it's incorrect.

So of 22 non-administrative wicks: 7 definitely wrong. 4 that I believe are wrong 4 that I have no idea 5 definite correct 2 probably correct.

Not good numbers.

I forget who said this just last week, but trope makers should never use a predefined term (like Double Date) as the trope name for something else than its preexisting definition (like Double-Date-but-only-if-...) That's just asking for trouble.

I concur with the OP; transplant or YKTTW the current meaning of the trope, and redefine this page to what its name means.

I forget who said this just last week, but trope makers should never use a predefined term...

You mean Madrugada, I suspect.

Pretty sure that came from discussion about Impersonating an Officer... I'm inclined to agree, of course.

It may not be me saying that Spark is remembering, but that's certainly my stance on the issue, and has been for a long time. I fully concur with making "Double Date" cover exactly what it is used to mean in Real Life (two couples go on a date together) and transplanting the subtrope (two couples go on a date together and one from one couple has UST with one from the other couple) to a more accurately name.

edited 14th Aug '13 10:47:05 AM by Madrugada

Was this recently launched? It looks like it doesn't have enough examples for folders. And the description is very short for something so specific. Considering how few examples there are, I'd say just make it whenever two couples are on a date.

It has an (empty) archived discussion, so it's certainly not recent.

This was in the related links... take from that what you will.

What a sad, sad page. So, let's broaden the definition and add some examples. In the meantime, I'm removing the folders.

Our page for Double Date should be for what the term is used for outside TV Tropes. This is one case where I wouldn't even bother with checking misuse.

I also seem to rememeber an image of a Double Date where all four people were thinking of the person they weren't dating. Did we have a page with such an image?

Seems like there's going to be very little opposition to redefining Double Date to mean, well, a double date.

Any ideas for names for the trope that's currently there?

Double Date Love Quadrangle, but that should go through YKTTW.

Some people might think it's PSOC.

Is either trope prominent enough in the examples not to need YKTTW?

If it needs a new name, what with the reference to "star-crosses lovers," why not "Star-Crossed Double Date"?

I don't think that reference is appropriate. There's nothing about them being fated to not end up together.

I sort of agree with Morgan Wick: a simple double date without any other narrative significance is questionably tropable. It certainly would attract ZCEs.

Mismatched Double Date?

Awkward Double Date?

Clock is set.

Double Date Switch?

Double Date And Switch (play off Bait-and-Switch)?

The minimum we need for examples is who is dating whom, and where they go.

Usually a Double Date (or Triple Date, or Quadruple Date) happens when everyone in a couple shares an interest. The more general the setting, the less the people have in common. A Double Date trip to a 1940s baseball museum gives the group a chance to bond over their common interest and enjoy themselves. Whereas a Double Date trip to an Italian restaurant is slightly less likely to go well, and a Double Date to a coffee shop is likely to end in disaster for one or more couples.

Mixed Up Double Date?

Double Date Leads To Jealousy?

Did we even actually decide whether this should be renamed?

We need a crowner for the following options:

• rename the trope
• Trope Transplant the current definition to a new name, replacing it with a Double Date trope
• change the definition

Any of the three would solve the problem.

Well, a lot of people have agreed that the name is bad for the current definition, so yeah...