The "Big Green Banner" running gag

I'm bringing this up for concerns of the running gag of people referencing the "Big Green Banner" (or The Hulk) when someone on Ask The Tropers mentions something better suited to Lost And Found possibly becoming stale.

I know that people here enjoy it, but even if it's not a stale Running Gag, the fact is, chances are, people who probably weren't around here before the first mention of the gag are the ones asking the question, so they won't know the context of the gag, to begin with.

(When I pointed this out, apparently, you guys thought it was okay as long as others link to the original joke, but the last time someone tried to invoke the running gag, they didn't.)

edited 28th Jun '14 5:48:17 AM by KarjamP

I am sorry what is this gag? I have never heard of it.

edited 28th Jun '14 8:58:01 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

I thought the same thing until I saw the JustForFun.Ask The Tropers page.

edited 28th Jun '14 9:18:27 AM by WaterBlap

Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they pretty

I see no problem with it.

Two have - they didn't know what the running gag was until it was pointed out by the second person who found out what it was on RunningGag.TV Tropes and posted it here.

I think it's possible it's becoming stale because it's getting lost on people who never heard of the running gag beforehand.

edited 28th Jun '14 1:24:06 PM by KarjamP

You are actually arguing two different things - or you are phrasing your argument very poorly.

A gag becomes stale by overuse. Period. That, in fact, is what it means. Of course, it is purely subjective whether or not it has reached that point, but worth discussing.

As for the 'people didn't see the first go-around, therefore we should scrap it' argument, that is frankly asinine. Running Gags are found all over media in places where the default assumption is that people aren't going to be able to go back and look up the original.

Older movies? Before the advent of the home video market, if you didn't see it during its first go-around in a theater you probably never would. That didn't stop movie makers from having running gags in connected series of movies (See the "Road to ..." movies or the U Ks "Carry On, ..." series). It wasn't a problem for TV shows, where if the show didn't go to syndication you could expect to literally never see anything from before the current season again (reruns normally only covered stuff from the current season). Live TV or Radio that wasn't even recorded in the first place? Running Gags were still fair game.

I am aware I was going a bit too far, but I only realised that in hindsight.

Anyway, I said "concerns".

Fast Eddie's trying to get us clean up a recent "type" of Sinkholes: Joke Fulfillment links, which were previously "Running Gags" before he decided to ban them.

While yes, that has nothing to do with this, but my point is, I have concerns whether it's becoming stale or not, partly due to this reason, and partly due to the fact that I'm not so sure newer people would get it that it's supposed to be a running gag on the "Big Green Banner" pun. If you guys were to turn it into a running gag, I would say at least do it properly and make it clear what the gag's about instead of just saying "HULK SMASH PUNY TROPER INTO Lost and Found!!!" and expect others to know you guys are trying to make a witty pun instead of just making a random statement apparently about The Hulk attacking fellow tropers so that they'll wind up in Lost And Found.

This is why the biggest negative (insular thinking) is completely removed from the gag. It doesn't matter if the troper making the mistake (ignoring the sign on top of the page) knows about the gag or not, they're still getting the instruction to go to the right place.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

The solution is obviously to make it red.

Check out my fanfiction!

Then the nickname would be a "Big Red General Ross"!

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Or we could instead communicate like normal humans and just politely link them to the right spot to go. It is a help section not open mic night.

Who watches the watchmen?

Anyway, the "secular thinking" part was rhetoric - I know that's not what could be going on the minds of the actual tropers.

My point was, they could get confused on why you're saying it like that instead of finding it witty, especially if they aren't aware that it's supposed to be one of TV Trope's Running Gags.

EDIT: And also, not everyone's aware that the page JustForFun.Ask The Tropers exist that would explain the meaning behind the Running Gag.

edited 29th Jun '14 4:39:10 AM by KarjamP

Another possible response would be to just copy and paste the banner at the top rather than writing the hulk speak or a dejected reply.

Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they pretty

In a search of "lostandfound" for the Ask The Tropers, people have been complaining too many people are ignoring the banner since Jun 2011.

I was jesting in response to ~Another Duck's joke: I doubt either of us were serious about the proper course of action.

That's one reason why the Hulk meme has been used: it makes people less upset about normal human stupidity because it gives a chance to play a game.

edited 29th Jun '14 6:39:39 AM by crazysamaritan

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Yeah, but shouldn't "politeness" do a similar thing?

Just because we make mistakes doesn't necessarily mean we wouldn't like it if other point out our mistakes.

Those who do aren't emotionally mature.

Anyway, we can't just be witty and expect everyone to get our joke from the get go - not everyone frequents Ask The Tropers long enough to know that "Hulk Smash" is supposed to be a pun on the "big banner" on the top of the page unless it's explicitly pointed out to them.

This is a serious problem as chances are, the people who ask a Lost And Found question on Ask The Tropers would most likely be a newbie for not knowing their question's better suited for Lost And Found.

Even JustForFun.Ask The Tropers, which has said the "Hulk Smash" "meme"'s explanation on it, says that the gags it lists can confuse newbies unless it's been explained to them what others mean by using one of the gags. Why that's not linked to the top of the page or whatever (to explain all of the running gags of Ask The Tropers) is beyond me.

edited 29th Jun '14 10:39:28 AM by KarjamP

Your first sentence is asking if the chance to be "polite" makes people happy to help. I say that because you asked if "politeness" should do the same thing as an opportunity to participate in a joke does.

The answer is that being polite does not make people happy. Having people respectful to you makes you happy, but polite behaviour is not a motivator to action.

If the chance to be polite should make people happy is an interesting debate, but it exists in a currently fictional world.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

I meant that if you speak politely, you'd minimize the chance of others becoming angry, since the alternatives, being rude or mocking them, would most likely enrage them or make them upset, respectively.

Also, please read the rest that I had to say before trying to argue about my logic.

edited 29th Jun '14 11:00:02 AM by KarjamP

Sure, it was a joke, but I do wonder if giving it a colour to stand out a little more would help people noticing it, such as this yellow/beige box with red borders when you post something.

edited 29th Jun '14 1:24:51 PM by AnotherDuck

Check out my fanfiction!

Your other points weren't relevant to what I was saying. There's more you can do than be polite, rude, or mocking. You are guilty of ignoring my logic, and I see no reason to abandon the counterpoints I've made already just because you want to add points that fail to address my reasons.

On the topic of being polite, I understood exactly what you meant. I had to explain that what you said wasn't addressing what I said. That's very rude in a debate.

If my memory isn't being faulty, talk about adding colour to the banner is why Cryptic Mirror made the Hulk joke.

edited 29th Jun '14 8:06:38 PM by crazysamaritan

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

I don't get how I was being rude in the first place. Then again, this could be one of those moments where my limited social skills as an Asperger is more apparent.

Anyway, the point is, the way you present what you said actually influences the other's mood due to our empathetic nature.

An obvious example is being rude about it having a high chance of angering the asker because you, in turn, showed anger to him.

Politeness often sounds calm, so it's the most ideal way of telling others that they made a mistake. (And I think they'll often not mind unless they can't take others pointing out their mistakes lightly.)

Besides, I think the "Hulk Smash" thingy might actually be seen as mocking the asker unless they know that it's supposed to be a Running Gag that plays a pun on the banner at the top of the page, which I think is highly unlikely unless it's either pointed out after someone did the joke or or pointed out by the person while doing the joke, since as I said before, the person who asks on Ask The Troper instead of Lost And Found would most likely be a newbie at least on Ask The Troper and Lost And Found since they don't know they're supposed to ask that question on the Lost And Found instead of the other.

"I don't like jokes. Make it stop."

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

You're playing strawman.

Jokes aren't always appropriate for every situation, especially if the context may be lost.

In this case, I don't think it's appropriate simply because unless we always point out that we're making a joke/pun on the big "green" banner at the top of the page, have the banner link to JustForFun.Ask The Tropers and/or make the banner literally green to make the joke more obvious, as the person who'd most likely a Lost And Found question on Ask The Tropers, like I said in a different way, would most likely be people who don't know the ways of Ask The Tropers.

edited 2nd Jul '14 3:18:08 PM by KarjamP

"Allow me to demonstrate."

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

Should be easy to figure out by common sense - why else would people ask at Ask The Tropers a question that's better suited at Lost And Found if they don't know better that it's suited there?

The banner at the top's easy to miss unless you were trying to see it since people (even experienced ones) would most likely skip past that and either read the current discussions or go right down to the bottom of the page to start a new query. (which was probably the reason why there was a discussion to put the banner in a colored box. IE, the same discussion that spawned the "big green banner" Running Gag according to you.)

Also, you can't just demonstrate scenario like this unless you give a hypothetical scenario, for which I don't think is needed since I think what I said's clear enough already.

edited 3rd Jul '14 3:24:54 AM by KarjamP

The specific joke here is getting a little stale. It has the same problem that all memes do; they get over-done and dated really quickly.

The wiki has a problem with things that might be funny once or twice getting the repeat-until-you-puke treatment. We don't want to lose the good laughs from the "once or twice" usage but we do want to bypass all the puking.

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty