Lost in Space
Couldn't many of those "showing off X" tropes be combined into a single concept: Showing Off The Money, or Conspicuous Consumption? After all, the trope isn't the thing being shown off, it's the act of showing off. That's 90% of the problem with them in the first place, much like with the Personal Appearance Tropes and Weapon Of Choice. People confuse "thing in work" with "meaning of thing in work".
edited 28th Mar '15 1:02:28 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
"I've been told through private messages that the new management is working on tightening what a trope is..."
Please elaborate.
Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.
There has been moderator discussion about how to handle the fact that all these tropes tend to attract boring examples that are nothing more than "Object appears in the story".
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
The Other Troper
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I think some can, although I would add that some forms of showing off wealth have separate functions (mink coat keeps you warm, private planes take you somewhere), just that they do those functions more luxuriously than a less expensive thing. Others perhaps can just be merged. I have a ykttw covering some of these as well
.
edited 28th Mar '15 1:22:03 PM by DragonQuestZ
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
Lost in Space
"Stuff does thing more luxuriously than baseline in order to show off wealth" is a trope. "Stuff appears" is not a trope. That's the key distinction here.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
And part of the problem is that we have a dozen tropes that are functionally identical with only the object changed, so as the object is the only unique thing in the trope, people mistake it for the whole trope.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
The Other Troper
I agree. That was why I suggested that some be re-written — in description, examples, and wicks — to reflect that.
Yeah, quite a few I don't think can be salvaged, saved for the In-Universe mentions of preference (and those would be examples, not tropes).
Oh, forgot to mention that Everythings Better With Plushies is more a trope of The Merch than garnishing. So that wouldn't need to much of a fix (perhaps a rename).
edited 28th Mar '15 1:40:14 PM by DragonQuestZ
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
The Other Troper
For the "instant awesome just add X" tropes:
- Everything's Better with Samurai
- Everything's Deader with Zombies
- Gratuitous Nazis
- Instant Awesome Just Add Dragons
- Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha!
- Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja
- Rent-a-Zilla
The fix could be that, assuming we go with my general suggestion for Garnishing the Story, we look through the examples and wicks of these tropes for any In-Universe gratuitous use, and if there are enough of those, they can stay a sub trope as Watch It Stoned would be. Otherwise just cut the tropes and merge the few proper examples with Garnishing the Story.
Also, assuming Recycled In Space and Like That Show, But with Mecha are still valid tropes, then perhaps we can see if any of the tropes listed above have enough such examples to make Sister Tropes (Like That Show But With Zombiesnote , Like That Show But With Ninja, etc.).
As for some of the luxury tropes listed...
I think we can merge Gem-Encrusted and Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry. Unless it's a diamond ring cutting things (which we don't seem to have as a trope yet) or the jewels include a Power Crystal, jewelry in this context are already baubles. So is there really that much of a difference between a lady putting emeralds on her earrings or on the hem of her Pimped-Out Dress?
For Gold Makes Everything Shiny... that's also largely just a bauble. Perhaps one of you can make a case for it being separate, or we could just merge it with the jewelry tropes as well, or something else.
Now I would argue that Pretty in Mink is its own trope because fur still is typically used for warmth. So like a Big Fancy House, it's a luxury but a functional one (in real life and media). Plus it's also typically thought of as a winter luxury (so has a bit of symbolism there)*. Not that it's only worn in cold weather, but characters sometimes makes comments when it's worn at other times (like in All About Eve or Troop Beverly Hills). When it is for winter, it's one of the luxuries the rich might show first. That's why you would typically see a Russian noble wearing a fur coat before wearing jewelrynote . And of course because of the way real fur is made, there are implications that you don't typically get with jewels (save for blood diamonds... another trope we don't seem to have).
[ *On that note, perhaps that "Fashionably Floral" ykttw I made could work on the grounds that flowers and clothes are typically a spring accessory, so they would signify that even if worn at other times. That should help weed out bad examples and add proper context to the good ones. ]
I would say hat Fluffy Fashion Feathers is also distinct; I just can't state why very well. Then again, the description seems to state multiple uses, from being used similar to fur (although this seems to be typically for spring and summer uses while fur is for fall and winter), to being an accessory on fanservice clothing. Perhaps there could be a split, or one definition could be removed.
Honestly even without the misuse, Goggles Do Nothing isn't really a trope on its own. There could be a broader trope for accessories worn but never used though. That would also nicely merge with Too Many Belts and Zipperiffic.
Not sure about most of the animal tropes listed. Again even if the inclusion is out of nowhere, that would be done for meta reasons. We would need in-universe reasons for why someone thinks a certain animal is better than not having it.
EDIT: Man, it would be nice if the forums had a preview button.
edited 31st Mar '15 11:49:36 AM by DragonQuestZ
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
The Other Troper
Okay, sorry for the triple post (thought it hyas been a few days, and of course other things have been keeping the mods busy), but I figure I should back up my suggestions by checking all of these tropes to see which can be viable as their own tropes. My humble recommendationsnote are in bold below each trope.
- Garnishing the Story: Limit it to in-universe context of people thinking an element improves things just by its presence (often has characters directly stating it, but not always). Also I think we need to rename it, but I don't have any good suggestions myself. This still is big enough to be a Super-Trope, if an element has enough examples to be a sub trope.
- Revise and Rename
- Babies Make Everything Better: This is already in universe and about character reactions. Now it's more that babies fix things than a character thinks babies just improve things. So that might not even make this a sub trope, but its certainly its own trope.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Deep-Fried Whatever: Well the examples are a mess, but in terms of the trope itself, it seems to be about in-universe frying things just for the hell of it.
- Clarify, Cut bad examples, and remove as a sub trope
- Department of Redundancy Department: Works as a comedy trope on its own, not as a sub trope.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Eenie Meenie Miny Moai: If examples include the actual Moai, then it's not a sub trope of this. The uses where they appear for no reason don't seem to fit though. Those are just things that happen to be Moai heads. Even Konami using Moai heads is more an example of a Creator Thumbprint.
- Revise to be about the statues themselves and what they mean, and remove as a sub trope
- Everythings Better With Motorcycles: This is basically Cool Bike. Even the description is that trope's description, just shorter.
- Merge with Cool Bike, and remove as a sub trope
- Everythings Better With Plushies: As I noted, this is a type of The Merch. Stands on its own rather than as a sub trope.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Everythings Better With Princesses: I'm personally not sure about this as its own trope. We have plenty of other Princess Tropes that stand on their own — Princess Classic, Rebellious Princess, Princesses Rule — but... well the problem may be in the use. The examples and wicks are "this person happens to be a princess", while the actual description is about stereotypes and presumptions we have about princesses. I think this trope might needs its own TRS thread.
- Revise
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: Just as "someone mentions a rainbow" (the The Seer and the Sword example) is not a trope. Even a rainbow appearing after rain isn't a trope (Insane Clown Posse example). Now if the rainbow did other things, that would be a trope. Since Asgard had a rainbow bridge, using a rainbow as walkable ground works as a trope (see also Mario Kart and The LEGO Movie). If the rainbow has some special power, that's also a trope (so many 80s cartoons). Even a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, or some other thing it leads to, would be a trope. I think this best be split into multiple tropes depending on use.
- Split, and remove all as sub tropes
- Everything's Better with Samurai: Now this is the first on the list where I'm looking for two thingsnote : enough In-Universe examples to see if this can stay as a sub trope, and if there are enough Recycled In Space examples to make a Sister Trope to Like That Show, But with Mecha. Every other example would just be merged with Samurai, or Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot if they appear in odd places.
- In-Universe context:
- I'll be generous and count the page picture◊. It's Real Life cosplay, but it's not technically out of universe. What I mean is if that person had written a Star Wars fanfic where a samurai appeared, that would just be a gratuitous use by the author, not in universe.
- The quote from Code Lyoko also counts, since it's a character directly stating he thinks Samurai are cooler.
- Bare Naked Ladies. In their song "One Week", mention is made to this mentality. "Kay I don't make films, but if I did, they'd have a samurai."
- The Order of the Stick has a Wutai setting due to the monkey god wanting ninja in this world while the others agreed on a High Fantasy setting. The monkey god got his way, which includes samurai as palladins.
- I'll be generous and count the page picture
- Like That Show, But With Samurai: None listed, but off the top of my head...
- Samurai Warriors is a spinoff of Dynasty Warriors, which is essentially the latter series but in Japan and with samurai and ninja.
- Yojimbo is a loose retelling of Red Harvest, but the main character is a Rōnin samurai instead of a PI. The film itself got remakes that invert this.
- Seven Samurai also got remakes that invert this, such as The Magnificent Seven having cowboys instead of samurai.
- Either add more examples to keep this and/or make the recycled show trope, or just Cut this
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: As I noted, this works under Rule of Glamorous since examples almost always sparkle more than in real life.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Everything's Better with Spinning: While the page quote is an In-Universe example of thinking this makes things better, there are also plenty of examples that fit under Rule of Cool, particularly many of the sub tropes. I propose we stick with impossible-but-cool spinning and cut examples that are just something spins.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here, and remove examples where the spinning is plausible
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: Same as with Samurai, these are examples from the page (or off the top of my head) that don't just fit under Zombie Apocalypse or Our Zombies Are Different.
- In-Universe context:
- Disgaea: Hour of Darkness has a chapter where you help a kid recover his pet, and he thinks zombies make great pets.
- GamesRadar.com did an article of 20 films that could be improved by zombies.
- In the official Lost podcast, a Running Gag was that after the show's finale in the sixth season, there would be a Season 7, "Lost: Zombies" with "everybody who we've killed off over the years coming back and trying to eat brains." The producers also released a fake script where Walt becomes a zombie.
- Discussed in Ep. 3 of Monster Management from Cracked. Chet and Aisha realize that taking the Sex Sells approach to zombies didn't work, but didn't stop people from loving zombies either because zombies are a money-making machine.
- In Darkwing Duck Tomboy Gosalyn is a zombie fan. In one episode about making movies, she suggested it end with a swarm of zombies wielding chainsaws. In another episode where the show was actually a Show Within a Show and executives were trying to Retool it, Gosalyn sneaked in a script where Bushroot tried to take over the world with mushroom zombies.
- Like That Show, But With Zombies:
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies takes the text of Pride and Prejudice and inserts paragraphs of fighting zombies.
- Seeing the rights for this book were being disputed by Hollywood, a Brazilian movie magazine parodied this trope by suggesting/creating other stories WITH ZOMBIES: Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Zombies, Undead Poets Society, ZOMB•E, and Gone with the Zombies.
- Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare takes the setting of Red Dead Redemption and changes it to a Zombie Apocalypse with other supernatural elements.
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies takes the text of Pride and Prejudice and inserts paragraphs of fighting zombies.
- There are just enough examples that this might work as a sub trope. The recycled show trope needs more examples
- Everything's Louder with Bagpipes: If it's just using bagpipes, like in Wrath of Khan, it's not really a trope. If it's that bagpipes are treated as loud and annoying (which Scrooge exploited a few times in Duck Tales), that would be a trope.
- Revise, and remove as a sub trope here
- Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: As I already suggested, this works if the jewelry is to show affluence or aspirations of affluence. And most if the examples seem to fit. Just the definition and examples need to be rewritten. I also suggest a rename (though that would be for TRS).
- Revise, and remove as a sub trope here
- Fighter-Launching Sequence: This is more for spectacle and Rule of Cool, so it fits under those.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Seems to be two tropes: feathers as an opulent accessory, and feathers as a fanservice accessory.
- Split, and remove all as sub tropes
- Frickin' Laser Beams: Lasers as weapons fit under Rule of Cool, and as a way to show sci-fi elements in a story.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Funny Spoon: I think it could work if spoons were a symbol of absurdity, but I'm not sure if there are enough examples that fit enough to stand as a trope. Most of the examples just seem to be "spoon in some way and it's kind of funny" instead of spoons themselves being comedy elements.
- Cut
- Gem-Encrusted: This can be merged with Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry. Again, is there really that much of a difference between, say, a rich lady wearing a diamond necklace or a diamond studded purse?
- Merge with Jewelry
- Goggles Do Nothing: I mentioned in my previous post that it might work if we see the goggles worn but never used, but that relies on Rule of Perception (and possible the Tethercat Principle?) to work, not anything in the work itself. So I say we can dump this.
- Cut
- Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Also works if its about showing affluence or aspirations of such. So take the page picture◊. The tail wouldn't count (unless it was clear she spray-painted it), but her jewelry and her gold Seashell Bra count to show off that her wealth as royalty. Thus I think this mostly needs description and example rewrites, while pruning bad examples.
- Revise, and remove as a sub trope here
- Gratuitous Disco Sequence: Could work under Rule of Cool and Rule of Funny. I propose this should either be redone into a general trope about out of place musical sequences, or it should have Sister Tropes about other musical sequences (breakdancing, bollywood number, line dancing). again also from the "rule of" tropes.
- Revise or add similar tropes, and remove as a sub trope
- Gratuitous Nazis: Examples that don't fall under Gratuitous Nazis, Stupid Jetpack Hitler, or even They Cloned Hitler.
- In-Universe context:
- Saturday Night Live featured a skit in which a bunch of high-school dropouts discussed The American Civil War. Chris Farley's character seems to think that the Union had Nazis on their side.
"Wham! Wham.. wham! And then this southern [man] plugged this Nazi guy in a headlock! And started pounding him! Bam! Bam bam bam bam!" - Cartman dressing up like Hitler for Halloween in South Park because he idolizes him.
- Saturday Night Live featured a skit in which a bunch of high-school dropouts discussed The American Civil War. Chris Farley's character seems to think that the Union had Nazis on their side.
- Like That Show, But With Nazis:
- A 1995 film Richard III takes the play Richard III and puts it in a Third Reich style setting.
- Doesn't seem to be enough examples. Cut
- Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: It's a comedy trope, so it works on its own.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Incendiary Exponent: It's a Rule of Cool trope.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Instant Awesome Just Add Dragons: What isn't just Our Dragons Are Different.
- In-Universe context:
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series frequently spoofs Seto Kaiba's obsession with dragons, with Yami even claiming he has a dragon fetish.
- Homestar Runner didn't have a dragon until someone asked Strong Bad if he could draw one. Thus, Trogdor was born.
- And the "S Is For Sucks" Dragon.
- In The King of Town's Very Own Quite Popular Cartoon Show The Knight tries to use a dragon as one of many methods to deodorize the Poopsmith
- Like That Show, But With Dragons:
- Doesn't seem to be enough examples. Cut
- Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha!: We already have Like That Show, But with Mecha, so these are the In-Universe context:
- In Saints Row IV, the heroes acquire a humanoid tank, and while Kinsey and Keith David insist it's Powered Armor, the President really prefers to call it a giant robot is pleased that Matt Miller agrees.
- In Whateley Universe, the Square-Cube Law hasn't been overcome, so getting robots to walk just isn't possible in the story. Students still try to make one anyway, and while "Tiny Tim" can't walk, it's artillery works fine.
- Family Guy: Peter ends up directing a school play of The King and I, but being Peter he includes stuff like Anna instead becomes a giant robot.
- Phineas and Ferb: In "Tree To Get Ready", the boys make a treehouse, and remodel Candace's old one, and being Transforming Mecha was a feature they included in both. In "A Hard Day's Knight", Perry infiltrated a villain convention, where villains are showing off their latest evil gadgets, which includes giant robots.
- The Fairly Oddparents: Timmy's Dad made a mecha out of his car to battle his next door neighbor.
- Not sure there are just enough examples that this might work as a sub trope.
- Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: Annnnnd...
- In-Universe context:
- In Kevin Smith's review of The Passion, he suggests that instead of the same old story, the movie starts with Jesus on the cross, and then ninja (with uzis) come and and rescue him. When Jesus protests that he is supposed to die, one of the ninja yells, "Not on my watch!"
- How I Met Your Mother: one of the character is talking about his work and a boring report. His friends complain about it... so he ends up calling it the "ninja report" instead, and everyone goes "Ninjas are awesome" every time it's mentioned.
- Spin City. Charlie daydreamed of winning the World Series, and fighting ninja to make it more awesome.
- The Order of the Stick has a Wutai setting due to the monkey god wanting ninja in this world while the others agreed on a High Fantasy setting.
- In Knights of Buena Vista, Mary makes Anna as close to a ninja as she can, but repeatedly gripes that the setting doesn't actually allow ninja.
- This is parodied in Naruto: The Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show.
Iruka: Aw, did you have to wake me up for this? I was having that awesome ninja dream where I'm a ninja.
Mizuki: Dude, you are a ninja.
Iruka: I am?! Holy shit, that's awesome!! - In Binder of Shame, the character El Disgusto insists on playing a ninja in any conceivable setting, no matter the prompt. In a game of Call Of Cthulhu where every PC is an academian living in the 1930s, he insisted he was "a professor of ninja studies". Yet El Disgusto's idea of "ninja" seems to consist of a character who does nothing but skulk around in the shadows all mysterious-like.
- Family Guy: Peter ends up directing a school play of The King and I, but being Peter he includes stuff like Anna instead becomes a ninja mecha.
- When Peter imagines himself in the opening sequence of a fictitious 1980s sitcom called "My Black Son", at the end of the theme song he sings: "Also he's a ninja!"
- The U.S. Acres segments in Garfield and Friends actually made this a running gag.
- In one episode, Booker says he wants to be a ninja when he grows up.
- Orson adds ninja to Rumplestiltskin to please Booker and Sheldon.
- Booker and Sheldon decide to retell The Tortoise and Hare. They consider turning the tortoise into a ninja, but reconsider, saying "Who would want to see that?"
- When Orson reads Booker and Sheldon a gender-swapped version of "Cinderella", they insists that the wicked stepbrothers be ninja.
- MAD the animated show a quick sketch named 'Everything is Better With Ninjas'.
- Like That Show, But With Ninja:
- The Dating Sim Graduation had an anime OVA follow-up, Sailor Victory, which was about mecha... with ninja abilities.
- Keep as a sub trope
- Just for the Heli of It: As I proposed, we could make this about personal aircraft, including personal copters and private planes, as another way for a character to show wealth. Wait. That can just be for ykttw.
- Cut
- Lava Adds Awesome: Another spectacle/rule of cool trope. Stands on its own.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Prepositional Phrase Equals Coolness: Perhaps works as a trope about title formats, I guess.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Pretty in Mink: As with jewelry, redefine it to be about affluence or wanting to be affluent. So in the Avatar - Korra shows, the water tribe characters don't count, since all of them have fur-trimmed coats. Mai would count, since she's from a wealthy Fire Nation family, and she wears a fur-trimmed cape on a date with Zuko. Also includes other aspects, such as it's generally worn for warmth so characters wearing it when warm are just showing off their wealth.
- Revise, and remove as a sub trope here
- Pun: Comedy trope; stands on its own.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Rent-a-Zilla: Once more...
- In-Universe context:
- The Fairly Oddparents: Timmy accidentally wishes for a giant monster through sleep wishing.
- Like That Show, But With Giant Monsters:
- Doesn't seem to be enough examples. Cut
- Slime, Snails, and Mutant Tails: More a toy and genre trope than this.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Stab the Sky: Spectacle - rule of cool
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Strawberry Shorthand: This is a symbolism trope from the description, so it also stands on its own. Though it symbolizes two things — cuteness and romance — so it likely can be split.
- Split, and remove all as sub tropes
- Stuff Blowing Up: Spectacle - rule of cool
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Too Many Belts: Yeah, I don't know what this is trying to convey. Though the description does say it's based on Real Life fashion trends. Perhaps that trend is trying to convey something (and thus would have the same reason when done in media). So we really need someone to tell us if there is a point to this in real life other than just being a trend.
- Cut unless a purpose can be found
- Troperiffic: This is another thing that its own trope. Heck, the writeup on the list doesn't even seem to fit garnishing that well.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Watch It Stoned: Since it's In-Universe, this is a trope where the garnishing is all from the characters.
- Keep as a sub trope
- "X" Makes Anything Cool: I don't see this as much different from Xtreme Kool Letterz, although it could be a sub trope of that.
- Merge
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: It's a naming convention, so it's also its own trope.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Zipperiffic: Same what I wrote about Too Many Belts.
- Cut unless a purpose can be found
- Clucking Funny: What? The description doesn't even seem to say what the trope is. If it's about being pleasant then it could work as that.
- Cut or Add to Pleasant Animals Index
- Dolphins, Dolphins Everywhere: This isn't even a trope anymore. It's an index.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Everythings Better With Cows: Yeah, this is just cows appearing. If it's about being pleasant then it could work as that.
- Cut or Add to Pleasant Animals Index
- Everythings Better With Dinosaurs: Looking at the in-universe context examples:
- The School Festival arc in Mahou Sensei Negima! has the engineering club construct a robotic T. rex because it would make the festival parades that much more awesome.
- An early Batman comic took place in a dinosaur theme park with robot dinosaurs. Batman kept one of the robo t-rexes in the batcave as a souvinier.
- Jurassic Park is about a theme park where dinosaurs are brought back through cloning. The park is expected to be a huge hit because people think dinosaurs are awesome.
- And in the fourth film the park finally does happen, and is a success for some time.
- In Transformers the Dinobots will sometimes have origin stories where it's just because dinosaurs a cool.
- In Generation 1 it was because Optimus thought robot dinosaurs might be useful.
- In the comic The Transformers the Dinobots arrived on Earth during one of the Ice Ages, they find the atmosphere filled with energon, meaning they need to take an organic-based alt-mode to survive. However, team leader Grimlock isn't impressed by choices like the Woolly Mammoth or deer, and asks for something else. So the guy who suggested the idea checks, and finds some dinosaur fossils, and shows Grimlock a model of a T-Rex. Grimlock's reaction?
- Grimlock: Perfect.
- In 8-Bit Theater the main characters are promised a battle with a fearsome creature, and fighter imagines a ninja riding a t-rex.
- Diesel Sweeties posits that there are two types of people in the world: those who would travel back in time to get drunk with pirates, and those that would go back to see what color the dinosaurs really were.
- Some characters in xkcd really like dinosaurs.
- One guy shares his Google search history, and it's almost all dinosaur related.
- A guy says there's no place he'd rather be than snuggling with his girlfriend. Yet his girlfriend imagines riding a long-necked dinosaur.
- One guy shares his Google search history, and it's almost all dinosaur related
- DES comics, vaguely related to El Goonish Shive has a Velocitoaster advertisement. It's saying that if you are tired of plain toasters, you should get a robot dinosaur with a toaster head.
- The Order of the Stick: Elan is willing to walk into a possible trap as long as there are dinosaur stables.
- As Molly plays with her dollhouse, The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! dares to ask if Ibsen's plays would be better with dinosaurs.
- In the U.S. Acres segments in Garfield and Friends Orson adds dinosaurs to the tale of Rumplestiltskin to please Booker and Sheldon.
- Beast Boy in the Teen Titans cartoon favors a T. Rex over other animal forms, even when it's too big and heavy for the situation.
- In an early episode of The Venture Brothers, Brock Samson is in a Lotus-Eater Machine, and it senses one of his greatest desires is to defeat flamethrower-wielding cowboys riding T. Rexes.
- Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes often has dinosaurs in his active imagination. One time he imagined Tyrannosaurs flying F-14s.
- Jason Fox of FoxTrot has a major dinosaur obsession. He once sent an electronic message to the White House saying "increase dinosaur DNA research" over and over again.
- As Molly plays with her dollhouse, The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! dares to ask if Ibsen's plays
- Keep as a sub trope
- Everythings Better With Llamas: Yeah, just llamas appearing. If it's about being pleasant then it could work as that.
- Cut or Add to Pleasant Animals Index
- Everythings Better With Monkeys: Looking over the examples, this seems to cover multiple tropes, similar to Dolphins, Dolphins Everywhere.
- Split, make it an index, and remove as a sub trope
- Everythings Better With Penguins: Yeah, this is just penguins appearing. If it's about being pleasant then it could work as that.
- Cut or Add to Pleasant Animals Index
- Everythings Better With Platypi: Just the animal appearing. If it's about being pleasant then it could work as that.
- Cut or Add to Pleasant Animals Index
- Everythings Squishier With Cephalopods: It's already soft split. Why not make it hard?note
- Split, make it an index, and remove as a sub trope
- Kangaroos Represent Australia: The trope name suggests a trope more than the definition does.
- Revise, and remove as a sub trope here
- Pandaing To The Audience: That's already listed on the Pleasant Animals Index, so it fits that form.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
- Gratuitous Foreign Language (and all the sub tropes listed): The purpose is being exotic in some way, which is its own trope.
- Keep, but remove as a sub trope here
Okay, after all that, this is what I think Garnishing the Story could become:
Bob Thinks X Makes Everything Betternote
When a characters thinks an element improves things just by the inclusion of that element.
It could be someone thinks a kind of music can be played in any situation. Or someone thinks a certain seasoning goes with any food. Or it could be a writer always wanting to add a panda in the stories. The point is that a character thinks that having X is so much better than leaving X out. Some characters might even rejects things without X.
Sometimes characters will state directly that they feel the element improves things. Other times the context can make it clear, such as characters repeatedly trying to include the element somewhere.
While often this can be a funny quirk, this can sometimes be about an obsession (which can still be Played for Laughs though). Why Don't You Marry It? comments might come up from other characters.
How often this is brought up will also vary. In some cases this can just be a one time joke (or Compressed Vice if it's an obsession). Other times this can be one of a character's primary traits.
A Super-Trope to:
- Everythings Better With Dinosaurs (characters think dinosaurs make everything better)
- Everything's Deader with Zombies (characters think zombies make everything better)
- Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja (characters think Ninja make everything better)
- Watch It Stoned (characters think getting high improves any show they watch)
Compare Fanboy, Author Appeal (where the creators like to put in elements), Fanservice (hoping the audience finds X makes the work better).
See also the Rule of Index tropes (elements are accepted because they add comedy, romance, awesome, etc. to the story)
Examples
Advertizing
- In an ad within an ad, we see Michael Bay is spoofing his Signature Style, including having seven helicopters. The people to whom he's pitching the ad have no idea why the copters are there.
Fan Works
- In Cinema Snob Reviews Frozen (a fan comic where The Cinema Snob reviews Frozen) Snob says that Pierre Kirby (from the Godfrey Ho Ninja Movies) can make any fight scene better.
Live Action TV
- In a Stargate SG-1 episode, the puppet of the general demands the gate spin because "Spinning is so much cooler than not spinning".
Music
- Bare Naked Ladies. In their song "One Week", the lyrics include "Kay I don't make films, but if I did, they'd have a samurai."
Video Games
- In Saints Row IV, the heroes acquire a humanoid tank, and while Kinsey and Keith David insist it's Powered Armor, the President really prefers to call it a giant robot and is pleased that Matt Miller agrees.
Web Video
- Berserk Abridged noted that a soundtrack by Yoko Kanno can make even the weakest anime seem awesome.
- The Website/Youtube channel Guile's Theme Fits All is the origin of the Memetic Mutation of "Guile's Theme Goes With Everything", where his theme is said to improve anything it's played over.
Western Animation
- Ulrich Stern in Code Lyoko takes the form of a samurai when he's virtualized. Odd Della Robbia complains "Hey, That's not fair! How come he gets to be a samurai? That's so much cooler!".
- In Futurama Bender is blackmailing Leela, but as he thinks "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word he says "I prefer 'extortion'. The 'X' makes it sound cool."
So do these look like good fixes? Do we have more ways to fix these?
edited 5th Apr '15 4:46:31 AM by DragonQuestZ
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
Garnishing the Story seems like a case for IUEO to me; it's a valid concept but "regular" examples are bad. Not a case for a rename, though.
The rest is a wee bit long for me.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
The Other Troper
What does IEUO stand for?
And for what Garnishing is right now, yes it is a valid concept. It's just an out of universe one.
As for the rest being long, that's why I put some of the lines in bold, to get to the point with each trope.
edited 5th Apr '15 3:48:29 AM by DragonQuestZ
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
IUEO is In-Universe Examples Only.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
The Other Troper
Oh, got the letters mixed up. Well that's what the writeup I put in the end of post #10 supposed to be.
As for the case for a rename, the in-universe examples aren't limited to garnishing a story they are telling.
EDIT: The wicks are a better case for a rename. They seem to be used as "I thought it was neat this was put in the show".
edited 5th Apr '15 5:04:10 AM by DragonQuestZ
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
The Other Troper
Amendment to post #10. I just played Undead Knights, and it's basically Dynasty Warriors with zombies (and Pikmin) elements. Plus Resident Evil is Alone in the Dark with zombies. So with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies we might have enough to split off "Like That Show But With Zombies".
edited 6th Apr '15 10:23:34 PM by DragonQuestZ
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
I would support splitting Everythings Squishier With Cephalopods, similar to what we did with Everything's Worse with Wolves into Noble Wolf and Savage Wolves. It would not only get rid of the snowclone, there's already a YKTTW for "Tentacled Terror" that could cover evil octopoids if fully developed. Funny Octopus seems like it could be a seperate trope.
edited 29th Mar '16 6:13:38 AM by Morgenthaler
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"
A previous Repair Shop thread on Everythings Squishier With Cephalopods stalled one and a half years ago. As mentioned in that thread, Giant Squid, Cthulhumanoid and Kraken and Leviathan would probably cover many of the examples; a few other YKTTWs would also be relevant.
Sounds reasonable.
Those YKTTWs have been Up For Grabs for some time now, so I'll assume sponsorship. I'll start a sandbox to sort ouf some of the examples as well.
Alien Octopus seems like a valid subtrope of Starfish Aliens. I'll rework Tentacled Terror as the "evil squid" trope. Does someone else want to sponsor the Funny Octopus trope?
Additionally, I think we should add a crowner to this thread before we split anything from Everythings Squishier With Cephalopods.
edited 13th May '16 6:15:32 AM by Morgenthaler
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"
Made a crowner for Everythings Squishier With Cephalopods to build some consensus.
edited 18th May '16 2:00:50 AM by Morgenthaler
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"
Hi
Hooked, thanks. ![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
You know, a quick way to fix these would be to just cut anything that has more than 50% ZCE and misuse in it's wicks. That way we wouldn't be trying to salvage things that are too far decayed. If there is really a need for them they can be taken to YKTTW once their misuse is no longer a bad habit.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Bump for votes.
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"
Hi
Calling for the split.
I'll start a sandbox to sort examples for Everythings Squishier With Cephalopods.
I've also submitted Everythings Better With Motorcycles to TRS with a motion to cut, as I really don't think there's anything worth salvaging there.
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"
Crown Description:
Vote up for yes, down for no.
I've been told through private messages that the new management is working on tightening what a trope is, and whatever the new guidelines will be, it looks like Garnishing the Story isn't going to make the cut.
And thinking about it... I agree. If this is about creators throwing stuff in works because they think the audience might find it neat, that's at most Trivia. And this applies to many of the sub tropes listed.
So before a bunch of tropes get slashed, let's figure out if, and how, we can fix any of them, by making sure they fit In-Universe parameters. Some may eventually get their own Trope Repair Shop threads (even if just for renames), but this thread is for ideas to salvage as many of them as possible.
So let's see what can be done.
Some suggestions for a handful of these:
Rename Garnishing the Story and redefine it to In-Universe instances where characters think an element helps something just by its inclusion. Either characters directly state they think it does, or the context makes it clear the character is doing it just because. Such examples include (and the first two are from the trope page):
If the above suggestion works, then Watch It Stoned could stay as a Sub-Trope, since it already is about characters stating in-universe that getting stoned makes something better.
Some of these tropes already fit under some of the Rule of Index tropes, so we just leave them on those indexes (although we would have to trim the examples that don't fit under those).
Some of these are usually signs of wealth, so although the inclusions are technically gratuitous, these do show characterization (particularly of the Conspicuous Conspumtion kind). Therefore I propose these tropes be reworked so that they are In-Universe about showing off wealth and other characters desiring the items because of that, and then all examples be rewritten to reflect the new definitions (and trimming examples that don't fit anymore).
On the above note, Just for the Heli of It could be reworked to be about someone having a personal helicopter since, like a private plane, it's a way to show off money.
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.