Misused (needs wicks moved): Accidentally Accurate

Not an inversion

What? People don't want to merge this? Why?

And, well, "successful future forecast" could be a good trope, I think.

"in the former the writers didn't do the research but got the facts right by coincidence, while in the latter they did an extensive research and it shows."

It doesn't have to be extensive. Doing just a bit of fact-checking can count for the trope.

Yeah, I didn't mean a month-long research. Just proper checking of obscure facts instead of rushing it or making it up. Updated the distinction in the crowner. Still think that a merge would be better, too, if we can't really tell when it's Accidentally Accurate and when it's Shown Their Work without Word of God.

Yeah, I can't imagine why people wouldn't want to merge two completely unrelated concepts simply because they can overlap.

Someone in 1897 writing "Man first landed on the moon in 1969" is not a case of Shown Their Work. It's not even close!

edit: typo

edited 29th Jan '17 11:57:42 AM by Xtifr

I think we're mixing four different tropes here:

1. Authors who make predictions or simply make up future events and fail (Failed Future Forecast)
2. Authors who make predictions or simply make up future events and nail it (we don't have a trope for that yet, but examples are being shoehorned in Accidentally Accurate)
3. Authors who put in obscure facts, didn't do the research and got it right by fluke (what Accidentally Accurate is right now)
4. Authors who put in obscure facts and did the research, so obviously the facts coincide with reality (Shown Their Work)

I'd like to merge 3 and 4 because the only possible way to tell them apart is through Word of God. Of course wouldn't be part of the merge; that would rather be the trope we don't have yet (2).

edited 29th Jan '17 1:10:13 PM by Gosicrystal

Huh. That's not what I got out of reading the description, but it is pretty ambiguous, and on a re-read, I can see how you got that, and maybe even see that as being the original intent.

Honestly, I don't think 3 is even a trope (which may be why it wasn't my initial interpretation). It's the blurry area between 2 and 4. And, of course, since we now have a bunch of examples of 2, the most obvious solution is to broaden the definition to include 2, and keep those examples.

That's how I'd interpret the intent behind the votes so far. (And I do think it needs a rename in any case, to clarify that it's about what writers do, rather than about what characters do.)

3&4 are identical to the following:

5) Authors who put in obscure facts, and got it right (what Shown Their Work is right now)

I see 2 as the Opposite Trope of Failed Future Forecast, rather than part of 3. Accidentally Accurate could mention it in the "compare/contrast" section.

Writers Got It Right would theoretically cover 2 to 4. Perhaps it's too broad then?

I agree that we should have Successful Future Forecast (2). If we were to merge 2 and 3 I'd call it "Writer's Lucky Guess", but I don't think we need to do that.

Bumping for votes. The leading option only has six.

Can a moderator please move the contents of Accidentally Accurate to Accidentally-Correct Writing? Then we'll start the wick migration.

Done.

Down to 300 wicks. The old page still needs to become a redirect to the new page.

Going to bring up 1 more problem I see before we close this.

Looking at the examples on the page and more than a few in universe fiction examples like all of the Star Trek The Next Generation examples or Continuity examples that might have just been tidbits of the show's bible such as the CSINY example.

Those in-universe and show bible things IMO are not this and more of a Continuity Porn type thing.

edited 19th Jun '17 10:20:44 AM by Memers

Compare Life Imitates Art.

edited 19th Jun '17 9:52:12 AM by Gosicrystal

Old location is now a redirect.

Will also cutlist the old laconic and quotes pages.

Under 200 wicks.

By far, the absolute biggest source of misuse is "someone makes a joke that is or becomes real later on", especially in stuff like Web Videos and Let's Plays. I've gathered 25 or so examples; does this merit a TLP?

edited 21st Jun '17 5:21:05 AM by Gosicrystal

^ I haven't seen those examples but it sounds close to "Funny Aneurysm" Moment.

"Funny Aneurysm" Moment is what used to be funny that ends up being painful to remember.

Perhaps it's either I Knew It! or Hilarious in Hindsight?

edited 21st Jun '17 6:03:54 PM by Berrenta

Here's a sample of what I mean:

• Midnight Screenings: In the review for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Brian mentions his confusion over Barbossa having a peg-leg, to which Brad suggests he go to the Pirates wiki, jokingly saying it probably has its own page.
• Not Always Right:
  • This customer forgets what he's looking for. An employee jokingly asks if he's looking for memory aids, which turns out to be correct.
  • A customer pays for a $70 purchase with 70 single-dollar bills; the cashier jokingly asks if the customer is a stripper, and is surprised by the "yes" answer.
• In Lucifer (2016), Chloe jokes about Lucifer having Daddy Issues. She's not wrong...
• Mock the Week:
  • Between Dara and Josh in one episode:
    Dara: What did the Queen invent with a dachshund and a corgi?
    Josh Widdicombe: The dorgi!
    Dara: That's absolutely right.
    Josh: Really?! I was joking!
  • In the 2016 Christmas episode:
    Dara: What might you expect to eat at Christmas in Japan?... A bucket of...
    Nish: Fried chicken?
    Dara: Fried chicken!
    Nish: Is it fried chicken?
    Dara: It's fried chicken.
• Weird Video Games: In "Rock 'n' Rage", after expressing disbelief at the random weirdness of the first Ancient Egypt level (such as Cleopatra giving you a forcefield powerup) he sarcastically suggests that the next level, Mediaeval Great Britain, will include Dracula as an enemy. It actually turns out to have Nosferatu as an enemy...
• MAD once did a parody of Cathy called Amy!, which depicted Amy Winehouse hiding drugs in her beehive hairdo. Then someone filmed her pulling a vial of cocaine from her hair, and suddenly it's like, "They knew!".

Those are more Guessed The Punchline if that exists.

In that case, those can be TLP'd, since we don't have that trope, I don't think.

Well, there's I Was Just Joking, which is close, but that requires a second person to take the first one's joke seriously (and maybe even apply it, if it was a sarcastic suggestion). Our case is the first person just finding out that the universe has made their joke real.

edited 22nd Jun '17 7:00:37 AM by Gosicrystal