Misused (alt names crowner 31 Dec 2020): Small Annoying Creature

Small, Annoying Creature is supposed to be "The small critter sidekick that gets on everyone's nerves". With the work page mentioning "Note that this trope is for characters who are annoying to the other characters, not just to the audience."

Yet most of the none Zero-Context Examples examples on the page only talk about how annoying the characters are to the audience, to the point where the example for The Penguins of Madagascar says the example is Played With in that the characters find the character annoying In-Universe - when the character being annoyingInUniverse is the whole point of the trope.

Wick Check:

• A Twinkle in the Sky: Potholed to half of a character's name.
• Animal Tropes: Listed as part of the index.
• Belly Mouth: Used as part of a sentence, doesn't given enough context as to whether it's being used correctly or not.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Potholed to character name.
• Bond Creatures: Used as part of a sentence, doesn't given enough context as to whether it's being used correctly or not.
• Cute Machines: The Death Star's "Mouse" droids. (Of course, Chewbacca had a different opinion.) Pothole, although the example does suggest In-Universe annoyance, doesn't cover small or sidekick requirements, not sure if robots qualify as creatures.
• Elf Tropes: Listed as part of the index, although the definition attached - An elf sidekick who gets on everyone's nerves.- is still vague on whether the annoyance is on the part of the characters or the audience
• Finger Poke of Doom: Potholed to character name.
• Follow the White Rabbit: Potholed to character name.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Used as part of a sentence, doesn't given enough context as to whether it's being used correctly or not.
• Now, Where Was I Going Again?: Potholed to character name.
• One-Word Vocabulary: CL4P-TP: SHUT THE @#$% UP STEVE. And people say I'm annoying. Pothole, does suggest anoyance In-Universe, but does cover small, creature or sidekick requirements
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Potholed to the word "familiar".
• Snarky Non Human Side Kick: Listed in the page description as part of the "See also..." section
• Team Pet: Used as part of a sentence in the page description, doesn't given enough context as to whether it's being used correctly or not.
• The Phoenix: Used as part of a sentence, doesn't given enough context as to whether it's being used correctly or not.
• Vengeful Vending Machine: Potholed to character name.
• Winged Humanoid: Used as part of a sentence, doesn't given enough context as to whether it's being used correctly or not.
• Characters.Ask Dr Rin: At least one of them for most fans. Zero-Context Example and makes it clear that it's being misused as an audience reaction.
• Characters.Big Hero 6 Sycorax And Associates: In Hiro's eyes, anyway. Zero-Context Example, but does make it clear that the annoyance factor is In-Universe.
• Characters.Chaos Rings II: Zero-Context Example
• Characters.Free Birds: Used as part of a sentence, doesn't given enough context as to whether it's being used correctly or not.
• Characters.Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory: Zero-Context Example.
• Characters.Kingdom Hearts Twilight Of The Stars: At least, from his world. He's pretty much the equivalent of a pixie, and while trying to be helpful, often ends up causing more harm than good. A lot of words, but not a lot of context, and I'm not sure whether "ends up causing more harm than good" qualifies as "annoying".
• Characters.Looney Tunes Secondary Characters: Zero-Context Example.
• Characters.Sengoku Youko: He looks like a bipedal turnip. Zero-Context Example.
• Characters.Shrek Main Characters: Small only by comparison to Shrek, but he fits this trope, right down to being called a "Dense, irritating, miniature beast of burden". He lampshaded this in Shrek 2.
  Donkey: (to Puss) I'm sorry, the position of Annoying Talking Animal has already been taken!

• Characters.Sponge Bob Square Pants Live Action Characters: Patchy is constantly annoyed by him. Zero-Context Example, but does make it clear that the annoyance factor is In-Universe.
• Characters.The Animals Of Farthing Wood: Zero-Context Example.
• Characters.Treasure Planet: He's a small, flying morph creature that uses his said morphing abilities to mess with others, particularly Jim. But he's not too annoying. Does establish the small and creature criteria, but literally says the character is not annoying
• Characters.Two Kinds: Used as part of a sentence, covers In-Universe annoying requirement, but not the rest.
• Ekho: Used as part of a sentence, doesn't given enough context as to whether it's being used correctly or not.
• DarthWiki.The Coming Storm: Yaptors are half the size of Asancrans and absolute HELL for the owner of the Muffin Mart. In-Universe annoyance is implied, but still needs more context, as I have no idea what a Yaptor or an Asancran are
• Heartwarming.Tales Of The Abyss: In fact, even if you find Mieu annoying there is something very touching about his unbreakable faith in Luke. Pothole to annoying, and the rest of the context makes it clear that it's being misused as an audience reaction.
• Jerkass.Video Games: Potholed to "malicious unnamed fairy".
• Reynaldo The Assassin: Zero-Context Example
• Nurse Angel Ririka SOS: Maruru plays this very, very straight in the anime. She/he/it has a grating voice and comes with the requisite Verbal Tic: appending "maru" to the ends of sentences. Mostly Word Cruft, and from what little context provided seems to be going with annoying out-of-universe rather than In-Universe
• Quotes.Be Yourself:

• Radar.Yu Gi Oh: Potholed to character name.
• Recap.South Park S 3 E 10 Korns Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery: Nibblet, the resident Scooby-Doo Expy is some kind of weird bird-monkey creature whose antics often get the gang in trouble. Creature part is covered, annoying is only vaguely implied at best, does not mention the small or sidekick part.
• Sandbox.Items: Potholed to "Small Annoying A.I.".
• Dinosaur Planet: Zero-Context Example
• Quark: Zero-Context Example
• VerbalTic.Live Action TV: Potholed to "Small Annoying Houseplant".
• CRiTORA: Potholed to character name.
• Rapal Dark Res: Loli McQuasi is treated like one by the other girls, especially Dick Berries. Lots of Word Cruft, but little context.
• Protectors of the Plot Continuum: Zero-Context Example.
• Adventurers!: Used as part of a sentence, doesn't given enough context as to whether it's being used correctly or not.
• Skylanders Academy: Broccoli Guy is a rare villainous example, even if he is relatively harmless. The only reason the Doom Raiders keep him around is because of his healing powers. Word Cruft, but no context.
• The Magic Voyage:
  • Potholed to "talking woodworm" in the page description.
  • Zero-Context Example.
• YMMV.Super Paper Mario: Used as part of a sentence, doesn't given enough context as to whether it's being used correctly or not.

Sorry for the wait, ~Anddrix. Opened.

I'm in favor of a rename. Would Small Annoying Sidekick, Largely Annoyed Protagonists work? I'm aware that it's kind of long, and maybe kind of bland as well, but I think whatever we go with needs to indicate that the ones who are annoyed are in-universe characters.

As I mentioned in another thread, I haven't been feeling the best today, so maybe I can think of something better once I'm feeling better, though I'd imagine someone else could come up with something better.

Can I get a tally on that wick check?

No to what? If it's to the rename, the wick check is already sorted by category and says what is or isn't wrong with the examples; the descriptions show that the examples already have multiple problems other than misuse (use as a Pothole Magnet, ZCEs, etc.). The bold text provides the necessary information without a tally. If it's the suggestion, then I already said it may not be good.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 3rd 2020 at 2:22:03 PM

I would support Small Annoying Sideckick for a rename.

Small Annoying Sidekick works for me.

What about Annoyed By The Small Sidekick? I feel like replacing "Creature" with "Sidekick" wouldn't do anything to clarify that it's an in-universe reaction and not an audience reaction. That's why I suggested adding "Largely Annoyed Protagonists" after "Small Annoying Sidekick" in my first suggestion, partially for clarification, and partially for wordplay.

Also, it occurred to me a bit ago that this should probably be IUEO, like what we did with Annoying Laugh (though without the permission of Word of God-confirmed Intended Audience Reactions, since this is purely a character reaction trope).

Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 3rd 2020 at 8:23:15 AM

Putting it under In-Universe Examples Only would hammer it in. Also want to send a Query Wishlist asking for a tag for when an IUEO trope is put on a YMMV page.

Edit: Sent the query.

Edited by ccorb on Oct 3rd 2020 at 9:53:58 AM

@GastonRabbit: The "no" was to that name specifically. I really hate long trope names.

Annoying Animal Sidekick, maybe?

I'm not sure that name would help. It's not much clearer than the current name.

Annoyed By The Sidekick, perhaps?

Annoyed By The Sidekick works. As I've said before, I think "annoyed by" works better than "annoying" when it comes to making it clear that this isn't an Audience Reaction.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 3rd 2020 at 12:26:49 PM

Yeah, that sounds better, honestly.

I think some of these names might be too misleading in a different direction. Annoyed By The Sidekick would attract examples of annoying sidekicks that aren't small marketable animals.

Animal Sidekick Nuisance? I think "nuisance" implies the IUEO aspect. A viewer wouldn't call a character a nuisance, because they don't have to deal with them directly, but other characters would. Know what I'm saying?

Sidekick Creature Nuisance, maybe?

&Those two suggestions sound good.

Animal Sidekick Nuisance

Edited by ccorb on Oct 3rd 2020 at 5:31:46 AM

Not sure about the "animal" part, considering some valid examples (such as Puck from Berserk, who's annoying to Guts) aren't exactly what most people would call animals.

Can't that be chalked up as Tropes Are Flexible?

I think it should be.

To cut down on future misuse it might be useful to add a mention that it's not to be confused with The Scrappy, which tends to be the case for out-of-universe reactions of this nature.

I see no reason why this should be restricted to in-universe examples. Tropes Are Not Narrow, so just broaden it up.

We already have audience reactions such as The Scrappy and Annoying Video Game Helper. I don't see why we need to broaden this.

Ignore this post. I realized we have Kid-Appeal Character to sort out any misuse of this trope to mean "gratuitous cute animal for marketability".

Edited by 8BrickMario on Nov 2nd 2020 at 4:20:41 AM

Added banner to the page.