So reality shows are a tricky thing to trope since they involve real people, but there are a few things that can certainly be fixed.
(I am mainly referring to the pages for the show Big Brother for this, as that is the franchise that needs the most fixing (to my knowledge) and will be the source of several examples.)
- Information added during a season should be updated to present-tense, or (more commonly) removed since opinions can drastically shift from episode to episode.
- YMMV tropes (particularly ones like The Scrappy) should be kept to a minimum unless there is readily available/understandable reason for being listed. Opinions on real people can differ easily and drastically.
- For some reason these shows tend to attract a lot of misused tropes, which need to be fixed.
- And most of all, the character pages need a long look over because they're essentially a dumping ground for whatever's on the troper's mind, and are almost always added during the season proper (leaving their trope descriptions left in past-tense).
Examples of problematic Character Tropes
- Click if you need to see the transcript
- Click if you need to see the transcript
- Click if you need to see the transcript
- Click if you need to see the transcript
- Click if you need to see the transcript
Edited by Happyfrybreath on Jan 25th 2021 at 9:34:46 AM
Klavice
I Need a Freaking Drink
from A bar at the edge of time
(Don’t ask)
Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#27: Mar 10th 2023 at 12:30:08 AM
I noticed any time a person is a minority at the end in Survivor be it the only female to make the final 3, the only person of their race to get far, they are slapped with the Last of His Kind trope, as you say, abused to hell and back in Survivor Cook Islands.
Fair warning: I can get pretty emotional and take things too seriously.
bwburke94
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Friends forevermore
#28: Mar 10th 2023 at 12:55:44 AM
Cook Islands was weird because it actively played up the race angle.
I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.
Happyfrybreath
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
Since: Aug, 2018
Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
#29: Mar 14th 2023 at 2:19:50 PM
Ok I'm gonna use some free time to kill the Black Dude Dies First trope real quick, here's what I found:
Clarence
- Black Dude Dies First: Is the very first person eliminated after the merge.
Alicia
- Black Dude Dies First: Was the first original Chapera to be voted off during the merge.
Bruh Cook Islands has THREE
Sekou
- Black Dude Dies First: The first person voted out of the game.
Nate
- Black Dude Dies First: The very first merge boot
A tribe
- Black Dude Dies First: They lost the very first challenge, so it was inevitable. Later, Nate became the first contestant voted off the merge. And lastly, Sundra became the only eliminated member of the Aitu-4.
Jaison: Love this one because of the term "the only black" O_o
- Black Dude Dies First: Post merge anyway. He is the only black of the four Foa-Foa.
Russell
- Black Dude Dies First: The first returnee to be Voted Off the Island.
Cliff
- Black Dude Dies First: The first Brawn and new Solana member to be voted out.
Darnell: Just lists the trope with no explanation.
Eric Abraham
- Black Dude Gets Voted Out First: The first elimination of the season and a black man.
Morriah
- Black Dude Dies First: While not the only minority race on the tribe, she is the only black person and is the first person voted out this season.
Think I got em all
Mrph1
he/him
from Mercia
(4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Relationship Status: Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
he/him
#30: Apr 18th 2023 at 8:18:09 AM
This is prompted by examples such as this one, on Drag Race España Season 3 -
Token Minority and Twofer Token Minority are NRLEP, and this is clearly based on the contestant rather than their drag queen persona. There are a lot of similar examples across the various season-specific competitor Characters pages.
Thanks!
(Crossposting this to the Character page cleanup thread
as well)
Following on from discussions on forums and ATT, I've started working through some of the RuPaul's Drag Race Characters pages.
They currently have this note:
%%Per this ATT https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=114200&type=att, we are troping the queens as characters on a TV show, not as real people, so please do not add real names or other personal information that is not explicitly given on the show.
I'd like to add this one as well:
%%
%% This also means that we can't list any Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease tropes that apply to the real person rather than a queen's drag persona.
%%
Any concerns?
%% This also means that we can't list any Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease tropes that apply to the real person rather than a queen's drag persona.
%%
This is prompted by examples such as this one, on Drag Race España Season 3 -
- Token Minority: She, alongside María Edilia, is one of two queens to be from outside Spain, Mexico in her case.
Token Minority and Twofer Token Minority are NRLEP, and this is clearly based on the contestant rather than their drag queen persona. There are a lot of similar examples across the various season-specific competitor Characters pages.
Thanks!
Edited by Mrph1 on Apr 18th 2023 at 4:20:24 PM
#31: Apr 24th 2023 at 10:53:29 AM
Probably doesn't matter at this point, but I see no concerns with that note.
Mrph1
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from Mercia
(4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Relationship Status: Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
he/him
#32: Apr 26th 2023 at 5:18:20 PM
Both tropes are No Real Life, and this is discussing the contestant rather than their drag queen persona. It was mentioned in the show, and reality tv shows are a grey area on some things - but Real Life Troping is also pretty clear about some of the limits.
I don't think we should ever be applying RapeAsDrama to a real person talking about their real history on a reality show.
Can I nuke both of these? If so, can I also take this as a precedent to cut RapeAsDrama anywhere else it's applied to a reality contestant's real life past?
Thanks.
Crossposting this from the "Is this an example?" thread-
This is from Blair St. Clair's entry on Characters.Ru Pauls Drag Race Season 10:
- Rape as Drama: Reveals in episode 6 that she was raped in college. The reveal visibly shakes everyone on the stage.
- Stepford Smiler: After she was raped at a college party, Blair made the conscious decision to see the world with rainbows and sunshine instead of allowing herself to become a Broken Bird.
I don't think we should ever be applying RapeAsDrama to a real person talking about their real history on a reality show.
Can I nuke both of these? If so, can I also take this as a precedent to cut RapeAsDrama anywhere else it's applied to a reality contestant's real life past?
Thanks.
Mrph1
he/him
from Mercia
(4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Relationship Status: Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
he/him
Mrph1
he/him
from Mercia
(4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Relationship Status: Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
he/him
#34: Apr 28th 2023 at 12:21:47 AM
Another crosspost, this time from the Character Page cleanup thread, as it's from the RuPaul's Drag Race cleanup work and mostly specific to Reality TV:
How to Create a Character Page states that "Each character should have their own individual folder".
It also states "Each character should have their own description in the folder. This is necessary to provide context to the tropes."
(Later on the same page the FAQs state you can add as many characters as needed, "so long as they have a description and a trope list. Without those, the character will be removed, no matter how important they are in the work." Bold emphasis added by me).
As you can see here, the RPDR character pages:
- Don't currently use character folders.
- Don't have any sort of introduction paragraph for the contestants.
Do we need to change that? Is an introduction still essential for a Reality TV show contestant, or is this an unusual scenario where the tropes can speak for themselves?
Thanks!
Happyfrybreath
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
Since: Aug, 2018
Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
#35: Apr 30th 2023 at 8:07:32 AM
Oh... that's concerning.
I don't think I've seen a single description on any Survivor or Big Brother page either? If that's actually a rule we might have some serious cleanup to do.
Synchronicity
(4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#36: Apr 30th 2023 at 10:38:09 AM
I've viewed those as more 'strongly, strongly recommended' than 'outright required, gut anything that doesn't have 'em'. Sometimes minor or clique characters share a folder, etc.
Mrph1
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from Mercia
(4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Relationship Status: Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
he/him
#37: May 18th 2023 at 2:14:35 PM
Flagging another conversation that's started elsewhere, as I know this thread's been quiet -
RuPaul's Drag Race has a whole subpage for The Scrappy. TheScrappy is defined as a character who's consistently hated by the majority of the fandom for that work.
(and yes, TheScrappy trope page uses bold for all of those points as well)
TheScrappy is, understandably, a No Real Life Examples, Please! trope. Some NRLEP tropes are allowed for reality shows, on the basis that the contestant we're watching is also a 'character' shaped by the show's edited narrative.
This one, though, doesn't feel like one of those cases - we're saying a real person who appeared in the show is consistently hated by most people who like it. It feels as if that definitely crosses the line.
(Here's the Scrappy Cleanup thread post)
Most of the Drag Race examples also seem to cross the line by bringing in convention behaviour, social media posts and other real life views that clearly aren't part of the work. But even when that's not explicit, it may still be part of the backdrop for any Reality TV examples of this trope.
I'd really like to draw a line under The Scrappy and Rescued from the Scrappy Heap and say "no Reality TV" as well as "No Real Life", if folk can be persuaded.
bwburke94
Friends forevermore
from uǝʌɐǝɥ
Since: May, 2014
Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
Friends forevermore
#38: May 18th 2023 at 2:28:06 PM
That seems to be a Drag Race problem, not a reality TV problem as a whole. TheScrappy.Survivor is generally good at limiting examples to onscreen events (although the Varner/Zeke incident blurs the line and should probably be removed).
I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.
#39: May 18th 2023 at 8:40:29 PM
I think there's probably need of a reality tv cleanup for these tropes because I saw some troping of judges on TheScrappy.Hells Kitchen and TheScrappy.Big Brother is a mess. The problem I think is that a scrappy is supposed to be unintentionally hated by the audience, whereas some of these contestants are not being framed in a positive light nor portrayed as sympathetic. Hell, Justin Sebik, the first entry on the Big Brother page, was expelled from the house.
CSP Cleanup Thread | All that I ask for ... is diamonds and dance floors
Happyfrybreath
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
Since: Aug, 2018
Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
#40: May 27th 2023 at 12:40:49 PM
Yeah I'm actually thinking about cutlisting some of the Big Brother pages... The Scrappy is one I really want gone because of all the recency bias, Hate sinks, and whatnot... the only valid examples I can be 100% sure of are Frankie Grande, Paul from bb19, and J C from bb20 as they all got positive edits but were hated for various reasons.
EDIT: Broken Base is also really bad.
Edited by Happyfrybreath on May 27th 2023 at 12:54:12 PM
Klavice
I Need a Freaking Drink
from A bar at the edge of time
(Don’t ask)
Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#41: May 28th 2023 at 11:09:37 AM
Nicole Franzel Arroyo and Memphis Garrett from 22 are also probably good to go too since they are edited poorly and honestly still have fans even if Robert's ableism has lost him some. Jack from 21 isn't given a positive edit either and comes off as more a Hate Sink. Not feeling Jessica Rockstar either since she's not hated, just base breaking and the only people who don't like her are mostly conservatives who sympathize with Level Six.
Edited by Klavice on May 28th 2023 at 11:11:58 AM
Fair warning: I can get pretty emotional and take things too seriously.
Happyfrybreath
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
Since: Aug, 2018
Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
#42: May 28th 2023 at 11:46:47 AM
What I'm saying is all but three of them can go honestly, so I wanna nuke the page!
Klavice
I Need a Freaking Drink
from A bar at the edge of time
(Don’t ask)
Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#43: May 28th 2023 at 1:45:35 PM
I'd keep Jesse Godderz aka Mr Pectacular too as the creators shilled him like nuts even after his season was long over. And like Paul and JC he was given a positive edit and is a screentime hog that is considered one of the most obnoxious people to ever play. And he's not a Hate Sink as that would imply he was intended to be annoying, which he wasn't.
Edited by Klavice on May 28th 2023 at 2:06:51 AM
Fair warning: I can get pretty emotional and take things too seriously.
Happyfrybreath
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
Since: Aug, 2018
Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
#44: May 28th 2023 at 2:01:27 PM
I mean he's brought back to punish people and gloat about himself for the most part... but I can get on board with that I suppose.
Anyone else before I send this to the woodchipper?
Klavice
I Need a Freaking Drink
from A bar at the edge of time
(Don’t ask)
Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#45: May 28th 2023 at 2:09:08 PM
I'm pretty sure Kyland got a mostly positive edit until he bullied Xavier into almost getting expelled from the house. And he's the least liked HG from 23 where even the Hate Sink BRENT is more liked than him.
Edited by Klavice on May 28th 2023 at 2:14:44 AM
Fair warning: I can get pretty emotional and take things too seriously.
Happyfrybreath
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
Since: Aug, 2018
Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
#46: May 29th 2023 at 2:46:27 PM
Alright everything else has been sent to the shadow realm.
the page I just had cut in case anyone needs something from it for some reason
- Justin Sebik, from the fledgling days of the US run in S2, has no fans whatsoever, because he set a precedent early on for what is intolerable in the Big Brother household and being the first instance of an expelled contestant in the history of the US show. He is often cited as the single worst contestant to have ever come on the show in any capacity, due to doing things that essentially qualify as delinquent and criminal behaviors. Sebik actively spent his time in the house being chaotic and violent, threatening to attack people, wrecking things in the house, taking a piss out in the open, and lastly, holding a knife to someone's throat while they were both too drunk to know better and claiming it was a joke while sober. What he did was so bad, not only did they immediately hoist his ass into the Diary Room, they made him sit down with a professional psychiatrist and the executive producer, who evaluated that Justin was unfit to be on the show. Everyone in the house itself feared him and were genuinely afraid for their safety; even Julie was worried about his mental state going into the post-expulsion interview. It is because of him the US version got rid of access to alcoholic beverages during the game, stiffened its rules about violence to the point where physical threats and execution thereof is immediate grounds to get booted off the show (as seen when Willie Hantz got himself ejected from the house for head-butting someone in S14). But you will rarely hear of him in the current fanbase, because he was on the show long before it made a big boom in popularity and refined itself into the lively game it is now, and most fans are either not acquainted with the old seasons before 2010 because the show hit its stride when social media rose to prominence in the new teens or prefer to forget about Sebik entirely.
- As of 2017, there are 3 houseguests who have been booed while leaving the house: Aaryn (S15; bullied several houseguest and made many racist remarks), Amanda (S15; same as Aaryn), and Christine (S16; cheated on her husband while she was in the house). In the UK version, Dawn got rightfully booed and jeered at by even the host because she's a "CHEAT!"
- People couldn't stand the way Amber got hysterical and strung out half the time in BB 8 (US). Many understood she had a troubled history, but her crying fits were banal to the ears.
- Big Brother 9 has way too many to list beyond a few, with Sheila and Adam near the top for all the bickering they had over petty things, and Adam's life after winning the season is the most infamous out of any winner of the show because of the resulting drug ring scandal— though he did a complete 180 after getting clean. Next up is Joshuah, for deliberately being insulting and dickish to people. The last major example is Jacob, who couldn't stop trashing Parker and got evicted first.
- Mr. Pectacular Jessie Godderz has been a constant annoyance since Season 10 because he is always so cocky and tries to remain blameless, with producers turning him into a mascot for the series who has managed to evolve into a Once a Season appearance and gets even more spotlight than Paul.
- Natalie from Big Brother 11 (US), who coincidentally was nicknamed "Scrappy". While she actually did try to shake things up a bit, she pretty much attached to Jessie and spent most of the game not doing anything, flat out not even TRYING to win challenges when her alliance really needed it, bragging how awesome of a competitor she was when she did win something. Also, the first Pandora's Box had Kevin's hand get trapped while dollar bills fell down in the backyard, and Natalie went up to get him, saw he was stuck, and went to get more money rather than stop to free him. And when she was HOH, and she needed to participate in the most important veto competition... she gave up, forcing an extra weight to fall on Kevin to evict Michelle.
- Danielle of US Season 14 was viewed as scarily obsessed with Shane, prone to making the game very personal and severe, and for lying about her background to look better. and harassed so much online post-season she had to tell people to stop. Viewers thought the next season made her look good.
- Aaryn in US Season 15, in between her racist bullying of houseguests Candice and Howard to her outright denial of it. But then we learned she actually was unaware of what she was doing and unfortunate enough to be grouped in with a bunch of houseguests who actually are monstrous (which made her an easy target treated like all the others). See Rescued from the Scrappy Heap.
- Amanda Zuckerman. There is a problem when America decides to put her on a block, over someone who became The Scrappy due to racist comments, and that's before she took a bigger level in jerkass! There's also loads of Elissa bashing, the Slashed Throat threat, and the blackout Amanda caused on the live feed. Hell, she nearly got expelled!
- Spencer, after his grossly perverse behavior gave viewers of the live feeds the willies, and that joke about McCrae jacking it to child pornography, as well as making many sexist, homophobic and racist remarks.
- Character polls show much of the Detonators of Season 16 are this: Christine is ranked the lowest, due to her cattiness, backstabbing and flirtatious relationship with Cody despite being married; Cody is close behind them, due to his inability to think for himself and his relationship with a married woman.
- Frankie needed a special mention. Mostly for being a Creator's Pet, being highly repulsive & offensive, a gigantic attention whore and comes off fake and disingenuous. It became even more intense when Frankie decided to backstab ally and fan favorite Zach, said he wanted to "euthanize" Zach, stab his heart and "bathe in Zach's blood". He also showed zero remorse of making fun of Zach (including making rude and negative comments about Zach's personality, his weight, etc) to everyone in the house. It also didn't help when he insulted every single female houseguests except for Joey and Paola, who were the two earliest boots and spared Frankie's tyranny. To top it all off, Frankie made a highly offensive rape joke about Victoria.
- Grace Adams-Short from the UK series 7. In the fourth week when Davina addressed the housemates, the live crowd could be heard chanting "Get Grace Out!" - shocking the housemates that the public could dislike one of them so much. Although Grace was one of four ex-housemates to get an opportunity to re-enter the house - the live crowd still chanted "Get Grace Out!" whenever they could.
- Sezer from the same season was one too. He was the ringleader for a lot of the bullying that caused Shahbaz to leave the house during the first week, and generally acted smug and insufferable. At the time he set a record for most votes to evict a housemate - at over 91%.
- From Big Brother 17, Austin earned a spot as well. Mainly due to his Jerkass tendencies (including comparing Johnny Mac to a dog that needs to be put down), being an extremely Sore Loser, and his fairly unpopular romance with Liz (who's a bit of a base-breaker herself).
- Paulie Calafiore from US Season 18 has become this due to his arrogance and his comments towards some of the women in the game, including insulting Jersey girls and calling Natalie "fake as the things on her chest" and then managing to say something so cruel to Da'Vonne in the Jury House (insulting her ability to parent her daughter) that she actually refused to comply to stay in the same room as him during the filming of scenes for the benefit of the viewers because she was going to go ballistic on Paulie if it kept up any longer. Not to mention him throwing a fit and refusing to do the pie-making punishment that he received in a competition, and casually admitting that he told lies in order to pass the psych evaluation (concerningly, when a castmate from his current show The Challenge brought this up, he now claims he never said that, despite there being a video of him saying it).
- Corey Brooks, also from 18, for being an unwanted replacement for Nicole's breakup with Hayden, disturbingly cruel frat brat stories, and being scooted along in the game unfairly as her entitled new showmance.
- From Big Brother 19... oh boy. Pick a houseguest that's not Ramses, Jillian, Kevin, Jessica, or Josh. Any houseguest. Chances are they're a Scrappy to someone, due to being a house full of mostly mean spirited people who only have it better than BB15 because most of them aren't racist.
- Raven is Delicate and Sickly, which would often evoke sympathy, but a lot of viewers (and even some houseguests) believe she intentionally exaggerates the severity of her condition in hopes that everyone else will throw the game to her. Her mother going on vicious, personal tirades against anyone who criticizes her daughter does little to help. But the straw that broke the camel's back was when Raven went berserk during the house bullying of Cody and Jess, making her near unanimously hated due to not establishing a strong fanbase beforehand. Some people are feeling sorry for her in the wake of a dedicated Twitter campaign to thoroughly expose her and her family, believing fans are taking this too far. Yet the one thing everyone hates, houseguests included, are her relentless and totally insane lies.
- Matt's biggest crime is being Raven's showmance as well as floating so far under the radar that he might as well not be playing Big Brother. His massive meltdowns the week that he and Raven found themselves on the block did absolutely nothing to help matters.
- US Season 20:
- Angela comes into this position for being a lot like Christine in BB 16 for making her game very personal and bloody once the jury phase began and going after all the wrong people in the house and enjoying the betrayal aspect of the game. Her glee at deliberately wanting to say things controversial also upset a lot of viewers. Her goodbye message to Rachel came off as a massive Kick the Dog.
- And finally we have JC who seems a little too creepy with how infamous his ice cream scoop incident has become, and being yet another negative Gay character (along with Andy from 15 and Frankie from 16). People are also troubled by the lengthy discussion he had with Bayleigh about the appropriate use of derogatory terms like "midget" and "nigga", which prompted the unpleasant return of the anti-prejudice disclaimer last seen in the dreaded Big Brother 15- around the same time that the season started to get ugly. note Asking if Rachel was transgender and feeling her Adam's apple didn't sit well with a lot of people, either, because Rachel became uncomfortable and asked him to stop.
- U.S. Season 21:
- In terms of unpopular and/or hated houseguests this season, literally half the house qualifies. Given the Gr8ful alliance, (particularly Jack or Isabella)'s tendency to bully and belittle houseguests not in their alliance, they are all fairly low on the Joker's polls. Isabella and Jack are basically Raven and Paul from 19, only Jack has incredibly racist tendencies such as walking around the house "imitating" David by acting like a monkey, calling him the N word with Jackson (Michie) threatening to stomp a mudhole in Kemi's chest, and other politically incorrect things. It's gotten to the point where he's pretty much the biggest Spear Counterpart to Amanda Zuckerman, and not in a good way. His alliance in general seems to get off on insulting and cruelly mistreating the other side to the point they are literally Paul and the Minions 2.0. Jack is quite literally the most controversial houseguest since BB15.
- Analyse is also a standout scrappy to the Gr8ful alliance for ultimately contributing nothing to the game and being a coaster that focused more on playing house than doing anything in the game.
- In terms of unpopular and/or hated houseguests this season, literally half the house qualifies. Given the Gr8ful alliance, (particularly Jack or Isabella)'s tendency to bully and belittle houseguests not in their alliance, they are all fairly low on the Joker's polls. Isabella and Jack are basically Raven and Paul from 19, only Jack has incredibly racist tendencies such as walking around the house "imitating" David by acting like a monkey, calling him the N word with Jackson (Michie) threatening to stomp a mudhole in Kemi's chest, and other politically incorrect things. It's gotten to the point where he's pretty much the biggest Spear Counterpart to Amanda Zuckerman, and not in a good way. His alliance in general seems to get off on insulting and cruelly mistreating the other side to the point they are literally Paul and the Minions 2.0. Jack is quite literally the most controversial houseguest since BB15.
- Big Brother US All Stars 2 aka: BBUS22 has quite a few.
- Nicole Franzel seems to be the most hated female in the house, due to her constant belitting of houseguests not on her side, duping Ian, and Hair-Trigger Temper when it comes to Big Brother US alumni allowed at her wedding. It also doesn't help she's the least popular Houseguest in the Final Four with very few people not related to her rooting for her.
- Even more than Nicole F, from the same season, Robert "Memphis" Garrett's popularity took a huge tank when he mocked Ian for having Autism, and generally treating him horribly to the point the only one celebrating on Ian's eviction was him. It didn't help he was generally a very unpleasant person. What's interesting about both of these houseguests is that they were some of the favorites to win in their first seasons but due to Nicole's Playing the Victim Card tendencies and Memphis' jerkassery, they are scrappies now.
- U.S. Season 23:
- Brent is the main one, for being misogynistic, egotistical, and quickly becoming such an annoyance to so many people in the house that he unanimously got voted out third. While most of the other houseguests of the season are remembered for at least some likable qualities, Brent is completely disliked nearly unanimously.
- Sarah Beth fell into Scrappy status once she targeted fan favorite Derek X and got him out with a backdoor eviction, preventing him from having an opportunity to save himself, along with putting up Claire on the block next to him when she’s another major fan favorite. She also got increasingly snappy with the other houseguests to the point that she looked unpleasant to be around. It also didn’t help that she buddied up so strongly to Kyland, who ended up arguably becoming the main villain of the season and was able to manipulate her into doing his dirty work. It does seem that her time in the Jury house and away from the stress of the game has helped her relax and become a nicer person again, but within the game itself she isn’t remembered fondly.
- Kyland himself earned his spot as a Big Brother Scrappy for being a dick to pretty much everyone including Sarah Beth, and especially Xavier who he nearly got expelled by purposely saying at his eviction that he was an awful role model for his nephew, kicked Hannah when she was down, and corrupted Sarah Beth. And his plan is worse than frontrunner and eventual winner Cody Calafiore getting Hannah and Tiffany evicted which even if he hadn't been duped by Xavier, would still result in him getting second place.
- Derek F was liked in the beginning, but over time it became clear that he was essentially The Load to the Cookout alliance and basically got carried to the end by them without having to do much himself. This wouldn’t have been so bad by itself, except that he also had a Small Name, Big Ego attitude about it and claimed that he was a key part of the alliance’s success, and downplayed the accomplishments of the women in the group in this attempt to elevate his own importance. The fact that he even got carried past both Tiffany and Hannah in the game, despite how far they helped carry him and how much he disparaged them in particular, got him even more ire from fans who thought that wasn’t fair. Additionally, fans were very put off by the sheer amount of misogynistic comments he made about Tiffany, Hannah, Claire, Whitney, and eventually even Azah, who until that point considered him her best friend in the house.
- Azah is liked as a person, but as a player, she is also this. Similar to Derek F, she too was seen as The Load to the Cookout and got carried to the end while barely doing anything. She was mostly just absorbed in her one-sided crush on Xavier and even stated at a few points that she didn’t really care about winning, which greatly annoyed fans because of how many fan favorite lower-placing houseguests would have killed to make it as far into the game as she did and actually been trying their hardest to win, unlike her. But her main moment of earning ire from the fans was when she finally won HOH during the final five, and used it to get fan favorite Hannah evicted. With many hoping that one of the Cookout women would win, Azah’s blasé decision to put Hannah on the block and get her evicted basically squashed that hope completely, considering that it left Azah herself as the only woman in the game and she had consistently proven that she wasn’t motivated enough to actually try to win. And as predicted, she only ended up making it to third place. Even worse, she continued to make negative comments about Hannah afterward, basically implying that she thought of Hannah as a brat due to her younger age even though the feeds showed that Hannah was actually pretty nice toward her whenever they interacted, making Azah's criticisms seem unfounded. Her negative attitude toward Hannah looked even worse when compared to Hannah's positive attitude toward Azah in her exit interviews, where she went so far as to say that she saw Azah as her big sister and was rooting for her to win despite Azah turning on her (and, unknown to Hannah at the time, was also fighting to keep Hannah out of her alliance for over half of the game). Ultimately, many feel that she seems like a nice enough person (unnecessarily mean treatment of Hannah aside), but that she should have applied for another show such as Love Island rather than Big Brother.
- Todrick Hall in Celebrity Big Brother 3 US due to his horrible temperament . Shanna was once robbed and Todrick's comment at her eviction was literally what the burglar said to her... and he knew this. As for Chris Kirkpatrick, Todrick told him that he was a terrible role model for his son just for doubting if he could trust him as an unwanted Call-Back to when the similarly hated Kyland from Season 23 did the same thing to Xavier in regard to his nephew. Nearly everyone disliked him after they left the house. Lamar and Todd shot daggers at him during his jury speech, while Teddi flat out gave Todrick a "The Reason You Suck" Speech as she voted. The only one who gave Todrick a vote was Cynthia, the only player who didn't see all the comments Todrick made about her and the others behind their backs. In a season that was considered to be super bleak due to Todrick and Miesha being hated so much, Todrick received some of the most hate from any player in the US edition.
- Cynthia Bailey is a more minor Scrappy but a Scrappy nonetheless. She was genuinely liked in the beginning due to her likable friendship with Carson and Undying Loyalty to him, which made her one of the nicer houseguests at first. However, the moment that Carson won Head of Household, she took a huge level in Jerkass and level in dumbass by being a Horrible Judge of Character in regard to Todrick and instantly believing him when he told her that Shanna was her real enemy, despite Todrick very obviously being the Big Bad and repeatedly targeting her and Carson, while Shanna just used a Veto to save Carson from eviction. This leads to her convincing Carson to waste his opportunity to get out Todrick or Miesha by targeting Shanna instead in the most universally-disliked game move of the season. It also didn’t help that she went along with Todrick Slut-Shaming Shanna for her attire and refused to listen to anything that Shanna had to say, leading to Shanna’s memetic line that trying to talk to Cynthia was like trying to talk to a box of crayons. While Carson had the opportunity to redeem himself in the eyes of fans by getting the full context of the Todrick and Shanna situation after his eviction and profusely apologizing for it, Cynthia was unfortunately brought all the way to the final three, leading to her never getting full context and being Todrick’s only vote in the finale. (An act she actually regretted) While she is still liked as a person outside of Big Brother, within Big Brother she is now strongly disliked.
- US Season 24 has a few:
- Kyle was probably the most infamous, as the hashing #KK Kyle was trending on Twitter for a long time for his fear of a minority alliance in the Cookout 2.0 which he told to Brittany and Michael, who also quite despised in a similar manner to Missy Byrd and Elizabeth from Survivor Island of the Idols, weaponizing the behaviour of Kyle who said increasingly racist comments imitating the likes of Joseph during Dyre Fest knowing perfectly well he won't be expelled and having an unpopular showmance with Alyssa.
- Nicole and Daniel were both hated by the audience for gaslighting and cruelly mistreating the eventual winner and fan favourite, Taylor Hale, knowing perfectly well she had zero friends and several enemies. While Kyle and Turner would attempt to change their behaviour, these two were extremely unpleasant to people like Michael (who then was a fan favourite) for being superfans and yelling obscenities at Taylor and Monte. What's more if you read Turner's Twitter, Daniel has been stalking him, being extremely biphobic and harassing him on Twitter for six months after the show for little reason other than It Amused Me. Needless to say, many were happy with their pre-jury exits.
- Pooch was hated for similar reasons to Brent Champagne above being a misogynist, and corrupting Joseph. What prevents him from being as bad as the others above is solely screentime as like Paloma Aguilar and Ameerah Jones he refused to apologize to Taylor, and thought his bullying comments were justified.
- Jeremy McConnell in Celebrity Big Brother UK received a ton of dislike for a lapse in judgement very early into the game after pumping himself full of a bad combination of various alcohols, having recently gone through a really nasty divorce and drowning his sorrows regularly. He developed nausea and a fever and puked his guts out in the bathroom, with some of the girls helping to steady him and making sure he was okay. It was also late at night and the girls were getting ready for bed. One of them, Chloe, had on a robe. Jeremy remembered she'd had bathing suits on underneath each time she had the robe on and got this weird urge to check... and this time... she wasn't. He unwittingly exposed Chloe's breasts and she ran out of the bathroom crying uncontrollably, with the housemates furious at him. Jeremy was forgiven for being out of his mind at the time, but NOT for what he did, and made to sleep in a private room with a private bed and swiftly ejected from the house the next morning. Big Brother had to show it did not condone sexual harassment in any form, and to keep Jeremy in the house would be like tacit approval of it. Jeremy was also chastised for thinking it was okay to open a women's robe without asking permission, having done so out of some unbelievably misguided curiosity. He was crying over it following what he did and indeed very sorry it happened and willing to accept expulsion as the consequences, and had the pity of being a recently-divorced alcoholic, so he avoided a hatedom... especially considering the next expulsion in that same season actually had no sympathy toward him to speak of.
- Ken Morley quickly became this to the other housemates in UK Celebrity Big Brother because the old fart couldn't stop making offensive commentary, having grown up when it was all Fair for Its Day. He ended the game expelled and looking like a molester. It started with a joke about how the bathroom was the nicest place to see all the finest asses in the world from all the young women, and from there, Ken was told nicely to stop saying things like that. Being a dumb old bugger that he was, Ken did not learn his lesson and fueled even more problems with the house by drinking and further losing his control over both his actions and his mouth. He outraged Perez Hilton with his antics, and made a highly inflammatory remark about Alexander having "Negro" friends that Alexander didn't mind, but sternly warned Ken wouldn't go over well in real life because it would get him beat up. That remark also earned Ken a formal warning under the strongest possible terms from Big Brother, and an expectation for his behavior to change. Ken didn't learn a damn thing. Ken eagerly made so many politically incorrect remarks that he soon made himself look like a pervert, racist, homophobe, misogynist, and pig all in one go, and claimed to have forgotten pissing off Perez in his drunken stupor. Instead of admitting what he was saying was rude and disgusting, he slowly alienated himself from every houseguest and even got the ones who were on his side turned against him. He really blew it by saying that his comments about women's asses were things that he really meant, showing absolutely no respect for women and losing the support of the one older woman who up until that point had been the New Yorker who knew how to brush off comments like that because she was used to them, but this remark crossed that line and got her mad enough to demand Ken be arrested. He angered Perez so much that Perez actually made a passive-aggressive comment that Ken should fear for his safety upon leaving the house regarding the public reaction. Ken also made a disgusting remark where he justified his behavior as on purpose because it's what people wanted to see and that Big Brother was the next best thing to coliseum bloodshed, which was a totally inhuman thing to say. Ken got virtually everyone turned into his enemy and tried the house's patience so much that they ejected him after he relapsed into using the word "Negro", finally doing himself in by being truly too dumb to learn anything, and everyone was happy Ken was out of there, all of which felt incredibly uncomfortable around him, especially Perez, who protested Ken's continued presence in the house and broke down in tears of relief when he was finally removed from the game environment. Broadcasting services in the UK also felt the heat; Ofcom received 233 complaints about Ken.
- Perez Hilton himself, on account of being a highly neurotic Drama Queen who thrives on being a loudmouth and belittles people so much that he's been known as the biggest bully on the Internet and had the nerve to dredge up the behavior of another celebrity in the house who had a scandalous affair with a married man and crucify them for it after they experienced it once before from the public eye. He also has to be the center of attention at all times, and sets a bad example for Americans in the CBB UK household because the European housemates begin to unfairly judge Americans by him as the standard.
- There are so many examples in the UK Big Brother that you could be here for days. The ones that are worth noting are all the people who have been evicted from the house and met with deafening boos like they were the heels of a wrestling match stepping out onto the stage.
- Alexandra almost immediately became hated in UK 9 for her incessant Holier Than Thou behavior and sailed to the bottom of the popularity polls. The audience even chanted "Get Alex out!" when she wasn't up for eviction the first time. Fourteen days into the game, Big Brother ejected her because Alexandra had kept intimidating the rest of the house, and the housemates applauded the decision when they got the news and none said that they missed her. Alex had a chance to explain herself and salvaged her reputation, but the audience would continue to boo every time her name was brought up and she was banned from attending the finale (along with Dennis, who spat on Mohammed). That only served to draw attention to the next most hated housemate, Sylvia, because Alex's sexy-looking replacement Stuart caused her to be unfaithful to her boyfriend. Mario soon became the next scrappy for his controlling personality, arguing with Stephanie while faking a relationship for a task in Week 1, and the suffocating machismo, and Mario got booed on the way out of the house.
- Bea and Noirin from UK 10 both got the "Get X Out" treatment for their emotional manipulation of the male housemates. Bea notably causing the previously unflappable fan favourite Freddie to have a panic attack and then still talking down to him while he was begging her to leave him alone, and Noirin flirting with and discarding so many of the men (and one woman) in the house Davina called her "hypno-snatch" on the post show for her interview. Bea's reputation after the show was so bad that she had to request Wikipedia take down the housemate pages a few years later because hers was affecting career opportunities.
- CBBUK 22 had Roxanne Pallett receive a lot of hate from the viewers after accusing fellow housemate Ryan Thomas for physically assaulting her during a play fight. Viewers saw the footage and accused Roxanne of lying about the assault, as Ryan clearly did not touch her and demanded that Roxanne should be ejected from the house. However, Roxanne did walk out of the house days later. During an interview on a Channel 5 programme, Roxanne admitted that she overreacted, but the damage had already been done.
- Zach Neilson from the eleventh season of Canada became one almost immediately. Within his entry to the house, his cocky attitude and boasting about how his startup companies have been successful (while being a Senior Vice President) rubbed a lot of viewers the wrong way. He showed a Lack of Empathy towards other players, including his own allies even. He then set up a boys' alliance set himself up as the de facto Head of Household for Santina and Dan Szabo's Head of Household. While seen as somewhat impressive the first week, the second week he set the target towards Roberto - which was seen by many as a Kick the Dog and an unnecessary move this early when Roberto had no intentions of turning on him. To many, he crossed the Moral Event Horizon when Hope admitted his girlfriend snuck in a letter. Zach essentially tried to blackmail Hope about it and sat on the information until he could exploit it. When Hope won the Power of Veto in week three, Zach went right to production with the intent of getting Hope's veto win stripped or even Hope kicked from the game. Then he tried to make a pact with Dan and Ty to self-evict if this didn't happen. And of course, being that most people by this point had woken up to the fact Zach was the de facto Head of Household two weeks in a row and Kuzie set the target on him by nominating him. Zach chose to Rage Quit - expecting Dan and Ty to follow in protest as he did not want to be evicted.
EDIT: Whoops, pasted the Broken Base page at first
Speaaaaaking of that page, I wanna cutlist it too, or at least make serious edits...
I do especially love Mike Boogie being "a nice guy in real life, real friendly"
Edited by Happyfrybreath on May 29th 2023 at 3:03:57 AM
Klavice
I Need a Freaking Drink
from A bar at the edge of time
(Don’t ask)
Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#47: May 31st 2023 at 2:19:07 AM
Having watched Big Brother 11 Canada, being Canadian and all Zach Neilson would have been a keeper if he was edited like Kyland (a good guy style edit, until he starts getting ugly) but given that Zach is a Hate Sink that even resident Alpha Bitch Kuzie couldn't stand, yeah... I think he'd fine to go.
Edited by Klavice on May 31st 2023 at 2:19:50 AM
Fair warning: I can get pretty emotional and take things too seriously.
Mrph1
he/him
from Mercia
(4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Relationship Status: Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
he/him
#48: Jun 15th 2023 at 12:51:53 AM
Trying to untangle RuPaul's Drag Race:
As it stands, that page covers the entire international Drag Race franchise. Characters pages are set up for every season of every show and character profiles are loaded with tropes for every contest and costume, not just valid character tropes.
(The only exception is Drag Race Philippines, which does have its own series page)
The suggestion is:
- Turn the Series.Drag Race redirect into a page for the franchise as a whole
- Series.Ru Pauls Drag Race becomes the page for that series only (i.e. the original USA show).
- Start to create Series pages for other shows in the franchise (all currently redirects).
- Move non-character tropes from character profiles to the relevant Series page.
- Shift some tropes from Series.Ru Pauls Drag Race to the overall Series.Drag Race page, or to a more relevant series page, if they're not really about the US show.
Sound fair?
Happyfrybreath
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
Since: Aug, 2018
Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
#49: Jun 25th 2023 at 12:35:23 PM
Bumping for other people, I don't myself know!
Mrph1
he/him
from Mercia
(4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Relationship Status: Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
he/him
#50: Jun 25th 2023 at 4:48:07 PM
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
After feedback on this (and related questions) on other threads, I've started a separate Drag Race cleanup one, so might be best to take it there now.
Projects: Short Term:
Troping real people as reality show 'characters'
1st Jan '24 2:47:54 AM
Crown Description:
Audience reaction tropes such as The Scrappy and Base Breaking Character can sometimes veer into Real Life Troping due to the nature of Reality Shows. Even if we cut references to events outside the work (e.g. the contestant's social media posts and tabloid headlines) those events may still be an underlying factor in any audience reaction. If so, the reaction is at least partly to the performer, not just the character. With that in mind:
Total posts: 86
Worst specifically on Survivor: Cook Islands, considering the circumstances. (And yes, it's currently listed there.)
I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.