Not Tropeworthy: Discredited Trope .Forgotten Trope

MissConduct (Lucky 7)

#1: Apr 26th 2021 at 4:14:13 PM

Back in the day, there was an index called "Handle this Index with Care". It was meant to catalogue tropes that could carry Unfortunate Implications and suggested that writers be wary of its tropes. It was cut some time ago for misuse and the fact that UI is a YMMV trope making the criteria fuzzy. Discredited Trope (and to a lesser extent its half-conjoined twin Forgotten Trope) has many of the same problems. Probably its most damning flaw is the fact that a decent number of tropes are still in use today. Sometimes the trope has evolved slightly, sometimes the trope persists despite people complaining about it, sometimes a trope persists longer in one country than another for whatever reason, but regardless, a lot of the examples actively note that the trope isn't completely dead.

It also attracts a lot of complaining, especially around the "politically incorrect" tropes:

"Africa Is a Country: Due to a general increase in demand for quality in most works, lumping all of Africa together is rarely tolerated unless done so for the sake of ease rather than laziness."

"A Degree in Useless: So many young people have gone to college that job markets are saturated (and the needs of job markets change quickly), not to mention that automation has already rendered many occupations obsolete. So no major is guaranteed meaningful work. This is being seen all across the board, not just in humanities fields. There is also concern that if jobs become even more specialized, college might be replaced altogether with prohibitively expensive courses, which will likely increase inequality." (This preachy speech also not only fails to explain why "A Degree in Useless" is discredited, it makes it seem like the trope is MORE relevant now than ever!)

"Jive Turkey: Thankfully, this is now discredited in real life. Unfortunately, it proves to be quite the resilient Undead Horse Trope and is still actively used in sitcoms and kid shows."

"Lovable Sex Maniac: The increased awareness against sexual harassment via the #Me Too! movement have made this trope Dude, Not Funny! at best. The only examples of this trope you’ll see nowadays are from foreign media or were introduced prior to the late 2010s."

"Out of the Closet, Into the Fire: Much like Bury Your Gays, the bloodbath of queer characters in the 2015-2016 television season led to a significant number of LGBT rights activists to call on writers to reject any future usage of this trope."

"Some of My Best Friends Are X: Because using it is pretty much the equivalent of having the character wear a shirt saying "HEY I'M A BIGOT," along with an added Ku Klux Klan hood and jackboots for flair — you've instantly made him/her a Politically Incorrect Villain even if you don't wish to have done so."

"Trademark Favorite Food: Not discredited as a whole, but a specific variation of it - when a character exhibits an obsession for food that corresponds with a stereotype for his race or culture (such as fried chicken and/or watermelons with African Americans) - is likely to get the writer into hot water if played straight due to implications of racism." (Who gets angry at Trademark Favorite Food?)

Remember that TV Tropes is not a place for Righting Great Wrongs.

In practice, very few of these tropes don't survive at all in the modern day, and people just like to slap the "Discredited" label on them to force their discretization, because they personally dislike the trope for whatever reason. The Discredited Tropes page more often reads like someone trying to teach you how to make your work more woke.

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Politically Incorrect Tropes and other complaining magnets

Adopt-a-Servant, Africa Is a Country, Age-Gap Romance, All Gays Are Pedofiles, All Jews Are Cheapskates, All the Good Men Are Gay, All Women Are Doms All Men Are Subs, All Women Are Prudes, Ambiguously Gay, Asian Buck Teeth, Asian Store-Owner, Bait-and-Switch Lesbians, Black Dude Dies First, Blowing Smoke Rings, Bondage Is Bad, But Liquor Is Quicker, Bury Your Gays, But Not Too White, Captured by Cannibals, Career Vs Family, Career vs. Man, Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys, Christmas Cake, Circumcision Angst, Comically Cross-Eyed, Creepy Crossdresser, Cure Your Gays, Darkest Africa, A Day in Her Apron, Depraved Bisexual, Dirty Communists, Dirty Foreigner, Disco Sucks, Driver of a Black Cab, Everybody Smokes, Females Are More Innocent, Foreign Looking Fonts, Funny Foreigner, Guy In Real Life, Girls Have Cooties, Give Geeks a Chance, Gorgeous George, Greedy Jew, Hide Your Lesbians, Henpecked Husband, Hillbilly Horrors (debatably hillbillies are becoming more and more of an Acceptable Target 'cause they've been branded as uniformly alt-right klansmen in recent years), Hollywood Thin, Hysterical Woman, If It's You, It's Okay, Insane Equals Violent, Intergenerational Friendship, Jive Turkey, Karmic Rape, Land Down Under, Loveable Sex Maniac, Love Potion, Macho Disaster Expedition, Magical Romani, Man in a Bikini, Mars Needs Women, Mars and Venus Gender Contrast, Men Can't Keep House, Ms. Red Ink, Murder Simulators, My Biological Clock Is Ticking, Nice Guys Finish Last, Noble Confederate Soldier, Nostalgia Ain't Like It Used to Be, Out of the Closet, Into the Fire, Politically Incorrect Hero, Queer People Are Funny, Rape and Switch, Rape Portrayed as Redemption, Real Women Have Curves, Red Scare, Sassy Black Woman, The Savage Indian, Self-Abuse, Sex Equals Love, Shotgun Wedding, Sim Sim Salabim, Smoking Is Cool, Smoking Is Glamorous, Some of My Best Friends Are X, Standard Hero Reward, Stereotypical South Asian English, Subliminal Seduction, Suddenly Ethnicity, Suicide as Comedy, Sweeps Week Lesbian Kiss, Therapy Is for the Weak, There Are No Girls on the Internet, Tonto Talk, Trademark Favorite Food (at least the example they gave), Tragic Aids Story, Trojan Gauntlet, Unrequited Tragic Maiden, Unsettling Gender-Reveal, Virgin in a White Dress, Where The White Women At, White Dude, Black Dude, White Man's Burden, Wild Samoan, Womanliness as Pathos, Women Drivers, Yellow Peril

Tropes based around outdated technologies/jokes

30 Minutes, or It's Free!, Acquired Error at the Printer, Authentification By Newspaper, The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House, Coin-on-a-String Trick, Computer Equals Monitor, Credit Card Destruction, Credit Card Plot, Cut Phone Lines, Domestic Appliance Disaster, Fridge Run, Hassle-Free Hotwire, Pay Phone, Phone-Trace Race, Screens Are Cameras, Skeleton Key Card, Slow-Loading Internet Image, Tin-Can Telephone,

Tropes still in use (albeit sometimes in a different form)

'90s Anti-Hero, Age-Gap Romance, Aliens Are Bastards, Alliterative Name, All Jews Are Cheapskates, Amnesiac Hero, Anti-Role Model, Artistic License – Martial Arts, Award-Bait Song, Axes at School, Barbaric Bully, Basement Dweller, Beautiful All Along, The Bermuda Triangle (although I'll admit it's more or less discredited in serious works, it still shows up in less serious, more urban legend centric works), Bewitched Amphibians, Big "NO!", "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word, Bold Inflation, Bouncer, Bowdlerize, Brains Evil, Brawn Good, Brainwashed, British Royal Guards, Broken Record, Cat Scare, Catholic School Girls Rule, Catch Your Death of Cold, Cement Shoes, Charity Motivation Song, The Chosen One, Code Name, Commercial Switcheroo, Coincidental Broadcast, Consumation Counterfeit (albeit in a much smaller group of cultures), Cute Sports Club Manager, Dark Age Of Super Names, A Degree in Useless, Disaster Movies set on airplanes, Diseased Name, Dish Dash, Divorce Assets Conflict, Dogged Nice Guy, Dr. Feelgood, Drowning My Sorrows, Drunken Montage, Embarrassing Tattoo, Escort Mission, Excited Show Title, Family Relationship Switcheroo (the specific "older sibling was really the parent" is discredited, but "Family Relationship Switcheroo" is a lot more than just that), Floating Platforms, Fluffy Cloud Heaven, Foot Popping, Frankenstein's Monster, Free-Range Children, Funny Animal, The Generation Gap (coming back strong - Remember "OK Boomer"?), Good Hurts Evil, Happily Ever After (really it's too broad a trope to ever truly get discredited), Haunted House (although stuff like haunted hospitals are definitely more popular now), Heart Symbol, High School Rocks, Hijacked by Ganon, I Love Nuclear Power, Innocnent Innuendo (though less common), Incriminating Indifference, "I Want" Song, Leprechaun, Little Green Men (though I will agree with they tend to be used in less serious or more cutesy works, in contrast to The Grays), Love at First Sight, Love Potion, Luke, I Am Your Father, Mad Scienitist, Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe, Mascot, Master Computer, Mega Meal Challenge, Medley Overture, Milking the Giant Cow (albeit mostly in parody/camp, but still), Money Spider, Murderous Malfunctioning Machine, Mysterious Antarctica, Naïve Everygirl, Napoleon Delusion, Nazi Hunter (Even the historical variant of this trope is getting more airplay with WWII shooters, and the Neo-Nazi Hunter variant is very popular), Never Say "Die" (although more serious works have been averting this, fluffier stuff can and often does still get away with it), Not Like Other Girls, Open-Minded Parent, Opening Narration, Orphanage of Fear (if only in period pieces and horror), Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions (although it is less common), Padding, Parental Favoritism, Parlor Games (although the term "parlor games" is basically extinct), The Permanent Record, Playful Hacker (the reasoning behind this one being "discredited" is also insanely shoddy), Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo (probably more of a Dead Horse or Undead Horse trope though), "Pop!" Goes the Human, Poor Man's Porn (another region specific one), Porn with Plot (though it's probably discredited in film, but not in written erotica), Power Walk, Prank Call, Princess Classic, Prolonged Prologue, Proverbial Wisdom, Quicksand Sucks, Rated M for Manly, Real Women Don't Wear Dresses, Relationship Revolving Door, Retro Rocket, Robo Speak, Rotoscoping, The Runaway, Santa Claus tropes, The Scream, Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll, Sex Sells, Slow "NO!", Speed Stripes, Spies In a Van, Standard Fantasy Setting, Stern Nun (If mostly in comedy or horror), The Stoner, Super Couple, Superhero Packing Heat, Sweat Drop, Teens Are Monsters, Teens Love Shopping, The Theme Park Version, Third-Person Person, This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!, Too Good for This Sinful Earth, Totally Radical, Truck Driver's Gear Change, Urban Legend of Zelda (au contraire, the internet has made plenty of gaming urban legends prosper (Herobrine, anyone?)), Viewers Are Morons, Wakeup Makeup, Wrestling Doesn't Pay, Writer's Block Montage, You All Meet At An Inn, the magic trick tropes.

Actually discredited / being discredited, although perhaps not entirely obsolete

The Aggressive Drug Dealer, All Just a Dream, Altar Diplomacy, Anal Probing, Anvil on Head, Appointment Television, Bedsheet Ghost, Book Burning, Brain Fever, Braces of Orthodontic Overkill, Breaking and Bloodsucking, Caustic Critic (this one seems like it'll probably be a Cyclic Trope someday, but I concede it's at an ebb right now), Ciracassian Beauty, Chained to a Railway, Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs, Chucking Chalk, Class Pet, Collision Damage, Commercial Break Cliffhanger, Cut-and-Paste Note, Cut And Paste Translation, Dastardly Whiplash, Dead Pet Sketch, Declarative Finger, Diet Plot, Dinner with the Boss, Diplomatic Immunity, Divorce Requires Death (at least in the West), Does This Make Me Look Fat?, Dramatic Pause, Dramatic Slip, Dumb Dinos, Dying Dream, Earth All Along, Elvis Lives (although variants with younger artists survive), Epileptic Flashing Lights, The Ermine Cape Effect (except in period pieces), Essex Girl (IDK about this one really, I'm not British so I can't really say), Every Car Is a Pinto, "Everybody Laughs" Ending, Express Lane Limit, Extreme Sports Excuse Plot, Face on a Milk Carton, Fairy Companion, Fairy Godmother, Fake Interactivity, Fireballs (I also don't know anything about pro wrestling), Flashback Stares, Fleeting Demographic Rule (except when reboots are involved and sometimes with shows aimed at very small children), Flushing Toilet, Screaming Shower, Follow That Car, Free Prize at the Bottom, Free the Frogs, Garbage Wrestler, Getting Suspended Is Awesome, Ghost Butler, GIS Syndrome, Going by the Matchbook, Gotta Catch 'Em All, Gratituous Animal Sidekick, Hearts Are Health, High Times Future (though it's probably more of a Forgotten Trope), His and Hers, Hollow Earth, Honest John's Dealership, Hummer Dinger, I Broke a Nail, I Can Explain, I Can See My House from Here, I'm Your Worst Nightmare, In a World…, Inheritance Murder, Invention Pretention, Iris Out, Is There a Doctor in the House?, It's Quiet… Too Quiet, Japandering, Japan Takes Over the World, Jiggle Show, Kawaiiko (another one I don't know enough about), Kid Sidekick, Killer Gorilla, Kiss of Life, Last-Minute Reprieve, Laugh Track, Little Did I Know, Lover's Ledge, Macekre, Mascot with Attitude, Mattress-Tag Gag, Mayan Doomsday, Millenium Bug, Monster Closet, Monster Whale, Movie Super Heroes Wear Black, The Natives Are Restless, Nazi Grandpa (although Racist Grandpa is alive and thriving), No More for Me, Not Allowed to Grow Up (at least when real children are involved - floating timeline animated stuff gets away with it), Officer O'Hara, Once-Green Mars, One Bullet at a Time, Open Heart Dentistry, Opening Scroll, Oral Fixation, Overt Operative (except in parody/comedy), Pac Man Fever, Pie-Eyed, Playing Doctor, Pocket Protector, Polygon Ceiling, Porn Stache (tough call though since facial hair is on the up and up, not really this specific style), Pounds Are Animal Prisons, Pro Wrestling Is Real, Puzzling Platypus (although the platypus might always be thought of as a "wacky" animal), Random Encounters, Red-and-White Comedy Poster, Repeat Cut, Returning The Hankerchief, Revenge of the Sequel (outside of parodies), Ring Around the Collar, Rise of Zitboy, Rock Bottom, Said Bookism, Samus Is a Girl, Sand In My Eyes, Saturday-Morning Cartoon, Save Our Students, School Is for Losers, Screamer Prank, Screen Shake (at least in live action), Shrink Ray, Shoe Shine, Mister?, Sidekick Creature Nuisance, Slurpasaur, Soviet Superscience, Standing in the Hall, Star Trek Movie Curse, Stigmatic Pregnancy Euphemism, Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard, Such a Phony, Suicide, Not Murder, Superheroes Wear Capes, Suprise Car Crash, Taking the Veil (the "immured" version), Technicolor Science, That Reminds Me of a Song, Timmy in a Well, Toast of Tardiness, Tontine (bordering on forgotten), Too Smart for Strangers, Touch of the Monster, Trapped by Gambling Debts, Trauma Inn, Two Gamers on a Couch, Underwear of Power, Unscrewed Salt Shaker, Unwanted Glasses Plot, Unwinnable by Design, Vampires Hate Garlic, Venus Is Wet, Very Special Episode (though sitcoms do still handle serious topics), Video-Game Lives, Washy Watchy, We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future, What Are Records?, Who Wants to Be "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", With This Ring, Wraparound Background, Yellow Snow, You Must Be This Tall to Ride, You Wouldn't Hit a Guy with Glasses, the chase scene tropes

Forgotten Trope is doing a little better, but not much. Forgotten Trope has a bit less complaining, but a decent amount of out-and-out misuse - some of the examples are more "complaining about politically incorrect tropes", and there's a lot of "This trope is forgotten 'cause it's no longer current/relies on outdated technology", even if the trope still appears in period pieces. In a lot of ways, DT and FT are really similar - theoretically, the difference is "DT is when tropes get canceled and FT is when tropes get quietly forgotten over time", but that's a subtle difference and an often ignored one. Their lists of tropes overlap a lot. I bring it up here because if Discredited Trope goes away, Forgotten Trope's probably going to pick up all its complaining.