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A reality game show is still a show. And people don't behave the same way if they know they are being recorded. So yes they can be troped.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Try to be careful about describing the persona on the show and not the person in real life. Same issue we have with Musicians, really.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Well, if a contestant's antics on a show get them in trouble in real life, should we mention that, or strip the mention. There's a mention of what happened with Jeff Varney's outing of Zeke on Survivor, which got him in trouble in real life.
We trope characters and personas, not RL people.
And that sounds like Trivia to me.
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
Well, I may strip it, then.
Reality shows get very blurry as to whether we're supposed to be seeing the contestants as real people or as "characters" constructed via selective editing and the people themselves acting differently on TV than they would in RL. When in doubt, the ROCEJ should pertain. Things that should be especially avoided include:
- Any mention of anything done by the participants off-camera — that is, in any part of their lives that is not directly on or part of the show. The sole exception would be Trivia directly applicable to their appearance on the show — like someone injuring themselves or getting arrested and thus being unable to participate.
- Tropes discussing the contestants in moral terms (Token Evil Teammate, Complete Monster, etc.).
Back to the Jeff Varner Survivor incident for a moment, specifically involving "Zeke Smith the character" as opposed to "Zeke Smith the person".
The "character", so to speak, was portrayed as transgender in Survivor: Game Changers, which is crucial to his supposed status as The Woobie. The "person", of course, is trans F-to-M. How are we supposed to deal with this on the page...?
I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.
Should we have a dedicated thread for reality shows or would the RL persons thread suffice?
I heavily edited Kitchen Nightmares a while back for troping RL persons — particularly from the episode featuring Amy's Baking Company. In May 2017, someone moved the content to a Recap/ page (courtesy link) and another person re-added the Henpecked Husband entry (to say nothing of adding indentation problems, natter, and other problems that were already revised).
Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they pretty
If you wish to start a thread in the projects sides of the forums, do so. Probably a good idea.
I'd recommend the Long Term/Perpetual Projects forum, what with too many studios' love of the reality show format.
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
Hey, should we be troping contestants on reality game shows like Survivor and Hell's Kitchen? It sounds like this is skirting the rules on troping real life people.
Edited by jameygamer