The Italian Samurai
I'd like to add Sauron in it. Sauron's name is Greek for "lizard" but he's a flaming eye, and even his true form was a human, not a lizard.
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Isn't that just the Eye of Sauron? Not Sauron himself? Also, I'm pretty sure that name is a result of Reptiles Are Abhorrent.
Edited by MrStranger616
Pineapple is neither pine, nor apple. Boxing rings are square, Guinea pigs aren't pigs, and urinal cakes taste nothing like cake. They're too minty.
Head Lopper
So roughly whereupon is the line drawn in regards to this trope? For instance, take Batman: neither the comic, nor the various movies are Batman, they're about Batman. "Batman Comics" or "Batman the Movie" would thus be more appropriate titles.
Simiarly, the movie Blindness is a movie about a virus or something that makes people blind. It is not the sensation of blindness, and when you put that movie in your DVD player you are not struck blind.
Strictly speaking nothing I just said is incorrect, but it's insanely pedantic. Is that a reasonable grounds for omission?
Wrestler, bodybuilder. No hopes, no dreams. Hide / Show Replies
Surely the point is that this is about things/people in media that have names that don't truly indicate what they are, not names that aren't literally true. The key test is probably whether there is a chance, albeit remote, that someone could be deceived by the name. If you had a minimal knowledge of pop music, you might just think the Bare Naked Ladies were some sort of burlesque act. No-one who wasn't actually psychotic would go to a Rolling Stones concert and say - "I demand my money back! Rather than small pieces of rock moving by rotation through 360 degrees, these so-called Rolling Stones are elderly English musicians cranking out hot guitar licks!"
Your examples aren't literally true, but they aren't non-indicative, for the same reason.
Edited by captainbrass2 "Well, it's a lifestyle"
Well, like I said, I wasn't necessarily saying these should be examples — just that I was having a hard time seeing why they wouldn't be considering some of the stuff that is on the page.
Wrestler, bodybuilder. No hopes, no dreams.
I don't know when the note about most band names not being literal was put up, but it doesn't seem to be doing much good. There are too many examples that read something like "the Serial Killing Jewish Circus Freaks from Jupiter aren't serial killers or circus freaks, aren't from Jupiter and only one of them is Jewish".
I will point out, however, that a bunch of deaf people once turned up to a Queens of the Stone Age concert asking about some songs the band apparently had for them. I'm not even making that up.
I'm not sure about Black Friday's inclusion under Real Life - Misc. I remember being told back in the 80's that the term came from stores' ledgers "going into the black."
Wikipedia's sources seem to suggest it refers to the mob mentality on that day:
The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.[4][5] Use of the term started before 1961 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black".[4][6]
"I trope because I can."
Shouldn't 'Geography' also fall under the real life label? Also, there's quite a bit of overlap with 'Real life - places'.
If this article was about pickles being salty it wouldn't be a self demonstrating article because the article wouldn't be about non indicative names
Pika is the bombchu!
We're past 30,000 words-time for a split? I'm not sure how, the best I can come up with are "examples where the name was indicative long ago (earlier installments, etc.) and slowly became obsolete" and "examples that are out and out LIES (Krakatoa West of Java, etc.)".
mudshark: I don't expect Nate to make sense, really.
"Dwarf planets" is misleading, because one of them, Ceres, is an asteroid. The astronomers came up with a formal/technical definition of "planet" a few years ago, and coined "dwarf planet" at the same time, but there isn't a similar technical definition of an asteroid. (One at least—Vesta may also qualify as a dwarf planet.) And Pluto has been given a minor planet number, in the same series that begins with 1 Ceres.
Given how long the Real Life section was getting, I thought it'd be a good idea to split it up into subtopics. Hope my choice of subsections is okay with everyone.
What's the (related to this, but different) trope of a name that's non-indicative because it's hopelessly generic? I can't find it.
An example of the trope I'm looking for would be "China": The proper name of the country is (in Chinese) "The Middle Kingdom", which doesn't tell you anything. The phrase "The Middle Kingdom" could be used to describe just about any kingdom. Other examples would be a guy named Guy, or the method of acting called "The Method".
What I'm suggesting is that, once that trope is found, this trope's description should link to it. (Since they're similar but different, of course.)
I have a correction. The song you have listed as "(This Song Is) Six Words Long" is actually titled "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long", and if you listen to how it's actually sung, the lyric has "song's" expanded (shakily) to two syllables (Making the G a glottal stop, so it sounds more like "Song-uzz").
Of course, that isn't counting all the extra words in the verses, which definitely put it over six words, but the initial point is wrong.
I've deleted a comment under Hypocritical Humor suggesting that as some examples on the page that are literal rather than non-indicative, this trope should be renamed, since it clearly shouldn't be on the page. Any views on this proposal? Or should the literal examples simply be deleted?
"Well, it's a lifestyle"
I've just had to restore an erroneously-deleted entry (under Music):
- Synthesisers contain analytic components such as filters, although the way they work is mostly synthetic.
The stated "reason" for deletion is bogus ("synthesizers synthesize sound — they create artificial reproductions of musical instruments, hence the name is completely indicative"), and clearly indicates that the deleting editor has no idea what "synthetic" actually means. Contrary to popular misconception, it is not a synonym for "artificial" — synthesis occurs in nature, it's what keeps plants alive. As the example states, although most synthesiser components are synthetic (they build things up), some, such as filters, are analytic (they break things down). The example is thus a valid one.
Rape is an archaic word meaning kidnapping. Hence, I have removed _The Rape of the Lock_, as it is about kidnapping some hair.
JET73L
JET 73 L: What happened to the 8-bit Theater example on the Light Warriors' post-Class Change names? If it was removed because their class upgrades were revoked, it should have been noted in the example or put in the Discussion page (probably the archive by now). I'd like to put it back if it was Data Vampires, but don't want to risk an unnecessary edit war if it was cut by a person.
I find the claim "crème anglaise isn't eaten in England" a bit weird, since I was under the impression that "crème anglaise" is French for "custard", the thin type poured over desserts and which has always been highly popular in England. (Not to be confused with "crème patisserie", which is also "custard" in English but is the much thicker type used in cakes and trifles.)
should it be noted in the trope description that works containing opinionated adjectives such as 'cool' or 'awesome' are YMMV entries? or is that another trope altogether?
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