Discussion Main / ParodyRetcon

Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Misused, started by Folamh3 on Oct 21st 2013 at 4:13:07 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

So many of these examples don't seem to actually fit in with the intent of this trope, of a creator or someone involved with the project trying to claim it is a parody after the fact. Many of them do not even mention anyone involved saying so, instead acting as if this is the major intent without anything to cite.

Edited by OmegaNemesis13

I cut this entry the other day because it didn't state who it was about. Thanks to the folks over at Ask the Tropers, it's been determined that it's about the video game reviewer, "Game Dude". I'm leaving the entry here in case anybody wants to rework it, since there hasn't been an agreement whether or not it's too biased.

• A YouTube video game reviewer under the title "G**e D**e" (censored due to his paranoia) made a bunch of poorly-made reviews that amounted to "whiny nit-picking". After he received heavy criticism he started claiming that his reviews were satirical rants not meant to be taken seriously. Nobody bought it.

Removed the following entry:

• During negotiations for the 2015 US-Iran nuclear deal, 47 Republican senators sent a letter to the leaders of Iran, telling them not to take any deal with Obama and his administration too seriously because a future Republican president could easily negate it. After a larger than expected backlash, two of the senators aides claimed the letter wasn't meant to be taken seriously and said that people who didn't get it have "no sense of humor".

Reason: Even if it were accurate, it wouldn't be a very good example of the trope (the opinion of a couple of "aides" isn't the kind of creator butt-covering the trope represents, only the signing Senators would count). Plus it's highly inaccurate and the reality doesn't fit the trope at all. The original source of the "aides" claim is a piece by The Daily Beast (all others just quote TDB or attempt to describe it), which doesn't even say what this entry asserts they said. What "two GOP aides" (unnamed) were actually quoted as saying is just that the letter was quote "cheeky" unquote. Not at all the same thing as claiming that the letter "wasn't meant to be taken seriously". Furthermore the "no sense of humor" quote was from a different quote (made in unstated context) and was explicitly describing "the Administration" regarding its own fecklessness, not "people who didn't get it" [the Senate letter].

Edited by Ichneumon Hide / Show Replies

I think something can be a Stealth Parody and a legitimately good film at the same time. I happen to think Wild Things was a very well made movie, but it's also definitely funny.

Because it'll probably get into an Edit War otherwise, can we talk about the Critic's Let's Play? The beginning made it very clear that the character thought it was going to be the easiest thing he ever did and, like normal, he failed miserably. Doesn't Doug pointing this out after make it not this trope?

Cut this:

* I Am Charlotte Simmons. Similar to the above picture, when a sex scene in his book was nominated for and won the "Bad Sex In Fiction" award, a yearly award given to poorly written, overly melodramatic and flowery and / or unengaging sex scenes in literature, Tom Wolfe could suddenly be found telling everyone who'd listen that it was supposed to be bad.

Because it is obvious that Wolfe was telling the truth: having sex with Hoyt is so bad that Charlotte suffers what is pretty clearly a nervous breakdown as a direct result. That's the whole point of the novel, so of course the sex is supposed to be bad. Moreover, everything about the way the scene is written screams that it's supposed to be bad; any sex scene that includes the line: "NO! THIS HURTS! THIS HURTS!" can be safely assumed to be deliberately bad.