History WikiNewsletter / FirstEdition

[[PotHole Pot Holes]] and the way they're used on the wiki are a problematic subject and worthy of its own article. For the moment, it suffices to be said that a single poor PotHole can lead to many tropers assuming incorrectly that a potholed trope actually means something else, and then the Administrivia/WikiMagic turns into a giant snowball that may at some point threaten to kill us all. This is the overriding argument for renames in general- that words themselves will eventually lose all meaning as we all fold into a singular [[AssimilationPlot delicious yellow goo]]. Which at the extremes can be a bit of a panicky reaction- which is why the IncrediblyLazyPun rename went through all the avenues of problem solving very carefully.

[[PotHole Pot Holes]] and the way they're used on the wiki are a problematic subject and worthy of its own article. For the moment, it suffices to be said that a single poor PotHole can lead to many tropers assuming incorrectly that a potholed trope actually means something else, and then the WikiMagic turns into a giant snowball that may at some point threaten to kill us all. This is the overriding argument for renames in general- that words themselves will eventually lose all meaning as we all fold into a singular [[AssimilationPlot delicious yellow goo]]. Which at the extremes can be a bit of a panicky reaction- which is why the IncrediblyLazyPun rename went through all the avenues of problem solving very carefully.

Here's the working theory- the name resonated with an idea many already had a sense of. Thus someone had the idea to make a trope with exactly the same name but only two letters apart based on those [[PotHole Pot Holes]]. The problem with our potholes is they?re not stories; they are offhand jokes, small insertions of humors, postmodern jabs and personalization from ThisTroper A trope is a story-telling device and we gather these by finding examples of how they are used in a story and passed on from one tale to another and we were going backwards into one.

* JustForFun/{{PLATTER}}, the SugarWiki/PeopleLettingAllTropeTitlesExistRelishably, specifically opposes policy governing the use of cultural references. Currently, JustForFun/{{PLATTER}} is too small to have much influence, and it only has a strong position on a single issue anyway, but perhaps we will see a bit more of it in the future.

* JustForFun/{{KNIVES}}, the KalculatedNamingIndifferenceViolentEnforcementSection, believes that rename debates are detrimental to the wiki. JustForFun/{{KNIVES}} formed to prevent either of the two previously-formed organizations from gaining too much influence. In the process, they managed to both parody the seriousness of JustForFun/{{SPOON}} and out-silly JustForFun/FoRKS. Don't be surprised if you never see anyone mention their {{KNIVES}} affiliation in a naming debate, as JustForFun/{{KNIVES}} takes no position on individual names.

* {{SPOON}}, the SocietyToPreventOverlyOriginalNames, values clarity over cleverness. It is not surprising to see {{SPOON}} members quoting naming guidelines--as one would expect, this can lead to the Admins entering a discussion on the side of {{SPOON}} members. If you ever see a name that you think is boring, chances are that some members of {{SPOON}} supported that name over more opaque choices.
* FoRKS, the DarthWiki/FriendsOfReallyKoolSobriquet, values cleverness over clarity. FoRKS admits that it is the evil counterpart of {{SPOON}}, which lines up with a more casual approach to renames than will be found with {{SPOON}}. If you ever run across a silly name that is somewhat untuitive, chances are that the members of FoRKS will attempt to defend it from rename attempts.
* {{KNIVES}}, the KalculatedNamingIndifferenceViolentEnforcementSection, believes that rename debates are detrimental to the wiki. {{KNIVES}} formed to prevent either of the two previously-formed organizations from gaining too much influence. In the process, they managed to both parody the seriousness of {{SPOON}} and out-silly FoRKS. Don't be surprised if you never see anyone mention their {{KNIVES}} affiliation in a naming debate, as {{KNIVES}} takes no position on individual names.
* {{PLATTER}}, the SugarWiki/PeopleLettingAllTropeTitlesExistRelishably, specifically opposes policy governing the use of cultural references. Currently, {{PLATTER}} is too small to have much influence, and it only has a strong position on a single issue anyway, but perhaps we will see a bit more of it in the future.

[[PotHole Pot Holes]] and the way they're used on the wiki are a problematic subject and worthy of its own article. For the moment, it suffices to be said that a single poor PotHole can lead to many tropers assuming incorrectly that a potholed trope actually means something else, and then the WikiMagic turns into a giant snowball that may at some point threaten to kill us all. This is the overriding argument for renames in general- that words themselves will eventually lose all meaning as we all fold into a singular [[{{Instrumentality}} delicious yellow goo]]. Which at the extremes can be a bit of a panicky reaction- which is why the IncrediblyLazyPun rename went through all the avenues of problem solving very carefully.

----

Laconically, a StealthPun is a joke punch line that has a set up, of varying levels of subtlety, without the final delivery so the audience must themselves piece together what the joke is in their own heads. It is crucial to note that the pun is never stated. That varying level of subtlety can range from telling a well known or obvious joke and then having the punch line cut off (for example, a cut short dirty limerick) to having several events or facts revealed over a broad range of time until at the end, you have a situation which could, by an alternative choice of words to anything used in the text, be uttered as a pun (see [[TerryPratchett Terry Pratchett's]] use of Yellow Sick Toad on the StealthPun page). Which end of the range the writer goes for is usually affected by the purpose of the StealthPun.

Take, for example, a joke with dirty connotations. Here, the trope connects itself with GettingCrapPastTheRadar, and may work as a ParentalBonus. Here, the StealthPun form lends itself very well. You can also use it in concert with an IncrediblyLamePun, let?s say the pun is very obvious but you cut it short with some abrupt noise or the pre-emptive groans of another character. This works as the labeling of the joke as an IncrediblyLamePun, it signals to the audience that they should be groaning (with a slight sense of guilt), in the same way that a LaughTrack is meant to induce audience

In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Nanoha is pursuing Jewel Seeds, which grant wishes. One such Jewel Seed had possessed a tree that was near a couple's confession of love, and it responded by turning into a massive maurdering monster, trapping them inside itself and trying to consume everything. The pun comes when you realize what the guy must have been wishing for: wood. A less dirty way of interpreting this was that they pined for each other.

The hell do they know.

* {{FoRKS}}, the DarthWiki/FriendsOfReallyKoolSobriquet, values cleverness over clarity. {{FoRKS}} admits that it is the evil counterpart of {{SPOON}}, which lines up with a more casual approach to renames than will be found with {{SPOON}}. If you ever run across a silly name that is somewhat untuitive, chances are that the members of {{FoRKS}} will attempt to defend it from rename attempts.
* {{KNIVES}}, the KalculatedNamingIndifferenceViolentEnforcementSection, believes that rename debates are detrimental to the wiki. {{KNIVES}} formed to prevent either of the two previously-formed organizations from gaining too much influence. In the process, they managed to both parody the seriousness of {{SPOON}} and out-silly {{FoRKS}}. Don't be surprised if you never see anyone mention their {{KNIVES}} affiliation in a naming debate, as {{KNIVES}} takes no position on individual names.

<<|TropeReport|>>

[- byline: SomeGuy -]

I, SomeGuy, am currently monitoring submitted articles to see they meet proper form. Any who are interested in writing for TropeReport or generally helping out are free to PM me on the subject- rigorous editing standards are necessary here simply because much of the [[BrokenBase hardcore]] tropers are a tad too entrenched in the culture to describe it very well to casual viewers. If you disagree, feel free to lend your voice to the forums on this matter.

Renames are a contentious issue on this site. One of the more noncontroversial ones- IncrediblyLazyPun to StealthPun. Part of the reason for this was self-evident- in most places, IncrediblyLazyPun was being used to refer to IncrediblyLamePun- several tropes involved in discussion didn't realize the two were actually distinct tropes. However, like most renames, this one was hardly that simple, and had quite a bit of history. The original name came from the Title Bin which is one of the weirdest facts about this: numerous tropers have commented on how well the name evokes what is in fact IncrediblyLamePun (a pun so bad the story just has to mark how bad it is), the potholes support this, the mere existence of IncrediblyLamePun supports this and yet the person who put it in the Title Bin did not come up with that idea themselves. Dr edman who took it from the TitleBin, understandably, may have already had the trope in mind, seen an example of it recently etc. Is there a mystery here? Is the mention of the trope as a success on the TitleBin page ??another?? example of Lazy/Lame confusion? Soon after the name was chosen, people began using it to pothole explicitly stated puns that didn?t match the trope. Unfortunately, it's impossible to tell now how the word was initially used and spread because of how far back it is in the site's history.

Note, these simpler uses are helping to set up the concepts right at that moment and make an instant reaction. As you make the joke more hidden, you can change the view of it; an Incredibly Lame Pun can become less lame. If you hide it more, you force the audience to start putting their mental power into figuring it out. This little mental work out has its own entertaining side, when you finally get it, there?s a sense of revelation- the LateToThePunchline moment- and the work that the writer put into it gets more focus than how lame the actual joke was. Remember, there was a reason people kept confusing IncrediblyLazyPun with IncrediblyLamePun, they connect the lameness to going for the easy shot, the lazy punch line. If it?s not that easy to get to straight away, it?s not lazy so it?s not lame. The Yellow Sick Toad joke was in fact used both explicitly and stealthily which took things a step further because it became a reference to a previous use of a groaner so once you figure it out and you realise that it is the hiding of a really lame pun and things come full circle. The more complicated treatment is not just lovely for averting ViewersAreMorons but also gives significant ReplayValue.

Tips for writers- when you first read something, you?ll be trying to move along the plot, figure out what?s happening and imagine an abundance of descriptive details. The small dropped in details that contribute to the joke can be looked over until the second viewing where you are now trying to look for the small details to fill in your broad memories, revelling in the writing more and perhaps picking out points for analysis. So when using a StealthPun you have the flexibility of time scale and subtlety. You can also introduce additional pun and stealth tropes e.g. displaying it visually to make a Visual Pun without explicit statement of what the pun is or hiding the information in another language to make it a BilingualBonus. The BilingualBonus can also it?s variations in stealth. Maybe the pun comes straight out after translating, then again you could make the words that come out be synonyms for the pun. Say you favorite anime has someone shout out ?Follow Mr. Something? where something turns out to be the Japanese for Yolkish Frog i.e. a yellow toad and that character is ill so we have our Follow the Yellow Sick Toad joke. However when it gets to foreign made works, classifications can get harder. Remember our crucial point- the pun is never stated. Well, what if the character?s name was literally Mr. Yellowsicktoad in the original Japanese? To us it?s explicitly stated but a Japanese viewer would have to make the pun connection in this language and then translate it back. Inversely, the character?s name could be an explicit pun in Japanese for Yellow Brick Road but an English speaking viewer can?t make that translation. There?s an interesting case in the examples of the page:

Here?s the question to take home with you, do you think that the Japanese phrase for ?pining for each other? in any way involves trees? Do you think that matters?