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| 2 | %%Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1658173644069189300 |
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| 5 | [[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/ToyStory1 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/toy_story.png]]]] |
| 6 | [[caption-width-right:350:Not pictured: the intentionally {{Creepy Doll}}s or [[UnintentionalUncannyValley unintentionally creepier humans]].]] |
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| 8 | %%Caption selected per above thread. Please don't change or remove without approval from here: |
| 9 | %%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900 |
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| 11 | ->''"The marvel is not that the bear dances well, but that the bear dances at all."'' |
| 12 | -->-- '''Russian proverb''' |
| 13 | |
| 14 | A Dancing Bear is any work of media that attracts viewers not because it's particularly entertaining -- many of them, in fact, are dull or otherwise pointless -- but because of some gimmick involved in the production. Any work for which the method by which it is created is more interesting than the result. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | [[NonActorVehicle Featuring noteworthy non-actors in major roles]] (or celebrity guest stars for television episodes) can qualify something for this trope: we don't go to [[Film/TheHottieAndTheNottie movies with Paris Hilton in them]] to see how well she acts, after all. Particularly large casts, [[TroubledProduction shockingly difficult productions]], unique production methods... anything that's used to sell a work more than its actual content can qualify it for Bear status. TheOner is usually a Bear as well, and {{Live Episode}}s too. A TechDemoGame runs a high risk of being a bear, if the developers cannot balance its gimmick with good gameplay. Another type of Bear is TheItemNumber, especially if it ranks high on the {{Fanservice}} scale and/or features a very well-known "item girl" (or guy). |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Note that this doesn't include works in which outside events make us more interested in it -- ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' certainly got a considerable amount of attention as a result of Creator/HeathLedger's death, but it wasn't a Dancing Bear. For that, see RealitySubtext. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | See also JustForFun/ComeForTheXStayForTheY, when the work has a lot more going on than ''just'' a bear that dances, and JustHereForGodzilla, for cases where that happens, but the audience doesn't care. See also OvershadowedByControversy, where a Dancing Bear is especially well-known for controversial moments regardless of other factors. |
| 21 | ---- |
| 22 | !!Examples Subpages: |
| 23 | [[index]] |
| 24 | * [[DancingBear/LiveActionFilms Film — Live-Action]] |
| 25 | * DancingBear/VideoGames |
| 26 | [[/index]] |
| 27 | |
| 28 | !!Other Examples: |
| 29 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 30 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 31 | * The anime of ''Manga/TheFlowersOfEvil'' attracted viewers mainly because it was [[{{Rotoscoping}} rotoscoped]], and [[CriticalDissonance the quality and/or terribleness]] of this animation style was discussed far more than the show's actual content. |
| 32 | * ''This Boy Can Fight Aliens!'' gained attention for being entirely animated from a home computer. |
| 33 | * ''Anime/VoicesOfADistantStar'' is an amazing short film as it is. What largely drew people's attention to it initially, on the other hand, was the fact that it was entirely animated by [[Creator/MakotoShinkai one man]] on his home computer. |
| 34 | * ''Anime/GhostStories'' became this when it was localized in the west. Due to the localizers having no set limitations for what they could or couldn't do, they let the voice actors improvise almost the entire performance while still following the basic story, leading to an officially licensed GagDub. The dub is the only reason English Speaking People watch the series; the few people who bother to watch the original version tend to say that it's just [[SoOkayItsAverage a mediocre horror anime]]. The Anime was dubbed mostly Faithfully in Latin America as a kids show and is beloved by kids who grew up watching it. |
| 35 | * When the ''Manga/OnePiece'' movie ''Anime/TheDesertPrincessAndThePiratesAdventuresInAlabasta'' was released in the west, its main appeal wasn't the content of the largely-panned recap movie itself, but rather the fact that it was the USA's first uncut ''One Piece'' dub, and featured the new English cast. For a couple of years it also served as a good preview for how Funimation would handle the full-length Alabasta arc from the TV series. |
| 36 | ** The same can be said for Anime/OnePieceFilmGold for Latin America with the main difference that it was not a good preview for what the dub would be like, using different voices and a REALLY shoddy Translation, but fans still went to see to see Uncut dubbed One Piece in Latin America. |
| 37 | * ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'' is a pretty good manga in its own right, but it's quite likely that the writer made such a huge harem just to show off his ability to make 100 distinct and well-rounded characters in the first place. In fact, many readers admit to doing so just to see if the story pulls off having 100 unique girlfriends. |
| 38 | * ''A Manga World That Gets One Page Once A Year'' has its gimmick right in the title. While the four pages thus far aren't by any means unfunny, the main interest is in just seeing how long the author will keep up with it. |
| 39 | [[/folder]] |
| 40 | |
| 41 | [[folder:Arts]] |
| 42 | * William Wegman's works are known specifically because of his use of Weimaraners in them. |
| 43 | * Abstract paintings have occasionally sold for respectable sums because, and only because, they were painted by apes, elephants, or octopuses. |
| 44 | [[/folder]] |
| 45 | |
| 46 | [[folder:Automobiles]] |
| 47 | * The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daihatsu_Applause Daihatsu Applause]] is an otherwise ordinary compact sedan except for having a tailgate instead of a trunk, much like a hatchback. This gives it more rear cargo space compared to a sedan for added practicality. |
| 48 | * The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Sera Toyota Sera]] would have been an plain old hatchback coupe if it weren't for its butterfly doors (which swing up and forward unlike regular doors) and glass roof (which, without the included plastic covers, cook the occupants like hothouse tomatoes during sunny days). It was [[NoExportForYou only sold in Japan]] from 1990 to 1996. |
| 49 | [[/folder]] |
| 50 | |
| 51 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 52 | * The primary reason people read ''100 Months'' is because it is the last work John Hicklenton completed before he died, and indeed completing it was the only thing that delayed him taking his own life. |
| 53 | * The Creator/DCComics series ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'' was sold not on its content but on the fact that it was a 52-issue miniseries that would publish an issue a week (for a year) in "real time" (i.e., the events of each issue took place over the course of the week following the week during which the events of the previous issue took place). It also filled in the year of time skipped during DC's "One Year Later" event, during which Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were missing. It was generally well-received, but led to a brief trend of weekly miniseries for DC, some of which were ... [[ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis less good]]. |
| 54 | * In-universe, ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' has a restaurant and nightclub owned by [[RefugeeFromTVLand cartoon-character-come-to-life]] Loony Leo. It's noted that it doesn't particularly matter how good the food, drink, or entertainment is; the novelty of going to a restaurant owned by a cartoon character is plenty. |
| 55 | [[/folder]] |
| 56 | |
| 57 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 58 | * ''Fanfic/MyInnerLife'' is renowned for its terrible writing and the rather... unusual behavior of its writer (among other things, she claims to completely believe the fanfiction [[DaydreamBeliever is a record of a second life she lives in an alternate dimension while she sleeps]] and [[FrivolousLawsuit claimed to copyright the fic to sue any detractors]]). |
| 59 | * There are several ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfics that are famous almost solely due to the novelty of using copious amounts of {{Gorn}} rather than for actually being good stories. |
| 60 | ** ''Fanfic/CupcakesSergeantSprinkles'' - Pinkie Pie tortures and murders Rainbow Dash. The premise is more horrifying than the execution, and the fic is better remembered for leaving an impact on the ''Friendship Is Magic'' fandom than for the actual quality of the writing. |
| 61 | ** ''Fanfic/RainbowFactory'', partially because it's sometimes described as "Cupcakes, except it's Rainbow Dash torturing/killing Scootaloo" and partially because of [=WoodenToaster's=] CreepyAwesome [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRx_iXgLAyw song]] of the same title (the fanfic was inspired by the song). |
| 62 | ** The nonviolent fan video ''WebAnimation/DoubleRainboom'' is known mainly for the ambitiousness of its premise: a full-length fan-made episode of professional quality. Needless to say, whether or not the video itself is any good in and of itself is up for debate. |
| 63 | * What do ''FanFic/TheSubspaceEmissarysWorldsConquest'', ''Fanfic/AmbienceAFleetSymphony'', and ''Fanfic/TheLoudHouseRevamped'' all have in common? None of them would be well-known outside of their respective fandoms if it weren't for their [[{{Doorstopper}} sheer lengths]] -- all three have been considered the longest piece of literature in the English language at one point in time, only being outdone by each other.[[note]]As of February 2024, ''Revamped'' is the longest of the three (and the only one that never became a DeadFic, finishing at 2,328 chapters and over 31.5 million words), followed by ''Ambience'' and ''World Conquest''.[[/note]] |
| 64 | * ''Sexy Times with Wangxian'' was well known not so much for its over 1 million words of written smut, but for its sheer amount of tags before it was removed from Platform/ArchiveOfOurOwn ([[https://www.vox.com/culture/22299017/sexy-times-with-wangxian-ao3-archive-of-our-own-tagging-censorship-abuse it reportedly had over 1,700 tags]]). The tags took up so much space on people's screens that they made the work an accessibility hazard, and eventually led to [=Ao3=] implementing a 75-tag limit (not including tags for archive warnings and ratings) for newer works. |
| 65 | * ''[[https://myimmortal.fandom.com/wiki/I%27m_Not_Okay I'm Not Okay]]'' would be an entirely forgettable low-quality ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fanfiction, were it not for the fact that it was written by Raven, the supposed beta-reader of the far more infamous ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'', and bears a lot of similarities to the later work. |
| 66 | * ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndThePortraitOfWhatLookedLikeALargePileOfAsh'' is an entertainingly nonsensical fanfiction of Harry Potter, written entirely by AI. Language model technology would later improve to the point of being able to write much more comprehensible and logically connected stories-- which were also [[SoOkayItsAverage much less entertaining]] than the early versions. |
| 67 | [[/folder]] |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[folder:Film -- Animated]] |
| 70 | * Creator/CharlieKaufman's ''WesternAnimation/{{Anomalisa}}'' is a melancholy, downbeat drama for adults, acted out entirely by stop-motion puppets. And it's best known for...being a melancholy, downbeat drama for adults, acted out entirely by stop-motion puppets. |
| 71 | * ''WesternAnimation/BartokTheMagnificent''. Ignoring the fact that the film does in fact have a dancing bear, in this one's case named Zozi, the film was originally marketed on the fact that it starred [[AscendedExtra a minor comic-relief character]] from WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}, being the main character. It's now highly and mostly remembered for being the only sequel to a Creator/DonBluth film that actually WAS directed by him. |
| 72 | * ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSCX78-8-q0 A Boy and His Atom]]'', a 2013 short animated film made by manipulating individual atoms and photographed entirely with a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_tunneling_microscope scanning tunneling microscope]]. |
| 73 | * The only reason anyone outside Brazil remembers ''WesternAnimation/{{Cassiopeia}}'' today is that it was the first CGI film to be ''entirely'' digital. All of the film's models were created in software -- for ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'', Pixar created physical clay models that were digitally scanned, which is still their standard practice. Because ''Cassiopeia'' entered production before ''Toy Story'' but released afterwards due to delays, there is also debate on whether it can be considered the first CGI feature-length film in general. |
| 74 | * The 1987 anime film ''Anime/TheFlyingLunaClipper'' is known for being animated entirely on 8-bit computers and having an animation style resembling an old video game cutscene. |
| 75 | * ''WesternAnimation/FritzTheCat'' has ''three'' Dancing Bears to call its own: it was the first animated film to receive an X-rating, the highest-grossing independent animated film of all time and, debatably, the first film to be considered [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom "Furry."]] |
| 76 | * Fred Perry's ''WesternAnimation/GoldDiggerTimeRaft'' OVA. Its poor acting, rudimentary animation, and extreme ScheduleSlip are forgiven because Mr. Perry did ''everything'' (besides the voice acting). He wrote the script, created the music, and '''drew every single frame''' of this hour-long animated movie ''by himself''. |
| 77 | * ''WesternAnimation/KillerBeanForever'', an AllCGICartoon action movie starring talking coffee beans, animated solely by one person. Said person also happens to be [[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0506703/ a professional visual effects artist]], and despite the laughable premise, the film has some genuinely good fight choreography. |
| 78 | * ''WesternAnimation/LovingVincent'' is mostly known for the fact that its every frame is an oil painting, painted by a total of 125 painters. |
| 79 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Paperman}}'' is a really cute short but the main draw is the animation style and potential. It's an AllCGICartoon that looks like traditional animation. Disney has since used the same style in [[WesternAnimation/{{Feast}} other shorts]] and there is much discussion when a full-length film using this animation technique will come out. |
| 80 | * ''WesternAnimation/RomeoAndJulietSealedWithAKiss'' is generally regarded as, at best, an average and unimaginative film. But if nothing else, many folks who've seen it or at least know of it appreciate the fact that it was animated entirely by one man. |
| 81 | * ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty'' was promoted for being the first ever R-rated CGI feature film. Its quality is debatable, some thinking that it's a funny and thought-provoking parody of Creator/{{Pixar}} films, others arguing that it's trying too hard to be edgy. |
| 82 | * ''WesternAnimation/SirBilli'' is notable for two things: first, it is the first CGI animated film to be made entirely in Scotland (it claimed to be the first animated film overall, but was beaten to the punch by ''WesternAnimation/TheIllusionist2010''), and second, Creator/SeanConnery came out of retirement to voice the main character (reportedly, both because it was Scottish film and SoMyKidsCanWatch), which ended up being his final acting role. Other than that, it's considered pretty bad. |
| 83 | * ''WesternAnimation/SitaSingsTheBlues'', like ''Sealed With a Kiss'', is notable among animation fans for being animated entirely by one woman - and even more impressively, uses different animation styles. |
| 84 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'' is mostly remembered for its ''[[DevelopmentHell extremely]]'' [[DevelopmentHell long]] and TroubledProduction. |
| 85 | * Both Creator/{{Disney}} and Pixar apparently considered the original ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'' an example of this. Promotion centered on the fact that it was the first entirely CGI feature-length film. Some of the original trailers featured only the darkest sequences and an "adult" score different from the movie's, and practically forgot to tell the viewer that it was a family film about two toys wanting to return to their owner. |
| 86 | * ''WesternAnimation/TrollsWorldTour'' got a pretty mixed reception, but many people showed interest in it just because of its release strategy: to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic, it was one of the first animated features to be released for streaming services on the same day as its theatrical release, setting a precedent for other movies struggling to find an audience with theaters closed around the world. |
| 87 | * The "unholy trinity," ''WesternAnimation/WatershipDown,'' ''Literature/ThePlagueDogs,'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Felidae}}.'' Three animated films known almost solely for masquerading as kid's films[[note]]''Watership Down'' actually ''is'' supposedly [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids a kid's film]][[/note]] before surprising you with copious amounts of death, blood and gore, disturbing imagery, and in the latter, a graphic sex scene with ''cats.'' |
| 88 | * While ''WesternAnimation/WinnieThePooh2011'' is considered a good movie in its own right, it is mainly known for being Disney's last hand-drawn film before the company gutted its 2D department [[ShiftedToCGI in favor of CGI films]]. |
| 89 | * ''WesternAnimation/WonderPark'' would be an entirely forgettable children's film, if not for a major RoleEndingMisdemeanor that was exposed in its later development, which led to the director, Dylan Brown, being taken off the project two months before its release and going uncredited as a result. Because no one else in the production was willing to take the chair (presumably not wanting to be known to the public as "the director of that movie directed by a sex pest"), this leaves ''Wonder Park'' in the odd position of being one of the few, if not only, wide-release films to have no credited director. Quite a few analysts, such as WebVideo/FoldingIdeas, pursued and analyzed the film specifically out of curiosity as to whether Brown's loss had left the film visibly affected. |
| 90 | [[/folder]] |
| 91 | |
| 92 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 93 | * The only reason why anyone would want to read ''Literature/AtlantaNights'' is to see what a deliberately awful book would be like. |
| 94 | * ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' features an actual dancing bear at the climax, who meets an unfortunately violent end at the hands of some drunk gunslingers. However, the bear also stands a metaphor used by [[AmbiguouslyHuman Judge]] [[BigBad Holden]], who sees it as exemplifying the way that average people go through the motions of life as opposed to [[TheUnfettered truly "liberated"]] individuals such as himself, who have set aside ordinary morality to exult in bloodshed and sadism. [[VillainProtagonist The Kid/Man]] [[ShutUpHannibal calls Holden on this]], however, pointing out that Holden is [[NotSoDifferentRemark is in his own way]] also a Dancing Bear. |
| 95 | -->'''Holden:''' I tell you this. As war becomes dishonored and its nobility called into question those honorable men who recognize the sanctity of blood will become excluded from the dance, which is the warrior's right, and thereby will the dance become a false dance and the dancers false dancers. And yet there will be one there always who is a true dancer and can you guess who that might be? |
| 96 | --> '''The Man:''' You ain't nothin'. |
| 97 | --> '''Holden:''' You speak truer than you know. But I will tell you. Only that man who has offered himself up entire to the blood of war, who has been to the floor of the pit and seen horror in the round and learned at last that it speaks to his innermost heart, only that man can dance. |
| 98 | --> '''The Man:''' Even a dumb animal can dance. |
| 99 | --> '''Holden:''' Hear me, man, there is room on the stage for one beast and one alone. All others are destined for a night that is eternal and without name. One by one they will step down into the darkness before the footlamps. Bears that dance, bears that don't. |
| 100 | * ''Literature/{{Clarissa}}'' is remembered for being the longest novel in the English language. |
| 101 | * ''The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'' by Jean-Dominique Bauby received a lot of attention for the laborious way the novel was written. The author suffered "locked-in syndrome" and blinked his left eyelid to respond to a transcriber repeatedly reciting a French language frequency-ordered alphabet until Bauby blinked to choose the next letter. This took ten months. The book itself was well-received. |
| 102 | * ''Literature/DraculaTheUnDead2009'' was promoted exclusively based on the fact that it was the first story based on ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' to be written (if only in part) by a member of Bram Stoker's family. Much of the discussion surrounding the book focused on its claim of being "the authorized sequel" when it was based on a PublicDomain novel and written by a man whose ''father'' had not yet been born when Stoker died. |
| 103 | * The most widely publicized fact about ''[[Literature/InheritanceCycle Eragon]]'' was that the author finished the first draft when he was fifteen -- he was nineteen by the time it was published (after extensive revision) and also received a lot of critical slack for that reason. Whether or not it has outgrown its beardom is a matter of debate. |
| 104 | * Though ''Literature/FinnegansWake'' is made by the same author as the better known, better studied ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}'', most people know the book for its odd, stream-of-consciousness writing style. |
| 105 | * Look upon this lipogrammatic work ''Literature/{{Gadsby}}'', in which a story is told without using a particular glyph (past 'd', prior to 'f') commonly found in this script, as is this particular saying. A similar motif occurs within ''Literature/AVoid''. |
| 106 | * It really didn't matter how good ''Literature/GoSetAWatchman'' actually was; it was guaranteed to be a smash success purely out of the fact that it was only Harper Lee's second published book a full ''[[SequelGap fifty-five years]]'' after she wowed the literary world with ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird''. You're rather more likely to find someone who knows that part, but not that ''Watchman'' was actually written first, and then Lee's agent suggested she do a book with the characters as kids instead. [[OvershadowedByControversy Controversy also played a part]]: some have claimed that the quite-elderly Lee, who had chosen not to publish the book for decades, was not of sound mind and was being taken advantage of. The book also {{Ret Con}}s the much-beloved Atticus Finch into a racist, which left a bad taste in many fans' mouths. |
| 107 | * ''Literature/HandbookForMortals'' is well-known for topping the New York Times Bestseller List...for twenty-three hours. It premiered at #1 out of nowhere, from an unknown author, and some investigating quickly determined that said author had gotten people to buy it en masse just to get on the list. People who then read it out of curiosity often compare its quality to ''Fanfic/MyImmortal,'' to the point where a rumor began that they were written by the same person. |
| 108 | * A lot of promotion for ''Literature/HowOpalMehtaGotKissedGotWildAndGotALife'' centered around it having been written by a 19 year-old Harvard student and starring an Indian-American protagonist (which was rare - if not unheard of - in YA literature at the time). Several early reviews pointed out that, [[SoOkayItsAverage while not terribly-written]], there wasn't much else to make it stand out plot-wise. It then quickly [[OvershadowedByControversy became better known for]] [[UsefulNotes/{{Plagiarism}} stealing content]] from other books; it even turned out that some parts were plagiarized from ''Literature/BornConfused'', a 2003 novel about an Indian-American girl torn between these two cultures that was also marketed as one of the first YA American novels with a South Asian protagonist. |
| 109 | * ''Literature/TheJungle'' by Upton Sinclair is best remembered for its exposure of the unsanitary practices of the meat-packing industry. It is often used as an example of the muckraking genre and helped lead to the creation of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_and_Drug_Administration#History FDA]]. However, Sinclair intended the book to be an indictment of capitalism and a paean to socialism. He famously said that he "aimed for the nation's heart but accidentally hit it in the stomach." |
| 110 | * ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Train_de_Nulle_Part Le Train de nulle part]]'', a novel without verbs. |
| 111 | * Creator/HenryDarger's ''The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion'', usually abbreviated as ''Literature/InTheRealmsOfTheUnreal'', is an enormous 15,000+ page work illustrated with loads of "outsider art" that is better known for its [[{{Doorstopper}} insane length]] and decades-long composition than for any artistic merits it might have (though really, the length and the large number of important illustrations make a wide release of the story very challenging, so it's not like people can simply pick it up at a library/bookstore/e-book shop to judge said merits on their own). |
| 112 | * To many people, ''Literature/WarAndPeace'' is remembered because it's one of the longest classic narratives ever written. |
| 113 | * ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' is remembered for two things: being published ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' fanfiction and featuring BDSM. |
| 114 | * The Literature/CormoranStrikeNovels jumped from relative obscurity to bestsellers after it turned out that their author was actually none other than Creator/JKRowling. |
| 115 | * ''Woman's World'' by Graham Rawle is notable as it was created solely using clippings from old magazines. [[http://www.grahamrawle.com/womansworld/ More here.]] |
| 116 | * ''Hun er vred'' ("She is angry") is a feminist post-colonial novel by Maja Lee Langvald. It's a harsh critique of the international adoption industry. But what gets it the most attention from people is that every single paragraph in the entire novel starts with the words "She is angry." |
| 117 | * ''Literature/TheWellOfLoneliness'' is the first high-profile novel with an explicitly lesbian theme, so it is clearly an important novel. Opinions vary on whether or not it is also a ''good'' novel. |
| 118 | * Creator/ToniMorrison's {{short story}} "Recitatif" is mainly known for two things: |
| 119 | ** 1) Being Morrison's only published short story. |
| 120 | ** 2) Its central gimmick, in which the audience is told that one of the two main characters is African-American, while the other is white -- but the narration never specifies which of them is which, forcing the audience to confront their assumptions about race. |
| 121 | * ''Literature/NakedLunch'' is known for three things: being the most definitive example of Beat literature, being the last book to ever be banned in Boston and for its ''disgusting'' content that continues to shock readers even into the present day. |
| 122 | * The first ''Literature/NancyDrew'' novel, ''The Secret of the Old Clock,'' has been read more than any other book in the series--more than most mystery novels in general, actually. That's mainly because it was the start of the famous ''Nancy Drew'' franchise. Judged on its own merit, it's not exactly trash, but it's still pretty corny by today's standards, and quality-wise it's not much better or worse than the other books in the series. |
| 123 | * ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' is probably primarily known as "that book with the [[UnconventionalFormatting weird page formatting]] and nested stories", and secondarily as a horror novel. |
| 124 | * ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' directly invokes the trope more than once, appropriate considering Barrayar is Space Russia. In ''Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen'', Cordelia discusses Aral's artistic talent with her grandson. |
| 125 | -->'''Alex:''' Why didn't he show them to anybody? Or give them away? There's so many. Didn't anybody want them?\ |
| 126 | '''Cordelia:''' He showed them to a few people. Me, Oliver, Simon sometimes. I'm sure quite a few people would have wanted them, but not... not for the drawings themselves. They'd have wanted them because the Lord Regent or the Admiral or the Count had made them, or worse, to sell for money. ''(pause)'' He said it would be like that bicycle-riding bear someone was parading around the district, once. It wasn't that the bear was good at bicycling, it was just the novelty of a bear riding at all. |
| 127 | * ''Literature/MollFlanders'' is best known for the extremely long title, with the full title being: ''The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, Etc. Who Was Born In Newgate, and During a Life of Continu'd Variety For Threescore Years, Besides Her Childhood, Was Twelve Year a Whore, Five Times a Wife [Whereof Once To Her Own Brother], Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon In Virginia, At Last Grew Rich, Liv'd Honest, and Died a Penitent. Written from her own Memorandums.'' |
| 128 | * Some of the books written by childrens' author Creator/EricCarle have gimmicks of their own. ''The Very Hungry Caterpillar'', for one, has holes in the pages on whatever food the titular caterpillar has eaten through. And ''The Very Quiet Cricket'' makes use of an small electronic device that would make cricket sounds when the last page is opened up. |
| 129 | * The ''Literature/TheMoomins'' book ''A Book About Moomin, Mymble, and Little My'' has holes in each of its pages, making parts of the next and previous pages' illustrations part of the current page's. |
| 130 | * ''Literature/WingsOfFire'' is considered a pretty good middle-grade fantasy series on it’s own, but the central draw comes from the fact that [[OurDragonsAreDifferent the dragons]] are the [[{{Xenofiction}} POV characters]] and the dominant sophont species of the world, rather than beasts to be slain or mounts to be ridden. |
| 131 | [[/folder]] |
| 132 | |
| 133 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 134 | * Let's face it: without the eponymous ''Series/{{ALF}}'', the show would have been just another vanilla sitcom about a family. And it wouldn't have worked if ALF were a RubberForeheadAlien, either. The sheer novelty of ALF being an incredibly expressive {{Muppet}} is what made people tune in. |
| 135 | * The ''Series/BlackMirror'' special ''[[Film/BlackMirrorBandersnatch Bandersnatch]]'' was the first successful adult {{Gamebook|s}} film, and it's more well known for its gimmick than anything in its story. |
| 136 | * The ''{{Series/Charmed|1998}}'' episode "Cat House" was marketed around the fact that it was a unique spin on the ClipShow - Phoebe and Paige would be sent back in time, and be superimposed over clips of previous episodes. There was a lot of buzz over how they would get around showing clips of Prue - as Creator/ShannenDoherty had forbidden the producers from ever using archive footage of her. The result was one shot of Prue from behind (which was done by a stunt double) and a clip from when she was turned into a dog. The show did a couple more episodes like this, but the first one is what's remembered. |
| 137 | * ''Series/HomeMovieThePrincessBride'''s primary draw is watching an AllStarCast fool around at home reenacting a classic film like the rest of us with cheap costumes and props and filming on smartphones, without professional stylists or makeup artists, without CGI or Photoshop, away from red carpets and film sets and perfect lighting, all while still bringing their A-game and treating it as seriously as a "real" project. It's drawn comparisons to celebrities discovering Platform/{{Vine}}s several years late, or old-school [=YouTube=] content from the mid/late 2000s. |
| 138 | * ''Series/Kaleidoscope2023'' is a Netflix miniseries known for its unique structure: the episodes can be viewed in any order and it'll affect how you view the story. |
| 139 | * The documentary series ''Our Great National Parks'' is primarily known for the fact that it was narrated by former President UsefulNotes/BarackObama. |
| 140 | [[/folder]] |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 143 | * The 1984 album ''Neptune'' by "one man band" Celluloid is notable for being entirely played on the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron Mellotron]]. |
| 144 | * Charm City Devils' cover version of "Man of Constant Sorrow," the bluegrass song popularized by ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou'', is known primarily because it's done as a metal song. |
| 145 | * Although a fine album in its own right, Music/DJShadow's 1996 album Endtroducing... is well known for the fact that it's an album made entirely using {{Sampling}} techniques. Namely every single sound on the album is sampled from something else and and then combined together into several new songs. |
| 146 | * Music/FooFighters released ''Sonic Highways'' in 2014. Though it was fairly well-reviewed overall, the main grab was that it featured eight songs about major cities recorded ''in said cities''. The accompanying documentary miniseries emphasized this point further. |
| 147 | * Music/ErikSatie's ''Music/{{Vexations}}'' is a single page of piano music with a suggestion to play it 840 times in a row. The first performance to follow Satie's suggestion to the letter took place in 1963, with a tag team of pianists, and lasted over 18 hours. |
| 148 | * While critics are mixed on the quality of Music/GunsNRoses's forever-delayed ''Chinese Democracy'', fans are amazed it was released at all. Its actual musical qualities are submerged beneath the fact it notoriously took fifteen years (and a record-breaking alleged $13m) to make. |
| 149 | * Music/GustavMahler's eighth symphony for large orchestra and multiple choruses was billed in its premiere as "Symphony of a Thousand" (most modern performances fall a few hundred performers short of that number); Mahler privately mocked this, calling it a "Barnum and Bailey production." |
| 150 | * [[https://youtu.be/4ErEBkj_3PY?t=14m46s This video]] contains perhaps the worst rendition of the ''Film/JamesBond'' theme you will ever hear. What makes it fascinating is that it is performed by ''miniature autonomous robotic helicopters.'' |
| 151 | * John Cage's 1952 'composition', ''4'33"''. It's famous for being "four minutes and 33 seconds of silence", often either regarded as a sublime anti-music or an Emperor's New Clothes of modern art. More technically, it's not silence but ambient white noise: the sound of a pianist sitting there quietly in front of an audience for four minutes and thirty-three seconds and ''not playing''. |
| 152 | * Karlheinz Stockhausen's opera ''Light'' contains a piece that is supposed to be played by a string quartet sitting in four different flying helicopters, their music then transmitted to a big hangar for people to listen to. |
| 153 | ** Another Stockhausen opus, ''Gruppen'', calls for three separate orchestras to perform equally distant from the audience. This plan doesn't fit with many concert halls. |
| 154 | * Leif Inge's ''9 Beet Stretch'' is a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (which typically runs 65-70 minutes) digitally stretched to 24 hours without pitch shifting. |
| 155 | * Much of the early press surrounding Music/LittleBigTown made note of the fact that [[VocalTagTeam all four members alternate as lead singers]], then a really novel concept for a country group. Fortunately, they've also been able to prove themselves as more than just a novelty by having put out a string of well-received albums. |
| 156 | * Jazz pianist Joey Alexander gained attention even outside the usual jazz circles for being a child prodigy, who released his first album when he was 11 years old. He has the chops to live up to the hype, and he's played with big names in jazz like Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra. |
| 157 | * Much of the hype surrounding Billy Gilman when the then-11-year-old country singer from Rhode Island charted "One Voice" in 2000 was about the fact that he was the youngest male artist to score a country hit. That novelty, combined with the song's {{narm}}, wore off ''fast'', and Gilman faded from view until a post-pubescent run on ''TheVoice'' |
| 158 | * If the country band Ricochet is remembered for anything other than their [[OneHitWonder only remembered song]] "Daddy's Money", it's for the fact that they were not only the first country artist ever to chart a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner", but also that said rendition was one of only a ''very'' small number of {{a cappella}} songs to enter the country charts (a feat they later repeated with a rendition of "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" that garnered some seasonal airplay). |
| 159 | * Music/TheTravelingWilburys were a highly successful band with a very devoted following, but most of their fame comes from the fact that they're generally considered the most ambitious {{supergroup}} collaboration in history. To whit: Music/GeorgeHarrison, Music/BobDylan, Music/TomPetty, Music/RoyOrbison and Jeff Lynne (of Music/ElectricLightOrchestra) were all members. Even to people who've never heard their music, the simple fact that those five musicians performed in a band '''together''' is pretty impressive. |
| 160 | ** Supergroups in general flirt with this, given that much of the hype (initially at least) comes from the identity of the members rather than the songs they record. |
| 161 | * "Hvem Stjal Spenolen?" is a single by obscure Norwegian rapper Mr. Pimp-Lotion, featuring singer Didrik Solli-Tangen and World TabletopGame/{{Chess}} Champion Magnus Carlsen as guest artists. If you read the [=YouTube=] comments -- most of which aren't even in Norwegian -- it's clear that most of the listeners are only there to hear Carlsen rap. |
| 162 | * Rappers whose main draw are their MotorMouth style of spitting, known as "chopping", are increasingly being seen as Dancing Bears. Their detractors claim that the technique places style over substance, as it's the speed of the rapping, not the (often lackluster) content, that's meant to impress the listener. |
| 163 | ** This has been a particular point of criticism for Music/{{Eminem}} in TheNewTens, whose style (which had always been technical) got to the point where it focused heavily on speed, tearing through his own record for fastest rapping in a hit single three times ("Rap God", "Majesty" and "Godzilla"). While he's maintained the depth of lyrics that initially got him regarded as an all-time great, and some of the fast rapping is [[https://www.tiktok.com/@mazbouq/video/7056936458703162626 musically interesting beyond just being fast]], it's also hard to argue that it's not just showing off for the sake of it. |
| 164 | * The song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xR9Iwpx0bw Soulless]]" by [=ExileLord=] just sounds like someone rapidly mashing keys on a synthesizer [[EpicRocking for 6 minutes]]. The only reason anyone cares about this song is that [[NintendoHard it's extremely difficult to play]] when it's added to ''VideoGame/GuitarHero''[[note]]or one of its {{Spiritual Successor}}s[=/=]{{Fan Remake}}s such as ''VideoGame/FretsOnFire'' or ''VideoGame/CloneHero''[[/note]] via GameMod, which appeals massively to {{Challenge Gamer}}s. The song later got sequels that try harder to sound like actual music, but their difficulty is still the sole reason anyone cares about them. |
| 165 | * A few of Music/{{Chocofan}}'s ''Touhou'' arrangements, such as "LUCKY CAT", are primarily known for being released mere days after the theme they're based on. |
| 166 | * Music/DireStraits' "Money for Nothing" initially gained a surge in popularity due to being the first song to have its music video be animated entirely in 3D. While the song itself still enjoys a dedicated following due to [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic being genuinely good]], most people tend to remember it as a hallmark in music video history for pioneering such a gimmick. |
| 167 | * Music/WesleyWillis' music can be described as a schizophrenic man rambling over a synthesizer's pre-programmed beats, while always following a [[StrictlyFormula strict formula]] for each song. This is something that both his fans and detractors acknowledge. |
| 168 | [[/folder]] |
| 169 | |
| 170 | [[folder:Non-Fiction]] |
| 171 | * ''A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud'', better known to those who've read it as "Music/BrianMay's doctoral thesis". |
| 172 | * ''Birds of the West Indies'' is a field guide to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Birds found in the Caribbean]]. Its claim to fame is its author's name, which was later borrowed by one Ian Fleming for his [[Franchise/JamesBond most famous character]]. |
| 173 | * ''Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc ³He'' is a scholarly paper best known for being authored by Jack H Hetherington and F D C Willard - Hetherington's cat. Hetherington, upon completing his manuscript and sharing it with a colleague, was alerted that he had used "we" extensively, and that his paper would be rejected without a co-author. Rather than find one or retype the manuscript, he chose to use his cat Chester. Giving him the first names ''Felis domesticus''[[note]]the Latin name for the domestic cat[[/note]] and using Chester's father's name Willard as a last name, Hetherington submitted the paper - later sharing copies with friends bearing Chester's "signature" in the form of pawprints. Chester would later be credited as sole author of another paper before "retiring" from the field. |
| 174 | [[/folder]] |
| 175 | |
| 176 | [[folder:Pinball]] |
| 177 | In general, as pinball machines were originally marketed to operators, who would put them out in public for people to play, advertising for them tended to be more about unique gimmicks and other novelties than about the gameplay itself, as operators were not necessarily players and thus were more likely persuaded on gimmicks and novelties than how good the game actually played. Rather than talk about, say, ''Pinball/TheAddamsFamily'''s intricate depth, its challenging yet fair difficulty, or its scoring oriented around CompetitiveBalance, it was easier to convince operators to buy the game because Thing comes out of a box and grabs the ball! Or hidden magnets swing the ball around in unpredictable directions! |
| 178 | * ''Pinball/BlackHole'' was the first machine to popularize multi-level playfields--in this case, a smaller one beneath the main one, seen through a window. The artwork on the backglass up top also has a large spinning mirrored disk, creating a DrosteImage of a rampaging black hole. |
| 179 | * ''Pinball/BlackKnight'' had a related concept: The split-level playfield, where the top half is elevated compared to the bottom half. This proved popular enough to inspire FollowTheLeader for its competitors, at least for a brief while. Its sequel, ''Black Knight 2000'', had the same gimmick, only now it was advertised to have a full-length song with vocals playing in the background. |
| 180 | * ''Pinball/{{Centigrade 37}}'' integrated a thermometer into the artwork whose mercury would rise as the game is played. The game itself is well-liked up to the present, but the thermometer was such a big part of the artwork that it would've been the first thing most people would see, especially to onlookers watching it rise as someone plays it. |
| 181 | * ''Pinball/{{Firepower}}'' proudly proclaimed that it had "Multiball" (a mode in which 2 or more balls are in play at a time) all over it: On its logo, on the artwork, on the sides of the machine, and all over its marketing, enough that Williams Electronics trademarked the word. |
| 182 | * ''Pinball/HighRollerCasino'' was shown off in its marketing for its tri-color LED miniature display that could show scrolling messages and slot machine reel animations,[[note]]So excited was the production team about this display that there are at least 64 known messages that scroll during its AttractMode[[/note]] which itself was placed above a short ramp that would dunk the ball into a model of a slot machine, whose arm would descend whenever it's activated. In addition, there was a spinning roulette wheel that the ball could fall into and a set of drop targets with stand-up targets behind them that would generate poker hands based on the order they're hit. |
| 183 | * ''Pinball/JurassicParkDataEast'' was shown off and remembered for two things: The Raptor Kick, in which a ball going up a dead-end path would then be shot back to the flippers by a solenoid at a very fast speed; and a UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex head that would bend down and swallow the ball. The former gimmick actually ''worked'', however, in that the phrase "Raptor Kick" would from then on become the fan term for any time this assembly reappeared in a pinball machine. It helped that players genuinely liked the gameplay as a whole. The ''T. Rex'' eating the ball, on the other hand, was prone to mechanical problems and thus rarely imitated. |
| 184 | * ''Pinball/{{Orbitor 1}}'''s appeal is solely that its playfield is not entirely flat, but is instead warped transparent plastic, causing the ball to travel unusual paths. Sometimes, a point would be made that the machine was designed by a NASA astrophysicist. Aside from that, the playfield itself was pretty empty, making the games incredibly boring. |
| 185 | * The draw of ''Predator'' was almost solely in the fact that it was being made and manufactured by a company other than Creator/{{Stern}}, which at that point was the only manufacturer of pinball machines larger than a garage and the only one big enough to secure licensed properties. This company, Skit-B, was seen among pinball fans largely as a fresh and young competitor for the then-stagnent Stern, and the fans paid relatively little attention to the game itself compared to it being a Stern alternative. Things fell apart for this project later on[[note]]namely that its leader, Kevin Kulek, was discovered to not have the ''Predator'' rights at all and that he squandered all of the pre-order money designing more games he didn't have the rights for[[/note]], but up to this point, this was what the project was known for. |
| 186 | * The main draw of ''Pinball/SpaceShuttle'', whenever it would appear in arcades and other public places, was an accurate scale model of a NASA shuttle placed onto the playfield. Straightforward as it was, this actually worked incredibly well: As such levels of detail could not be replicated in video games at the time, ''Space Shuttle'' proved to be very popular (for pinball), getting pinball out of the slump it had in the mid-80's. It worked so well, it became standard for pinball machines released afterwards to have a model of ''something'' on the playfield somewhere. |
| 187 | * The pinball machine for ''Pinball/StarshipTroopers'' focused on two easily noticeable aspects: A pretty large model of a Brain Bug that would normally stay hidden but would pop up for you to hit with the ball during certain times; and a third flipper, smaller than the other two and colored red, controlled by a third button on the side of the machine. |
| 188 | * ''Pinball/TronLegacy'', prior to its release, was frequently boasted to have original music by Music/DaftPunk in the game, more so than anything about how the game actually played. |
| 189 | * The flyers distributed to operators for ''Pinball/TwilightZone'' had a large part dedicated to the gumball machine in the corner: This one is filled with pinballs, and when you deposit a ball behind it, the handle on the gumball machine would turn on its own and provide you with a replacement ball. |
| 190 | * ''Pinball/TXSector'' proudly advertised its so-called "teleporting balls": Two pinballs were kept in reserve at various spots, ready to be released under certain conditions, creating the illusion that a single ball teleported elsewhere. |
| 191 | * Arguably, the large monitor in ''Pinball/TheWizardOfOz'' is this. Though downplayed in the promotional materials for this machine, it was the first mass-produced pinball machine to have a full-size flat-screen monitor embedded in it, which is a lot more colorful, bigger, brighter, and most importantly, a lot more modern-looking than the single-color dot-matrix displays Creator/JerseyJackPinball's competitors were using at the time, and thus draws a lot of attention from onlookers and passers-by. Operators with a ''Wizard of Oz'' machine and no other monitor-based pinball machines claim that ''Oz'' brings in at least several times as many players as their dot-matrix display or older machines. Although ''The Wizard of Oz'' is a solid game in its own right, only time will tell if this novelty continues to last as more machines are released with monitors like this one. |
| 192 | * ''Pinball/{{Xenon}}'''s gimmick was that it was the first large-scale release of a pinball machine to have pre-recorded voice clips. As it was released in 1980, right when computer technology became small enough to fit in a pinball machine, it took a lot of work to produce the equipment to get the several seconds' worth of those recordings. The designers and engineers sure as heck weren't going to let that go by unnoticed. |
| 193 | ** In turn, the marketing for ''Pinball/{{Gorgar}}'' was completely about how the various voice clips for the titular creature could be spliced together to form other phrases. |
| 194 | [[/folder]] |
| 195 | |
| 196 | [[folder:Puppet Shows]] |
| 197 | * ''Film/TheMuppets2011'' focused on and was marketed almost entirely on the basis of "Holy shit, ''the Muppets are back''!" |
| 198 | * ''Film/AMuppetFamilyChristmas'' could have been just any old Christmas special starring the cast of ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', but the real novelty of it is seeing a three-way {{crossover}} with them, the cast of ''Series/SesameStreet'', ''and'' the cast of ''Series/FraggleRock'', with the principal cast still alive at the time it was made (1987), no less. |
| 199 | * ''Series/ThunderboltFantasy'' got the attention of the anime fandom due to its association with Creator/GenUrobuchi. Puppet shows are not typical content for anime streaming sites, to say the least, so the medium made up most of the message; [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/thunderbolt-fantasy/.107756 any discussion of it]] centers on the strangeness of watching Taiwanese puppet theatre scripted by a famous anime writer. |
| 200 | [[/folder]] |
| 201 | |
| 202 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 203 | * The wargame ''Campaign for North Africa'' is primarily known for how long it takes to play, being almost impossible to complete as published in anything less than several years, as well as being ridiculously heavy on bookkeeping and simulationism (down to featuring mechanics for how quickly liquid supplies evaporate in the desert). The game designers jokingly told someone that if they thought there was something wrong with the game, they should try to play it again to completion and see if the problem was still happening. |
| 204 | * The third-party ''[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]]'' adventure ''The World's Largest Dungeon'' puts its Dancing Bear [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin right in the title.]] Not only is it [[DoorStopper the largest published dungeon,]] it also features almost every monster in the Open Game License, and is one of the most expensive RPG sourcebooks ever sold. [[http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/oriongates/the-worlds-largest-dungeon/ The actual contents of the dungeon]] are mostly considered to be [[ObviousBeta horribly edited]], unbalanced, and severely padded. |
| 205 | * ''Mythic Fantasy Roleplaying Game'', or ''MYFAROG'', is known exclusively for being a game created by [[Music/{{Burzum}} Varg Vikernes]], a notorious black metal musician, white supremacist, arsonist, and convicted murderer. Unlike most of its contemporaries in the field of tabletop games with racist subject matter, such as ''TabletopGame/RacialHolyWar'' or ''TabletopGame/{{FATAL}}'', it's generally considered fairly middling mechanically rather than [[BileFascination entertainingly godawful]], meaning the main reason to look into it is to see the kind of game Vikernes would make (unsurprisingly, it features a lot of white supremacy). |
| 206 | * ''TabletopGame/ForbiddenSky'' got some attention for its use of electronics, which boosted its "toy" appeal and was notable for being the publisher's first stab at that sort of game. Sadly, the game itself was seen as middling and a step down from its predecessors ''TabletopGame/ForbiddenIsland'' and ''TabletopGame/ForbiddenDesert'' (in particular because its design encourages you to take a lot of turns that go "move, perform an action or two, then retreat to a safe tile"), so it was discontinued a few years after its release while its older siblings continued to thrive. |
| 207 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Kriegsspiel}}'' is largely forgotten these days, save for the fact that it was the TropeMaker for all tabletop wargames. Initially used by the Prussian army in the 1800's to plan real battles, it nonetheless paved the way for games like ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' among many, many others. |
| 208 | * Most kids get ''TabletopGame/MouseTrap'' for the funny, toy-like RubeGoldbergMachine trap. The actual gameplay is a bog-standard RollAndMove affair. |
| 209 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikyoku_shogi Taikyoku shogi]] is known mostly for its absurd complexity and game length: it's a TabletopGame/{{shogi}} variation where the players have to grapple with ''207'' piece types. |
| 210 | [[/folder]] |
| 211 | |
| 212 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 213 | * The musical ''In Transit,'' about a group of strangers taking the subway in New York City, hyped up the fact it was entirely ACappella, using the voices of its ten-member ensemble to fill out its score. Its Off-Broadway and Broadway runs were both fairly short, and it isn't remembered much beyond that fact. |
| 214 | * ''Theatre/SpiderManTurnOffTheDark'' is more famous for its troubled production than anything else. [[BileFascination This aside]], the technical aspects - including a spectacular aerial battle above the audience - are the main reasons to see the show. |
| 215 | * ''Theatre/StarlightExpress'' is one of the least-remembered Andrew Lloyd Webber productions, especially outside of the West End. Most theater fans who know about it just know that it's a show about trains performed entirely on roller skates. |
| 216 | * Tina Howe's 1979 play ''The Art of Dining'' is best known for featuring a set with a real working kitchen, with the actors typically cooking and eating real food onstage over the course of the play (since the audience can ''smell'' the food as it's being cooked, this is considered a vital part of the experience). But even plenty of avid theatre fans probably couldn't tell you anything about the plot. |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 220 | * ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' initially appears as just another cute dating sim, but went viral because of its [[spoiler:DisguisedHorrorStory nature]] and how the game [[spoiler:[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou interacts with its own files and your computer information]]]] from Act 2 onwards. It is also for this reason that fans suggest that newcomers play the game on PC, rather than the later console releases. |
| 221 | * ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' looks like a standard dating sim, other than the fact that the potential love interests are [[UpliftedAnimal pigeons]], that are represented by photos of pigeons instead of drawings (and [[InterspeciesRomance the main character is a human girl]]). There's far more to it than just "pigeon dating sim", much of it arguably more surreal than the basic permise, but it is the premise alone that is the main reason most people know about this game. |
| 222 | * ''VisualNovel/LoveAtFirstSight'' is a generic Kinetic VisualNovel set in a Japanese school which would pass unnoticed, were it not for the fact that Sachi Usui, the heroine to be romanced, is a CuteMonsterGirl, specifically a {{Cyclops}}. There's no real explanation for this and it doesn't even factor in the plot, for example the resident bully torments her... for being weak and submissive. [[note]][[AuthorAppeal It's one of the author's fetishes]], who explains in the notes that he made a game because in the US they're easier to make and distribute than paper ''{{doujinshi}}''.[[/note]] |
| 223 | * ''VisualNovel/SchoolDays'' is notable and popular for two things; the fact that it's a rare example of a fully-animated VN (unlike most Visual Novels, which use mostly static images accompanied by text), and the infamously [[SurprisinglyCreepyMoment dark and violent]] bad endings where the characters go insane and/or get brutally murdered. That's ''all'' it's known for, however, as without those two qualities it's just your fairly average [[HaremGenre harem H-game]] (the non-bad endings, which make up the majority of them, are pretty normal fare). The creators of the [[AnimeOfTheGame anime adaptation]] were definitely aware of this, as it follows the darkest route of the game and makes it ''even darker''. |
| 224 | [[/folder]] |
| 225 | |
| 226 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 227 | * ''WebAnimation/FantasyKaleidoscope'' is largely known for ''looking'' like a professional big-budget adaptation of the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' series, despite being entirely fanmade. The animation in its own right is rather good, but it's the fact that it's ''not'' an official installment of the series that tends to draw people to it. |
| 228 | * WebAnimation/KizunaAI would be a relatively typical Let's Player and [=YouTuber=], if not for the fact that she's an [[ReclusiveArtist unknown person, or group of people]], who only appears in the form of a UsefulNotes/MikuMikuDance CGI model that claims to be a [[ArtificialIntelligence "super AI"]] rather than a human using motion-capture tools. Not only did Kizuna herself become popular enough to [[https://us.jnto.go.jp/cometojapan/ star in a tourism campaign]] and get an anime voice acting role, but she ([[FollowTheLeader and her imitators]]) came to create the entire VirtualYoutuber genre. |
| 229 | * ''WebAnimation/LucasTheSpider'' is popular less for the actual content (which mainly involves the titular character in various silly antics), and more because the creator succeeded in averting WhatMeasureIsANonCute by making a realistic spider cute and appealing; which is probably how it ended up becoming a preschool show a few years later. |
| 230 | * The main point of ''WebAnimation/TheRedApeFamily'' is less the show itself, and more that each episode has [[UsefulNotes/{{Bitcoin}} NFTs]] minted for it, so you can (presumably) earn money by buying one NFT and reselling it. Also doubles as OvershadowedByControversy for people who are anti-NFT. |
| 231 | [[/folder]] |
| 232 | |
| 233 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 234 | * ''Webcomic/AxeCop'' is popular in large part because of the sheer novelty of a comic written by a 5-6 year old boy, albeit with art and interpretation by his 30 year old brother, a talented professional cartoonist. |
| 235 | * The ''intended'' gimmick for ''Webcomic/BillyTheHeretic'' was to be the comic of choice for [[ThoseWackyNazis white supremacists.]] What it got instead was the [[SarcasmMode coveted]] title of being the worst web comic '''ever.''' And that is going against some ''serious'' competition. |
| 236 | * The main gimmick of ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'' is that almost all strips are identical, with only the occasional minor alteration. |
| 237 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' has a gimmick which it grew into -- its use of MediumAwareness combined with the InfiniteCanvas of a webcomic, as well as MediumBlending in the later chapters (often being full-blown animations or short playable games). As the comic progressed, however, it became less known for the gimmick of its presentation and more known for its absurdly in-depth KudzuPlot. |
| 238 | * Many ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}''-comic-inspired {{Defictionalization}}s are only recognized because of their inspirational source. The [[http://www.geekosystem.com/xkcd-tetris-hell-game/ "Tetris in hell"]] game, for example, is interesting entirely because someone actually bothered to make it even though it doesn't really add anything to [[http://xkcd.com/724/ the original joke.]] |
| 239 | [[/folder]] |
| 240 | |
| 241 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 242 | * [[ThatWasTheLastEntry Social media accounts of murdered and/or missing people]], such as the [[Platform/YouTube YouTube]] channel of [[https://youtube.com/user/catalinapby1 Zaharie Shah]], the captain of the infamous [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370]], tend to be flooded afterwards - in an eerily [[Film/TheTrumanShow Truman Burbank]]-esque way - by comments completely unrelated to whatever was posted with condolences, or theories about what happened to them if the case is unsolved. Extra creepy points if the person attached was a [[TheEveryman complete nobody]] beforehand, [[ParanoiaFuel and is probably completely unaware of all the attention... or are they?]] |
| 243 | * The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' has a decent number of entries that focus less on the actual creature or object, and more on the way the information itself ends up conveyed. |
| 244 | ** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2521 SCP-2521]] is a pretty basic "spooky mysterious monster that abducts people"... but due to the SCP stealing all written information about itself, the entire article is told through pictures and diagrams, with no text used at any point. It was inspired by a contest to create an SCP in under 237 words, to which the writer decided to create an SCP in ''zero''. |
| 245 | ** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4975 SCP-4975]] isn't much more complicated than a hostile creature that kills people, with its only notable trait being [[TheCrocIsTicking the fact that it makes an eerie ticking sound]] that only its victims can hear to [[TerribleTicking drive them to paranoid madness]], a sign that it has begun hunting them down. That's not the gimmick--the gimmick is that the page has a hidden audio file that starts to play after a few minutes if you're wearing headphones, [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou consisting of an eerie ticking sound]]. |
| 246 | * ''Website/{{Springhole}}'': In ''[[https://www.springhole.net/writing/whydragonstoriessuck.htm Why Stories About Dragons SUCK]]'', Syera complains most stories with dragons use them as gimmicks to distract from the bad writing. |
| 247 | * The Bloody Board was a ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' forum infamous for one thing: its 39,000 posts were posted by a single person, who happened to be the forum's owner themself. It stayed under the radar for 6 years [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18792_the-7-most-unintentionally-creepy-places-internet.html before its very existence was unearthed by]] Website/{{Cracked}}[[note]]And yes, we admit that the forum's kinda creepy.[[/note]]. This prompted [[Website/FourChan /b/]], eBaum's' World and Encyclopedia Dramatica to wreak havoc on the site until it was inevitably shut down. |
| 248 | [[/folder]] |
| 249 | |
| 250 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 251 | * Blindfolded {{speedrun}}s. Inevitably, these are slower than un-blindfolded ones, but are still popular for the novelty of watching someone try to beat a ''video'' game while unable to see anything, and for [[https://youtu.be/ABIXOsJcq2Y?t=4m52s bizarre problems that can come up]]. |
| 252 | * ''WebVideo/SomeJerkWithACamera'' has all his videos filmed on-location at the theme parks he covers, which made him stand out of the reviewer crowd when he debuted. It's telling that when Creator/DougWalker [[note]]Who reportedly rarely, if ever, watched the content the producers on his site made.[[/note]] made a plug video for this show during its time on Website/ChannelAwesome, it was the only thing Doug talked about. During his review of ''Film/EscapeFromTomorrow'', Tony takes a moment to point out that he's uniquely qualified to talk about it because of his close familiarity with the film's gimmick in both theory and practice. |
| 253 | * ''WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemon'' had the simple gimmick of a Twitch chat controlling a game of ''Pokémon Red'' by typing in various inputs. Anywhere from 50 thousand to 100 thousand people watched and participated in the original ''[[WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemonRed Pokémon Red]]'' stream, managing to complete the game in a little over 16 days. While the original Twitch channel would drop heavily in popularity after a year or so, streamers still make use of the gimmick. Some (such as WebVideo/DougDoug) have even built their brand on allowing their audience direct control over whatever game is being played that day -- be it ''Pokémon'', ''Mario Party'', or ''Grand Theft Auto'' -- with the added bonus of the host's reactions to whatever failures and successes occur. |
| 254 | ** ''Fish Plays Pokémon'' had over 21,000 people watching a fish move about a bowl to play ''Pokémon Red''. |
| 255 | ** ''RNG Plays Pokémon'', which was effectively just the Fish version, but much faster, [[{{Dissimile}} and without the fish]]. |
| 256 | * ''WebVideo/UnusAnnus'' was a [=YouTube=] channel that uploaded weird videos each day, with the gimmick that after one year, the channel and all its content would be deleted. Didn't watch it while it was active? Sorry, but you'll never get to see those videos (unless you disobey the creators' wishes and [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes find some archive copies]]). |
| 257 | [[/folder]] |
| 258 | |
| 259 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 260 | * ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'''s "Free Churro" is considered the most memorable episode of the fifth season, if not the entire show. The episode's entire 25-minute runtime is just a Creator/WillArnett monologue, only consisting of one uninterrupted eulogy told by [=BoJack=] (plus the ColdOpen flashback, which features Arnett as Bojack's father Butterscotch). The actual content of said monologue is deeply moving in its own right, but the format is what shot it to iconic status for most critics and fans. |
| 261 | ** Similarly the third season's "Fish out of Water", which is Free Churro's polar opposite - apart from the first scene it's a completely dialogue-free episode, dependent solely on visual storytelling. Again it's extremely well-done in its own right, but it's the format that makes it so memorable. |
| 262 | * The reason ''WesternAnimation/ClutchCargo'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clutch_Cargo#Legacy penetrated into pop culture as far as it did]] is solely because of its TropeCodifier status in using SynchroVox, which cut down on animation costs by having footage of the voice actor's lips speaking the dialogue atop static character drawings. The studio would actually go on to make two other cartoons with the technique, but ''Clutch Cargo'' is the only one that's remembered. To quote the show ''The Higgins Boys and Gruber'', "If it weren't for the lips, it'd be a filmstrip!" |
| 263 | * An '''actual''' dancing bear is used in this format in-universe on ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic''. Jay's show is falling in the ratings and the set is converted to a rustic cabin appearance, complete with stuffed bear. Except [[TakeThat the hippies wouldn't accept a stuffed bear, so they just drugged him up.]] After it attacks Jay, it offers an apology by way of dancing a polka and moonwalk as he plays the concertina. |
| 264 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': |
| 265 | ** InUniverse, Creator/PamelaAnderson appears AsHerself and mentions starring in ''Series/{{Baywatch}}: The Movie,'' the first film to be shot entirely in slow-motion. |
| 266 | ** Another InUniverse example occurs when Leela becomes the first female professional Blernsball player. Her lack of depth perception means she's utterly hopeless, and the team owner makes no bones about the fact that her inclusion in the team is a publicity stunt. Also deconstructed, as Jackie Anderson - a female Blernsball player who is actually ''good'' - points out that Leela's laughable performances are making it harder for other female players to be taken seriously. |
| 267 | ** Though "The Prisoner of Benda" is a well-regarded episode in its own right, it is best-known for featuring an actual, functioning mathematical proof created by the episode's writer for the sole purpose of solving its BodySwap plot. |
| 268 | * ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', while a quality show in its own right, is best known for being the first ever AllCGICartoon to be a full-length animated series. |
| 269 | * The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Deep Learning" is notable chiefly because its ending was written by [=ChatGPT=], a text-predicting computer program, rather than a human writer. |
| 270 | * ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' has several InUniverse examples: |
| 271 | ** In "Patty Hype", Mr. Krabs begins losing customers to a restaurant called "the Shell Shack" that has a talking dog. (Bear in mind that Bikini Bottom is a city full of talking animals, ''underwater'', and some of those customers don't even know what a dog ''is''.) Mr. Krabs tries to think of a dancing bear of his own, and after he cruelly rejects and mocks [=SpongeBob=]'s suggestion of "Pretty Patties", [=SpongeBob=] [[StartMyOwn starts his own restaurant selling them]] and becomes a massive success, as people love his technicolour patties. Krabs buys the restaurant out, only to be hit with a mass of complaints when it turns out the Pretty Patties have undesirable side effects. |
| 272 | ** In [[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS6E25PineappleFeverChumCaverns "Chum Caverns"]], Plankton relocates his restaurant to a beautiful underground cave and becomes a massive success, with long lines of people waiting to get in the door. The gorgeous scenery proves to be the main attraction, as the enthralled customers freely admit that the food is still terrible even as they're marveling at the sights. |
| 273 | ** "The Masterpiece" has a similar premise to "Patty Hype": a new restaurant is attracting customers away from the Krusty Krab, and when [=SpongeBob=] realises it's because of a large statue of the restaurant's mascot rather than the food, Mr. Krabs decides to make his own statue to fight back. |
| 274 | * An InUniverse version occurs during the ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' Christmas video, "The Star of Christmas." The protagonists are attempting to open a musical called "The Princess and the Plumber" on Christmas night in order to escape the fate of using their talents to sell dental wax. While some effort is made towards advertising it based on its merits as an actual play, Cavis Appethart repeatedly sells new actors and backers on it with the promise of using fancy, newly-invented electrical lights on the sets and costumes. |
| 275 | [[/folder]] |
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