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4[[quoteright:270:[[VideoGame/ClubPenguin https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xtreme_jetpack.png]]]]
5[[caption-width-right:270:"Cart''z''"?! You can't be [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner xerioux]]...]]
6
7->''"Reactions resulted in the product being coined 'Krazy Glue'; a product so crazy that it requires intentional misspelling."''
8-->-- '''Website/{{Cracked}}''', [[http://www.cracked.com/article_17134_5-accidental-inventions-that-changed-world.html "5 Accidental Inventions That Changed the World"]]
9
10[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Certain letterz of the English alphabetz are just "kewler" than others]]. As such, many peoplez will intentionalli mizzpel wordz by xubztituting ðese letterz, in the hopez that this will draw moar attentshun from young peoplez and make the rezult look moar youþ-oriented.
11
12Whether this actually ''works'' on the youth crowd is debatable; this is a pop-culture phenomenon that [[CyclicTrope comes and goes]] like many other fads, sometimes [[TotallyRadical losing its appeal]] almost immediately out of the gate.
13
14Although, when it is used, it is often PlayedForLaughs to point out marketing groups that fail to understand an audience or, more often, weak attempts to seem hip to the younger generation.
15
16The most common substitutionz are:
17* "K" in place of a hard "C" (like in ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' and ''Music/{{Korn}}''). This is often used to give characters that "medieval," "Germanic," or "Soviet Russia" tinge. In actual German, however, spelling things with "C" instead of K (or Z, often seen in circuses spelling themselves "Circus" instead of the dictionary's "Zirkus") would have the exact same effect, or make words look old-fashioned (because they were written with C in former times).
18** The reversal, substituting "C" instead of "K," is also very common in the Hip Hop community. It is also used in languages that don't use the letter C for a "k" sound, such as German.
19** Replacing "ck" with "cc" (for example, "thicc" instead of "thick") is also seen, especially in internet memes. This originates from [[GangBangers the Crips gang]], who dislike using the letters "CK" as it can stand for "Crip Killer".
20** Substituting "ck" for hard "c," especially at ends of words, also has a PhantasySpelling flavour.
21* "X" substituted for "Ex," especially in the word "Extreme," or just slapped onto a name for no apparent reason. This is supposed to give off a scientific, futuristic and/or technological tone to the word.
22** Also, "ix" substituted for "ics" or "icks" at the end of a word, to the same effect.
23* "Y" instead of "I" in the myddle of a word, also tends to give off a sciencey and/or [[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe "ye olde"]] medieval tone to the word.
24* "I" instead of "Y" at the veri end of a word. This makes the word look like it's of Latin and/or Asian origin.
25* "Z" instead of "S" at the end of plural wordz, to give off an African, German, Polish, or scientific tone.
26* "Q" in place of a "K" sound at the end of a word, adds a Middle Eastern/Arabian and/or Chinese flavour, as well as making the word look royal or magical.
27* "A" substituted for "er" or "or" at the end of a word.
28* "DGE" (e.g. bridge) substituted for "J" (brij) tends to give off a rebellious "punk" tone, especially since the letter J is well-known for its infrequency, being the third least-common letter.
29* "F" replaced with "PH" also tends to come off as rebellious and punk-esque.
30* Spelling "cool" as "kool" or "kewl."
31* Anything with AddedAlliterativeAppeal, such as "Kool Kids."
32
33Less-common variantz include:
34* Letters2Numbers, like "2" in the place of "to" or "too."
35* [[FunetikAksent Phonetic spelling]]; for example, inserting "-shun" in place of "-tion" or its kin: "Acshun!"
36* [[TheBackwardsR Substituting letters from foreign alphabets in place of English letters]], regardless of whether that letter has any similarity in pronunciation or meaning. This can also be done with symbols, e.g. substituting the quantifiers ∀ ("for all") and ∃ ("there exists some") for A and E.
37
38Interestingly, this trope tends to favor letters constructed primarily from hard straight lines and sharp angles -- "X," "K," "Z," so on. These letters are also worth many points in English-language ''Scrabble'', though examples of this trope would probably not be considered legal words.
39
40This can also extend to acronyms/abbreviations/initializations to make them more memorable, even if the chosen letter isn't, technically, the one in the original word. "X-Tensible Markup Language," for example, is easier to remember by its initialization of "XML" than "EML."
41
42"[[LeetLingo Leet speak]]" (or "1337") can be considered this trope played to extremes, where almost every normal letter is replaced by some form of "extreme" counterpart, which to those unfamiliar with the meme can vary anywhere from "slightly different" to "utterly unreadable," depending on how "hardcore" the user wishes to appear; it's believed that leet originated from the cracking[[note]]"Hacker" is a case of misuse[[/note]] community, which may explain why it's never spread beyond circles of computer geeks, online gamers, and {{Webcomic/Homestuck}}s.
43
44"Text speak," originating in IM and a popular shorthand for use with mobile phones, is similar to "1337," though the hardcore consider it a different language.
45
46One possible justification for Xtreme Kool Letterz in RealLife is that, at least in the United States, product names that are generic or that are descriptive without acquired secondary meaning cannot be trademarked as-is, but deliberate misspellings can.
47
48The overall trope is OlderThanTelevision, and possibly OlderThanRadio, with deliberate misspellings being used for humor at least since the Victorian era. (And back then, of course, semiliteracy was such a problem that many otherwise articulate people ''unintentionally'' misspelled words, making this trope not only comical but also satirical.) In academic study of English, this is known as "sensational spelling."
49
50Xtreme Kool Letterz shows up around this wiki as well, with titles such as [[JustForFun/TheArchiveOfBellicoseLexiconEntities Friends of Really Kool Sobriquet]], and yes, [[ThisTropeNameReferencesItself this article]].
51
52Compare TheBackwardsR, DoubleX, HeavyMetalUmlaut, InheritedIlliteracyTitle, Letters2Numbers, LuckyCharmsTitle, MyspeldRokband, PhantasySpelling, ShoehornedAcronym, XMakesAnythingCool (for "X" used by itself), YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe, and more from the TextTropes index.
53
54See also AVillainNamedZrg, MyNaymeIs, NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast ([[NamesToRunAwayFrom/KNames K ones are its own kind]]), TotallyRadical (one result of marketers trying this), and more of the NamingConventions index.
55
56----
57!!Xamplez:
58
59[[foldercontrol]]
60
61[[folder:Advertyzing]]
62* Early advertising example: A 1950s print ad for Heinz baked beans in the UK included the caption, "Beanz Buildz Kidz!" And that wasn't even their main slogan... it was "Beanz Meanz Heinz".[[note]]That was probably unintentional in terms of Xtremeness, seeing as how the brand name is, of course, Heinz, and the ad was just a play on it, not on [=Sup4 Kule L3tt4rz=].[[/note]]
63* The soda MDX, which stands for Mountain Dew Xtreme.
64* ''Franchise/{{Bratz}}'' (doll lines, animated series, [=DVDs=]) totally qualifies. Not just with the name, but the name of ''every single doll line they have''. Doll names with a short '''I''' also have a double '''II''' for no apparent reason. Once they got to stringing together names like "Bratz Babyz Ponyz," you get to wondering how much longer until they trademarked the letter z and we'd all have to start paying them to be able to use it.
65** One Bratz book is actually named ''Xtreme Kool''.
66* Sprint's new [=WiMax=] service will be called "XOHM" (pronounced Zoam). ''"It's an invented term that went through extensive market research and tested well with consumer and business audiences," said Sprint's John Polivka. "There is a certain 'cool factor' with the X in it..." [[http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2007/08/13/daily34.html (source)]]
67* Sheetz convenience stores have a fast food counter that sells "Bagelz" and "Wrapz".
68* Intel's Xeon processors -- oddly enough, not really targeted at the "extreme" gaming crowd (they're mostly designed for use in commercial servers, where their support for multiple sockets, multiple [=CPUs=] per socket, and error-correcting memory are more useful).
69* The Kia Forte is available as a four door sedan, or as a two door Koup.
70* There are "freeline skates" with the brand name ''Xliders'' as well as a pumped-up Razor scooter called a ''Xootr''.
71* As of 2008, the packaging and advertising for Goldfish snack crackers features four [[LetsMeetTheMeat anthropomorphic crackers]] as {{mascot}}s. One of these cracker characters is named Xtreme.
72* According to Website/{{Wikipedia}}, Kool-Aid (originally Kool-Ade) was first sold in 1927, and Kool cigarettes were first sold in 1933.
73* The banners on this page right now, which, many thanks to Ads by Google, are currently "XTREME Ringtones," "Xtreme Machine Wheels" and "Xtreme Diesel Performance."
74* Many things marketed to kids seem to use this trope, probably in an attempt to make their product seem "cooler".
75** Kidz Bop probably falls under this category
76** "[[PhoneNumberJingle 1-877-]]Kars-4-Kids. [[SpellingSong K-A-R-S]], Kars-4-Kids..."
77* There used to be a cider called "Xider". It may intend to evoke an American pronunciation of "exciter," but everyone around Sweden just said "kseeder". Then regulations changed and the stuff could no longer be legally referred to as a cider, so they changed the name to "Xide," whatever that's supposed to mean.
78* Trix, and Kix.
79* The next big global compact sedan from General Motors is sold in Europe, and will be sold in the U.S., as the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Cruze Chevrolet Cruze.]]
80* Platform/PlaystationNetwork has a sort of video-magazine entitled Qore (Core).
81* Even fairly mundane things like public transport follow this trope. The transport manufacturer Bombardier is particularly fond.
82** They have the "Flexity" tram and the "CX-100" people mover as two examples. Just to really make sure they keep this trope, most of their vehicles run on FLEXX bogies (or trucks). The fact one version is the FLEXX Eco is a trope in itself, as these days it's cool to be "eco".
83** Also from Bombardier, the TRAXX locomotive. "Stands for Transnational Railway Applications with eXtreme fleXibility." TRAEF would not have sounded anything like as good.
84* UNIX got its name when Unics became a NonIndicativeName by no longer being a uniplexing (i.e. one thing at a time) system.
85* Although it wasn't named this way for kewlness, Cheez Whiz[[note]]products must meet certain criteria to legally be called "cheese"; "cheez" has no such restrictions[[/note]] definitely fits the spelling pattern.
86** Cheez-It crackers, introduced in 1921, make that particular spelling OlderThanTelevision.
87* Pringles "[[https://loqsea.com/media/catalog/product/cache/4/image/d2a07706b41302a042c967a0097d465a/p/r/pringles-xtreme.jpg Xtreme]]" flavors.
88* [=DiGiorno=] Pizza & [[https://www.nathenson.org/2013/02/wyngz-are-not-made-of-wings-or-trademarks/ Wyngz]]. They actually couldn't legally call them "wings" due to the absence of any actual wing meat.
89* The "ambient electronic device" [[https://thetechjournal.com/electronics/live-the-internet-with-karotz-the-first-ever-facebook-hardware.xhtml Karotz]], successor to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabaztag Nabaztag]].
90* Springfield Armory Company imports the Croatian-made HS 2000 handgun into the U.S. and sells it under the name "Springfield XD". The "XD" is short for "eXtreme Duty".
91* The fast food chain Zaxby's replaces "S" with "Z" at the end of words, bar their chicken wings, because [[LiteCreme "wingz" implies they aren't actually chicken wings]]. Appetizers is turned into Zappetizers, as well.
92* King Kullen, one of the first self-service markets. Buy one and get AddedAlliterativeAppeal for free. (Or the other way round.)
93* As a general thing, commercial products are more likely to use this trope because the more unique a name, the easier it is to trademark. Notice all the ''Transformers'' toys, for example, that bear either completely made-up names (Optimus Prime, Megatron) or names following this trope (Spittor, Demolishor, etc).
94* In 1990, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET8QzgFo5zg Pfister]] was billed as "The pfabulous pfaucet with the pfunny name."
95* Irn-Bru, Scotland's most popular carbonated drink and hangover remedy, is actually [[EnforcedTrope an involuntary example]]. The Advertising Standards Agency wanted Barr Soft Drinks to change the name from "Iron Brew" lest it mislead people into trying to use it as an over-the-counter anaemia remedy, but Barr had based their campaign on the fact the new drink was a similar colour to iron ore and gone all-out with the ForgingScene imagery for the TV spots etc, and didn't want to have to start over from scratch. A compromise was reached by spelling the name phonetically, and the rest is history. The fact that it looks vaguely Gaelic doesn't hurt either.
96* In the spring of 2019, Bosch power tools ran adverts on [=YouTube=] declaring that something X-TRA REVOLUTIONARY was coming. The X was red, the rest was black.
97* The Advertising/ChickFilACows are all over this trope. In-universe, they communicate to humans by wearing and waving around [[WavingSignsAround badly spelled signs]].
98* Funyuns chips, a portmanteau of "fun" and "onions".
99* Kellogg's Froot Loops cereal.
100[[/folder]]
101
102[[folder:Animez & Mangaz]]
103* The official English translation of the ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}'' manga explains the name "Zearth" by invoking this trope (justified, in that it's a bunch of kids piloting the robot). It is worth noting that the ''real'' reason for the name Zearth is that it's the Japanese pronunciation of "The Earth" rendered back into different English characters. On the one hand, even in a direct translation, the kids did go with "Zearth" instead of "The Earth" because it sounded cooler. On the other, has anyone ever actually said "the z makes it more extreme!" with a straight face? [[CrapsackWorld In the world of]] ''Bokurano'' they might.
104* Franchise/{{Transformers}} examples:
105** "Lazorbeak" from ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars''. (The Generation 1 character is always spelled "Laserbeak," as are the Cybertron and Animated ones. Expect a lot of people to get it wrong anyways.)
106* ''Manga/IkkiTousen'''s fourth season, ''Xtreme Xecutor''
107* Franchise/{{Digimon}} examples:
108** ''Anime/DigimonFusion'', known in the original Japanese version as ''Digimon Xros Wars'', the sixth series of the franchise, and its sequel ''Anime/DigimonXrosWarsTheYoungHuntersWhoLeaptThroughTime''. It's supposed to have a connection to the [[CombiningMecha DigiXros functionality]] in the series, which is, much as you'd guess, visually represented by an X.
109*** "Xros" is still pronounced exactly like "cross" though.
110** [=RizeGreymon=] in ''Anime/DigimonDataSquad''.
111*** [[ZigzaggingTrope Some sources still spell his name with an 'S' though]]. This is more due to Japanese inconsistency with pronunciation vs. katakana.
112** Khaosmon and UltimateKhaosmon.
113*** This is more weirdness with translation, but referencing Greek as the origin point.
114* The anime ''Anime/{{Texhnolyze}}''.
115* The Japanese title of ''Anime/DayBreakIllusion'' (幻影ヲ駆ケル太陽) uses katakana where hiragana would normally be used.
116* ''Anime/{{Symphogear}} G'': Kirika's attack names are spelled in a bizarre mishmash of randomly-sized Japanese and English characters, written in neon-colored "violent" calligraphy and accompanied by the sound of a witch's cackling. This is fitting for her nature as a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and a massive {{chuuni|byou}}.
117* Discussed by Osaka in ''Anime/AzumangaDaioh,'' in reference to fictional commercial for hemorrhoid treatment which wrote "痔" as "ぢ" rather than the grammatically correct "じ".
118* A type of {{doppelganger}} spirit in ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'' is called an "omokage". It's pronounced like the Japanese word for "image/vestige", but instead of the standard kanji spelling ("面影" or "俤"), it's written as [[InconsistentSpelling either]] an AlternateCharacterReading of "分身" (normally read as "bunshin", meaning "other self") or just in katakana.
119* The Japanese title of ''Manga/MitamaSecuritySpiritBusters'' uses the kanji "rei" (霊, "spirit") to replace the "ri" in "Security", going hand in hand with the series' RunningGag of inserting "rei" puns into sentences.
120[[/folder]]
121
122[[folder:Azian Anym@tion]]
123* The ''Animation/MotuPatlu'' episode "Ants Land" is referred to as "Antz Land" in the title of its official [=YouTube=] upload.
124[[/folder]]
125
126[[folder:Board Gamez]]
127* The title of ''TabletopGame/DungeonPetz''. Kind of odd, considering that it's a pretty complex and math-heavy EuroGame with no "x-treme" elements.
128[[/folder]]
129
130[[folder:Kard Gamez]]
131* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' card game:
132** It includes a card called [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Mind_Haxorz Mind Haxorz]] in the set ''Rise of Destiny''. Really! It's fun to mention that the original Japanese name of the card is merely "Mind Hack".
133** We also have [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Meklord_Astro_Machinicle Meklord Astro Mekanikle]]. Deserves special mentions because in ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' it's the trump card used by the ''villain''.
134** {{Invoked|Trope}} with the Xyz monsters introduced in ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'' and the card sets. It's pronounced "ik-seez" and is a reference to spacial coordinates[[note]]three dimensions: its place on the mat, and the cards under it[[/note]]. Humorously, up to the point of their announcement in the TCG, fansubbers of the show never caught that meaning, assuming it was "Exceed" because it was the closest-sounding actual word.
135** [[https://www.db.yugioh-card.com/yugiohdb/card_search.action?ope=1&sess=1&keyword=kozmo&stype=1&ctype=&starfr=&starto=&pscalefr=&pscaleto=&linkmarkerfr=&linkmarkerto=&link_m=2&atkfr=&atkto=&deffr=&defto=&othercon=2 "Kozmo" cards]].
136* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'''s Phyrexia, with names like Gix, Xantcha, and Skithiryx. As Tom [=LaPille=] [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/twitstorm-part-2-scars-twitstorm-2010-10-01 puts it]], "Are you more intimidated by the thought of the dread reign of Firecsia or Phyrexia?"
137[[/folder]]
138
139[[folder:Komix Bookz]]
140* ''ComicBook/XMen'' examples:
141** ''ComicBook/XTremeXMen''. Generally considered a really silly title, one online reviewer referred to the first three issues of [[ComicBook/XTremeXMen2001 the original 2001 series]] as ''That [[Creator/ChrisClaremont Claremont]] Book''. Ironically, when, after 46 issues, the book was canceled and the writer moved the characters to ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'', the team was renamed "X-Treme Sanctions Executive." Marvel still reused the title for a [[ComicBook/XTremeXMen2012 2012 series by a different creative team]], and again for [[ComicBook/XTremeXMen2022 another Claremont series in 2022]].
142*** "Storm claims it was an inside joke, and blames Gambit. Gambit blames Rogue. I blame society." -- Cable, ''X-Men: Future History - The Messiah War Sourcebook''.
143*** It helps that the initials XSE also match the team Bishop was part of in his BadFuture: the Xavier Security Enforcers. The name ''really'' exists so Bishop can go "OhCrap, the XSE! It's coming true after all."
144** Arguably, the ComicBook/XMen themselves. In the first issue, [[Characters/MarvelComicsProfessorX Professor Xavier]] notes that it stands for "X-tra power!" Fortunately, it's been {{retcon}}ned to stand for both Xavier's name and the X Factor, the unknown genetic factor that gives mutants their powers.
145** And then there's Professor Xavier's name:
146*** There's all the adaptations that pronounce it "Professor Ex-avier," just to make it clear to stupid viewers that there's an X in his name. "Xavier" is an archaic Spanish spelling of "Javier," so it should be "Khavi-air" (or "Zavvy-ay", in French -- or if you're very forgiving of pronounciation errors, "Zay-vier" will do. That said, "Ex-avier" is a common (mis)pronunciation of "Xavier" in RealLife, though).
147*** The Spanish dubs fortunately make a point of pronouncing his name "Khavi-air".
148*** There is a comic where Xavier admits that ''technically'' it isn't pronounced like that -- he just prefers it.
149** And the ''ComicBook/XMen'' spin-off book ''ComicBook/XForce'' once had a character called Adam-X, the X-Treme. Ah, the '90s. Thankfully, "the X-Treme" part rarely appeared outside of cover announcements of his guest appearances.
150** Before Adam-X, there was ComicBook/{{Magik}}. Although ''magik'', pronounced with a long 'a' and a hard 'g', is an actual word in Russian; it means "magician". The question is if Chris Claremont knew that when he gave the Siberian mutant that name.
151** Even earlier, there was Alex Summers, aka [[Characters/XMen60sMembers Havok]].
152** Played with in two spin-off titles launched by Creator/ChrisClaremont, ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur|MarvelComics}}'' and ''[=GeNext=]''. In both cases the "X" was the biggest letter in the cover logo. It went even further in the ''ComicBook/{{Age of Apocalypse}}'' crossover in the 90's, when ''Excalibur'' became X-Calibre.
153** Averted in the first arc in Creator/GrantMorrison's ''ComicBook/NewXMen'' run, which was titled "E is for Extinction." Let's just say that another writer might have emphasized a different letter of that word. [[spoiler:Except that the "X-tinction" title had already been used multiple times throughout the history of the team. He probably just wasn't allowed to use it again.]]
154** When the second incarnation of the ''X-Force'' was threatened with legal action over their name, leader the Orphan simply changes it -- to "ComicBook/XStatix". He says it came to him in a dream and he doesn't really know what it's supposed to mean.
155** This was a subject of a TakeThat moment in an issue of ''ComicBook/BloodSyndicate''. A RealityWarper villain briefly caused the team to transform into parodies of the X-Men and X-Force, and as such, everyone now had ridiculously misspelled names. Brickhouse became "Brique," DMZ became "Mister Ree," Flashback became "Regrette," Kwai became "Kwiklash," and so on.
156* In the second issue of ''Hyperkind'', one of the newly empowered Hyperkind decides to adopt "Logic" as his CodeName. Another member (the resident comic nerd of the team) stops him, telling him to call himself "Logix" because, "That's how it's done!" Said comic nerd then decides to call himself Amokk, for the same reason.
157* In ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen: The Black Dossier'', Mina delivers a TakeThat to the producers of [[Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen the film adaptation]] when she identifies a rocket as being American because "who else would think that 'extra' starts with an 'X'?" The League movie was often referred to as ''LXG''.
158* In Franchise/TheDCU:
159** The hero ComicBook/{{Aztek}} was named by a newspaper. Drawing on the South American motif in his costume, a reporter dubbed him Aztek "with a 'K' -- because of all the neat high-tech stuff he's got on his uniform."
160** Kobra
161** Mister Magik, who started going by [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 The White Magician]] after becoming a FallenHero.
162** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Pyg Professor Pyg]].
163* Underground Comix (only rarely: Komix). So called to distinguish them from mainstream comics.
164** Doubles (or is it FunetikAksent?) for the series Wimmen's Comix.
165* ''[[ComicBook/{{Miracleman}} Kimota!]]'' ("Atomik" spelled backwards).
166* In the weekly AnthologyComic ''ComicBook/TheBeano'', there is comic strip entitled ''Ratz''.
167* Characters/{{Captain America|TitleCharacter}} of Marvel's Super Soldier program was Weapon 1. 40 years later came the last major Super Soldier trial: [[ComicBook/XMen Weapon X]].
168* The AnthologyComic ''ComicBook/TheDandy'' was reinvented as ''Dandy Xtreme'' in [[TurnOfTheMillennium the 2000s]]. It reverted back to being ''The Dandy'' at the start of TheNewTens for its final years as a print comic.
169* This trope was popular during MediaNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks and the Speculator Boom when comic creators were looking to make a quick buck off of original characters. The reasoning for using Xtreme Kool Letterz at this time was likely done to help insure that whatever name a creator came up with for their NinetiesAntiHero could be trademarked. You can't retain the rights to "Strike", but you can retain the rights to "Stryke".
170** Although Creator/StanLee and Creator/JackKirby (the creator of "[[AlliterativeName Kirby Krackle]]") also indulged in this, e. g. with names like Klaw, Kalibak and Apokolips (this last one replacing a 'y' with an 'i'). Other Marvel examples from the 1970s and 1980s include Deathlok the Demolisher, Drax the Destroyer, Karisma, Mahkizmo, Nekra, Terrax the Tamer and Terrex. Also, Creator/FrankMiller called Daredevil's first love Characters/{{Elektra}}, while "Electra" is the more common spelling in English; however it was justified by making her Greek.
171* There was a short lived company in (of course) TheNineties making creator-owned sci-fi comics under the banner of Tekno Comix.
172* A case of SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome occurred with this in ComicBook/SpiderGirl - upon hearing about Kaine, Spider-Girl initially thinks that his name is Cane, and can't find any information when she tries looking him up.
173* An interesting case is Dethstryk, the BigBad from the ComicBook/Marvel2099 series ''Ravage 2099'', as it's ultimately revealed to be a corruption of his real name, Mere'''deth Stryk'''er.
174* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'': One of [[MadScientist Vivi Victor's]] schemes involves robotic "Xentinels". What prompted her to call them that isn't stated, but then, she is mad.
175[[/folder]]
176
177[[folder:Komix Stripz]]
178* ''ComicStrip/KrazyKat'' is one of the very first examples. She had bit parts in George Herriman's assorted Sunday comics as early as 1903, was called "Kat" by 1909, and "Krazy Kat" by 1910. By the time she got her standalone strip in 1913, she'd developed her personal dialect, a mixture of Spanish and Yiddish accents with Ks everywhere.
179* Parodied in a ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' strip. Jason buys a gory video game called ''Mortal Karnage'' that his mother dislikes, and she lectures him on how inappropriate it is: "You're too young for this sort of thing. I mean, look at what it teaches: that human disembowelment is entertainment...that "winners" decapitate their enemies...[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking that carnage is spelled with a 'K']]..." When he says "[[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne I know carnage isn't spelled with a 'K'.]]", she replies, "The sad part is, that's the least of my concerns." Even funnier when you realize that at the time, his mother was a newspaper columnist.
180[[/folder]]
181
182[[folder:Fan Workz]]
183* In ''[[Fanfic/TotalDramaComebackSeries Total Drama Comeback]]'', Chris attempts to apply the C->K variant to the Cool Kids' Club. The campers [[DudeNotFunny react badly]], and even Chris seems horrified when he realizes the UnfortunateImplications.
184* ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesGetXtreme''.
185* "Karlix" from ''FanFic/PrettyCurePerfumePreppy'' is actually just the word "garlic" (or even the plural "garlics") with this invoked.
186[[/folder]]
187
188[[folder:Filmz — Anym@ted]]
189* ''WesternAnimation/{{Antz}}'' can be read as a misspelling of "ants", [[DoubleMeaningTitle but also as]] "Ant Z" ([[CharacterTitle referring to the protagonist]], an ant [[OneLetterName named "Z"]]). For this reason, it's often stylised as "[=AntZ=]".
190* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', 4*Town's songs tend to have titles that spell "you" as "u".
191[[/folder]]
192
193[[folder:Filmz — Lyve-Aktion]]
194* ''Film/AmericanDreamz'' parodies this. The title is the name of the show-within-a-show, an ''Series/AmericanIdol'' [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed knockoff]] with a contestant played by Music/MandyMoore, who at one point sings a ridiculously vapid ballad with the chorus, "American Dreamz... ''dreamz''... with a ''Z''."
195* ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'': Wyld Stallyns!! Played for laughs, of course.
196* The titles of the hood classics ''Film/BoyzNTheHood'' and ''Film/MenaceIISociety''.
197* The religious film ''Film/CMeDance''.
198* ''Film/{{Cryptz}}'': The titular strip club is spelled with a z.
199* In ''Each to His Own'', Olivia [=DeHavilland's=] character makes her fortune as selling "Lady Vyvyan" cosmetics. As her lowlife partner remarks "Classy, hunh?"
200* ''Film/{{eXistenZ}}'' could be justified because "Existenz" is the German word for existence and "isten" is Hungarian for "God," giving the director a reason to frame it with Caps.
201* The title of the direct-to-DVD kid flick ''Film/EZMoney'' and the Ez Loan company featured within it.
202* ''Film/IndependenceDay'' was widely marketed in posters and toys as [=ID4=] - despite the fact that the inclusion of the '4' is completely redundant.
203* Averted in ''Film/TheKarateKid'': Cobra Kai is exactly the type of organization that would spell its name "Kobra Kai", both for '80s edginess and AddedAlliterativeAppeal, but... nope. It's always "Cobra Kai".
204* From the silent movies, the ''Keystone Kops'' were the inspiration for many later examples. Although at this time, K's weren't meaning "cool," but rather "funny," as in "ha ha, those guys can't spell correctly."
205* ''Film/{{Kruel}}'': Well, the title of the movie [=IS=] Kruel.
206* The marketing for ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' used the acronym "LXG".
207* ''Film/OnlyStwpdCowzTxtNDrive'' uses a lot of these for their title, since text messaging is a core aspecy of the film.
208* When the teleplay ''[[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} The Quatermass Experiment]]'' was made into a film, it was titled ''The Quatermass Xperiment'', apparently in reference to its BBFC X certificate (the film is nowadays rated PG).
209* Pixxi de la Chasse in ''Film/RepoChick.'' Her parents obviously didn't think that Pixie was Xxtreme enough.
210* The 1950 film ''Film/RocketshipXM'', where the titular spaceship's name is short for "Expeditionary Mission".
211* ''Film/ThatThingYouDo'': Faye (Liv Tyler) names the band "The Oneders" (because Music/TheBeatles also used a pun in their name) and it ends up being mispronounced by literally everyone until their manager forces them to change it.
212* While HeavyMetalUmlaut is a case of "everything's cooler with umlauts," ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'' takes it up a notch: the trema in the band's logo is not even over a ''vowel'', but rests proudly atop the letter N.
213* The "Rekall" brand in ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' and [[Film/TotalRecall2012 the remake]].
214* The low-budget direct-to-video 2004 film ''Film/{{Vampiyaz}}'', about urban bloodsuckers.
215* Pete Smith, producer of over 150 short films for MGM from the 1930s to the 1950s, had a habit of this. His 1949 short film about a water skier doing stunts was titled ''Film/WaterTrix''.
216* ''Film/{{Zardoz}}'' has some curious spelling like this, but it seems to be meant more as Futuristic Fonetiks ("applz" for "apples"). Not to mention the revelation that [[spoiler:it's actually ''The Wi'''zard''' of '''Oz''''']].
217[[/folder]]
218
219[[folder:Lyterature]]
220* ''Literature/AngelaNicely'': “Starstruck!” features a band called New Boyz.
221* J.R. Ward's ''Literature/BlackDaggerBrotherhood'' series has a number of main characters with NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast coupled with this sort of spelling. Some examples include: [[WhoNamesTheirKidDude Phury, Rhage, Zsadist, Rehvenge, and Tohrment.]]
222* ''Literature/AConfusionOfPrinces'' uses this for the names of the three technologies in the Empire: Mektek, [[PsychicPowers Psitek]], and [[BioAugmentation Bitek]].
223* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'':
224** One brand of carrot sticks is Xtreme Sports Stix (despite them having nothing to do with sports).
225** One book Greg's mother hates is called "Xtreme Pop-up Sharks".
226** One comic strip mentioned is called "Xtreme [=Sk8ters=]". Another is "Action Fighterz", which features a character "Captain Klobber", another is "Wacky Dawg" and another is "Office Antix".
227** A brand of shoes Greg buys is Sportsterz.
228* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
229** In ''Literature/SoulMusic'', an all-troll Music With Rocks In It band want to call themselves simply "Trolls" they're told, "But you've got to spell it with a Z. Trollz." [[HilariousInHindsight Funnily enough]], on a non-''Discworld'' note, when the Trolls doll line was revived for the 21st century (along with an animated series), the powers that be [[https://trollz.fandom.com/wiki/Welcome_to_the_Trollz_World_Wiki did just that]].
230** The vampires in ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'' express a desire to [[PhantasySpelling spell it "vampyres"]], as the Y makes it look more modern. Even though said spelling is probably [[OlderThanTheyThink older]].
231** Dr. Hix in ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'', head of the Department of [[{{Necromancer}} Postmortem Communications]], is really named Hicks, but with his black robe and skull ring he "would have been mad, or let us say even madder, to pass up a chance to have an X in his name." (This actually goes along with a change in his character; he appears first in ''Literature/MakingMoney'' but there is more sheepish and actually cares about the rules, and is still spelled Dr. Hicks. Apparently his CardCarryingVillain, by university statute, personality came with the placement of an X in his name.)
232** Agnes Nitt's alter ego Perdita has the middle initial X ("Perdita X Dream"), which stands for "a person who has a cool and exciting middle name." Unfortunately, the village/kingdom of Lancre suffers from a massive lack of RuleOfCool, so everyone refers to her as "that girl that calls herself Perditax."
233** And of course, there's the whole continent called XXXX. But pronounced "Fourecks" (and named after a RealLife brand of Australian lager).
234* One ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novel has a character being dubbed "code-boy" by another because he spends a lot of time doing computer programming. You know, writing code. He loses his real name and ends up known as Kode, likely because of this trope.
235* In ''Literature/TheEdgeChronicles'', the academics of Sanctaphrax want to seem educated, and all the Leaguesmen want to sound like them. The result is a lot of polysyllabic names.
236** There is also the species of cruel humanoid birds called "shrykes". They are obviously named after shrikes, birds widely known for impaling prey on thorns, only with a "y" instead.
237* Rob Grant's ''Literature/{{Fat}}'' had a pop group parodying Girls Aloud by the name of "Gurlz Banned".
238* Species in Creator/PeterDavid's ''Hidden Earth Chronicles'' include Mandraques, Firedraques and draqons.
239* ''It All Started with Columbus'' credits the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan with the introduction of phonetic spelling, which "gave us such words as Kleenex, Krispies and ComicStrip/KrazyKat."
240* The ''Matthew Martin'' series by Paula Danziger features a character who spells her name "Jil!" because she got bored with "Jill."
241** Another children's book has a character named Susan who changes her name to, well, the title says it all: ''My Name is [=Sus5an=] Smith. The 5 is Silent.''
242* ''Literature/OryxAndCrake'' pictures a future where hyper-rich corporations call themselves things like [=HelthWyzer=] and [=RejooveNation=] with a straight face. It's never explained, but one gets the feeling they have been forced to come up with these "creative" spellings because all the normal ones had been trademarked. Unless they actually thought it sounded cool.
243* ''Literature/PublicSchoolSuperhero'': Kenny Wright has a {{Superhero}} persona that he fantasizes about being. He calls him "Stainlezz Steel".
244* Same goes for ''most'' personal names in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. The letter "y" is particularly common.
245** True for several titles as well. For example, "Ser" instead of "Sir". "Maester" instead of "Master".
246* Halfway through ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'', Wade Watts consults a black-market data-auction site called the "L33t [=Hax0rz=] Warezhaus" to disguise his identity from [[MegaCorp I.O.I.]] [[spoiler: and also buy maintenance passwords to hack into the company's network later on.]]
247* Invoked in Creator/RayBradbury's short story "Literature/ASoundOfThunder". The bizarre spelling on the time-travel safari sign is the first clue the characters have that [[ButterflyOfDoom killing a butterfly in the past dramatically changed the future]].
248* ''Literature/StarIsland'' features an oversexed young pop star with the StageName Cherry Pye, who is proud to announce that her latest album will be titled "''Skantily Klad'', with all ''k''[='s=]." A prerelease copy is panned in ''Spin'' magazine as "''Skankily Klad''."
249* ''Literature/StrangerThanFanfiction'': Cash Carter's favourite amusement park from his childhood is called "High Tydes". When he thinks they're on the highway leading to it, he gets super excited and begs the Downer's Grove gang to go there instead of their intended destination. However, since Mo didn't know it was called "High Tydes", she was looking for "High Tides".
250* Several names in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' are actually perfectly ordinary names that have been grossly misspelled. Examples include "Elayne" (Elaine), "Padraig" (Patrick), "Birgitte" (Bridget), and "Logain" (Logan). Padraig is a legitimate Irish variation of Patrick in its own right and Birgitte is a legitimate Scandinavian variant of Bridget. It should be noted that in the Norwegian translation of ''The Wheel of Time'', Birgitte's name is translated to the more exotic sounding Bergithe, as Birgitte is quite an usual name in Norway.
251* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': One of the rookies at the evil WizardingSchool is named Starlyght Mornyngmyst, a name which has way too many superfluous 'y's' for no good reason. She is mocked by the others, with one noting that her parents must have hated her.
252* Creator/{{Patton Oswalt}}'s book ''Zombie Spaceship Wasteland'' contains a number of fake script treatments he sent into Paramount Pictures as a joke. One of these was for an inner-city high school drama called "Carvin' it up 2 da Streetz".
253[[/folder]]
254
255[[folder:Lyve-Aktion TV]]
256!!!'''Networks:'''
257* The shameless cable network Creator/DisneyXD, which outright tells you they're both extreme and 'wit it', as the XD part is an "extreme!" emoticon denoting extreme happiness.
258* American premium network Creator/TheMovieChannel renamed its lone multiplex channel, originally called The Movie Channel 2, as The Movie Channel Xtra (sans the "E") in 2001. Interestingly, its parent network Creator/{{Showtime}} avoided this for its action-oriented multiplex channel Showtime Extreme (although a pre-launch logo did emphasize the "X" over the first "E" in the name).
259!!!'''Series:'''
260* ''Series/ThirtyRock'': Whenever Jack references NBC's new parent company, he always calls it "Kabletown... with a ''K''," his voice dripping with disdain.
261* ''Series/AllInTheFamily'': In the episode "Archie and the KKK", the Kweens Kouncil of Krusaders organization that Archie considers joining goes ''only'' by this name ... but it becomes very obvious to Archie, once the group announces its plans to burn a cross on Mike's lawn (for writing an editorial with whom the group's members took issue), that this group is actually the Ku Klux Klan going by an alias.
262* ''Series/BattleBots'':
263** A bot named War? EZ! (pronounced War? Easy!) in the Creator/DiscoveryChannel reboot. The name also doubles as a play on builder Jonathan Juarez's last name, making the "Ju" to "W" switch part of this trope too.
264** Rotator's name is stylized as "ROTATOЯ", all caps with the last "R" backwards.
265* On ''Series/BigTimeRush'', when James briefly joins Hawk Records, they change his name to Jamez. And as can be seen from the posters in their studio, all of their other artists have a 'Z' in their name too.
266* Ed Helms filed a report on ''Series/TheDailyShow'' about an insurance made especially for teenagers and concluded with a fake ad that said it even covers you if you break your coccyx while skating -- spelled ''kokkyx''.
267* ''Series/DaAliGShow'' is a chronic abuser of this, with such recurring words like "Respek" being used intentionally by the titular character, who referenced that all respect had been lost in the world since [[TooDumbToLive the word "respek" had been removed from the dictionary]]. [[RuleOfFunny But of course...]]
268* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWho2019NYSResolution "Resolution"]], during the climax, the Thirteenth Doctor proudly announces that she has "skillz. With a zed."
269* ''Series/GetKrackin'': The show carries on its title theme by replacing 'C' with 'K' in all of its segment titles. And if the segment doesn't have a 'C' in its title, they randomly insert a 'K' anyway.
270* ''Series/ImpracticalJokers'': Joe announces to a busy restaurant that he's quitting his job as a waiter to manage his boy band "The Yoloboyz (with a Z on the end)". Their motto is "Hey! Do it, but do it with a Z!" In another episode, Joe and Murr pitch the latest in home security, "Safe Dogz" (live dogs that are capable of storing one's valuables).
271* The French series ''Series/{{Kaamelott}}'', parodying the Arthurian legends. A lone stylized "K" is also used prominently during the credits and even on fictitious heraldry. The author justifies this as being close to an ancient variant of spelling for "Camelot"; hence, here the effect aimed at isn't to look "cool" but "antiquated".
272* ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'''s SuperMode is literally called [=CycloneJokerXtreme=]. This is primarily because the show's TransformationTrinket relies upon USB flash drive-like devices, each with a logo consisting of a stylized version first letter of its name that also represents its power (for example, a volcano shaped like an "M" for "Magma").
273* ''[[Series/MostExtremeEliminationChallenge MXC: Most Xtreme Elimination Challenge]]''. Used tongue in cheek, since it's a GagDub show.
274* ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' has a pricing game called Eazy az 1 2 3.
275* A late episode of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' involved Sabrina, Roxie and Morgan forming a girl group called "Girlz." During their first audition, they think they can easily beat the guy who went on before them because they have a Z in their name; however, his name turns out to be Zeke.
276* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': Parodied in the "Z shirt" sketch from the episode hosted by Kevin Hart. The sketch is a commercial for the "Z-shirt" (which is just a T-shirt with the letter "Z" on it), and Hart's character keeps asking what kind of shirt it is, using every letter of the alphabet in order ("Is that an A-shirt?" "Is it a B-shirt?" etc.).
277* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
278** Parodied in "Wormhole X-Treme" with the eponymous ShowWithinAShow. One character comments that he "wanted to call it ''Going to Other Planets'', but [[ExecutiveMeddling the network said]] that shows with 'X' in the name get better ratings."
279** Of course, the titles of all ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}'' series do the same thing, replacing the second "A" in "Stargate" with the gate symbol for Earth (Λ̊). Not mandatory, thankfully. Which, incidentally, is just an uppercase lambda with a kroužek (ring) on top of it. A rather strange blend of a Greek letter with a Scandinavian and central European diacritic (Å). It is described in-show as representing the Sun rising above the Great Pyramid of Giza.
280*** However it was more likely a fluke that the symbol looks like a combination of those, even though it is "sort of" a letter in the canon, as it did only "become" a letter in a much later episode where we find out the Ancients DID apply sounds to Stargate symbols anyway.
281* In political satire ''Series/TheThickOfIt'', Emma wonders why people leaving hate mail on her boss Peter's blog spell "hate" as "h8". [[ComicallyMissingThePoint "If you're going to leave a message,]] at least [[GrammarCorrectionGag spell it correctly."]]
282* ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'': In "Cry Wolf", the boys who like to play at being International Rescue have a sign on their door that says "Internashunal Rescue".
283* Variant: On ''Series/TopGear'', their homebuilt electric car (the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust) was named with a [[IProduct lowercase "i"]] because it was the Xtreme Kool Letter for the eco-friendly set.
284* Johnny Xtreme, one of the most recurrent non-intern (nor host, obviously) characters in ''Series/XPlay''. He was pretty much the AnthropomorphicPersonification of "extremeness". He even tattooed Xs onto his arms and cut his beard in X shape. Given the tone of the show, it is pretty certain that Adam or Morgan must have pointed out the fact that there was an "X" on their show's name for no real reason.
285** In reality, the show started out as "Extended Play" and received a retitle when it was relaunched, reducing "Extended" to "X". ''XP'' was floated as a title before the producers realized people would be confused that it was a tech show about [[Platform/MicrosoftWindows Windows XP]].
286** During a review of ''Franchise/MortalKombat'', Adam and Morgan commented on the title, saying "everything is cooler when spelled with a K."
287[[/folder]]
288
289[[folder:Muzik]]
290* You think "Muzak" is just slang? Think again... it's originally a brand name, created in 1934, to sell background music to retail stores and other buildings.
291* The KoreanPopMusic GirlGroup Music/{{Pristin}} used to be called Pledis Girlz. Siyeon's stage name is Xiyeon, making it ultra kewl.
292* The record label Avex Trax, while Avex is an acronym of Audio Visual Label, the word Trax came from "tracks".
293* The musical group Music/{{Gorillaz}}.
294** Also, the film to go with it, ''Bananaz''.
295** And the short non-clip animations are ''Gorillabitez''.
296** And their fifth studio album, ''Humanz''.
297* [[Music/{{Pink}} P!nk's]] album ''M!ssundaztood''. "P!nk" is more of a LuckyCharmsTitle.
298* Music/KoolKeith
299* Kon Kan, the Canadian synthpop duo, shortened their name from "Contenu Canadien," (Canadian Content) in reference to the CRTC mandate on domestic programming. Justified in that "con" is a French obscenity that loosely translates to "shithead."
300* Music/{{Kreator}}
301* Music/TheLonelyIsland songs ''Just 2 Guyz'', ''We Like Sportz'' and ''We'll Kill U''.
302* Music/{{Megadeth}} is suppose to be spelled without a second "A".
303* Music/KoolAndTheGang.
304* During Music/ChristinaAguilera's "Dirrty" phase, she was usually referred to as "Xtina", because "X" is used as an abbreviation for "Christ" (as in "Xmas") for reasons dating back to Greek times -- in Greek, the name started with the letter chi, which looks like an X.
305** Her 'Love Me 4 Me' uses extremely cool letters.
306* Music/{{Xzibit}}, or as he likes to say, "X to the Z Xzibit." Hell, one of his most famous songs is "'''X'''"!
307* Rap group Onyx has their debut album titled "Bacdafucup" and their sophomore titled album "All We Got Iz Us", as well as a good number of their songs. Also, one of the members' name is Sticky Fingaz.
308* French example: la [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tecktonik Tecktonik]]. Xtreme Kool Letterz (in particular the use of "ck") is also very popular amongst its practitioners around the world, either for individual aliases or group names.
309* The entire genre of jazz may owe its name to this. The name is derived from the Cajun patois word jass (referring to "strenuous activity" in general, and one activity in particular), and reputedly, it started being spelled with the double-z not only because "jazz" looked cooler, but more mundanely, at least in part because jokers kept stealing the letter J from the billboards.
310* Music/KatyPerry has quite a few, "Hot N Cold", "Ur So Gay", and "California Gurls".
311* The US PowerMetal band Kamelot. (And no, the Arthurian Camelot is usually spelled with a C in German.)
312* [[WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}} Dethklok]] and to a lesser extent their "kvlt" spelling Dëthkløk.
313* Those Y's guys from Pyrymyd.
314* Strangely [[InvertedTrope inverted]] with the Japanese band Music/{{Polysics}}, whose name is based on a synthesizer named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korg_Polysix Korg Polysix]]
315* Electronic artist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasha_(DJ) Sasha's]] hard-to-pronounce remix compilation: Invol2ver.
316* One of Enigma's latest [=CDs=] replaced the initial E with a Greek letter sigma. Sigma-nigma?
317* The UK disco house label Hed Kandi, taking it to the vowels as well.
318* British pagan rock band Inkubus Sukkubus. Technically, they were originally named Incubus Succubus, but changed it to Inkubus Sukkubus for "numerological reasons."
319* Pick a nu metal band. ANY nu metal band.
320** The UrExample, Music/{{Korn}}, or rather, KoЯn, used that to look childish - which is why the logo is crayon-like and has a {{Randomly Reversed Letter|s}}.
321** Music/LimpBizkit's in da house y'all$.
322* Music/PrimalScream's seventh album is a bit... conflicted about this. Its title is spelled ''XTRMNTR'' on the mostly vowelless album cover, but then again the band's name is similarly written "PRML SCRM" there, and ''Exterminator'' is written in some other places.
323* Music/DefLeppard, whose name is misspelled to make them sound less punk.
324* Music/LedZeppelin. Because their manager thought dropping the 'a' from Lead would help to prevent [[ViewersAreMorons "thick Americans"]] from pronouncing it "leed". Famously produced an album with a 'title' that could not be vocalised or spelled at all, only four symbols, which veers beyond this trope through LuckyCharmsTitle to TheUnpronounceable.
325* Music/BoyzIIMen.
326* For Synth musicians, most are familiar with these days with Yamaha XG Lite (that XG stands for Yamaha's proprietary eXtension to General MIDI, of course).
327* Music/HelloProject group Berryz Koubou. ZYX also counts.
328* A few songs by Swedish hair band Crashdïet, like Knokk 'Em Down and Breaking the Chainz.
329* Music/AvrilLavigne's song "[=Sk8er=] Boi."
330* Industrial bands in general love swapping "K" for "hard C".
331* Music/{{Metallica}} sometimes spelled their names like this (Jaymz, Larz).''S&M'' does it [[http://www.ilbaluardo.com/Cover/Audio/M%20-%20N%20-%20O/METALLICA%20-%20S%20&%20M%20-%20Back.jpg for some songs]].
332** Beatallica follows/parodies it. Their [[http://beatallica.org/lyrics.html lyrics]] are transcripted with gratuitous "Z" everywhere, and the band members are Music/TheBeatles + Music/{{Metallica}} mashups written with Xtreme Kool Letterz (Jaymz Lennfield, Grg Hammetson, Kliff [=McBurtney=], Ringo Larz).
333* The American Hip Hop duo Music/{{OutKast}}.
334* The acid house group Phuture.
335* The Southern California ska band Shame & Skandal.
336* Music/{{Prince}} abused this a lot in his song titles (2 and U used wherever possible), combined with LuckyCharmsTitle (an eye-symbol for I), and he even wrote his lyrics and liner notes in Xtreme Kool Letterz. Famously swapped his own name for a [[TheUnpronounceable symbol]] that transcended this trope altogether.
337* Music/{{Klymaxx}}, an all-female band best known for the soft rock single "I Miss You".
338* An awful lot of songs by [[Music/TupacShakur 2Pac]]. 2pac himself was also an example, though rather than "to", it replaces "tu" (his real name was Tupac).
339* Stewart Copeland, ex-Music/ThePolice drummer, in the first 2 years of the band's existence, released some solo material under the name "Klark Kent". One of the songs was titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h92Z8Y1DjCA&fmt=18 Too Kool To Kalypso]]". On top of that, a CD compilation of Klark Kent material, released in 1995 was named "Kollected Works". And to top that all, his private little recording label is called "Kryptone Records."
340* One of Music/LinkinPark's remix albums, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reanimation_(Linkin_Park_album)#Track_listing Reanimation]], has almost all of its song's names written this way. And, of course, ''Linkin'' Park itself. They originally set out to call themselves ''Lincoln'' Park, but they went for the misspelled version because it made it easier to acquire a .com domain name.
341* Music/LynyrdSkynyrd, naturally.
342* Then there's the American New Wave/synthpop band [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebn_Ozn Ebn Ozn]], whose band name was taken from each of the main band members' last names, Ned '''Liben''' (EBN) and Robert '''Rosen''' (OZN).
343* [[Music/{{Eminem}} EMINƎM]].
344* There's also a Scottish post-punk band named Fingerprintz who wrote and recorded songs such as "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7BOOROoFLU&translated=1 Wet Job]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puB27JD6Hso Bulletproof Heart]]" before basically rebooting and renaming themselves into the more familiar The Silencers.
345* There's also a British jazz-funk band named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeez Freeez]] that had a minor hit with a song called "Southern Freeez". Curiously, like EBN OZN above, they too had their most major hit with a song with the refrain "AEIOU" (Freeez's was just titled "I.O.U." as they were punning on "I owe you"), though EBN OZN's song featured spoken word lyrics and Freeez's featured falsetto vocals.
346* And there's a pop/rock band that existed in the 1960s and '70s called Jaggerz, best known for their song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fYV3dJp-k4 The Rapper]]."
347* Litefoot. U may kno him moar 4 da ''Film/{{Mortal Kombat|Annihilation}}'' moovee n ''[[Literature/TheIndianInTheCupboard Da NDN n da Cubberd]]'' but hee iz allso a rappr. [[OverlyLongGag Eeven haz hiz pwn laybel. Itz djuzt lyke inny otha rekrd laybel tho, nkloodin skrewin hiz sined artiztz.]]
348* Classic rock band Music/{{Slade}} has this in spades: "Cum On Feel The Noize" being one of the more harmless (and well-known) examples; then there are "Cuz I Luv You", "Look Wot You Dun", "Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me", "Mama Weer All Crazee Now", "Gudbuy T'Jane", etc.
349** In fact, the album title ''Slayed?'' suggests that [[MyspeldRokband the band's own name might be intentionally misspelled]].
350* BlaqkAudio. It's either to pronounce it as "Black" or else it sounds like "blak-k" and "Blak-k Audio" just sounds dumb.
351* One of the song intros in Music/TomLehrer's live album ''Music/AnEveningWastedWithTomLehrer'' mentions an eccentric who changed his name to [=Hen3ry=] with a silent 3.
352* Music/SplitEnz, although they chose that spelling as a nod to their home country of '''N'''ew '''Z'''ealand, not just because it looked cool. Also, before changing the spelling, they actually released a few early singles as Split Ends.
353* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmZvOhHF85I&t=1m28s 2 CHAINZ!!!!!!]]
354* Country music group [=SHeDAISY=], complete with idiosyncratic capitalization. The name is derived from the Navajo word ''shideezhí'', meaning "my little sister".
355* The Christian rock/ska band The Insyderz.
356* British BoyBand 5ive.
357* Music/RedHotChiliPeppers' album ''Music/BloodSugarSexMagik'' spells "magic" with a "k" and all the single words as one long word.
358* Music/SarahMcLachlan's "U Want Me 2"
359* For a long time KMFDM gave every one of their albums a five-letter title, which led to album names like "Xtort" and "Attak".
360* "[=DGTal=] Blood" by Helalyn Flowers. "Digital" pronounced with an Italian accent.
361* Music/{{Covenant}}'s ''Ritual Noise'' single has a B-side titled "Xrds"(pronounced Crossroads).
362* PowerPop group The Superfriendz. They probably went with that spelling to avoid confusion with {{WesternAnimation/Superfriends}}.
363* Creator/EpicRecords has a division dedicated to film soundtracks called Epic Soundtrax. They initially wanted to go with the proper spelling, but were sued by musician Epic Soundtracks, who had laid claim to his {{Stage Name|s}} first.
364* Country music duo Bomshel.
365* There's a bluegrass group called Russell Moore and [=IIIrd=] Tyme Out. Yes, you read that right, a ''bluegrass'' group.
366* Country duo Music/FloridaGeorgiaLine has an EP titled ''It'z Just What We Do''.
367* Music/BigAndRich released a song called "Party Like Cowboyz" in early 2013.
368* Music/TheKovenant, who were originally named Covenant until a lawsuit from [[Music/{{Covenant}} the EBM band of the same name]]; they also had to spell their name with a K to avoid conflict with another metal group named The Covenant.
369* Music/TheyMightBeGiants has a song called "Mr. Xcitement", as well as one called "Mr. Klaw".
370* Australian duo The Bumblebeez ([[MarketBasedTitle formerly known as]] Bumblebeez 81 in America)
371* Scottish synthpop trio Music/{{Chvrches}}. Although their name is pronounced "Churches," they replaced the "u" with a "v" because they wanted to show up more easily on Google Suggest. Replacing Us with Vs has since become their thing.
372* Rapper [=SpaceGhostPurrp=] and his hip hop collective Raider Klan have invented the "Raider hieroglyphics," which replaces all A's and U's with V's all other vowels with X's (for example, "Spaceghostpurrp" is now stylized as "SPVCXGHXZTPXRRP" and "Raider Klan" becomes "RVXDXR KLVN").
373* Ferry Corsten's ''WKND''(Weekend) album.
374* Music/TheKLF may stand for "Kopyright Liberation Front" or even "Kopyrite Liberation Front"; the latter would have [[ArcNumber 23]] letters.
375* Music/MileyCyrus' 2013 album title ''Bangerz''.
376** One of her Website/YouTube accounts, which she opened after she had trouble posting videos on her own website, was (with some irony) called "[=MCForRealzzz=]".
377** When making ''WebVideo/TheMileyAndMandyShow'', she nicknamed herself and her dancer friend/co-host Mandy Jiroux "Milez" and "Manderz" in many episodes.
378** Her free 2015 album, ''Miley Cyrus And Her Dead Petz''.
379* Music/SkinnyPuppy are frequent abusers, to the point where oddly spelled song titles are sort of a signature. Random examples include "Worlock", "Ambiantz", "Cullorblind", "Empte", and "Illisit".
380* Music/IgorStravinsky's ''Oedipus Rex'' writes K in place of C in many words just to force the hard Classical Latin pronunciation.
381* Music/AdamAndTheAnts:
382** All the Ants albums have 'ADAM' written as 'AⱭAM'
383** Very early in their career, mainly on singles and ''Music/DirkWearsWhiteSox'', 'ANTS' is spelled 'ANTZ'.
384* Music/DelThaFunkeeHomosapien: The word "Tha" instead of "the" in his name and the word "funkee" instead of "funky".
385* A lot of bands in the 1960s [[MyspeldRokband myspeld]] their names, often for a "psychedelic" effect from 1965-66 onward. This was arguably kickstarted by Music/TheBeatles in England in the early '60s, then by Music/TheByrds in America in 1965. The Left Banke had a big hit in 1966 with "Walk Away Renee." Then you had lesser-known bands like the Myddle Class (featuring future Music/SteelyDan member David Palmer on vocals), Kenny and the Kasuals (whose best-known song is called "Journey to Tyme"), and Zakary Thaks (who didn't have any members named Zachary...or Zakary), just to name a few.
386** Subverted by Music/TheTurtles, who were briefly known as "The Tyrtles" before reverting to the conventional spelling.
387* The song (and album) "Tuff Enuff" by The Fabulous Thunderbirds.
388* Music/{{ABBA}} usually spells their name with the first "B" backwards.
389* According to an episode of Creator/{{VH1}}'s ''Series/PopUpVideo'', Rockwell (of "Somebody's Watching Me" fame) initially wanted to call himself "Roqwell", but was afraid people would think he as illiterate.
390* J. Cole has "Wet Dreamz", "No Role Modelz" and "Love Yourz", all three being released in a row and ending with "Z".
391* {{Music/Kesha}}'s 2010 consecutive chart-topper "Tik Tok" was the biggest song of the year.
392* British HairMetal band Wrathchild use this in most of their song and album titles. Examples include "Stakk Attakk," "Nukklear Rokket," "Stikky Fingerz," and "The Biz Suxx."
393* "Böhse Onkelz", a German band of a... ''questionable'' political stance.
394* Music/CharliXCX. It was originally [[AGoodNameForARockBand her MSN Messenger screen name]], the XCX standing for "Kiss Charli Kiss", though when she was first signed to a label, she told them that it actually meant "X-Rated Cunt X-Rated" in order to make it sound cooler.
395* The Music/{{Bemani}} duo TËЯRA sometimes uses random symbols and letters from foreign alphabets to make text look cooler, regardless of the actual pronunciation and meaning.
396** Their name contains a gratuitous backwards R and a gratuitous umlaut.
397** The song titles "ZËNITH" and "[=ULTiM∧TE=]".
398** The albums ''RЁVOLUTIΦN'' and ''ЁVOLUTIΦN'', which also feature {{Title Track}}s.
399* South Florida-based rapper Denzel Curry's third studio album ''[=TA13OO=]'' has all track names stylized in all caps, followed by a numerical spelling. The letter "B" is replaced with "13", I is replaced with "1", and S is replaced with "Z".
400* The {{Doowop}} group The Jive Five, formed in TheFifties, released some records in TheSeventies as The Jyve Fyve.
401* Tucson-based HardRock band [=Ph8=] combines this trope with Letters2Numbers.
402* Music/ThousandFootKrutch.
403* Rave The Reqviem. The name of the band and many of their songs.
404* {{KPop}} {{Girl Group}} {{Music/ITZY}}'s name is a stylized spelling of 있지 (issji). This trope is also present in their album titles "IT'z DIFFERENT," "IT'z ICY," and "IT'z ME."
405* Music/{{BTS}} are ''obsessed'' with this trope, especially in their early albums which have titles like: "Skool Luv Affair", "[[Letters2Numbers 2 Cool 4 Skool]]", and the skit "Skit: R U Happy Now?" They have a thing for spelling love as luv, as seen in "Boy in Luv" and its {{sequel|song}} "Boy with Luv".
406* [[Music/{{EazyE}} Eazy-E]] not only used this in his name, but also in all of his album titles and some of the song ones, such as ''Eazy-Duz-It''.
407* Music/{{TIX}}.
408* Music/WeirdAlYankovic sings about this,
409--> ''"You should ''ne-ver'' / spell words with numbers / unless you're in pre-school / or your name is [[TakeThat Prince!]]"''
410* [[Music/{{AsapRocky}} A$AP Rocky]] and Ty Dolla $ign stylize their names with, well, the dollar sign in place of the "S".
411[[/folder]]
412
413[[folder:Nyoo Me-D-ya]]
414* Platform/MicrosoftWindows NT 5.1, also known as XP, which is supposed to be short for [=eXPerience=].
415* Applications written for the Linux "KDE" desktop environment tend to be named with K's replacing hard C's (Konqueror, Konsole). Sometimes the "K" usage is a tad bit more... nonsensical, as with the name of the bundled golf game, Kolf. (Admittedly, Kgolf would've looked stupid.)
416** Though KDE is a project that started on Germany, and several of those words are valid German words (like Konsole).
417** Originally KDE was supposed to stand for Kool Desktop Environment (currently it's simply K Desktop Environment; the K no longer stands for anything), with the Xtreme Kool Letterz spelling of "cool" being [[JustifiedTrope chosen for a good reason]], in that the commercial Common Desktop Environment (which is a proprietary (i.e. not open-source) program with more restrictive terms than KDE) already claimed the name CDE, so KDE was chosen instead to avoid lawsuits from the owners of CDE. Plus, well, "kool" is better than "common." (Eventually KDE and its rivals GNOME and Xfce went on to replace CDE on Linux and some other Unix-like systems.)
418*** The aforementioned desktop environments are all based on a certain common GUI system. This system is named... [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System X]]. Just like that.
419*** It's part of a pattern. It was the successor to the W GUI system, which was used by the V operating system. No Y yet.
420*** W, as in "windowed". X, being the letter after W, was a perfectly legitimate name for W's successor.
421** And then there's POSIX. It stands for Portable Operating System Interface. Where does the X come from? [[RuleOfCool It looks cool]].
422*** Probably from UNIX which is 'successor' of Multics (Multi-/Uni-) with an Xtreme Kool Letter at the end.
423*** Ken Thompson's original version of the OS, written in Assembly, was called UNICS, a pun on MULTICS. Dennis Ritchie's C rewrite saw the name change to Unix.
424** An interesting case is the music player Amarok, which was originally spelled amaroK until it was decided that looked stupid. "Amarok" is the name of a real Inuit deity, however.
425* There was the Newgrounds troll group the "Kitty Krew". This sometimes lead to some unfortunate acronyms with some anti-KK groups, such as the "Kitty Krew Killers".
426* The music database [[http://musicbrainz.org/ MusicBrainz]].
427* it iz common 4 teenz 2 do dis when textinq, also there iz a trend of usinq q instead of g.
428[[/folder]]
429
430[[folder:Pynball]]
431* Creator/SternPinball's ''Pinball/StrikerXtreme'' combines this with TotallyRadical.
432* ''Pinball/BigBangBar'' has "Cosmic Dartz".
433* ''Pinball/CirqusVoltaire'' has the unusual replacement of the second C in circus with a Q.
434* ''Pinball/ShaqAttaq'' dares to use ATTA'''Q'''. 'nuff said.
435* ''Pinball/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' has secret "Candy Kodes", which double as a ShoutOut to ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'''s "Kombat Kodes".
436* ''Pinball/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesStern'' has the "Krang Kombo".
437[[/folder]]
438
439[[folder:Prophezzional Wreztling]]
440* The [[Wrestling/MattHardy Hardy]] [[Wrestling/JeffHardy Boyz]], and their perennial Wrestling/{{WWE}} rivals Wrestling/{{The Dudley Boy|s}}z.
441** The Hardy's stable with Wrestling/{{Lita}} was also referred to as Team Xtreme
442** [[LampshadeHanging Spotlighted]] in a promo by Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}} and Wrestling/{{Christian}}, the rivals of both teams, when mentioning "The Hardyz, and the Dudleyz, both of whom inexplicably spell their names with Z's"
443** Edge and Christian once brought out two senior citizens dressed as the Hardys to mock them, claiming that they were the Hardy Boyz from the future. Christian asked them if, in the future, people still spell things with Z's instead of S's.
444* There's [[Wrestling/{{WWENXT}} NXT]]. Doesn't stand for anything, that's just the "xtreme kool" way of spelling "next", since the program is the "next" generation of WWE, though at least [[OlderThanTheyThink one promotion]], The Scottish Wrestling Alliance, did it beforehand.
445* After many years of identifying ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' events with Roman numerals, #17 was officially X-Seven -- pronounced "ecks-seven". And the next year saw X8, "ecks-eight". From #19 (XIX) onwards, all-Roman numbers have been back in vogue.
446* Wrestling/{{ECW}}'s Rhino was renamed Wrestling/{{Rhyno}} when he went to WWF. That wasn't about being "Xtreme" though, that was so WWF/E could establish a trademark, hence why he went back to being Rhino after they canned his ass.
447* ECW itself was an xception to the rulez, so to speak, by correctly using an E for Extreme. (Other wrestling promotions such as XPW are not so grammatically-minded.) It was founded in 1992, though: you can bet that 10 or so years later there would have been an X in there for sure; their late-period pay-per-view Anarchy Rulz submitted to this trope, for instance. They also started out as Eastern Championship Wrestling.
448* Wrestling/ShawnMichaels and Wrestling/TripleH (and [[Wrestling/SeanWaltman X-Pac]], Wrestling/{{Chyna}}, Wrestling/RoadDogg and Wrestling/BillyGunn ARE Wrestling/DGenerationX, and they've got [[CatchPhrase two words for ya...]]
449* Wrestling/VinceRusso's [[FunWithAcronyms Sports Entertainment Xtreme]] faction from the early days of [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]]. Russo was especially fond of this. He used to pen a regular article in WWE Magazine in the 90's where he changed any hard "S" sound to a z. For instance:
450--> ''"What killz me iz that my kidz could put more heart into a match than theze guyz"''
451* Towards the end of Wrestling/{{WCW}}, wrestler [[Wrestling/GlennGilbertti Disco Inferno]] started spelling his name "Disqo Inferno".
452* NWA-TNA had a B Show in 2002 called ''Xplosion''. In 2010, Xplosion Nacional de Lucha Libre in Chile joined the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance.
453* Kid Kash
454* Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}}'s Wrestling/{{Xyberhawx 2000}}: Nytehawk, Sylverhawk, Razerhawk and Danjerhawk.
455* The "Control" in Wrestling/DamageCTRL's name [[LeetLingo is spelled in abbreviation and is written in all caps]].
456[[/folder]]
457
458[[folder:Ray-D-O]]
459* Many radio stations – especially those using a Top 40, rock, or classic hits/oldies format, although other formats have been known to use it, too – will often use one of the rarely letters of the alphabet (most often, Q, X or Z, with K the next most-frequently used) along with the frequency as part of its on-air identity, such as "Q106" or "97X."[[note]]The two examples are indeed radio stations in the Quad Cities, Iowa-Illinois; Q106 is KCQQ, a classic rock station in Davenport, Iowa, while 97X is the Moline-based WXLP, also playing classic rock.[[/note]]
460** Early promos for WHTZ New York (better known as "Z100") referred to "HTZ" as "the new way to spell 'hits'".
461* Creator/AdamAndJoe introduced a series of Song Wars Classics, which they insisted was spelt Song Wars Kqllasixcq (with a silent X).
462* Univision uses the "La Kalle" brand for many of its music stations in the U.S.
463* "Kool" is also a common radio brand, used primarily on oldies stations.
464* Sometimes a station's official call letters will feature a form of this. Los Angeles has a number of examples, including KROQ (pronounced "K-Rock"), KOST (pronounced "Coast"), and KIIS (pronounced "Kiss").
465[[/folder]]
466
467[[folder:Sportz]]
468* Many minor league sports teams use Xtreme Kool Letterz in their names, especially indoor football teams. A few examples: Kissimmee Kreatures, Nashville Kats, Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz, Kalamazoo Xplosion, Lehigh Valley Outlawz, Kansas Koyotes, Memphis Xplorers. Baseball has the Northern Colorado Owlz (formerly Orem Owlz) and many varieties of "Sox". Baseball also had the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx for several years, but that team later became the far more mundane Jackson Generals until being contracted out in Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganization of the minor leagues.
469** The Orem Owlz were one of the final examples of a period of history in the state of Utah when this trope got out of hand. After people started making the connection that the three main professional sports teams in the state all had a double Z (the Jazz, the Grizzlies and the Buzz) people decided every team in Utah needed to follow suit. This led to such team names as the Freezze, the Starzz, the Blitzz and the Owlz. Even the Buzz was changed to the Stingerzz for a while. This fad has since been proven to be stupid and doesn't show up with new teams. And at least one of the "zz" teams abandoned this; the former Buzz/Stingerzz/Stingers are now the Salt Lake Bees (reinstating the name of a historic Salt Lake City minor-league franchise).
470* Another French example: LeParkour.
471* The XFL lived on this trope... which is why it died after a single season.
472* Bearkats seems to be the preferred spelling for Texas high schools, probably inspired by the Sam Houston State University Bearkats, who adopted that name in 1923.
473* Subversion: The UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} Red Sox and UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} White Sox baseball teams didn't get their names because they looked cooler than "Red Stockings" or "White Stockings" (their original names), but because it was easier for the newspapers to print "Sox" than "Stockings". Eventually, the names stuck.
474* Quebec City's minor league basketball team is known as the "Kebs," short for "Kebekwa" -- a phonetic spelling of Québécois, but rather ironically in English phonetics.
475* Creator/{{ESPN}}'s Summer and Winter X Games, originally the "Extreme Games".
476[[/folder]]
477
478[[folder:Taybletop Gamez]]
479* ''TabletopGame/DarkAge'' has one character known simply as "X'cess". It's... ''almost'' the correct way to spell "excess"!
480* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' gives an abbreviated "experience points" as "XP".
481* ''TabletopGame/{{Jenga}} Xtreme'', a version with parallelogram-shaped blocks, spells the title like that to convey that it's harder and more "extreme" than normal Jenga.
482* ''TabletopGame/WasteWorld'' presents some kool spelling variationz like "skavengers," "drakonium," "konvoys," "kimera" and the like.
483* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
484** In addition to their species name, [[OurOrcsAreDifferent da Orkz']] FunetikAksent is spelled by liberals replacing letters with z's, k's and the like. They have one notable aversion -- their larger tribes are ''clans'', not... [[UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan you know...]]
485** Many daemon names are also spelled this way, when they don't look like they've been spelt by randomly punching a keyboard.
486* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'': In the Italian translation, the Gloomspite Gitz are called [[DubNameChange Tizi Odiozkuro]] ("Darkhatred Dudes"), with a "z" and "k" instead of the "s" and "c" in "oscuro".
487[[/folder]]
488
489[[folder:Toyz]]
490* In the original Worlds of Wonder version of Lazer Tag[[note]]This specific spelling; now copyrighted by Creator/{{Hasbro}}.[[/note]], the gun was referred to as a "Starlyte".
491* In ''WesternAnimation/LegendsOfChima'', the speeders are referred as "Speedorz"
492* In ''Toys/NexoKnights'', the fortress is called "Fortrex"
493* ''Diva Starz'', which is similar in concept to, but predates...
494* ''Franchise/{{Bratz}}''
495** ''Moxie Girlz'', from the same company[[note]]A SpiritualSuccessor of sorts to the above. At the time, MGA was being sued by Mattel, who claimed that the original designer of Bratz was working for Mattel at the time the Bratz toyline was being designed.[[/note]]
496* ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeExtreme'', as one could expect from its name, indulges in this quite a bit. The main villain is named "Iron Klaw", one of the G.I. Joe member is "Quick Stryke", and the K in "SKAR" stands for "Kaos".
497* The alien invaders in ''Snap Ships'' are known as "the Komplex", and virtually all of their ships are named in the format "[Kit Name] K.L.A.W. [Role]", e.g. "Sawfly K.L.A.W. Light Scout," "Scarab K.L.A.W. Interceptor" and so on, combining this trope with FunWithAcronyms.
498[[/folder]]
499
500[[folder:Vydeo Gamez]]
501* Creator/{{Nintendo}}:
502** When Nintendo introduced the Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem in North America and Europe, they [[CallARabbitASmeerp referred]] to its game cartridges as "Game Paks," a term which they continued using until the Platform/GameBoyAdvance.
503** Two words: [[PLatform/Nintendo64 Rumble Pak]]!
504** Controller Pak and Expansion Pak
505** System + game bundles are referred to as "paks."
506* Website/GOGDotCom displays the message "Kewl, your purchase is complete" after you buy a game.
507* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': Bowser's vehicle in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' was originally called the Koopa Klown Kar. For [[UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan certain reasons]], it's spelled normally in newer games.
508* The ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' series takes this to an extreme. Nearly ''every'' word which starts with a hard C (with some of the exceptions being Johnny Cage, the male Chameleon, and the live-action series ''Series/MortalKombatConquest'') is spelt with a K. Worse still, those are apparently the ''proper'' spellings of those words in the MK universe. ''Damn''.
509** According to pinball designer Creator/SteveRitchie (who voices Shao Kahn), he came up with "Kombat" specifically '''because''' of this trope.
510--->'''Steve Ritchie:''' I made up that name and gave it to Ed Boon. They had 'Mortal' on the white board. I added the word 'Kombat'... because it was cool.
511** ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' has a stage in an E3 demo build called "The Cove", which Boon apologized for misnaming sans the 'K' during an interview. Sure enough, in the final release, it was spelled with a K.
512** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the [[Film/MortalKombat2021 2021 MK film]], where Cole points out "Are you serious? The word "combat" isn't even spelled right!"
513** Also lampshaded in one of Cassie Cage's intros in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11''. She enters the fight drinking from a coffe place cup which has the name "Kassie" crossed out and "Cassie" written below.
514* ''VideoGame/{{Gruntz}}'' is a puzzle game where plurals end in Z instead of S in the help file and in-game text. There are a few missed instances, however.
515* In ''VideoGame/HauntingStarringPolterguy'' there are magic spells called "supr-scare" and "ecto-xtra" for you to pick up.
516* In the ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'' videogame series, the police {{Mooks}} are called the Krimzon Guard, despite the fact that the elites are dressed in yellow armor. (To be fair, the normal Krimzon Guard do dress in red.)
517* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' is especially bad with this one:
518** Every single member of [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Organization XIII]] has an X in his or her name. What's more, their names are anagrams on their real names with an X thrown in for ThemeNaming. 'Roxas' is also a real name (both place and person -- it's mostly popular in the Philippines), which helped to shade the obvious anagram [[spoiler:that would ruin the TomatoInTheMirror]]. The more you know! Axel and Xion are real names as well, and the three make up the most sympathetic members of the Org.
519** WordOfGod from the ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' [[AllThereInTheManual Ultimania]] vaguely justifies the Organization's Xtreme Kool Letteringz as being due to Xemnas's memories of his former self Xehanort's goals to [[spoiler:obtain the χ-blade.]]
520*** Subversion in the above rules, as normally the foreign letters aren't pronounced any different, but here χ-blade was not pronounced as X-blade but as "chi" blade (which actually sounds more like keyblade, so it fits).
521* [=HeadGames=] made a series of extreme sports games, including ''eXtreme [=PaintBrawl=]'', ''eXtreme Watersports'', and ''eXtreme Bull Riding''.
522* The unofficial abbreviation usually used for the Platform/PlayStation (until the Platform/PlayStation2 came out, at least) was "[=PSX=]." This is because the console's codename during development was the "[=PlayStation=] Experimental." Made much worse by the fact that Sony actually released a separate console called the PSX (only in Japan, of course) which incorporated a video, photo, and music player with DVR support, along with the capability of playing [=PS=]/[=PS2=] games.
523* This is just a screw-up of IGN's, but in a video report they referred to a [[VideoGame/SigmaHarmonics game]] as "Sigma Harmonix" in text. Ten seconds later, we have a shot of the game's logo, which spells "Harmonics" like a normal person would. (Harmonix [spelled that way] is a [[VideoGame/RockBand different brand entirely]].)
524* The titular ''VideoGame/KrazyIvan''. No, NOT ''C''razy Ivan, that would be silly, but '''K'''razy Ivan.
525* Parodied repeatedly in ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'', especially in the [=eXtreme=] Slope zone.
526* The Platform/{{XBAND}} service used a primitive modem cartridge for the SNES/Genesis to connect to players (as if on a BBS) through a now-defunct service. The company that made it went on to create a Windows-based [=MPlayer=] service, which also eventually shut down. What made it even more Xtreme was the ''A'' in the logo was upside-down. Wait for it... '''XB∀ND'''!
527* The earlier ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' games see the heroes fighting against various species of Kremlings, many of which have names that start with "K" in place of "C". An installment of ''BattleOfTheVideoGameHeroes'' {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this by having DK ask if they honestly have to keep doing it. This is sometimes also reflected in AlliterativeName levels, such as "[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest Kannon's Klaim]]" and "[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble Krevice Kreepers]]".
528* The ''Shutokou Battle'' series of street racing games is known as ''VideoGame/TokyoXtremeRacer'' in North America.
529* ''VideoGame/GrandiaXtreme'': A spin-off from the ''VideoGame/{{Grandia}}'' series.
530* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
531** The series name outside of Japan is this. It's a shortened form of its Japanese name, Pocket Monsters, so were the trope not present, it should be Pockemon.
532** The SpiritualSuccessor to ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'', ''Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness''. Apparently, "XD" stands for "eXtra Dimension." The pronounciation is actually supposed to be "Excess," but really, no one says that.
533** Introduced in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'', Arbok is a cobra Pokémon, and its name combines this trope with SdrawkcabName. Also, Blastoise's name in Japanese is Kamex, which is just the Japanese word for turtle with an added "X" at the end, although it could also be a pun on "max". There’s also Seel & Dewgong.
534** ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' introduces us to Klink, Klang, and Klinklang, an animated set of living gears. There is also Krokorok and Krookodile, which are bipedal crocodile Pokémon. Averted with the first in the evolutionary line, Sandile.
535* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' ostensibly has a reason for doing this, but it would be a blatant lie if we said the marketing team didn't use the [[Letters2Numbers 4]] in the title for this reason.
536* The undeniably awesome "VideoGame/{{Petz}}" genre for the DS, namely the related "Dogz," "Catz" and "Horsez." How can you resist these 4 awesome names?
537** Who wants to play [[https://web.archive.org/web/20080625084133/http://wii.ign.com/objects/142/14254709.html Party Babyz]]!!!
538** The trend started with PF Magic's original development of the Petz, Babyz, and Oddballz games. PF Magic was also responsible for ''VideoGame/{{Ballz}}''.
539* Creator/TelenetJapan's ActionRPG series ''Exile'' was originally called ''XZR'' in Japan. They are pronounced the same if you torture the phonetics enough.
540* The BigBad in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' replaces every c with a k. Although the BigBad isn't really that cool or extreme in the relative sense. That didn't stop her theme music from being ''called'' "The Extreme".
541* In-universe example in ''VideoGame/HypnospaceOutlaw'', which features an {{Expy}} of ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'' called "Squisherz", being set in an alternate 1990's.
542* A lot of Creator/{{Rare}}'s early games for the Platform/ZXSpectrum and Platform/{{Commodore 64}}. ''Jetpac'', ''Tranz Am'', ''Atic Atac'', ''Sabre Wulf'', ''Underwurlde'', ''Blackwyche'' and ''Dragon Skulle'', half of these could be added to YeOldeButcheredEnglish as well.
543* Certain expansion packs of Koei's ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' and ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' games bear the subtitle of ''Xtreme Legends''.
544* The name of ''VideoGame/BattleTanx'' just says it all really, with bonus points for making it a [[WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture Wiki Word]]. Also apply to one of its little-know spinoff, ''WDL: War Jetz''.
545* Somewhat lampshaded in ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', where Eddie Riggs names his faction Ironheade, with an E to let others know that they're not kidding.
546* ''VideoGame/IntelligentQube'' gets an honorable mention. It has a Q so it can be shortened to IQ. The European version goes for the more hard-hitting "Kurushi".
547* ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'': Marcus Fenix, sort of. Maybe they were targeting it to a base that they knew couldn't spell "phoenix"?
548* ''VideoGame/SkeletonKrew'' have the "Crew" in it's title. And the game's main villain is an EvilutionaryBiologist named Dr. Moribund '''K'''adaver.
549* Did Blizzard think players of ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' wouldn't be able to spell "phoenix?" One of the Protoss characters is named Fenix.
550** Justified. He's a Protoss, not human. Said ScaryDogmaticAliens also have names like Zeratul, Aldaris, Artanis and Raszagal[[note]]pronounced "rash-a-gall"[[/note]].
551*** Not so much anymore with ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' adding a new Protoss unit called the [[OrphanedEtymology Phoenix]].
552** ''VideoGame/WarCraft 2'' had a good amount of this, with words like "magiks" and "berzerker" seemingly to make the universe sound more arcane and exotic. It seems Blizzard dropped this by the time ''Warcraft 3'' came around though, and they reverted back to normal spelling.
553*** It's now lampshaded by Gul'dan in ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'':
554--->'''Gul'dan:''' And back then, 'daemon' had an 'a' in it, like I intended! It looks more mystical that way.
555* The interface used on the [[Platform/PlayStation3 PS3]], [[Platform/PlayStationPortable PSP]], and some Sony [=TVs=] is officially named the [=XrossMediaBar=] (pronounced cross media bar).
556* Some of the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' series' music albums sometimes have the word 'Traxx' or 'Soundtrax' within its title. There's also ''VideoGame/SonicXtreme''.
557* [[VideoGame/TheIdolmaster THE iDOLM@STER]]
558* VideoGame/IMadeAGameWithZombiesInIt
559* ''VideoGame/ComixZone''
560* ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynowarz:_Destruction_of_Spondylus Dynowarz]]''
561* ''VideoGame/ClockWerx''
562* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.3.A.R.]]''. Usually satirically pronounced as F'three'er, Eff'three'er, or even Free'r.
563* Frequently used in {{M|assivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame}}MORPGs when a player really wants a name that has [[OneSteveLimit already been picked by someone else]].
564* Creator/{{Jaleco}}'s ''Karnaaj Rally'' is a rather confusing variation. After a quick analyzation you've probably come to the realization that it's "Carnage Rally". It seems they changed "C" to "K", which is common ever since ''Franchise/MortalKombat''. They added an extra "A" and changed the last two letters to "J".
565* ''VideoGame/AggressorsOfDarkKombat'', the title of a FightingGame for the Platform/NeoGeo, played on both ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' and the name of the company that created it, ADK.
566* ''VideoGame/SamuraiGunn''. Yes, two "n"s.
567* The obscure 1982 Creator/{{Midway|Games}} UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame ''Kozmik Krooz'r''.
568* The Turtlez in ''VideoGame/TalesOfGraces'' talk with letter Z'z replacing S'z in not just plural wordz, but also random wordz.
569* ''Streemerz'' from ''VideoGame/Action52''
570* ''Loopz'' and its remake ''Super Loopz''
571* ''VideoGame/{{Xexyz}}''
572* The Franchise/MegaMan Franchise:
573** The Platform/GameBoyColor ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' games were titled ''Mega Man Xtreme''.
574** The sequels to the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' games, the ''VideoGame/MegaManZX'' series.
575** ''VideoGame/RockmanXover'''s title (pronounced "crossover").
576* ''Skeleton Krew'' goes a bit krazy with K's. When ''Magazine/AmigaPower'' previewed the game, writer 'Khris Lloyd' wrote the entire preview in this style.
577* ''[=EZ2DJ=]'', apart from the title itself, has a judgement called "COOL"...followed by a higher judgement called "'''K'''OOL".
578* ''VideoGame/CrimzonClover''
579* In the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series, the highest Combat rank and the highest Trading rank are both called X-TREME - both of which require you to [[NGOSuperPower slaughter tens of thousands of capital ships or utterly dominate the economy]], respectively. There's also the expansion pack for the first game, called ''[[PunBasedTitle X:Tension]]''. The signature ship of the [[VideoGame/XBeyondTheFrontier first game]] (which can be [[ContinuityNod re-acquired]] in ''X3: Terran Conflict'') is called the ''Xperimental Shuttle''. In the ''Xtended Terran Conflict'' GameMod, there's also the "[[HarderThanHard XTREME]]" difficulty setting.
580* ''VideoGame/DynamiteDux''
581* The entire [[FourX 4X]] game genre. eXplore, eXploit, eXpand, eXterminate!
582* ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' 1.6 has the Terrorist faction ''[[Main/LeetLingo L337 Krew.]]''
583* ''VideoGame/{{Qix}}''. (Proof that it's this trope: The Sparx.)
584* ''[=DethKarz=]'', a futuristic racing game.
585* ''Shuuz'', a horseshoe-pitching UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame.
586* The ''VideoGame/JustDance'' series has a song called "Chiwawa" [[note]]As in "chihuahua", the dog breed.[[/note]].
587* ''[[VideoGame/{{DJMAX}} SUPERBEAT XONiC]]''
588* ''VideoGame/DragonballFighterz''. Contrary to its stylization and the pronunciation of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', it is simply pronounced "''Dragon Ball Fighters''", making it this trope.
589* Pictured above, a recurring joke in the ''VideoGame/ClubPenguin'' comics was a penguin who created X-Treme versions of the games by adding jet packs.
590* ''VideoGame/MoshiMonsters'':
591** One shop is called Dodgy Dealz. Another is Katsuma Klothes.
592** There's a cereal called Katsuma Krunch.
593* The online flash game creator Website/{{Sploder}} has a power-up called the Power Gluv.
594* ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}'': The hick chicken folk encountered in ''Stranger's Wrath'' are called Clakkerz.
595* ''VideoGame/SimTunes'': The little musical insects in the game are called Bugz.
596* ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'': Spyro's dragonfly sidekick is named Sparx.
597* ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' mostly averts this, which is surprising considering the whole 90's vibe the game is going for. Regardless, this shows up with the in-game RhythmGame[=/=]SoundTest minigame, Squid Beatz.
598* ''VideoGame/{{BearZerkers}}''
599* ''{{VideoGame/Yakuza 6}}'': the street gang JUSTIS decided to spell "justice" with an S because... it was cooler? [[spoiler: Subverted. It turns out the leader wasn't as good at English as he thought.]]
600* ''VideoGame/{{Linx}}'': The game's title is spelled this way, rather than ''Links''.
601* It's 10tons's ''Jydge'' not Judge. ''Jydge'' is a game in the Neon Chrome setting where Y occasionally replaces a vowel in a word. You're in the cyberpunk city of Edenbyrg not Edinburg and your Gavel [=Mk1=] can fire heavy ryckets not rockets.
602* ''VideoGame/BoomBlox'' and its sequel have it right in the title. The word is always spelled as "Blox" within the games as well.
603* ''VideoGame/XKaliber2097'' - no, it's not "Excalibur", that's the name of your CoolSword.
604* ''VideoGame/FlippinKaktus'': Even in the game, the PlayerCharacter is called a kaktus.
605[[/folder]]
606
607[[folder:Vizual Novelz]]
608* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', Furudo Erika is an example of this in Japanese. Her given name, which would usually be written エリカ in [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseWritingSystem katakana]], instead has the archaic spelling ヱリカ. Fitting for a ParodySue.
609* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' introduces the "offspring" of Monokuma (a [[BearsAreBadNews bear]]), the Monokuma ''Kubs''.
610[[/folder]]
611
612[[folder:Web Anym@tion]]
613* Parodied on ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': the creators have intentionally used Xtreme Kool Letterz in ways that make no sense:
614** Spelling "awesome" as "awexome."
615** The best is "[[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail191.html Videlectrix Kidx]]."
616** For AprilFoolsDay, they make an intro for [[DarkerAndEdgier HSR Xeriouxly Forxe]]. Homestar... er, "H. Star" pronounces this with each X as a "KS" sound, rexulting in him getting xcolded by "S. Bad," who replaxes ''all'' hix xibilant conxonantx with pronounxed X's.
617* ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'': The title of the series itself, which uses [='insaniT'=] instead of 'insanity'
618* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Raven Branwen and her twin brother are named after ravens and crows. Her brother was given his name because his Semblance causes [[TheJinx misfortune]] and crows are considered a symbol of bad luck. He makes the best of it by having a reputation for being the heroine's CoolUncle. That's why his name is spelled "Qrow".
619[[/folder]]
620
621[[folder:Webkomix]]
622* ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'''s Tycho [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/02/04 has a fit]] when he hears about "Gamez N Flix."
623* In a similar fashion, Erin from ''Webcomic/CriticalMiss'' has an "[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/7665-Critical-Miss-7 English gland]]" that flares up that flares when the language is abused, and becomes an EldritchAbomination when she sees too much of this.
624* ''Webcomic/KhaosKomix''. It fit the original comic a bit better than the current incarnation.
625* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'': The apparent acronym has no particular meaning, but hits a few kool letterz. According to the author: "It's just a word with no phonetic pronunciation -- a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings."
626** {{Discussed|Trope}} with car model names in [[http://xkcd.com/1571/ this comic]]. The author offers a few... [[UnfortunateNames suggestions]] (Lincoln [[{{UsefulNotes/Socialism}} Marxism]], anyone?) that nevertheless score high on this rubric.
627* In ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickStartOfDarkness Start of Darkness]]'', a print addendum to the popular webcomic ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Xykon's main goal while he was alive was to be a "badass evil villain". To this end, he not only invents a "cool-sounding name with an 'X' in it" for himself, he [[SpellMyNameWithAnS splits hairs over how people spell it]].
628-->'''Xykon:''' ... and my name is Xykon.\
629'''Right-Eye:''' Um, yes, OK, great and powerful sorcerer Zykon--\
630'''Xykon:''' No, no, no! With an X, not a Z! Z's are for pussies.
631* A.I. in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' sometimes use numbers to substitute for letters, and even whole syllables, in their names; for example, "5er0" (pronounced "Ver-None," with 5 substituting for its Roman equivalent, V) instead of Vernon.
632* ''Webcomic/LastRes0rt'' has it right in the title, though WordOfGod justifies it on the basis of having a hard time securing a domain name in the "correct" spelling.
633* [[http://overcompensating.com/posts/20100126.html Parodied]] in ''WebComic/{{Overcompensating}}''.
634* The title ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'' has to be a bit sarcastic about this.
635* ''[[http://theslackerz.com/ Slackerz]]'', (even in the title) alludes to this constantly.
636* And there's "Mylytant Femynyst" from ''Webcomic/{{Precocious}}'', for the "wymyn" version (see below).
637* The trolls of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', who seem to be in a LensmanArmsRace for the most obnoxious IM behavior, among other things pathologically replace letters with Xtra Kool ones, or with numbers.
638** An update gave us the most literal example of this trope with [[spoiler:Latula Pyrope]].
639* Dan of ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' sometimes uses these in the narration boxes.
640* Duzz talks like this in ''Webcomic/LuminaryChildren''.
641[[/folder]]
642
643[[folder:Web Ureejnul]]
644* ''WebOriginal/LOLCats'': I can haz cheezburger?
645* Meez was guilty of this, though it has improved over the years. It would lead to a lot of {{Narm}}.
646-->"You have received an infraction for violating the Meez Rulz."
647* From ''Website/TheOnion'': "[[https://www.theonion.com/alphabet-updated-with-15-exciting-new-replacement-lette-1819571356 Alphabet Updated With 15 Exciting New Replacement Letters]]"
648* ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'' has a running gag whenever someone uses this (or other bad grammar) where an echoey version of Linkara's voice appears along with the text "Because Poor Literacy is ''Kewl.''" Later episodes have him swapping out "kewl" for another word or phrase. Elsewhere, he'll use some variation of this phrase to denote [[RougeAnglesOfSatin mistakes that could have been proofread out]].
649* WebVideo/{{Brutalmoose}} discusses this in his review of ''Razor Freestyle Scooter'': "The next level is called 'Schoolz Out'...with a z. Because, y'know, z is the hippest letter of the alphabet. It's what all the kids are into."
650* The entrance of the FBI headquarters in an animated adaptation of ''[[Fanfic/PeterChimaerasDigimonTrilogy Digimon 3: Predator Vs Digimon]]'' is marked with "FBI [=Hedqu4rtrz=]".
651* ''WebVideo/ManicPixieDreamWife'': Episode "Dude, Your Wife Is Hotttt" has multiplied 't' for x-tra koolness.
652* Youtuber Simply Nailogical admitted that she named her old tomcat ''Zyler'', because she came up with ''Tyler'' and wanted to spice it up a little.
653[[/folder]]
654
655[[folder:Westurn Anym@tion]]
656* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': In "[[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS4EP6 Knock It Off]]", Professor Dick Hardly is selling his PPG clones under the name "Powerpuff Girlz X-treme", even going as far as calling Chemical X "Chemical X-treme".
657* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' gives us Jamez Withazee. Get it?
658* ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'' parodied this with a TotallyRadical energy drink called X-Stream Blu.
659* Presumably, the reason ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'' isn't titled ''SWAT Cats'' is because of this trope. The fact that the subtitle is "The Radical Squadron" seems to support that (as does the whole series' tone).
660* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Following the "Keystone Kops" example above, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E13SimpsoncalifragilisticexpialaAnnoyedGruntcious Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious]]" has Krusty the Clown (which is an example right there) hosting "Krusty's Komedy Klassic" at the Apollo Theater. He ''really'' shouldn't have put the [[FunWithAcronyms acronym]] on stage in big white letters in front of ''that'' many black people...
661-->'''Krusty:''' Hey, hey! It's great to be back at the Apollo Theater, and... ''[notices the three white Ks behind him onstage]'' [[TheKlan KKK?]] ''That's'' not good!
662* Also related to the above example, ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'''s principle restaurant is titled the Krusty Krab.
663* Another early example of this trope being applied deliberately: ''WesternAnimation/DragonFlyz'' (from 1996).
664* "Sonic Sez" from ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''. Of note, though, is the fact that "Sez" was written by Tails in each case, and when Sonic appeared, he would [[DefiedTrope correct it to "Says"]]. "Sez" was also used on newspaper headlines [[OlderThanTheyThink decades]] before ''[=AoStH=]'' came about.
665* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' has [[TheScrappy Spyke]] and [[AscendedExtra Berzerker]].
666* ''WesternAnimation/GalactikFootball''
667* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'''s future, the streets of Gotham City are plagued by a gang called the "Jokerz." Bruce is not impressed.
668* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' does this with the monsters: Kankrelat (from French "cancrelat"), Blok, Krabe, Kongre, Rekin, Kalamar, Kolossus... Justified in-story with Odd doing most of the naming, and that's just the kind of thing he'd do. On the same note: "[[CallingYourAttacks Lazer Arrow!]]"
669* The world of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' has no school, but rather a "Skool." Although it's not there to be cool, just to show how [[CrapsackWorld crappy their world is.]]
670* Disney had also originally intended to use that spelling of the word for the title of ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewSchool''. They also have the main character '''K'''uzco, whose name came from the Peruvian city '''C'''uzco.
671* The ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482151/ X-DuckX]]'' play this totally straight.
672* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
673** In the year 3000, occurrences of "sk" have been replaced by "x". You can frequently hear characters saying "Can I ax you a question?"
674** "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E16AnthologyOfInterestI Anthology of Interest I]]" {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this while {{playing with|ATrope}} BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord.
675--->'''Bender:''' Blackmail is such an ugly word. I prefer "extortion." The "x" makes it sound cool.
676* Though it's not really in the cartoons themselves, these fan-made profiles for [[http://users.cwnet.com/xephyr/rich/dzone/hoozoo/simba.html Simba]] and [[http://users.cwnet.com/xephyr/rich/dzone/hoozoo/timon.html Timon & Pumbaa]] spell ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'''s villain's name as "Skar", despite it being spelled as "Scar" everywhere else.
677* Ellipsanime's ''WesternAnimation/{{Xcalibur}}'' drops the E from the name of a certain legendary sword to supposedly sound cool.
678* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'' makes largely use of SdrawkcabName, but sometimes combines it with this for some names, like "Rubilax" ([Exc]alibur again), "Kabrok" ("corbac", French slang for raven), "Sybannak" (Cannabis)...
679* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingSpiez'', a spin-off series of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies''
680* Two episodes of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'': "No Rulez Rules Jimmy" and "Team X-treme Team."
681* The title character from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. At first, the creators could not find a name for her, but when they were staying in an eco-lodge, the owner introduced them to his dog "Cora". They agreed on the name and changed it to "Korra", most likely to fit into the Water Tribe's tradition of having "K" somewhere in their name, so this trope might be a coincidence.
682* WesternAnimation/{{Ratz}}
683* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' sketch "[[Film/EightMile 8]] [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Carrot]]".
684-->'''[[WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck Daffy]]:''' B-Rabbit, you're on.\
685'''WesternAnimation/{{Bugs|Bunny}}:''' Eh, I told you, Daffy, my name is Bugs.\
686'''Daffy:''' No, your MC name is B-Rabbit! We've got to appeal to today's kids! [[TotallyRadical No longer Looney Tunes, we're "Lizooney Tizunes"! Woo-hoo! Real hip-hop, dawg!]]
687* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' has [[strike:Cats]] Katz.
688* ''WesternAnimation/TheProblemSolverz'' and many of its episode titles. Interestingly, "Zoo Cops" is an exception to this. And bizarrely enough, Problem Solvers is actually spelled correctly in the pilot (just not in the title).
689* ''Animation/CubixRobotsForEveryone''. Standard robots will have 'ix' on the end of their names, while Doctor K's creations always have a name beginning with K. Kolossal, Krab, Katastrophe, Klobber, Kannon, [[spoiler:the Kulminator]]...
690* A short-lived SaturdayMorningCartoon on Creator/{{CBS}} in 1998 was called ''WesternAnimation/{{Birdz}}''.
691* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': Mystik Spiral, Trent Lane's band. Though he might change the name....
692* The third season of ''Literature/{{Franklin}} and Friends'' has Aunt T.'s Karate Klub.
693* There's also Klondike Kat, which was produced by Total Television (the makers of ''WesternAnimation/{{King Leonardo|AndHisShortSubjects}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Tennessee Tuxedo|AndHisTales}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}})''.
694* In the second Disney episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'', Doug's new school is having a contest to see who can come up with a name. One of Skeeter's suggestions is "Kool Skool". He then has to point out he spelled it wrong on purpose.
695* In the ''WesternAnimation/HarveyStreetKids'' episode "Elder Skelter", Audrey is asked to resolve a dispute between Melvin and Fredo when the former wants to change the "s" at the end of the Bloogey Boys' name to a "z".
696* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': Buford ties his shoes with "Tuff Shoo Laysizz".
697* ''WesternAnimation/KampKoral''
698* ''WesternAnimation/HozeHoundz''
699* ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'' is set on the island of Ta''z''mania.
700* ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel'': The Egg Boys are spelled "Egg Bo'''iz'''".
701[[/folder]]
702
703[[folder:TV Tropez Wyky]]
704* Tropes:
705** ForTheEvulz
706** ForTheFunnyz
707** [[ItAmusedMe For the Lulz]]
708** FourX
709** FunetikAksent
710** KafkaKomedy
711** IKnowMortalKombat
712** KukrisAreKool
713** PassiveAggressiveKombat
714** XtremeKoolLetterz
715* PlayingWithTropes:
716** Emperor Evulz, the resident BigBad is one.
717[[/folder]]
718
719[[folder:Reel Lyfe]]
720* American English favors using a Z, instead of an S that sounds like a Z, in various words, including "recognize" and "analyze." This follows the general trend for American English to favor more symplified and phonetic spellings even when it messes with the etymology. However, 'recognize' (though not 'analyze') is a permissible spelling in British English, and is in fact closer to etymology: Latin 'izare', Ancient Greek 'izo, izein'. Spelling analyse with a Z is further from etymology, however; it is not '*anal' + 'ize' with an odd spelling shift, but a derivation of 'analysis'. The Z in '-ize' and 'lyse' does not simplify spelling, because the regular spelling for these words ending in similar sounds is S, and so a Z is aberrant. (This is not to say American spellings do not mess around with etymology, but only a few do: 'ae' and 'oe'/'e', for example.)
721** Inspector Morse once used this as a plot point; Morse noted that if someone were truly Oxford-educated as he claimed he would know his Greek roots well enough to spell "realize" with a "z", not with an "s".
722* ''America's Best Dance Crew'' is a particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} example of this. Almost every crew have "kool letterz" their name, but as an example three crews have the word "crew" in their name. Here are the ways they spell that otherwise simple word: "Cru," "Kru," and "[=Cr3w=]."
723* For the same thing with different causes, see the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womyn womyn]]'s movement and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_pride AZN pride]].
724* Many of the baby names discussed at [[http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/index.html this page]] suffer from this. "Mackenzie" not unique and special enough? How about Makenzy? Mykynzy? Mkynzptlk.? [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryMToZ Mxyzptlk]]?
725* When parents name their children with Xtreme Kool Letterz:
726** Common both in Brazil and in Hispanic countries around the Caribbean: many mothers (specially from poor families) like to put fancy, Xtremely Kool names on their children. From simply replacing 'c' with 'k' to entire contraptions with loads and loads of 'k', 'w', 'y', 'll' etc...
727** The tendency in Hispanic countries to uses names with a 'Y' somewhere, usually substituting 'J' if at the beginning of the name, and 'I' or the 'LL' sound if in the middle or at the end. The fad was so bad in Caribbean countries in general that Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez named her blog "Generación Y (Generation Y)", not only as a pun on "Generation X", but to point out the whole generation of people born from TheSeventies to TheNineties saddled which such kind of names.
728** Filipino families today are guilty of naming their children with such names as Krizalyn and Johndex. And their names are written on their ''birth certificates''. Their excuse is that the old Filipino names [taken from Spanish names] are a tad boring and the recent American names are quite becoming cliche, so they decided that it would be cool if they add an extra letter and change some letter.
729* The AHEM [[PrivateMilitaryContractors military contracting company]] formerly known as Blackwater has changed their name to Xe. One could say that these days, Blackwater's name is mud.... So they changed it. Plus, there is the irony of them changing their name to the chemical symbol of an almost inert gas. Rachel Maddow quickly took to pronouncing it "she."
730** In a further attempt to reinvent their PR image and distance themselves from their notoriety, Xe is now known as "Academi," which still hits this trope pretty hard.
731* There is a cable TV channel in Brazil (Telecine) that once a week broadcasts movies subtitled with Internet slang and Xtreme Kool Letterz.
732* A possible etymology for "OK" is that it was an Xtreme Kool Letterz version for "All Correct": "Oll Korrect".
733** There was a short-lived fad for these abbreviations around 1840, such as "KG" = "(K)no Go". OK seems to be the only one that caught on and lasted, at least partly because of its association with UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren--his campaign actively linked the abbreviation with his nickname, "Old Kinderhook" (Kinderhook being his hometown in Upstate New York).
734* The UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan is clearly an example of this, and they have a potential to ruin an otherwise appealing use of Xtreme Kool Letterz when someone notices that the initials are KKK. Sometimes in comedy, as with ''Krusty's Komedy Klassic'' in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' or the Kappa Kappa Kappa sorority on ''Series/{{MADtv}}'', this unfortunate set of initials will be played for laughs. Remember, though, that HitlerAteSugar and this trope is still [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools not a bad thing]] even though a group of equally repulsive racists has taken a liking to the use of Xtreme Kool Letterz.
735** In the 20s, a Klansman could meet at a Klavern to have a Klonversation with the local Kleagle. Don't know the rules? Don't worry, they're all laid out in the Kloran. (Apparently, the Klan had the same naming conventions as the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' series.)
736** There's an urban legend that "Ku Klux" approximates the sound of a shotgun being cocked. Another idea was that "Ku Klux" is a bastardization of ''kuklos'', Greek for "ring" or "circle". The Kuklos Adelphon was basically the KKK before it was the KKK. Rumor has it that "klan" was added to the end, because the founders of the KKK were Scots-Irish.
737** There are various theories (some with more credibility than others) about the origin of the name, but no one knows the true story. All of them, however, contain a tacit admission of "it was mostly done that way because it looked cool." Whatever the reason, it gave an unhelpfully tongue-twisting name that many people erroneously or accidentally render as ''Klu'' Klux Klan.
738* For trademark purposes, the Sci-Fi channel changed its name to [[http://io9.com/5170447/sci-fi-channel-changes-its-name-to-a-typo "Syfy"]], which is Polish for "acne", and just happens to be (plural) short for syphilis. Parts of the sci-fi fanbase ran along with it. (No doubt you saw the subtle irony in the Polish translation.)
739* In the UsefulNotes/JapaneseWritingSystem:
740** Using katakana in places where hiragana or kanji is normally used is something of an equivalent of Xtreme Kool Letterz. For example, オ早ウゴザイマス is considered more Xtreme than お早うございます. This is OlderThanTheyThink: in medieval Japan, hiragana was considered an effeminate script, and many male writers used katakana instead. (Usually, when a character's lines are written in katakana, it's done to indicate that the character is speaking in a thick foreign accent or with NoIndoorVoice. Katakana is normally used for loanwords originating in non-Japanese countries, especially English.)
741** There's also the inverse, writing foreign words in hiragana instead of katakana (example: "start" as "すた〜と" instead of "スタート").
742** Currently, it is considered 'kewl' to render foreign-originating words in Kanji for phonetic value ("[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ateji Ateji]]", it's called; '''Franchise/TouhouProject'' uses a lot of these, incidentally).
743** Using the archaic katakana ''wi'' (ヰ), ''wo'' (ヲ) and ''we'' (ヱ) as substitutes for ''i'' (イ), ''o'' (オ) and ''e'' (エ), which are pronounced exactly the same, in words such as "{{otaku}}". The 1946 reform of the Japanese language eliminated the use of ''wo'' within words, and abolished ''we'' and ''wi'' entirely.
744** When using romanized Japanese, using "c" to spell out syllables with "k" sounds... sometimes even before "i" or "e", which wouldn't work outside of Classical Latin.
745* The research paper database arXiv (the X is a Greek chi). Its pronounced "archive."
746* Aleister Crowley popularized the "Magick" spelling for magic [[OlderThanTelevision in the modern western world]]. Now, there are people who spell it "majyyk."[[note]]Fun fact: dropping needless 'k's at the end of words like "magick," "musick" and "publick" was one specific goal of folks like Noah Webster.[[/note]]
747* All X-perimental aircrafts by the USAF, from the Bell X-1 to the Boeing X-53 are called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-plane_(aircraft) X-planes]].
748* The Old English/Old Norse letter ''thorn'' (Þ / þ) has been used in place of a p in the "tongue sticking out" emoticon. Conversely the ð in Skaði (pronounced like the th in thus) has been turned into a d among astronomers.
749* In the UK at least, it is common to give limited-stop bus routes a number with an "X" prefix for Express, although this goes back many years. Of cource whilst giving a bus route an "X" prefix doesn't make it sound cooler (try as they do, making buses "cool" is very hard), it does make it sound ''faster''. It is not uncommon to find "X" routes that are far from express.
750* Kamaz. It is actually an abbreviation, standing for ''Kamsky Avtomobilny Zavod'', or "Kama Automobile Plant" (Kama is the name of a river).
751* The '50s and early '60s hot rod culture favored the term "kustom", particularly in George Barris' Kustom Kars (Barris is famous for many awesome TV Kars, including Series/TheMunsters' family koach, the [[Series/TheMonkees Monkeemobile]], the [[Series/TheDukesOfHazzard General Lee]] and the [[Series/Batman1966 Batmobile]]).
752* In 11 markets, Comcast has changed the name of its "Triple Play" service to [[http://www.xfinity.com/home/ Xfinity]], probably under the belief that it is "contemporary." Furthering this delusion, they have covered the site with Klavika (a [[UsefulNotes/{{Fonts}} sans-serif typeface]] with squarish curves that has become a go-to "web 2.0" face). Their mobile Internet service, meanwhile, is the predictably "kewl" ''Internet 2go''.
753* The Monster Raving Loony Party has purposely misspelled "Education" in their suggestions (2) page for their manifesto.
754* Toys "Я" Us. In this case, it owes more to the idea that kids sometimes write letters backwards when they're very young and just learning to write.
755* Native Instruments seem not to be able to decide between Xtreme Kool Letterz and GratuitousGerman. Product names like Reaktor or Kontakt fall into both categories, Komplete falls only into the former, and Maschine falls only into the latter.
756* Roland's top workstation generations of the 21st century have been named Fantom. The true reason, however, is that they weren't allowed to use Phantom.
757* The Oberheim Xpander synthesizer.
758* Wichita Falls, Texas has a mall called Sikes Senter.
759* The Improv Comedy troupe known as [[http://comedysportz.com/ Comedy Sportz]].
760* The computer hardware manufacturer Asus has a range of "Xtreme Design" motherboards.
761* "Tyre". Sure, it's the legitimate British and Commonwealth (apart from Canada) spelling of the word (for "the rubber thing you put on a wheel" -- as distinct from "to weary", which remains ''tire''), but it sure rubs off this way to North Americans.
762** Ditto for "kerb" and "gaol", and first names like "Graeme" and "Huw" (which is actually just the Welsh spelling of "Hugh").
763* An Android OS Twitter Client was renamed Twidroyd from Twidroid after being bought by Idealab's TweetUp. The reasoning for this is that Lucas Films owns the trademark for the word Droid, nevermind the other bamillion apps with Droid in the name that aren't being sued right now.
764* In U.S. Air Force Civil Engineering units, pavement and heavy equipment operators are also known as "Dirt Boyz."
765* In the Philippines, there is a language called jejemon which follows the rules of this trope. And yes, the Filipino {{grammar nazi}}s hate them.
766* ''Creator/RavenSymone''. The accent serves no obvious purpose, since it's pronounced "Raven-Simone".
767* Phreaking, a now-discredited trope. (When was the last time you saw a phone booth?) Also, fone cards.
768* Coca-Cola had Coca-Cola Blak, a mixture of Coke and coffee. Not only was the spelling altered in "Blak", but the "A" had what was supposed to be a breve (Blăk), but which looked more like a tilde (Blãk). Some forms of the logo even rendered the mark as a macron (Blāk). Of course, it was just supposed to be pronounced as "black", rather than the actual pronunciations for those graphemes (Blăk and Blãk would both be something like "bluck", and Blāk would be "blake").
769* Many Christian youth-oriented church groups have been doing variants on this since the late 80's and like most, it's questionable if there's any payoff for doing it.
770* The Cité Internationale Universitaire in Paris, which houses international students at the various Paris learning institutions, has a lot of fun with foreign letters on its signs, [[http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4548338390_703ca13892.jpg such as this]] or [[http://www.decitre.fr/gi/31/9782858938131FS.gif this]]. They don't even stay consistent throughout.
771* There's an office building in the St. Louis suburbs called Cequel III.
772* Xtian and Xmas are common abbreviations for Christian and Christmas. The X abbreviation is taken from the Greek letter X or Chi, the initial of Christ, though some feel that such abbreviations are a little irreverent especially as the letter X can refer to "unknown".
773* Behold... the [[http://jalopnik.com/5882944/chevy-cruze-wagon-fords-c+suite-shuffle-and-amg-aint-going-diesel Chevrolet Cruze Wagon]]!
774* The Citroën Xsara. Pronounced "Zara" in UK adverts.
775* The [[CoolCar AMC AMX]]. Its full name is the American Motors Corporation [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment American Motors]] eXperimental
776* Car and motorcycle manufacturers in general are very fond of the letter {{X|MakesAnythingCool}}, as it can be associated with sportiness, technology and luxury.
777* The now defunct Burger Chef chain, which was sold to Hardee's, had sandwiches named the Super Shef and the Top Shef (a burger with cheese and bacon).
778* As mentioned above in Sportz, there was a ''ZZ'' naming fad in Utah in the 1990s. Another surviving [[ArtifactTitle artifact]] of that era is one Salt Lake City suburb's community festival: Taylorsville Dayzz.
779* [[http://www.sheetz.com/main/ Sheetz]] a Mid-Atlantic convenience store chain replaces the plural S with a Z for many of their [[http://www.sheetz.com/main/food/menu.cfm menu items]] EX: Saladz & Wrapz. As well as including the letters SH. EX: Shmuffin or Shwings.
780* A once-popular fad that might have receded by now was making cubes ("squares") out of flavored gelatin. When Knox-brand gelatin was used, the cubes were affectionately called "Knox blox."
781* Some [[GangBangers Blood and Crip sets]] change spellings of words to fit their gang mentality. Bloods will replace "C" with "CK" meaning Crip Killer wherever applicable (or replace it with a B, as in the phrase "bickin back being bool.") Alternatively, Crips will replace any "CK" with a "C", and would write "kick back" as "kicc bacc."
782* Tastee-Freez, an American ice cream chain.
783* Also Karmelkorn, a mall-based popcorn vendor. Once popular in malls through the 1970s, it's now down to about 25 locations, almost all of which are co-branded with Dairy Queen and/or Orange Julius.
784* Donut vendor Krispy Kreme.
785* The Spanish language has the "hoygan" 'dialect' for those people who don't give a flying rat's ass about spelling. The rules involve adding or removing random "h"'s anywhere (since it's a silent letter, you can put as many as you want and not notice a thing in the final pronunciation!), and switching "b" and "v" around (same pronunciation), "y" and "i" or "y" and "ll" (depending on the sound); "qu", "c" and "k"; "g" and "j"; and "z", "c" and "s" as much as you want. And, of course, no accents whatsoever. So "Hoy es un buen día" would become "oi ez un vuen dya". Enjoy the eyebleed.
786* Philadelphia snack cake company "Tastykake".
787* The Great Northern Railway [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNR_Class_C1_%28small_boiler%29 Klondyke]]-class locomotive of 1897 , named for the Klondike gold rush that happened that same year. Both spellings had equal currency on the GNR.
788* Kampgrounds of America (KOA), an American campground franchise.
789* The word "laser" is often misspelled "lazer" despite being an acronym.[[note]]Light Amplified by Stimulated Emission of Radiation[[/note]]
790* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' writer/producer David X. Cohen, whose middle name is actually Samuel. There was already a writer credited as David S. Cohen in the Writers Guild of America and members are not allowed to have the same name, so he changed his middle initial to X because it "sounded sci-fi-ish" and he thought it would make him "the David Cohen people would remember".
791* In the early 90s, a cooking-ware company *very* briefly applied this to one of their product lines, resulting in "Kook's Klub".
792* There was once a restaurant named Goombazz Big City Eatzz, most known for being the subject of an episode of ''Series/RestaurantImpossible''. As the owner was an old man with a technophobic streak, the edginess was unintentional: When host Robert Irvine asked him about the spelling, he said that the double Z's come from the word "pizza."
793* [=SpaceX=], a.k.a. UsefulNotes/SpaceExplorationTechnologiesCorporation. Elon Musk's other company, Tesla, has a car called the "Model X" despite having only a handful of different models (the model numbers spell "[[LeetLingo S3XY]]"). He also set up an online bank called X.com (which later merged with Confinity to become [=PayPal=]), as well as an AI startup called xAI, named one of his children X AE A-XII Musk, and in July 2023, announced that he was rebranding Website/{{Twitter}} as X. Musk '''loves''' the letter X.
794* Some fan conventions use a "K" instead of a "C" for "Con" (short for "convention"). Notable examples include A-Kon in Dallas and Otakon in Washington DC. Those two are [[JustifiedTrope justified examples]]: "A-Kon" deriving from Anime/ProjectAKo and Otakon being a play on the word "Otaku".
795* KDE, one of the many desktop environments available for [[Platform/{{UNIX}} Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems]], runs on this trope. Its name stands for "K Desktop Environment", with the K not standing for anything, and many of its included programs have the letter C in their names replaced with K, such as Konsole, or Kontact, or even just slap K in front of other words, like Kmail, or Ktorrent.
796* [[https://www.houseofkolor.com/homepage/ House of Kolor]], a division of Sherwin-Williams' subsidiary Valspar.
797* A small rollercoaster erected on Brighton Pier in southern England was initially given a name meant to be a cool-sounding version of "cyclone" until it was pointed out that "Zyklon" was the poison gas used in the Holocaust.
798* Fry's Electronics had their own exclusive brand of disposable compressed air dusters known as "Xtreme Klean".
799* There's been a push to popularize "folx" as a gender-neutral version of the word "folks", but it's gotten pushback from people who've pointed out that "folks" itself is gender-neutral.
800* Some English surnames that include "-icks" have "-ix" as an alternate spelling, most famously "Hendrix" instead of "Hendricks" (they both mean "son of Hendrick"), and "Nixon" instead of "Nickson" ("son of Nick").
801* Many, many tech companies, such as Lyft, Flickr, Website/{{Tumblr}}, Disqus, Grindr, and Creator/{{Netflix}}. In this case, it has a practical use, as the misspelled names are easier to get trademarks for.
802* The marketing for [[https://www.zorbaz.com/ Zorbaz]], a chain of pizza restaurants located in central Minnesota, replaces the S's with Z's in words that contain the former letter (i.e. with items such as "Zpecialty Pizzaz").
803* Vegan or dairy-free cheese substitutes are often referred to as "cheeze", the misspelling in this case intended to indicate that the product isn't "real" cheese.
804* The term "warez" for pirated copies of software originated in the 1980s with a subculture of BBS "d00dz" who are said to have embraced this trope thoroughly.
805* In 2023, twitter was (partly) rebranded as X for this reason. This was some months after purchase by a new owner, who has wanted to do this [[https://mashable.com/article/musk-x-twitter-paypal for a long time]]. Much fun was made of the rename, as twitter with its symbol was a lot more unique than a simple X, plus other proposed changes sounded pretty silly.
806[[/folder]]
807----
808''[[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Because poor literacy is KeWL!]]''

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