Darth Wiki / How Not to Write an Example

Dizammmbo! Has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of this page but it's such a sweet pic that it's just gonna be shoehorned in. I mean look at it! We can totally justify having his face plastered on this page as long as we insert colorful descriptive text that vaguely ties it to the topic!

Voiced by: Mr.Bean

How has Scourge, the absolute king of this trope not been mentioned yet? Scourge, just Scourge. He could easily have made this trope!

"This quote could just as easily have gone in the examples section, but I'm putting it here because it's from my favorite show."

— My Favorite Show

"This quote actually isn't an example, but I'm putting it here because it's from my favorite show."

— My Favorite Show

"In Short, no. In long, nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo."

— Zero Punctuation. This also doubles as Yahtzee's reaction to this page.

"It is a great idea to put potholes in the page quote so Tropers will go to another page before they even started reading this one. Bonus points if the page quote is hard to understand without the potholes to explain what some words mean."

— Totally Good Guide to Quality Troping™

"And THAT, my friends, is how NOT to write an article."

— TV Tropes, How Not to Write an Example ^note The best kind of page quote is a character just saying the trope's name without further information on the trope itself.

Here at TV Tropes, we like to encourage editors to dive right in and add examples without forcing them to spend months lurking around and arduously studying proper editing form. Because that's for suckers. This isn't The Other Wiki, which means we want to have fun and screw the rules (with or without the money). With that in mind, here are some favorite things our tropers do when posting.

Compare That Troper, which you should strive to be.

Oh, and contrast How to Write an Example. If you want to propose a whole new trope, see How Not to Write a TLP Draft. If you have trouble with the trope definitions, see Crappy Trope Definitions.

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Tips

• New examples should go at the top of the list so that people read them first rather than having to read through all the other stuff again.
• Start out by making me pancakes. All tropes are better after you have enjoyed a nice plate of pancakes.
  • I want waffles!
  • If you think an example is inaccurate, put a huge Justifying Edit right below that post. Nothing livens up examples like chains of Natter below them. Always use increasing levels of bullet points rather than new paragraphs: Example Indentation in Trope Lists is the work of fussbudgets.
    • Actually, there are several other things that livens up examples to that degree.
    • Such as?
    • A big ol' Edit War?
    • That, my dear, sweet marvelous troper with your slender hands and thick, lush hair and, most importantly, your soul-piercing eyes, is utter nonsense and/or just plain lies and you should be deeply ashamed of yourself to the bottom of your cold, wretched, overly small cardiac muscles. Justifying Edits, you see, are always, ALWAYS an fantabulous idea to stick onto one of the pages on this wiki. And it unquestionably is, of course particularly preferable to all tropes that they are always, ALWAYS a mammoth, all-consuming Wall of Text. They greatly grow upon the original entry on a page that another individual composed over the course of hours, with their fingertips deftly impinging the keyboard, and/or just plain clears a few things up in a TV Tropes entry that the first poster neglected to even reference once or wasn't decipherable sufficiently on. Moreover, it does a lot to solve the very grievous trouble of risking the comprehensive decimation of an entry, thus fleetly avoiding anything that could possibly perceived as a potential slight and quickly putting a cessation to the possibility for a long-lasting, acrimonious Edit War before it even begins to come about, because every last individual on this planet is absolutely cognisant that Edit Wars are the rootage of fury and avarice and lust and pridefulness and indisposition and all of the other unrighteousnesses on this damned, horrible planet and everything at all possible should be done to altogether avoid them at all costs, reasonable or unreasonable. In addition to everything else in this long, long, long piece of writing, mind you, an edit under an original entry encourages polysyllabic, interminable bouts of lively and spirited discourse on the subject at hand today and, with any luck, proves that snowmonkeys somehow driving snowmobiles and all parties involved in that affair share a pleasant, clear consensus. Also, troper, make sure that you never, ever omit your long, long, long tangents and segways. Those are the most crucial part of a Justifying Edit, merely because if you can easily interpret, with perfect, peerless pellucidity, your train of cognizant thought than surely everyone else on this huge, all-encompassing internet site would be able to do the exact same thing because you, yes, you are a uncorrupted representative of every last one of all of your fellow writers on here and everyone else knows that since you are mad e of such pure concentrated awesomesauce, if your mind forms an opinion on something, whether it's exactly correct or based on false premises or anything in between, than everyone, everyone else has the exact same opinion on the subject at hand and will greatly appreciate with all of their hearts that you took precious moments of your extremely valuable time to make a justifying edit on this very wiki. But you also have to stuff into your edit in as much detail as humanly possible because, otherwise, how else do you accept, with absolute certainty, that anyone else would be aware that you had randomly, on a whim, commented on snowmonkeys driving snowmobiles swiftly down a steep, high gravely hill in the destitute wilderness of Appalachia (Eastern U.S, from Pennsylvania to Georgia), right in the intermediate of this exceedingly long, altogether inane and worthless argument if everyone who's reading this paragraph simply skips right to the end of this written material? And the part of all this nonsense that's the most egregious of all? Sometimes, or possibly even probably, such a large Wall of Text Justifying Edit can have many, many, many words contained within it but in reality says very little of dire importance, or even nothing at all.
    • It's not "segways", it's "segues". Segways are silly wheelie-things to ride on.
    • Holy Shit! I'm not reading all that!
    • But how else can you know what's being talked about unless you read every word to understand both the context and the discussion of the Justifying Edit and/or explanation? Don't you see? DON'T YOU SEE!?
    • What if I'm blind, then, I CAN'T SEE!
    • yeah! yeah! yeah! [[overlylonggag YEAH!]]
    • You don't need to read the whole thing. Just read the first few words, decide the person who disagrees with you is an idiot, then proceed to write your own EVEN BETTER super-spectacular Justifying Edit.
    • It's not enough! You must also remove theirs from existence, for how can visitors bask in the glory of your mighty example if theirs is in the way?
    • In addition to a Justifying Edit, you can also prove your point by Pot-Holing tMAKE SURE THAT YOUR EXAMPLE INTERRUPTS THE MIDDLE OF ANOTHER ONE! IT STANDS OUT MORE THAT WAY!he entire previous post as Fan Dumb, What an Idiot!, Hypocrite, etc. Everyone loves that.
    • Bonus points if you pothole to a long-dead page such as Did Not Do The Research.
    • Geez, what an idiot. Like anyone would do something like that!
    • This Troper says X, Just...X! Would this happen on The Other Wiki?
• It is strange that nobody has yet mentioned the technique of expressing complete and utter disbelief that the page has lasted so long (three hours!) without someone having mentioned the obscure show which happens to be your favorite.
  • I'm surprised that no

one has corrected that to "favourite". It just BREATHES this trope!

• I'm surprised that no one yet has corrected noone to no one.
• There you go.

• every example you add, always pothole all of the text in the example.points if the potholesare not at all relevant to the text, trope, example,(after all misleading potholes are fun)etc.if thepothole is the page the example is on.
  • It’s even better if every word has a Pothole or not.
  • This is an important part of the creation process, one highly praised and expanded upon by the greatest of literary artists, solely made by truly the longest of works, spanning centuries of development, created by Darth Vador himself. Good job for adding it in NamelessTroper265432! Don't forget to pothole from the flame section on a work while you are at it too! That'll show them !!! :))))
• It's important to spread the word about your favorite anime and other stories. Be sure to add an example for it on every trope you can, even if it doesn't fit perfectly. Don't worry if it confuses the reader. For more information concerning the following phrases, see Playing with a Trope.
  • Played Straight in Your Show: the trope actually sounds like it may have happened pretty much that way in your show.
  • Subverted in Your Show: It looked like they might have been going to use this trope in Your Show, but they didn't. Alternate definition: Any form of Playing with a Trope in your show other than completely, 100% straight even if it's something as similar as Played for Laughs or Downplayed.
  • If this trope happens more than once or twice in Your Show, add that the entirety of Your Show is an example. Never mind that this doesn't really make sense.
  • Every trope that sounds like it might fit needs to go in, don't worry about checking what it actually means. If people wear hats in Your Show, feel free to add Planet of Hats as an example. What do you mean it's not about literal hats? It's got the word "hat" in it, doesn't it?
  • Similarly, you can safely assume that any additional words and prefixes in a trope name are just intensifiers, and don't change the meaning. Stock Sound Effect and Unsound Effect mean the same thing, right?
• As opposed to putting new examples at the top of the list, put them in the middle. You can especially put them right before an entry that has two or more stars; sure, it will break the flow between whatever came before or after, but that'll just make your own entry stand out more and won't be confusing in the slightest!
  • Partially Subverted in Your Show: They could easily have used the trope in your show, and almost did, or they used it in a way that is different from the description.
  • Averted in Your Show: The trope has nothing to do with your show, except the trope is really cool, and Your Show is awesome. Alternate definition: Subverted or inverted in your show but you don't want to say anything is a subversion and have never heard of an inversion. Alternate alternate definition: Your Show doesn't use the trope, but it's a bad trope so you need to boast about how great Your Show is for not falling into the pitfall of using it.
    • Inverted in Your Show: Your Show didn't even come close to using this trope. That's how awesome it is.
  • IIRC: you aren't sure if they used the trope in Your Show or something else.
    • What does "IIRC" stand for?
    • If I Recall Correctly.
  • Played With in Your Show: the trope trope reminded you of something in Your Show, and it was funny.
  • Deconstructed in Your Show: Your Show used this trope, but because it's Your Show, it's a deconstruction. Your Show is the edgiest, most subversive thing on TV and in no way would ever play a trope straight, so clearly they were doing it ironically and everyone else is just to stupid to recognize it.
  • Reconstructed in Your Show: Your Show used this trope, but because it's Your Show, it's a reconstruction. All those other shows are either made by squares playing the trope straight because they're too dumb to do it right, or else hipsters deconstructing tropes just to show how edgy they are. Your show is the only one that really understands the trope and is going to show us all what it really means.
  • Justified in Your Show: Your Show uses this trope, but since it's Your Show and therefore awesome and you've completely forgotten that Tropes Are Not Bad, you make excuses for it.
  • Zig-Zagged in Your Show: Okay, Your Show did something with this trope, and you know it wasn't a subversion. Must have been a Zig-Zag.
  • They Plotted a Perfectly Good Waste in Your Show: Since it's Your Show and you know the source material better than the writers, you explain how everything would have made more sense/been more awesomer had they did what you wanted instead.

If your show is The Simpsons, Futurama or Family Guy, THIS IS MANDATORY.

• Repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page, in case somebody misses it.
  • Or take your examples and relocate them to the bottom of the page every so often for the same reason. Really, you'll be doing everyone a favour because your examples are just that good. The people who passed over them the first time around (out of temporary blindness, naturally; what other reason could there be?) will giggle with delight upon seeing them and veteran viewers will thank you for reminding them of old favourites.
• If a trope is subverted, put in at least one adverb to call attention to the greatness of your show:
  • Partially Subverted
  • Somewhat Subverted
  • Painfully Subverted
  • Hilariously Subverted
  • Arguably Subverted
  • Brutally Subverted
  • Brilliantly Subverted
• These phrases are also must-haves:
  • Subverted \ Averted HARD (use these ones every time subverting or averting a trope has even the slightest impact on the plot of the show)
  • Ruthlessly Parodied
  • Partially Averted
  • Partially Inverted
  • (show\character) breathes this trope.
  • (show\character) loves this trope.
  • (show\character) IS this trope up to eleven.
  • (show\character) is this trope incarnate.
  • (show\character) is made of this trope.
  • (character) is the patron saint of this trope.
  • (character) is the poster child of this trope.
  • (character) is the king/queen of this trope.

• Other good stuff to know:
  • Jumped the Shark: A show that was cool to begin with, but later it became SO cool the director screwed it up because you just can't do something that cool justice.
  • Mary Sue: A really good fanfiction character you wrote, and there are a bunch of losers who read it and the idiots actually think the character sucks.
  • To liven up the debate on the site, it helps to describe other people's favorite characters and shows as being these.
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page. Someone might miss it.
• If there's something in the example that might reveal anything about the work's plot, put it in spoiler tags. If you feel that even listing the show's title on the trope page would spoil it, hide it too so people can't tell which show is being spoiled. Feel free to do this with whole paragraphs or every other word.
  • Alternatively, if you have an example from a show that everyone has obviously seen don't bother spoiler tagging it. It Was His Sled after all.
• Feel free to write whole paragraphs about how an example is wrong. This works even better if you accuse the potential readers of having ADHD.
  • Bonus points if they really do. Hint: ADHD doesn't work that way, btw.
• If you don't like the examples, don't bother taking it up on discussion. Just take it to the Cut List and throw the baby out with the bathwater.
• People might not appreciate how much more cool and extreme and unbelievable the example from your favourite show is, and indeed your favourite show itself is, compared to all the other ones people have mentioned, so be sure to use loads of italics and preferably an "I Am Not Making This Up" (which, by the way, This Troper just thought they should cut in to tell you, was formerly a trope that was not only deleted, but was also accompanied by the removal of all links invoking it in mid-2009).
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page. Someone might miss it.

• Try and do everything you can to make sure if any other tropes can somehow be forced into the description, force it in. This includes using a skilled Pot Hole. A Cosmic Horror Story will make more sense than the Mind Screw that you've managed to cleverly place using a combination of Buffy Speak, Person as Verb and Techno Babble. Just keep on listing the examples within the description itself because you do know that everyone knows about Doctor Who and Star Trek...yes even the Expanded Universe. And of course the Five-Man Band is completely responsible for this tropes existance, although saying so to other people will likely cause an exclamation of a Big "NO!".
• Be lazy. Other people will fix your spelling and formatting for you. Or for extra fun, change their corrections back, as many times as you need to. Who cares if you might get banned for needlessly staring Edit Wars?
  • Uh, Noah Fence, but it's spelled starting!! How could you spell it as STARING?! Do you even preview these tropes?!
• If listing a Troperiffic show, be sure to say "obligatory (show) example" before posting your example. Bonus points if it's an obligatory Doctor Who example.
• Your Show is always the best one on T.V. Wait, what do you mean? That trope was clearly a clever subversion that "seemed" like it happened. A Justifying Edit will see to that...
• Of course, everyone knows every detail of Doctor Who, Star Trek and their kind, so don't bother explaining details.
  • Bonus points for introducing new plot points obtusely with no further detail, like this: "But then X came into the picture..." Its so much more fun when you're coy!
• TV Tropes is really a forum dressed up like a wiki, so feel free to start rambling discussions about your favourite show.
• Most importantly, if someone else begins to talk about Their Show, and you hate it, immediately start insulting it.
  • Also make sure to add Their Show to So Bad, It's Horrible.
• Feel free to add in little Take Thats towards shows you don't like, such as "Well, it is Their Show, of course it sucks!" even if it makes no sense and adds nothing to the entry.
  • If Their Show is The Sword of Truth, The Twilight Saga, or Inheritance Cycle, this is mandatory.
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page. Someone might miss it.
• Feel free to shoehorn any show or characters you don't like into negative tropes, even if you haven't actually watched the show and are just parroting something you read on a comedy blog with an axe to grind.
• Explain The Joke as often and blatantly as possible.
  • See, it's funny 'cause it's a bad idea. In fact, that's the entire premise of this page! All examples should be taken sarcastically. Even this one, because you see, the page is titled "how not to write an example", so therefore something like this, written completely seriously (unless it's not) should be...um...the demons.
    • The Demons. Lolz. That's funny, because it's a reference to DOOM: Repercussions of Evil, where one of the last lines is "No! You are the demons!" He potholed it, but I thought I should make it extra clear.
    • See, this example is funny because we're all just a bunch of tropers who are making a recursive joke over and over again and think the recursive explaining of the joke and (anti-)hypocricy is funny!
• We at TV Tropes take a relaxed attitude to our beloved works, so make sure if you see someone attempt a serious thought about something (subtext, deeper themes, or critical analysis) then you qualify by Pot Holeing a bunch of Serious Business or "Stop Having Fun" Guys.
• List Your Show as an example without elaborating. Don't worry—the trope description makes the exact example obvious, after all!
  • The Simpsons
  • Hamster Huey And The Gooey Kablooie
• Feel free to repeat examples already listed. Some might forget if the list is long.
• If you really like a show, add another trope from it halfway down the list. People love to be reminded of great shows.
• Remember, every possible instance of trope-like behavior that isn't played dead straight must be a subversion.
• We are not Wikipedia, so we don't have any Neutral Point of View garbage. Bash anything you don't love, and bash the bashers of what you do.
  • The simple fact that we are not Wikipedia can be used to justify basically whatever you want.
• X, Just...X and Two Words: Added Emphasis are the most vital potholing you can possibly do. This means that your show is awesome enough that it shouldn't need an explanation.
• There's no need to actually identify the title of your favourite show - obviously, everybody knows who Leon is, and if you say "Leon. Just...Leon", nobody will ever think of a different Leon.
• Never refer to a Japanese series by its corrupt English title - always use the original Japanese. Under no circumstances should you refer to Rumbling Hearts when you have "Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien".
  • Because The Other Wiki does it?
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page. Someone might miss it.
• Don't worry about being respectful with religion and politics, the opposing viewpoint will surely back down after reading your witty, insightful comments. Besides, anyone who disagrees with you is totally just a whiny little baby anyway. What are they gonna do about it? Cry?
• Also, being a Mama Troper who personally goes after anybody who posted on his or her newly launched articles is perfectly warranted here.
• And don't forget the Noodle Incident, boy was that a riot.
  • Never explain the Noodle Incident to anyone who is unfamiliar with its source. Just argue about it in the most insular way possible.
• Who says you need to use the preview function? You're spelling and page linking is perfect.
• It's also wicked fucking funny to put a goddamn shitload of gratuitous motherfucking swearwords in your jizz-splattered examples, bitch.
  • If you see such examples, don't clean them up, just paint all over them. It's so f*cking easy and nobody knows what it originally said.
  • Don't be afraid to use them in works that are meant for kids. They're full of dirty trope names such as Asshole Victim, Alpha Bitch, and Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, so why the fuck wouldn't you add more?
• If a trope example mentions something in Your Show that you don't like, be sure to point out that that episode never really happened! This never gets old.
  • In addition, make sure when deleting or editing Fanon Discontinuity entries that you take potshots at said entries and derogatorily insinuate that these people are Fan Dumb. Don't be diplomatic and ruffle those feathers! You're here to start an Edit War, Fan Dumb or misunderstood inside joke be damned!
• Always sign your posts with This Troper, preferably potholing it to your contributor page, which should be in the Main namespace.
  • Better yet, don't pothole it, but put it in brackets like this: This troper ([[This Troper Sk8bordizzle 91)
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page. Someone might miss it.
• Everyone uses Wikipedia, and everyone loves [[Wikipedia formatting]].
• Repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page, in case somebody misses it.
• Play around with [{(\formatting/)}]. It's fun 'and' educational!
• Never upload images to TV Tropes; that will just waste our bandwidth, or something. Just link to some other site for the page image.
• Anyone who edits your examples for any reason is an idiot. Just change it back, no need to check the discussion page or edit reason.
  • Okay, seriously? I had a much better version of this example on here just a little while ago that totally mentioned this one in-joke I have with my buddy from my college's anime club, but then somebody edited it. What the Hell, TV Tropes!
• Repeat examples whenever possible.
• TV Tropes has everything. Don't worry about Redlinks. They're just motivation.
• Remember, if someone has included an example from Your Show in a trope that's a bit negative, delete it immediately no matter how valid it is. Remember, Your Show is awesome, and would never play such a trope straight.
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page, someone might miss it.
  • Don't people love it when you ask a question in the main page instead of the discussion?
    • Of course we do!
• Don't bother actually putting the name of Your Show in the example, just write a quote or a character's name and Pothole it.
  • Bonus points if the work is an obscure webcomic that had 3 issues and has been on hiatus since 2001.
  • If you want to make a sarcastic comment about a show everyone ought to know, e.g. Xena: Warrior Princess, you can be especially clever by calling it "some action-adventure show from the 90's" rather than simply using its name.
  • As demonstrated above, it really helps if you have no idea how to use an apostrophe in referring to a specific decade. Because poor literacy is kewl.
    • And if someone ever makes a comment like the above, always call them a Grammar Nazi and proceed to putt bat granmae and s pelling inn Al of you're sentiences.
  • Also, always quote an in-site meme from Channel Awesome, or else you'll be SCARING THE LITTLE GIRL, and girls like PAAAAAAAANK! TIMING!
• On a related note, beat every joke meme TO DEATH. Bonus points if:
  • A) It's the goddam Batman and
  • B) It adds nothing to the discussion!
  • C) It's super easy, barely an inconvenience.
• Don't forget to mention The Game, so that everyone loses.
  • If someone already has mentioned The Game, you must mention this xkcd strip.
• Whenever possible, repeat examples. Sometimes rewording them can help people understand.
• If one of the examples is factually inaccurate, don't delete or edit it. That would hurt the feelings of the person who posted it. Instead, write a lengthy rebuttal that only makes sense to people who have seen the series in question. Remember: by law this note must begin with the word "Actually".
  • Actually, if after you have written an example you notice that someone else has written a lengthy rebuttal against your example that you feel is wrong you should add a counter-example against their rebuttal which clearly argues against everything in that example while proving how correct you were in the first place.
  • To be fair, a rebuttal can also start with "To be fair." For you see, Other Tropers Are Morons and therefore as long as you don't say "Actually," they won't recognize your rebuttal as a Justifying Edit.
• Word of God doesn't mean "what the creators say". What it really means is "what the True Fans say". Feel free to write down what a True Fan like yourself believes preceded by "Word of God says..."
  • Also, it is imperative to explain why something isn't true just because Word of God says it is. Remember: Fanon is more important!
• Make sure to be as dramatic as possible, especially if the trope implies a certain slant. The Complete Monster isn't that guy who blew up an orphanage, he's the vicious fiend who, with callous disregard for the sanctity of human life, blew up an orphanage full of innocent orphans. And That's Terrible.
• Make sure to emphasize the important parts of your TROPE to make it STAND OUT!!'
• Two Words: Use this trope.
  • Wait, isn't this three words?
• Don't forget: when people read an article and find the same translations of a character's name, they get bored! Make sure to use as many different translations and transliterations of a character's name as you can find or make up.
• When editing, make sure to change as little as possible each time, so you can take up the whole edit history. Did you know that if you're the only editor in the full view of the edit history, you win candy?
• Repeat examples in case somebody misses them. It's not the same thing if the sentence is slightly different!
• There's nothing as cool as Youtube links, which never get deleted. Combine this with Two Words: Added Emphasis and X, Just...X and you get the holy grail of TV Tropes:
  • Three words: This. Just, This.
    • Posting links to manga scans is even better.
• Truth in Television: This Troper's brother-in-law's best friend's sister's roomate's myspace friend once wrote an example about the time his best friend's aunt's dogsitter wrote an example about an inside joke he and his friends have about TV tropes examples! Let's just say it was way too good for the (now defuct) Troper Tales page.

If you don't feel like using a bullet point, you don't. Don't worry if it breaks the formatting; that's not your concern, after all.

• If a trope instantly reminds you of a work, don't under any circumstances use CTRL+F to find if that work has already been mentioned. Just add your example. Even if it's a repeat, chances are it will be said in slightly different wording, which counts as a completely new example.
• If a work uses a trope in an overly-done manner, there is only one word in the English language to describe it: egregious.
  • Indeed. It would be quite egregious for a troper not to use the word 'egregious' egregiously.
• Be sure to bring politics and sexual orientation into the discussion. Democrats are pot-smoking fags from Hollywood, after all.
• TV Tropes: Has to have all examples of a trope rewritten in the "work name: description" format, even when that makes them look uglier and ungrammatical.

Web Comics

• Vandalism isBOOOOO! WHOEVER WROTE THIS EXAMPLE IS TOTALLY LAME! LOOOOSEEEER!
  • Also, all vandalism remains on the page forever. No one ever reverts it within hours or even minutes after it's posted.
  • And everyone always gets a chance to see your hilarious vandalism.
• If you were thinking of an example, but forgot it after you started typing a point, you don't have to delete your progress. Just submit it and come back to it later. The asterisk will be waiting for you when you get back. Also, if you delete an example, it's common courtesy to leave the asterisk for the next person that comes by.
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page. Someone might miss it.
• • Or, alternatively, use white font, or in this case gray, so nobody can read it anyway, unless they highlight it.
• Despite what the other parts of the internet say, people care about RP examples, be sure to mention an example from your OC or an RP you did, it won't get deleted.
  • And use lots of comma splices, they really help.
• Remember, everybody loves hearing what Mr. Croshaw has to say on a topic, no matter how unnecessary it is. After all, like he says:
  Insert quote here.
  • Everyone loves seeing xkcd links everywhere too! It's good publicity!
    • xkcd probably once did a joke about that, but I'm not sure. Search through its archives and you might find it.
  • And even though putting "OF COURSE!", "OR IS IT?" and "You know, FOR KIDS!" really aren't as funny in writing as they are onscreen, keep putting them in anyway!
• If you come across a YMMV item, make sure you sum up the entire thing in one example, just so you can get a cheap potshot on those fuckers who are part of the problem.
• Make sure to replace perfectly fine images with other ones, ideally really obscure and not really comprehensible to anyone who isn't familiar with the source material. Bonus points if they cut off text.
  • Be sure to replace perfectly fine quotes with quotes from your shows too, don't worry about them not being anymore relevant to the trope as long as they are from a show you like.
• Put irrelevant images on articles. For funsies, of course.
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page. Someone might miss it.
• When dealing with Shipping entries, you are contractually obligated to engage in Ship-to-Ship Combat and Justifying Edits in order to protect your OTP.
  • True story, This Troper totally did this one time! It was so awesome!
• It probably isn't a good idea to enter things that go against the entire theme or point of the article.
  • That said, you should go ahead and do so anyway, since every precious word typed by your skilled hands is made of pure, solid gold and should be shared with the world no matter how far it deviates from the actual theme or point. Anyone who deletes your artistry is either jealous or just doesn't get it, so feel free to re-add your example with a passive-agressive (or just downright aggressive) note to this effect in the edit reason box.
    • Or better yet, no reason at all.
• If your favorite webcomic isn't being promoted as well as you hoped, plug it in every trope you can find! Then, watch the hits roll in! (PROTIP: Bonus points if your webcomic references an anime or science-fiction show. After all, nerds eat that stuff up!)
  • Referenced in xkcd. So nice, it had to be plugged twice!
• See the (now-deleted) page quote for a classic example of this!
• Always assume that the only reason anyone is here is to discuss Japanese culture. The only shows we discuss are anime and the only comics are manga.
  • As an alternative, always take offence at the very idea that anyone could like anime or manga. Be sure to insert complaints, wherever you like, about how Japanese fiction "completely dominates" this Wiki. In doing so, be sure to assume that all anime and manga consists of 100% triple-X-rated porn, and/or is aimed only at "immature" twelve-year-olds.
    • Then go on about how all of it is perfect and none of it is naughty, unlike the very flawed western version of the medium.
• What's up guyz? I'm new here, don't really get it.. But well I think that this page is a subversion? inversion? aversion? IDK LOL of how to write a goodddd article, but idk ahhaha :) It's awesome though, kpeace!
  • lol gtfo newfag. Lurk moar.
• When posting an example of how Their Show played a trope straight, be sure to speak of it in the most scathing terms possible. Because people who are new to the site need to know that all tropes are bad, ALL OF THEM.
  • On that note, make sure to use broad generalizations whenever possible. Art and fiction are not unique by nature, so it can be determined, by extension, that everything applies to everything in a pretty equal and nondistinct manner, so to speak.
• remember, txt tlk n no caps r quik esy ways 2 rite an xample b sur 2 include mispelings n no puncthuateon marks after all u dont want 2 deprive teh ppl of ur gr8 xample 4 more time tehn necessry y waste time folowing teh laws of gramar
  • EVN BETTR, 4GET THE NO CAPS RUL N KEEP TEH CAPS LOCK ON IT MAKES U LOOK KOOL DOSNT IT
• How Did We Miss This One??
  • We didn't. It's way up toward the top.
    • Oops silly me. XD
• How has mentioning how something has not been mentioned not been mentioned yet?
• As far as I remember Series did it in the last episode I saw, the one with the character with my name that was good.
• Tell, don't show. Remember, Viewers Are Morons and are completely incapable of figuring out the quality of a work without you mentioning it. Also, quality is absolute, and if you don't like something, no one is allowed to like it.
• TV Tropes is made of this! And/or win, depending on the situation.
• Shamlessly self premote your own entries by making them long and adding padding. Undercut this with bad spelling.
• Forget about the normal color format! Write examples how ever you want, what color you want, no matter how "eye raping" or hard to read it is!    Want to write "   ed" in blue just for kicks? Go ahead! Want to write the letter "z" in gold, also for kicks? Go ahead to!
  • That is so strange, yet deleting it isn't the right way to do it. Instead, make a little script about it, even staring your favorite characters:
    Ezekiel: Dude! Why is z in gold eh? Izzy, Mark Z. Dalewenkski, z z z z z z z z z z... and why is "ed" in blue all the time? Even if it's part of a word, like red? Ededededed... See? Nothing is happening, eh.
    Ed: (From Ed, Edd n' Eddy) Prepare to meet your doom!
    Ezekiel: Oh shi—!
  • Se tiuj ekzemploj ne sufiĉas, kial ne apliki ĝin al pluraj lingvoj? La eblecoj estas senfinaj! ^Translation If those examples are not enough, why not apply it to several languages? The possibilities are endless!
• If a show you don't like features anything funny whatsoever, make sure to put it under Narm, because intentional humor does not exist in Their Show, despite everyone and their three-year-old brother insisting it was "obviously" a joke. Meanwhile, Unfortunate Implications exists for taking anything you want out of context to make Their Show look bad. However, if you see Your Show on there make sure to add a couple paragraphs complaining about how it's totally justified and Not What It Looks Like and this is Political Overcorrectness!!!
  • About the Narm, just add their show to So Bad, It's Good.
• USE AS MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS AS POSSIBLE TO EMSHISISE YOUR EXAMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• ?
• Don't worry about them, they've just got a deranged mind.

• ACTUALLY IT'S SPELLED EMPHASIZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 HOW COULD YOU BE SO BLIND?!?!?!?!??!!?!??!!??!!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!!??!?!?!?!?!!??!?!!?!!!!!!!!!!!!?!!??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

• Be sure to use tropes detailing methods of speech not only to describe the trope, but to describe, like, the way you're talking in the entry-words-thing itself, because THAT. IS. ALWAYS. FUN.
  • "Insert quote here related to entry above without proper formatting."
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page. Someone might miss it.
• Remember to write as though the article is a script. * rolls eyes* Because if you really did roll your eyes while typing, you would totally go to the trouble of typing it.
  • That hurt my feelings! *Runs off crying, and then, presumably, runs back to type this*
• Be sure to mention your sexual preferences and fetishes wherever possible. There's no such thing as Too Much Information.
  • Too Much Information is this transgendered gay female furry troper's fetish, and therefore, I will tell you why I am attracted to this previous sentence, and why you are too.
    • I am a sex-deprived neckbeard and I want to have sex with you now because you are a female on the internet.
    • It appears that Too Much Information actually does exist.
  • This goes double for furries. The rest of us never get tired of hearing about you guys. Especially when you're telling us that we're furries, too.
    • Oh, come on. You know you think Krystal is hot.
  • Also, don't feel afraid to make an edit explaining that you find something squicky, even when that's completely irrelevant to the trope or is clearly fanservice directed at a different section of the population to you! Just remember: there is only one acceptable form of human sexuality - yours!
• All-Blue Entry (All Dark Gray Entry in this case) as much as possible.
  • No, All Red Entry As Much As Possible. (All Dark Red Entry in this case)
    • You're both wrong. All black (white in this case) entry for the win!
• Go ahead and insult characters you hate. Especaily if they are from Ed, Edd n Eddy.
  • Also make sure to explain precisely why no one should like this character and why they should feel bad about it if they still do. Be sure to make minor character flaws out to be far worse than they actually are. And remember, the more condescending and snotty you are toward the character and his/her fans, the better!
  • Or pothole multiple different tropes to every character in the title! Who cares if it's really annoying or you get them wrong? For example: Ed, Edd and Eddy.
• Feel free to tell everyone that Your Mileage May Vary on a certain topic even if you are the only person who's mileage varies at all.
• Alternately, when writing about a work with a Broken Base, remove all opposing YMMV links or viewpoints from the examples. After all, your side of the argument is the only one that's valid.
  • If you do acknowledge the other side of the argument, make sure to frame your point of view as the "correct one" by elaborating it in a lenghty paragraph while just mentionning the other side in one sentence (or two if you're generous).
  • Add a Wild Mass Guessing after an example.
    • Refute that very guess immediately thereafter.
• Jump the gun at any given opportunities. For example, add Broken Base five minutes (or less) after an episode of your favorite show has aired. Who cares if no one will talk about it the next week? Same everytime a creator gives vague information about an upcoming work.
• The best way to correct an error is to write your correction by a bullet underneath while presevering the original mistake for posterity.
  • It's preserving, dumbass.
    • You're both wrong. It's "persevering."
• Make sure and let everyone know Your Show is the darkest and edgiest thing around, and its very existence is Getting Crap Past the Radar. Make sure to go on about all the times Your Show Crosses the Line Twice by making jokes about (censored for edginess)
• Also make sure to mention that your show is a Deconstruction every good show is a [[Deconstruction]] od something. There are no exceptions.
• s-*-x!!! On Prime Time television for gosh sakes! How do they get away with it?
  • Remember, if subtle sexual innuendo appears in a work, it's always because the Moral Guardians were too stupid to notice it. They would never, say, decide that it is subtle enough that children won't pick up on it.
• Put examples in the middle of other examples. It isn't at all format ruining and/or disrespectful to the troper who wrote the example!
  • When it comes to Getting Crap Past the Radar, accuracy comes second to making sure all kid's shows have their own page, so feel free to remove context or just outright make stuff up if it makes something sound dirtier.
  • Or just use immature logic to make out an innocent event as if it were radar material, like Anakin giving Padme his lighsaber (HURR HURR HURR)
  • And don't forget that every single censor on the planet is nothing but a total kill-joy who refuses to let anything with the mildest of edge onto television, so if a raunchy joke or dark bit of subject matter makes it, then it's clearly this trope. Even if it's so blatantly obvious that the censor would have to be deaf and blind to miss it, it's still Getting Crap Past the Radar.
• This Troper has won more than the attacks were a great example of Clay, I have never played Neverwinter Nights. This person (who can not do something wrong, because it is a "fiction writers brought") decided that I was frauding through the doors locked (I have never heard of), and further detailed description is out of immersion in the end of this, cited numerous examples of complex, really good in-depth study of mechanical equipment during use. His case was dismissed and he was banned on the basis that nobody with that level of knowledge on the subject could ever have learned it without extensively practicing the felony in the first place.Insane Troll logic applies to him immediately, and to ensure Troper has a tendency to track this day, still do not know whether he is doubtful the success of the legacy of The Inheritance Cycle.
  • On another note: It is also bad idea to post your example somewhere the Troll it concerns can find and edit it.
• If you find an example that is repeated later in the article, don't remove the repeat. Instead, continue to repeat it! Pothole Rule of Three in the appropriate spot and sprinkle Running Gag links afterward. If someone removes the repeated examples, chastise them for not getting the joke and/or sucking the fun out of the site.
• The ultimate example of this trope: Remember that examples that loom large in your memory are the most important examples ever, and be sure to tell everyone that so they know, even if there's nothing particularly unique about them.
• Don't check the page to make sure that your example's not already on the page. You know what they say: Make sure to repeat examples that are higher up on the page, somebody might forget!™
• If there's a show you don't like, and it's on a page that says it gets unnecessary hate (e.g Hatedom, Periphery Hatedom, Hate Dumb), make sure to reply with a long paragraph explaining why it deserves to be there. Even if Wiki Magic deletes it, make sure to come back and rewrite it. Bonus points if it's Twilight or any Disney Channel show.
• And another thing about How Not to Write an Example, never forget to put a Wiki link to the currently discussed trope in your example, since it's important to always have a recursive link reloading the page you're currently reading. Even better, put it inside a pothole, as this augment the chances to catch the unwary.
• Never finish your sentenc
  • Candle Jack strikes ag
    • This meme has officially stopped being funny, guys. Candle Jack. There, I said it! And was I kidnapped? No! I'm too cool for th
    • Remember, if someone says "Candle Jack" and forgets to not finish their sentence, feel free to do it for th
    • It's an especially good idea to do so if there were important information after the words "Candle Jack." For example, you are right now in grave danger and the only way to protect yourself is t
• I'm not sure, but I think if you're not absolutely positive about an example, you're supposed to just put it up anyway with a disclaimer about how dubious it is. That's less dangerous than checking it up on Google, who we all know is not your friend.
  • Actually, anyone who reads such an example is morally obliged to add an edit crying bad research, You Fail X Forever and/or * INSERT INSULTING AND/OR PATRONISING COMMENT ABOUT GOOGLE HERE* . (The Other Wiki also works for that last example.) Because simply editing the reference (if correct) or deleting (if not) won't give the poor, confused troper the definitive answer they require.
• Always have lot's of conversation.
  • Yeah!
  • Always add two or more asterisk to you’re example and make sure to place it between other examples with two or more asteroid. Surely, that won’t mess up anything with the context of any examples before or after
    • Have to agree with that!
    • Totally!
    • Who can deny it?
    • I have to disagree.
    • You know who else disagreed? Hitler! Are you saying you're the same as Hitler?
    • That reminds me of this one time, at band camp...
    • Hey, why'd you stop your story? I really want to hear about what happened at your band camp.
    • We all know what happened at band camp.
    • Hey, you guys forgot to incrementally indent your replies.
• When writing an example about a movie or other live-action show, don't even bother looking up for the character's name; always use the actor's name instead. After all, we all know that Arnold Schwarzenegger was killing people for real in every one of his movies.
  • Alternately, make sure to refer to all actors by their most recent or big-budget role. For example, all references to Liam Neeson should make some reference to the fact that he was Qui-Gonn Jinn in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Because, you know, that's definitely his best performance and the only one by which anyone should know him.
• Always duplicate examples.
• Always duplicate examples.
• Always duplicate examples.
• Always duplicate examples.
• Always duplicate examples.
• Always duplicate examples.
  • Your Mileage May Vary. Also remember to start the sentence preceded by two or three asterisks with "YMMV" or "Your Mileage May Vary" if you don't agree with that.
• Remember: You are always right. Anyone who disagrees with you clearly isn't familiar with the source material. Show them who the real fan is!
• Write quickly, do not proofread, and be certain to out words when you type.
• If you're referring to the Harry Potter fanfic My Immortal - and if you're discussing a fanfic trope, you'd better be - it's critical that you refer to the main character as "Ebony—no wait, I mean Enoby." Simply referring to her as "Ebony" alone would not sufficiently indicate the degree to which you are superior the the fanfic's author.
  • Similiarly, on the page for any work that is generally considered to be So Bad, It's Horrible, don't catalogue the tropes the story actually uses: just find every conceivable way of talking about how bad this work is.
• Every article needs at least one reference to Warhammer 40,000, shoe-horned in wherever.
  • And don't even bother spelling the whole title out. Everyone knows what WH40K is.
  • Remember: Each race gets their own example. This is the only way to make people understand that the universe is made up of Black-and-Grey Morality.
    • And if it is a general W40k example, remember, that Warhammer 40000 takes the trope up to eleven, SLAUGHTERS EVERYONE along the way, and rockets into space laughing maniacally!!!
    • Also, make sure to add tons of inside jokes about the fanbase, regardless of context, like how Matt Ward is our spiritual liege, or how-BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!!!!!!!!1 SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!!!!1
• Don't bother to update your examples to correct future tense for an "upcoming" media work when said work actually comes out. After all, it's still the future at the time you wrote it!
• Always duplicate examples.
• All trope names can be used as Stock Phrases. Try it sometime!
• Delete examples from any show you don't know. Notability is everything!
• Cross out any incorrect facts when editing. It doesn't make you look like a douche at all. Everyone needs to see how incorrect the example's original poster is!
  • Or try and fail to do that because the markup has now been removed. It's still here, you idiot moron.
    • Feel free to continue making jokes like the above even though you need to view the page source just to understand them.
• Complain about all pictures being Just a Face and a Caption, except the one from Your Show, then suggest ones from Your Show as replacements. When people try to prevent having the entire wiki consist of pictures from Your Show, cry conspiracy!
• When someone does something that annoys the Hell out of you, chew them out for it in your edit, then go to this very page and write a snarky remark of how you should never do the thing that annoys the Hell out of you. Everybody wins!
• And remember: Always duplicate examples in case someone missed a previous entry.
  • I'm sorry. I didn't get that. Could you please repeat it?
    • Always duplicate examples in case someone missed a previous entry.
    • Oh, hey, thanks a lot.
    • You do know that there's a duplicate example here, right?
    • Gah! You duplicated the example of a duplicate example! There's already one above! You should check the page before you start editing. Zheeesh!
    • Now, now, people. This is degenerating into natter. Cut it out.
    • Um... just so everyone knows, they covered nattering near the top, so this is kind of redundant.
    • Hey! Why did you do nattering again! It's already here! Learn to Read!
• Make sure to repeat examples from higher up on the page, someone might miss it.
• Always use an example you add to a trope like Draco in Leather Pants or Misaimed Fandom as an excuse to bitch about fangirls.
  • Come to think of it, why limit yourself to a specific type of trope? If a character or show can serve as an example, you can still get a few shots in. For example: "Character A on Show X fits this trope, but you'd never know it from the way his stupid fans go on about him" or "Character A is an example of this trope if all of the Mary Sue fic about him is anything to go by." Be sure to cram in as many potholes to Fan Dumb as you can reasonably manage. Let it rip, all of TV Tropes awaits your opinion.
  • And remember, if you really want to shut the fans down, just say that Word of God has Jossed them. No need, however, to provide a link or even the name of the source you got your information from so people can see this for themselves. Everyone should just take your word for it.
    • And if someone does call you out and asks for a link, start complaining that There Is No Such Thing as Notability and that this isn't Wikipedia. After all, this site gives you free reign to add any example with no regard for accountability at all.
• How can this list not have this example yet?
• In a similar vein, always state how shocked, SHOCKED, you are that Your Show has not been mentioned yet. Clearly, leaving such an earth-shatteringly obvious example off the list for so long is such a crime against humanity that people must be reminded of it even after the example has been listed.
• rmember taht you sing gdod grammer iz 4 skwairs!12!34~
• Who cares if Complaining About Shows You Don't Like has been eighty-sixed? Just bitch about the work or do your character bashing in the examples instead! You can find a way to make the example fit if you're creative enough or apply your own personal fanon.
  • Also, be aware that Dethroning Moment of Suck and So Bad, It's Horrible are all the New Complaining About Shows You Don't Like. So forget any specific episodes, scenes or moments and just bash the work as the affront to Heaven it is, in the most categorical and vicious manner possible. And remember, boys and girls, the show's creator personally writes every last word of every script, so don't worry about misblaming.
    • Also, when looking for opportunities to gratuitously bash works, keep in mind the two cardinal principles of Serious Business and "Stop Having Fun" Guys. Shakespearean tragedies are an excellent yardstick against which to measure absurdist, gag-based animated Sit Coms.
  • Also, don't forget that this isn't limited to fictional characters, you can use the examples as your soapbox for bitching about or making fun of the actors that play them, too! On that note, no joke ever stops being funny and fresh, so don't worry that you'll be the 532145687528th person to make yet another Lindsay Lohan is a trainwreck, Orlando Bloom looks like a woman, Hayden Christensen is a lousy actor, etc. joke.
• Make sure to repeat examples from higher up on the page. Somebody might miss it.
  • Don't forget to overreact and talk about how much the thing makes your ears bleed and OVEREMPHASIZE HOW FUCKING BAD IT FUCKING IS.
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page. Someone might miss it.
• See this Tips Worksheet and the edit tip that appears when you begin to edit a page? Blatantly disregard it!
• Always duplicate your examples. Someone could have missed it.
• If you see a badly-worded phrase or a gratuitous use of first-person in an otherwise perfectly good example, don't fix it, just delete the whole example. For that matter, delete the examples directly above and below it too, for good measure.
  • Better yet, delete half the
• 完全日本語で書いて下さい。
  • Kore wa example desu ka?
    • It's romanized EGUZANPURU, you absolute pleb. Under no circumstances should the holy language of Japanese ever be desecrated by the Latin alphabet's crude spelling forms.
  • Neniam enmetu vian manon en mian vizaĝon, besteto! Falu vin! Mi ne bezonas ĉi tiun friponaĵon! Vi stulta, sadisma, abomena, aĉa ruzulo! ^Translation Do not worry at all if the, language! Does not! Match up with the supposed translation! Believe me, no, one, will notice!
• ARTICLE 11, SECTION XIV, TITLE 4, SUBTITLE C, CLAUSE 2, ROW A, SEATS 4 AND 5: In order to ensure everything on the wiki is as professional as possible, all tropers shall attempt to imitate the writing style seen in the United States Internal Revenue Code. Any deviations from this style should be changed accordingly.
• Rapbqr lbhe fcbvyref va ebg13.
  • Nurgle?
    • Encode your spoilers in rot13. (And then repeat them in plaintext for the benefit of anyone who doesn't know rot13.)
• Feel free to stick your new example right smack in the middle of the page, even if it
• Show off your foreign language knowledge every chance you get kawaii neko baka desu.
  • Always write names of anime characters with a Funetik Aksent, whether they're from Japan or not.

splits another example.

• Make sure to repeat examples from higher up on the page, somebody might miss it.
• If you have an unpublished work of your own, try to shoehorn an example from it into every trope page you can.
  • • Asterisks are cool. The more of them indenting your paragraph, the better.
    • Even cooler is when they make a neat little pyramid! So to add an additional point to an example, you should always put it on the next line with one more asterisk than the line above it!
• Why wouldn't you put a rhetorical question in your example?
  • Because some Jerkass will answer it.
• Be sure to pothole the trope in question as many times as you can in the page for the actual trope itself, even if clicking it will take the reader nowhere.
• Try to ensure that you resist the temptation to pare spoilers down to their absolute minimum, because everybody loves giant blocks of blank text, right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right?
• Everything ever is a subversion. There are no invoked tropes, averted tropes, tropes played for laughs, inverted tropes, or anything like that. Not even tropes played straight. It's all a subversion.
• A special idiocy should belong to the fandom of this example who write fanfics about that thing that happened before.
• Put examples in the wrong place and make sure to repeat them if they're a lot higher on the page
• Be sure to talk about Shipping 24/7! Who cares if it has nothing to do with anything? Be sure to mention that Seddie, is like, soooo much better than Creddie.
• When potholing, create a link for each word in the phrase and have each link go to the same trope.
• All page images must be anime or manga-related. If you stumble across one that isn't, change it to one that is even if the new image doesn't illustrate the trope properly.
  • On top of that, if you ever see an Animation Trope illustrated by a picture from a piece of Western Animation, not only should you replace it with an Anime image, you should rant in the edit reason box about how only a stupid child would think it appropriate to illustrate a trope with a picture from Looney Tunes or The Simpsons. If you want to go that extra mile, then start an Image Pickin' Discussion to this effect — but not until you've already replaced the image, since discussing the change before you do it would be just plain silly.
  • If you see a sudden surge in images from one source, jump on the bandwagon and only suggest shows from that source. Screw diversity in page images! We're a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fansite!
    • That's odd, last year we were an Avatar: The Last Airbender website. What ever happened to that?
• Go ahead and natter if you must, just make sure to include some variation on "ugh, did you even watch/read/play the same thing as the rest of us?"
  • An even better reaction is to purge the page and completely remove its contents. No one will report you for vandalism.
• Remember- If The Links Are Not Red, you've gone and Failed Beyond Redemption.
• If you mention trope present in a work with negative reception, be sure to mention that the work is awful.
  • Additionally, make sure it's something really trivial or bizarre. Like acid reflux, or being afraid Sarah Palin will eat you. Those are entries bound to raise the hair on other troper's necks!
• Make sure to repeat examples that are higher up on the page. Somebody might miss it.
• Nuke YMMV tropes from work pages whenever you see them, and don't bother adding them to the YMMV tab. Sure, the admins went to the trouble of creating separate YMMV pages and a system of marking tropes that need to be moved, but in actual fact they want all the subjective and fanspeak tropes to die a horrible, flaming death, so you'll really be doing them a favor!
• dont bothur wit speleng an gramer. its 4 bouring stukup ppl not kool 1s lik us.
  • n its not fare if im not amerekan n englesh isnt my frst langage so baneng me 4 my speleng an gramer iz discrmininacon!!!
  • Ankaŭ vi neniam devas ĝeni uzi Google Translate se vi tradukas ion tute malĝuste. Ne estas iu, kiu povus bagati. ^Translation Also, you should never bother to use Google Translate in case you translate something completely wrong. There ain't no-one to give a fuck.
• Don't forget to use the word "infamous" all the time with no regard to its actual meaning of "having an extremely bad reputation".
• Also don't forget to mention Avatar: The Last Airbender and gush about how wonderfully the trope was used in it.
• There are no other opinions. Your show is universally loved so you have the obligation to remind everyone how much they love it.
  • There Is No Such Thing as Notability doesn't apply to your show. Be sure to remind people how many people have watched it and all of its critical praise (or complain that it's underrated and overlooked if it's not extremely famous) even if the page in question doesn't seem like the appropriate place to list such things.
• Make sure the work name cannot be seen in your example. Just Pot Hole a character's name, or a random out-of-context quote. This will make it much easier to find an example from a specific show, and will make the example so much more comprehensible. For extra fun, just skip the pothole.
• Make sure to repeat examples that are higher up on the page, somebody might miss it.
• Your example is meant only for fans of the show, so feel free to make it incomprehensible for these pathetic plebs who aren't familiar with it (or don't remember every single part of it). Double so for the Crowning Moments pages and the Memetic Mutation page; those are only for posting disjointed, out-of-context quotes and inside jokes.
  • Topping your example off with "You know the one I mean" or something similar is a good idea, since every single person in the world will always know exactly what do you mean, right away.
• "New Media", "Web" and "Web Original" are totally different things, and it's a good idea to have two or even three of them among the page's folders.

Skip using bullets for the occasional example. It helps it stand-out and gives the page an artistic "staggered" look.

• Whenever a new episode of your favorite show comes out, always put it as the most recent episode in your example. The episode will always be recent even after a week or month when a newer episode airs or whenever another season starts.
  • If anyone tells you that Examples Are Not Recent, just preface your example with "as of this writing" and leave the original entry intact. Problem solved! Remember not to specify when "this writing" is taking place, because anyone who needs to know can just look through the edit history to figure that out anyway.
• Your mileage may vary, but you can't remind people too many times about how their milage may vary with a particular example. Of course, your milage may vary.
  • On the actual YMMV page of various topics, just delete ones that offend you. After all, YOUR gas mileage is the one that matters.
• If you see an example you don't agree with or that offends you, just remove it. And never put anything in the "edit reason" section of the page. The fact that you personally don't approve of it should be reason enough for everyone.
• Make sure to repeat an example if it's a lot higher on the page, or somebody'll miss it.
• MAKE SURE TO ALWAYS BOLD AND USE ALL CAPS ON YOUR EXAMPLES IT MAKES YOU VERY IMPORTANT SOUNDING WHILE YOURE AT IT DONT USE ANY PUNCTUATION AT ALL BECAUSE ITS IMPORTANT TO GET ALL OF YOUR AMAZINGLY AMAZING EXAMPLES ALSO USE SPOILER TAGS FOR ALMOST EVERY SINGLE WORD JUST BECAUSE!
• If something is even remotely out of the ordinary, pothole to Understatement.
• Your personal fanon is as good as Word of God, so be sure to keep this in mind when adding examples to pages.
• Whenever you write crossover Wild Mass Guessing theories, don't bother telling where outside characters are from. We all know that Mario is Luigi's cousin, after all.
  • Just use crossover WMG theories to gush about other shows you like. Mario is really Kirby who ate a mushroom! How else would Mario be so cool?
• Make sure to repeat examples that are higher up on the page, somebody might miss it.
• When picking a page image, make sure it's a totally moe young girl from this really cool anime that you like, but nobody else who isn't a hardcore otaku has ever heard of outside of Japan. Be sure to include an out-of-context quote as well! It doesn't matter if nobody knows what you intended by this image; surely it demonstrates the trope perfectly well for other people who haven't seen the show if it does for you.
• Always remember, feel free to inject your own personal opinions about politics, religion or morality into any article you feel like, as well your opinions on life, the universe and everything, today's weather and whether the Axis could have won World War II.
• In fact, your personal experiences are perfectly relevant in any situation and everyone else is really interested to hear them! Don't forget to begin your subjective soapboxing with "This Troper".
  • This gay, autistic, deaf, French-speaking troper certainly agrees.
• Always end an example with either I Am Not Making This Up or So Yeah.
• Remember, when assessing the quality of a work, always be sure to gauge critical reception solely with what people from TGWTG think of it. Actual published critics, perhaps even essayists? What the fuck do the know? They're just a bunch of Oscar Bait loving snobs!
• When writing an example related to modern music, always be sure to include an unnecessary Take That! at the artist in question (especially if it's Lady Gaga). Bonus points if in the example you make a direct comparison to older works, and imply modern music is killing all music. Even more points if you use Todd in the Shadows opinions to back up your own (because, as we all know, he is totally a professional music critic, and is in no way biased or perhaps lacking some knowledge on the subject!).
  • [[Big"WHAT?!" WHAT?!]] Only music? Make Take That! to every single new thing and continue gushing about how your childhood is ruined. After all, new = terrible abomination, while old = OMGSOAWESOME.
• Whenever adding an example to this page, be sure to passive-aggressively mock things you dissaprove of that other tropers do, not things that actually completely go against the ru... wait a minute...
• For all you straight male tropers out there, be sure to cite something as Fan Disservice whenever it pertains to male nudity (of any kinds, at that). After all, you are the most important demographic there is, and there is no way straight/bi women, bi/gay men, and people of any other sexuality that isn't lesbian or straight male would want to see one of those icky penises.
  • It doesn't have to just be how someone is dressed; anything you don't like can be labeled as Fan Disservice. A character you don't like is giving Fan Service? Fan Disservice. A character you like not featured anywhere? Fan Disservice. A scene not play out the way you expected it to? Fan Disservice. Your favorite character not hook up with someone you expected? Fan Disservice. The sky's the limit.
• Make sure to repeat examples that are higher up on the page, somebody might miss it.
• Be sure to Pothole every single word in your example to a different page.
  • Or, every letter.
    • Don't forget you can use completely arbitrary clauses split almost evenly for no apparent reason except black text is ugly.
    • Random letter combinations within words is cool too.
    • Bonus points for putting All-Blue Entry in it. Never mind that the page tells you to not do it; do it!
• And please remember to just put a link to a website instead of writing an example. To get extra cool points make it be a broken Geocities page from 1997 or a site with porn ads.
  • Also, if the example is about a daily Web Comic, make sure to make the example about the "most recent" entry (as of 2009). Then, instead of linking to the specific comic, link to the home page, thus making it nearly impossible to figure out which comic it is.
• Make sure anything you think that is remotely awesome or ludicrous is potholed to Beyond the Impossible. Even if the thing is based off of real life and by in-universe standards should be possible.
• Write every single word that comes to mind a la James Joyce's stream of consciousness style, resulting in large paragraphs of inane blather which (Note: this section of the paragraph was lost in a freak gardening accident) and that's why I refuse to eat kumquats. Now where is that save button? Oh, here it
• Try to shoehorn the characters in your favorite series into fitting the Five-Man Band trope even if they don't fit. Bonus points for misinterpreting The Chick as "the woman of the group" or "the useless one" instead of "the female voice of reason/moral center."
  • As a corollary, we at TV Tropes strongly suggest you push the limits of how many people can fit in a band to reach this purpose. I mean, why have The Smart Guy when you can have four? Or seven? And if you can't think of any examples of The Chick or The Lancer in your show, that's fine. You don't need any.
  • Don't forget to also shoehorn characters from Your Show into every trio trope. If your show is The Powerpuff Girls, this is mandatory. Bonus points if the group has more than three characters in it, is arbitrarily split into subgroups to fit the pattern, or isn't really a defined group at all.
  • And if your group has four people in it, it's always a Four-Temperament Ensemble. All the other four-person ensembles are just clutter anyway.
• Make sure to get carried away! With punctuation...!? In fact your periods. Don't have to. Make sense.
• Italicize any WikiWord, even if it's a Trope or a Creator.
• Make sure to repeat examples that are higher up on the page. Somebody might miss it.
• Put at least one Take That! at Justin Bieber. Even if the trope is Space Pirates. Even if someone edits the example to be less offensive, make sure to put a third level bullet to insult him again.
  • Not just Justin Bieber. Remember to put a Take That! to any pop artist you can think of (such as Iggy Azalea, Nicki Minaj, One Direction, Nickelback, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry, to name a few).
• Emoticons :D make :) everything :P better :( >:( :'( :C :L :O D:
  • ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
• Straight from the Everything Is a Subversion's office: remember, everybody, everything ever is an aversion. Especially when you want to say that a trope is subverted but the Not a Subversion page makes you scared (valid subversions or otherwise), or something's actually justified or downplayed or played with but you just don't have the proper vocabulary to say it, or God forbid... *drumroll* it's actually played straight (we prefer this most with a long, blathery explanation of why your show would never use something as overdone as a trope due to a small technicality, but a short blathery explanation will work). The thought that the vast majority of averted tropes would not be notable enough to be marked on a work page is, frankly, outrageous.
• Never namespace your links. They will lead to the right page (or at least a disambiguation page linking to the right page) anyway.
• If you think a trope applies harder to a work you like more than any other work, make sure you bold that trope so that everybody knows. If you think it applies even harder than that, italicize it or put it in all caps, or better yet, do both. Make sure to mention how this is also the greatest, most triumphant, best example of the trope ever and that everyone else on Earth agrees.
• Make sure to repeat examples higher up on the page. Somebody might miss it.
• Remember, CrazyAwesome is about every kind of really freaking awesome things. It is not about people who are crazy and are awesome because of it. If you think something is really, really awesome, make sure to mention that it's Crazy Awesome.
• Always put Complete Monster to characters who don't apply or just commit a Moral Event Horizon. Especially if the character is a Base-Breaking Character because that won't start a flame war in the least.
  • Complete Monster doesn't even need to be a character. Feel free to use it to describe yourself, or a fellow troper, for petty reasons that do not at all fit the trope description.
• If the trope is soft-split or has a sliding scale, don't bother to actually add context to the work page examples. The type labels by themselves are Self-Explanatory and everyone always remembers what they mean even if the labels are simply letters, numbers, or Roman Numerals.
• Remember: Everything ever that features a marginalized or minority group has Unfortunate Implications. Even diametrically-opposed portrayals within the same show. And if there are any counterexamples of marginalized or minority characters from the stereotype the show is obviously pushing towards, ignore them. Confirmation Bias is just part of what makes TV Tropes fun.
  • So does everything that involves the word "black."
    • What on earth are you babbling about guys?? Haven't you heard?? Unfortunate Implications has nothing to do with minorities! It's a synonym for Fridge Horror!!
• Always rank your tropes in a hierarchy.
  • Subtrope of ranking tropes in a hierarchy.
    • Trope that is an option to go alongside said subtrope.
  • A trope that has nothing to do with ranking tropes in a hierarchy but appears later in the same episode from the same character.
  "A quote regarding the above point that has nothing to do with the trope this page is about, but was just so great it had to be posted here."
• You know everything we said about This Troper and how it's bad by, at best, making the wiki look like Troper Tales and at worst, making it look like not one person but a coalition of know-it-alls trying to talk over each other? Fuhgeddaboudit. We meant we did not like the word "troper". What a dumb name. See, "this editor", "I" and to an extent, "one editor" are fine.
• Make sure to repeat examples higher up on the page. Somebody might miss it.
• Everyone knows that The Woobie is just Gushing About Characters You Like, so add every character in the series with more than two seconds of screentime and an emotional range of more than complete constant bliss. Most important to add are extremely happy characters who cry in one episode and complete dicks who totally don't deserve to be punished. Contrast Complete Monster, which is for Complaining About Characters You Don't Like. People who suffer sympathetically on a regular basis don't need a trope of their own, because no one would ever write a character who was actually pitiful often.
  • You have two options of doing this: you can list every single character individually, with the first character on a different indentation level because it's clearly the best example, or you can just say that everyone in the series is one without giving any details.
    • This is only for the page itself. For potholing purposes, The Woobie is a synonym for Designated Monkey and having one on the show is a sign of bad writing.
  • How has no one mentioned the absolute king of this trope, spending a lot of painstaking effort listing some guy whose life is overall pretty awesome?? It's okay. Quantity can make up for quality! If you ramble on for ten lines and include all sorts of filler about how totally cute he is and all of the problems that are either extremely minor either in terms of his life or in terms of the story or not anyone's fault but his own then surely everyone will see exactly what a woobie the character from Your Show is, because it will be longer than everyone else's. After all, every example with details must be padding and talking about every single bad event in the series and there is no way that some of the other longish ones are very brief summaries of descriptions that if following your template would be long enough to have their own folders if not their own pages. And for good measure, always remember to say that this is the absolute king of this trope because you spent so much more effort writing stuff down. Especially if half your post relies either on fanon or metaphysics to make your point, because there are absolutely no characters who count without taking into account either one.
    • What about movie characters, huh? Don't they get any love? Poor movie characters, always forgotten.
    • Everyone knows they don't count.
• The only requirement for an Actor Allusion is some vague words to describe an actor's two coincidentally similar roles. No need for an actual reference or anything like that- it'll make the work so much cooler by connecting it to other works.
  • A brilliant reference to a show that came out fifteen years later!
• Make sure to repeat examples that are higher up on the page. Somebody might miss it.
  • This extends to any reference, like Shout-Out and Mythology Gag, in general. If you can tenuously connect some vague aspect in an obtuse manner, it counts!
• One important thing to remember- everyone knows the same things you do. Therefore, any error in a work must be indicated as such, whether it is through Did Not Do the Research, Critical Research Failure, or You Fail X Forever. It doesn't matter how obscure the knowledge is, or whether liberties were taken for the sake of narrative quality- it is imperative that you let everyone know how smart you are.
• Every character who has ever done anything remotely awesome, is remotely attractive, is remotely well-liked, has anything remotely special or unique about then, is remotely talented, and is remotely lucky is a Canon Sue or a Creator's Pet. No exceptions.
• Any pairing you dislike is either Sickeningly Sweethearts or Strangled by the Red String. Make sure to complain as much as possible when you try to justify your reasons, too.
• AACCFC! ^note Acronyms Are Cruise Control For Cool Be sure to use acronyms whenever possible, because everyone will always immediately know what they mean. In fact, if you ever see a page using the normal, boring version of a trope title (Yet Another Stupid Death instead of YASD, Featureless Protagonist instead of AFGNCAAP, etc) go ahead and edit it to the acronym version. Everyone will thank you for this!
  • Bonus Points for using acronyms that you JMUOTS ^note Just Made Up On The Spot, and even more points if it's ALUAFWSLAICPBBELTAOYBTWDBATTIRESDIMILPMTILCRPLANS4WTYWCAIP ^note As Long, Unintuitive, And Filled With Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness As It Can Possibly Be Because Everyone Loves That And Oh Yeah By The Way Don't Be Afraid To Toss In Random Extra Stuff (Did I Mention I Like Pie More Than I Like Cake?), Rong Phirst Letters, And Numerical Substitutions 4 Words Too, You Won't Confuse Anyone I Promise.
• You know those trope names? They're just suggestions. Feel free to alter or combine them to get the point across or really get what you're describing on the list. For example, instead of Broken Base, call it a Completely Shattered Base, or instead of listing Glass Cannon and Fragile Speedster, just use Glass Ninja instead. See? Arbitrarily changing names is fun, and not at all confusing or pretentious!
  • For added fun, arbitrarily change between alphabetically ordering tropes based off their original names and the new and improved names you made up for them. Enormous Fancy Palace goes with the 'B' tropes, but Frozen Evil In A Lake goes with the 'F' tropes.
  • For even more fun, change the trope names in a way that changes the meaning of the trope so that it fits your work. A character with scary blue eyes should have Blue Eyes Take Warning on their character sheet even though the linked trope is specifically about scary red eyes.
• Feel free to refer the reader to examples above and below the one you're describing. They will always be there and there is no chance that said examples will be moved to other pages or deleted later on.
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're higher up on the page. Somebody might miss it.
• When writing a trope example, a decent substitute to explaining everything is to just give the title of the episode, issue, or installment the trope appears in. After all, the only reason Zero Context Examples are bad are because the works are so huge that the reader doesn't know where to start looking. Better yet is using numbers instead of titles. That way, the reader will be guaranteed to care about the order of release date just as much as you are, and definitely won't skip your example to find one worth reading.
• ALWAYS COMPLAIN ABOUT THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE IN ALLCAPS WITH GRATUITOUS BOLD. IF YOU NEGLECT TO DO SO, IDIOTS WILL THINK YOU ACTUALLY LIKE THE PART OF THE WORK IN QUESTION, EVEN THOUGH YOU PUT IT ON THE Dethroning Moment of Suck PAGE.
  • Also, remember to list as many Dethroning Moment of Suck entries for a single work as you can; it's the next best thing to Complaining About Shows You Don't Like!
  • Why do that? You can just bash the entire show at once!
• Use Alternative Character Interpretation to lecture people about how they should see characters you hate.
• Arguably, it could maybe be possible that the best way to write an example is to act like you're not even sure it's an example yourself. It's entirely possible that the reader will trust your information anyway, although there is also a chance that YMMV^note no one but you thinks it's true and you're lampshading it. Alternatively, if maybe this possibly makes your example too long and unwieldy, just stick it on the YMMV tab instead because that is probably for such tropes where YMMV^note everyone but you thinks it's true and you want to delete it but don't because you don't want to hurt other tropers' feelings. Right?
  • NO, YOU'RE WRONG!
• Remember to treat your favorite Caustic Critic as if they are Word of God. If they pan a work, make sure to fill up pages with negative tropes that were mentioned in the review, put loads of natter about how awful the work is, and make their negative quotes the page quotes. This applies especially if it's The Nostalgia Critic, anyone affiliated with him, The Angry Video Game Nerd, or Yahtzee.
• Keep in mind the Totally Legit, Canonical List of Good Tropes. Be sure to put these tropes in all the works you like, regardless of the trope's description or what the page says otherwise.
  • Adaptation Distillation
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced
  • Badass or any of its subtropes.
  • Beyond the Impossible
  • Deconstruction
  • Doing It for the Art
  • Growing the Beard (careful with this one, it implies your work wasn't perfect to begin with)
  • "Holy Shit!" Quotient
  • Rated M for Manly
  • Reconstruction
  • Shown Their Work
  • So Cool, It's Awesome
  • Win Back the Crowd
• Also keep in mind the Totally Legit, Canonical List of Bad Tropes. Be sure to put these tropes in all the works you don't like, regardless of the trope's description or what the page says otherwise.
  • Adaptation Decay
  • Epic Fail
  • Fanon Discontinuity
  • Jumping the Shark (careful with this one, it implies the work you hate wasn't horrible to begin with)
  • Ruined FOREVER
  • Seasonal Rot
  • So Bad, It's Horrible
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher up on the page. Somebody might miss it.
• Keep in mind the Magic Word of TV Tropes: "cleanup." Using this word in your edit reasons means you can delete anything you want whenever you want and no one can stop you. You don't need to be a mod, or have the backing of a Trope Repair Shop or Short Term Projects thread. You don't even need to clean up anything else on the page. This goes double for entries on a work's YMMV page! Does someone have an opinion of your show that you don't like? Just delete it! It's not edit-warring or vandalism as long as you use the magic word!
• When you talk about something like a piece of Awesome Music or a Tear Jerker, it's okay to make the other person feel really bad about not sharing your viewpoints. Calling them a heartless monster, or claiming that they have no soul is a surefire way to get them to come around!
• You should always mark every statement you make in a description as an absolute statement that can be contradicted fundamentally by a single counterexample. For example, clearly no work exists where the main character's best friend is an anthropomorphic pineapple. No exceptions.
  • Umm, actually, there is? There are actually two of them?
    • Two of them!? No way, that second pothole is a red link. Thus the work does not exist. See below.
    • Repair, Don't Respond for crying out loud.
    • You should have followed your own advice instead of just posting on top of it. Repair, Don't Respond. On an unrelated note, whenever a joke can infinitely recur within itself, keep adding more stars to each bullet (they don't max out at 3), and end the infinite loop with some kind of predictable reference to a show you like, and a pothole to help other tropers discover it.
    • You should have followed oh dear I've gone crosseyed.
    • God-dammit I'll just delete this whole thing...uhh wait, what?
• Mark every work of a single genre as having the trope. Why bother to explain it when it's so universal? After all, clearly every science fiction movie has Aliens Speaking English so why list individual works?
• An important note: It's perfectly okay to delete anything you find on moments pages because you, personally, were unfazed by them. Clearly the person who put it there is just an immature child.
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page. Somebody might miss it.
  • Now that's just not true. These tropes are subjective. In other words, anything goes. So feel free to disregard any objective criteria listed on tropes like The Woobie or Complete Monster or Audience Reactions like The Scrappy and add any and every character. You also are forbidden from deleting any of these for "misuse" because misuse can't possibly exist with the magic subjective banner.
• Add the "No Anime and Manga Examples, Please" tag to attract edit war.(this also include video games and other type of example).This type of tag should not be limited to real life examples.
• Make sure that all description are equal but some are more equal than others.
• gramer an speeling iz fer nurds iff ppl r soo smurt theyll kno wut u meen
• Always make sure to rewrite examples that exaggerate the flaws of a character, shoehorn them into negative tropes, and whitewash characters who are far more evil. Bonus points if the characters are from the show Dragon Ball Z.
• There is a hierarchy of media here, so if you notice that a page has more anime/video game/cartoon/comic book examples than examples from classic literature, it's clearly proof that the trope is broken. Feel free to remove all of them.
• There Is No Such Thing as Notability unless the page had an Example Sectionectomy. If it did, feel free to put back only examples you deem notable.
• If you don't know what you're doing, don't let that stop you.
  • This site is populated by thousands of volunteers who love cleaning up after newbies.
• Every example is in a tournament and must fight for the title of Grand Champion. That's why it's encouraged, necessary even, to compare your example to other examples. Not only to examples from other works but to other examples from the same work: Bob is a good example, but Charlie is an even better example! It's especially crucial to do this when another example from the work is already posted, since There Can Be Only One true example per work.
  • A better example is that There Can Be Only One true example period.
• If you see an example of a trope that looks like one from Your Show that has yet to be listed, rather than typing out a complete description from scratch, tack the example from Your Show on the end with no explanation other than that it's similar. This won't be difficult for fans of Your Show to locate, nor will it confuse anyone reading the other show's example. This goes double if they are different kinds of media.
  • A very similar thing happens in Frog and Toad Are Friends.
    • Remember to add more examples from the second work and its series beneath that.
    • Then add more examples from the first work.
    • Continue doing that until it's impossible for someone who isn't familiar with both works to tell which example comes from which work.
• Fanworks are canon so examples from them should be listed under the same heading as the main work's examples.
• If something is played straight, always remember to remind the reader that it is painfully so. It physically pains you that this trope is played so straight, and the reader needs to know that.
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page. Someone might miss it.
• Um... I don't know for sure, but doesn't Your Show count as an example? Chances are, it doesn't, but I'm just sayin'...
• Since your personality is sooo interesting be sure to pothole all of your text to whatever relevant trope you're trying to base your life on. Some good examples of tropes to do this with:
  • Deadpan Snarker anytime you say something mean and unfunny (but which you think is witty).
  • Insufferable Genius whenever you say something mean and stupid (but which you think is smart).
  • Brutal Honesty whenever you say something mean and wrong (but which you think is right).
  • Flat "What" and Big "NO!" whenever appropriate (which is never, but let's pretend).
• On a related note, tropers don't get sarcasm, so whenever you say something sarcastic you are required to pothole it to Sarcasm Mode. That's clearly not going to clutter up a trope page at all.
  • Speaking of potholes, explaining jokes other people have made is totally okay as long as you pothole your explanation to Don't Explain the Joke. That just serves to enhance the joke by adding a second joke! (See, because it's really not okay, because you're still ruining the first joke even though you're lampshading it. Oh yeah, potholing to Lampshade Hanging or Self-Demonstrating Article ^note even if you're not demonstrating the article works too!)
• Make sure to repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page. Somebody might miss it.
• If a work page link is red, that means the work never existed. All work pages have existed since the dawn of TV Tropes and all of the ones that ever will do now. Go ahead and delete the entire example.
• Trope name. See trope name article for context.
• Work name. See work name article for context.
• Trope A. See trope B for context.
• Trope B. See trope A for context.
• The 5P stands for Place, Product, Promotion, Price and People. TV Tropes is an advertising site after all. Therefore you should advertise your favorite show by shamelessly putting an ad in the example you mentioned because no good ad ever pops up on your toolbar. Bonus points if the ad in question is not safe for work. Tvtropes wants to urge people to see porn after all.
• Everyone loves reading about your fetishes! If you're turned on by a trope or find a character/actor sexually attractive, make sure to describe them in lurid, ogling detail that makes us picture you typing one-handed. Remember, everything exists to cater to YOU. If you're turned on by feet, feel free to assume every instance of bare feet in any situation was done to be titillating! This also makes depictions of barefooted minors, animals, robots etc, absolutely salacious, so make sure to include some pearl-clutching alongside the lurid descriptions.
• If two or more overlapping tropes apply to a work or character, don't bother adding separate entries for them. Instead, just put them on the same line/slash them together/otherwise combine them! No one will be misled and add duplicates just because a trope is missing from its proper alphabetical position. Even better, use potholes; if a character is a Significant Green-Eyed Redhead, Fiery Redhead, and Evil Redhead all in one, just list them as a Significant Green-Eyed Fiery Evil Redhead.
• Add notes ^note  useless, like this one in the middle of every example because hidden natter and random leftfielding is not disruptive at all and everybody loves clicking and expanding.

• Remember, The Content Policy is more like a guideline really. Feel free to add Lemons and Hentai as much as you want, and describe every moment in detail. Also, put NSFW links without any warning, because everyone loves to stumble on a shock site at work. Especially do so when there are other websites that could make the same point.
  • If you use the Content Policy yourself, only use it to flag works that you personally think are creepy, regardless of the actual rating.
• Put Ho Yay for any characters of the same gender that share more then two minutes of screentime together. Incest Subtext is for any siblings who don't utterly hate each other (and even then). Also use Ho Yay for actual and explicit queer romance.
• Fanfic Recs is where to put your gross fetishes. Your My Little Pony or Sonic the Hedgehog Lemons are clearly things you want the rest of the wiki to know about. Fuck The Content Policy!
• The term Zero-Context Example only means that your example isn't long enough. So pad out your example with multiple paragraphs talking about the underlying sociological implications of the trope, how horribly cliché the work is for using the trope, or how awesome the work is for deconstructing the trope. As long as your example is long enough it's legitimate; anyone who tells you that you're supposed to be explaining how the example is an example is lying to you, so be sure to call them an asshole several times via PM.
• When someone puts an example you don't agree with, remove without discussion or even an edit note. Then if they put it back, continue removing it until they give up. Don't even bother using the article discussion.
• Remember, a entry is a work of art, and cannot be changed whatsoever. If you find something wrong, instead of changing it, add bullet points like "Actually, [insert correction]". Don't mind that this leads to the article arguing with itself.
  • Also, Wiki Schizophrenia is totally a trope.
• Be sure to list every slightly unsettling event in a work on the work's Nightmare Fuel page. It's great when newbies come to TV Tropes and leave with the impression that it's populated by a bunch of people who are as neurotic as a long-tailed cat in a rocking chair factory.
  • The more Nightmare Fuel examples your show has, the Darker and Edgier it is, and therefore the better it is. For a serious show to be good, it should have at least five examples per episode. A horror show needs at least twelve per episode. A comedic show can get away with only one example per episode as long as a few episodes per season have more than that. If there's not enough examples to split your show's Nightmare Fuel page into one subpage per season, it means you need to think harder to come up with more examples. Here are some tips for that:
    • Imagine what moments a three-year-old child watching your show might find scary, even if the show is aimed at adults.
    • Just list every thing the villain does. After all, they could hurt someone, and getting hurt is scary.
    • Come up with some fanon that makes seemingly innocuous moments sinister.
• Create a trope subpage when your favorite show has five examples.
• Self Demonstrating Articles never get old. If you want everyone to see them, just replace a normal, boring, article description with a self demonstrating one. Why bother making the trope pages easy to understand when you can clutter them up with nonsense!
• Self-Demonstrating Character Pages are even better. Don't bother giving your character a unique voice. Just copy and paste the normal character page, and replace "She/he" with "I". Also, be sure to confuse the canon portrayal with the memetic portrayal, to make them more opaque to non-fans. Also, don't link the normal page, when you can link your crappy fanfic, I mean, the self demonstrating version.
  • Hey everyone! I'm Deadpool and I'm here to tell you that you should expand my self-demonstratingness out of my character page by always writing about me in first person on every page you mention me on! I'm known for Breaking the Fourth Wall, so it's only fair I also break the fourth wall on other pages like Characters.Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Marvel Characters. Sure, it might be confusing to unfamiliar readers, but I'm famous for using Confusion Fu so that just makes things even funnier!
  • You know what's really funny? Making a Self-Demonstrating page for characters that are The Unintelligible. Everybody will love your Self Demonstrating Pingu page that consists entirely of "NOOT NOOT!" repeated over and over.
    • NOOT NOOT: NOOT NOOT! NOOT NOOT NOOT!
    • NOOT NOOT: NOOT NOOT NOOT NOOT!
    • NOOT NOOT: NOOT NOOT NOOT NOOT! NOOOOOOOOOOOT!
• If the work you want to add to a page is one book or movie in a series, one movie in an extended universe, etc., under no circumstances should you check the page for other works in the same family, much less try to group them together if you do find them. Leave them separated by large blocks of other examples! Fellow fans will be grateful for the opportunity to hunt them all down like Easter eggs, especially in works sections long enough to have their own pages. Non-fans, of course, will be sure to change their minds after the fifth standalone mention on the same page and will not at all feel like they're stepping on a series of landmines.
• Followed any of this advice and got banned? Here are some certain ways to get unbanned!
  • Claim that the mods are persecuting you for your beliefs or hate you. Insult them as much as you can!
  • Create several Sock Puppets. The mods are too dumb to see the new accounts using the same IPs, editing the same pages, and making the exact same mistakes on each.
  • Don't bother to check your grammar or spelling in the appeal. It makes a good impression on the mods.
  • Claim that your siblings, friends, or cat did the edits that got you banned.
  • Claim that you have a disability that makes it hard for you to understand and follow the rules. Accuse the mods of ableism if they refuse to go extra-easy on you afterwards.
• Never end any article, EVER, with that line under the final note... Oh, crap.
• Too lazy to write an article yourself? Just put Needs Wiki Magic Love. After all, passing the buck is a great idea!
• Sad because a trope has banned real life examples, so you can't use it to insult someone or something you hate? Use the following tricks to sneak your opinions onto the wiki:
  • Find another trope which allows real-life examples, add the thing you hate as an example, and add potholes to the NRLEP tropes in question. If anyone wants to find your examples, they'll have to go through every single pothole to the offending trope in order to find your insults, wasting colossal amounts of time!
  • Fit it into a different section so it doesn't count as a Real Life example. A website is popular among certain controversial groups of people you don't like? If there is a trope for villainous or otherwise negative portrayals of said group, add it to its Web Original section. An actor got caught in a sex scandal? Put all the details in the appropriate Sex trope's film section. Dislike a musician's religious beliefs? Put them in the music folder for Scam Religion and Church of Happyology (and add these tropes to the musician's page). Alternatively, just create an "Other" section and add your examples there.
  • Start a blog, create a TV Tropes page for it, make posts accusing the people/things you don't like of being examples of NRLEP tropes, and then add said tropes to your blog's page. It doesn't count as a Real Life example if it's part of a work, even if it's a non-fiction work. And There Is No Such Thing as Notability so your blog with 5 posts and no followers is just as page-worthy as anything else.
• When adding examples to objective tropes or a work's main trope page, remember to pothole to Moment of Awesome, Tear Jerker, Awesome Music, and other YMMV tropes. If other tropers notice a pothole to Moment of Awesome on an objective page, it will show them that the moment is so awesome it deserves to be considered objectively awesome, and by extension the work it came from is also more awesome for being able to produce objectively awesome moments.
• Putting YMMV and trivia items in the proper subpage is optional. Feel free to put them on a work's main page among the objective tropes!
  • It's overkill to create a whole new page just for one trivia item, so just add things like The Other Darrin, Fan Nickname, and Dueling Works to the YMMV page instead.
• Do you have a browser extension that automatically censors bad words? Good! Now you can automatically cleanse this wiki of filth as you edit it! Same goes for any novelty word replacement extensions. People will laugh when they see all instances of "cloud" replaced by "butt" or "God" with "Lord Helix"!
• Remember to mention when a character provides the trope's image. Even better, mention that something is another page's image! Or change several trope images to your favorite character (regardless of relevance) and then edit all mentions of your character on this wiki to start with "Character X, who provides the page images for..." regardless of the tropes' relevance. That won't become confusing or nonsensical and hard to find when the image is changed.
  • Also mention when an example provides the quote for a trope, to give the impression that this example is the best and perfectly summarizes and represents the trope.
• Feel free to add non-YMMV tropes to YMMV pages if you feel like it. Good examples of when to do this include:
  • If a trope is present in certain interpretations of a work. Is it unclear if The Hero Dies at the end of the story? Just list it on the YMMV page!
  • If there is a debate as to whether a scene or character counts as an example of a trope. Some fans found the ending to be sad, but others didn't? Add Downer Ending to the YMMV page!
  • If a moment from a work causes a certain trope to happens to some fans. Dislike how an adaptation toned down the jerkass's rudeness? Complain under We Want Our Jerk Back! on the YMMV page! Who needs They Changed It, Now It Sucks! when a more specific trope exists to illustrate the fandom's reactions?
  • If you want to complain about a work. Putting Giftedly Bad or So Unfunny, It's Funny on a YMMV page is a great, clever, and sneaky way to insult the work's creators.
  • A trope almost happens but doesn't, even though you (and hopefully other audience members) really would have wanted it to happen. Annoyed at the hero for doing something morally questionable without getting called out for it? Just do the calling out yourself by adding What the Hell, Hero? to the YMMV page.
  • A trope describes a work's fans. Putting Suffers Newbies Poorly on an online game's YMMV page will be sure to warn readers about the horrible toxic community.
• Don't even bother linking to the work's page! Your tastes are so niche and unusual that the work probably doesn't even have a page and never will! Or the work is so popular that anybody could find another link to the page elsewhere. Even better, don't mention the work's name at all and just expect fans to deduce what you're talking about based on the names of the characters! Nobody will get confused when they read about a video game containing a character named Kratos. For extra fun, put major story spoilers in these examples so readers will have no idea if they should uncover the spoilers or not.
• Use the work's initials to save space. Everybody will know what WoW or MLP:FiM means.
  • Bonus points if multiple works share the same acronym. You can trust that tropers will be able to use what little context you gave them to determine that you were talking about this LoL and not the other one.
  • Save even more time by making the initials a redirect to the work's page so you don't have to type in the pothole.
• Fanon will let you shoehorn any character into any trope! Just say that the trope applying to the character is a popular Fanon theory or interpretation! Even better if the theory was only mentioned in a single obscure forum post or fanfic. Even better, make up your own Fanon on the spot! A popular fanon theory (that This Troper just made up) is that Mario had Abusive Parents, so it can be listed alongside the canon portrayals of Abusive Parents.
• Did you know that you can use spoiler tags to emphasize? This is especially handy on Nightmare Fuel pages, where it implies that the example is so horrifying it should be hidden from the sight of innocent people.
• Use bullet points to add more information to an example.
  • You should do this instead of adding the extra information to the end of the previous bullet point.
  • This allows you to improve the example without hurting the feelings of the troper who wrote the original example.
  • It also distinguishes your text from the other troper's text so people can marvel at the amazing information you and only you added.
  • It doesn't matter if your addition blatantly contradicts the previous bullet point.
    • Actually, it does.
• Don't know if you should use "its" or "it's"? Just always write "it's". We don't care at all about grammar and pressing the apostrophe key is fun!
• When writing character pages, don't bother writing up a description for each character yourself. Just find an official biography somewhere and copy-paste it here. If you can't find an official bio, just copy it from the unofficial wiki instead.
• [[Sloth Don't bother with]] properly formatting your posts. Other tropers will fix it for you. Nobody will mind seeing [[spoilers:all the spoilers for a recent movie or Wham Episode you accidentally didn't hide because you didn't use the preview button.]]
• When spoiling out text, only hide the bare minimum of words. Saying that Alice kills Bob with a gun will totally keep the surprise intact. And remember to have wicks and potholes under the spoiler markup so people who decide to uncover the spoilers will be able to go to the relevant article after reading that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father. Nobody will accidentally put their mouse over the link, see the potholed trope, and become able to deduce the hidden text.
• Speaking of spoilers, they are not at all suspicious as long as they're hidden, so saying that Bob seemingly dies or that Carol is his adoptive mother won't give away any twists about his death or parentage unless the reader uncovers the text.
• Feel free to link to work pages instead of tropes if the work's title represents part of your example well enough.
• Don't Bo Ther using the escape sequence markup when Discu Ssing characters or other things whose names In Clude capital letters in the middle, or when using abbreviations such as NP Cs or DV Ds. It makes your example stand out, and the Red Links are not at all ugly and distracting.
• Downer Ending: When adding a trope to a work page, you should hide its name if its presence spoils something. Tropers will not be able to deduce anything from knowing that a trope that starts with 'D' contains spoilers. Even if the trope requires more detail for the spoilers to be spoiled, hide it anyway. Merely knowing that Off with His Head! happens in the story is a major spoiler, even if you don't know who gets decapitated.
• Personal Appearance Tropes are all about the character's appearance and their appearance alone. Any female character who wears red clothes should be listed as an example of Lady in Red regardless of personality and any bearded man has Manly Facial Hair.
• Sneakily complain about works by mentioning that the mere fact that they exist is an example of Nightmare Fuel or Fridge Horror. Or gush about works you love by mentioning their existence on Moment of Awesome, or by worrying about the work's eventual end under Tear Jerker or Fridge Horror.
• The second a trailer for an upcoming work you highly anticipate gets released, fill the work page with as many tropes as you can find, create the awesome, funny, heartwarming, Tear Jerker and Nightmare Fuel subpages and pad them with everything you can infer or speculate from out-of-context clips even if you have to do a frame by frame analysis. Even if the only material currently available is a logo, you should add tropes based on it (for example, if the logo for a sequel has darker colors and more pointy edges than the previous work's logo, you should add Darker and Edgier). Heck, even if there's no title, you should create a page using the Working Title or something you made up like "Work Name 20", and plan on moving it to the proper page once the final title is revealed. If the work is an adaptation just assume things will go the same way they did in the source material and add tropes that apply to the source material because adaptations never deviate from it. If your example includes "judging from timestamp X of trailer Y, it appears that this trope will happen", you're doing it right! Remember to also apply spoiler markup for everything, since Trailers Always Spoil and some people might want to know some things about the trailer before they watch it, but not too many things. Whenever a trailer shows something even mildly unexpected, you should also add it as a Wham Shot or Wham Line, even if it's only surprising if you didn't know what the trailer was for or that the work it's for exists. Also, add examples to the Fridge page for any scary or strange thing that isn't directly explained in the trailer, because even if these issues are addressed in the released work, it's still worth noting that you were wondering about them at some point in the past.
  • There're great ways to circumvent the annoying rules about upcoming works. For example, it's not speculation as long as you cite the source. Go ahead and write something like "The trailer implies that Evilus is going to be the Big Bad". Alternatively, you can add pre-hidden examples like "
  • Unhide all commented out entries on the day of the release. No, no need to watch the work, check out if the tropes really happen or fix the speculative language.
  • Those rules only apply to the main workpage. Otherwise, feel free to create lenghty character or trivia subpages filled with speculations and uncited examples.
• Instead of linking to a work's page, pothole the work's name to a trope you feel embodies the work perfectly. For example, pothole Winnie The Pooh's Home Run Derby to Surprise Difficulty. You should especially do this for small and obscure works that are unlikely to have a page, so that readers will at least have something to explain the work to them. For extra fun, pothole to So Bad, It's Horrible or any other bad trope to insult the work.
• Create spam pages to inflate your shady website's search engine rankings. Even better, edit existing trope pages to add links to your site.
  • BUY HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS AND LOVE SPELLS AT WWW.TOTALLYLEGITIMATESTUFF.COM!
• You don't need to double-check your links. You probably got them correct the first time. Even if you don't, tropers can just use the automatic disambiguation page, so proper namespace use is completely optional.
  • Avatar The Last Airbender goes All The Way to avoid using this trope.
• You should add a trope to a work as soon as hints start to appear that the trope might happen in a later episode. Because TV Tropes is a race to see who can add tropes first. If the work ends up going in a completely different direction, though, you should not go back and remove or correct your example, because having to acknowledge that you wrote something wrong is too shameful.
• If a character from non-English media has a Dub Name Change, you should always use the superior original name (especially for Japanese media), unless you prefer the English name. If there is no official English translation, you should just use whatever translation you prefer. In either case, you should seek out any pages that uses the "wrong" translation and change them to your preferred one and prevent anybody from changing it back.
• Subtly circumvent any rules on not referring to yourself by saying "at least one fan" instead. After all, there's a possibility that you were actually talking about somebody else, so it's not just troping yourself.
• When using spoiler tags, remember to hide the chapter or episode name/number so that people who are partway through the work will have no idea if it's safe for them to uncover the spoilers. Because only fans who have seen all 2000 episodes of your favorite Long Runner series should be allowed to read your examples. Bonus points if you are discussing content from an upcoming episode, so that even people who have seen all current episodes won't be safe from your spoilers.
• Get away with taking sides in controversial issues by throwing in a pothole to Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment so people can at least pretend that you are acknowledging the other side's views. Because saying "many people think Group X is full of liars and hypocrites who should never be trusted and should never, ever be given power, but some other people think they're okay" is not problematic at all as long as you throw in a "And that's all we have to say on the matter" afterwards.
• Feel free to treat indexes and voice actors as if they were tropes, even if that would mean People Sit on Chairs.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Nickelodeon: Nickelodeon is the creator of the show.
    • The Millennium Age of Animation: It was made in 2005.
    • Western Animation: It's an animated show from the West.
    • Dante Basco: Provides the voice for Zuko
• Don't bother checking for mistakes in your edits. You totally didn't forget to erase that bullet point when removing that shoehorned example.
• Just write a quote from your show and pothole the entire thing to your show's page.
  "This is a quote that made that one scene where this trope happened in Your Show really awesome and memorable. It doesn't explain how the trope happened for tropers unfamiliar with your show, but everybody who matters knows about that scene, so it doesn't matter."
• If you feel that a character should really qualify for a trope, feel free to add them even if they don't actually fit the definition. Pissed that the Big Bad killed your favorite character? Add him as a Complete Monster even if he has shown himself to not be 100% pure evil. Remember to oppose anybody who tries to remove your example for objectively not qualifying. When you inevitably get banned, create more accounts with the sole purpose of re-adding that one example like some kind of vengeful trope ghost. After all, it is your duty to inform all tropers that this character is really, really bad.
• Remember to mention if the work you are troping is upcoming. You'll totally remember to go and change all the examples you added when the work actually comes out. We trust you. Worst case, you can trust Wiki Magic to update your examples if you forget. Bonus points if you don't actually know if the trope will be in the upcoming work, so you just say "time will tell if this trope will apply".
• Don't bother using {{these}} ugly and inconvenient brackets to link to pages with only one word in their title. Just randomly make the titles into CamelCase so that tropers will see nonsense like An Grish and Balloona Cy and you get to save precious seconds in writing your example.
• There is no such thing as Spoilers Off on this wiki. Even if a work is entirely based around surprises and plot twists, you should still hide everything that happens after the first episode, level, or chapter (and even then...). Readers won't get suspicious or annoyed when 99% of the page is hidden, and people who want to read about the work without seeing spoilers will totally have a page that they can actually read.
• It's clever and funny to write the exact opposite of what you want to say and then pothole it to Blatant Lies or Sarcasm Mode. Because jokes that require readers to know what a pothole is linking to are fun, and there is no chance of them not checking out the pothole and learning some false information.
• Does the need for citations on Unfortunate Implications bother you? Use these handy tricks and you'll be able to accuse anyone of anything:
  • Use your own blog and forum posts as citations, because There Is No Such Thing as Notability and you are therefore just as qualified to judge the offensiveness of works as professional journalists. Just make sure that your TV Tropes username is different from the one on the citation, and nobody will ever notice.
  • Another good way to bypass the annoying rules of Unfortunate Implications is to use a different trope or Audience Reaction instead. Here is a list:
    • Broken Base: Word your example as "X: is it offensive, or are people just overreacting?" It doesn't matter if the people who were offended are only a Vocal Minority, or if most people stop caring about the implications a week later.
    • Overshadowed by Controversy: Similar to the above, all you need is a few angry posts to qualify as overshadowing the work. It doesn't matter if the controversy dies down before the work is released or most people are enjoying the work just fine without noticing or minding the implications.
    • So Bad, It's Horrible: After all, what could be worse than a work promoting intolerance and hate, even unintentionally? It doesn't matter if some people actually agree with the work's message or think it's not bad enough to completely ruin the rest of the work. They're bigots and their opinions therefore don't matter!
    • Values Dissonance: It doesn't matter if the work is relatively recent or from the same region as the offended people.
• Feel free to use animated GIFs on pages and character sheets. Nobody finds them distracting or unnecessary, especially not Image Pickin'.
• Refer readers to other pages for more information. See How Not to Write a Trope Page for more information.
• This◊image.
• If a trope or Audience Reaction has banned out-of-universe examples, it's just because mixing in-universe and real life examples is poor organization. Feel free to create a YMMV subpage for the trope to list real life examples. It's not like you're just going to use that namespace to insult fandoms you don't like.
• Here on TV Tropes, we don't like gratuitous emotes (-_-). The reason for this is because potholes serve the same purpose but better! If a trope conveys how you felt while watching a scene, pothole to it in your examples! For example, pothole to Oh, Crap! for things that made you feel scared, Big "NO!" for despair, and Squee for joy.
• Tropes Are Tools, but only if they're used right. Feel free to accuse works of using tropes badly by mentioning that a show "is a particularly bad offender", "is guilty of this trope", or "is an egregious example".
• List Character Alignments on a work's YMMV page. Discussing whether a character is lawful or chaotic, good or evil, or neutral is guaranteed to be fun for everyone!
• Use Headscratchers to complain about anything you don't like. It didn't have the former name of "It Just Bugs Me" for nothing. "Why is this show so bad?" and "Why are the fans so stupid?" are legitimate questions we are interested in answering.
  • All rules about natter are void on Headscratchers, so feel free to add a third or fourth-level bullet point filled with insults underneath answers you don't like.
    • What the hell do you mean, "All rules about natter are void on Headscratchers"? Natter is unwelcome anywhere on the wiki, and you are a Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head for suggesting otherwise.
    • Oh boy, here come the "Stop Having Fun" Guys. Remember when you could have fun editing TV Tropes? Neither do I. It's not like anybody actually reads or can be bothered to correct Headscratchers pages, anyway (this post was meant to be a reply to the one directly above, but for some reasonthe fourth bullet point got automatically deleted so it looks like I'm complaining about the other person above that).
• If an Audience Reaction happens In-Universe, feel free to list it on the YMMV page anyway. If you list it on the main page, don't bother with the [[invoked]] tag that disables the warning labels. The special bullet points will just draw more attention to your examples.
• Add Just for Fun non-tropes to work and YMMV pages. Because people need to know that a work is similar to two different works, or that it's good despite a silly-sounding premise.
• Use various forms of Playing with a Trope on the YMMV page to make your opinions fit. Bonus points if your downplayed Base-Breaking Character or Scrappy simply means that the barrier of entry to qualify is lowered (to you specifically disliking these characters), or you invert something gushy like Awesome Music or Ensemble Dark Horse to turn it into complaint material.
• Add Let's Play as a trope on every video game your favorite Let's Play-ers have ever played.
• Use What Do You Mean, It's Not Political? or No Celebrities Were Harmed to compare the work's villains to contemporary political figures you don't like. That won't end terribly at all. Remember to use vague similarities like hair color or tone of voice to maximize the amount of villains you can compare them to. Protip: don't link to said figure's Useful Notes page and refer to them by a nickname so it will be harder for the cleanup crew to find and delete your biting social commentary.
• If a work has enough examples of a trope to have its own subpage, you should always pothole to that page when adding examples of that work. Alternatively, pothole to the subpage for the work's medium.
• Looking for a fun game to play? Try creating a page for a work you made up (outside of Unpublished Works), add tropes for it, crosswick it, and see how long it can last before anybody realizes it doesn't exist and get it cut. Bonus points if the work is part of a large franchise like Mickey Mouse or Pokémon.
• If you are banned from editing, no problem! Just send another troper a PM asking them to do the edits for you.
• If a character is introduced late in the work, remember to label their folder on the character page with "Spoiler Character", because tropers should be able to read character pages without ever learning any spoilers. Bonus points if the character's name reveals nothing about their identity.
• If you're at a loss for any more tropes to add to your page, try adding tropes that describe the audience. Everyone will love seeing "Gamer Chick: Some girls play this game" or even "Ms. Fanservice: Some sexually attractive women play this game" on your favorite game's page and absolutely won't be creeped out by it. Depending on your opinion about the work, praise or insult its fans by adding intelligence or stupidity-related tropes.
• If you keep misspelling a page's title, just make the misspelling into a redirect to the real page so you won't have to correct after yourself.
• Quotes + Caustic Critic = the ability to insert Take Thats into the page of anything you don't like. If the critic complained about a trope being in the work, insert said complaint as a quote below the trope in question. Replace the page quote with the vilest, most scathing insult the critic had for the work. And create a Quotes page so you can add all the other complaints you couldn't fit anywhere else.
  • Insulting quotes from Mystery Science Theater 3000 can also count, if the movie was featured on that show.
• If something you've created has a page on this site, use the YMMV page to control how people should feel about. Just because you're an author, it doesn't mean that you're disqualified from experiencing and adding Audience Reactions to your work, because there's no way you'll be biased towards it. If you describe your MS Paint scribbles as Awesome Art, your haphazard notes as Awesome Music, and your half-assed attempts at jokes as Funny Moments, public opinion is sure to skyrocket!
• TV Tropes is actually a Reality-Writing Book, so if you see something you don't like in the Real Life section of a trope, remove it or replace it with something you like and it will also go away or change in reality! If the change doesn't happen immediately, just keep undoing any further edits to the example until it does.

• If a work includes a Take That! against something or someone you don't like, remember to word the example in such a way as to imply that the work's insults also apply to the Real Life version.
• If a trope is a really really big spoiler and merely knowing that it applies to a work would spoil the twist ending, rather than hiding the details, just hide the work's title so people won't know if the spoiler was for that book they were planning on reading later, for something they already read, or some obscure work they don't care about until they reveal the hidden text.
• Everything's better with Emojis! 😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😍😍😍😍😍💯💯💯💯💯 Remember to insert as many of them into your examples as possible even if they're not directly relevant. If your example is from The Emoji 🙂 Movie🎥, this is a must!
• When troping a difficult video game, make sure to constantly complain about how unbearably unfair the game is and how every level is That One Level, every boss is That One Boss, and every rule is a Scrappy Mechanic.
  • Excuse me, but That One Level is totally easy if you use the Easy Level Trick! Sure, it's never hinted at anywhere in-game, but just because you're a bad player it doesn't mean you get to sully this great game's reputation with accusations of unfairness.
• You may think that the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment discourages all edits that promote controversial views, but it actually only discourages controversial views that most of the wiki disagrees with. As long as at least 90% of tropers agree with your views, you can promote them as much as you want, nobody will remove your edits (which means they are allowed), and you get to make the remaining 10% of tropers who disagree with you feel uncomfortable (and more likely to reconsider their "wrong" views). If your edits get deleted by the 10% because they somehow failed to convert them, feel free to add them back in. After all, only the losers of an Edit War get punished, and you'll never lose with 90% of tropers on your side!
• Useful Notes pages are a great place for agenda-based editing. Nothing could go wrong with adding tropes like "Big Bad", "Hypocrite", and "Too Dumb to Live" to pages such as Arab–Israeli Conflict, Donald Trump, or Feminism.
• Are you into roleplaying? Create pages for all the roleplays you participate in! There Is No Such Thing as Notability, so even if the RP is private or extremely obscure outside of your circle of friends, it's still worthy of a page. And because the work can only be read by a handful of people, you can forgo proper context, explanations and formatting, since the only people who would care about the page are already intimately familiar with the work.
• If you're too lazy to mark your spoilers, just declare the entire page Spoilers Off the moment you add one spoiler trope to it. People should not get to read the remaining 99% of the page that deals with non-spoileriffic material unless they're also willing to read your detailed description of the traitor's identity and motivations or your long list of everyone who dies at the end.
• If you're editing the work page for a movie that's been showcased on Mystery Science Theater 3000, you should treat the work itself and the MST episode as if they're literally the exact same work. After all, what kind of moron would watch a bad movie on purpose instead of the much superior riffed version? Add examples from the show to the page for the movie, replace the page quote with something funny and insulting that was said by the MST crew (either on the episode itself or in The Amazing Colossal Episode Guide), and add the episode's stinger to the bottom of the movie's work page.
  • Also, remember that works that have been covered by MST are exempt from the wiki's normal rules against Complaining About Shows You Don't Like. See, that only applies to movies that some people think are good. These movies have already been declared 100% bad. Officially. ^note It's true! The MST crew are certified movie experts licensed by the government of Earth to declare any movie bad, and once they say it, it can never be taken back! Nevermind that the movie might have otherwise received decent reviews, or even that the MST crew themselves might not even agree on what they think of the movie, or even if they said themselves on the show that it wasn't so bad. If it's on their show, it's BAD! As such, not only is it acceptable to make the entire work page one long bash against the movie, it is mandatory. Any entry on the page that doesn't point out what a monumentally worthless piece of crap it is should be either removed or edited to properly show just how stupid and high the filmmakers must have been to think that it was actually a good idea to use that trope.
• Even though it's no longer called Reality Ensues, Surprisingly Realistic Outcome is still about Reality Ensuing within the work. And by "Reality", we mean the fictional universe the work takes place in, while "Ensues" means that something happens within that Reality due to an event or action.
  • Magic and powers having unexpected drawbacks or weaknesses is surprisingly realistic. They don't exist in real life, but if they did, they'd definitely work like they do in that show.
  • In fiction-land, characters never get angry, always forgive others for their wrongdoings, and are never traumatized after barely avoiding death. Except in your favorite show, where characters being upset, unforgiving, and traumatized is exactly what would happen to anyone if they experienced the show's events in real life, so you must add it as a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome.

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And THAT, my friends, is how NOT to write an article.

• This Troper think you meant to say: How NOT to write an example.
  • Nuh-uh! It was fine the way it was.
  • You "article-ers" are so obnoxious, thinking you could just posthumously change the way the page name is used like that.
  • Actually, you used "posthumously" incorrectly, therefore your argument is invalid.
  • Ugh, pedants.
  • Ahh, well, it's still not that good an example. I'll see you guys tommorow and come up with something worse.

• Remember to always put examples after the stinger.
• Avatar: the Last Airbender and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic are evil and you should remove any examples from them whenever you see them. Also, if they illustrate a page, be sure to delete the image without asking first, since no one will miss it.
• Egg.^Note Add the actual example in a note, because creative work with examples are always encouraged!
• Censor yourself with *** so that sensitive readers will have no f***ing clue what you just said.
• Alternately, censor yourself in such a way that is technically censored (because you really did substitute characters) except really completely fµ©k¡ng not.
• Even better, censor yourself with spoiler markup so pussy-ass sensitive tropers won't have to see your fucking awesome profanity, but more mature tropers will be able to experience your edits as goddamn intended.
• Repeat examples if they're a lot higher on the page, in case somebody misses it.
• Don't forget to randomly reference lyrics to your favorite songs, even if they make no sense.
  • Hi kids! Do you like violence?
• If a trope forbids real life examples, that's because no one has thought of any yet. Go ahead & add them.
• If a page is humorous or sarcastic in nature it means that you don't have to care about things like readability, redundancy or not bloating the page. You certainly don't need to check whether the exact same joke has already been done five times before adding yet another entry making fun of natter, edit wars or shipping.
• Remember, Oh, Crap! is ALL about the event in question. Pothole it as a cool catch phrase for any slightly threatening events.
• Remember to use Dude, Not Funny! as a YMMV trope. Nothing bad will ever happen.
• Don't forget to randomly pothole pages that you've created. Free advertising!
• Make sure to litter the article with dank memes because you know de wae to be "Wow! Such humor!". Memes never get old, ever!
• Creator pages are the perfect place to gush, gossip, and complain about real people. Find a page on someone you think is hot? Make it painfully obvious what you do when you think about them at night! Find a page on someone who keeps popping up on TMZ? Describe every little detail of every little scandal! Find a page on someone you hate? Tropes like Jerkass and Complete Monster are fair game!
• Found a work that pushes an opinion you don't like? It's this wiki's job to promote the truth and destroy lies and ignorance, so follow these steps to make sure nobody gets accidentally converted to the wrong side by reading the work's page:
  • Go to its page and shoehorn in as many negative tropes as possible. Describe the author's views as Insane Troll Logic even though that trope is reserved for deliberately bad logic. Accuse the main characters of being preachy Jerkasses. Praise the Straw Characters who represent your opinion even if they're undoubtedly portrayed as stupid, callous jerks with few or no redeeming qualities. After all, they must be secretly good if they agree with you! If there are any tropes for negative portrayals of the author's views, also add them. For example, a pro-Christianity work should have The Fundamentalist and Holier Than Thou, a pro-animal rights work should have Animal Wrongs Group and Straw Vegetarian, and a pro-atheism one should have Straw Atheist. If some stupid troper who's obviously just out to push the author's agenda deletes your entries, feel free to re-add them on the YMMV page.
  • Go to the work's YMMV page and add even more gratuitous negativity. Add Don't Shoot the Message even if the works is well-regarded among those who agree with the author. List every episode/strip as an example of Strawman Has a Point even if the strawman's argument is legitimately terrible and you have to explain why the non-strawmanned version of the argument works. Describe all the main characters who represent the author's views as Designated Heroes (even if their most heinous action is being a bit preachy) and everyone who represents your views as Designated Villains (even if they're legitimately awful people).
  • Create a snarky laconic page that sums up the work as "<ideology> propaganda". Calling it "the Chick Tracts of <ideology>" is even better because it bashes two works/ideologies at once! Don't worry about people deleting it — nobody reads the Laconic pages for works anyway.
  • Whenever the villains (who represent your infallible views, remember?) do stuff, try to shoehorn it into the Funny, Heartwarming and Awesome pages. Is there for instance a comic where Ms. Author Avatar makes an innocuous comment stating her beliefs, and Mr. Strawman beats her up for it? Here's what you should add:
    Funny page entry: In comic #362, Ms. Author Avatar says something stupid yet again. Mr. Strawman's response? Beating her up!
    Awesome page entry: In comic #362, Mr. Strawman finally stands up to Ms. Author Avatar.
    Heartwarming page entry: In comic #362, Mr. Strawman takes a brave stand for the victims of Ms. Author Avatar's views.
  • Go to the Headscratchers page and add a few questions that amount to "Why are some people stupid enough to support the author's idiotic views?"
  • Go to the WMG page and write a few WMGs that are thinly-veiled work bashing. For instance, you should accuse the work of being a False Flag Operation by the people on your side trying to make the their opposition look ridiculous. Throw in some entries that only serve to bash the author's views for good measure. Everyone will love your "hilarious deconstruction" that "explains" how Democrats/Republicans/meat-eaters/vegans/Muslims/Jews/atheists/feminists hold views that require them to literally commit genocide.
  • Add "Meta example: the author actually believes these views" to the work's Fridge Horror page, because meta-examples of NRLEP tropes are fun for everyone!
  • Finally, if it's a work you disagree with very strongly, add it to So Bad, It's Horrible while only listing the author's views as flaws. After all, what could possibly be worse than a work that encourages people to make the world worse for you? Sure, it has a large fanbase among people who agree with these views, but they're wrong and therefore don't count.
• If a trope is named after a character, make sure to always pothole their name to that trope even if it has nothing to do with the example. Double points if (1) you link to The Scrappy or The Wesley on the main page, (2) the pothole actually leads to a disambiguation page, or (3) the character has nothing to do with the Trope Namer except for coincidentally having the same name.
• Use comment tags to sneak in examples without having to wait for the waiting period to pass, that are speculative of an upcoming work, or ones you aren't sure fit or not.
• Do you want to add an example, but are too impatient to wait for someone to screw up the indentation and add natter? Just do it yourself.
  • Heck, you should also read the rest of the page for other ways to spice up your examples.
  • To be fair, That Troper was probably just replicating something they saw in another article.
• Make sure to put absolutely every single trope having to do with Your Show inside spoiler tags. Your Show is the wittiest thing out there, after all, and everyone needs to experience it first hand. Even something as simple as two characters getting coffee together is a treasured experience that would be ruined if people knew about it beforehand.
• Alternatrely, don't spoiler tag anything about Your Show. Your Show is the best thing there is, and obviously every single human being on planet Earth has seen Your Show multiple times. And if they haven't, then they're a disgusting heathen who deserves to get spoiled.
• Did you know that using the [[invoked]] tag can allow you to list YMMV tropes on the main page without getting that ugly YMMV notifier on it? Yes, it's literally a Get-Out-Of-YMMV-Free card! Use it any time you want to mention on the main page about how the villain is a Complete Monster or how the protagonist is a Designated Hero or how that one moment was a real Tear Jerker. Nevermind that those are your opinions and not actually in-universe examples. Invoked doesn't actually mean anything, after all.
• Let's say you are reading an index, perhaps one about tropes that have dangerous consequences in real life, and let's suppose that you see that one of the tropes listed mentions that a certain plot point in a work of fiction you like is unrealistic. Completely ignore the fact that it is only being used to illustrate the point and delete the trope completely, while writing a nerd-rage Justifying Edit in the edit reason. Then, when someone restores the trope because it genuinely belongs on the index, do the same thing again and repeat till they give up.
• If you are a creator, you have free reign over what happens on your work's wiki page. Want to shoehorn every trope into the page even when they obviously don't fit? Go ahead. Want to create enormous heartwarming, awesome, and funny pages based on your opinion as the author? No one will mind. Write trivia examples no one can corroborate? Well, you're the author so everyone knows you're incapable of lying! This goes double if you've never even published it anywhere. You can even delete the entire page the second you get bored of writing it!
  • Speaking of creators, Fanfic Recs is the perfect advertising venue for your own stories. Or almost perfect, second only to typing the entire story into a wiki page.
• Writing examples and summaries of your own is too much work, so feel free to copy blurbs verbatim from Wikipedia or the author's website instead. It's not plagiarism if it's done to save time!
• Writing examples and summaries of your own is too much work, so feel free to copy blurbs verbatim from Wikipedia or the author's website instead. It's not plagiarism if it's done to save time!
• If you make a new work page, don't bother writing an actual description, or even add tropes. Wiki Magic can do the job for you!
• Make sure to add the most insufferably small descriptions for your examples!

This is how to write an example right:

1. Visual Pun: In one scene, Blake is shown writing Wiki pages in a sandbox, a pun on the Sandbox page used in Wikis.

And this is not:

1. Adaptational Villainy: Thomas Is This

• If you see a work or artist's name is red-linked, immediately remove it! Especially if it's something hard to search for! It's not like anybody's going to ever make that page anyways, no matter how many inbounds or examples scattered around it has.
• Never attribute the name, chapter, or episode of the instance where a trope happens. After all, everyone has photographic memory of everything that happened in Your Show.

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