Just For Fun / Come for the X, Stay for the Y

You'll come for the X. You'll stay for the Y.

"John Cena may put asses in seats, but Charlie Haas will make them sit on the edge."

— Urban Dictionary

You're browsing around, and you find out about something that looks neat. A new TV show, a new movie, a new book, maybe a video game. You don't know anything about it, but it looks neat. Something about it jumps out at you. Could be the humor, could be the action, could be the eye-candy. So you decide to try it out.

And it turns out the show is pretty good, too, and you like it. But over time, you start to like it for a completely different reason. This show with the cute lead character actually has an interesting side character with an in-depth story that you're really getting into. Or this movie might be very funny, but it also has some great undercurrents of drama that you weren't expecting, and that really jump out at you. Either way, you end up really liking the show/movie/book/game/etc for a reason completely different from why you started to check it out.

This is an example of Come for the X Stay for the Y. You originally start to get into something for reason X, but in the end, it's reason Y that causes you to get hooked and stick around. Or, you may have initially been Just Here for Godzilla (and still want that) but ultimately took a shine to another element. The x reason for coming is something clearly visible in the first episode you see or earlier, and is interesting enough to tune in, but not to regularly follow a show with devotion. The Y reason for staying is something that it takes time to learn about the show, but is sufficient reason to continue to follow it. For example, viewers tuned into Stargate SG-1 because they enjoyed the movie, liked Richard Dean Anderson in McGyver, liked science fiction, or just had a showtime subscription. Those things got them in the door, but would not be reasons to continue watching for years. The show actually gained viewership over the next 7 years because, while new people tuned in, long-time viewers continued to be interested due to other factors such as the story arcs, the relationships and interaction, the humor, and other factors worth tuning in for. The action, the amazing sets, the attractive stars, and other good aspects of SG-1 might be nice pluses, are not really a Y. A Y is something unique and special about a show that makes it worthy to continue watching over time.

A note when adding examples: if you believe the X and Y can be flipped, the example doesn't fit here. If your X for coming to see the show, read the book or whatever is reason to keep reading or watching, then you came for X and stayed for X and this doesn't belong here. So, for example for the Bible one shouldn't write come for the Word of God, stay for the entertaining stories because most people who start reading for religious reasons might find it more enjoyable because of stories and like many non religious things about the Bible, but ultimately would read it purely for religious reasons alone. Likewise, a comedy show doesn't a Y of being funny as viewers tune in already for the reason of humor. In no situation is fan service ever a Y, especially for a show rated MA for nudity. This also is not simply a place to list shows you enjoy and what you like about them, it is for things where interest was originally for one things, but people stayed for another. Stargate SG-1 is a perfect example because it is very different from the Stargate Movie or McGyver, but had many people tune in for those reasons, but who stayed because of unexpected aspects of the show such as the humor (something not present in the original movie). Playboy is another great example as many people originally subscribed for the nudity, but continued to read it even after nudity was removed because they valued the articles. In an era of free porn, Playboy would not have survived as people subscribing and paying money for naked pictures.

The Trope Namer is believed to be a New York tourism campaign from 1985:

You'll come for the foliage. You'll stay for the fairs.

You'll come for the mountains. You'll stay for the music.

You'll come for the great falls. You'll stay for the great wine.

You'll come for the country air. You'll stay for the country inns.

See also Sex Sells, which is probably the largest sub-trope of this. Watch It for the Meme may lead to this. Compare I Read It for the Articles and contrast Just Here for Godzilla (where the X is all that counts).

Not to be confused with X Meets Y where a work or character is described as a fusion of other works or characters. Also not to be confused with Come for the Game, Stay for the Mods.

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Examples

Anime and Manga

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Come for the harem of ridiculously titanic proportions, stay for the fourth wall breaks, well-rounded characters, and the mega Chad male lead.
• Assassination Classroom: Come for the teacher assassination, stay for the wacky humor and W.A.F.F..
  • Come for the bizarre premise, stay for the character development and Wham Episodes.
• Attack on Titan: Come for the Anyone Can Die theme, stay for the realistic and intriguing War Is Hell storyline, and the characters.
• Azumanga Daioh: Come for the cute pigtailed Chiyo and the silly Osaka, stay for the surprisingly well-written teen friendships.
• Baccano!: Come for the levels of gore on par with a Quentin Tarantino movie, stay for the best English dub since Cowboy Bebop.
  • Fangirls come for Firo and stay for Vino.
• Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo: Come for the Surreal Humor, stay for the Archive Panic.
• Basilisk: Come for the ninja fights, stay for the touching drama.
• BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad: Come for the awesome dubbed music, stay for the best Slice of Life this side of The Wonder Years.
• Berserk: Come for Guts being a badass, stay for the compelling, human story and character development.
• Black Butler: Come for Sebastian and the Ho Yay, stay for the compelling plot-line.
• Black Clover: Come for the action and magic, stay for the surprisingly intricate storytelling and cast.
• Black Lagoon: Come for the over-the-top Tarantino action, stay for the surprisingly deep philosophizing.
  • Come for Revy, stay for the other action girls.
• Bleach: Come for the spinning leeks, stay for the sword fights.
  • Come for the sword fights, stay for the characters.
• Brigadoon: Marin and Melan: Come for the robot battles, stay for the heart-wringing drama. Or, come for the Slice of Life, stay for the epic science fiction adventure.
• Candy☆Boy: Come for the hope of some Twincest Yuri, stay for a surprisingly sweet show about sisters, with some real heartwarming moments.
• Cat Planet Cuties: Come for the big-boobed alien catgirl, stay for the spy thriller.
• A Centaur's Life: Come for the cute monster girls, stay for the political satire.
• Chu-Bra: Come for the Fanservice, stay for the character relationships and your brand new understanding of what middle-school girls go through.
• Code Geass: Come for the mecha and World of Ham (and glorious Fanservice), stay for MORE ham and the resident Magnificent Bastard's epic tactical plans while observing the fairly realistic feudal and social politics. And for why this show has a Broken Base nearly as epic.
• Cowboy Bebop:
  • Come for the space battles, stay for the Hong Kong Blood Opera.
  • Come for the spaceships and gunfights, stay for Spike (and Ed).
  • Come for the action, stay for the soundtrack.
  • Come for the soundtrack, stay for the characters and the gorgeous art.
• Cross Ange: Come for the fanservice and the controversy, stay for the action scenes, fleshed out characters and story.
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners: Come for the ultra-violent action and faithful recreation of the game's setting, stay for David and Lucy's heartfelt romance, the social commentary, and Rebecca.
• Darker than Black: Come for the vicious subversion of everything that makes the superhero genre what it is, stay for the surprisingly sympathetic characters and Yoko Kanno soundtrack.
• DARLING in the FRANXX: Come for Zero Two and the innuendo-driven action, stay for the incredibly moving love story.
• Date A Live: Come for the cute girls and the hilarity, stay for the interesting characters and the dark and intricate story.
• Death Note: Come for the potato chips, stay for the Magnificent Bastards.
  • For this one, it was Come for The Plan, stay for the multiple Gambit Roulettes and the Gambit Pileup.
    • Admit it: Somebody came for the sexual tension and stayed because you had to. ^note  Or vice versa...
  • Or, come for the Shinigami, stay for the Gambit Roulettes... and Kira.
  • Or come for the delicately unresolved social commentary and ethical debate, stay for the coffee-fetching Butt-Monkey, for some fans.
  • Come to find out how, exactly, one tracks down an untrackable killer, stay for the intricate plots and the excellent soundtrack.
• Descendants of Darkness: Come for the supernatural detectives, stay for the character development and handsome death gods.
• Digimon Adventure: Come for the giant fighting monsters, stay for the very compelling and constantly evolving characters, well written plots and the awesome soundtrack.
  • For most seasons Come for the plot, stay for digivolutions.
• Dirty Pair: come for the two girls in skimpy outfits and Stuff Blowing Up, stay for the hilarious banter between said girls, and what turns out to be a generally good sci-fi action comedy.
• Dr. STONE: Come for the post-apocalyptic setting due to Taken for Granite, stay to watch how exactly does a lone scientist restore civilisation from scratch.
• Don't Meddle with My Daughter!:
  • Come for the Awesome Art and fanservice, stay for the hilarious superhero parody about a MILF trying to protect her 17 year old daughter.
  • Or come for all the fanservice, then keep reading to see when, or IF, anyone ever succeeds in taking Clara's virginity.
• Dragon Ball: Come for the Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs and explosions, stay for the quirky and fun characters and story, and the occasional truly poignant moment.
• Elfen Lied: Come for the Gorn and Fanservice, stay for the sympathetic and wonderfully human characters and heart-wrenchingly tragic story.
• Eureka Seven: Come for the Humongous Mecha on surfboards, stay for the awesome story line and catchy music.
• Eyeshield 21: Come for the football games, stay for the hilarious comedy, likeable characters, and lush artwork.
• Fairy Tail: Come for the Fanservice and Badass magic, stay for the Nakama and other Heartwarming moments.
• Fist of the North Star: Come for the Badass protagonist and his way of making foes already dead, stay for the other Badasses and the Manly Tears.
• FLCL: Come for the Gainax Mind Screw and endless sexual symbolism, stay for Haruko.
  • Alternatively, come for the Gainax Ending, stay for the Awesome Music.
• Food Wars!: Come for the Fanservice, stay for the awesome food battles.
• Franken Fran: Come for the implied yuri and fanservice, stay for the over the top Body Horror and black comedy.
• Fruits Basket: Come for the funnies, stay for the heartwarming.
  • Alternately, come for one character, stay for ALL of them.
  • Another alternative is to come for the silly, Ranma ½-esque transformation hijinks, stay for the gradually more serious plot and deeper exploration of the characters.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Come for Scar, stay for Hohenheim, though less so in Fullmetal Alchemist (2003).
  • Or, come for the kickass battles, stay for the likable characters.
• Future Diary: Come for Yuno, stay for the developing relationship between her and Yukiteru.
  • Or, alternatively, come for Yuno, stay to see what other crazy, over-the-top and complicated scheme will the Diary Holders cook up to kill each other.
• Future GPX Cyber Formula: Come for the Cool Cars, stay for the Formula One references and the exciting storyline.
• Gakuen Handsome: Come for the laughably bad art and animation, stay for the bizarre humor and unironically funny execution.
• Gakuen Heaven: come for the actual Ho Yay, stay for the well-rounded characters and the overdose of cute. Also, the catchy theme-tune and the decent animation.
• the Garden of sinners: Come for the Tsukihime tie-in, stay for the eye bleeding visual quality, deep character relations, and Yuki Kajiura soundtrack.
• Get Backers: Come for the Ho Yay and Fanservice, stay for the surprisingly intricate plot.
• Ghost Talker's Daydream: Come for the awesome artwork and fanservice (i.e. Misaki), stay for the compelling mysteries, well written characters, and plot.
• Girls und Panzer: Come for the Moe, stay for the awesome tank battles.
• Grenadier: Come for the Fanservice and stay for the action and Improbable Aiming Skills.
• Gundam Build Fighters: (As suggested on Reddit) Come for the Mobile Suit battles, stay for The Meatbun Chronicles...
• GUN×SWORD: Come for the mid-air mecha swordfights, stay for the characters, the quirky sense of humor, and the tight, fast-paced plotting of the last 15 episodes.
• Gunslinger Girl: Come for little girls kicking ass, stay for the touching and well-executed drama centered around the girls and the political subplots.
• Hajime no Ippo: Come for the boxing, stay for the personality growth.
• Haruhi Suzumiya - Come for the dancing and smoked cheese, stay for the engaging story and complex characters.
  • Also, come for Haruhi, stay for Kyon, Koizumi, Mikuru, and Nagato.
• Hayate the Combat Butler: Come for the meta and fourth wall jokes, stay for the characters and the heartwarming moments.
• Hellsing: Come for the OTT violence, stay for the awesome plot.
  • Alternatively: come for the violence, stay for Crispin Freeman's Alucard and the Norio Wakamoto-voiced Alexander.
  • How about this: Come for the ultra-violent action-packed scenarios, stay for an excellent English Dub.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers: Come for the historical references, stay for the quirky characters and the Ho Yay.
  • Come for the infamous Fandom, stay for Prussia.
  • Come for the Ho Yay, stay for Russia.
  • Come for the Ho Yay, stay for the surprisingly in-depth (usually) Fandom.
• Higurashi: When They Cry: Come for the "killer lolis" and horror, stay for the depressing storyline, True Companions and willingness to stop the everlasting June... Also, the yuri-filled official art.
  • Also, the numerous Image Songs and The Power of Friendship.
  • The manga: Come for a better adaptation or just because you love the series, stay for everything you said took to eleven with sound novel stuff drizzled over it.
• High School D×D: Come for the Fanservice, Stay for the entertaining characters, interesting plot, awesome fight scenes, and all-around hilarity.
• Highschool of the Dead: Take your pick. Either:
  • Come for the zombie outbreak and over-the-top action - stay for the gratuitous fanservice and in-your-face innuendo.
  • Or: come for all the T&A, and stay to see how a group of teenagers learn to adjust to the harsh reality of life After the End.
• Hunter × Hunter: Come because it's by the author of YuYu Hakusho, stay for the worldbuilding, surprisingly dark-yet-heartfelt story, and unique take on Shōnen manga... and then stay because you have to wait for the next chapter as the series goes on yet another long break.
• I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying: Come for the comedy and Shout Outs, stay for the surprisingly deep romance.
• Initial D: Come for the eurobeat, stay for the racing/street slang.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Come for the "Ora Ora" and steamrollers, stay for the epic battles of wits.
  • Come for the Capcom fighting game, stay for the manga and anime it's based on.
  • Comes for the infamous DIO's meme, stay for other memes, play the games for EVEN more memes.
• Jujutsu Kaisen: Come for the animation and soundtrack, stay for the A-grade Nightmare Fuel and a gripping story.
• K: Come for the beautiful animation, Scenery Porn and Fanservice, stay for the engaging plot and great characters.
  • Fujoshi, once the anime was aired: Come for KuroShiro, stay for SaruMi/MikotoReisi.
• K-On!: Come for the guitar play, stay for the slice-of-life Moe.
  • Or the other way around.
• Kagerou Project: Come for the music, stay for the colourful cast of characters and their interwoven tragedies.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: Come for the over the top mind games and the Chika Dance, stay for the heartwarming romance and Character Development.
• Kamen no Maid Guy: Come for Naeka's boobs, stay for Kogarashi's awesomeness... and Action Girl meido Fubuki.
• Kanokon: Come for the fanservice, stay to see if it'll accept it is softcore porn and show some nipple.
  • Which it does, if only for a handful of frames.
• Keijo!!!!!!!!:
  • Come for the booty, stay for the story.
  • Come for the boobs, stay for the quirky and fun characters, the well animated and action-packed fights and the occasional truly poignant moment.
• Kemono Friends: Come for the cute animal girls, stay for the silliness and the mystery surrounding Japari Park.
  • Alternatively, come to make jokes about the hilariously cheap animation, stay for charming quirks of the animal girls and the relaxing vibe of the storylines.
• Kiddy Grade: Come for the fanservice (and some hints of Ho Yay), stay for the philosophical thoughts and Heartwarming Moments.
• Kill la Kill: Come for the ridiculously skimpy outfits the main characters wear and the incredibly over the top fight scenes, stay for the amount of likable (and hatable) and fleshed out characters.
• Kyo Kara Maoh!: Come for the Ho Yay, stay for the surprisingly dramatic plot and the protagonist's sincere devotion to his ideals.
• Little Witch Academia: Come for the cute witches, stay for the beautiful visuals, endearing and unique characters, and the incredibly charming atmosphere of both the films and the series.
  • Alternatively, come for "Anime Harry Potter", stay for the yuri fandom. Unless you were brought in by the aforementioned yuri fandom, that is.
• Love After World Domination: Come for the campy sentai parody and the Dating Catwoman premise, stay for the incredibly wholesome and drama-free relationship between the two leads.
• Love Live!: Come for the cute girls and music, stay for the surprisingly well-written characters and their funny antics.
• Lucky Star. Come for the Haruhi references, stay for the lovable characters.
  • Alternatively, come for Konata, stay for Kagami, Akira, and Misao (as well as the rest).
• Macross Frontier: Come out of a misguided loyalty to Robotech, stay for the epic soundtrack and frenetic space battling robots.
• Made in Abyss: Come for the character development, worldbuilding and Awesome Art, stay for the dark themes and suffering.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is based upon this: come for the Token Mini-Moe of Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever doing cute things (not to mention the fanservice), stay for the deep plot, the well-developed world and technology, and a genre-blend you've never seen before. Look at the evolution of the logo, the music and the episodes; it starts like a typical Magical Girl series, but when things get further, it resembles a Humongous Mecha series progressively more and more. Of course, now the whole thing's been reversed... see Video Games below.
  • In short, come for cute loli Magical Girl, stay for the drama. And the fighting. And befriending.
  • Come for Badass Adorable, stay for BADASS Adorable.
  • The vast amount of cute females, lack of males, and lesbian subtext can make you stay too.
• Maken-ki!:
  • Manga version: come for Takeda Hiromitsu's art and character designs, stay for the intriguing conspiracy plot and character driven arcs.
  • Anime version: come for all the boobs and zoom-lensed upskirt shots of Himegami's camel toe, stay for some pretty cool fight scenes.
• Mazinger Z: Come for the Humongous Mecha action, stay for the endearing characters and drama.
• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Come for the Bishōnen (and the girls aren't too bad to look at either, though they receive far less attention), stay for the obligatory Humongous Mecha battles... and plenty of debate over war and peace.
• Monster Musume: Come for the Cute Monster Girl Fanservice, stay for the comedy and lovable characters.
• My Balls: Come for the hentai, stay for the comedy.
• My Dress-Up Darling: Come for the cosplay and the Fanservice, stay for the impressive character dynamics between the two leads and the moral lesson that one shouldn't be judged for their hobbies.
• My Hero Academia: Come for the superhero action, stay for the feels and interesting plot lines.
• My-HiME: Come for the fanservice and lesbians that the fanbase always seems to talk about, stay for the fanservice, humor, and characterization.
• My Lovely Ghost Kana: Come for the hentai, stay for the heartwarming.
• Najica Blitz Tactics: Come for the pantyshots, stay for the Spy Fiction and Blade Runner-esque Do Androids Dream? themes.
• Nana & Kaoru: Come for BDSM, stay for character development.
• Naruto: Come for the ninjas, stay for the Fan Dumb.
  • Come for the ninjas, stay for the world building and deep back-story.
  • Or just come to see what all the fuss is about, and stay for the interesting plot development.
  • Or come to see what the fuss is about, and stay for your new favorite side character.
  • Come for the dubbed anime on Toonami, stay for Sasuke's possible Heel–Face Turn and favorite pairing outcome.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi Come for the fanservice from Love Hina Expys, stay for the humor and (epic) shonen action.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Come for the naked Moe girl (or Misato... or Asuka), stay for the Deconstruction. And to watch the director cry himself to sleep when you find Rei attractive.
• No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!: Come for the Cringe Comedy with a socially-awkward protagonist who's basically you, stay to watch her grow into a better person.
• Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!: Come for the moe Cthulhu, stay for the references.
• Noragami: Come for Yato, stay for the laughs, the tears, and the "awww!".
• Ojamajo Doremi: Come for the sugary magic and fantasy, stay for the Character Development, character interaction, the recurring Heartwarming Moments, and the overall drama.
• One Piece: Come for the amazing things you heard about this show, stay for the hilarious, the emotional, the warm, and the hardcore moments. Or everything, really.
• Ouran High School Host Club: Come for the humor, stay for the character development.
  • Or come for the Bishōnen, stay for the humor and Shoujo parodying.
• PandoraHearts: Come for the sheer amount of Bishōnen, stay for the deep characters, the complex storyline, the Nightmare Fuel, and of course, the Cast Full of Pretty Boys.
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: Come for the sexy heroines, stay for the South Park-esque humor.
• Parasyte: Come for the body horror, stay for the buddy story.
• Potemayo: Come for the Chiyo-chan-level cute, stay for the many varied styles of humour and high weirdness.
• Pretty Cure: Come for the cute girls, stay for the some of the best ass-kicking fights of its genre.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure: Come for the Magical Girls, stay for the immense asskicking and friendship.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: Come because you liked the first series, stay for the epic Cure power upgrades.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5: Come because there are five Cures now, stay to see the first mascot become a Cure.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure!: Come for the new cast following the filler of Yes! 5 Go!Go!, stay for the dancing, action, and Chiffon.
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪: Come for the new take on the original series, stay for the awesome music.
  • Smile PreCure!: Come because you came across Glitter Force on Netflix, stay for the strong characters and powerful messages.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!: Come for the cameos from previous Cures, stay for the friendship dynamics.
  • Go! Princess Pretty Cure: Come for the beautiful Cure outfits, stay for the amazing animation and strong characters.
  • Maho Girls Pretty Cure!: Come for the cute witches, stay for the Les Yay.
  • KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode: Come for the adorable bunny protagonist, stay to learn dessert recipes.
  • HuGtto! Pretty Cure: Come for Hugtan, stay for the darker storyline and interesting Cure dynamics.
  • Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure: Come for the adorable alien Cure and fairy, stay for the unique story and to see the end card's horoscopes.
  • Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure: Come because you need something cute to get you through 2020, stay for the riveting storyline and amazing characters.
  • Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure: Come for Laura, stay for the humour.
  • Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure: Come because you just can't get enough Pretty Cure, stay for the character development and adorable characters.
  • Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure: Come because holy crap, they broke all the Precure rules, stay for the Les Yay, awesome characters, and cameos from previous Cures.
• Princess Tutu: Come for the ridiculous premise and Magical Girl, stay for the deep characters, original plot, and affecting story.
• Prison School: Come for the I-can't-believe-it's-not-Hentai, stay for the Gambit Pileup and Xanatos Speed Chess.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Come for the adorable Magical Girls, stay for the tragic storyline, the art direction, the witches, and the music.
  • Come to see a Deconstruction for the Magical Girl genre, stay for the well-thought out Tragedy and Homura.
• Queen's Blade: Come for the Fanservice, focus on warrior women, stay for the interesting story line and intriguing characters. And of course more Fanservice.
• Reborn! (2004): Come for the Cast Full of Pretty Boys, Stay for the Interesting Plot.
  • Come for the Comedy, Stay for the Genre Shift and Plot
• Re:CREATORS: Come for the plot, stay for the amazing music and great characters.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena: Come for the Les Yay, stay for the complex character relationships and the Mind Screw.
• Robotech: In The '80s, it was come for the giant transforming robots, stay for a compelling and unpredictable science fiction Soap Opera that broke all the rules about television animation in North America.
  • Or, more trivially, come for the sci-fi and the awesome space battles, stay to see if Rick will end up with Minmay or Lisa. ^note Admit it, you were interested in the Love Triangle...
  • Come back for the Macekre and the misplaced nostalgia, stay because despite every instance of Minmay singing the same song badly again, obvious-in-hindsight Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole and so on, it's still a gripping story. And you're still trying to work out where "If mice could swim" came from.
• Rosario + Vampire: Come for the cute monster girls, stay for the awesome fights.
• Rozen Maiden: Come for the Desu, stay for the well developed cast of endearingly quirky characters. And moar Desu.
• Manga/Sailor Moon: Come for the sexy heroines in skirts, two of whom at least are lesbian couples, stay for the battles, the complex time travel, Greco-Roman references, and moments to tear your heart up and then stitch it back together with heartwarming moments of love and comradary.
• Saikano: Come for the lolicon, stay for the heartbreaking storyline, awesome fight scenes and gut-wrenching transformations.
• Saint Seiya: Come for the Cast Full of Pretty Boys and the Ho Yay, stay for the epic characters, the ridiculously far-fetched and fabulous plot, the battles, the surprisingly emotive moments and the awesome music (amongst other things.)
• Seirei no Moribito: Come for the awesome art, character designs, and fight scenes - stay for the compelling narrative, Worldbuilding, and supernatural wonder.
• Sekirei: Come for the boobies, stay for the characters.
• Shakugan no Shana: Come for Shana, stay for the developing relationship between her and Yuji, the music, and action.
• Shimoneta:
  • Come for the girl in the bedsheet featured on the cover art, stay for the parody about Japan's censorship laws.
  • Or, come for Anna's "Love Nectar" cookies, stay to see her gradually come unhinged in her pursuit of Tanukichi's love.
• Simoun. Come for the lesbians, stop laughing for the music, stay for the war story and character drama.
• Spice and Wolf: Come for the naked wolf-girl, stay for the character interaction and the economics lessons.
• Spy X Family: Come for the interesting premise and the espionage intrigue, stay for the endearing dynamic between the three leads, amazing cast of characters, and superb writing that balances action, drama, comedy and mystery. And Anya. Especially Anya.
• SSSS.GRIDMAN: Come for the Transformers references, stay for the thighs and boobs. And the giant kaiju fights.
• Steins;Gate: Come for the self-proclaimed "Mad Scientist" and his Harem, stay for the suspenseful story that shows you what really happens when you see a traumatic event over and over again.
• Strike Witches and Sky Girls: Come for the fanservice, stay for the history jokes (Strike Witches), character development (Sky Girls), and dogfighting (both).
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Come for the Reconstruction. Stay for the manliness. And stay for the manliness. And stay for the manliness. Destroy us all! And stay for the manliness.
  • Or, come for Kamina (or Yoko), stay for, well, whatever is up there.
    • Come for Kamina, stay for Simon.
    • Come for Kamina, stay for Nia.
    • Come for the Kamina stay for the Kamina.
• Transformers: ★Headmasters: Come because it's an actual season 4 of Transformers, stay for the so inept it's freaking hilarious English dub. ^note Unless you bought the Shout! Factory DVD who don't have the English dub
• Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs: Come for Leon's memetic Slasher Smile, stay for the surprisingly good Character Development and humor.
  • Or, for the novels, come for the main story, stay for the Bad Future Alternate Timeline Marie Route Side Story.
• Trigun Maximum: Come because of the anime, stay for the longer, more complex storyline, and characters that never showed up in the adaptation, or just didn't get as much development.
• Variable Geo:
  • Come for the fanservice and cool fight scenes, stay for the plot dealing with kidnappings and inhumane experiments taking place behind-the-scenes by the Corporation sponsoring the tournament.
  • Also employed In-Universe. Spectators come to see gorgeous vixens duke it out in the ring with Supernatural Martial Arts, and stay to see the loser strip in public.
• Venus Versus Virus: Come for the yuri subtext, stay for the action and... more yuri subtext.
• Vinland Saga: Come for brutal Viking-on-Viking action, stay for the deep themes of violence and pacifism.
  • Or come for the Ninja Assassin Viking Warrior bent on vengeance, stay for his poignant Character Development.
• Voices of a Distant Star: Come to see an eye-catching anime short created entirely by one man on his home computer, stay for one of the most poignant romances in the medium.
• Witch Blade: Come for the Fanservice and asskicking scenes, stay for the Heartwarming Moments and comedy, topped with aesops about the positive effects of the love between mother and children
• Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches: Come for the body-swap hijinks, stay for the funny and charming (and sometimes touching) depictions of high school students’ quirks and troubles, as well as the cute romantic moments.
• Yo Kai Watch: Come because you like Pokémon: The Series, stay for the humour.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! (Toei): Come for this series' dark and twisted portrayal of Yami Yugi, stay for the unique variety of games being played, rather than just Duel Monsters.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Come for children's card games, stay for the DUEL MONSTERS!!!!.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Come for the crazy concept of card games on motorbikes, stay for the kickass plot and Cast Full of Pretty Boys.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: Come for card games, stay for the plot and characters.
• Zombieland Saga: Come for the supposed Zombie Apocalypse, stay for the comedy and lovable idols, with a dash of tourism promotion for the titular Japanese prefecture.
  • Alternatively: Come here for the zombie idols, stay for the over the top necroducer.
  • Or even: Come here to find out whats up with the girl brutally hit by Truck-kun meme, stay for the surprisingly in depth and varied cast.

Asian Animation

• Noonbory and the Super 7: Come for the moe characters, stay for the unique premise, interesting plots, and funny villains.

Comics

• Batman: Come for Batman kicking ass, stay for the sheer amount of interesting rogues and sheer amount of badassery the good guys put out.
• Empowered: Come for the fanservice and comedy, stay for the intricately-weaved plot and well-written characters.
• Scott Pilgrim: Come for the simple premise and video game references, stay for the surprisingly deep story that comes from it.
• Watchmen: Come for another nice Alan Moore comic book, stay for Watchmen.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Come for strange pastiche of Victorian fiction, stay for the Crowning Moment of Awesome, Deconstructor Fleet, Darker and Edgier and much, much more.
  • Come for the amazing movie, stay for the real deal.
• The Sandman: Come for the horror stories, stay for one of the best comic books that can be compared to a fantasy novel.
• Cable & Deadpool: Come for Deadpool, stay for the complex plots, Homoerotic Subtext, and interesting character developments.
• MAD: Come for the TV and Movie parodies, stay for Spy vs. Spy, Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions, and so forth.
• Cracked.com: Come for the gut-busting "top five" lists, stay for the even more gut-busting fan poster contests.
• Garfield: Come to see just how crappy it is (since you figure that it's gotta be since everyone is saying so), stay because you realize that for the first 15 years or so of its run, the strip was actually funny.
• The Crow: Come to see where the Brandon Lee movie came from, stay because it's so much better than the movie.
• Jason vs. Leatherface: Come for the two horror legends fighting each other, stay for the bonding between them.
• Albedo: Erma Felna EDF: Come for the cute Funny Animal characters, stay for a truly mature political military science fiction drama.
• Usagi Yojimbo: Come for the cute Funny Animal characters, stay for the compelling and scrupulously accurate feudal Japanese drama.
• Omaha the Cat Dancer: Come for the sexy action with Funny Animal characters, stay for a compelling Soap Opera story with terrific dialogue and heart.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): According to Ian Flynn, it is "Come for the Sonic, stay for the story".
• Y: The Last Man: Come for the perversion potential, stay for the plot and Ampersand.
• Paperinik New Adventures: Come because it has Donald Duck, stay for the memorable new characters.
  • Or come for the fun of a Disney comic, stay for the epic writing.
  • Or again come for the idea of as a superhero, stay for Darker and Edgier awesome, sweetness, humor and tearjerker.

Fan Works

• A Glass of Wine and its redux: Come for the sex, stay for the heartwarming.
• Evangelion 303: Come for the sex scenes, stay for the interesting Alternate Universe and well-written romance and drama.
• RETAKE: Come for the sex scenes, stay for the well written romance and character interactions.
• Scar Tissue: Come for the dark drama, stay for the touching romance and character analysis.
• The Second Try: Come for the Peggy Sue story, stay for the wonderful character development and heart-warming romance.
• Six Days: Come for the sex, stay for the incredibly well-done character development and romance.
• Thousand Shinji: come for the crazy concept, stay for the relationship between the three main characters (or alternatively the Shinji/Asuka romance).
• Phalanx: Come for the unique concept, stay for the Character Development.
• Scordatura: Come for the Love Triangle, stay for the humor and well, the Love Triangle.
• Snowblind: Come for the concept, stay for the epicness.
• Nobody Dies: Come because it's freakin' hilarious, stay for the awesome fight scenes and well-thought-out universe expansion. Alternatively, come for Terrifying!Rei, stay for Woobie!Asuka.
• Kyon: Big Damn Hero: Come for the trope references and being advertised as a TV Tropes crossover, stay for the character interactions, the fighting scenes and the reconstruction of the harem plot.
• My Immortal: Come to see if it really is as terrible as you've heard, stay because you can't stop laughing.
• Red Witch's newest fanfic sums up her entire output in its title: Come For the Madness, Stay For the Insanity.
• Tamers Forever Series Come for the insanely hilarious antics and touchingly realistic romance. Stay for the incredibly engaging plot.
• Batman Versus Barney: Come for the novelty - and sheer perversity - of seeing Barney the Dinosaur in the Batman: The Animated Series continuity, stay because it's a surprisingly well-written and dark tale with violence and horror you'll scarcely see on the actual show, plus a thoroughly bloodthirsty and oddly obsessive Joker.
• Memoirs of a Master: Come for an interesting alternate Kung Fu Panda backstory for Master Shifu, stay for a wrenching emotional drama that puts the first film in powerful perspective.
• The Elements of Harmony and the Savior of Worlds: Come for an intergenerational My Little Pony crossover, stay for the Autobots and the Joes. Or Megan.
• With Strings Attached: Come for the weirdness factor, stay for the wholly original setting, carefully thought out plot, strong Character Development, and writing style that's been compared to that of Joyce Carol Oates.
• Horseshoes and Hand Grenades: Come for the For Want Of A Nail plot, stay for the large amount of characters, fighting and the unraveling of Gentaro Kisaragi's past.
• Hivefled: Come for the messed-up incesty Torture Porn, stay for the interesting plot and character development.
• Pokéumans: Come for the concept, stay for the community.
  • Come for the transformations, stay for the actual story.
• The Motion Practice series: Come for Phil Coulson and Clint Barton falling in love (as badass lawyers); stay for Tony Stark and Bruce Banner realizing they're already in love (as badass lawyers).
• Sonic X: Dark Chaos: Come for the unique setting, stay for the Black Comedy and utterly ludicrous battle scenes.
• Soul Eater: Troubled Souls: Come for Soul Eater. Stay for the deepening plot and additional elements.
• Advice and Trust (Taken from a forum post): Come for the WAFF, stay for the analysis of Evangelion backstory and characters, debates over Rebuild, and the runs of comedy posts that you have to see to believe.
• Origin Story: Come for the superhero crossover between Marvel and DC, stay for the well-written story of self-discovery.
• RealityCheck: Come because of how notorious the author is for his controversial views, stay for the genuinely well-written (if sometimes preachy) stories.
• Black Crayons: Come for the utterly Heartwarming Moments between Annabelle Lennox and Ironhide, weapons specialist of the Autobots, stay for the awesome characters and interesting story, including a rewrite of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
• Fall of Starfleet, Rebirth of Friendship: Come for catharsis of reading everything about Starfleet Magic by the infamous Dakari-King Mykan getting torn apart at the seams, stay for what makes a genuinely good story: Character Development, entertaining characters, and well-choreographed fight scenes.
• MCU Rewrites: Come for the pairing of Clint Barton/Hawkeye and Natasha Romanov/Black Widow, stay for the wonderful written characters, very meaningful interactions, compelling stories and greatly choreographed action.
• Pokémon Reset Bloodlines: Come for the Harem tag on the story, stay for the surprising amount of other things in the fic and its Expanded Universe.
• Linked in Life and Love: Come for the team polyamory, stay for the intriguing backstories of Team STRQ and Roman Torchwick and canon veering off the rails.
• Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail Come for the potential crossover of a Pokémon character entering the Infinity Train, stay for the deconstruction, the character focus and the psychological horror.

Films — Animation

• Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses: Come because of Barbie, stay for the exciting story, beautiful animation (by 2006 standards), and interesting characters.
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: Come for the two memelious actors, or because you read the book as a kid, or for the 3D, stay for the plot, the humor and the hot nerds.^note  unless, of course, you wear an orange hat
  • Come for the comedy, stay for the Scenery Porn of giant food.
• Despicable Me: Come for the funny moments, a Harmless Villain and his adorable minions trying to conquer the world, stay for the story that leads to Gru's puppet book.
• Encanto: Come for the adorable Muggle Born of Mages, stay for the magical Madrigal family and intense tale of familial love and generational hardship.
  • Alternatively, come because "WE DON'T TALK ABOUT BRUNO~", stay for the magical Madrigal family and intense tale of familial love and generational hardship.
• Fantasia: Come for the dancing hippos and Mickey Mouse dressed as a wizard, stay for Chernabog and the beautifully fluid animation.
• Frozen: Come for the snow and the goofy snowman, stay for the Scenery Porn, character development and intense tale of familial love.
  • Alternatively, come because "LET IT GO! LET IT GOOOOO~", stay for the goofy snowman, Scenery Porn, Character Development and the intense tale of familial love.
• How to Train Your Dragon (2010): Come for the cool dragons, stay for an irresistible Coming of Age Story set to beautiful music.
• Hulk Vs. Wolverine: Come for...Hulk vs. Wolverine, stay for Deadpool.
• The Kung Fu Panda series: Come for the cute funny animals and their gags, stay for deeply soulful wuxia stories with blistering action.
• The LEGO Movie: Come for the LEGO, stay because the story is well written and the jokes are actually pretty darn funny.
  • For the sequel, come to see if it's as good as the first movie, stay for the original music and plot twists.
• Lilo & Stitch: This was invoked by Disney's original marketing for the film: Come to see who the heck is this weird blue alien and why is he in Hawaiʻi, stay for the deep, heartwarming story, Hawaiian and Elvis-infused soundtrack, and charming characters (including the blue alien). Nowadays, the first part would be "Come to see who the heck is this weird blue alien in Hawaiʻi is and why do many people find him cute".
  • For its franchise, come for the quirky titular duo, stay for his "cousins".
• The Lion King: Come for the cute animals and songs, stay for a moving animal version of Hamlet set to a powerful musical score.
• The Lorax (2012): Come because of Danny Devito, Taylor Swift, and Betty White, stay for the memes.
• Loving Vincent: Come for the novelty of seeing an animated film made up entirely of oil paintings on canvas, stay for a deeply moving, well written and acted portrait of a brilliant man beset by his inner demons.
• Madagascar: Come for the Funny Animal characters, stay for a moving story about them realizing what home really means to them.
• Mr. Peabody & Sherman: For adults, come for a modern take on a classic Rocky and Bullwinkle segment while for kids, come for the funny dog cartoon, stay for a hilarious sci-fi comedy with an affecting story of an unorthodox but loving family fighting to stay together.
• The Princess and the Frog: Come for the 2D animation and nightmare fuel-erific villain, stay for the characters, the romance actually acted more realistic than the average Disney Princess one, the music, the story and well, let's just say they were following Linkara's advice with this movie.
• Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure: Come for the cute dolls and blue camel, stay for the Deranged Animation.
• Toy Story: Come for the groundbreaking CGI, stay for the heartwarming and funny plot.
• Turning Red: Come for the adorable girl who can turn into a red fluffy panda, stay for 4*TOWN and intense tale of familial love and generational hardship.
• WALL•E: Come for the impossibly adorable robots, stay for the heartstring-pulling love story.
• Wreck-It Ralph: Come for the cameos from famous video game characters, stay for the surprisingly sweet and original plot.
• Yellow Submarine: Come for The Beatles music, stay for the trippy animation.
• Zootopia: Come for the soft, fluffy world of stuffed animal stand-ins, stay for the dark real-world social commentary on modern day prejudice, and then stay even longer to romantically ship Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde together.

Films — Live-Action

• Any Russ Meyer film: Come for the Boobies, stay for the crazy-assed plot.
• 8 Mile: Come just to see if that dumb rapper Eminem can actually act; stay for Eminem's surprisingly awesome performance, the entertaining storyline, the Oscar-winning soundtrack and the pleasant surprise of then 48-year-old Kim Basinger's still-beautiful bare ass.
• 300: Come! For! The! YELLING!!!, stay for the action and heroics.
• Animal House: Come for the food fight and the toga party, stay for some surprisingly sharp Swiftian satire and shockingly dark comedy. Oh, and John Belushi.
• Annie Hall: Come for the Woody Allen/Diane Keaton element, stay (if you're reluctant about Woody Allen films) for the bittersweet romantic elements.
• Avatar: Come for James Cameron's first epic since Titanic (1997) and the 3D, stay for the characters and highly-developed alien geography, biology and culture.
• Babe: Pig in the City: Come for the surprisingly dark story, stay for the wackiness of the film's climax.
• Back to the Future: Come because your parents wanted you to see one of the movies from their past, stay because of the colorful cast and their funny, awesome, and heartwarming adventures.
• Batman:
  • Batman (1989): Come for Jack Nicholson as The Joker, stay for Tracey Walter as Bob the Goon.
  • Batman Returns: Come for the Michelle Pfeiffer, stay for the Tim Burton. (Originally, of course, it was vice-versa.)
  • Batman Forever: Come because you've heard bad things about the Schumacher Batman films, stay because Jim Carrey in green, sparkly, question mark spandex has to be seen to be believed.
  • Batman & Robin: Come to see if it's really the travesty for the Batman franchise you've heard it was, stay because it's so bad, it's hysterically funny.
  • The Dark Knight: Come to see if that guy from A Knight's Tale lives up to the hype as the Joker, stay for a film that adapts a comic about a vigilante who dresses as a bat into one of the greatest, most suspenseful crime thrillers in decades.
• Bicentennial Man: Come for some lighthearted, family-friendly fun with Robin Williams as an android, stay for said android's profound, sometimes tearjerking saga realizing what it means to be "human".
• Black Swan: Come for the lesbian sex scene, stay for the ABSOLUTE BATSHIT INSANITY!!!!!
• Blue Is the Warmest Color: Come for the many (and long) lesbian sex scenes, stay for the powerhouse, gut-wrenching, emotional roller-coaster depiction of a first true love.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Come to see the inspiration for the most famous sci-fi/fantasy TV series of the past generation, stay to watch Paul Reubens play an Ambiguously Manly Gay vampire.
• The Covenant: Come for the fanservice, stay for Sebastian Stan Chewing the Scenery.
• Downfall: Come because of the "Hitler Rant" parodies, stay for the powerful acting, thoughtful characterization, and well-made sets.
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Come for the novelty of seeing Jim Carrey in a serious role, stay for the novelty of Kate Winslet in a free-spirited role as well as the brilliant plot and beautiful direction.
• Fight Club: Come for the memes^note We do NOT talk about the memes! and Brad Pitt, stay for the black comedy and one of the biggest twists put in film history.
• The Fly (1986): Come for notoriously gruesome Body Horror and Nausea Fuel as only David Cronenberg can do it, stay for an achingly beautiful romantic tragedy by way of the ultimate Jeff Goldblum performance and just-as-worthy work by Geena Davis.
• Forrest Gump: Come because of (or perhaps despite) its various quotes and memes getting pounded into you before you even had a chance to see it, stay for the classic rock soundtrack, the special effects, and a remarkably poignant storyline.
• From Dusk Till Dawn: Come for the thieves, bikers and strippers. Stay for the vampires.
• The Godfrey Ho Ninja Movies: Come because it's got "ninja" in the title, stay for the most laughably ridiculous ninja costumes ever and general Narm.
• The Gods Must Be Crazy series: Come for the jungle animals, stay for the Deliberate Values Dissonance and Enforced Method Acting. And for the white women winding up in their underwear.
• Godzilla: Come for the famously cheesy monster battles, stay for the genuinely epic saga of Nature vs. Technology, the chilling nuclear allegory, and the occasionally awesome practical effects.
• Hairspray (the remake): Come for the cross-dressing John Travolta in a fat suit, stay for the lively music and plucky, sweet heroine.
• A Hard Day's Night: Come for The Beatles' music, stay for the witty dialogue and humorous characterizations.
  • Similarly, Help!. Come for the Beatles' music, stay for the fun spy movie spoof.
  • Also Across the Universe (2007). Come for the music, stay for the clever story, interesting directing, and solid acting.
• The Harry Potter movies. Come to see live action put into the plot... and stay for the actors.
• His Kind of Woman: Come for its part in the Film Noir canon, stay for a manic Vincent Price gleefully going Rambo on the bad guys while quoting Shakespeare.
• The Hobbit: Come for Martin Freeman, stay for Middle-Earth.
  • The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: Come for Smaug, stay for the Scenery Porn, visuals and action.
• Hot Fuzz: Come for the Brit-humor Deconstruction of every cop-movie trope ever, stay for the awesome playing-straight of every cop-movie trope ever.
  • That goes double for Shaun of the Dead with zombie-movie tropes.
  • Come to The World's End for the witty comedy and sci-fi parody, stay for the surprisingly deep story about alcoholism and moving on.
• Imperium: Come for Daniel Radcliffe talking his way out of trouble, stay for a lot of talk about the competing factions in the American White Supremacist movement!
• Inception: Come for the visual spectacle and the All-Star Cast, stay for the Mind Screw.
• Independence Day: Come to see 15 mile-diameter spaceships destroy iconic landmarks across the globe, stay for a highly entertaining Alien Invasion romp, Bill Pullman's Rousing Speech, Jeff Goldblum as the Gibbering Genius, and Will Smith being...Will Smith.
• Inglourious Basterds: Come for the promised revenge on the Nazis, stay for the rivetingly dialogue-based plot and copious amounts of Fanservice.
• The Irishman: Come for the Digital Deaging making Robert De Niro look like he did decades ago. Stay for De Niro acting like did decades ago.
• The Karate Kid (2010): Come to see Jackie Chan as "The Miyagi" and expect a shoddy clone of the 1984 original, stay for a surprisingly decent and heartfelt beat-for-beat re-telling and the pretty neat fight scenes.
• The Last Temptation of Christ: Come to see what all the controversy was about, stay because it's laughably bad, and for the naked Mary Magdalene.
• Life (1999): Come for a typical screwball Eddie Murphy or Martin Lawrence comedy, stay for a surprisingly deep and, ultimately, sad story.
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou: Come for the experience of seeing Bill Murray do a riff on Jacques Cousteau, stay for the experience of seeing a fantasy for grownups.
• Lincoln: Come for Abraham Lincoln and his squeaky voice, stay for a powerful drama about a nation trying to remove a founding stain on its character.
• Mad Max: Fury Road: Come for the epic chase scenes, stay for the great characters and the breathtaking visual storytelling and Worldbuilding...and the epic chase scenes.
• Mars Attacks!: Come for the All-Star Cast, stay for another classic Tim Burton Black Comedy and the funny Martians.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • The Avengers (2012): Come to see Marvel’s greatest heroes fight together, stay for Loki and the extremely witty and quotable Joss Whedon script.
  • Doctor Strange (2016):
    • Come for the trippy otherworld scenes and Visual Effects of Awesome, stay for the story.
    • Come for Benedict Cumberbatch, stay for the Cloak of Levitation.
  • Thor: Ragnarok: Come for Thor and (sometimes...) Loki fighting the Goddess of Death, stay for hilarious buddy comedy with the Hulk, surprising cameos, and the Grandmaster!
  • Avengers: Infinity War: Come for all of Marvel’s biggest characters in one place, stay for Thanos, the well-written story, and the brutal Downer Ending.
  • Avengers: Endgame: Come to see how our heroes will save the day, stay for Captain America finally finishing "the phrase", Iron Man's and Black Widow's Heroic Sacrifices and for what is possibly the most beautiful End of an Age for the MCU.
• The Matrix: Come for the action, stay for the mountain of symbolism.
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout: Come to see the infamous Henry Cavill mustache, stay for the awesome, intense action.
• Modern Times: Come for Charlie Chaplin in the cogs, stay for a satire on industrial society that is still painfully relevant today.
• Pacific Rim:
  • Come for Kaiju, stay for giant robots punching them in the face.
  • Come for the great director, stay for the spectacular CG.
  • Come for the action, stay for the writing.
  • Come for the giant robots punching Kaiju in the face, stay for the Ham-to-Ham Combat between Charlie Day, Burn Gorman and Ron Perlman.
  • Come for the special effects and fight scenes, stay for the wonderful characters.
• Pokémon Detective Pikachu: Come for the strangest role Ryan Reynolds has ever played, stay to comb every frame for Mythology Gags.
• The Princess Bride: Come for the witty quotes, stay for the moving Fairy Tale story.
• Real Steel: Come for the giant robots fights (both in size of the fights and the fighters) stay for the characters and story of Father and Son bonding.
• Repo! The Genetic Opera: Come for the name(s) you recognize, stay for the music.
  • Or: come for the camp, stay for the Graverobber.
• RoboCop: Come for the ultra-violent Cyberpunk action, stay for a moving Super Hero/Sci-Fi satiric story of a man struggling to regain his humanity.
• The Room (2003): Come to see if it's So Bad, It's Good, stay because it really is That Bad, It's Good.
• Snakes on a Plane: Come to see Samuel L. Jackson deliver his signature line, stay for the fun, So Bad, It's Good, popcorn B-Movie cheesiness.
• Star Trek
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Come to see William Shatner and a plastic-chested Ricardo Montalbán in Ham-to-Ham Combat and "KHHHHAAAANNNNNN!!!!", stay for the grand action and adventure as well as Spock's massively TearJerking Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Star Trek (2009): Come to see if J. J. Abrams "ruined" Star Trek forever, stay for a fun, entertaining and rather well-crafted movie.
  • Star Trek Into Darkness: Come for Benedict Cumberbatch as well as Kirk and company taking on Khan Noonien Singh, stay for the war for the Federation's soul.
  • Star Trek Beyond: Come to see if a Star Trek movie can be made by the Fast & Furious guy, stay for a surprisingly grounded entry with well-written character dynamics and neat Shout Outs to Star Trek: Enterprise.
• Star Wars: Come for flashy special effects, stay for the profoundly mythic saga.
• Stargate: Come for the Sci-Fi, stay for the religious discussion.
• Starship Troopers: Come to watch guys shoot giant bugs, stay for the deliberately hammy propaganda and fascistic subtext. "Would you like to know more?"
• Superman: The Movie: Come for the sight of a man flying, stay for a grandly majestic tale with brilliant acting that elevated the Super Hero genre into a big time film genre.
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Come for the Medium Blending Visual Effects of Awesome (or, in some cases, Jessica), stay for the fantastic storyline and the countless cartoon cameos.
• X-Men Film Series: Come for the hot guys, stay for the characters and deep social commentary.

Literature

• Animorphs: Come for the teens turning into animals, stay for the human drama.
  • And for the number of alien cultures (particularly in the prequels and tie-ins).
• The Lord of the Rings: Come because you heard that all those fantasy books you love were inspired by it, stay because it's epic.
• Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn: Come for the next The Lord of the Rings Homage, stay for the deep and humane treatment of the subject.
• Harry Potter: Come for the wish-fulfillment fantasy, stay for the human drama and to find out all the details of the deeply-plotted Backstory.
• 1632 by Eric Flint (and several other people): Come for the crazy premise — the town of Grantville is suddenly teleported from West Virginia in 2000 to Germany in 1632, and decides to start the American Revolution a few years early; stay for cool characters and insanely detailed research on every imaginable subject, from "Where in the world can you mine zinc?" to "What did the Pope really think about Galileo?"
• Kushiel's Legacy: Come for the BDSM porn, stay for the political subterfuge.
  • And for the history geeking.
• Charles and Emma is promoted under the blurb "Come for the science, stay for the love story."
• Discworld: Come for the funny, stay for the world-building.
  • The Science of Discworld: Come for the Discworld, stay for the science.
  • Alternately, come for the funny, stay for the unexpected wisdom and badass.
  • Or, come for the funny, stay for the characters.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: Come to know what all the fuss is about/check out the book to see if it's close to the tv-series, stay for the great and complex storyline and awesomely developed characters
• The Dresden Files: Come for the urban fantasy, stay for the First-Person Smartass main character and increasingly cool plotlines.
• Tamora Pierce. Come for the female protagonists, stay for the detailed world-building and non-killing-people storylines. And to find out who everyone marries.
• The Picture of Dorian Gray: Come for the Ho Yay, stay for the Nightmare Fuel.
• Wuthering Heights: Come for the romance and/or name calling, stay for the dark, absorbing story and interesting — if amoral — protagonists.
• Anna Karenina: Come for the train, stay for the well-drawn characters, history lesson and love story.
• The Doctor Who Expanded Universe Eighth Doctor Adventures: come for the Ho Yay, stay for the crack!^note And the Ho Yay, too...
• Honor Harrington: Come for the badass main character, stay for the badass side characters. All of them.
• In the Dale Brown novel Warrior Class, new POTUS Thomas Thorn's appeal is described this way: "if they had come to see the monster, they had stayed to hear the message."
• Left Behind: Come for the homophobia, stay for the... homoeroticism.
• Heralds of Valdemar: Come for the Cool Horses, stay for - everything else. But especially the love stories. Or, y'know, the plot and stuff. Whatever.
• Codex Alera: Come for the World of Badass and Crazy is Cool Guile Hero, stay for the deep and complex characters, well-plotted story, and the fact that you still underestimated the amounts of badassery involved.
• The Old Kingdom trilogy: Come for the High Fantasy Zombie Apocalypse, stay for the world you can never see enough of.
• Dracula: Come to see what all the fuss was about, stay because, contrary to your expectations, you're too freaked out not to.
• Abarat: Come to see if Clive Barker can pull off YA fiction. Stay because Clive Barker can pull off YA fiction!
  • Come for the beautiful illustrations. Stay for the masterful poetry.
• Percy Jackson: Come for the Harry Potter comparisons, stay for the humor, the wise-cracking protagonist and the awesome Greek Mythology allusions.
• Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages: Come for the Awesome Art, stay for the Funny Moments.
• After Man: A Zoology of the Future: Come for the interesting concept, stay for the delightfully bizarre creatures.
• Warrior Cats:
  • Come for the cute kittens that make it seem like it was written for kids, stay for the Tearjerkers from constant character deaths and broken relationships between clans.
  • Come for the cute kitties, stay to watch them violently murder each other.
• Ready Player One: Come for the video games and abundance of awesome 80s references, stay for the incredibly well written plot and interesting characters.
• Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi: Come for the slow-burn gay romance, stay for the characters, intricate plot, and gorgeous fight scenes.
• Horus Heresy: Come for Warhammer 40,000's backstory, stay for World of Badass and Crazy is Cool.
  • Know No Fear: come for the Ultramarines done right, stay for Michael Bay - esque scenes of total destruction.
    • Come for new and revamped Olleanius Pius, stay for Roboute Guilliman being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap.
  • Fear To Tread: come for Sanguinus, stay for his bromance with Horus.
  • Horus Rising: come for Horus, stay for Gavriel Loken.
  • Age of Darkness anthology: come for Ho Yay in Reflection Crack'd, stay for Mind Screw in The Serpent Beneath.
• Black Legion: Come for the been-there-since-forever faction, stay for the surprisingly deep and complex characters.
• Mistborn: come for the "Evil Overlord already won" premise and/or the heist, stay for the Gambit Pileup, the Character Development, the romance, and/or Vin beating up everyone.
• The Twilight Saga: Come to see what the big screaming deal is, stay because you can't look away.
• Cthulhu Mythos: Come for the sanity-shattering eldritch monsters, stay for Lovecraft's Purple Prose and the sheer imagination put into it.
• David Copperfield: Come because it's Dickens, stay because it's gay.
• Redwall: Come for the cute animals, stay for the medieval action and storylines.
• Captain Underpants: Come for the Toilet Humor an silly antics you loved as a kid, stay for the clever lampshading and satire of the American education system you love as an adult.

Live-Action TV

• America's Got Talent/Britain's Got Talent: Come for the contestants' sad backstories, stay for the Camp.
• Angel: Come for the sexy vampire and the generally sexy cast, but stay for the well-done and intriguing Story Arcs and some random humor sprinkled in.
• Around the World in Eighty Days with Michael Palin: Come for one of the stars of Monty Python, stay for the genuine sense of adventure.
• Arrow: Come for the superhero show, stay for the actually rather well-written plot.
  • Or come for the protagonist's abs, stay for the plot.
• The A-Team: Come for Mr. T, stay for Murdock.
• Babylon 5: Come for the glossy computer animation special effects, stay for a grandly ambitious science fiction television epic.
• Battlestar Galactica: Come for the Sci-Fi, stay for the political drama.
• Bear in the Big Blue House: Come for the puppets, stay for the lovable characters, good music, timeless humour, and Tutter.
• The Big Bang Theory: Come for the geek culture, stay for Sheldon.
• Big Time Rush: Come for the cute guys, stay for the hilarity, Ho Yay, and surprisingly good music.
• Breaking Bad: Come for Hal from Malcolm in the Middle, stay for the surprisingly well-written plot and one of the most complex Character Developments in TV history.
  • Come for the premise, stay to watch the absolute hell everyone faced throughout the series.
  • Better Call Saul: Come for its relation to Breaking Bad, stay for Jimmy's eventual corruption into Saul Goodman.
    • Come for the crime plots, stay for Jimmy and Kim's romance.
• In general, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is: Come for the vampires and the hot chicks with superpowers, stay for the incredibly well-done dialogue and characterization.
  • Stay for Giles and/or Spike became common reasons among the female audience.
  • Or come for the horror tropes, stay for the humor and characterization.
  • One feels compelled to throw in a quote from the show directly referencing the Trope title (though, of course, not the trope itself):
    Xander: Sunnydale: Come for the food, stay for the dismemberment.
    Nancy: There's food?
• Call the Midwife: Come for the Heartwarming, stay for the gut-wrenching and the social history.
• Castle: Come for Nathan Fillion, stay cause it's actually a good show. or for Stana Katic.
• Charmed (2018): Come for the return of one of the biggest guilty pleasures of The '90s, stay because it's silly and funny.
• Community: Come for Joel McHale from The Soup, stay for the characters, meta humor and brilliant parodies.
• Criminal Minds: Come for Mandy Patinkin, stay for Matthew Gray Gubler. And the plot and stuff.
• Dollhouse: Come for Eliza Dushku, stay for the intriguing sci-fi storyline and fascinating characters.
• Donkey Hodie: Come for the Muppet Performers providing work on the series and the fact that it's a spin-off of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, stay for the fun storylines, loveable characters and amazing music.
• Doom Patrol (2019): Come for Brendan Fraser, stay for the amazing performances across the board, relentlessly clever writing, and brilliantly surreal storytelling.
• Firefly: Come because it's Joss, stay because of the perfectly-balanced cast.
  • Come for Joss Whedon, stay for Nathan Fillion in tight leather pants, Morena Baccarin taking a sponge bath or Adam Baldwin's smutty dialogue, cunning hat and occasional shirtlessness.
    • Come for Joss, stay for Summer Glau as a kickass, psychic assassin is how it generally works it. For proof, scroll down to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
  • Or, come for the hype, stay for everything else.
• Friday Night Lights: Come for the football, stay for the human drama. Interestingly enough, TV execs realized this was what was happening and started targeting the female audience in commercials.
• Friends: Come for the humor, stay for the Love Dodecahedron!
  • Or come for the humor, stay for the relatable True Companions and Heartwarming Moments.
• Game of Thrones: Come for the Fanservice, stay for the superb acting, storyline, and Tyrion Lannister.
  • Post-Season 6: Come for the hype, stay for the memes.
• The Golden Girls: Come for Betty White, stay for the friendship and humour.
• Good Luck Charlie: Come because Leigh-Allyn Baker is hot and Mia Talerico's super adorable, stay because the show's legitimately funny.
• Good Omens: Come for a wacky end of the world plot, stay for the slowest of all slow burn love story between two (mostly) man shaped beings.
• Gotham: Come for the struggles of James Gordan in his Sisyphean war against the corruption of Gotham City, stay for a boy who would grow From Nobody to Nightmare to that beleaguered cop's enemies. Also stay for the progress of Oswald Cobblepot, a small time gangster flunky who would become one of Batman's greatest enemies, The Penguin.
• The Haunting Hour: Come for R. L. Stine's name being on, stay because it's actually pretty scary.
• House: Come for Hugh Laurie, stay for the enthralling character subplots. The medicine's okay, I guess…
• How I Met Your Mother: come for Barney Stinson's antics, stay for the Continuity Porn.
• For many Americans, Jeeves and Wooster, Blackadder, and A Bit of Fry and Laurie. Come for pre-House Hugh Laurie, stay because they're amazing.
  • For non-Americans, Blackadder is come for Rowan Atkinson, stay because of the hilarity.
• House of the Dragon: Came hoping that this show can redeem Game Of Thrones post season 6, stayed for dragons and Matt Smith.
• Jessie: Come because Debby Ryan's hot, stay because the show's really funny.
• Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: Come for the action and wild suit designs, stay for the characters and plot loaded with twists and turns that betray your expectations.
• Kitchen Nightmares: Come for Gordon Ramsay ripping apart terrible restaurants, stay for him mending broken families and relationships.
• Leverage: Come for the actors you know, stay for the top-notch stories, character development, and acting (from everyone).
• Life on Mars (2006): Come for the time travel, stay for the Gene Hunt snark.
• Lois & Clark: Come for Superman, stay for the Clark and Lois romance.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Came to see how far away the writers will stray from the source material, stayed for the endearing friendship between Elrond and Durin IV, and the Balrog, and Stupid Sexy Sauron.
• Mad Men: Come for the fascinating look at an earlier era where everyone smoked, had three-martini lunches and were openly chauvinistic, stay for the complex characters and surprising plot turns.
• Mork & Mindy: Come for Robin Williams in his Star-Making Role as a wacky alien, stay for the heartwarming Interspecies Romance of the title characters and the sly social satire of the late 70s/early 80s.
• The Muppet Show: Come for the puppets, stay for the brilliant off-the-wall humor and beautiful musical performances.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Come for the hilarious movie riffing, stay for the wacky and creative host segments.
• MythBusters: Come for the truth behind those many Urban Legends you may have heard, stay for the character dynamics, the humor, the crazy gadgets and experiments, and the even crazier amount of overkill.
• Naked and Afraid: Come for the uncensored butts, stay for the mysery... mean, survival drama.
• Nancy Drew (2019): Come to finally see Nancy Drew in a modern-day TV show, stay because She Is All Grown Up.
• Nashville: Come for Connie Britton and the music, stay for Hayden Panettiere showing serious acting chops. And the music.
  • Alternately, come for the Panettiere Fanservice, stay because of the drama.
• The Office: Come for the pranks and the quirky, awkward, and inappropriate humor, stay for the large buffet of genuinely sweet romantic subplots.
• Only Fools and Horses: Come for the memorable jokes and catchphrases, stay for the surprisingly complex characters.
• Peacemaker (2022): Come for John Cena, stay for the Graying Morality, off-kilter worldbuilding, and incredibly sharp dialogue courtesy of James Gunn
• Planet Dinosaur: Come for the dinosaurs, stay for the science.
• Power Rangers: Come for the action, stay for Ron Wasserman.
  • For both Power Rangers and Super Sentai: come for the rangers, stay for the Combining Mecha.
  • Power Rangers: Dino Thunder: Come for the return of Tommy, stay for his students.
• Pretty Little Liars: Come for the fanservice, stay for the mystery. And Hanna's kooky lines.
• Pushing Daisies: Come for the clever premise, stay for Lee Pace.
• QI. Come for the trivia, stay for the jokes. Or vice versa. Either way.
• Resident Alien: Come for Alan Tudyk flexing his comic chops in his first ever lead television series role as a Hugh Mann alien trying to blend in as a small-town doctor with a secret mission to Kill All Humans. Stay for Tudyk in some fine dramatic acting and a nuanced dramedy with a fantastic ensemble cast and some amazing moments of both hilarious comedy and heartfelt drama.
• Riverdale: Come to watch a Live-Action Adaptation of the Archie Comics, stay for the dark storyline and complex character development.
• Scrubs: Come for the medical, stay for the endearing cast and brilliant music.
• Seinfeld: Come for the one-liners and catchphrases, stay for the brilliantly constructed plots.
• Sherlock: Come because it's Sherlock Holmes in the modern day written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, stay for the blazing chemistry between Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. And the sheer cleverness of it all. And the Ho Yay. The buckets and buckets and buckets of Ho Yay.
• Skins: Come for the lesbians, stop for the music, hang around for the storyline, stay for the realization that it's the new As If.
  • Given the single-character emphasis some TV guides had for series 3, you could also easily say "come for Effy, stay for Naomily."
• Stargate: Come for the Sci-Fi, stay for the humor!
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: Enterprise: Come for the sexy Captain, stay for the sexier, repressed British weapons officer.
  • Star Trek: The Original Series: Come because it's a classic, stay for the world's greatest love story.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: Come for the Captain, stay for the android. And Worf. And Dr. Crusher.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Come for the Fiery Redhead, stay for the Character Development and ongoing Story Arcs.
  • Star Trek: Voyager: Come for the hot Captain, stay for the hijinx. And the heartwarming.
• Supernatural: Come for the pretty boys, stay for the intelligence, the psychology and the seriously good acting.
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Come for Summer Glau, stay for the amazing character development and jaw-dropping plot twists.
• Top Gear: Come for the cars, stay for the funny.
• True Blood: Come for the sexy vampires, stay for the character development and intriguing plot.
• True Detective: Come for the Noir detective atmosphere, stay for the incredibly deep, compelling mystery and interesting characters.
  • Alternately, come for the actors, stay because you have to know just who in the hell the Yellow King, and where Lost Carcosa, are.
• The Ultra Series: Come for the famously cheesy Behemoth Battles, stay for the uplifting themes, likable characters, creative kaiju and aliens, and the occasionally awesome practical effects.
  • Ultraseven: Come because Turner Broadcasting kept mocking the show on their Gag Dub and Cartoon Planet, stay for the serious and thought-provoking stories worthy of the best sci-fi TV series both of its time and today.
  • Ultraman Mebius: Come for the nostalgia trip and Milestone Celebration, stay for the endearing cast who grow from a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits to a Badass Crew of True Companions
• Veronica Mars: Come for Kristen Bell, stay for the surprisingly-dark-yet-still-compelling plot complications.
• Victorious: come for the glitzy music and Fanservice-tastic main cast, stay for the colorful characters and surprisingly mature plot undertones.
  • For an increasing number of viewers, came for the whole show but only staying for Jade West and/or Cat Valentine.
  • For others, came for the buzz and attractive cast but staying for the massive Les Yay/Ho Yay subtext.
• Walking with Dinosaurs: Come for the awesome dinosaurs, stay because you can't believe they actually made you cry for a pterosaur in the fourth episode.
• Wizards of Waverly Place: Come because Maria Canals Barrera (or Selena Gomez) is smoking hot, stay because the show is actually pretty funny.
• Xena: Warrior Princess: Come for the kick-ass heroine, stay for the subtext (or the humour).
• You Are My Destiny: Come for Yoona, stay for the engaging plot and interesting storyline.
  • Or come to see if a Girls' Generation member can actually act, stay because she can.
• Younger: Come to watch the return of Hilary Duff to series TV (albeit in a supporting role), stay for the commentary on ageism in the workplace.

Magazines

• In-universe example of a sort - MAD's parody of the United States Army's "Army Strong" ad campaign, called "Army Stuck," included the jab "Come for the dough. Stay for the quagmire."

Music

• When you discover a new genre of music (sometimes without even realizing it), it can be: come for this reknown artist, stay for all the others.
• "Weird Al" Yankovic: Come for the song parodies, stay for the well-written and hilarious original songs.
  • Or come for a parody or two and stay for his vast amounts of ingenious parodies.
• The Aston Shuffle: Come for the collaboration with Tommy Trash (Sunrise (Won't Get Lost))/the support act for the Swedish House Mafia, stay for the awesome music and remixes.
• Pink Floyd: Come for Money, Comfortably Numb, and Another Brick in the Wall, Part II, stay for what more there is to offer.
• Death Metal: At least one case of coming for the awesome, hard hitting metal, staying for the ability to piss off most passerby. And the jiggy juggas.
• Frank Zappa: Come for the well-written lyrics, stay for the music.
• Taylor Swift. Come for the sappy love music. Stay because she's cute.
• K-pop: Come for the cute guys and/or gals, stay for the catchy tunes. Most would vouch for vice versa, though.
• Iron Maiden: Come for Eddie, stay for the Epic Rocking, Dickinson's Large Ham, the Filk Songs, the awesome shows and of course, the awesome music.
• Restart: Come for the cute guys in colorful clothes, stay for the catchy and sometimes heartwarming music. Or the other way around.
• Jonathan Coulton: Come for Still Alive and/or Want You Gone, stay for the mad scientist ballads.
• The Beatles. Come for the Pop music, stay for the experimental stuff and drug trips.
  • Or come to check out all of the hype and stay for the surprising amount of personality that the fab four manage to inject into their songs.
    • Come for Paul McCartney, stay for John Lennon (or vice versa of course).
    • Alternatively, come for the Lennon-McCartney songs, stay for the George Harrison ones.
    • Or even more alternatively, come for the Early Lennon/McCartney songs, stay for the awesome variety of tunes that sound incredibly good melody-wise that McCartney wrote later on (or Lennon's ability to transmit ideas and manifests into music. Or for Harrison's sheer musical growth). Or all of them.
• KISS: Come for the makeup and spitting blood, stay for the riffs, some gleefully twisted humor, and the Surprisingly Gentle Song "Beth."
• Oingo Boingo: Come because of Danny Elfman, stay for an extravagant musical freak show that defies categorization.
• Elton John: Come for the goofy glasses and wacky costumes (at least until The '90s), stay for the catchy, diverse and well-written music.
• Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor: come for the toccata, stay for the fugue.
• mothy: Come to see what the hell the Story of Evil is, stay for the characters, the overwhelmingly complicated plot and mythos, and the music.
• Beyoncé and Rihanna. Come for the really hot women. Stay for the catchy tunes.
• Warren Zevon. Come for "Werewolves of London" and other moments of Black Comedy or other wittiness. Stay for the genuinely sad ballads.
• Vocaloid: Come for the cute characters, stay for some really awesome music.
• David Bowie: Come for the memetic charisma and sexiness, stay for the amazing variety of genres, ambitious concepts, visual spectacles, and the Creator Thumbprint that ties it all together.
• Insane Clown Posse: Come for the twisted humor, stay for the weirdly intricate fan subculture and the record label filled with living cartoon characters.
• Starbomb: Come because you're a fan of Game Grumps and/or Ninja Sex Party, stay for the cavalcade of (often lewd) video game humor that you really can't find anywhere else.
• Ben Prunty: Come because you enjoyed the FTL: Faster Than Light soundtrack, stay because his other albums also make excellent study music.
• Billy Joel: Come for the Silly Love Songs ("Just the Way You Are") and jokey novelty songs ("We Didn't Start the Fire"), stay for the amazing piano skills of the "Piano Man", all the songs from The Stranger, commentaries on life in general ("Piano Man", "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)", "My Life", etc.) and Deadpan Snarker moments.
• Mötley Crüe: Come for either all the tabloid stories about the members' shenanigans in the 80s-2000s or Bile Fascination for Hair Metal, stay for the epic riffs and memorable songs.
• Limp Bizkit: Come for Bile Fascination, stay for Wes Borland's guitar skills.
• Oliver!: Come for "Good Morning Starshine", stay for his love songs and covers.
• Jean-Michel Jarre: Come for the tunes from Oxygène and Équinoxe and other Instrumentals you may have overheard somewhere, stay for the more epic album tracks and bootlegs of bombastic live shows.
• Olivia Rodrigo: Come for "drivers license", stay for her angsty songs that feels like if Taylor Swift and Paramore had a daughter.
• Edguy: Come for the joke songs and Reconstruction of Hair Metal. Stay for the surprisingly philosophical songwriting, superb arrangements, and really good lead vocals.
• Blind Guardian: Come for the Adaptation Expansion of Lord of the Rings, stay for the broad and expansive storytelling and epic World of Ham.
• Avantasia: Come for the Guest Star Party Members, stay for the epic stories, top-notch Genre Mashup, and playfully poetic songwriting.
• Queen: Come for iconic hits like "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions", stay for their operatic and ambitious deep cuts.
• Eminem: Come for those funny novelty songs with colourful MTV-bait videos, stay for the complex, intelligent lyrics and virtuosic performances.

Mythology and Religion

• The Bible: Come for Jesus; stay for the other 62/69 Books.
• Journey to the West: Come for Sun Wukong's legendary badassery, stay for the clever dialogue and entertaining banter between the characters.
• Neopaganism: Come because you were the kid who loved Classical Mythology and/or Norse Mythology, stay for the genuinely modernized and relevant take on spirituality.
• Shinto: Come because references to it in Japanese media made you curious, stay for the interesting metaphysics and substantial Values Resonance.
• Unitarian Universalism: Come because you aren't sure about this "hell" thing, stay for the positive community and in-depth discussion of theology.

Pro Wrestling

• In general: Come for the Faces, stay for the Heels.
• ECW: Come for the bloodshed and Garbage Wrestling, stay for the incredibly well-done matches, surprisingly deep characterization, brilliant promos, and awesome commentary from Joey Styles. This is as opposed to the WWE-backed ECW Revival, where you come for the name, and stay for Matt Striker's awesome commentary.
• WCW: Come for the nWo, stay for the cruiserweights and all the tales of the backstage drama.
• TNA: Come for Kurt Angle and Sting, stay for the X-Division.
• CHIKARA. Come for the Funny Animals, stay for the brilliant wrestling and intricate storylines.
• WWE: Come for John Cena, stay for the talent in (post-2013) NXT.
  • For NXT: Come for the new talent and the popular independents stars. Stay because the women there can actually wrestle.
• Lucha Underground: Come for the Lucha, stay for the amazingly athletic matches, entertaining storylines and colorful characters.
• Defiant Wrestling (as WCPW): Come for Whatculture, stay for the high-quality booking and matches from both top-level stars and some of the hottest english indie talent.

Sports

• Beach Volleyball: Come for the Fanservice, stay because it's actually an exciting sport.
• Cycling: Come for the workout. Stay because it's saving you $100/wk in gas and meds.
• Super Bowl: Come for the football, stay for the commercials (sometimes the main reason people are watching the Superbowl, except maybe hopes for another Wardrobe Malfunction; the halftime show can be either the X or the Y).
• Swimming: Come for the sexy girls/guys in skimpy clothes. Stay for the exercise, competition, and even more hot people in little clothing.
• Tactical shooting: Come because it looks badass. Stay because you really are having a great time becoming a badass.
• Ice Hockey: Come for the players, stay for the spectacle of the world's fastest team sport (including the fights).
• The Olympics: Come for the sport, stay for the backstage drama and/or the athletes' back stories.
• Sailing: Come for the pretty boats and ocean views, stay for the competition, Technology Porn, and backstage drama. And more pretty boats and ocean views.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons: Come to see what the fuss is about, stay for the adventures you will have and the stories you will share.
  • Or, come for the funny-shaped dice, stay for the funny faces your DM will make when he hears your character's latest in-game plan.
  • Come for the fun, stay to break the game over your knee.
    • For the Dungeon Master in you, come for the excuse to build your impassable dungeon to crush your friends, stay for the moments when you let the same friends win anyway, because their solution was just that COOL!
• Pathfinder: Come because you didn't like 4th Edition, stay for the main setting's worldbuilding, alternate interpretations of classic creatures, and delightfully obscure and/or crazy new creatures.
• Exalted: Come because your D&D friend said it was worth a shot, stay for the ability to punch gods' faces in.
• Magic: The Gathering: Come to build an army of all different kinds of monsters and spells, stay for the surprisingly in-depth and realistic color/alignment system.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Come because you watched one of the many different anime, stay for the surprisingly fun to play and complex card game with many, MANY different cards and archetypes.
• Warhammer 40,000: Come for the Grimdark, Imperium and the Space Marines, stay for incredibly rich backstory and variety of different factions.
  • Necrons: come for undead space robot alien Terminator expies, stay for Eldritch Abomination and Trazyn the Infinite.
• Call of Cthulhu: Come for the tense drama, mystery, and horror set in Lovecraft's universe, stay for the gallows humor you and your friends end up using to deal with your characters going insane and dying horribly. Or, come for the monsters, stay because you're too insane now to care!
• Delta Green: Come for the spy thriller meets Cthulhu Mythos, stay for the hijinx and the kick-assery.
• Dominion: Come because you're interested in deckbuilding, stay to try out your latest insane combo.

Theater

• Cirque du Soleil: Come for the surreal acrobatics, stay for the heartwarming characterizations, fantastic music, and some of the greatest non-ironic clowns in the world.
• Miss Saigon: Come for the helicopter, stay for the love story set against the Vietnam War.
• Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular: Come for the life-sized dinosaurs, stay for the Crowning Moment of Heartwarming between the mother T-rex and her baby.
• Les Misérables: Come for the ginormous barricade and/or well-known songs, stay for the epic story.
• The BBC's Hollow Crown series, particularly Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2 and Henry V: Come for the Tom Hiddleston fanservice, stay for the Shakespeare.
• And Shakespeare in general: come because Academia said he was very good, stay because he actually is very good.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: (Original West End production) Come for the beloved story, the Scenery Porn, and "Pure Imagination" as the Climactic Music; stay for the fantastic original songs, the Black Comedy, and the surprisingly tender celebration of creativity, artistic and otherwise.

Video Games

• In general, especially these days, video games as a whole can be considered a case of come for the graphics and atmosphere. Stay for the gameplay and/or story.
• Steam: Come for Valve's amazing games, stay for the wealth of other games you never would have heard of otherwise.
  • Come because your new game requires it, stay because "holy crap did you see those sale prices?" and for the community support.
• GOG.com: Come for the DRM-free games and/or a game launcher that synchronizes with your other launchers, stay for the classic computer games of yesteryear and new ones that may interest you.
• itch.io: Come for DRM-free games, stay to discover indie gems.
• Killer apps do this for their respective systems. People come for the must-have game, stay for all of the other fun games available on the system.
• The Nintendo Entertainment System did this intentionally because The Great Video Game Crash of 1983 made consoles very hard to sell on their own: Come for R.O.B., stay for Super Mario Bros.
  • Some gamers' reasons for owning a Nintendo console: "Come for Mario, stay for all the other Nintendo all-stars".
• Speedruns: Come to see your favorite game beaten quickly as possible, stay for all the tricks you never thought were possible.
• Nintendo Switch: Come for the portable/console hybrid concept, stay for all of your favorite games' ports.
• Akatsuki Blitzkampf: Come for Akatsuki and/or Blitztank, stay for the other strange and unique characters (one of which has the ability to make a fish fall on you every time you jump).
• Asuka 120%: Come to see school girls fighting, stay for the tight gameplay (depending on the game) and cool soundtrack.
• Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout: Come for the heroine's thighs, stay for the complex, engaging Item Crafting mechanics and well-written characters.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt: Come for the "Mega Man Zero spiritual successor with Psychic Powers" premise, stay for the involved story and world-building, electrifying and challenging gameplay, and the cyber divas' music.
• Azur Lane: Came for Enterprise, stayed for the History Lesson and the Fanservice.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum: Come for Mark Hamill as Joker, stay for the awesome gameplay and atmosphere.
• Batman: Arkham City: Come because it's an open-world Batman game, stay because it averts The Problem with Licensed Games with its storyline, the rogue's gallery, and the environment.
  • Come just to be Batman and beat up all the bad guys from the comics, stay for the gameplay and the bonus challenges.
• Bayonetta: Come for the titillation, stay for the boss fights, Serial Escalation, and the million and one shoutouts.
  • Alternatively, come for the combat, stay for the spectacle, try and figure out the plot, end up really loving how the main character manages to be both a Shameless Fanservice Girl and engaging and well-written.
• BEMANI: Come to see the memetically hard boss songs, stay for the massive variety of in-house and commissioned music.
• The Binding of Isaac: Come for the odd plot and gross visuals, stay because you really want to find all the items now.
  • Alternatively: Come for the modern "roguelike" qualities, stay because you REALLY want to get Polyphemus and Technology 2 again.
• BioShock: Come because you heard it was System Shock's spiritual successor, stay for the story, the plot twists, its haunting atmosphere, and all the cool powers you can wield.
• BlazBlue: Come for Guilty Gear in HD, stay for BANG INSTALL.
  • Come for probably the closest thing you'll ever get to another 2D Guilty Gear, stay to find out why the bug guy can't talk.
  • Come because you heard it has some interesting characters (one of which does REAL SOVIET DAMAGE!), stay because it has a lot of interesting characters. In a very complex and interconnected plot.
• BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle: Come because they put a tank in a fighting game ^* that you've heard of, stay because that's only the start of the crazy things this game lets you do.
• Bomberman: Come for the cutesy cartoony robots blowing things up, stay for the simple yet engaging gameplay, colorful cast of characters, catchy music, and the multiplayer.
  • Bombergirl: Come for the sexy and cute anime girls based off Bomberman and Konami's other properties blowing up each other's clothes off, stay for the hectic MOBA-styled take on Bomberman's gameplay, silly comics, upbeat music, colorful cast of girls, dressing the girls up in various outfits, and blowing up each other's clothes off.
• Book of Mario: Thousands of Doors: Come for the nonsense that comes out of characters' mouths, stay for the weird consistencies that imply and add up to a new lore in the middle of craziness.
• Bookworm Adventures: Come for the gameplay, stay for the increasingly compelling plot.
• Borderlands: Come for the guns. Stay for the humor and Shout Outs.
• Bunny Must Die: Come for the absurd plot, stay for the equally absurd bosses, Metroidvania gameplay, and off-the-wall humor.
• Call of Duty: Come for the multiplayer. Stay because the single player never ceases to amaze.
• Celeste: Come for a Nintendo Hard platformer, stay for the protagonist's depression, Lena Raine's engaging soundtrack, and strawberries.
• City of Heroes: Come for the character creator, stay because you're a superhero.
• Civilization: Come to win the games in different endings, stay for the leaders.
• Clash of Clans: If you go to your Capital Peak in the game's Clan Capital and you tap the "Info" button for the Clan House, the last sentence of the description reads "Come for the view, stay for the spectacular Raids."
• Command & Conquer: Somewhat subverted in the "General's Challenge" mode in the Zero Hour expansion pack - one of Dr. Thrax's taunts is "You'll come for the toxin, but you'll stay... because you're dead!"
  • Come for the invention of the RTS genre's gameplay style, stay for the awesome story. As Kane puts it in Tiberian Sun, "Come for the sunshine but stay for the people!"
• Crypt of the NecroDancer: Come because you like Roguelikes and/or Rhythm Games, stay to rage on Aria's campaign.
  • Alternatively, come to dance on a soundtrack (re)composed by one of your favorite musicians, stay to dance (and slay) on all the others.
• Cuphead: Come for the 1930s cartoon aesthetic and the jazzy soundtrack, stay for the challenging boss fights.
• Dark Souls come for the legendary difficulty stay for the intrigated lore.
• Dead or Alive: Come for the fighting, stay for the girls... or the other way around.
• Deltarune: Come because you loved Undertale and because Gaster is implied to be behind every mystery, stay because it subverts this game you know and love and because of the main character's reliable struggles as the other reindeer.
  • Chapter 1: The Beginning: Come for Ralsei, Lancer and Jevil, stay for Susie's Character Development, Rouxls Kaard and Starwalker.
  • Chapter 2: A Cyber's World: Come to get the banana, to be a BIG SHOT and for our pal Nubert, stay for the Realism-Induced Horror behind the antagonists' schemes and the teenagers' psychology, and to see a socially awkward deer girl grabbing an insufferable blue bird by the coat.
    • Or come for the music and the memes, stay to realize by yourself that the Snowgrave route is not a creepypasta.
• Devil May Cry: Come for the epic action. Stay for the epic action, cheesy dialogue, and unforgiving challenge.
• Diablo: Come for the Dark Fantasy Hack and Slash, stay a while and listen.
  • Come for the action, stay for two weeks without a break.
• Disgaea: Come for the Level Grinding, stay for the titillation.
• DeusEx: Come for the conspiracies, stay for the Shakespeare/John Milton/Khalil Gibran references.
• DJMAX Technika: Come for the interesting gameplay, stay for Platinum Crew (or to painfully wait for the day your arcade gets it).
• Doom: Come for the bloody demon-slaying action, stay for the gameplay that helped popularize the FPS genre and rockin' music.
  • Doom 64: Come for the classic Doom gameplay, stay for the darker atmosphere and eerie soundtrack.
  • Batman Doom: Come to play as the Dark Knight in Doom, stay for the craftsmanship built on the Doom Engine alone.
  • Doom (2016): Come because you're a fan of the original Doom and for the over-the-top Testosterone Poisoning, stay for the renewal of the old formula and Mick Gordon's soundtrack.
• Dragon Age II: Come for Dragon Age: Origins 2, stay for the intense drama of the morally gray plot, Hawke’s tragic story and the Video Game Caring Potential of your True Companions.
• Dwarf Fortress: Come for insane architecture stay for the... is it really tracking where all of the teeth landed and... are those guts? Did they just get... wow, I didn't even know bones got bruised.
• Dynasty Warriors: Come for the foe tossing, stay for the World of Ham.
• EarthBound: Come for the horrifying final boss, stay for the cute and funny rest of the game!
  • Or, alternatively, come for the cute and funny characters and Affectionate Parodies of American life and various RPG cliches, stay for the increasingly weird and unsettling plot twists leading up to the epic Nightmare Fuel of the last dungeon and boss.
• In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, if you visit Sanguine's shrine, one of the worshippers will tell you "I came for the parties, and stayed for the parties."
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Come for the mods, stay for the intricate plot of each faction.
    • Come for the mods, stay to find out how badass your Player Character could get.
• Eldritch (2013): Come for the Minecraft-like graphics, stay for the stealthy, fun, and surprisingly tough and scary FPS. Or, come for the Cosmic Horror Story, stay for the ability to punch penguins and Deep Ones, summon Shoggoths, and hold the souls of eldritch abominations.
• Eternal Fighter Zero: Come for the Key/Visual Arts characters, stay for the fights, and the countless references to other fighting games.
  • And the opposite can be true as well: come because it's a Fighting Game, stay for the Key/Visual Arts characters, the multiple references to the original visual novels and the heartwarming concept of having them fighting and doing something different for no particular reason. Bring tissues? Not this time.
• Euro Truck Simulator 2: Come to to see what all the fuss is about, stay for the relaxing gameplay and customization.
• Fallen London: Come for the intriguing Lovecraftian setting and the great writing... and because you're wondering what this whole "Seeking Mr. Eaten's Name" thing is all about; stay for the lore and the addictiveness (just what intrigue will your character get into next?).
• Fallout: Come for the ludicrously gleeful amount of gore, stay for the equally gleeful deconstruction of every 50's future-tech optimisms ever.
  • Fallout 3: Come for the Fatman, MIRV, and Alien Blaster, stay for the weapon schematics, unique weapons, sidequests, Bobbleheads, and drop dead gorgeous landscapes.
  • Fallout: New Vegas: Come for the people, stay for the sunshine.
• Familiars Io: Come for the fact that the developer fit the whole game in a tweet video embed, stay for the deep metagame.
• Final Fantasy: Come for the RPG gameplay, stay for the complex storylines, large ensemble casts, and epic compositions.
  • Final Fantasy VI: Come for Kefka, stay for an excellently-made game in general.
  • Final Fantasy VII: Come for the story, stay for the characters, sidequests, high level of customization, and the Gold Saucer.
  • Final Fantasy X: Come for the laughing scene, stay for the character development, storyline, and the beautiful environments.
• First Encounter Assault Recon: Come for the awesome slow-mo action, stay for the surreal atmosphere and the Nightmare Fuel.
  • For the first game: come for the Artificial Brilliance, stay for Alma.
• Fire Emblem: Come because of that blue-haired sword-dude in that fighting game and stay for the mentally stimulating strategy, lovable characters, and intricate stories.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates: Come for the strategic gameplay and stories, stay for the waifus and husbandos.
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Come because you saw other people play it and who have been scared of Ugly Cute robots screaming on their faces, stay to realize that the game is legitimately frightening, to uncover the hidden lore of the game, and to make your own crazy theories.
• The Force Unleashed: Come for the gratuitous Force usage, stay for the plot.
  • For others... Come for the plot, stay for the insane amount of ways to SLAUGHTER your enemies.
• Gears of War: Come for the rifle with a chainsaw for a bayonet and OTT violence, stay for the tactical combat.
• Ghost Trick: Come because it's the Spiritual Successor of Ace Attorney, stay for the plot twists, smooth animation, plot twists, deep mysteries, plot twists, and plot twists.
• God of War: Come for the over-the-top violence, stay to find out which God Kratos is going to kill next.
  • God of War (PS4): Come for the announcement of a new God of War game, stay for the heartwarming story about Kratos raising his son and atoning for his acts in the previous games.
• Goddess of Victory: NIKKE: Come for the beautiful android women and their well-animated 2D Jiggle Physics, stay for the surprisingly good gameplay and gut-wrenching storyline.
• Groove Coaster: Come for the Touhou Project remixes and VOCALOID songs, stay for MASAKI and to spam That One Boss chart until you Full Chain it.
• Guild Wars: Come for the lack of monthly fees, stay for the lack of grind (and the Scenery Porn).
• Guilty Gear: Come for the 2D fighting revival, stay for the insanely whacked out characters.
  • Or, come for the insanely whacked out characters, stay for the incredible background music.
• Halo: Come for the tactical combat, stay for the plot and the soundtrack.
• A Hat in Time: Come for a cute Collect-a-Thon Platformer, stay for the snarky humor, Queen Vanessa, bosses' tragic backstories and the soundtrack.
• Hearts of Iron: Come for the strategy, stay for the mods.
  • The New Order Last Days Of Europe: Come for the Alternate History, stay for the weird mix of dread and hope.
  • Equestria at War: Come for the ponies, stay for the horrors of war and surprising amount of effort.
• Hollow Knight: Come for the cute bug-like characters, stay for the lore and the beautiful ambient soundtrack... and because you got lost again.
• Hotline Miami: Come for the ridiculous amount of gore, stay for the Jigsaw Puzzle Plot and killer soundtrack.
  • Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number: Come for more of the same, stay for even more awesome music, an utterly insane plot, and because you keep dying.
• HuniePop: Come for the fanservice, stay for the engaging Match Three Puzzle gameplay.
• Ikaruga: Come because you heard it was Radiant Silvergun's spiritual successor, stay for the jaw-dropping scenery, epic soundtrack, relentless difficulty, and its simple yet elegant game design.
• Ingress: Come for the GPS-oriented gameplay, stay for the friendship-building, Anomaly events, lore treated as if it were reality, and to discover new points of interest around your area.
• Jewelry Master Twinkle: Come for its resemblance to a Dating Sim, stay for hours.
• KanColle: Come for Shimakaze and her Iconic Outfit, stay for just about any other ship girl that you end up interested in.
• Katana ZERO: Come for the Rocket-Tag Gameplay and techno soundtrack, stay for the PTSD and Mind Screw.
• Kid Icarus: Uprising: Come for Pit from Brawl, stay for the lovable characters.
• Killer7: Come for the bizarreness and uniqueness, stay for the genuinely interesting plot.
• Kingdom Hearts: Come to see the spectacle of Square Enix crossing over with Disney, stay for the deep, complicated plot, memorable characters, and addictive gameplay.
  • Alternatively: Come to see what the fuss was about, stay to see what insane plot twist the writers pull next.
• Kingdom of Loathing: Come for the humor, stay because you're addicted.
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: Come because you want more KOTOR, stay for Kreia's teachings and the Genre Deconstruction.
• Last Scenario: Come to see if the storyline gets better than it begins, stay for the tactical and balanced battle system, get hit in the face by some Plot Twist and finish the game for the improbably gorgeous story to understand what happened. And also for the surprisingly deep philosophical undertones and excellent writing.
• League of Legends: Come to see what the fuss is all about, stay for the interesting gameplay, enormous variety of champions whose abilities and characters make you want to unlock them and the lighthearted, good-natured development team.
• Left 4 Dead:
  • Come because your friends said it was the best zombie game ever. Stay because it is the best zombie game ever.
  • Come for the Gorn, stay for the Gorn. And the multiplayer. And the survivors' interactions.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Twilight Princess: Come for Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf, stay for Midna.
  • A Link Between Worlds: Come for the ALTTP references, stay for the fun and amazing gameplay.
  • The CD-I games: Come for MAH BOI, stay for the Over Nine Thousand other Memes.
  • Breath of the Wild: Come to see why people were so excited, stay because that un-summitted peak on the edge of your vision is a challenge to your honour.
• LittleBigPlanet:
  • People who Play: Come for Sackboy, stay for the community levels.
  • People who Create: Come for the character customization, stay for doing whatever you want in Create Mode.
  • People who Share: Come for the level editor, stay because you really want that pink ribbon.
• maimai: Come because the cabinet looks like a washing machine, stay to record yourself playing it (if the on-cabinet cameras are there).
• Mass Effect:
  • Playing as a female Shepard: come for the lesbian alien sexual tension, stay for Jennifer Hale's voice acting.
  • Either Shepard: Come for the alien sexual tension, stay because of the Character Development, True Companions, and because Bioware got you right in the feelings.
• Max Payne: Come for the John-Woo bullet-time gun play, stay for the metaphors and noir.
• Mega Man: Come for the goofy/cool Robot Masters that you can fight in any order, stay for the challenging gameplay and addicting music.
• Metal Gear: Come for Solid Snake, stay for the gripping storyline, well-developed characters, and treasure trove of Easter Eggs.
  • Metal Gear Solid: Come for the Stealth Action, stay for the complex story (or the other way around).
  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: Come for a Mind Screwdriver for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, stay for the fascinating relationships between Snake, The Boss, Ocelot, and EVA.
  • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: Come for PlatinumGames, stay for the gameplay, awesomeness and Raiden. Or: Come for the memes, stay for the deep political debate behind them.
• Metal Wolf Chaos: Come for "the most American game ever made" from the same guys that brought you Otogi: Myth of Demons and Armored Core, stay for the B-Movie-tier story, cheesy voice-acting, over-the-top action, the assortment of cool guns you can play with, and the massive amount of destruction you can create.
• Metro 2033: Come because it's from the same team that did S.T.A.L.K.E.R., stay for the story, characters, and tough combat.
• Metroid: Come for the Best Known for the Fanservice Trope Namer for Samus Is a Girl, stay for her Dark and Troubled Past and all-around asskicking. Also, the plot, gameplay, Alien homage, and music.
  • Come for that cool monster everyone wanted in Super Smash Bros., stay for the complex duality between him and Samus... and for the other monsters.
• Mighty Gunvolt: Come for the retro-styled crossover of Gunvolt, Mighty No. 9, and Gal*Gun, stay for the simplistic retro gameplay.
  • Mighty Gunvolt Burst: Come for the revamped crossover of Mighty No. 9 and Gunvolt ft. Gal*Gun, stay for the classic Mega Man-styled gameplay, addicting Burst Combo system, the robust weapon customization system, and the wide roster of characters to play as.
• Mighty No. 9: Come for a new Mega Man-styled game from Keiji Inafune and Inti Creates, stay for the colorful characters, catchy music, and the arcade-styled, high-speed take on Mega Man's classic gameplay... or not.
• When Minecraft was just starting to get popular it was: Come to see what all the fuss is about, stay because it's more addictive than heroin.
  • Or: Come for the building, stay for the survival.
  • Or: Come for the survival mode, stay for the exploration and creator mode.
• Monster Hunter: Come to see the huge monsters, stay because you want to carve those monster parts needed for all the awesome-looking equipment and so you can have a jolly old time beating up said monsters with your friends.
• Mushihime-sama Futari: Come for the True Final Boss, stay for Black Label.
• NetHack: Come to see what the fuss is about, stay because "this shit won't beat me."
• Nights of Azure: Come for the Yuri, stay for the characters, the story and the cute romance.
• Pac-Man Championship Edition DX: Come because, well, it's Pac-Man, stay until you S-rank all the stages.
• Panel de Pon: Come for the adorable artstyle, stay for the addictive gameplay.
• Panzer Dragoon: Come for the laser-breathing dragons, stay for the beautiful (and surreal) scenery, great soundtrack, Space Harrier/RayStorm-esque action, and the heartwarming bond of a dragon and its rider.
• Persona 3 and Persona 4: come for the dating sim elements, stay for the fun battle system, deep character development and awesome J-pop music.
  • The Shin Megami Tensei series in general is like this: come for Persona 3 and Persona 4's fame and unique dating sim aspects, stay for the darker themes and modern day settings the rest of the franchise has ^note not that the two Persona games are exactly lacking in that department.
• Phantasy Star Online 2: Come for the gameplay, stay to save up for a costume that's worth millions of meseta in the player market.
• Pokémon: Come for the cute critters — and possibly to see what all the fuss is about — stay for the deep, strategic RPG, and possibly pure obsessive-compulsion. Or come for the monsters, stay for the sheer imagination of the games' worlds.
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Come for the ability to play as a Pokémon, stay for the surprisingly epic plot with plenty of Tearjerker material.
  • Pokémon GO: In a vein similar to its sibling game Ingress: Come to catch Pokémon while out in the real world, stay to make friends, meet up with them, and explore places you would normally not visit.
• Portal: Come for the brilliant puzzles, stay for the dark humor and the cake... or the other way around.
  • Come for the cake and stay for GLaDOS.
  • Come for GLaDOS, stay for the rest of the game.
  • Portal 2: Come for the multiplayer campaign, stay for Wheatley... and Cave Johnson.
• Punch-Out!!: Come because you like boxing, stay for the quirky cast and complex gameplay.
• Puzzle Quest: Come for the tricked-out "Bejeweled", stay to find your favorite mix of classes, items, spells and mounts.
  • Inversely, come for the story and humor, stay for the gameplay. There are many custom maps for these two games that focus solely on puzzle solving.
• Radiant Silvergun: Come because you heard it was obscenely rare, stay for the bosses, brutal difficulty, awesome music, and engrossing story (if you can understand Japanese or playing the Xbox LIVE Arcade port).
• Ratchet & Clank: Come for the weapons and gameplay, stay for the stories and humor.
• Rayman Origins: Come for Rayman and fun gameplay, stay for the nymphs.
  • Rayman Redemption: Come for the Mr. Dark battle, stay for the other expansions and improvements.
• Red Dead Redemption: Come for the GTA setting in the Wild West, stay for the intriguing story and a brutal Downer Ending.
  • Red Dead Redemption II: Come for the graphics and winter shenanigans (horse-balls), stay for the amazing gameplay, story and the Bittersweet Ending.
• Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure: Come for the rhythm games, stay for the incredibly cute story.
• RosenkreuzStilette: Come for the improbable cast of magical girls, stay for the tight Mega Man-esque gameplay, awesome soundtrack, gorgeous scenery, engaging story, and the numerous shout-outs.
• Rune Factory: Come for the farming and dungeon crawling, stay for the waifus.
• Senran Kagura: Come for the boobies: stay for interesting characters and their interactions, surprisingly deep story that isn't afraid to get dark, and fun gameplay. And boobies.
• Shantae: Come for the cute, shapeshifting Belly Dancer protagonist and the other equally attractive women that make up the bulk of the cast. Stay for the awesome Metroidvania gameplay, excellent comedic writing, and some kicking music.
  • Come for to see who that character everyone wants in Super Smash Bros. is , stay because it’s a great game.
• Shovel Knight: Come because you want to know where this funny blue character who makes cameos everywhere comes from, stay to play the culmination of 8-bit Nintendo Hard games, for the Villain Protagonists own campaign, and Jake Kaufman's chiptune bangers.
• Silent Hill: Come for the Nightmare Fuel, stay because you just have to know what in the hell just happened.
  • Silent Hill 2: Come for Pyramid Head, stay for the epically tragic characters.
• Skullgirls: Come for the sexy catfights, stay for the polished gameplay, whimsical cast of characters, interesting universe, amazing music, fluid animation, and shouts-outs aplenty.
  • Come for the weirdness, stay for the funnies.
  • Come for the funnies, stay for the well-developed world and actually really good gameplay.
  • Come for the game, stay for the sheer community of the developers and fans.
• Skylanders: Come for the toys, stay because the gameplay's surprisingly solid.
• Soul Series:
  • SoulCalibur II: Come for Link, stay for the refined fighting gameplay.
  • Alternatively, come for the awesome fighting, stay for the Guest Fighters.
  • Come to take over the world, stay because you're addicted.
• Soul Nomad & the World Eaters: Come for Gig, stay for the surprisingly addictive gameplay. And the Crowning Music of Awesome. And Gig.
• Solatorobo: Red the Hunter: Come for a rare high-quality Furry Fandom game, stay for badass protagonist and great dramedy.
  • Come for the Furry, stay to throw stuff.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Come for the simplistic yet fun gameplay, stay for the kickass music and gorgeous stages... and the simplistic yet fun gameplay.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog CD: Come because you never could have a Sega CD, for the animated cutscenes, Stardust Speedway and Metal Sonic, stay to explore the gigantic levels, for one of the best formula in Special Stages, and because both soundtracks are absolute bangers in their own ways.
    • Or come for the "Fun is infinite" Easter Egg and the infamous American Game Over music, stay for the rest of the game.
  • For certain 3D games: Come for the Sonic/Shadow gameplay, stay for the engaging variety of characters and gameplay styles.
  • Sonic Robo Blast 2: Come because you heard of a free Sonic fangame in 3D which works like 2D games, stay for the modded content.
    • Alternatively, come to unlock Amy Rose, stay to play Fang the Sniper.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble 16-Bit: Come because you have no other way to play the original Game Gear game and because it looks prettier, stay for the single player coop gameplay, the revamped soundtrack and the multiple plot twists.
• Spec Ops: The Line: Come because Zero Punctuation or Nerd³ praised it, stay for the subversive, mind-screwy, deconstructive plot that makes you question the nature of shooters.
• The Spyro Trilogy: Come for cute, simple, and relaxing games to simply pass the time... and stay for the great level design, some of the best platforming on PS1, witty humor, pretty colors, and some of the best game soundtracks ever composed.
• Subnautica: Come for the beautiful yet terrifying alien ocean, stay for the epic and masterfully unfolded story.
• Suikoden: Come for the 108 characters from your party, stay for the amazing political plots, fun gameplay and likable characters amongst the 108s.
• Summon Night Swordcraft Story: Come for the lesbian subtext, stay for the likable characters and fast paced battle system.
• Super Mario Bros.: Come for the immensely catchy iconic Overworld theme song and simple and fun platforming games, stay for... everything else.
  • Super Mario 64: Come because you want to discover this Mario game which speedrunners surpass themselves to complete the most ridiculous ways possible, which has countless machinimas and who's supposedly personalized, stay to see what Mario actually is capable of, to explore all these big worlds, and to try the aforementioned things by yourself.
  • Super Mario Maker and Super Mario Maker 2: Come to create your own Mario levels, stay to beat the insanely difficult ones made by everyone else.
  • Super Mario Odyssey: Come because of Cappy, stay for the immersive worlds and the exploration that comes with them.
  • Mario Kart: Come to see your favorite characters driving go-karts and throwing items on each other, stay for the complex driving skills and to beat time trials.
• Super Smash Bros.: Come because it's a Nintendo Fighting Game, stay for the chaotic and thrilling gameplay.
  • Alternatively, come because your favorite character is in it, stay because of all the other characters you'll learn about and come to enjoy playing with.
• Super Robot Wars Original Generation exists as a result of this trope occurring in the main series. People came for the Gundam (or whatever your favorite series is) and stayed for the entirely new characters.
  • Come for Gundam, stay for Huckebein.
  • Or, come for the over the top attacks and story, stay for the intricate battle system.
• Tales Series: Come for the Genre-Busting combat system, stay for the strong characterization, Deconstruction of JRPG storytelling conventions, and really likable main casts despite well-executed Gray-and-Grey Morality.
• Team Fortress 2: Come for the madcap FPS action, stay for the gorgeous animation and wacky characterization.
  • Or vice versa — come for the unique art style and humor exhibited in the "Meet the Team" videos; stay for the well-balanced and refreshingly lighthearted multiplayer combat. People who were not "gamers" by any stretch, but got sucked into Team Fortress 2 and/or Portal, wound up loving the whole Orange Box set, and eventually settled into the world of video games.
  • Come for the madcap FPS action, stay for the hats.
  • Come for Heavy, stay for the rest of the team.
• Tetris: The Grand Master: Come because you're bored of mainstream Tetris, stay for the hope of one day getting Grand Master rank and the surprising lack of Fake Difficulty.
• Terraria: Come for "Minecraft in 2D", stay for Metroidvania-inspired gameplay, the streamlined crafting, awesome loot, epic bosses, developing your character's stats, creating a world to call your own, and the numerous shout-outs.
• Thunder Force: Come because it's an awesome Shoot 'Em Up series, stay for the Awesome Music.
• Touhou Project: Come for the Bullet Hell, the Fighting Games, the music, the characters, the memes, the art, the doujins, the stories, the videos, or the fandom, and stay for everything else.
• Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever, and possibly the whole Triangle Heart franchise: Come for the fandom prestige of actually knowing what Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha was spun off from, stay for the characters and the Fantasy Kitchen Sink.
• Twisted Wonderland: Come for the pretty boys based on different Disney characters, stay for the surprisingly deep and heartbreaking stories attached to them.
• Under Night In-Birth: Come because you like BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, stay because Arc System Works have done it again. ^* Technically it was developed by French Bread, but Arc published it.
  • Come for the interesting character gimmicks, stay to figure out how Hilda and Vatista's combos work.
• Undertale:
  • Come because you heard it's like EarthBound, stay to see just how the game reacts to your every decision.
  • Come because you heard nobody has to die. Stay to kill them all and have an epic battle with one of the Final Bosses.
  • Come because you heard about the psychotic flower and the lazy skeleton, stay for the wacky skeleton, the over-the-top fish lady, the stupid sexy robot, and the dork lizard lady... and all the others!
  • Come because of absurd theories you read online, stay to make your own.
  • Come for Megalovania, stay for the rest of the soundtrack... and to search for leitmotifs absolutely everywhere.
• Untitled Goose Game: Come because you were told that the goose is insanely powerful, stay to see it doesn't even need this aforementioned power to be the most threatening animal in existence.
• Urban Dead: Come for the Zombies, stay to survive.
• Virtual-ON: Come for the Gundam-esque mechas, stay for the other mechas you might end up liking, fast-paced gameplay, and awesome music.
• Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune: Come to drive your favorite sports car on Tokyo's highways, stay to battle your friends or froth at the mouth at your ten millionth failed Time Attack attempt.
• Warcraft III: Come for the awesome gameplay and storyline, stay for DOTA. Seriously, people have actually brought the game just to play DOTA.
• WarioWare: Come for Wario, stay for the quirky universe, addictive minigames, and the fun WarioWare Inc. employees.
  • Or alternatively, come for Wario, stay for Ashley.
• The Warriors: Come because you loved the movie, stay for the bonus games (including a Double Dragon-style arcade throwback) and for an even more awesome time capsule of '70s America than the 1979 original was!
• Wolfenstein: The New Order: Come for dual assault rifles, stay for the engaging story and characters.
• The World Ends with You: Come to see where those weird kids from Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] came from, stay for the memorable cast, engaging story, unique gameplay, and amazing soundtrack.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Come to learn more of the memetic Shulk and the game's interesting history, stay for the engaging story and immersive and beautiful world.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links: Come for the original series nostalgia, stay for the relatively balanced gameplay and card pool.
  • Alternatively, come for the duels and stay for the characters and their interactions.
• Yume Nikki: Come for the Nightmare Fuel, stay to interpret and analyze the psychological landscapes of the dream world.
• Both Zone of the Enders and Zone of the Enders HD Collection: Come for the Metal Gear demos, stay for the addictive gameplay.

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney: Come for the ridiculous premise, stay for the addictive mysteries, quirky characters, and World of Ham.
• Choices: Stories You Play: Come for the romance, stay for the intriguing stories that leave you wanting more.
• Doki Doki Literature Club!: Come for the waifus, stay for the horror. Or come for the dark subversion that you can't help hearing about and stay for the surprisingly endearing (if deeply flawed) waifus.
  • Alternatively, come because you've heard about Monika, stay to cry on Sayori's depression.
• DRAMAtical Murder: Come for the yaoi, stay for the lovable characters, engaging story and hilarious fandom. And Akushima.
• Extracurricular Activities: Come for the bara furry Fanservice, stay for the endearing realistic characters and exceptional writing.
• Fate/stay night: Come for the swords, stay for the Character Development and unbreakable main characters.
  • Alternatively; come for the Servants and the series' interpretation of them, stay for the batshit insane-level intricacy of world-building that spans the entire Nasuverse.
  • For Unlimited Blade Works specifically, come for GARcher, stay for GAR Lancer.
• Hatoful Boyfriend: Come for the wacky pigeon dating, stay for the surprisingly good writing and compelling (pigeon) characters.
• Higurashi: When They Cry: Come for the scenes left out from the anime and TIPS, stay for the same reasons you stayed for the anime and more.
• Kana: Little Sister: Come for one kind of jerker, stay for the other.
• Katawa Shoujo: Come for hot cripple sex, stay for the well written and lovable characters, the witty dialogues, and the fantastic soundtrack, not to mention the intelligent and mature observations of some very difficult themes.
• School Days: When the game first came out, many came for the many good endings and adorable wooable characters, and stayed for the many Bad Ends. Once it became notorious for these bad endings and especially with the animated adaptation going this route, it has come to be the other way round for many newcomers.
• Umineko: When They Cry: Come for the magic, stay for the mystery.
  • Alternatively, come for the memetic trollling and bloody deaths, stay for the romance.
• Danganronpa: Come for the goofy looking bear, stay for the unique characters, witty dialogue, elaborate murders and dark themes of despair and sadness.

Web Comics

• 8-Bit Theater: Come for the Final Fantasy geekery, stay for the wicked deconstruction of just about every RPG trope ever invented.
• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja: Come for the Chainsaw Nunchucks, stay for the hilarious writing.
• Axe Cop: Come for the webcomic written by a kid, stay for the Crazy is Cool.
• Darths & Droids: Come for the Star Wars and Tabletop RPG jokes, stay for the Character Development as the players and GM become True Companions.
• The Dreamer: Come for the time travel drama/romance and American history, stay for the hot guys (or vice versa).
• El Goonish Shive: Come for the Gender Bending, stay for the Character Development.
• Enjuhneer: Come for the geek-college, stay for the increasingly in-depth characters.
  • Also, come for the geeky-ness, stay for the geeky-ness.
• F@NB0Y$: Come for the video game humor, stay for the sickeningly cute romance.
• Girl Genius: Come for the hope that it is similar to the author's past work, stay for the well-drawn MAD SCIENCE!
  • Come for the Steampunk, stay for the Jägers.
  • Also, the Heterodyne museum advertised: "Come for the crushing, stay for the snow cones".
• Goodbye Chains: Come for the gay, stay 'cause it's hilarious.
  • Come for the humor, stay for the gut-wrenching feels.
• Heartcore: Come for the hot succubus heroine, stay for the action, comedy, and stellar artwork.
• Homestuck: Come because you just finished Problem Sleuth, stay for the intricate characterization, intense action, sick beats, and the sheer amount of both tropes and theories. It's not like you'd be able to leave any time soon!
  • Alternately: Come for the horny aliens, stay for the actual plot.
• Housepets!: Come for the entertaining idea, stay because it's hilarious.
  • Come for Peanut, stay for King.
• Insecticomics has a storyline with a title like this: Come For the Wedding, Stay For the Open Bar!
  • Irregular Webcomic!: Come for the insanely overpowered fireballs, stay for the often insightful comments and literal rants. Doubly so now that the comic itself is essentially finished but the rants keep getting updates.
• Kiwi Blitz: Come for the cute art and Mini-Mecha action, stay for a well-thought-out deconstruction of classic mecha and superhero tropes.
• Lackadaisy Come for the adorable kitties and gorgeous art, stay for the dark, complex, historically accurate storyline and the realistically endearing characters. And then cry because of the Schedule Slip.
  • And rejoice because updates have finally become monthly and will stay that way.
• Magick Chicks: Come for the animesque artwork and PG-13 rated Les Yay, stay for the superempowered cast of heroines, compelling mysteries, and the occasional crossovers with its parent series.
• MegaTokyo: Come for the crazy, stay for the drama. And the surrealism. And the Rent-a-Zilla.
  • Or, come for the cute girls, stay for the story.
• Ménage à 3: Come for the hot girls/guys, stay for the zany characters and story.
• Misfile: Come for the Fanservice, stay for the emotional story, funny jokes, and well-done Deconstruction of the entire Gender Bender genre.
• Mountain Time: Come because it's utterly surreal and/or absurd and/or just amusingly stupid; stay because it starts to make a weird kind of sense.
• The Order of the Stick: Come for the role-playing parody, stay for the well-done Cerebus Syndrome.
• Penny Arcade: Come because you're the only person on the planet who hasn't read it, stay for the sick humor and the less-sick vocabulary lessons.
• Questionable Content: Come for the robots, stay for the well-developed interpersonal relationships, the constant introductions to new indie-rock bands, and the fact that it never forgets to be funny. Oh, and don't forget to buy a T-shirt.
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Come for hilarious subversions on beloved tropes, stay for shirtless Zach.
• Schlock Mercenary: Come for the gag-a-day sci-fi starring a talking pile of crap, stay for the deep, serious, intricately plotted Space Opera epic starring Chekhov's Guns you never saw coming.
• Sleepless Domain: Come for the tragic Magical Girl Genre Deconstruction, stay for the thoughtful magical girl genre reconstruction. And the gay.
• Sunstone: Come for the well-drawn fetish artwork, stay for the characterisation, story-telling, and sense of humor.
• The Unspeakable Vault (of Doom): Come for the Lovecraft Lite antics of the Great Old Ones, stay because of the deep references to Lovecraft and because 'Zatoth is just too damn adorable for the embodiment of ultimate cosmic madness.

Web Original

• TV Tropes: Come for the laughs, stay for the crippling addiction!
  • Come to look something up. Stay for the witty remarks.
    • Come for the interesting, stay awhile... STAY FOREVER!
    • Come to find out what the hell everyone else is talking about, stay because you have no choice.
    • Come for the fun, stay because it is a better place to look up media than The Other Wiki is.
    • Come because of xkcd, stay because of Wiki Walk.
• Red vs. Blue: Come for the humor and wacky characters, stay for the surprisingly deep storyline that eventually emerges.
• Darth Wiki: Come for the fun, stay for the cries of agony!
  • Sugar Wiki: Come because of one of these, stay because Good Feels Good!
• The Music Video Show: Come for the nostalgic (sometimes current) music videos, stay for the riffing of said videos.
• Channel Awesome: Come for the reviews, stay for the Snark.
  • The Nostalgia Critic/The Nostalgia Chick: Come for your nostalgic movie getting bashed^note  or to think dirty thoughts about the Pretty Boy/hot girl, stay for their genuinely interesting characters.
  • Atop the Fourth Wall: Come for the reviewer who IS A MAN! PUNCH! Stay for the very well-written storylines.
• asdfmovie: Come for the Rapid-Fire Comedy and Black Comedy jokes, stay for Bait-and-Switch moments.
• Fandom: Come for the porn, stay for the people (and the porn).
  • Alternatively, come for more of the characters and plot of your favorite shows, stay to look at porn of said characters.
• Journal Roleplay: Come for the character interaction, stay for the drama.
• The Angry Video Game Nerd: Come for the nostalgia, stay for the catharsis.
• The Joker Blogs: Come for the acting, stay for the suspenseful story.
• The Hillywood Show Come for the Johnny Depp impressions and Twilight parodies, stay for the stellar musical numbers and professional production values.
• The Escapist: Come for the Yahtzee, stay for Unskippable and Doomsday Arcade.
• NASA Edge and Space Vidcast: Come for the humor, stay for the quotability and the spaceflight.
• Facebook: Come to communicate with your friends, stay for the games.
• Cat Tales: Come for the Fanservice, stay because it's better written and better characterized than anything DC Comics has done in years.
• Whateley Universe: Come for the TG wish fulfillment stories, stay for the superhero battles and the humor.
• I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC: Come for the Crossover factor, stay for the characterization, witty dialogue, and many hilarious highlights.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: Come for the parody of Yu-Gi-Oh! (let's face it, it's a pretty easy target), stay for the parody of absolutely everything.
  • Come to see where the memes came from, stay for the hilarious alternate take on an anime even if you've never seen the original.
• Homestar Runner: Come for Homestar, stay for Strong Bad!
  • The trope is referenced in an Easter Egg featuring the Teen Girl Squad in the Strong Bad Email "death metal":
    What's-Her-Face: Cheerleader! Are you here to see Brainkrieg?
    Cheerleader: I come for the wuggas, but stay for the jiggy juggas.
    Brainkrieg: (offscreen) Jugga jigga wugga!
• Valenth: Come for the pretty adoptable artwork, stay for the surprisingly complex storyline.
• Eddsworld's description from their twitter page: "Come for the fun. Stay for the puns"
• Personality Cafe: Come for the personality typing, stay for the community.
  • Or come because Typology Central banned you, stay for the community.
• Critical Role: Come because your favorite voice actor is in it, stay for the genuinely good plot and characters that manage to come out of these improv Dungeons and Dragons sessions.
• FanFiction.Net: Come because you like the work, stay for awesome expansion upon Canon.
  • Or you come for more of your favorite works and stay to find truly great fics hidden underneath piles of Sues and Yaoi.
  • Alternatively, come to make crappy fanfics, stay to gradually improve and make something fairly interesting! (It takes some time though!)
• Dragon Ball Abridged: Come to watch Nappa slowly drive Vegata insane, stay to watch Ghost Nappa slowly drive Vegeta insane.
  • Come for Goku, stay for Freeza.
  • Come to see if it's as good as Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series, stay because if anything it might well be better.
• Neopets: Come for the cute creatures, stay for the games.
  • Or alternatively, come for the games, stay for the plots and possibly the community.
• Marble Hornets: come for Slender Man, stay because you're too afraid to move.
  • The Slender Man Mythos: come because of Something Awful or Slender: The Arrival, stay because of the intense ARGs/blogs/vlogs, Epileptic Trees, conspiracy theories, and the fear that you'll end up impaled on a tree somewhere if you dare so much as look behind you.
• The Slacktivist's blog: Come for Left Behind getting ripped a new one, stay for the political and philosophical posts. And Left Behind getting ripped a new one.
• Incognito Cinema Warriors XP: Say for the MST3K-inspired riffing, stay for the surprisingly engaging plot.
• Friendship is Witchcraft: Come for Gypsy Pinkie, Sweetie Bot or the music, stay for its humor and its surprisingly deep plot (for an Abridged Series, at least) and Heartwarming Moments.
• Game Grumps: Come for the Internet celebrities riffing on video games, stay for the heartfelt and genuine friendship between the two.
• SCP Foundation: Come for SCP-087 or SCP-173, stay for the quirky characters, SCP-682 and because you're too scared to leave.
  • Come for the horror, stay for the [DATA EXPUNGED]
• Let's Plays: Come for the games, stay for the players (and co-commentators!).
• The Runaway Guys: Come for your favourite member, stay for all of them.
• Freelance Astronaut pipes! once said, "Come for the masturbation jokes, stay for the puns," but really, see the entry for Let's Plays in general.
• Nuzlocke stories: Come because you like the originals, stay for the variety of stories on the same base idea.
• danisnotonfire:
  • Come for the British accent, stay for the existential crisis.
  • Come for the cute guy, stay for the cute guy who's actually hilarious and smart. (And the existential crisis.)
• RWBY: Come for the intricate battles and hot chicks, stay for the comedy and character development.
  • Come for Team RWBY, stay for Team JNPR.
• Epic Rap Battles of History: Come to see what this weird concept is (or because everyone goes on about it), stay to see which pairings they put together next and the brilliant lines.
• DEATH BATTLE!: Come for the fights and answering "Who would win?", stay for the witty script before the fight, or, if you're that kind of person, the flame wars after it.
• Know Your Meme:
  • Come to look up where that one meme came from, stay for the hilarious image galleries.
  • Come for the softcore Nintendo porn, stay for the political analysis.
• The Black Guy Who Tips: Come for the recaps of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, stay for the social commentary, interesting guests and no-holds barred comedy.
• Sanders Sides: Come for the laughs, stay for the Character Development and surprisingly uplifting messages and morals.
• Sword Art Online Abridged: Come for the Alternate Character Interpretations and the comedy, stay for the Character Development, feels, and improvements to the story. And the comedy.
• TFS at the Table: Come for the players, stay for the plot.
• One of the page banners on Reddit says 'Come for the cats, stay for the empathy'.
• Rifftrax: Come for Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni riffing on A-list movies, stay for all the B-movies and shorts they couldn't get around to on TV.
• Actually invoked by Tumblr on their login screen: "Come for what you love. Stay for what you discover."
• The Spiffing Brit: Come to see the horrific exploit he did with your favourite game, stay for the cheery dry wit and a nice cup of tea.^* Yorkshire Tea, preferably. And pass the biscuits
• Tactical Cupcakes: Come to see covers of your favorite FNF mods, stay for the rich LORE!
• Kiwami Japan: Come to see how Kiwami crafts knives out of bizarre materials, stay for the ASMR and comedy.
• Serina: Come to see unusual concept, stay for the crazy ways canaries and guppies left alone on an alien planet can evolve, as well as the epic struggles and emotional stories told from the lives and histories of said creatures' descendants.
• Minilife TV: Come in search of a decent Brickfilm, stay for the evolving story and animation.
• What the Fuck Is Wrong with You?: Come for the horrible stories, stay for Tara's tangents and the genuinely sweet friendship and platonic chemistry between the hosts.
• Stampy's Lovely World: Come for the silly builds and cool minigames, or come back for the childhood nostalgia, stay to find out what the heck HitTheTarget is up to this time (after all these years).
• YourMovieSucks.org: Come to see how much your movie sucks, stay for the film recommendations.
  • Come for Cool Cat, stay for Synecdoche.
• Cole and Marmalade: Come for the funny kitties, stay to learn all about cats.
• The Other Wiki: Come to look up information you need, stay reading random articles.

Western Animation

• 12 oz. Mouse: Come for the terribly crude art, stay for the complex story, well-defined characters, and awesome soundtrack.
• 6teen: Come for the attractive girls, stay for the humor and friendship.
• Adventure Time: Come for the overall weirdness, stay for the surprisingly deep Character Development.
• The Amazing World of Gumball: Come for the Medium Blending, stay for the well thought-out humor and strong worldbuilding.
• American Dad!: Come because it's by the same creator as Family Guy, stay because it's better at character and story.
• Amphibia: Come for the Frog Men and the silly hijinks, stay for the teenage girls and the riveting Myth Arc.
• Animaniacs: Come for the puns and slapstick, stay for the surprisingly highbrow (and the surprisingly lowbrow) subject matter.
  • Or come for the Warners, stay for Pinky and the Brain. (Revival included!)
• Arcane: Come for the League of Legends references, stay for the surprisingly Darker and Edgier take on it.
  • Come for the animation, stay for the origin of the one of the franchise's most iconic villains.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Come for the bending hijinks, stay for the sincere and unexpectedly wise writing.
  • Or "come for the bending hijinks, stay for the all-around awesomeness."
• Babar: Come for the Sweet Dreams Fuel, stay for the Darker and Edgier moments.
• The Backyardigans: Come for the cute characters, stay for the creative plots, awesome music, and memes galore.
• Batman: The Animated Series: Come to watch Batman be awesome, stay to see just how very very wrong the Animation Age Ghetto is.
• The Batman: Come for Batman. Stay for the new spin on the villains.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Come for Batman, stay for the hilarious stories and Mythology Gags.
• Bob's Burgers: Come for the character-driven comedy, stay for the surprisingly wholesome family dynamics that put The Simpsons and Griffins to shame.
• Bojack Horseman: Come for the Horse, stay for the three dimensional characters, complex themes and the Horse being a deconstruction of dickish characters like Peter Griffin, Modern Homer Simpson and Eric Cartman.
• Blinky Bill: Come for the anthro animals and Aussie charm, stay for the cynical, witty humour and surprisingly heavy themes.
• Bluey: Come because it always trends on Disney+, stay for the heartwarming family moments and emotional scenes.
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers:
  • Come for the 'munks, get stuck due to your crush on Gadget.
  • Come for the nostalgia, stay for Tom Clancy-level fanfics.
• Clone High: Come for the JFK memes, stay for the brilliantly ruthless lampooning of teen soaps.
• Code Lyoko: Come for the Magical Girlfriend in a Box, stay for either the Unresolved Sexual Tension or the abandoned government conspiracy plot. (Or for Odd.)
• Craig of the Creek: Come for the creative childhood adventures, stay for the underlying story arc and character development.
• Detentionaire: Come for the intricate and engaging plot, stay for the diverse cast of awesome characters and the badass theme tune.
• DuckTales (1987): Come because you're tracking Launchpad McQuack's history backwards from Darkwing Duck, stay for the more Action Hero things he gets up to, the more serious plots and surprisingly endearing grouch Scrooge McDuck.
• DuckTales (2017): Come for the reboot of the beloved Disney Afternoon series, stay for the humor, character interactions, clever mythology gags and building of a Disney Afternoon Ultimate Universe, Flintheart Glomgold, and a long-awaited answer for what happened to Della Duck.
• Family Guy: Come for the pop-culture references, stay for the line-crossing Black Comedy.
• Fangbone!: Come for the similarities to Star vs. the Forces of Evil, stay for the worldbuidling, character dynamics, and the original Fangbone books.
• Filly Funtasia: Come because of its similarity to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, stay because its own brand of unique settings, lore, and its cool soundtrack.
  • Alternatively, come for the Ponies, stay for Wranglum (and to a lesser extent, Battiwigs).
• Futurama: Come for Bender and the Nerdgasm of science fiction combined with The Simpsons' humor. Stay for the heartwarming but bittersweet romance, the devastatingly tragic time-displacement story; the complex, carefully constructed characters; and the scattering of episodes that reach the level of truly sublime television.
• Gargoyles: Come for Demona's sexiness, stay for the story.
  • Come for all the hype, stay because you've started Shipping Elisa/Goliath.
  • Come for David Xanatos, stay for the strong and interesting characters... especially David Xanatos.
• The Ghost and Molly McGee: Come for the titular Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing, stay for the strong characterization.
• Gravity Falls: Come for the cuddly twins, stay for the surprisingly deep and layered mystery plot.
  • Alternatively: Come for the mystery, stay for the incredibly witty writing, character development, and the Heartwarming Moments (and the mystery).
• Green Eggs and Ham (2019): Come for the bizarre premise, stay for the great comedy, characterization, and faithfulness to its source material.
• Grojband: Come for the Awesome Music, stay for the offbeat comedy, the Corey/Laney Ship Tease, and the ride-or-die fandom.
• Infinity Train: Come because you keep seeing it trend on Twitter for some reason, stay for the thoughtful character writing, deep emotional themes, and Amelia.
• Invader Zim: Come for GIR, stay for the social satire.
  • Or come because it's Jhonen Vasquez, stay because it's the best "kid's" show ever.
• Jellystone!: Come for the Hanna-Barbera nostalgia, stay for the surreal humor.
• Jem: Come for the LGBT Fanbase and totally radical 80s imagery, stay for the storylines.
• Justice League Unlimited: Come for the Batman, stay for the Question.
  • Come for the new adventures of the founding team members, stay for all the lesser-known DC characters you've been introduced to.
  • For both Justice League and Justice League Unlimited:
    • Come for Batman and Superman, stay for everyone else.
• Kidd Video: Come for either the bizarre imagery or the 80s music videos & imagery, stay for the catchy, memorable original songs.
• Let's Go Luna!: Come because it's made by Joe Murray, stay for the wacky, well-timed humor and beautiful art.
• The Looney Tunes Show: Come out of either hopeful nostalgia or Bile Fascination, stay for its unique take on Lola and the surprisingly hilarious second season.
• The Loud House: To paraphrase Common Sense Media, "come for the laughs, stay for the ensemble cast and the heartwarming themes."
• Metalocalypse: Come for the outright LOLs and brutal soundtrack, stay for the surprisingly deep plot and fantastic characters. And the buckets of Ho Yay.
• Middlemost Post: Come because it's the first original Nicktoon amidst a sea of reboots, stay for the beautiful Medium Blending and deep characters.
• Molly of Denali: Come to learn more about Alaska, stay for the lovable characters.
• Moral Orel: Come for the parody of Moral Guardians and Fundamentalist Christianity, stay for the dark characterization.
• My Adventures with Superman: Most, if not all (admittedly), come for the cute shorthaired tomboy version of Lois Lane and stay for either: A.) to see how her deepening relationship with Clark develops. Or, B.) to see how Clark develops into the iconic hero he'll eventually become.
• My Life as a Teenage Robot: Come for the Badass Adorable Robot Girl, stay for the lovely Art Deco artstyle and fun writing.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Come for the stylish art style, stay for the clever writing, memorable characters, and humor. Or as it was put so eloquently "somewhere on the internets", "come for the trolling, stay for the ponies."^note This is literally how the fanbase got its kickstart, believe it or not. 4Chan's /co/ board came to see what all the fuss was about after reading a scathing article titled "The End of the Creator-Driven Era in TV Animation", fully intending to mock it, and stayed when they found the show was surprisingly appealing for not just young girls, but for adults as well.
  • For a lot of folks, it was also "Come to see what this 'brony' thing is about, stay for the writing, characters, etc."
  • Come for the Memes, stay for the incredible animation, characters, and writing.
  • Come for the music and the adorable. Stay for the entire show.
    • Inverted for a certain segment of fans: come for the quality show, stay for the crazy and creative fandom.
  • Come for Rainbow Dash, stay for whoever is your pony waifu^note or horsebando du jour now.
  • For some people: Come for the memes, stay for the clop.
  • For yet others: Come for the memes, stay for the fan works, still don't binge the show itself.
• The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog: Come for the animesque animation style, stay for the fun characters and clever nature lessons.
• The Owl House: Come for the Isekai adventure and the Lumity, stay for the Myth Arc and serialized story itself.
• Phineas and Ferb: Come because you're bored, stay for the writing, the music, the entertaining cast, the subtext and the humor.
  • So... come because you're bored, stay for the entire show? ^note "I for one am starting to get bored, and boredom is something up with which I will not put!"
• Pinky and the Brain: Come because you watched it as a child, stayed because of the complex character relationships.
• The Raccoons: Come because it's a Canadian classic, stay for the Character Development and amazing New Wave soundtrack.
• Rainbow Brite: Come for the whole idea of a 80s girl toy line themed around beings who literally spread colors throughout the world, stay for the storylines.
• Randy Cunningham: Ninth Grade Ninja: Come for the crazy premise and Jhonen Vasquez character designs, stay for the jokes, Character Development, and incredible plot.
• Ready Jet Go!: Come for the science facts, stay for the clever writing, Awesome Music, and Dr. Amy Mainzer.
• Regular Show: Come for the weirdness, stay for the huge amount of character development and heart.
• Rick and Morty: Come for the Back to the Future parody, stay for the clever twists on science fiction and imaginative art style.
• Robot Chicken: Come for the pop culture references, stay for the amazing stop-motion animation and witty humor.
• Rocko's Modern Life: Come for the nostalgia and slapstick, stay for the still-relevant satire on the struggles of adulthood and adult humour.
• Ruby Gloom: Come for the cute characters, stay for the comedy.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Come for the adorable, asskicking main duo, stay for the promising Cerebus Syndrome, funny jokes, and good writing.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Come for all the Star Wars references, stay for the story of the Republic slowly losing itself in the Clone Wars to eventually become The Empire.
• Steven Universe:
  • Come for the laughs and nice animation, stay for the tearjerking, heartwarming character moments and songs.
  • Or come for the life and times of "the ultimate little brother" and three action girls, stay for the epic plot and deep characterization.
• Stickin' Around: Come for the stick-figure style (or for Bradley), stay for the kids' wacky imaginations.
• The Strange Chores: Come because it's from the creators of Bluey, stay because of the supernatural shenanigans and Heartwarming Moments.
• Teen Titans: Come because your little brother has it on the television, stay because... oh my god, they can't really be doing the Terra storyline in a kids show?!
  • Come for the superhero action and the wacky hijinks, stay for the character interactions and the surprisingly mature storylines.
• Total Drama: Come for the funny Reality TV parodies, stay for the awesome characters.
• The Venture Brothers: Come for the adventure parody, stay for surprisingly deep characters and strong continuity.
• Wander over Yonder: Come for the Funny Moments, stay for the touching ones.
• Wishfart: Come for the "WTF" title, stay for the creative plots, clever humor, and rounded characters.
• W.I.T.C.H.: Come for the girls in spandex, stay for the awesome plot. The same goes for Winx Club.
• Work It Out Wombats!: Come for the cuteness, stay for the deep cast of characters and surprisingly good advice.
• Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: Come for the historical figures, stay for the wholesome friendship moments and lessons.
• Young Justice: Come for the Ship-to-Ship Combat, stay for the Reconstruction of the whole DC Universe, and refreshing new spins on beloved characters.

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