I, Noun

So you're going through the bookstore reading titles, browsing for something to read. You see lots of random things, incoherent titles, boring titles, one-word titles that could mean anything or nothing. What to read? And then you see it. A book that sounds like it will focus on one subject just because of the title. A book that purports to speak from authority, just because of the title. It is a book that reads "I, Noun" possibly with an obscenely long subtitle.

This is a subtrope of The Joy of X. Related to Enter Eponymous but not to iProduct.

---

Examples:

I, Anime & Manga

• Patalliro!: From the second season, the title of the anime adaptation is Boku Patalliro! (I, Patalliro!).

I, Audio Plays

• "I, Davros" A Doctor Who spinoff series of audio dramas.

I, Comic Books

• I, Joker, a Graphic Novel about the eponymous super villain.
• I, Vampire, DC Comics strip about a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire.
• iZombie Vertigo comic book series.

I, Fan Works

• Chapter V of Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space is called "I, Rebut" as a pun on I, Robot.

I, Live-Action Film

• I, an Actress, a 1977 short film of an improvised screen test
• I, Daniel Blake, a 2016 drama film.
• I, Frankenstein, a 2014 film.
• I Madman, 1989 horror film.
• I Mobster, a 1958 movie based on the novel of the same name.
• I, Monster, a 1971 adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
• I, Robot, a 2004 loose adaptation of the collection of short stories with the same name.
• I The Jury a noir featuring Mike Hammer. Based on the book by Mickey Spillane.
• I, Tonya, a 2017 biopic of the controversial figure skater Tonya Harding.
• I Zombie 1998 (full title with Colon Cancer is I, Zombie: The Chronicles of Pain) is a British film from 1998.

I, Literature

• Isaac Asimov:
  • I, Robot, a collection of Artificial Intelligence stories.
  • I. Asimov: A Memoir, an autobiography where the different punctuation transforms the pronoun into an initial.
• The first book of The Golden Hamster Saga is called I, Freddy.
• I—Alien by Michael Reaves, with illustrations by comics artist Terry Austin.
• The "acto-biography" of Nigel Planer's pretentious luvvie character Nicholas Craig has the intentionally clunky title I, an Actor: Another Great Actor Exposes Himself.
• I, Ba'al, a short story set in the Stargate-verse.
• I, Claudius, possibly the Ur-Example. Justified in that it's not only the title but the start of the supposed memoir itself, which Claudius begins by reciting his formal names and how they are less telling than the derisive nicknames by which his family knew him.
• "I Cthulhu or, What's A Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing In A Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47° 9' S, Longitude 126° 43' W)?," by Neil Gaiman.
• I, Jedi, the only Star Wars Legends novel to be written entirely in the first person.
• I, Lucifer by Glenn Duncan.
• I, Lucifer by Peter O'Donnell.
• I, Monster: Serial Killers in Their Own Chilling Words by Tom Philbin
• I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan the "autobiography" of Alan Partridge.
• I, Pencil, an influential 1958 essay about how markets produce things (like pencils) that no single person is capable of making.
• I, Q, a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel featuring Q (and riffing off the intelligence test of the same name).
• "I, Robot", a Short Story by Eando Binder, from the perspective of the robot Adam Link.
• Cory Doctorow has short stories called both "I, Robot" and "I, Rowboat".
• I, Strahd by P. Elrod, memoirs of titular vampire, set in Ravenloft.
• I, Sniper: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel by Stephen Hunter
• I, the Jury a noir by Mickey Spillane featuring Mike Hammer. Also became a movie.
• I, Trissy, a short YA novel by Norma Fox Mazer about an 11-year-old girl dealing with her parents' divorce.
• I, Tyrant — AD&D2 sourcebook about beholders (a pun on "eye tyrant").
• I, Vampire: The Confessions of a Vampire — His Life, His Loves, His Strangest Desires ... by Michael Romkey - You get the feeling they just couldn't bring themselves to use such an undescriptive title and trust it to stand on its own merits.
• I, Weapon, a 70s sci-fi novel about the breeding of the ultimate living weapon from several human subspecies to fight an alien threat.
• The Septimus Heap series has a book within a book called the “I, Marcellus”.
• Week Ending: Cabinet Leaks had a parody autobiography of Carol Thatcher called I, Carol. And every time she refers to herself in the first person it's "I, Carol," to the editor's despair.

I, Live-Action TV

• "I Robot, You Jane", a Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 1 episode. It also references Tarzan's "Me Tarzan, you Jane".
• "I, Witness" is a season 7 episode of Castle.
• "I, Rowboat" was the title of a Conan O'Brien parody of the then-recent Will Smith I, Robot movie.
• "I, E.T.," a Farscape episode.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ends with a string of these, including "I, Whoops There It Is" and "I, Done."
• I Lovett, a sitcom starring Norman Lovett with a The Danza Epunymous Title.
• The name of the series iZombie, stylizing it like iProduct. It's an adaptation of the comic book.
• "I, Murdoch", from Murdoch Mysteries, which features a fake Steampunk robot.
• Episode "I, Busybody" of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
• "I, Borg," a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode — a significant title, as the hiveminded Borg attach no importance to individuals. (Strictly speaking, the official episode title, and the one on production records, is "I Borg" with no comma. It's still an example.)
• "I, Mudd," a Star Trek: The Original Series episode.

I, Music

• I Robot is the title of an Alan Parsons Project album, partly inspired by the Asimov collection.
• "Moi... Lolita" (I, Lolita) by Alizée.
• The band I Monster.
• "I, Hedonist" is both a song by Panopticon and the band Hedonist.
• "I Zimbra" by Talking Heads looks like an example at first glance, but given that the title and lyrics are pulled from a totally nonsensical Dadaist poem, it's doubtful whether that was the intention.
• "I, Zombie" is the title of a White Zombie song.

I, Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons: I, Tyrant is a book about beholders, which are also known as eye tyrants.

I, Theatre

• Musical about Roy Keane's controversial departure from the Republic of Ireland football team before the 2002 World Cup: I Keano

I, Video Games

• I, Robot, an arcade game released in the 80s.
• Plants vs. Zombies has the minigame mode "I, Zombie", which flips the script on the main gameplay by having you deploy zombies to tear through plant defenses.

I, Web Original

• I, Mario, the attempt at a more realistic Super Mario Bros..

I, Western Animation

• "I, Farmbot" (Big City Greens)
• "I, Breakfast Bot" (The Casagrandes, a Spin-Off series of The Loud House)
• "I, Fanbot" (Fanboy and Chum Chum)
• Futurama: "I, Roommate."
• I, Elvis Riboldi refers to the main character itself.
• "I, Brobot" (Phineas and Ferb)
• "I, D'oh- Bot," an episode of The Simpsons.
• "I, Monster" is the title of an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003). It was re-used for an episode of the 2012 reboot.

---