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Mind Screw
(aka: What Is This I Dont Even)

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Mind Screw (trope)

Everything you know is wrong
Black is white, up is down, and short is long
And everything you thought was just so important doesn't matter

Describe Mind Screw herrrrrrrrrrrrrrr𝓸𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓼 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓽𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓮 𝓬𝓸𝓵𝓸𝓻𝓮𝓭rrrrrrrrre.

The Mind Screw is something that relies so heavily on symbolism or surrealism/absurdism, or failed so extremely in an attempt at regular old coherency, that the immediate response afterwards is "What the hell was that?!?!"

These works beg for fans to invent their own improbable theories about Epileptic Trees and such.

There are several criteria for a Mind Screw, and a Mind Screw will usually fit a few of them:

While some fans can make arguments over what the symbolism means, and what everything represents, many mind screws will pad themselves with meaningless sequences to make the audience work even harder. Arguments over which sequences are significant are common. Don't expect the writer to be very helpful. And if the show has supplemental materials, don't expect them to be much help either. (If, by some miracle, they are helpful, you've got yourself a Mind Screwdriver.) The more decipherable symbolism tends to focus on the perceptions people have of one another and puberty and sex. Japanese and South Korean media often produce mind screws, particularly in the horror and psychological drama genres, because Asian audiences thrive on this type of oblique, enigmatic ambiguity. David Lynch is hugely popular in Japan for this reason.

Note that the screwing is not the kind that involves romantic candlelight, long walks on the beach and the throes of passion. Unless you're into that.

Not to be confused with Mind Rape, no matter how the audience feels, nor with the Mind Game Ship, nor Mental Affair, which is a literal mind screw, nor with the literal screws in the mind of Frankenstein's monster.

Distinct from an In-Joke, which is designed to make sense to a portion of the audience.

When trying to get the creators to explain just what the heck is going on, expect some form of Shrug of God or worse.

Examples listed are works that are either intended to provoke this reaction or have provoked this reaction in a large spectrum of the audience, but one troper's Mind Screw is another troper's Fridge Brilliance.

Sub Tropes include Gainax Ending, Dada Ad, Alien Geometries. The Ending Changes Everything is an ending that does not rely on overt symbolism for its confusing nature, but has much the same effect on viewers. When this is funny, it's Surreal Humor. When frightening, it's Surreal Horror.

Compare with True Art Is Incomprehensible, Deranged Animation and Quirky Work.

Contrast with Mind Screwdriver, where the Mind Screw elements get rationalized/explained.

See also Living Lie.


Example Subpages:

Other examples:

    Mythology and Religion 
  • The Bible:
    • The Book of Revelation, making this Older Than Feudalism. Revelation has so much symbolism that interpretations of it range from "it all already happened in the first century" to "some has already happened" to "it'll all happen sometime in the future". Interpretations on who the "Beast" is ranges from the Roman Emperor Nero (which is what most scholars think; complicated religious allegory was a popular genre in the 1st century) to the Pope to Ronald Reagan to the Mass Media to a future Skynet-like artificial intelligence to Oprah Winfrey (seriously).
    • The worst offender— the number "666" which pop culture seems to think has a very different meaning than what it really does.
      • And there are others who think the number 666 actually means nothing and the real number should be 616.
    • And that's not even getting into the Barney the Dinosaur theories...
    • Revelation is such a Mind Screw that it's the only book never read from in Orthodox Christian services. Even the priests don't claim to understand the symbolism. (Not sure how it's dealt with in other forms of Christianity.)
      • In Western European Catholic masses, passages from Revelation are not unfrequently read.
    • Made worse by John, the author, writing, "I don't have to make it clear, because you all know who I'm talking about, right? Right?" What makes this worse is that, to the 1st century readers for which the book was originally written, this all possibly did make more sense, but the passage of time has removed us from the religious and societal contexts that would've made some of it a no-brainer.
    • Genesis has its share of mindscrewy stuff (which would make an example of Bookends).
    • A lot of the Old Testament prophets get into this territory as well, what with the flaming wheels in the sky and weird human-animal hybrids and whatnot. The New Testament (for those who believe in it) acts as a Mind Screwdriver for some of this, but much of it is just plain weird.
    • Sometimes, to understand revelation, you're gonna need more revelation, where sects/religions differ.
    • The primary academic attempt at the Mind Screwdriver here is viewing it through the lens of its Genre ("apocalyptic literature"), of which the Revelation of John is but the most famous.
    • None of this even truly touches upon what is quite possible the ultimate mind screw: The Big Cheese, Himself. Just God's very concept as an omnipotent, omnipresent, all-knowing being who existed before existence existed and will exist after existence stops existing will bust your brain if you try to think about how it could be possible for too long.
      • The closest equivalent of God in fiction, according to the above description, would be HPL's Yog-Sothoth (certainly qualifying as a Mind Screw character in its own right). Not a particularly comforting thought.

    Podcasts 
  • In The Fallen Gods, Flint has a tough time wrapping his head around enchanting a dragon skull to make a helmet.
    Flint: So you're gonna take the thing that's resistant to magic...and use magic on it...to raise its resistance to magic?
  • Welcome to Night Vale: The series has its moments of mind screwing scattered about here and there, but its crowning achievement of Mind Screw is episode 67 "[Best Of?]". The episode is framed as a substitute host doing a Clip Show of regular host Cecil's past highlights while Cecil himself is on vacation. To start with, every clip takes place on or near Lee Marvin's 30th birthday regardless of the actual year, some of Cecil's broadcasts predate radio itself, a Cosmic Retcon occurs mid-clip, the final clip is Cecil describing the death of his predecessor Leonard Burton, which is followed by the substitute host, Cecil's predecessor Leonard Burton, signing off. Finally, after the episode has finished and the credits and proverb have run their course, there's a lingering silence followed by the sound of a tape deck being opened. A sound that has wrapped up every previous clip up to that point.


 
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Alternative Title(s): Mind Fuck, What Is This I Dont Even, Other

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Baby Hitler

Flyora's refusal to shoot the image of Hitler as an infant is one of the most famous scenes in the movie, indicating that even with all the horrible things he endured, there is still some degree of humanity left.

How well does it match the trope?

4.9 (10 votes)

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Main / MindScrew

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