Narrator: Hey! That's the name of the show!
If a line of dialogue is the title of the episode, movie or book, it obviously must have some great significance. If it sounds completely random, that just means the true meaning of the title has yet to be revealed. So when a character is heard using the title in dialogue, the audience sits up and takes notice, because the scriptwriter has just planted a neon sign that flashes THIS CONVERSATION IS IMPORTANT.
Note: If a series is named after a central character, setting, group, etc., it usually does not count as a Title Drop. The exceptions are when they are usually called by another name, or when the name is said in a different manner for dramatic effect, usually when introducing the namesake. Hence, Transformers, The West Wing, House, and things like that don't qualify, and are better examples of the trope Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Often, the Title Drop will finally explain why the episode/book/etc is called that way to begin with. If this explanation comes by showing instead of by telling (i.e. it is not actually spoken aloud by any of the characters), then it's The Namesake.
A second variety of Title Drop is the Finale Title Drop, occurs when the title of a work is used as the last line spoken or near its end. Here, it's not nearly as big and flashy and important as the first variety, but it still explains things to the audience a bit more. You can probably find these mainly in thriller works, where it makes you sit up and think (and adds a bit of drama to the ending). It's also common in plays that were written during the Victorian era. A third variety is Title Drop Chapter, in which a chapter of a written work or an episode of a serial work has the same title as the whole work; this often is used for important developments. A fourth variety is the Visual Title Drop in which the title may be represented visually, in a particular shot composition or by placing a particular object in the frame; this is most often used in the same way, to draw attention to something important or to emphasize a theme.
Title Drops aren't always deliberate or premeditated (i.e. the writer takes the title and inserts it for effect). Sometimes the creative process runs the other way, and a phrase from the body of the work will be picked out and used as the title (sometimes the title is the last thing to be nailed down). This often happens with a Title Drop Anthology, where the stories are often written months or years before they are collected in a single volume.
Compare with Justified Title, Title Theme Tune. See also Arc Words, Appropriated Appellation, Title Scream, Singer Namedrop, and Album Title Drop. Often combined with a Literary Allusion Title. The opposite of this trope is Non-Appearing Title, but see also Nonindicative Name and Word Salad Title for titles that are very obscure, confusing, or abstract, with little obvious connection to the subject matter. When a title of a series was once accurate and descriptive, but has since become obscure or out-of-date, it has an Artifact Title.
See a video collection of Title Drops here
, and a channel dedicated to them here.
Example subpages:
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Fan Works
- Films — Animated
- Films — Live-Action
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Music
- Theatre
- Video Games
- Web Animation
- Webcomics
- Web Original
- Western Animation
Other examples:
- "Victory by Computer": When all is said and done, Supergirl states that "[Luthor]'d probably never believe his scheme was done in by a class of sixth graders... who gained a victory with the help of microcomputers!"
- Calvin and Hobbes: Many of the collection books take their names from lines within popular comic strips, typically Sunday specials. Examples include:
- Something Under The Bed Is Drooling
- Yukon Ho!
- Weirdos From Another Planet
- The Revenge of the Baby-Sat, from the February 09, 1989 strip.
- Scientific Progress Goes "Boink"
- Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons
- The Days Are Just Packed
- Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat
- There's Treasure Everywhere
- It's A Magical World
- The "final" strip of For Better or for Worse has a title drop at the end of the final panel of the nominal (it's complicated) Last Strip Ever.
- The January 9, 2008 strip of Pearls Before Swine has a Title Drop responded to by cheering, noisemakers, confetti, balloons and a rubber chicken dropping down from the ceiling with the title card, in an obvious Shout-Out to You Bet Your Life:
Rat: That was odd.
- Asbjørnsen and Moe's "East of the Sun and West of the Moon": After the heroine blows the Curse Escape Clause, the male lead exclaims
"I must leave you, and go to her. She lives in a castle which lies east of the sun and west of the moon."
- In Franz Xaver von Schönwerth's "The Three Flowers", also called "White as Milk, Red as Blood", Katie is described in the next terms: "She was a beautiful girl, white as milk, red as blood."
- "Follow Me, Jodel!": Every time the titular character is wondering how can he beat his father's challenges, a friendly talking toad approaches him and offers her help by telling: "Follow me, Jodel!"
- My Beloved Mother does this in the (chronologically) last page, when Sinbell places a carved stone plaque with the book's title on the foot of the statue he dedicates to his mother... after spending the past 17 years of his life disowning her.
- "I'm Captain B. Zarr! Almost live from The Party Zone!"
- "Welcome, race fans, to Banzai Run!"
- Twilight Zone: Rod Serlingnote regularly puts Title Drops in his voice clips.
"Time is a one way street...except in the Twilight Zone."
"Dance with the Devil at your own risk...in the Twilight Zone."
"The stakes are higher...in the Twilight Zone."
"It's time to tune in to...the Twilight Zone."
"Never underestimate the Power...in the Twilight Zone." - One possible start-up quote from Attack from Mars contains one of these:
"Reports are coming in from all over the world... The Earth is under attack! An attack... from Mars!"
- When going to "Stiff-O-Meter" mode in Scared Stiff:
The Stiff in the Coffin: Turn out the lights, it's time to get Scared Stiff!
- The Attract Mode of Black Hole has a Machine Monotone voice asking "Do you dare to enter the black hole?"
- An alternate one goes "No one escapes the black hole!"
- Done in one of the Attract Mode displays for Big Bang Bar.
- A variation occurs in Metallica, where the titles of the band's various songs and albums are used throughout the game, especially in the callouts and game modes.
- "Pin Bot...circuits...activated!"
- "Fast Break" is one of the combo shots in NBA Fastbreak.
- In Total Nuclear Annihilation, destroying every reactor nets the player a "Total (Nuclear) Annihilation" bonus.
- Downplayed in Mousin' Around!. Starting a game plays a soundbite that ends with a slight variation on the machine's actual name: "So you wanna mouse around?"
- In Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (2023), shortly after beginning Captain Cutler Multiball, a frightened Shaggy exclaims the game's title verbatim: "Scooby-Doo, where are you?"
- Near the end of the Firefly game of Cool Kids Table. After Kimmi finds the stash of high-quality fuel rods, she declares that they've found "the Motherlode", which also happens to be the name of the pre-made story being played.
- In the Escape from Vault Disney! episode discussing the film The Ghosts Of Buxley Hall, Tony makes fun of the one present that film, in which the title is dramatically exclaimed followed by another character they see as an Italian stereotype exclaiming "Mamma Mia!", immediately cutting to commercial break. Tony then says every title drop in film should be structured the same way, playing a clip where Doc Brown says the title of Back to the Future followed up with another "Mamma Mia!".
- Invoked in episode three of Mystery Show, which starts with Starlee and her client naming the episode:
Carson: Okay, so, what two words do you know about my mystery?
Starlee: Belt Buckle.
Carson: That is a good title for it. - In episode 12 of Sequinox, Sid cites the title of that and the previous episode during her internal monologue.
Sid (transatlantically): The trouble with dames is that dames is trouble.
- Towards the end of the first episode of Sporadic Phantoms, Robin calls their concerns about The Sharing "a sporadic phantom of a thought".
- Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard did this on every Ring of Honor show they did commentary on if it had a title that could be dropped.
- A more literal case happened during the "8 Mile Street Fight" at the 2006 "Bound For Glory" when Christian Cage hit Rhino with an 8 Mile street sign.
- Our Miss Brooks: Every so often, Miss Brooks would be introduced as "Our Miss Brooks" just for the fun of dropping the title of the program. One example appears in "The Grudge Match" where Mr. Conklin introduces "Our Miss Brooks" as the ringside commentator.
- Paul Harvey: "And now you know...the rest of the story!"
- You Bet Your Life (Groucho Marx's radio comedy quiz series):
George Fenneman: Ladies and gentlemen, don't tell a soul, but the secret word tonight is <word>. W-O-R-D.Groucho Marx: Really?!George Fenneman: You bet your life!
- The first episode of The BBC's 1981 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings begins with a pre-credit narration giving the history of the Ring, ending with the words:
Narrator: There it was hidden, even from the searching Eye of Sauron - The Lord of the Rings! (Underscore swells into opening theme tune)
- Big Finish Doctor Who: "For the church and the crown!" becomes the Battle Cry of the united force of Musketeers and Cardinal's Guards in The Church and the Crown.
- Dimension X's "Pebble in the Sky": This episode uses the title early in the story, describing Earth as an ignored backwater planet, inconsequential to the Galactic Superpower of humanity. It then ends with the title, as Bel Arvardan predicts that Earth will be the only planet left with human beings, describing it as alone and lonely.
- The Opening Monologue of The Six Shooter ends with a title drop:
"The man in the saddle is angular and long-legged. His skin is sun-dyed brown. The gun in his holster is gray steel and rainbow mother-of-pearl, its handle unmarked. People call them both 'the Six Shooter'."
- All Flesh Must Be Eaten is both the title of the game and the default feeding option in zombie creation.
- In the dice/word game Crashword, spelling the word "Crashword" on your turn is an Instant-Win Condition.
- No Case Should Remain Unsolved: One of the reasons the Adjudicator is pushing the protagonist to revisit That One Case and finally solve it is because she believes that no case should remain unsolved.
