Sometimes, viewers just don't do what you expect them to do. You try to show drama, and people just laugh. You try to give fans what they want, and they complain further. This is a list of all the tropes about the effects of, or causes of, the unexpected.
Note that sometimes, the reaction is intended.
See also It Sucks, Scrappy Index, and What Do You Mean, It's Not an Index?.
- Accidental Aesop — Viewers read a moral you didn't intend.
- Accidental Innuendo — Dirty mental images.
- Accidental Nightmare Fuel — Fear.
- Aluminum Christmas Trees — The audience thinks a Real Life reference is something you just made up.
- Americans Hate Tingle — Foreign countries or cultures strongly dislike your work.
- Audience-Coloring Adaptation — Permanent coloring of the franchise.
- Best Known for the Fanservice — Your work's merits are ignored because people liked the fanservice instead.
- Breakout Character — One of your minor characters is so popular that s/he becomes a major character.
- Breakout Villain — A minor villain gets a bigger role through popularity.
- Broken Aesop — Viewers mock your Aesop because you undermined it yourself.
- Broken Base — Your fans turn on each other.
- Captain Obvious Aesop — Viewers mock your Aesop because it's something everyone should already know.
- Clueless Aesop — Viewers mock your Aesop because of the clumsy presentation.
- Creator's Pet — Suspicion that the only people who genuinely like the character are the creators.
- Damsel Scrappy — Viewers hate the character for being useless and only being trouble to others.
- Disappointing Last Level — The players have no interest in finishing the game.
- Do Not Do This Cool Thing — That horrible thing you warned people not to do looks really freaking awesome!!!
- Draco in Leather Pants — The villain is just too sexy/cool/sad to be truly evil.
- Dude, Not Funny! — Your audience is offended instead of amused.
- Eight Deadly Words — No emotional investment in the characters ("I don't care what happens to these people.")
- Ending Fatigue — "It's still not over?"
- Arc Fatigue — "Can we get to the next storyline already?"
- Ensemble Dark Horse — Interest in a (relatively minor) character.
- Esoteric Happy Ending — You, the author, are the only one who thinks the ending's happy.
- Ethnic Scrappy — Viewers hate the character for being an ethnic stereotype.
- Failure Hero — This guy never wins. Ever.
- Family-Unfriendly Aesop — Viewers reject your Aesop because it contradicts their ethics.
- Fan-Preferred Couple — Emotional investment in a romance you're not writing (probably in lieu of the one you are).
- Fantastic Aesop — Viewers mock your Aesop because it could never apply in the real world (e.g. "Never bring people back from the dead.")
- Fetish Retardant — Lack of arousal.
- Game-Breaker — Beating the game much faster than intended, or utterly destroying Player Versus Player balance.
- Generic Doomsday Villain — A villain with no backstory to flesh out his character.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff — Foreign countries or cultures really like your work.
- Ham and Cheese — Your actors realise the movie's bad and make the most of it.
- Humor Dissonance — Lack of amusement.
- Iconic Sequel Character — A character introduced in the sequel rises to become one of the most prominent parts of a franchise
- Iconic Sequel Song — A song introduced in a later work becomes iconic of the franchise it originated from
- Inferred Holocaust — The viewers realize that your Happy Ending isn't happy because everyone's going to die.
- Internet Backdraft — You said something innocuous and somehow touched off a flamewar.
- Invincible Hero — Of course the hero will win! There's no way this guy could lose! Ever!
- Invincible Villain — Will someone beat this guy already?
- Jerk Ass Dissonance — Affection and/or admiration for a Jerk Ass character.
- Jumping the Shark — The moment — usually perceived in hindsight — when a work begins to decline in quality and/or alienate most of its fanbase.
- "Just Joking" Justification — "Hey, don't get mad, I was kidding when I said that extremely offensive thing!"
- Kick the Son of a Bitch — A villain Kicks the Dog, but it doesn't pack the right punch because the audience thinks the target deserved it.
- Like You Would Really Do It — The audience fails to respond to an emotional moment because they aren't fooled.
- Lost Aesop — Viewers mock your Aesop because it was unclear just what you were going for.
- Mary Sue — The character is too perfect to be real.
- Magnum Opus Dissonance — The work that you poured your heart and soul into gets tepid if not nasty reviews, while the work you threw together in five minutes makes you famous and successful.
- Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales — A cultural group embraces a caricature of themselves.
- Misaimed Fandom — Misdirected audience sympathy.
- Narm — A moment meant to be serious or tragic made the audience laugh instead.
- Nausea Fuel — Sickness.
- Never Live It Down — You did it once, but they've never let you forget it.
- Nightmare Retardant — Groaning or laughter instead of fear.
- Opening a Can of Clones — You've introduced Doppelgangers, and the fans now think no one will be Killed Off for Real.
- Periphery Demographic — A fanbase outside of the target audience.
- Periphery Hatedom — Everyone outside a very limited demographic hates the character.
- Poe's Law — You intended it as an obvious parody, yet some people took it seriously. Conversely, you meant every word of it, and get annoyed when people praise it as a witty satire of your own position.
- The Red Stapler — A work which features a real-life product affects consumer demand for that product (usually by increasing it).
- Pet Fad Starter — A work which features a certain type of animal creates demand for that animal as a pet, which may or may not be a good thing for the owner or the animal.
- Replacement Scrappy — The new actor or substitute gets hate simply because he isn't the old one.
- Ron the Death Eater — The hero is demonized by the authors and viewers despite the fact that he/she has done nothing truly evil.
- Rooting for the Empire — People find your villains more heroic or likable than your heroes
- Running the Asylum — You have creative control over your favorite show, but the audience hates your self-indulgent characters and plotlines.
- The Scrappy — Viewers hate the character.
- Scrappy Mechanic — Players are infuriated when you wanted them to feel intrigued or challenged.
- Shipping Goggles — Viewers have decided two characters are sexually attracted to each other, and nothing you do can change their minds.
- Smurfette Breakout — The lone female character becomes popular and receives more exposure than the males.
- Snark Bait — Viewers love (getting together and mocking) your show.
- So Bad, It's Good — Viewers love your show for its flaws, not its merits.
- So Okay, It's Average — Viewers don't find your show to be notable for its merits or its flaws. Note that despite the trope name it is anything but okay for a show to be labeled as such.
- Squick — Viewers are disgusted.
- Space Whale Aesop — Viewers mock your Aesop because the consequences are ridiculous.
- Springtime for Hitler — Oh, Crap!! This intentionally terrible, horrible show is a hit.
- Stop Being Stereotypical — A member of a group criticizes other members for demonstrating negative stereotypes.
- Strawman Has a Point — Fridge Logic turns the author's victory in The War on Straw to a standoff or defeat.
- Stupid Sacrifice — Viewers are angry instead of touched at the character's sacrifice.
- That One Boss — Controller shot-put.
- That One Level — Controller skeet shooting.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character — The audience is disappointed that a character did not get as much focus as they thought they deserved.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot — Viewers who followed your show to its conclusion are disappointed with the payoff.
- Took the Bad Film Seriously — An actor gives a more-dramatic-than-needed performance.
- Unfortunate Implications — Viewers are offended.
- Unintentionally Sympathetic — Sympathy for a character that was supposed to be unsympathetic.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic — No sympathy for a character that was supposed to be sympathetic.
- Unpleasable Fanbase — Changing the work to satisfy fan complaints leads to more complaining (possibly even from the same fans who complained before).
- Unpopular Popular Character — A character who is unpopular in-universe is beloved by the fanbase.
- Unprovoked Pervert Payback — The scene that is supposed to end as Accidental Pervert but didn't.
- The Un-Twist — Twist expected where the actual ending is straightforward.
- Values Dissonance — Offends viewers outside the culture in which it was written, or after a major shift in general attitudes within a culture.
- Viewer Gender Confusion — Carries Unfortunate Implications no matter which way you mistake it.
- Viewers in Mourning — Fans treating the death of a fictional character as if an actual person had died.
- Villain Decay — People take your villains less seriously than you wanted them to.
- What Do You Mean, It's for Kids? — Assuming a work is for more mature audiences.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic? — Assuming a work is all about analyzing it.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids? — Assuming a work is family friendly.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not for Little Girls? — Assuming a Moe show is intended for young girls because it's cute and sparkly.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Political? — Assuming a work has political overtones.
- What Measure Is a Non-Badass? — You wish he/she was cooler.
- Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things — The media creator assume they are doing something nice, and the fans arrogantly treat them like crap for it.
- Why Would Anyone Take Him Back? — Instead of squeeing over the Official Couple's reunion, thinking that at least one of them was probably better off single.
- X-Pac Heat — Hate for the actual people behind a wrestler.
- Yank the Dog's Chain — The viewers know that when something good happens to a character, it's not gonna last.
