From the studio that brought you Enchanted!note
Sometimes when a work wants to sound comedic and edgy, or maybe just easy to remember, it will adopt a title consisting of One Word; a verb in the past perfect
tense. That is, presenting something as both in the past and completed. "Finished" rather than "was finishing".
The verb in the title was also chosen likely because it applies to a character, or something else in the story.
Occasionally they'll even take a word that isn't a verb and make it into one. This trend seems to go in and out of style, though currently it seems to be in vogue once again.
This trope doesn't always transfer well across languages, and works will often be given more self-explanatory titles overseas. In Russian, for example, it doesn't sound any kind of comedic or edgy. That's why Tangled was released in Russia as Rapunzel: A Tangled Story.
A Sub-Trope of One-Word Title.
Note: When adding examples, please give whatever context you can, even if it's as simple as "It's called 'Empowered' because it's a Protagonist Title and that's the main character's codename." If Word of God or Word of Saint Paul exists for why the title was chosen, give that.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Catnapped!
- Scryed
- The North American dub of Sailor Moon had an episode entitled "Treed".
Arts
Comic Books
- The first arc in Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men was called "Gifted", an allusion to the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.
- Empowered: It's the codename of a superheroine, so also a Protagonist Title.
- Hexed: Named for the protagonist's condition.
- Hunted
- Ungrounded
Fan Works
- Always Visible: It’s a stretch, but the name itself is Always Visible.
- Cursed (The Last Mockingbird9)
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: Captured!: Ami and the mercenaries get captured by an enemy Keeper.
- Triptych Continuum: A few times:
- The stories:
- Chapters:
- A Series Of Egotistical Events, Grounded, the final chapter.
- A Series Of Egotistical Events, Grounded
- Quizzical: Multiple:
- Thweet Geniuth: Busted.
- Basements of Doom:
- Chapter 2: Pony-napped.
- Chapter 7: Zapped!.
- Chapter 2: Pony-napped
- Thweet Geniuth: Busted
- Derailed: A Pun-Based Title because it involves a train trip gone awry.
- Adjacency: The fifth chapter, "Scattered".
- Friday Night Funkin' Online VS.:
- Pico's new song against the Uberkids is called "Unloaded" as a reference to the Mindchamber animation that it's based off of, which is itself referencing The Matrix 2 Reloaded.
- In a less transparent example, [[Web Animation/Eddsworld Eduardo]]'s song is called "Challeng-Edd", which is a Portman Title of "challenged" and "Edd".
Films — Animated
- Frozen, which had the working title of Anna and the Snow Queen and kept it in at least one country (Japan). In an interview with Bleeding Cool in September 2013, Producer Peter Del Vecho explained the new name was a Double-Meaning Title referring to the snowy environment that dominates throughout the film and the frozen sisterly relationship that is the focus of the story, plus the frozen heart motif.
- Hoodwinked!: Titled as such because not only is the main character named Little Red Riding Hood, but all the characters are hoodwinked (i.e. misled) by the film's Hidden Villain.
- Tangled: Originally titled Rapunzel, it was renamed to appeal to a wider audience (the producers were afraid that the movie would get stuck in the Girl-Show Ghetto if it was named after the female lead).
Films — Live-Action
- 4Closed
- Accepted
- Afflicted
- Allied
- Amsterdamned
- Ambushed
- Bamboozled
- Bedazzled (1967)
- Bedazzled (2000)
- Bedeviled
- Begotten
- Bent
- Blooded: Takes its title from the ritual of daubing a new hunter's cheeks with blood following their first kill. This happens in the film to Eve, and Ben explains the tradition as he does it, making it also a Title Drop.
- Bodied
- Botched
- Bound (1996)
- Branded (2012)
- Buried
- Bushwhacked
- Caged
- Carved
- Chained
- Contracted
- Cornered!
- Crazed
- Cursed
- DeceivedT
- Derailed (2002)
- Derailed (2005)
- Dismissed
- Elevated
- Enchanted
- Exiled
- Fallen
- Flipped
- found.
- Freaked
- Gifted
- Godmothered
- Hardwired
- Hired!
- Hunted (1952)
- Marooned
- Moonstruck
- Obsessed
- Outsourced
- Paid
- Possessed (1931)
- Repossessed
- Savaged
- Saved!
- Screwed
- Scrooged: An example of the made-up-word variant.
- Spellbound
- Strapped
- Taken
- Tormented (1960)
- Tormented (2009)
- Thunderstruck
- Uncaged
- Undefeated
- Undisputed
- Unforgiven, a Deconstructed Western.
- Unfriended
- Unhinged
- Uninhabited
- Uninvited
- Unleashed: Originally titled Danny the Dog, probably also changed to invoke this trope.
- Wanted
- Zapped:
Literature
- Naomi Novik's Uprooted.
- Terry Wogan's book Banjaxed.
- Flawed: Naming the concept that is the central point of the world of the novel.
- Flipped
- Enchanted
- Haunted:
- Kidnapped
- Matched: About a girl who has been Matched to some boy. And its sequels:
- Crossed
- Reached
- Fully half of the titles from Kelley Armstrong's The Otherworld series:
- Bitten
- Stolen
- Haunted
- Broken
- Frostbitten
- Spellbound
- Desmond Warzel's short story, "Called".
- Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 has a cheesy family film called Cashiered.
- Repossessed
- The House of Night: All 12 books of this series are past tense verbs:
- Marked
- Betrayed
- Chosen
- Untamed
- Hunted
- Tempted
- Burned
- Awakened
- Destined
- Hidden
- Revealed
- Redeemed
- Iron Druid Chronicles: Some of its books:
- Hounded
- Hexed
- Hammered
- Tricked
- Trapped
- Hunted
- Shattered
- There Is No Epic Loot Here, Only Puns: "Catfished", due to involving fishing and a catfish.
Live-Action TV
- Accused
- Banished
- Bewitched
- Bitten
- Branded (1965)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer had episodes titled:
- "Flooded"
- "Smashed"
- "Wrecked"
- "Gone" (That's an irregular verb).
- Bunk'd
- Busted! (Literally The Criminal is Gone in the original Korean.)
- Charmed
- Chopped
- Delocated
- Dis/Connected
- Disjointed
- Enlisted
- Enlightened
- Excused
- Hounded
- Infested
- Justified
- Kidnapped (NBC Cop Show)
- Kidnapped (MTV Game Show)
- Lost
- Mortified: Describes how the central character usually feels.
- Outnumbered
- Outsourced
- Pranked
- Privileged
- Punk'd: Creator of the 'd variant that has begun to show up more often. When Jeff Bridges hosted Saturday Night Live there was a commercial for his new show Jeff'd, which was a really lame version of Punk'd.
- Scorpion: Some episodes:
- "Shorthanded"
- "Fractured"
- Shafted
- Spaced
- Spirited
- Switched: "Switched" refers to the body switching that happens in the story, but it subtly refers to how Umine's and Ayumi's world views have changed by the end of the story.
- Taken
- Tanked
- Torn
- Trapped:
- Trashed
- Trollied
- Twisted (2013)
- Undeclared
- Undressed: Referencing how that state is a requirement for most sex, and it features frank discussion of sex and sexuality, as well showing a lot of fanservice from both men and women and sex scenes that pushed what could be shown on basic cable.
- Unforgotten
- Unwrapped
- The Walking Dead: At least one episode, "Claimed".
- Warped! (its episode titles are titled this way as well)
- Wrecked
Magazines
- The now-defunct Cracked Magazine, as well as the current website spawned from its ashes.
Music
- "Busted:
- The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band's "Busted".
- There's also "Busted" by Harlan Howard, made famous by Ray Charles and Johnny Cash,
- The Phineas and Ferb song "B-U-S-T-E-D".
- Also the group, Busted.
- Son of Svengoolie's last show had the song "Cancelled."
- Extremely common in Disturbed's discography. In fact you can sum up the entire discography of as Verbed Title, Adjective Noun, The X of Y, or The Something.
Tabletop Games
Video Games
- Bejeweled
- Blasted
- Bound
- Capsized
- Captured
- Condemned: Criminal Origins
- Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
- Craz'd!
- Dishonored
- Exhumed
- FORCED
- Loaded and its sequel Re-Loaded
- Shackled
- Sheltered
- Stolen
- Stranded
- Submerged
- Sundered
- Suspended
- Toonstruck
- Twisted: The Game Show
- Unavowed
- Uncharted
- Uninvited
- UNLOVED
- The subtitles to WarioWare games are often named this way. So far there's been:
- Twisted: The subtitle Twisted! refers to its Game Boy Advance cartridge having a built-in gyroscope, allowing the game to showcase microgames that revolve around tilting the handheld system.
- Touched: Being a Nintendo DS game, the game is subtitled Touched! to reference the reliance on the system's touch screen to play microgames (the microphone is used as well).
- Snapped: The game revolves around the player making use of the photograh shots taken at their face and hands in order to play microgames, hence the subtitle Snapped!
- Whacked!
Webcomics
- Concerned
- Homestuck
- League of Super Redundant Heroes: Comic 281: "Haunted", named for ascribing flying spatulas to ghosts. Of pancakes.
- Shortpacked!
- Thunderstruck
Web Videos
- Pokémon Talk: "Animated", where the Pokemon are animated instead of plushies.
- Unraveled: Also a Double-Meaning Title: "Unraveled" refers both to BDG picking apart the lore of the games at the seams, and the lore picking him apart at the seams.
Western Animation
- Big City Greens: Multiple episode titles have been formatted this way, such as "Gridlocked", "Raccooned", "Uncaged", "Skunked, "Clubbed", "Desserted", "Chipwrecked", "Squashed!", and "Takened".
- Cellbound
- Committed
- Looped
- The Loud House: It's common for a special (and before Season 5, other Extra-Long Episodes) to be titled this way with an exclamation mark at the end (e.g. "Tricked!", "Tripped!", "Cooked!", "Schooled!", "Ghosted!"). The Spin-Off The Casagrandes uses the title convention for some of its own specials too ("Cursed!").
- Rejected
- Spliced
- Stōked
- Unsupervised
- Episode 3A of Recess was titled "Jinxed".
- Steven Universe: "Bubbled": Steven is stuck in a bubble in outer space.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: The episode, "Imprisoned".
- The Grand Finale of Star vs. the Forces of Evil was titled "Cleaved".
Tropes
