The creaton of comedian Graham Fellows, Jilted John was the unlucky-in-love narrator of an eponymous 1978 hit single and its follow-up album True Love Stories.
Tropes:
- Age-Progression Song: "I Was A Pre-Pubescent" tells us about John's life from birth to his early teens.
- Antagonist Title: "Shirley" is about a woman who all-but kidnaps John.
- Concept Album: True Love Stories follows John's story from birth through to shortly after he leaves school.
- "Dear John" Letter: Karen breaks up with John via one of these.
- Did Not Get the Girl: He's called "Jilted" John for a reason.
- Ephebophile: The eponymous antagonist of the song "Shirley".
- Growing Up Sucks: A running theme in True Love Stories, and addressed specifically in "I Was A Pre-Pubescent".
- Non-Appearing Title: "Jilted John".
- Packaged as Other Medium: The sleeve of True Love Stories is designed to resemble a teen romance comic.
- Protagonist Title: "Jilted John".
- Rearrange the Song: The album version of "Jilted John" itself sounds quite different to the single, since it's done on keyboards rather than as a mock-punk guitar strum.
- Self-Demonstrating Song:
- John's singing goes flat when he refers to voices breaking in "I Was A Pre-Pubescent".
- He also calls out "interlude!" before the instrumental breaks in "Fancy Mice".
- Shout-Out: "Baz's Party" refers to bands of the glam rock era:And Mott the Hoople are really great!
- The Something Song: "The Paperboy Song".
