Morality Tropes | Sex, Sexuality, and Rape Tropes | You are here | Impossible in Real Life | Too Common | Too Controversial | Gossip and Stereotypes
"In a movie, a character can make a decision and then walk away from the camera across the street and make the credits roll, freezing life in a perfect happily ever after. But in the real world, after you cross the street... you have to go home. The world goes on."
— Jack Angstreich, Cinemania (2002)
These tropes, for which evidence in Real Life is disputed, require an author of a story to make a conscious storytelling decision, or otherwise involve the context within or outside of a work. Compare Impossible in Real Life, which involves In-Universe scenarios that can't happen in the real world.
- Adventure-Friendly World
- Aerith and Bob
- Almost Kiss - Also a sex trope.
- Alternate Aesop Interpretation
- Aluminum Christmas Trees
- America Won World War II
- And the Adventure Continues
- And I Must Scream
- Anticlimax Boss
- Anyone Can Die - also too common because indeed, anyone in Real Life can die.
- Arch-Enemy - Also a morality trope.
- The Art of Bra Removal
- Astronomic Zoom
- Babies Ever After
- Badass Baritone
- Bald Head of Toughness
- Bald of Authority
- Beautiful All Along - Also a sexuality trope.
- Bespectacled Cutie – Also too common in real life and a sexuality trope.
- "Better if Not Born" Plot - Saying somebody shouldn't have been born is not a good idea and there is no way in real life to see or visit an alternate timeline where they weren't.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment
- Bittersweet Ending
- Black Dude Dies First
- Black Vikings
- Breaking the Fourth Wall
- Broken Aesop
- Broken Bird
- Broke Episode
- Bullet Time
- Bury Your Gays
- Butt-Monkey - We all run into bad luck now and then. We can't know for sure who has it worse, and that doesn't mean it was meant to be that way.
- Cast Herd
- Censored Child Death
- Character Derailment
- Chekhov's Gunman
- The Chosen One
- The Chosen Many
- Chummy Commies
- Contrived Coincidence
- Conveniently Close Planet
- Cool Old Guy - also too common
- Cool Old Lady - also too common
- Corrupted Character Copy - also a morality trope.
- Crapsaccharine World - also too controversial.
- Crapsack World - also too controversial.
- Curb-Stomp Cushion
- Darker and Edgier - It was also being used for complaining about the state of the world.
- Darkest Hour
- Day of the Jackboot
- Defied Trope
- Delicate and Sickly - sadly, also too common.
- Deus ex Machina
- Diabolus ex Machina
- Disney Death
- Disposable Sex Worker - Also a sex trope
- Disposable Woman
- Downer Beginning
- Downer Ending
- Drink-Based Characterization
- Dropped a Bridge on Him
- Drugs Are Bad
- Dysfunction Junction
- Dystopia Is Hard
- Early-Installment Weirdness
- Earth Is Young
- Emotionless Girl
- Ending Fatigue
- Ensemble Dark Horse
- "Everybody Dies" Ending
- Everything Trying to Kill You
- Evil Counterpart - also a morality trope.
- Extra-Strength Masquerade
- Failure Is the Only Option
- Fake-Out Twist
- Fan-Preferred Couple
- Fantastic Caste System
- Fantastic Honorifics
- Fantastic Naming Convention
- Fantastic Rank System
- Five-Token Band
- Flanderization
- Forbidden Chekhov's Gun
- Foregone Conclusion
- Forehead of Doom
- Foreshadowing
- Four-Temperament Ensemble
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You - real life is not a television series
- Gasshole
- Gay Best Friend
- Gay Panic - also too common
- Genius Cripple
- Genre-Busting
- Gentle Giant - also too common
- Getting Crap Past the Radar
- Gonk
- Grand Finale
- Gratuitous Nazis
- Great Offscreen War - There is no such thing as "offscreen" in Real Life, making it also impossible. And no, "before you were born" doesn't count.
- Grim Up North
- Growing the Beard
- Happy Ending Override
- Hate Sink - Also too controversial and a morality trope.
- Head-Turning Beauty - Also a sexuality trope.
- Hereditary Suicide - also a controversial trope.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation
- Holding Back the Phlebotinum
- Hollywood Pudgy
- Hope Spot
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl - Also too common
- Hufflepuff House
- Humor Dissonance
- Icy Blue Eyes
- Idiot Ball
- Idiot Hero - Real Life doesn’t have a protagonist
- Informed Ability
- Informed Attractiveness
- Informed Flaw
- Informed Loner
- In Medias Res
- Internet Safety Aesop
- Invincible Hero - also impossible in real life.
- Iron Woobie
- It Will Never Catch On
- Jeanne d'Archétype
- Joker Immunity - Also impossible in real life.
- Keet
- Killed Off for Real - All deaths in real life are irreversible, making it also too common.
- Large and in Charge
- Large Ham - also too common.
- Lascivious Beauty Mark
- Late-Arrival Spoiler
- Lighter and Softer
- Littlest Cancer Patient - also sadly too common.
- Living in a Furniture Store
- MacGuffin
- Malcolm Xerox
- Manifesto-Making Malcontent
- Mauve Shirt
- Middle School Is Miserable - also too common and too controversial.
- Million to One Chance
- Misaimed Fandom
- Mr. Fanservice - No one exists solely to be attractive; also a sexuality trope.
- Ms. Fanservice - Same as above.
- Mood Whiplash
- New Job as the Plot Demands
- New Powers as the Plot Demands
- No Backwards Compatibility in the Future
- No Ending
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed
- Nothing Is Scarier
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore
- Not the First Victim - Also a morality trope.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome
- One Head Taller - Also too common
- One-Steve Limit
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business - also too common
- The One Guy
- Pair the Spares
- Parents as People
- Permanently Missable Content – Real life is not a video game.
- Plot Armor
- Plot-Sensitive Button
- Pompous Political Pundit
- Progressively Prettier
- Put on a Prison Bus
- Reality Is Unrealistic
- Red Oni, Blue Oni - also too common
- Redshirt
- Redshirt Army
- Religious Horror
- Replacement Pedestal
- Replacement Scrappy
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap - also attracts complaints.
- Reverse Whodunnit
- Riddle for the Ages - also too common
- Rules of the Road
- The Scrappy - Also attracted complaining.
- Sequel Displacement
- Serial Escalation
- Shirtless Scene
- Single-Attempt Game
- The Smurfette Principle
- Sound-Only Death
- Sorting Algorithm of Deadness
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad
- Status Quo Is God
- Straw Affiliation
- Straw Character
- Straw Critic
- Straw Feminist
- Straw Hypocrite
- Strawman Has a Point
- Strawman News Media
- Straw Misogynist
- Straw Vegetarian
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome
- Take That, Scrappy! – Calling a real person a scrappy is not a good idea.
- Talking Animal - Too few real life examples, and misuse.
- Team Rocket Wins
- Theory of Narrative Causality
- This Loser Is You - also induces controversy.
- Throw-Away Country
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl - Also too common
- Troubled Teen
- Token Enemy Minority
- Token Lesbian
- Token Minority
- Token Minority Couple
- Token Religious Teammate
- Token Trio
- Token White
- Token Wholesome
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring
- Town with a Dark Secret
- Toxic Phlebotinum
- Troperiffic
- Tsundere - Also a morality trope that is too common in real life – most Real Life Jerkasses would fall somewhere on the Tsundere spectrum, making listing them pointless.
- Twofer Token Minority
- Underdogs Never Lose
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee
- Villain Over for Dinner
- Villain Protagonist - Also a morality trope
- The Von Trope Familynote
- Voodoo Shark
- Wacky Americans Have Wacky Names
- War Is Glorious - Also too controversial and a morality trope.
- Wham Episode - Real Life is not (to the best of our knowledge) pre-scripted.
- Wham Line
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
- The Woobie - It would also attract gushing if we allowed examples.
- Woobie Species
- The Worf Effect
- Wretched Hive - A city having a high crime rate in real life has no further meaning. Also too common.
- Wrong Assumption
- Wrong Genre Savvy – Real life doesn't have a genre.
- Yank the Dog's Chain
- Young Future Famous People
