Morality Tropes | Sex, Sexuality, and Rape Tropes | Narrative, Characterization, and Plot Tropes | Impossible in Real Life | You are here | Too Controversial | Gossip and Stereotypes
“Most people have met someone like this.”
— From the (now cut) Real Life section of Extreme Doormat
These tropes are so commonly observed in our reality that listing many or all of the occurrences of any of them would make a trope page incredibly unwieldy, or else force the addition of overly general examples, and marginalize fictional examples that are the focus of this wiki. Tropes that are People Sit on Chairs in real life often belong here if they aren't stereotypes or narrative elements. Contrast Impossible in Real Life, which is the exact opposite.
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder
- Abusive Parents — also a morality trope
- Accidental Murder
- Accidental Suicide
- Accidentally Real Fake Address - whenever someone makes up an address or a phone number, there's always a possibility that it will end up being real.
- Agony of the Feet
- The Alcoholic
- Alcoholic Parent
- Alliterative Name
- Almost Famous Name
- Amicable Exes
- Artistic License – Gun Safety
- Ascended Fanboy
- Ate His Gun
- Awesome Mc Coolname
- Badass Army
- Balloon Belly - Some animals and even humans can get this, usually if they eat too much food at once.
- Berserk Button
- Bespectacled Cutie - Also both a characterization and sexuality trope.
- Beware the Nice Ones
- Big Eater
- Big Friendly Dog
- Bold Explorer
- Break the Cutie
- Broken Pedestal - Also too controversial.
- The Bully
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday
- But Not Too Black
- But Not Too Foreign
- Can't Hold His Liquor
- Captain Obvious
- Cassandra Truth
- Celebrating the Heroes
- Cheated Death, Died Anyway
- Coattail-Riding Relative
- "Common Knowledge"
- Complaining About Things You Haven't Paid For
- Cool Car - Too YMMV when applied to real life; what constitutes "cool" varies greatly from person to person.
- Cool Plane - Too YMMV when applied to real life; what constitutes "cool" varies greatly from person to person
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot
- Crack Is Cheaper
- Crowd Song
- Cyberbullying
- Deadpan Snarker
- Didn't Think This Through
- Disproportionate Retribution
- Disney Villain Death
- Disrupting The Theater
- The Dog Bites Back
- The Dreaded Toilet Duty
- Driven to Suicide - Unfortunately.
- Due to the Dead
- Dump Months
- Embarrassing Damp Sheets
- Emergency Presidential Address
- Encyclopaedic Knowledge
- Everyone Has Standards
- Extreme Doormat
- Failures on Ice
- Fatal Flaw
- Fate Worse than Death - Unfortunately.
- Finger-Tenting
- First Friend - Eventually, someone would find their first friends.
- Formerly Fat
- Formerly Fit
- Four-Star Badass
- Fur Bikini
- Gayngst-Induced Suicide
- General Failure
- General Ripper
- Genocide Survivor
- Growling Gut
- Hanging Around - Also too controversial as a torture trope.
- Happily Adopted
- Happily Married
- #HashtagForLaughs
- Hell Is That Noise
- Heterosexual Life-Partners
- Hollywood New England - Also a stereotype.
- Hollywood Tactics
- Home Stage
- Hopeless War
- How the Mighty Have Fallen - Too YMMV; what qualifies as "mighty" and "fallen" depends from person to person.
- Huge Schoolgirl
- Identical Stranger
- Impossibly Delicious Food - Yes, some food can be that delicious; also an opinion.
- Incompetence, Inc.
- Informed Judaism
- Irishman and a Jew
- I Want Grandkids
- I Was Quite a Looker
- Jar Potty
- Jumping the Shark
- Kids Hate Chores
- Lazy Bum
- Life Will Kill You
- Likes Older Men – Also a sexuality trope.
- Likes Older Women – Also a sexuality trope.
- The Loonie
- Love It or Hate It
- Mail-Order Bride
- Marshmallow Hell - also often associated with sexuality.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!"
- May–December Romance
- Mega-Corp
- Mini-Me - Many real-life animals look like smaller versions of their parents. Plus scale models of larger things and toys that come in several sizes exist all over. note
- Mis-blamed
- Missing Steps Plan
- Mistaken for Fake Hair
- Mistaken for Romance
- Monument of Humiliation and Defeat
- Mortality Phobia - Also too controversial.
- Multi-Ethnic Name
- Munchkin
- Murder-Suicide
- Nightmare Fuel
- "No. Just... No" Reaction
- Occupiers Out of Our Country
- Offending a Foreign Country
- Official Couple
- Oh, Crap!
- Older Than They Look
- One Steve Limit aversions (also a Characterization trope)
- Open Secret
- Original Position Fallacy
- Overshadowed by Awesome
- Outside Joke
- The Paranoiac
- Passed in Their Sleep
- Permadeath
- Permanent Elected Official
- Permissive Parents
- Pimped-Out Car
- Platonic Life-Partners
- Police State
- Popping Buttons
- Potty Emergency
- Potty Failure
- P.O.W. Camp
- Press Hat
- Pretty Boy - Also a sexuality trope and an opinion.
- Rage Quit
- The Real Man
- Relative Ridicule
- The Roleplayer
- Royals Who Actually Do Something
- Rule-Abiding Rebel
- Scandalgatenote
- Scary Shiny Glasses
- Screaming Plane Baby
- Serious Business
- Sharp-Dressed Man
- She Is Not My Girlfriend
- Shiksa Goddess
- Shocking Moments
- Significant Name Shift
- Silver Fox - also a sexuality trope
- Simple, yet Awesome
- Skewed Priorities - Also potential Flame Bait.
- Small Parent, Huge Child
- Someone to Remember Him By
- Spell My Name with an "S"
- Spiteful Spoiler
- Statuesque Stunner
- The Stoic
- "Stuck at the Airport" Plot
- Stupid Crooks
- Sub-Par Supremacist
- Suicide by Pills
- Suicide by Sea
- Suicide Dare
- Surprisingly Sudden Death
- Sweater Girl
- Tear Jerker
- That One Player
- Tiny Schoolboy
- Ugly Cute
- Uncanny Valley
- Unique Items
- Unplanned Crossdressing
- Unstoppable Rage
- Unusual Euphemism
- War Hero
- We ARE Struggling Together
- You Get What You Pay For
- You Must Be This Tall to Ride
- You're Just Jealous
- You're Not My Type
