Basic Trope: A character named "Dick" (or a variation of it) is portrayed as being a Jerkass or is subjected to mockery because of his name also being a slang term for the male genitalia.
- Straight:
- Dick is the show's resident Jerkass who's always insulting and causing trouble for the other characters.
- Dick is constantly the butt of such crude jokes involving his name as "Gee, Dick sure sucks...dick!"
- Exaggerated:
- Dick is the Big Bad and can't go a minute without doing something unforgivably cruel.
- Everyone who meets Dick Ballson can't help but joke about his name.
- Every single Jerkass in the show is named Dick or some variation thereof.
- The Jerkass is given an incredibly unlikely phallic name just to really get the point across, like "Peniston" or "Harry B. Dick".
- Downplayed:
- Dick is a bit of a grouch, but ultimately isn't such a bad person.
- People are tempted to make the obvious joke about Dick's name, but ultimately decide not to go there.
- The joke is made more subtle by naming the character Richard.
- Justified:
- Dick is a jerk because people wouldn't stop teasing him over the double meaning of his name.
- Dick's friends all have a really immature sense of humor.
- Inverted:
- A character named Dick is portrayed as a Nice Guy
- Dick makes fun of the other character's names.
- Gender Inverted:
- Pussy often receives crude mockery for her name.
- Pussy is a spineless coward who often ditches her friends when things turn south.
- Subverted:
- Dick is assumed to be a bad person, but it turns out to be a misunderstanding.
- A bully nearly cracks a joke about Dick's name, but is stopped by someone else who admonishes him.
- Double Subverted:
- The next person named Dick is a jerk for real.
- Someone else manages to joke about Dick's name and gets away with it.
- Parodied:
- The character has a rather crude Punny Name involving Dick or one of the name's variants, such as Richard Head or Dick N. Balls.
- Dick's signature is a crudely-drawn penis.
- Dick is a member of a family where everyone has a name that's slang for genitalia (Dad Johnson, Mom Pussy, Cousin Wang and so on).
- Zigzagged: It varies whether or not characters named Dick are assholes and whether or not their name is made fun of by the other characters.
- Averted:
- No one named Dick is a jerk or made fun of because of their name.
- There are no characters named Dick, period.
- Enforced:
- "Our villain's already blatantly an awful person. We may as well actually make his name Dick."
- "Dick's supposed to be suffering a lot, and nothing can be more undignified than having other people make immature jokes about his name also being slang for penis".
- Lampshaded:
- After Dick does something mean, the person who confronts him points out how fitting his name is.
- "Why do you guys have to make fun of me just because my name happens to be Dick?"
- Invoked:
- Dick decides to become a jerk.
- Bullies find out that the new guy is named Dick and proceed to waste no opportunity to harass him with jokes about his name.
- Exploited: The Hero also happens to be named Dick, so the Big Bad uses propaganda to convince the public that no one named Dick can be trusted.
- Defied:
- Dick makes an effort to be a better person.
- Dick has his name legally changed.
- "I'm sorry. I don't see why I should mock you because of your name."
- Alice thinks Dick is the biggest asshole in the whole wide world. She makes a point of using the word "asshole" for Dick and never uses the word "dick" for him (too easy a target/not a big enough insult/Department of Redundancy Department much?/it just never occurs to her).
- "My name is Richard. I prefer to be called 'Dick'. I am the biggest jerk you will ever meet. And I will kill you if you ever use my name as an insult or because I suspect you are using it as such, at any point of your life."
- Discussed: "His name's Dick and he happens to be a dick. What, do the writers think we're stupid or something?"
- Conversed: "At least they're not using the character to make lame jokes about the word dick being slang for a certain part of the male anatomy."
- Implied:
- The characters mention disliking a character named Dick.
- A character named Richard insists that he never be called Dick for short.
- Deconstructed:
- Because of Dick's mean-spirited ways, it becomes a stereotype that everyone named Dick is a bad person.
- Dick goes insane over everyone making fun of his name, so he starts getting even by murdering them all (or just being mean to them back).
- Reconstructed:
- Everyone is wise enough to know that it is foolish to judge people by what their name is and there are still plenty of people named Dick who aren't jerks.
- Dick's rampage is prevented when his true friends talk him out of killing/attacking his bullies and call the bullies out on making fun of his name.
Back to A Dick in Name