Basic Trope: Someone whose Nostalgia Filter has been turned up to eleven.
- Straight: Dan pretty much only listens to disco, even though it's not The '70s anymore, and disco has long left the building.
- Exaggerated:
- Dan wears a polyester leisure suit, medallion, and platforms to work, always speaks using humorously outdated slang, and he refuses to use anything invented after the end of Disco Era.
- Dan acts like it's still The Gay '90s.
- Dan was not even born in The '70s and yet he really wishes he did.
- Downplayed:
- Even though Dan is a very big fan of The '70s, he doesn't let it get in the way of his life.
- Dan has about the average amount of Nostalgia Filter.
- Dan partakes in the present day enough to get by, for example using an up-to-date computer and car for his job.
- Dan acts like it's the early '70s, but he is living in the year 1980, so his outdated action isn't much odd.
- Justified:
- Dan is a Fish out of Temporal Water; he was transported from The '70s to the present.
- Dan is actively planning and working to restore his life/society in general back to the tastes and mores of the era he feels most comfortable with.
- Dan is a Manchild who often forgets that life is not a nonstop cosplay session.
- The '70s were his personal golden age, and so he wants to continue relishing in those good times.
- Dan just really, really prefers media from the Seventies over that of the modern age, seeing it as completely unimaginative at best.
- Dan just had the really bad luck of being Born in the Wrong Century.
- Inverted:
- Dan is living in The '70s, but somehow has technology and music from the present.
- Dan is a very up-to-date person who keeps up on the latest trends and refuses to acknowledge anything that's over five years old.
- Dan knows the future, whether because he's a Fish out of Temporal Water or just knows everything, and acts in a manner consistent with the norm of three decades from his own time.
- Subverted:
- Dan listens to disco, but he listens to other music, too.
- When we first meet Dan, he is dressed in 1970s disco gear ... because he's going to a fancy dress party and thought it would be fun. He subsequently shows no unusual amount of interest in disco culture.
- When we first meet Dan, he's dressed in 1970s disco gear… because he's working as a background character in a 1970's Period Piece.
- Double Subverted:
- Which he unfavorably compares to disco. And he wears the leisure suit when he goes out clubbing.
- Dan displays no unusual interest in disco culture in public — in private, however, it's another story...
- Parodied: Dan wears the leisure suit everywhere, and walks around to some disco beat à la the opening to Saturday Night Fever.
- Zig-Zagged: Dan wears a disco costume to a Halloween party and plays up a disco persona entirely as a joke, but finds he likes it so much he decides to adopt that persona full time. Eventually, though, he tires of it and even starts making fun of his tastes himself without abandoning them.
- Averted: Dan is not blinded by a Nostalgia Filter and consequently has a range of interests and tastes from numerous different periods, some modern, some older.
- Enforced:
- "We need a character who can be the laughingstock of Crappy Town."
- "If we are going to homage Saturday Night Fever, we need a character who isn't going to approach it as a joke." "But Bob will also be a joke." "That's gonna depend on the writing team."
- "Well, the series has been going for thirty years now. I guess it's time we accept that Dan has become this and have him embrace it."
- Lampshaded:
- "Disco's dead, Dan."
- "Disco is not dead! Disco will never die!!!"
- Invoked: Dan is rummaging around the attic and finds his old leisure suit and disco records. He's inspired to try them out again for a bit of a laugh, but ends up taking it too far.
- Exploited:
- A local nightclub hosts disco night, knowing that Dan and others like him will be there.
- A flier is handed to Dan telling him of a Disco night at the local roller derby, specifically to lure him there for other reasons.
- Defied: Dan puts them back, shaking his head about his previous involvement with disco culture.
- Discussed: "Is he seriously wearing a leisure suit to work?"
- Conversed: "Poor Dan. Apparently, someone neglected to tell him that The '70s are over, and so is disco. That, or he knows and just doesn't care."
- Deconstructed:
- Dan will be missing out on a lot of things that may not be from his favorite decade, but are still good. He's also alienating himself from others and making himself the laughingstock of the town.
- Dan also has nostalgia for more clearly negative aspects of '70s culture such as cults, which carries
Unfortunate Implications.
- Reconstructed:
- Dan learns that other music and fashion are good too. He can relate to others better ... and they (usually) forgive his undying love for The Bee Gees.
- Dan is blinded by nostalgia, but he's still pretty nice and easy-going about it; consequently, the people around him indulge his eccentricities and let him get on with it in good humour.
- Dan acknowledges the negative aspects of the '70s and denounces them, but still obsesses over the more benign parts of that era.
- Played for Laughs:
- Dan only shows up when it's convenient for a joke, and anything dealing with how he manages the rest of the time is completely ignored to prevent Fridge Logic from kicking in.
- Dan is a full-blown Genre Refugee and whenever he is around the world begins to look like a Seventies production.
- Played for Drama:
- Dan won't talk about or acknowledge anything that occurred after 1979. This keeps him from using computers, the Internet, and many other facets of modern technology. Dan only uses calendars from the 1970s, so he shows up for appointments on the wrong day. Nor does Dan acknowledge that certain people haven't been born yet or have died. All the other characters are embarrassed to be around Dan in public and desperately try to get him to tone it down. Any attempts to question his dedication to this lead to violent and sometimes dangerous outbursts. Eventually, it's revealed that Dan underwent some trauma in the 1970s, and is psychologically unable to move on. The plot of the story is based around working through Dan's inner demons and helping him overcome his past.
- Alternatively, it's not Dan who needs to learn something — his fascination with disco culture might be eccentric and taken to certain extremes, but is otherwise not harming him nor anyone else. It's actually the people around Dan who need to learn a lesson about not forcing Dan to conform with their own worldview just because they do not share his, and not being bullying Jerkasses just because someone else's taste in music and fashion is 'outdated' and different from their own.
- Played for Horror:
- People doing the "Disco is dead and it sucked, Dan, just accept it" quipping discover too late that this is a murderous Berserk Button for Dan.
- Dan is revealed to be a demon or violent ghost and his love of the Seventies is because his 'glory days' back then were thoroughly blood-soaked.
- Dan is so determined to bring Disco back that he does destructive, murderous, possibly reality-destroying and probably literally Satanic things to make it happen.
- Implied:
- Dan is The Ghost, but Alice and Bob talk about him acting like it's still the 1970s.
- Dan mainly talks about events that actually happened to him in the 1970s, always with a wistful look in his eyes.
Do the hustle back to Disco Dan, Baby!
