Basic Trope: A scandal is referred to with a portmanteau of a notable feature and "gate".
- Straight: After it turns out the government covered up the existence of aliens, the incident is called "Aliengate".
- Exaggerated:
- Every single bad government action uses this naming convention.
- Downplayed: "Aliengate" is one of many names for the incident.
- Justified:
- Watergate is infamous, so comparing an incident to Watergate is a good way to show it's very bad.
- "Aliengate" actually features gates prominently.
- Inverted: A time-traveler renames Watergate itself as "The Nixon incident" (not preventing it for some reason).
- Subverted:
- The name "Aliengate" is brushed off by reporters.
- The scandal involves government officials passing of aliens as sports drink containers. The name? "Aliengat - orade".
- Double Subverted:
- But the public calls it "Aliengate" anyway.
- Parodied: Bob steals a cookie from the cookie jar, and his family angrily calls it "Cookiegate"!
- An overpriced new gate for the capitol to connected contractors leads to Gategate.
- Zig-Zagged: There's constant debate over the naming of "Aliengate."
- Averted: Scandals do not get the "-gate" suffix.
- Enforced: The producers think this naming convention will make their story serious and political.
- Lampshaded: "Seriously? Aliens turn out to be real, and the best you can come up with is a 'Watergate' clone?"
- Invoked: The media really pushes on this name, hoping it will make people take the scandal seriously.
- Exploited: Tycoon Tina buys a ton of domain names with the word "gate" so she gets search results when people look up unforeseen scandals.
- Defied: The media decides this convention is annoying and uses a different name.
- Discussed: "Are you sure we can't get the message across without using the word gate?"
- Conversed: "Watched a show set in the 1800s. Calling that plot twist 'Renogate' really took me out of the experience."
- Deconstructed: Everything is called "-gate" now, and the oversaturation means nobody takes "Aliengate" seriously.
- Played for Laughs:
- A swordfighting scandal is called "Fencegate."
- A scandal happens outside a gate and inevitably becomes "Gategate"
Back to Scandalgate, and don't do a nattergate there.
