Basic Trope: A character calls themselves "The [something]".
- Straight: Jonathan Ryder goes by "The Free Ryder".
- Exaggerated: Jonathan Ryder even signs documents with "The Free Ryder".
- Downplayed: Jonathan Ryder mostly goes by Jonathan but calls himself "The Free Ryder" when he is emphasizing how much of a "free rider" he is.
- Justified:
- Jonathan is a wrestler or in a club where the members have goofy nicknames.
- He calls himself "The Free Ryder" because he wants to be a rebel, living by his own rules, and because his last name is Ryder.
- It's a natural part of the family name that he refuses to drop.
- Inverted: Jonathan Ryder is a celebrity whom everyone else calls "The Free Ryder", but he insists that people NOT call him that.
- Subverted: Jonathan Ryder calls himself "The Free Ryder" in a sporting event but stops when he quits.
- Double Subverted: Later, he resumes calling himself that because he thinks it's cool.
- Parodied:
- Jonathan Ryder calls himself "The Jonathan."
- Jonathan Ryder insists on being called "The."
- Zig-Zagged: Jonathan Ryder starts going by "The Free Ryder", but gives up, then starts again because it's cool, then everyone else refuses to call him that, but they start using it for him eventually.
- Averted: Nobody calls themselves "The" anything, or nobody has any nicknames, in the series.
- Enforced: The writers want to have a rebellious character with the last name Ryder as one of them wants to be rebellious and has the last name Ryder, leading to this.
- Lampshaded:
- "The Free Ryder has spoken."
- "Monica, why does your cousin call himself The Free Ryder? Is his first name The Free?" "No, his first name is Jonathan. He calls himself The Free Ryder because he wants to be radical."
- Invoked: There is at least one older, in-universe better-known character also named Jonathan Ryder, so the one we follow starts calling himself "The Free Ryder" to distinguish himself from the others.
- Exploited: Jonathan comes to be known only by his nickname to the point of One-Mario Limit, so he gets a lot of attention whenever something is attributed to him.
- Defied: Jonathan Ryder's manager suggests calling himself "The Free Ryder" for recognizability, but he refuses because he thinks it sounds arrogant.
- Discussed: "I think I'll call myself 'The Free Ryder.' It sounds awesome."
- Conversed: "An easy way to tell which character has the healthiest sense of self-esteem is that they insist on having 'The' in their name."
- Deconstructed: Jonathan Ryder gets into legal trouble from signing a legal document with the moniker "The Free Ryder."
- Reconstructed:
- He stops signing his name as "The Free Ryder", but still calls himself that and has his friends call him that.
- He changes his name to "The Free Ryder."
- Implied: Jonathan is The Ghost, but Bob refers to him only as "The Free Ryder" and corrects Alice for calling him by his legal name.
- Played for Laughs: Jonathan Ryder recites a joke every time he meets somebody for the first time and introduces himself as "The [punchline to the joke]".
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