Another wick check for a chairs-y Title Trope. This time it's Ballad of X, which is just "any title that's called [The Ballad of Something]". Not much going on.
Wicks checked: 50/50.
- Quick wick check results:
- 41/50 are ZCE, chairs examples, and contextless potholes, or 82%.
- 8/50 are examples with some context other than just a title's name, or 16%.
- 1/50 is an unsortable usage of the trope, or 2%.
- Final verdict: The trope attracts a lot of ZCEs due to having no meaning other than documenting every time the words "Ballad of..." are used as a title for something which isn't really noteworthy. There are some examples where they add further context but they only make 8 examples in total. Thus the trope is cuttable, so to the cutlist it goes!
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ZCE/chairs & potholes — just the work's/title's name or very little context (41/50)
- Bawdy Song: "[[BalladOfX Ballad of Lydia Pinkham]]", which proclaims her vegetable compound's supposed "cures" for everything from infertility to penis size.
- Epic Hail: Poul Anderson's After Doomsday is about a crew of spacemen who return to find Earth destroyed. They hire out as mercenaries and win a great battle, then write a song celebrating their victory in the sector's Common Tongue called "[[BalladOfX The Ballad of Brandobar]]'' to let other humans know they're alive and can be found at Brandobar.
- Miniscule Rocking: Sparklehorse's first 2 albums had plenty of this trope, with "850 Double Pumper Holley", "Little Bastard Choo Choo", "[[BalladOfX Ballad of a Cold Lost Marble]]", "Box of Stars" (a 1:20 song split into 2 uneven parts) and "Good Morning Spider".
- Characters.Crimestrikers: (Audrey), She's the subject of "The Ballad of Audrey Claymore", a song about her life.
- ComicBook.The Couriers: The Ballad of Johnny Funwrecker
- Creator.Samuel R Delany: The Ballad of Beta-2.
- Fanfic.The Ballad Of Twilight Sparkle: The Title.
- Film.Easy Rider: Cult Soundtrack: One of the first rock-based soundtracks, including songs by Steppenwolf ("Born to Be Wild", "The Pusher), The Band ("The Weight"), The Byrds ("Wasn't Born to Follow"), Jimi Hendrix ("If 6 Was 9"), and Roger McGuinn ("[[BalladOfX Ballad of]] Easy Rider").
- Film.Talladega Nights The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby: Name title
- HoldingHands.Anime And Manga: Ranma ½: In the OVA ending "[[BalladOfX The Ballad of Ranma and Akane]]," Ranma and Akane sing about how they developed feelings for each other and the difficulties of being unable to express love. As the song comes to its end, they both smile and reach out to hold the other's hand. — The lyrics of the song weren't included by me so the example wouldn't be too long
- Literature.The Ballad Of Mulan: The English title is translated as the "Ballad of Mulan".
- Literature.The Nautical Ballad Of Ben Bo Bohns: The title of the poem is The Nautical Ballad of Ben Bo Bohns.
- Music.And Then There Were Three: "Ballad of Big", naturally.
- Music.Billy Joel: "The Ballad Of Billy The Kid".
- Music.Cobra Starship: "Big Poppa and Diamond Girl"
- Music.Iggy Pop: "The Ballad of Cookie McBride" from Zombie Birdhouse.
- Music.Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: "The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934)"
- Music.Left At London: "The Ballad of Marion Zioncheck."
- Music.Man Man: "The Ballad of Butter Beans".
- Music.Running Wild: "Ballad of William Kidd", from The Rivalry.
- Music.Songs By Tom Lehrer: "The Irish Ballad".
- Music.The Arrogant Worms: "The Ballad of Dan."
- Music.The New Pornographers: Electric Version's "Ballad of a Comeback Kid."
- Music.XTC: "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead".
- PhineasAndFerb.Tropes A To C: "The Ballad of Badbeard", along with its eponymous song, and song "The Ballad of Klimpaloon".
- Recap.Steven Universe S 2 E 22 When It Rains: How Is That Even Possible?: When Peridot's learns Steven is a Half-Human Hybrid, she asks how that's possible. After he refers to the tale as "[[BalladOfX The Ballad of Greg and Rose]]", she stops caring.
- Recap.Noises: (La Ballade de Jules), No context given
- Roleplay.Its Curtains: Most of the Balladeer's songs, even if they aren't ballads. — Partial context, what are some of these songs?
- Roleplay.Trustfell 2 Trust Harder: Some of the titles of Sigrun's compositions. — Same as above
- Series.The Ballad Of Big Al: No context given
- Series.Thirty Rock: Season 6 episode "The Ballad of Kenneth Parcell" They even got Steve Earle to sing the titular song over the closing credits! — Irrelevant context it seems
- Theatre.Assassins: The Ballads of Booth, Guiteau and Czolgosz.
- Theatre.Thirty Five Millimeter A Musical Exhibition: The full title is "The Ballad of Sara Berry" after all.
- VideoGame.Dark Parables: Commented-out contextless example
- VideoGame.Grand Theft Auto IV The Ballad Of Gay Tony: Specifically, of Gay Tony.
- VideoGame.The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess: The main theme in Hyrule Field is called "The Ballad of Twilight."
- VisualNovel.Ballad Of An Evening Butterfly: No context given
- Website.Gaia Online: Ballad of the Overseer; can be considered Overseer's Leitmotif.
- WesternAnimation.Brave Starr: The episode "The Ballad of Sara Jane".
- Napoleon Delusion: Brazilian band Mutantes have an "I Am" Song narrated by a crazy person, "Balada do Louco"
([[BalladOfX "Ballad of the mad"]]). At a certain point the narrator sings "If they are pretty\I'm Alain Delon\If they are famous\I'm Napoleon". (Once the female singer of the band did her own version, she changed the names to "Sharon Stone" and "a Rolling Stone.")
More context than just the work's name/exaggerations/etc. (8/50)
- Creator.Algernon Charles Swinburne: Several examples from Poems and Ballads, as you might expect. 'A Ballad of Life', 'A Ballad of Death', and 'A Ballad of Burdens' stand out.
- Creator.Federico Garcia Lorca: “Ballad of the Day in June” and “Ballad of the Little Square” in Book of Poems. "Romances" from Romancero gitano are often translated into English as "ballads", leading to the whole book of this trope.
- Film.The Legend Of Frenchie King: "The Ballad of Frenchie King" tells of how Frenchie King was a manly man who dominated the West. One of the train workers sings it, ironically just before he gets conked on the head by a member of the eponymous (and very female) gang.
- Literature.After Doomsday: The Ballad of Brandobar is written in the Common Tongue of the sector, and taught to aliens as a drinking song in hopes that other humans will hear it and come to the Ben Franklin's position.
- Music.Bob Dylan: "Ballad of a Thin Man", "Ballad of Hollis Brown", "Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest". — Seems to be a theme in his music
- Recap.Firefly E 07 Jaynestown: The song the mudders perform in the bar is called "The Ballad of Jayne Cobb".
- Recap.Fraggle Rock S 1 E 8 The Terrible Tunnel: The Storyteller sings "The Ballad of Sir Blunderbrain" to Gobo, Mokey, Boober, and Wembley.
- WesternAnimation.Batman The Brave And The Bold: "The Ballad of Batman" in the Animated Music Video Teaser for "Night of the Batmen!"
Misuse/other/unsorted (1/50)
- Something Blues: See also The Something Song and Ballad of X.
