Note: If a newly launched trope was already given a No Real Life Examples, Please! or Limited Real Life Examples Only designation while it was being drafted on the Trope Launch Pad, additions to the proper index do not need to go through this thread. Instead, simply ask the staff to add the trope via this thread
.
This is the thread to report tropes with problematic Real Life sections.
Common problems include:
- Conversation on the Main Page
- Flame Bait
- Squicky content
- Impossible in Real Life
Real Life sections on the wiki are kept as long as they don't become a problem. If you find an article with such problems, report it here. Please note that the purpose of this thread is to clean up and maintain real life sections, not raze them. Cutting should be treated as a last resort, so please only suggest cutting RL sections or a subset thereof you think the examples in question are completely unsalvageable.
If historical RL examples are not causing any problems, consider whether it would be better to propose a No Recent Examples, Please! (via this forum thread
) for RL instead of NRLEP. If RL examples are causing problems only for certain subjects, consider whether a Limited Real Life Examples Only restriction would be preferable to NRLEP.
If you think a trope should be No Real Life Examples, Please! or Limited Real Life Examples Only, then this thread is the place to discuss it. However, please check Keep Real Life Examples first to see if it has already been brought up in the past. If not, state the reasons and add it to the crowner.
Before adding to the crowner:
- The trope should be proposed in the thread, along with reasons for why a crowner is necessary instead of a cleanup.
- There must be support from others in thread.
- Any objections should be addressed.
- Allow a minimum of 24 hours for discussion.
When adding to the crowner:
- Be sure to add the trope name, a link to where the discussion started, the reasons for crownering, whether the restriction being proposed is NRLEP or LRLEO (and in the latter case, which subject(s) the restriction would be for), and the date added.
- Announce in thread that you are adding the item.
- An ATT advert should be made as well (batch items together if more than one trope goes up in a day).
In order for a crowner to pass:
- Must have been up for a minimum of a week
- There must be a 2:1 ratio
- If the vote is exactly 2:1 or +/- 1 vote from that, give it a couple extra days to see if any more votes come in
- Once passed, tropes must be indexed on the appropriate NRLEP or LRLEO index
- Should the vote fail, the trope should be indexed on KRLE page
Sex Tropes, Rape and Sexual Harassment Tropes, and Morality Tropes are banned from having RL sections so tropes under those indexes don't need a crowner vote.
As per Real Life Troping, we never trope unscripted real life sports — so sports tropes where RL examples would only apply to those scenarios don't need a crowner vote.
Crowner entries that have already been called will have "(CLOSED)" appended to them — and are no longer open for discussion.
After bringing up a trope for discussion, please wait at least a day for feedback before adding it to the crowner.
NRLEP tag:
%%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800
LRLEO tag:
%%The following restrictions apply: [list restriction(s) here]
%%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800
Notes:
- This thread is not for general discussion regarding policies for Real Life sections or crowners. Please take those conversations to this Wiki Talk thread
.
- Do not try to overturn previous No Real Life Examples, Please! or Limited Real Life Examples Only decisions without a convincing argument.
- As mentioned here
, the consensus is that NRLEP warnings in trope page descriptions can use bold text so that they stand out.
- The [[noreallife]] tag no longer works. This is a deprecated tag that was introduced many years ago — originally, it would have displayed a NRLEP warning banner when you edited the page. Per word of admin
as of 2025, any replacement for this system will not use markup, so these tags can be removed.
- If a newly launched trope was already given a No Real Life Examples, Please! or Limited Real Life Examples Only designation while it was being drafted on the Trope Launch Pad, additions to the proper index do not need to go through this thread. Instead, simply ask the staff to add the trope via this thread
.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 3rd 2025 at 6:31:00 AM
we have become complacent has a problematic real life section. it feels like a morality trope, but it has a bloated real life section with walls of text.
Science Is Wrong has an Other folder that might as well be a Real Life folder.
- This trope often fails to take into account the attitude in modern science that Science is Incomplete, hence scientists anticipate that many theories and principles will probably be proven "wrong" in light of new information. Science is limited to what we can observe and measure, so how "right" it is is only so in light of our current limited understanding (and given the vast size of and complexity of the universe, all information will be limited for a long, long time to come). As such, while being "wrong" may annoy a bit - and some diehards hell-bent on a pet theory will just not let go - most scientists will be excited when proven wrong. Just think of all the possibilities, the great new directions, and the applications! For example, this article in ''Harper's''
describes a group of people who have come to the conclusion the entirety of physics may be, if not wrong, at least correct only in a very limited circumstance, and that science itself may be unable ever to find, let alone explain the laws of physics. This group is called... um... "physicists." This also leads to the common dismissal: "If we can't really definitely know everything, why bother/why trust it/why care?" Look at it this way: If you're lost, a map with a piece torn out of it is still useful compared to having no map at all. Incomplete it may be (and may possibly remain), but what we do know is useful, and the more bits we fill in the more information we have to make use of.
- Believers in the paranormal— Psychic Powers, Alien Abduction, and other New Age ideas— often criticize science for being too closed-minded to accept their ideas. These people usually fail to give compelling evidence to wake the interests of more conventional scientists. Naturally, the latter group would be excited by new stuff; imagine dropping a ghost on the table of a scientist, they would be delighted to analyze it and help you out with more. Alas, since that hasn't happened yet, most of them remain skeptical.
- The jury is still out on whether Paul Feyerabend
is an example of this trope. On one hand, he heavily criticizes the "scientific method", claiming that scientists give less attention to results that challenge their notions (and even siding with creationists for some time). However, in The Trouble With Physics, Lee Smolin argues that Feyerabend's disdain actually stems from a devoted preoccupation with scientific inquiry.
- Played with by paranormalist author Charles Fort, who spent most of the 1920s and 1930s cataloging various accounts of "damned things," or phenomena which "science" categorically explains away as nothing of any significance. These included topics like Psychic Powers, Spontaneous Combustion, Teleportation, and many other similar matters. However, as Fort himself wrote, he didn't believe anything he wrote of, but merely felt that everything we take for granted (religion, politics, scientific positivism) should be questioned constantly to keep them vital and relevant (a position Robert Anton Wilson would come to describe as "ideal skepticism"). Fortean Times keeps this perspective alive along with the philosophy of Fort.
- Played straight with German Sterligov, Russian millionaire. He takes it Up To Eleven, claiming that science is not only wrong but downright Evil, and therefore should be purged from the Earth along with all the scientists and teachers. He promptly followed his own advice and moved with his family to a house in the middle of nowhere, to live in his ideal lifestyle without all that damned technology, education and medical care. He still preaches his views. Through the Internet.
- Post-modernism
and post-structuralism are philosophical movements that reject any kind of firm, immutable truth. Science at its best is an incomplete description of an observation made using flawed tools, and at its worst, a dogmatic inquisition that locks up heretics guilty of blaspheming Reality under the designation "mental illness".
- There is a well-regarded journal article titled Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,
which posits that entire fields of contemporary science may be "null fields," i.e. completely bogus. Quite possibly including, ironically, that very article.
- Raymond Moody, the man who first coined the phrase "Near-Death Experience", is sometimes accused of holding this viewpoint because he apparently holds the belief that science cannot investigate the claims of those who have the experiences. What he actually said is that the experiences are not yet a scientific question (because of the various ethical questions, current limitations in technology, and the fact that no one working in the field can really agree on the best ways to investigate these claims) but that, one day, they will be.
- One common misunderstanding about what science is regards "methodological naturalism", a concept that actually goes back to the 12th century. The basic idea is that one must assume natural causes and only use natural causes in describing phenomena. There are two sides to this. First is that something like Intelligent Design is not, by definition, scientific. This is not to say that assuming intelligent design cannot lead to practical applications with repeatable results and such, but it doesn't follow the paradigm. To the extent that making non-natural assumptions leads to falsifiable predictions that are confirmed, science is wrong (or at least, incomplete). The second part is taking methodological naturalism (as an assumption) and making the leap to an assertion that only natural causes can describe phenomena. This is known as ontological or philosophical naturalism and is a metaphysical proposition. As such, it cannot be "proven" right or wrong, at least not by what is itself considered to be science. Whether it's Hume's Problem with Induction or Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, there is no way to be sure. Making the assertion is itself not scientific. This trope includes the opposite assertion which - not surprisingly - is just as unscientific, but alleged to be moreso because of this confusion.
- Scientific approaches to questions of morality can be criticized as not scientific because abstract concepts of right, wrong, good, evil and the like have no physical characteristics - in and of themselves - from which empirical observations can be made. Hume's Law laid out the Is-Ought Problem: normative prescriptions can not be deduced from empirical observation and description. To describe good or evil, one must define it, but that is the whole point: you must choose axioms for what is good or evil before you can test them. Noting the above entry, one can assume that morals are a product of evolutionary psychobiology but that is still just an assumption. It may even provide descriptive and predictive power but there is no way to show that someone "should" do something in some circumstance without falling back on your original assumption. You can't tell if it is correct, but it is bad science. This trope can assert that the things that are most important to human beings - love, beauty, justice - cannot be measured and therefore cannot be approached scientifically. While scientists can study one's brain's composition and activity to determine what triggers certain emotions and the effects of experiencing what one likes / dislikes, claiming that personal preferences are scientifically "right or wrong" is a very flawed statement.
Given the current, shall we say disagreement, in society over the scientific veracity of things like climate change and epidemiology, I would say let's crowner Science Is Wrong as far too controversial and a flame bait magnet.
Even without the usual controversies, I thought one of the key tenets of the scientific method is that it is falsifiable (i.e. can be proven wrong if result Z appears or result X doesn't appear). Being able to prove previously-held science wrong is literally built into the discipline!
Edited by Albert3105 on Jan 12th 2022 at 11:24:45 AM
Science is constantly changing, so a Real Life section would be pretty much infinite if it listed every time science was "wrong." But the trope seems to be more for when it is assumed to always be wrong, which is indeed too controversial to really get into regarding real life.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.The Original Position Fallacy is way too common in real life and every real life example I’ve seen is general. It has the same issue as You Get What You Pay For so I’m gonna add both.
Once Upon A Time.Drink-Based Characterization has a single real-life example that I think is just a holdover from when it was Drink Order. I think it should be NRLEP because as we have it now, it's a narrative characterization trope.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall![]()
For You Get What You Pay For, it's really subjective on what is a "fair price" to pay to get something that's good. I support sacking it.
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Agreed, I'm fine with it being crownered.
Note well that there are also three separate pages allied with this, labeled "Strong Drinks," "Soft Drinks," and "Against Stereotype," which all have Real Life (and in one case an Other) folder. Checking them, they mostly seem like the usual blathering trivia nonsense with a healthy dose of People Sit on Chairs. I'm fine if they go also.
Edited by BoltDMC on Jan 12th 2022 at 6:58:22 AM
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I would agree, I think alot of the fallacy pages are prone to having RL controversies bleed over as people try to discredit arguments.
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Agree on that, in real life a person's choice of drink (or food) doesn't tend to say much about them save for that they like that particular drink.
Edited by laserviking42 on Jan 12th 2022 at 9:57:45 AM
I didn't choose the troping life, the troping life chose meIsn’t Fascists' Bed Time supposed to be a public curfew to show how dystopian a society is?
- Dictatorial regimes have in fact been known to do this. The Nazis did this during the occupation of Continental Europe. Augusto Pinochet is said to have enforced his curfew with snipers. Mubarak tried it in Egypt. It was quite ignored indeed.
- Not only dictators, the American soldiers did it in Iraq, too. Curfews are an effective countermeasure against insurgencies or when you're expecting trouble. Not only is there the implication that people not following the curfew must be Up To Something, but it can also help to ensure that innocents are out of the way if and when trouble happens.
- The United States has areas that employ age-based curfews, depending on what city or state you're located in.
- On the state level, the laws for new drivers under 18 often include a curfew, usually 11 PM or midnight. Though there are exceptions made for those driving because of emergencies, school/religious functions, or because they are licensed EMTs. There's also an exemption for kids who have jobs, as long as they get their parent(s) and boss to sign a waiver.
- In some larger U.S. cities, curfews exist for anyone under 18 outside at nightnote without adult supervision, implemented mainly to combat gang activity or drug dealing.
- This was actually a historical and very grim way racial segregation was enforced in the US. A "sundown town
" was one in which non-ethnic-Europeans would be assaulted and/or killed if found there at night. Non-Europeans could not buy land in these communities, and being caught in them after dark could lead to harassment, expulsion, or even lynching, sometimes at the hands of local law enforcement. This phenomenon was not limited to Southern white-on-black oppression - the technique was used against blacks, Native Americans, Jews, and Chinese minorities. The state with the most confirmed cases of the phenomenon was actually Illinois. And after that, it was a tie between Maine and Ohio.
- There was a similar thing in the towns of South Africa in apartheid times. At 6 PM (18:00), a bell rang in the city hall, meaning it was time for the blacks to leave for their residences in the suburbs. Reportedly some whites liked chasing and hunting those unhappy blacks which were too late to leave. With automobiles. And if they would run 'em over, most likely they would get away with that. Mind you, this was only one of the many reasons to dislike the "apartheid" regime.
- Some shopping malls have "escort policies", meaning minors cannot be present without adults after the posted time.
- One noteworthy Real Life example occurred during the Jewish rebellion against British rule in the League of Nations Mandate of Palestine in 1947: in an effort to regain control, the British authorities imposed a 24-hour curfew, meaning that Jews were simply not allowed to go outside at all. This still didn't work.
- Back during the Sinai War,
Israel established a curfew on the Arab areas in Israel, under the martial law in effect in those areas
after the War of 1948. The Israeli Border Police were ordered to open fire on people who violated the curfew; while in most places the order was not followed, it was notoriously followed through in Kafr Qasim.
- Shortly before the American Revolution broke out, the British colonial government imposed martial law on the ever rebellious city of Boston. This was pretty much the last straw for Bostonians because that fabled "shot heard 'round the world" would be fired soon afterward.
- In Turkey, a 24-hour curfew took place every five years, in order for the census to be done. It was a case of curfew being done not out of authoritarianism but simply lack of technology, and most Turkish people treated it as a day off. Because nobody expected trouble, the worst you could expect if caught violating curfew was detainment for the rest of the day. Once the system was computerized, the whole curfew method of performing census was done away with.
- During the Second Intifada and even beforehand, the IDF would often enforce curfews during military activity.
- While not quite the same, the effect of the concept known in German as Sperrstunde is similar. It dictates an hour after which bars (and in some cases discos) have to be closed. Nothing is keeping you from being out and about after this hour, but you really don't have any place to go. Most German cities have greatly reduced the effect of this rule by creating more and more exceptions or gotten rid of it altogether. Some have a nominal one where e.g. fast-food restaurants have to close for an hour ("cleaning hour") before they can reopen. However, the whole issue still differs between each of the sixteen States of Germany.
- Similarly, certain holidays (again, depending on state law) are considered "silent," and you cannot have any type of festivity involving song and dance on those days. In practice, this means there won't be commercial parties, but private parties will only get into problems if they have excessive noise. As all of those holidays are religious and it is worded as a "dancing ban,"
atheist, secular and civil liberties groups have taken to holding dance-ins on those days.
- During the 2005 riots in French banlieues
, curfews were enforced in these zones.
- During the COVID-19 Pandemic, many governments instituted local or national lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus. In some places where lockdowns measures have been eased, there are still curfews. Opponents of such measures argue this trope to be in effect and vehemently oppose them.
- Curfews are regularly implemented in the event of a community being struck by a natural disaster like a wild fire or hurricane. This is not only to prevent looting from taking place, but also to insure that the roads are clear for emergency personnel so they can get to where they're needed without delays.
- It's not all that uncommon for individual families to place curfews on children living at home who have (or know someone who has) access to their own transportation, either to ensure that they can get to bed in time to ensure that they have a decent night's sleep for the next day, or to keep them from getting into mischief after they've finished doing whatever they were officially going out to do.
- In an attempt to curb video game addiction, South Korea has a "Shutdown law" which prevents kids under the age of 16 from playing online video games between the hours of 00:00 and 06:00, though their parents can exempt them from the law. China passed a similar law in 2019 limiting kids under 18 to less than 90 minutes of playing video games on weekdays and three hours on weekends, with no video game playing allowed between 10 p.m. to 8 a.m, and also limiting the amount of money they can spend on games per month.
Edited by PlasmaPower on Jan 13th 2022 at 6:33:36 AM
Thomas fans needed! Come join me in the the show's cleanup thread!
Looks like that’s what it’s supposed to be. The Real Life folder is full of the usual trivia baloney, including examples about sundown cities, shopping malls, age based curfews, COVID curfews, curfews to put down rebellions, and similar stuff. IOW, “it’s a curfew so I’m listing it.”
I’m fine if it’s crownered, as it attracts misuse like crazy.
Edited by BoltDMC on Jan 13th 2022 at 3:00:41 AM
Should we wait until the current crowner ends before adding this one?
Thomas fans needed! Come join me in the the show's cleanup thread!Sorry if this isn't the right thread, but The Kill Count (a review show) has a Everyone Has Standards page that primarily consists of the host's opinions, and I'm not sure if that's okay as EHS doesn't allow real life examples.
Welcome To Ideals' Worldi've probably said this before, but Full-Circle Revolution needs a serious clean up on its real life section. i would suggest not adding examples after 1945 or the entire 20th century
For that you want the No recent examples
cleanup thread.
I was over on No Recent Examples recently and they suggested Undignified Death for NRLEP.
Also, Hitler Ate Sugar seems like a complainy mess.
Edited by MissConduct on Jan 14th 2022 at 3:53:19 PM
Crown Description:
Vote UP to cut real life examples; vote DOWN to keep. Anything marked DONE has been resolved. In order for a crowner to pass:- Must have been up for a minimum of a week
- There must be a 2:1 ratio
- If the vote is exactly 2:1 or +/- 1 vote from that, give it a couple extra days to see if any more votes come in
- Once passed, tropes must be indexed on the appropriate NRLEP or LRLEO index
- Should the vote fail, the trope should be indexed on KRLE page

Single-Attempt Game would probably fall under Narrative, Characterization, and Plot Tropes. Life is not a game, and we don't refer to our lives as "an attempt".
I didn't choose the troping life, the troping life chose me