Ambiguous Name: Trainwreck Episode

As quoted from the description:

"This is when you actually watch a train wreck in slow motion. Or a plane crash."

Later on, however, the description mentions that the trope "Can also be used for comedic effect; this happens when anything and everything that can go wrong for the main characters does."

From the looks of it I think we're dealing with two tropes here. One is a Medical Drama and Crime and Punishment Series trope involving vehicular accidents: the other is a trope dealing with an episode where everyone gets screwed over in some way for comedy's sake.

Someone fix the title.

Done. Please use the blue button in the future:

edited 9th Dec '12 6:53:07 AM by SeptimusHeap

So we have literal and metaphorical train wrecks under a single trope? That's a problem.

I don't see any examples on the page that are metaphorical.

The wicks seem split about 60-40 towards metaphorical, though several of them seem to come from a similar source (Let's Play / The Runaway Guys).

The original definition was just about actual trains. Here's the Wayback version from 2008. It opens with a reference to the metaphorical version as a joke, but then explains that the trope is actually about the literal version.

Someone seems to have come along and "fixed" this to include the metaphorical version as well. I suggest we fix the "fix", and clean up misuse. At a minimum.

(The original version also mentions plane crashes...I'm not sure how I feel about that.)

If that's how it was, I'm all for it.

Other multi-casualty disasters than actual trainwrecks, like plane or bus crashes, are often treated the same in stories, along the lines of this trope. I think that if there's a focus on the actual disaster, and the plot is about rescue operations and/or figuring out what went wrong, it probably counts. It probably doesn't count if the plot is about the survival of said crash. The film Alive wouldn't count (but maybe the book), but LOST does, since while it is largely about survival, there's also a large focus on the actual crash, and on the handling of the crash itself, rather than just "We crashed; how do we survive?".

edited 23rd Aug '12 1:49:54 PM by AnotherDuck

I think we should just fix the description. Yes, literal trainwrecks are a trope, and since Tropes Are Not Narrow that also includes buswrecks, carwrecks, and other similar disasters.

Is this even really a thing?

Read it, and I can see these possibilities:

• A real train wreck
• Train spotting/train, going wrong
• A major crash, in slo-mo
• Any episode with a major disaster, not mutually-exclusive with previous
• A Humiliation Conga episode, or 1 featuring one

What is this about?

edited 23rd Aug '12 5:28:04 PM by spacemarine50

Most emphatically not number five.

2nd to last paragraph of description says that, even pothole that trope

Read the wayback link I posted in msg #6. Someone just randomly added that; it's not supposed to be part of the trope.

A Humiliation Conga is a Humiliation Conga and should link to Humiliation Conga. Period. Perhaps that line could be rephrased as "not to be confused with", but it is a clearly separate trope from the definition originally written and should not be linking here.

edited 24th Aug '12 9:59:53 AM by Stratadrake

So, the currently most popular suggestion is to remove or rewrite that line to not include Humiliation Conga, and then do the same with the incorrect wicks? It's a small trope, so not a whole lot of work.

Do we have more opinions on that, or do we want a crowner?

The "comedic effect" seems too closely related to Humiliation Conga and/or Epic Fail. Perhaps there is a separate trope there, which should be listed separately.

Personally, I think that we should start with the more general trope of Plane/train/car/bike crash, natural disaster, etc. not done for comedy or as hyperbole, and shown from one of two perspectives:

1. Police, Fire, Hospital, or Lawyer encountering the crash/disaster in the course of their work, with #2 below touched on, whether on-camera or in summary.
2. The POV of a person either involved in the same or related to a victim. Could fall under Very Special Episode. If done poorly, is a Failed Attempt at Drama.

Bump.

Wow, this still hasn't been dealt with? I think the evidence I presented showing that the addition of the Humiliation Conga was an unauthorized, unilateral change is still solid, and my position that we should simply revert it is unchanged. Anything beyond that is gravy.

Looks to me like the line in question:

"Can also be used for comedic effect; this happens when anything and everything that can go wrong for the main characters does."

Is really trying to say that this trope can be used as part of a Humiliation Conga.

Can i suggest an edit to the following as an immediate measure.

"This trope can also be used for comedic effect with the crash in question forming part of a Humiliation Conga."

I don't think that's part of the trope. It's a about a literal disaster, not a metaphorical one. It's also not about a single event within an episode. It's the plot (or maybe B-plot) of an episode.

Yes thats the point of the edit. It looks like it's trying to say "this trope can form part of this trope,". Not "this trope is that trope". It's a bit unclear right now. It's bassiclly anm explained, "also refferance this trope".

Give an actual example on that. I'm not convinced it fits at all.

Look, if an actual vehicular wreck is part of a Humiliation Conga, then that episode is both a Train Wreck Episode and a Humiliation Conga. That doesn't mean the two need to link to each other. Good grief. Did you want to also put that note in Pie in the Face, Anvil on Head, Deadpan Snarker, and Banana Peel?

The only reason to link X and Y together is if they are related tropes or very commonly found together. This pairing doesn't fit that. At all.

Also, I vote to remove the "joke" from the opening of the description. All it does is serve to confuse the issue. DO NOT start a trope by explaining something totally different and then saying "This isn't that."

edited 5th Oct '12 2:18:23 PM by Escher

Clocking.

The joke on line 1 of the description? There is good reason they call it a Throwaway Gag.