Is this an example?

edited 9th Apr '15 3:35:23 PM by rodneyAnonymous

Not that flexible. The Worf in The Worf Effect needs to actually be an established character, not just a stock celebrity known for being good at something.

Community played with and lampshaded it when Jeff's ego was blown out of proportion by people telling him, "You're more handsome than Ryan Reynolds. You're more handsome than the guy who's famous for being handsome."

Can an alternate hairstyle for a character count as a One-Scene Wonder in a particular episode? I initially thought that the trope was specifically about characters, but now I'm not so sure.

No, One-Scene Wonder is very clearly about characters. So an example about a hairstyle would be shoehorning.

The page in question is YMMV.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic S 5 E 3 Castle Sweet Castle, by the way. If it's not an example, could someone else do the honors? I already deleted it once before, and I'd prefer not to be seen as Edit Warring.

EDIT: The forum seems to be inserting "-%20" near the end of the link, breaking it, and I'm not sure why.

edited 12th Apr '15 7:47:56 PM by MrL1193

This is a bug.

Anyway, I removed the example from that YMMV page.

Thank you, good sir.

An example of Lethal Chef?

• Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!: Well into her route, Chris is being trained in cooking by Yukie, making a fried dish under close supervision. In a moment of inspiration Chris proposes to add a foreign ingredient, for it to lend that taste her lover likes to the dish. Yukie orders her to add a bit of that ingredient to a small portion and a bit later to sample it, easily convincing wincing Chris of importance of cooking basics.

edited 13th Apr '15 10:34:42 AM by SetsunasaNiWa

I don't think so, unless there's an implication that, without Yukie's guidance, Chris would have made something absolutely disgusting. There's a big difference between "Lethal Chef" and "overdid it on the cumin".

edited 13th Apr '15 10:37:22 AM by SolipSchism

Will making it explicitly about Cola soft drink and stir-fry mushrooms suffice? She also starts by squandering oil and then nearly burning it, I've clipped that to avoid excessive length.

edited 13th Apr '15 12:03:33 PM by SetsunasaNiWa

If she's "in training", then it would be expected that she'd make mistakes. Still sounds chairs-y. To be considered a Lethal Chef, the character must regularly perform feats of culinary horror, or at the very least do it once while placed in charge of the kitchen and then never be allowed near the place again.

edited 13th Apr '15 12:08:37 PM by Fighteer

Note that I'm after Defied Trope, not straight play.

Not that I'm going to force this in or overturn any opinions, but to me this one feels much better than what current PlayingWith.Lethal Chef has to offer. Yukie sees it coming, and skillfully subverts it. I'm thinking of this as not the common cheap gag Characters as Device Lethal Chef. Note that smoothest justifying detail about the Cola idea coming from awareness of her lover's preferences. Chris would end things in disaster, which she absolutely doesn't want, since she's going to act the housewife role in the nearest future (another detail that didn't fit initially). Handle it poorly in training, and it's going to continue in the real deal.

There are plots in other works where Lethal Chefs are subjected to training. Training usually ends hopelessly, but those moments aren't episodic aversions per "natural mistakes", are they?

edited 13th Apr '15 1:28:48 PM by SetsunasaNiWa

Defied Trope requires that a character be aware that a trope is occurring or is likely to occur and take steps to prevent it. Some degree of Lampshade Hanging is often present.

If Alice decides to give Bob a shot at cooking, observes that Bob is using a mixture of cola and baking soda, and then tells him to get out before he makes everyone's stomach explode, then it might count as a defied trope.

Again, the question is whether it's merely a case of "Bob being a novice or clueless cook" versus "Bob being a hilariously awful cook". That must be settled for the trope to even be in context. It sounds like your example could qualify.

edited 13th Apr '15 12:50:39 PM by Fighteer

From what I can remember of Majikoi, it's not an example. Not being able to cook well and making mistakes while actually learning how to cook isn't the same as being a Lethal Chef. She's just inexperienced with cooking, not someone who'll create poisons from perfectly ordinary and safe ingredients.

Made me think of a recent episode in Kiniro Mosaic, where Isami mentioned that her best dish was fried eggs, burnt to a crisp, just to get out of helping with cooking (or baking, more specifically). Would that count as Exploited Trope?

edited 15th Apr '15 10:04:07 AM by AnotherDuck

Yes, I think so.

As a reminder, Lethal Chef does not need to prepare literally toxic food, but the food must at least be spectacularly inedible. A poor chef serves burnt toast. A Lethal Chef serves the charred remains of something that used to be bread. A poor chef serves undercooked pasta. A Lethal Chef serves frozen pasta.

edited 15th Apr '15 11:29:03 AM by Fighteer

I think really bizarre ingredient combinations are a common way to play it too. Like Raine from Tales of Symphonia. She's established as a terrible cook. In one skit (at least, I think it was a skit; it may have been a cutscene, but I doubt it) she talks about how cooking is a science, and science requires you to take risks and experiment with unusual combinations in order to come up with brilliant ideas. And then she proposes that since cake is normally sweet, it would be a good idea to try a spicy cake. Reactions are unanimously horrified at the idea.

I think a proposal to add cola to a stir-fry could qualify someone as a Lethal Chef unless it somehow turns out good.

Sounds more like Cordon Bleugh Chef.

I have a feeling that Cordon Bleugh Chef was proposed with the intention of being distinct from Lethal Chef without anyone actually reading the latter trope, because as it stands they overlap pretty significantly.

Well, the distinction I've used is that Cordon Bleugh Chef is for weird ingredients and Lethal Chef for the outright dangerous ones.

Yeah, that's the impression I get as well. It would also include characters who actually know what they're doing, but the results aren't palatable to more "normal" people, the way I understand it.

Actually, I completely forgot about Cordon Bleugh Chef. I withdraw my last statement. :x

The best way to distinguish is thusly: Akane Tendou is a Lethal Chef, since everything she makes is both horribly tasting and inedible due to mixing stuff that should never be mixed and/or sometimes including truly inedible "ingredients" into the recipe (not sure how much of the explanation's exact details is canon or fanon, though), unless she happens to use a super-awesome ingredient like the magical water from Ryuugenzawa. Meanwhile, Orihime Inoue is a Cordon Bleugh Chef, because her dishes are mainly horrible in taste due to weird ingredient choices, but are technically edible, if only because she and at least one other character are perfectly capable of eating it (and actually like the taste!).

edited 15th Apr '15 11:30:26 PM by MarqFJA

Like everything in Ranma ½, her cooking is exaggerated in fanon. She's still clearly a Lethal Chef in canon, though, for about half the manga or something like that. After that she actually learns to make an edible curry, but they're still very leery of allowing her to cook at all. But that's a side note for this thread. I agree with the overall explanation.

I don't know if this seems like the right place to ask about entries on YMMV pages, but I had a question about YMMV.The Sound Of Music listing "The Lonely Goatherd" as a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment in the movie, and feared asking it there would seem like natter.

Could someone who's seen the play (or The Sound of Music Live!) more recently/often than I have please remind me how its context of "The Lonely Goatherd" makes the song seem more plot-relevant than the usage in the movie? One of the movie's Blu-Ray bonus features tries to dispute its apparent lack of importance to the story by pointing out that it marks the first time Max hears the children sing, kicking off his efforts to get them to perform in the festival. All I remember about "The Lonely Goatherd" in the play/TSOM Live! indicates that it took place at the point where Julie Andrews sang "My Favorite Things".

edited 24th Apr '15 10:59:36 AM by dsneybuf