500 wicks is way too much for a straight cut. I think a transplant is a better idea; "Character who always has a new job to fit the main characters' needs" is a trope, as is "That one guy who randomly has a new job every time you see him." Let's get a real wick check to see how the examples are spread out.
Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.OK, wick check, about 30:
Correct, as far as I can tell:
- RenAndStimpy
- ILoveLucy
- TheBoondocks (though note that particular example actually belongs to the animated series)
- Series Continuity Error
- American Dad
- The Pajanimals
- Recurring Extra
- Cathy
- Characters as Device
Misused for main character and/or assuming this trope is Exactly What It Says on the Tin:
- FreshPrinceOfBelAir
- Super Mario Bros. (wrong in many ways)
- Star Trek: The Original Series (Misused for writers not being able to decide on Sulu's job)
- Renaissance Man (used for a real person in Mythbusters
- Roseanne
- Red-Light District
- Promotion to Opening Titles (though the character WAS apparently recurring, I'm counting this as misuse assuming he didn't just stop having this quality)
- Pearls Before Swine (close to ZCE)
- One-Hour Work Week (about Homer Simpson)
- NCIS
- MaryPoppins
- Goofy
- Full House
- Extreme Doormat (potholed for Snoopy)
- CriminalMinds (An aversion, but still displays misunderstanding of the trope)
- BuffyTheVampireSlayerRegulars (duh)
- Barbie
- WillSmith (um...)
- Will & Grace
- VladimirPutin
- Sesame Street
- Seinfeld
- Mega Man (Classic) (Applied to a Robot Master, who in this case is not recurring)
- JustinTimberlake
- DevilSurvivor2 (She's a PC, and doesn't recur, by my definition)
Unsure:
- The Garfield Show (I think applying this to "background characters" is misuse, but I'm not 100% sure)
- College Roomies From Hell (I don't know enough to know if he recurs enough to function as this trope)
- CardassianUnion Applied to Gul Dukat... I'm a little torn on this one.
A lot of misuse there, as I suspected. Need more?
edited 21st Jul '14 3:17:06 PM by Leaper
To add clear misuse on the trope page itself (trying not to include ones already in the previous post):
- Donald Duck (main character)
- Dilbert (main character)
- Wallace And Gromit
- Barney Miller
- Monk
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys
- ALL Real Life, by definition
Don't we already have a trope that's "someone changes jobs frequently"?
How is Dragnet not an example? Joe Friday's job depends on whatever type of crime they want to feature in the particular episode, with no explanation at all about why he might be working Homicide Division one week, Bunco detail the next week, Juvenile the week after, back to Homicide the next week, etc. etc.
edited 24th Jul '14 4:12:20 PM by Catbert
Done here
. Calling for hookup. Please feel free to add options; I feel like I forgot at least one.
Because Joe is not a "recurring character." The definition specifically draws a line between them and "main characters." Joe is a main character.
edited 24th Jul '14 4:11:23 PM by Leaper
Isn't Joe Friday pretty much always a cop of some kind? At worst he's moving around to different posts within the same organization, which seems fundamentally different to me, and for audiences that don't know how police departments actually work it may well be normal. I'm not sure I would even call it an example of the misused form of the trope.
I think the point of the trope is supposed to be that the character is not well-fleshed out enough and doesn't appear often enough for any job to be "out-of-character" per se. He can show up in any context whenever the show needs someone to fill a certain role; the role comes first, the character later. I'm thinking of some of the more rarely-appearing characters on The Simpsons here, including the Trope Namer-cum-page quote.
edited 24th Jul '14 9:45:44 PM by MorganWick
And that is why I suggested a Page Action crowner - I am not clear if the trope should be limited to recurring characters as opposed to main characters and I am leaning no.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanOne possible wrinkle I just thought of: there are two common reasons characters tend to change jobs a lot: to serve the needs of the plot (as the current definition says) and to be Played for Laughs, or otherwise mark the character as immature, incompetent, or unlucky. Worse, sometimes it's both at the same time,
My question is, should we allow the latter examples to be part of this trope?
I think the reason the trope excludes main characters and why I would be inclined to do the same but could be convinced otherwise is that a main character is, by definition, more fleshed out than the trope intends. About the only way I can think of that a main character would fit the spirit of the trope is if it were a Commedia dell'Arte-type situation, which seems like it would be something else, though the case of Joe Friday is admittedly tricky (assuming it's more than Fridge Logic). The point of the trope, I think, isn't merely that the character is "changing jobs to fit the needs of the plot", but that this is, to some extent, the character's very reason for being, or at least that's my reading.
Of course, by this definition the misuse started in YKTTW
and wasn't caught (I had to use the Internet Archive to find that because the archived discussion didn't carry over for some reason), but the two examples in the OP both fit. The real problem is that the trope wasn't sufficiently fleshed out in YKTTW to begin with; even some of the examples proposed in YKTTW, though not Zero Context Examples, don't necessarily provide enough context to make clear whether they would fit the spirit of the trope even if not strictly "main" characters, and in some cases it would be a judgment call.
edited 26th Jul '14 9:33:41 PM by MorganWick
Crown Description:
There is significant misuse of this trope in two flavors: (a) application to a main character, and (b) using it for any character who just frequently changes jobs. Options below are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

This trope is supposed to be a Recurring Character who changes jobs to fit the needs of the plots of the main characters. So, for example, the Charles In Charge and The Jack Benny Program examples are examples. The Monk, Dragnet, and Battlestar Galactica examples are not, and reflect the main misuse: any character who changes jobs multiple times for any reason, even if the old/new jobs have nothing to do with the current plot. There is more misuse on the main page than listed here, of course.
Is the misuse tropeworthy enough to expand, maybe?